[Gandalf Parker]

Tim Brooks said:
Okay. We have questions for those who are 'in the know'...

1. How many games can be hosted by a dedicated server at one time?

Im not good at exact numbers but here are my impressions so far. Going with a simple linux server (1 unit, max memory, max standard desktop CPU, min hard drive, min graphics, min sound) that is dedicated to this purpose by itself...

I would say that it can host 5-8 mega games in Xwindows and tcpip mode. (easier to manage but uses up the most system resources)

That becomes 10-15 mega games if its run in text mode

Easily 20-30 if they are not run tcpip (direct connect) but are instead as pbem

Also small blitz games would raise the number

Those sound like alot of games but consider how long they can last. If a game lasts for months, and you can run 10 large games, then you might be looking at only starting one game a month to make sure that things run smooth.

In MY opinion (and this will probably tick some people off) the biggest gain that Shrapnel could provide us is to not worry about pbem and blitz games. Those can be done by the players. Its the high end stuff. Large maps, many players, needing an impartial host we trust. Those need abit more machine than someones crowded desktop to run. If Shrapnel could run one big official game a month it would go far toward stablizing this community. Maybe one game for each era, so that would be starting 3 games each time.

2. How much bandwidth does this take?

Very little bandwidth. The game is very efficient that way. The big bandwidth is if a game is started with a randomly generated map then it sends the map to the players. But thats only on the initial connection.

The problem area is in CPU. Altho Ive watched that be incredibly improved during beta testing. But getting late into a large game can make the hosting the turns into something that the machine will "feel" the load. Games that are run as 24-hour turns and then space the hosting times so they dont overlap will take care of that.

3. If we supplied the server, could we get the code (some already exists, correct?)?

Esben has the decent code. I dont think its for the types of games I described. Of course I will provide my scripts which can be used to generate large occassional games.

4. Would there be any volunteers to administer the server?

No Im too flakey for that. Id be glad to help out setting things up or working on problems that come up. But Im better at sporadic help than I am at being regular and dependable.

Gandalf Parker