Fleet Battle: Dedicated Server with Tools

from StarControl Forums

Good morning;

 

I'm just reflecting an idea from Discord to here with a bit more information.  -- Yes I know this would be pie in the sky niche group usage items.

My original request was for a dedicated Fleet Battle server along with a method to connect to it from the GUI within the base game.

Now some additional ideas if it's launched

Please allow mod support, which would allow for but not limited to.

  • Allowable ships
  • Min/Max point usage for fleets
  • Custom Bracket tournaments - Good for something like a LAN Center or game Tournament
  • "Death March / I Play Winner mode" - 2 people start a round, any number can join a queue with a ship and watch the match, after the original combat with the fleets are over the winner's fleet is refreshed with their original picks and they're launched into battle with the next person in the queue.

Mutli OS Support for the server software, IE Mac/Windows/Linux Generic/SteamOS

Support to run it in the background with a GUI to manage it on the fly.

IE the Program runs as a Windows Service, or a Linux Daemon without needing to toss it in via screen, with a Windows User Interface GUI or HTTPs site on a custom port with authenticated access configured with say a Public/Private key handshake

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Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

Do we need a dedicated server?  One-on-one Fleet battles are just one ship vs another ship with a few background objects.  Nowhere near as much polygon count as something like Ashes of the Singularity.  Would peer-to-peer work instead?  I don't know how much money that would save.

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

Need no, desire yes.  Dedicated servers do more than you think.

Latency balancing is one of them, no one would have the advantage of being the server and having less latency

Maintaining statistics

There's more but sadly it's escaping me right now.  -- Do note to do peer to peer the server software would still have to be created and the multiplayer option would still have to be added as from my understanding it's hard coded to go to a Stardock server unless you're playing Local Multiplayer on a single PC.

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Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

if you want a service that costs the company, be prepared to do something to pay for that cost. (microtransactions)  Stardock is not a huge company and full time servers are not free.

Reply #4 from StarControl Forums Top

The problem is that the latency is abysmal and unpredictable atm. In normal circumstances, my ping is ~48 or so, but the lag is almost unplayable right now, 800-1k minimum.

Reply #5 from StarControl Forums Top

Yeah, I had a couple of games earlier with Thiima and there was a >1 second lag on all my key presses. Basically unplayable :-(

Reply #6 from StarControl Forums Top

Actually, at this time I truly expected the weird latency issues which is a good thing since Stardock will be able to diagnose them and repair them pre-launch on their servers.  The dedicated server would be good for eliminating latency issues that Stardock has no control over.

Reply #7 from StarControl Forums Top

I agree, although, and frankly, online fleet battles are nice and all but the game is about the adventure game and in that context the fights will all be local against the AI. So I'm not too stressed about latency in online fights since they're a "nice to have" rather than a defining feature of the game (IMO, anyway).

(and it'll presumably be fixed at some point)