As oppose to permanent servers? Please enlighten me as I'm unaware as to why they chose this, what I feel seems to be a substandard method. Is it just basically down to cash savings or is it just the only way that netcode could be implementaed for this game?
Why did Fdev choose to go the way they have with the netcode?
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cost in terms of cash, time and responsibility one suspects. Ultimately the reasons are their own and they dont need to explain it
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I suspect it boils down to long-term cost. In order to maintain an MMO-like server structure, they would have needed a lot more money over time, meaning a subscription-type model or possibly going down the Pay-to-Win route like most so-called "free to play" MMO's. Here, the only required cost for a player is to buy a copy of the game; after that, FD doesn't get any more money from that player unless he buys cosmetic stuff (and if FD wad depending on that revenue to pay for upkeep of a traditional MMO server farm, they'd be charging more for it. Check costume prices in your average F2P MMO if you don't believe me).
i guess, the answer could be found in the blog of another game developer - factorio
they went with peer2peer first, because they thought its "good enough"... a year later they got a pretty robouts server2client system implemented
they went with peer2peer first, because they thought its "good enough"... a year later they got a pretty robouts server2client system implemented
Ok, I don't know the answer but, there are a few history lessons.
When CCP first started on Eve they wanted a full scale MMO Elite. The idea was to actually fly the ships. But the idea was also one enormous server where everyone could be connected to everyone else. Due to technical difficulties the first person flying was ditched. Point and click was where it was at.
A game I used to play, Jumpgate had one server and semi Newtonian flight model. It never had more than 500 players at one time and still suffered lag a plenty. Their proposed sequel, Jumpgate Evolution was to feature instances and shards. They realised that a massive server just wasn't going to cut it. Bear in mind that like its predecessor the game was due to be subscription based.
So onto Elite. I don't doubt that cost is a major factor but one giant server would be asking them to solve a problem no one had solved before with a twitch based 6DOF model.
It's not perfect and I still long for a space pilot based game I can interact with everyone else but I simply don't believe the technical infrastructure is in place yet.
I'll keep waiting.
When CCP first started on Eve they wanted a full scale MMO Elite. The idea was to actually fly the ships. But the idea was also one enormous server where everyone could be connected to everyone else. Due to technical difficulties the first person flying was ditched. Point and click was where it was at.
A game I used to play, Jumpgate had one server and semi Newtonian flight model. It never had more than 500 players at one time and still suffered lag a plenty. Their proposed sequel, Jumpgate Evolution was to feature instances and shards. They realised that a massive server just wasn't going to cut it. Bear in mind that like its predecessor the game was due to be subscription based.
So onto Elite. I don't doubt that cost is a major factor but one giant server would be asking them to solve a problem no one had solved before with a twitch based 6DOF model.
It's not perfect and I still long for a space pilot based game I can interact with everyone else but I simply don't believe the technical infrastructure is in place yet.
I'll keep waiting.
Lack of experience/Know-how and most importnatly financial reasons.
Also Elite was never meant to have that many players, they didn't expect Eltie to be that successful and coded it accordingly.
Interesting to note that Destiny 2 will be going P2P.
It was peer to peer or pay to play.
This.
Having server-client infrastructure would be a lot more expensive, and this game would have a monthly subscription as a result.
Peer to peer is far cheaper, including for users.
It wouldn't need a monthly sub, it's just one way to cover costs. Another is selling cosmetic- Oh wait...
They are both real time and every moment counts. That's all it takes to be "twitch based". Most evident if you have ever fought another commander and got hit by things you clearly dodged on your screen.
However elite needs to share a ton more physics and object data than your common shooter (or how many guns do you consecutively wield while flying and rotating in all directions there?).
In many respects its more efficient and flexible to use distributed computing then operate a monolithic centralised structure.
We all have very powerful PCs/ consoles now and have access to network bandwidth that was unheard of a few years ago, and which is only likely to increase with time. Therefore best to make use of all that free resource, rather than spending huge sums running racks and racks of very costly xeon processor run servers around the world in expensive data halls, and treating individuals pcs as merely terminals.
We all have very powerful PCs/ consoles now and have access to network bandwidth that was unheard of a few years ago, and which is only likely to increase with time. Therefore best to make use of all that free resource, rather than spending huge sums running racks and racks of very costly xeon processor run servers around the world in expensive data halls, and treating individuals pcs as merely terminals.
It's not a twitch game. At all. Ever.
It is impacted by lag, yes, but all online games are. You're just patently wrong when you call it "twitch based". Call of Duty, CSGO and similar titles are twitch based, because they require snap reactions. Snap reactions are basically impossible to perform in Elite...
Yeah, totally wrong. A single twitch in my DBS can make all the difference of hitting a target or not.
Pulling up 4 sys pips last second and going 4 wep asap again can also make all the difference.
Wrong as well. There are turn based games that don't care about lag one bit. You'll just have to wait longer for your turn.
I just define it differently. Snap reactions aren't essential in elite, but they are possible and incredibly advantageous if the connection to your opponent allows it.
Also, online fighting games - which really require the fastest ping of all games - all traditionally use P2P for that reason.
it MAY work faster with just two player.
but with every additional player, the required communication between the peers grows exponentially
example?
last time someone wrote that, the examples he gave, all have been running on a engine that doesn't do p2p at all. they all just got a hidden server/client netcode that was able to promote clients dynamically to servers if the initial server closed the session.
^^^ Totally this, spot on.
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