Listen vs Dedicated servers

[UsF]

As far as I know, it is not possible to host listen servers anymore in RO:OST. I hope this feature comes back in HoS.
The problems with listen servers could be avoided, to require players that host listen servers to set a password for them, so everyone can filter them out easily and noone would join them by accident and get a bad experience.

Personally I'd like to have the option to host listen servers again, since they allow for a quick and easy set up of a game, now more than ever, because of better bots and a quick skirmish with them.
What do others think?

I am unsure if this is a suggestion, but I think it's a general discussion first.

 

[mo0nbuggy1]

Listen servers? What are they?

 

[Apos]

Listen servers? What are they?

Listen server is server hosted by client machine which allows to join players from LAN/WAN and client itself. When client stop playing, server is terminated.

 

[Hans Ludwig]

Dedicated > listen, peer2peer, Mw2 crap, match making or whatever else you want to call it.

 

[Xendance]

Dedicated > listen, peer2peer, Mw2 crap, match making or whatever else you want to call it.

Listen server != match making.
Completely different things.

Would be interesting to see how a listen server would cope with 64 players

 

[Welshie]

If RO:HOS is going to include Co-Op then it will have a P2P kind of set-up option I would presume.
Dunno if that could be classed as a Listen server thou

 

[Zetsumei]

With good bots listen servers are important for co-op games.

Roost/KF actually allows you to host global listen servers, although perhaps not local listen servers. And its exactly local listen servers you generally need for lan (although this brings some piracy issues with hamachi and co).

 

[FlyXwire]

UsF, I hope this idea is being looked into.

 

[Major_Day]

As far as I know, it is not possible to host listen servers anymore in RO:OST. I hope this feature comes back in HoS.
The problems with listen servers could be avoided, to require players that host listen servers to set a password for them, so everyone can filter them out easily and noone would join them by accident and get a bad experience.

Personally I'd like to have the option to host listen servers again, since they allow for a quick and easy set up of a game, now more than ever, because of better bots and a quick skirmish with them.
What do others think?

I am unsure if this is a suggestion, but I think it's a general discussion first.

Who said it wasn't possible to host a listen server in RO:OST?

 

[Taisenki]

Listen and dedicated servers are BOTH good. Only having ONE of two is terrible.



Dedicated = These are your big reliable customizable community gathering servers.


Listen = These are your servers you play with just your friends. You host...you decide what you want to do. Chances are you want to play with / against AI. Do the campaign co-op or something.

-

I will assume this game has listen servers because it has co-op campaign

 

[VariousNames]

I think the gentleman in the OP is asking for both listen servers and dedicated servers.

The reason he's asking is so that he can make a quick, private, online match a la Killing Floor without footing the bill for a dedicated piece of equipment. Pretty reasonable request, particularly given the technology is already probably there...

 

[VariousNames]

Listen server != match making.
Completely different things.

Would be interesting to see how a listen server would cope with 64 players

Yes, matchmaking is the devil from hell.

Listen servers are fine, as long as we can host dedicated servers.

And BTW, listen servers cannot cope with 64 players. That would effectively be asking a person's computer to act as a server for 64 players and simultaneously run an Unreal Engine 3 game in real time. It's hard to even find a stable, reliable, 64 player dedicated server...

 

[Zetsumei]

Mostly listen servers are limited by bandwidth. The netcode of the game will only take 1 more core relatively.

So a 64 player listen server is not that impossible as long as you have a really strong multi core proc and about 10mbit+ upload spead. To give everybody a good ping you'd need to place your computer in a data center as well .

 

[Apos]

Well, usually listen server are hosted by players and they doesn't have professional networks with decent upload. Most clients connections are ADSL type, which stands for asymmetric digital subscriber line. In simplest words when game server use both, upload and download transfer, bandwidth ain't enough big to handle 20+ players server. It's good option to play co-op with couple friends, but leave hosting servers to professional companies.

 

[Zetsumei]

As I said mostly listen servers are limited by bandwidth and require quite some additional hops to go to the end user resulting in bad ping. But listen servers can cope with 64 players as long as the hardware is good enough and the upload bandwidth is wide enough.

These days 640kB/s or 5.1mbit/s upload isn't that special any more (on average 1 user uses like 10kB/s) so actually from a home computer some pretty good relatively big servers could be hosted. However the hops to the server and packet stability will stay an issue.

 

[UsF]

I think the gentleman in the OP is asking for both listen servers and dedicated servers.

The reason he's asking is so that he can make a quick, private, online match a la Killing Floor without footing the bill for a dedicated piece of equipment. Pretty reasonable request, particularly given the technology is already probably there...

Yes exactly. Having to set up a dedicated server for a coop game against bots would be not that great.

@Major_Day: I remember a time when it was not possible to host listen servers on Red Orchestra. Seems like they brought it back, but I haven't bothered with it recently, so it slipped my knowledge.