Will UWE host more servers at launch?
Wheeee
Join Date: 2003-02-18 Member: 13713Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2003-02-18 Member: 13713Members, Reinforced - Shadow
torchlight 2 came out today and their server system was flooded and most people who pre-ordered couldn't play online (one of the main selling points of torchlight 2 was that it was an improved torchlight with multiplayer). this caused a huge amount of butthurt amongst fans, similar to the server problems when diablo 3 hit. there's probably well over 50k preorders at this point *edit* not to mention the free copies being sent out *edit*, but less than 2000 player slots on the current servers. i count around 90 active servers on the server list; assuming they average 20 slots/server at release, that's 1800 player slots. are there any plans in place to deal with player influx on release?
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Teams with private servers will probably open them for release, but it wont be even close enough if we assume 1/10 is gonna test the game first day (probably more though).
But yes I agree with TrC, currently the way the game runs on servers, this will turn off a few ISPs who want to host it for people. Hopefully get optimised.
Atm I would say server performance is more important than client performance
Like to get as much out of the server hardware as possible, it costs a lot of money to have 1 game taking up a whole server :o NS2 is going to have to be able to run on a pretty reasonable server when it gets released, otherwise crap will hit the fan when people try and play it after buying it.. Oh god I can imagine the forums.
Who stands to lose if there are not enough servers? UWE or some ISP?
Just wanted to add, this happens to EVERY new game ever on release nowadays. Every single MMO, and many net-connection-required games all suffer that initial rush. After the "zomg I can play" feeling wears off and players around the world shift back into their normal daily schedules, the peak user count becomes much more manageable.
As far as NS2 goes, though, everyone is right that it's up to the players/hosts who want to have servers up. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but you can also just create a listen server and wing it. If there are THAT many players looking for a game, it would fill in no time.
Of course UWE do, but it's not an MMO where they host the servers.
It's always been this way for FPS games (some exclusions), Counter Strike, BF3, etc... All servers hosted by ISPs or clans etc... and If UWE did want to host servers, they would probably only be near where they are located, which isn't much help for the rest of the world anyway.
Then, it wouldn't be a problem anymore.
Then, it wouldn't be a problem anymore.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Agree, this is a must before it gets released officially. If it's not, no ISPs or dedicated server hosting places will want to touch NS2 :(
Those are big name titles with huge player bases, ISPs and server hosts are happy to put up some servers because it is mass marketing. NS2 is a much smaller game, that doesn't mean these companies will not be interested in NS2 but ultimately it is up to UWE alone to make sure the game doesn't fail. Comcast has no investment in this game and they may just decide it is not worth spending the money on such a small game. Even if the game gains traction and they decide to host a few severs later on that doesn't help much on launch day.
I am not talking about UWE paying for a bunch of servers indefinitely but It would be smart for them to ensure there are enough quality servers for launch week.
<ul><li>Try hosting a server on their local system if they have powerful enough hardware and a decent connection (e.g. OCd SB/IB or Bulldozer with at least 5/2 up/down). Its not that difficult to get one setup and the instructions are all on <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/index.php/Dedicated_Server" target="_blank">the wiki</a>.</li><li>If the release day does turn out to be wildly successful (which is why we wouldn't have enough servers), to simply not play then and give it a day or two. Not only have we been having access to the game all the way up to release, but release will have a huge influx of new players that may prove frustration inducing (I like to give new patches a day or two to sink in, so as to reduce this issue).</li></ul>
Any idea how many of those servers are actually public, up to date and ready to handle decent playercounts?
still waiting for linux server app... :)
Most of them are public - I will add an indicator before 1.0 launch so you can see which servers are passworded. You can see which servers are up to date by checking the build number in the info column. It's definitely a higher percentage than when I first put the site up.
No sorry, i'm not up to date and have not done this in 5 years...
But I do know I will host one close to me, in Brussels, with a price tag around 50€/m
NS2 is a MP only game, its not a single player game with some MP elements you can try out after finishing the core game... the core of the game is the multiplayer aspect, and as such there better be enough server capacity to deal with the demand or UWE will not have a successful launch.
