[Question]Dedicated Servers?

[Kar-Chee]

Fact 1: Multiplayer in this game isnt done very good. You have to have the knowledge to forward ports and have to have access to your router. And even after that, there is some serious lags either when somebody with bad connection joins your game or when too many people are in your game or for some other strange reason.

 

Fact 2: You have constantly double the amount of concurrent users of Planetside 2 (http://store.steampowered.com/stats/) which is huge  F2P MMOFPS where hundreds of people fight at the same spot on their dedicated servers.

 

Question: Why dont you have dedicated servers?

Edited May 10, 2013 by Kar-Chee

[Ced23Ric]

1.) People are working on that. No worries, performance and netcode is a big topic with DE.

2.) That is correct. PS2 is published by Sony Online Entertainment.

 

Answer: DE has no publisher and no massive budget to acquire such servers, maintain them and expand them to the evergrowing numbers of users who are not bringing in revenue streams that finance dedicated servers.

[helosie]

Update 8 will address many issues with networking issues.

[Kar-Chee]

Thank you for your reply mainly to the fact 1.

 

But nevertheless stick to the facts. Planetside 2 is long past its release day. No matter who the publisher is, the servers must be maintained from the revenues of the game itself. Were it not that way the game would close. The servers can of course be rented (as other big F2P franchises as HoN or LoL do) so you dont need big budget, you just need the revenue streams to pay the rent ( Which is TOO DAMN HIGH of course :)

 

If we stick to the premises, that 500 people playing Planetside 2 would require stronger servers than 500 people playing Warframe (as in Planetside 2 they might all be on the same spot) and that Warframe has double the population which might roughly translate to double the revenue streams we might assume that there is no reason not to implement dedicated servers. So im politely asking the question again:

 

Why there are no dedicated servers?

Edited May 10, 2013 by Kar-Chee

[Korevas]

Question: Why dont you have dedicated servers?

 

Because those things are insanely expensive and this is a small team coop game. The design is such that it doesn't make sense, whereas planetside is centrally built around the idea that everyone is "on one server" or at least feels like it.

 

That being said, p2p hosting only goes so far, and there are a lot of problems inherent to it even if you do everything possible to make it as smooth as it can be. I too hope they just get the tools out for the community to host their own servers, as that would enforce community building as well, which I imagine could be good for the game as well.

[Firebat86]

The number of games that use dedicated servers over p2p is very small.  Dedicated servers are suuuuper expensive not only to purchase, but to maintain, update, etc.  SOE who runs PS2 already has massive revenue source as well as leftovers from other online MMO's they have done in the past. 

 

You bring up PS2 and concurrent players but that is all players in one game/planet at the same time.  Warframe is much different obviously in that it's 4 players, not 400.  This makes p2p a very viable option.

 

If you want to bring up a game that is huge, made by a huge company, that has a MASSIVE amount of players and ask why there's no dedicated servers look no further than COD or TF2 even.  Why don't they? Because they are cheap and p2p is still a viable option because of the player size per game. 

 

If you continue having lag issues, find other players that you connect well with and try to play with them.  Or find a clan that is in your time zone which makes them more likely to be closer geographically to you thus lowering your pings.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Firebat86

[Kar-Chee]

Because those things are insanely expensive and this is a small team coop game. The design is such that it doesn't make sense, whereas planetside is centrally built around the idea that everyone is "on one server" or at least feels like it.

 

That being said, p2p hosting only goes so far, and there are a lot of problems inherent to it even if you do everything possible to make it as smooth as it can be. I too hope they just get the tools out for the community to host their own servers, as that would enforce community building as well, which I imagine could be good for the game as well.

These things arent insanely expensive. You can rent it, you just need the revenue stream. I brought up the Planetside 2 just to show the comparison with concurrent playres and server power needed. I know the games are totally different. But look at the other F2P games as HoN, LoL or DOTA 2. They all have dedicated servers even though they could just let the community take the load. But they know that dedicated servers would always be much better than player hosting...

