Bad Company 2 Server News

[Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~]

For those of you that I was playing with on Thursday night (or Friday morning, depending on where you live), you may recall that I made the announcement that I was getting my own private BC2 server so that SPARTANs and our guests would always have a place to play and where we can call the shots.

 

There has been an unfortunate and possibly fatal snag in this plan. I ordered the server Thursday night from GameServers.com, and in the past, every server I've set up through them was up and running within an hour.

 

However, after more than 12 hours with my server status at "Pending", I decided to do a little research, and what I found was a little disheartening.

 

For the time being, EA/DICE have placed a moratorium on new server set-ups because of the strain it is causing on their Master Servers. For the PC version, the maximum number of players that EA/DICE allows to be connected/playing at once is 150,000, which is quite a bit, but apparently still not quite enough, at least during peak usage hours.

 

The sad news is that EA/DICE are NOT going to raise this limit, because they figure that, in time, interest in the game will taper off to the point that no more than 150,000 possible connections will be needed.

 

They also explained that it's this issue that is the cause for many (but not all) connectivity issues. During peak hours, when servers are at/close to this limit, other players cannot connect. Also, servers that are currently unpopulated may not show up in the server browser, and servers that ARE full may also not show up as well.

 

Furthermore, EA/DICE have forced a server update that can cause unpopulated servers to be shut down so as to relieve the strain on the Master Servers. Once shut down, a server could be unavailable for as long as 8 hours.

 

The response I received from the GameServer's staff is that they honestly have no idea when the new server moratorium will be lifted. Could be today, could be 2 weeks, could be much longer. At any time, before the server is installed, I have the option to cancel my order for a full refund. As I've mentioned before, I've used GS in the past and have always been pleased with their service, so I am going to give it a week before I cancel my order or explore other options.

 

Sorry, guys! I was hoping we'd have our own server to play on this weekend, but it seems more likely than not that this is out of the question for now. As soon as I have an update, I'll let you know.

 

Oh, by the way, because I've been a regular customer in the past, GS told me that, if someone should cancel their server, I'll be near the top of the list to take it over.

 

** EDIT ** One thing that EA has done to "help" with this problem is to shut down the official EA-branded servers, thereby opening a handful of slots for new servers (which, of course, have already been filled).

Edited March 12, 2010 by Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~

[Phisher~SPARTA~]

Ridiculous.

Developers are doing everything they can to destroy the PC Gaming market.

 

[Halli~SPARTA~]

So once again lets walk down this hill rather than run down it.

 

 

[CoBoL~SPARTA~]

Thank you in your offer, but please do not feel you are oblige that you need to offer a Spartan server for the group.

 

It is already in discussion with the Admins of the group as to whether or not to fund a server for our members and a decision will come at the end of the month.

 

If you feel the need to have a server then may I ask that you refrain from using the Spartan TAG, as this may conflict with any future servers we may host.

 

I hope you understand, and thank you for your enthusiasm. We need more members like yourself.

 

CoBoL

[Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~]

So once again lets walk down this hill rather than run down it.

 

Keep in mind, this is MY own personal, private server that just happens to be open to SPARTA, our guests, and the general public. It won't be tagged with the SPARTA name (I have a name that should be good for a chuckle or two), but since it's a 32-player server, I will make reserved slots for all SPARTA members that play, and probably our regulars as well. Reserved slots are closed off to the public, so, on a 32-player server, if I have 16 reserved slots, only 16 public players can join, whether the reserved slots are actually in use or not.

 

If SPARTA decides to get it's own official server in the future, that would be great, too, and I would decide what to do with my own server after that.

 

And speaking of the "walk, not run" advice--and assuming my server actually gets activated--I think having this server provides the perfect opportunity to help decide if SPARTA wants to get into the BC2 server business. I've paid for the service for 3 months, after which I can renew for the same/longer terms, or even on a month-by-month basis. So, hopefully, we'll have three months to gauge interest in the game and see if it's a long-term commitment that SPARTA wants to invest in. In the meantime, this is a strictly personal investment, which all of SPARTA is welcome to share and benefit from.

 

** EDIT ** Just to clarify, by "personal, private", I simply mean "owned by me"; the server will be ranked, of course, so any time spent playing there will count towards your stats.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~

[CoBoL~SPARTA~]

Thank you for the kind offer and the space for our members. I sure our members will be great full for this. Until we make our decision as to what we are doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Haloelite]

thanks papercut i hope it goes through then it wont be chaos when trying to figure out what in the world is going on. i am one of many that will be thankful for this addition.

[Halli~SPARTA~]

I only wish Defcon still hosted BF but they have dropped the Ea line.

[Batwing~SPARTA~]

Fatal, this is remarkable of you anyway.

 

I thank you very much for this effort, figure out i do not even own the game yet !

 

However, what cooncerns me is the position from EA/DICE to set a solid limit to how many customers they want to have to enjoy the game.

