Why doesn't Frontier invest in dedicated servers?

magnaram

magnaram
I think it's a general thought that when we hang out with your friends it takes too long to see each other. Hence my question, why not invest in dedicated servers that support the p2p system more efficiently?


In the last pre-launch trailer they showed us ships flying together, making us believe that we are going to be able to fly. Is there a real solution or is it just another little lie by Frontier?
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
magnaram said:
In the last pre-launch trailer they showed us ships flying together, making us believe that we are going to be able to fly. Is there a real solution or is it just another little lie by Frontier?
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Not sure what you mean by that but I regularly fly together with friends :S
 

magnaram

magnaram
Maybe then I didn't express myself well. When you have an event with many players, it takes too long for them to see each other.
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
magnaram said:
I think it's a general thought that when we hang out with your friends it takes too long to see each other. Hence my question, why not invest in dedicated servers that support the p2p system more efficiently?


In the last pre-launch trailer they showed us ships flying together, making us believe that we are going to be able to fly. Is there a real solution or is it just another little lie by Frontier?
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I was part of a player fleet of over 20 ships, and everything worked great. Granted framerate started to dip as we went above 20, but odds are your day-to-day gameplay won't require those numbers.

What problem are you having, exactly?
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
magnaram said:
I think it's a general thought that when we hang out with your friends it takes too long to see each other. Hence my question, why not invest in dedicated servers that support the p2p system more efficiently?
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They have plenty of servers involved (just not quite in the sense you mean) and instancing is way more reliable than it used to be. It'll continue to get better over time, but will always be limited by people with poor local internet connections and the physical speed-of-light limits on inter-continental instancing.

magnaram said:
In the last pre-launch trailer they showed us ships flying together, making us believe that we are going to be able to fly. Is there a real solution or is it just another little lie by Frontier?
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You'll probably still need to bring people in using wings to get that many ships in an instance which does take a while, but there were only 15 or so in the trailer, which has been possible with decent reliability for quite a while already.
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
I think people misunderstand how central p2p is to how ED works. It isn't as if they can make the decision tomorrow to throw some money at it, flick a switch and suddenly it is all client/server. In the end it is about what kind of game ED is. And that is a game where youu play by yourself or with a small group of friends, and occassionally encounter others. It isn't about massive pvp battles or some such, and making that happen would be a massive investment of time and resources. In the end I feel by far most players would much rather see atmo planets, space legs and more gameplay options rather than FD focusing on massive multiplayer infrastructure changes. Especially if the latter would result in subscriptions, which they promised they'd never do. So 10-15 people max is going to be a practical limit I guess.
 

magnaram

magnaram
It's not a problem of mine specifically, it's something I've been appreciating with time and events that take time to bring people together to see each other.
 

Serin Vickers

S
This has been brought up over and over again and the replies are always the same:

They'd have to rent servers everywhere around the globe to keep latency manageable for people as combat is fast paced and relies on speedy and precise results. E:D with a ping of over 150 would be unbearable. As result from requiring so many servers in so many regions they'd incur high running costs that are not being offset by current monetization schemes. If the game had extensive revenue from contious cash-shop sales, tons of minor annual DLCs or a subscription model it would seem far more viable to keep up a vast international server infrastructure.
On top people who are not from the same geolocation wouldn't be able to see one another as they'd be on different servers, essentially making the result similar to a peer2peer environment again, not gaining any favorable result.

What I always found more worrying by design is the interconnect between Solo and Open through shared effect on the BGS and market. I can to this date not comprehend why someone who doesn't play with others is allowed to manipulate the world for everyone else without them being able to see it or intervene until it's too late.
 

Marra Morgan

Marra Morgan
Cmdr Ultra said:
Well it's obviously an issue of cost. A lot more games use p2p than you think. Or they use a hybrid - Servers for matchmaking and lobbies then switching to p2p.

It comes down to money - like almost everything.
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Yep, this.

And where will that money come from?

Clue: it begins with a "U" and ends in an "s".
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
magnaram said:
So Elite Dangerous is a multiplayer game or a single player?
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You can play both multiplayer and single player. Just because you dont get the kind of multiplayer you want doesn't make it single player. That is rather childish, with all due respect.

Kari Kerenski said:
Yep, this.

And where will that money come from?

Clue: it begins with a "U" and ends in an "s".
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I dont care, let the Ukrainians pay for it.
 

[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
magnaram said:
Maybe then I didn't express myself well. When you have an event with many players, it takes too long for them to see each other.
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Elite is designed around small groups of players playing together..... it is fundamentally not designed around groups of 30+ players. i suspect you are asking FD to pay a lot of money for something which they never intended to be supported TBH.

personally i would rather FDs "Elite Dangerous budget" went on designing new features of the game and not improving the servers just so more players can play in an instance.

but that is just me, and i admit i am biased.
 
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