Poll: Official Multiplayer Game Server

Maltrease · #1 February 14th, 2007, 03:36 PM

Re:Paying...

My initial thoughts on payment or gold level account might be something like this:

30 slots are open to the public. Games are vanilla (no mods or non-standard maps). Each person can only start one game at a time, if all 30 slots are not already taken. The "vanilla" approach will also make it easy for non-expert players to start a game and for others to easily join (without having to worry about installing mods or downloading huge maps).

Then people that contribute could *buy* their own slots. So someone that contributes $20 might have 2 personal slots. These would let the player use mods and custom maps.

This solves both the "it should come included with the game" issue while also giving the people that want to contribute something extra for their $.

However... I'm open to absolutely anything if it will get an official server running.

FAJ · #2 February 14th, 2007, 04:46 PM

I would be willing to pay 10+ bucks a month to garuntee my games went smoothly.

Gandalf Parker · #3 February 14th, 2007, 04:56 PM

With Dom3 the fatherland file does update each turn. I think its a move along the path to "turn memory" which so many people want.

Paying for a slot to run a game might actually work. I like that. It might even be best to do it as a "rent" since some games can run for a year. Instead of $20 for a game, something like $5/month.

Velusion · #4 February 14th, 2007, 05:02 PM

Quote:

FAJ said:
I would be willing to pay 10+ bucks a month to garuntee my games went smoothly.

Aren't you in three of my games?

I'll PM you my address for payment....

Lormax · #5 February 14th, 2007, 05:59 PM

As a newbie to the community, I will probably be the last chosen for this, BUT...I have 2 extra computers doing nothing...I wouldn't mind at all setting up one as a server for the community. I'm on a stable internet connection thats up all the time as well. What would be good specs for the computer to run the games..? Then I'll know if using either one is even feasible.

Gandalf Parker · #6 February 14th, 2007, 06:27 PM

Mostly its memory and cpu. How much depends on alot of variables.

Lets say we start with an imaginary number of 1000.
Linux -500
Mac (I dont really know)
Windows +500

TCP/IP games +100 each
PbEM games +10 each

Small Games stay the same
Mid Sized games (<10 players and <500 provinces) +100 each
Large Games (>10 players, 1000+ provinces) +500 each

So the biggest hog would be trying to run 23 nation games on big maps as tcp/ip (always available to login) on a windows machine. The smallest hog would be running linux, even smaller if you only offer small blitz games, even smaller if you run them as PbEM (play-by-email, having the turns sent by mail or file upload and processed at a set hour each night).

But any windows machine can host one game at a time. And any crappy old box can be a decent server for a dozen games if you load linux on it. So pretty much anyone can be a host if they want to.

Velusion · #7 February 14th, 2007, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Gandalf Parker said:
But any windows machine can host one game at a time. And any crappy old box can be a decent server for a dozen games if you load linux on it. So pretty much anyone can be a host if they want to.

I host 3 large games on a single windows box with no problems. Dom3 uses remarkably little memory if you have the correct game settings (typically 2-5 MB per game) with CPU usage only being used when processing a turn.

I should probably put all the tips I've discovered for hosting games on a windows server in a post someday.

Lormax · #8 February 14th, 2007, 07:59 PM

Put em up Velusion, or email me lormax23@yahoo.com. Windows it the only OS I know personally. I'll get a server started ASAP if there's enough community need for it. I'll bet the only thing the comp will really need is a memory boost. I've got enough spare other "things" (monitor, etc) laying around to get it setup.

Tim Brooks · #9 February 19th, 2007, 07:51 AM

Hi All!

We have, as mentioned, been willing to do something about this in the past but felt no one was really interested. We are still willing to help. So, talk about it and know that we are here for you guys. I will contribute my thoughts if asked.

lch · #10 February 19th, 2007, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Tim Brooks said:
So, talk about it and know that we are here for you guys. I will contribute my thoughts if asked.

Please do contribute what you think of the idea. I, myself, think that it could be a little difficult to have the server use custom maps and mods that the players want to use. I guess the most that you'd be able to do is provide a vanilla game server, where one could upload a zipped map file, perhaps.