[Excitonex]

 

Thank you for your reply mainly to the fact 1.

 

But nevertheless stick to the facts. Planetside 2 is long past its release day. No matter who the publisher is, the servers must be maintained from the revenues of the game itself. Were it not that way the game would close. The servers can of course be rented (as other big F2P franchises as HoN or LoL do) so you dont need big budget, you just need the revenue streams to pay the rent ( Which is TOO DAMN HIGH of course :)

 

If we stick to the premises, that 500 people playing Planetside 2 would require stronger servers than 500 people playing Warframe (as in Planetside 2 they might all be on the same spot) and that Warframe has double the population which might roughly translate to double the revenue streams we might assume that there is no reason not to implement dedicated servers. So im politely asking the question again:

 

Why there are no dedicated servers?

You need a big budget to develop a game though. DE has to focus their money on game development at the moment, not server upkeep costs. Planetside 2 could be fully developed knowing that they have funding for a complete game and a few years server upkeep. It doesn't appear that Warframe has the same budget.

[Kar-Chee]

You bring up PS2 and concurrent players but that is all players in one game/planet at the same time.  Warframe is much different obviously in that it's 4 players, not 400.  This makes p2p a very viable option.

 

I brought Planetside 2 as it (in my view) shows best that DE should have the revenue streams to have dedicated servers well suited for this game. I know that these are very different games, but look at MOBA style games like LoL, HoN and DOTA which seem to be much similar in instancing and server load...

 

If you want to bring up a game that is huge, made by a huge company, that has a MASSIVE amount of players and ask why there's no dedicated servers look no further than COD or TF2 even.  Why don't they? Because they are cheap and p2p is still a viable option because of the player size per game. 

TF2 has dedicated servers and COD dedicated servers is one of the most wanted features.

[Kar-Chee]

You need a big budget to develop a game though. DE has to focus their money on game development at the moment, not server upkeep costs. Planetside 2 could be fully developed knowing that they have funding for a complete game and a few years server upkeep. It doesn't appear that Warframe has the same budget.

I would completely understand this answer. If we have this answer we can elaborate on ways to provide dedicated servers for a fee for example so that its an option for players willing to pay that would not financially hinder DE...

[Ced23Ric]

Kar-Chee: I have forwarded your question to the bosslady. We shall see what she can dig up.

[Kar-Chee]

Kar-Chee: I have forwarded your question to the bosslady. We shall see what she can dig up.

Thank you very much.

[Ced23Ric]

Kar-Chee: I have forwarded your question to the bosslady. We shall see what she can dig up.

 

Here's what we found out:

Dedicated servers won't happen anytime soon at all. Think more along the lines of years down the road. P2P has kept Warframe alive, as a strategic decision, and continues to do so by keeping budget free for development, rather than server maintenance. Nevertheless, DE strives to continually improve the netcode. Something that might happen before Dedicated DE Servers is fan-hosted servers, though. Don't hold your breath for it, but currently, that option is more likely than company operated servers.

[Excitonex]

Here's what we found out:

Dedicated servers won't happen anytime soon at all. Think more along the lines of years down the road. P2P has kept Warframe alive, as a strategic decision, and continues to do so by keeping budget free for development, rather than server maintenance. Nevertheless, DE strives to continually improve the netcode. Something that might happen before Dedicated DE Servers is fan-hosted servers, though. Don't hold your breath for it, but currently, that option is more likely than company operated servers.

Player hosted servers would be fantastic. I could definitely see this being a boon to Warframe.

[TheSteelPhantom]

Player hosted servers would be fantastic. I could definitely see this being a boon to Warframe.

 

Hell yes @ player-hosted servers.

[Kar-Chee]

Thank you for honest answer. Just please keep in mind that lags are the number one issue in my play group. And to say the truth in 90% of every game i join either i or someone else lag. (with ports forwarded and the test in options passed). And people usually say the same. Usually its bearable, but the enjoyment is lowered.

 

And id be more than willing to pay, lets say 5 Euro/month to have an option to create on a dedicated server.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Kar-Chee