 

I don t get the marketing sense of a such decision. Instead to be happy they are getting a great success, possibly overcoming CoD MW2, they prefer to offer a possibly "mediocre' experience - hoping ppl interest will drop (????) - instead of opening up a larger number of allowed connections.

 

I would like to meet with their managers to know where they learnt to make business and I honestly don't think is a matter of money, because EA sounds pretty solid.

 

So, if is not money... why?

 

This scares me a little bit...

 

 

Edited March 12, 2010 by Batwing

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Thanks for this, very nice gesture.

[Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~]

.. what cooncerns me is the position from EA/DICE to set a solid limit to how many customers they want to have to enjoy the game.

 

I don t get the marketing sense of a such decision. Instead to be happy they are getting a great success, possibly overcoming CoD MW2, they prefer to offer a possibly "mediocre' experience - hoping ppl interest will drop (????) - instead of opening up a larger number of allowed connections.

 

I would like to meet with their managers to know where they learnt to make business and I honestly don't think is a matter of money, because EA sounds pretty solid.

 

So, if is not money... why?

...

 

I think I can understand where EA/DICE are coming from--not that I AGREE with it, mind you, but my guess is that it's something like this:

 

OK, so, BC2 is new and everyone and their dog is playing it right now. And EA/DICE have to spend a lot of money to have the infrastructure in place to support online play. They COULD spend even more money so that one-million people could play, but realistically, how many of those million people will still be playing BC2 in a month? In three months?

 

So, going by their history with games such as BF1942 and BF2, I'm sure they've seen that, in the weeks and months following a release, there is an initial surge as everyone ranks-up and is swept up in the excitement of a new game. But that surge WILL die down, and even a lot of people that continue to play the game regularly won't be playing every hour of every day like they are now (in other words, we can blame Viiiper for all of this.*)

 

EA/DICE are minimizing their expenditures by planning for an infrastructure that will be adequate to support the player base as they project it will be, oh, let's say 2 months from now, as opposed to what the player base is right now. And I can assure you that a number of the servers that are currently running will disappear as well for similar reasons; I have a buddy from my old group that runs a server for a different game every two or three months, depending on what his favorite game of the moment is.

 

This is standard practice in the IT world; it makes no sense to pay for a server farm that can support one-million concurrent connections if, on average, the high for concurrent connections is only 250-thousand. On the other hand, an entity like Google needs an infrastructure so large that it makes the the issues that EA/DICE are currently dealing with laughable in comparison.

 

In time, this is an issue that will disappear. A year from now (sooner, in fact) EA/DICE will be able to shrink their current infrastructure while keeping the player-base happy. Things like this happen on a regular basis, particularly for games like MMOs (other than WoW) that see their player-base shrink, and the parent company is able to (or, for financial reasons, is forced to) merge/remove servers while still being able to serve their community.

 

* Just kidding, Viiiper; you know you're my buddy!

Edited March 12, 2010 by Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~

[MedicSN6]

MAN, this is too cool. Thanks FP.

[Haloelite]

even a lot of people that continue to play the game regularly won't be playing every hour of every day like they are now (in other words, we can blame Viiiper for all of this.*)

 

lol lol

[Cylawyer~SPARTA~]

If it ever comes through, thanks FP. It is a very nice move. BTW, EA/DICE could fix the whole matter by allowing a direct IP connection bypassing their master server. They could do this through a patch as other games have done before. They could maintain their officially sanctioned servers and the master server list, but give an option for the server to be turned private and IP only. Then organizations such as ours will be able to advertise on our website/forums and visitors can join via the IP listed there.

[Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~]

If it ever comes through, thanks FP. It is a very nice move. BTW, EA/DICE could fix the whole matter by allowing a direct IP connection bypassing their master server. They could do this through a patch as other games have done before. They could maintain their officially sanctioned servers and the master server list, but give an option for the server to be turned private and IP only. Then organizations such as ours will be able to advertise on our website/forums and visitors can join via the IP listed there.

 

LOL, if it ever comes to pass, you and everyone else are very welcome.

 

As for your suggestion, with the previous BF games, DICE released dedicated server files so that anyone could run their own server, public or private, with any settings/mods/maps of your choosing, and the only caveat was that the server would be unranked. Whether or not something like this will happen for BC2 remains to be seen; the issue has yet to be addressed by DICE, but my gut instinct says that, with BC2 being a multi-platform release instead of a PC exclusive, this is less likely to happen. I'm hoping DICE will surprise us and prove me wrong.

[Cylawyer~SPARTA~]

They don't have to release dedi servers to do what I suggest. They could still make the server only one that could be purchased through an authorized vendor. However, if they patch for direct IP connections and allow the game to operate without going through the Master Server as an option, then it could provide a bit more flexibility to how many servers they could authorize, etc.

[Lightspeed~SPARTA~]

this is just another reason why Rankings suck