UWE isnt Blizzard either with a cash generator on the side to cushion launch issues and mistakes, this is thier first big game... if this isnt a success (and I dearly hope it is, UWE is an inspiration to hobby game makers like me) UWE wont have the capital to fund further projects and without a commercial success wont be able to pull in any investment from outside sources, and without a publisher...
Lead and Gold was a pretty good looking game, and was fairly fun but it was completely crippled by its lack of servers, specifically dedicated servers... and by the time Fatshark put up more servers the playerbase had shrunk to a point even free weekends Steam offers couldnt pull it out the downward spiral.
UWE has done a very clever thing with thier free copies, it ensures a large starting playerbase but if the server capacity is not ready to deal with the new players at launch the game will get a bad reputation in a hurry, and while dedicated fans will remain the commercial success will be in jeopardy.
Yeah, I can kind of see some patterns in there, no problem with that. I was looking for some more precise ways for telling how big of a portion of those 126 are going to be actually ready for 1.0 launch. Some of them haven't been updated in months, some are private and there's no indication on whether they can maintain any kind of tickrate.
For example if we cut away the servers that aren't running a fresh version, probably 1/3 drops out. The hardware requirements will probably drop some more servers below the playable level. Is there any way of actually estimating how many of those 126 will be in playable state at 1.0?
please tell me there will also be a proper performance filter, because currently about 70% of all servers in europe are completely unplayable because of dreadful connections and low tickrates. I mean some servers are actually advertising that they are run on an i3... even with improved server performance, that's not even close to playable. Maybe a unix/linux server will improve server conditions, but currently there are less than 10 european servers that are worth playing on.
I don't know what can be done about it, but if the current situation continues and is the same on launch day, then I think I can safely say that the launch of NS2 in Australia and NZ will be a failure, which would be really disappointing.
+1
I've posted about this issue quite a few times. The scarcity of well-performing servers in EU is problem and since new players will not know to use "net_stats 1" to check on the tickrate, many will blame the game for the choppy game play. UWE should have a performance metric available for the players. Also, people should stop hosting servers on crap hardware. It just clutters the server browser and spreads the already smallish player base on to unplayable servers, so I do not consider it a community service unlike hosting proper servers.
and we can only support around 1000 players on good servers ????? and 1000 more on crap laggy servers ???
Game service providers operate out of Datacenters and run servers on server blades. These run around 2-3 ghz normally .... so that means that GSP's will have to use their best hardware available to run NS2 servers that can only support up to 10 - 12 slots with 30 tick. Thats outrageously bad, a 32 player bf3 sever cant even run a 10 player ns2 server !
im suspecting that we are going to see a huge cluster f#$% when this game launches
Theres also the issue that servers can run more slots than they can support, im sure we are going to see people with rented servers that are only 2.4 ghz, and they are going to try run 20 slot NS2 servers .... SOOOOO many people are going to have a crap laggy experience and blame it on the game and not the server. Perhaps make it so you can only run the number of slots your CPU is capable of supporting at 30 ticks?
This is why I suggested people who have OCd desktops and decent connections think about running a temporary dedicated server off of their home computer. As long as you have at least 4 cores, it shouldn't impact your NS2 gameplay very much and you'd be doing NS2 a huge service. The NS2 community is a large reason why both the game has been made and been successful so far and I'd love to see more members step up to help out for the release.
It isn't quite that easy. Opening folders, web browsers and most other actions instantly crash the NS2 server running on my PC and I know many others that have the same problems. That means I will need to give up use of my PC for a few days when NS2 releases.
I am in the process of building a 5ghz Sandy Bridge server. But I only have a 3mbit upload so that will be my determining factor in regards to how many servers I can reliably run on my connection.
On the other hand, my router/firewall is a Core2Duo @ 2ghz with 4gb ram and Dual Broadcom (hardware) NICS. Its running pfSense with QoS enabled, so I should be able to squeeze the most out of this connection.
I might be able to get my school to co-locate the server, they have 50mbit upload.
What is the current battle plan to ensure we dont have 50k players trying to join something like 120 player slots ?
This is rather serious here ... current server requirements are outrageous, current server capacity cant even deal with new patch frenzy... how are you going to deal with the new player influx ?
<a href="http://ns2servers.devicenull.org" target="_blank">http://ns2servers.devicenull.org</a> - There are a lot of servers that are handling the player counts just fine.