say if i finish my marvelous persistent universe multiuser game... ...what do i do about finding a host. I have a cable modem and I can handle probably a 1000 players at a time due to the slow nature of the game. But to me this is not ideal. any ideas?

You could probably "rent" a server. Several web hosting companies to this.

Unless you''re willing to fork over hundreds (or even thousands) for a faster line, Cable will work fine. Click "Dot Com" in my sig for what you need. Remote hosting isn''t really an option for any on-line game. There''s too much maintainance involved. The only way to get it public is to host it out of house.

1000 people at once more than likely won''t happen for at least a year and even then only if your game is Everquest. Most online games only handle a few hundred at a time even if they''re really good.

Start small and add bandwidth as you need it. Planning for a 1000 users now is just throwing money away.

Ben


IcarusIndie.com [ The Rabbit Hole | The Labyrinth | DevZone | Gang Wars | The Wall | Hosting | Dot Com ]

A thousand players is alot....

How fast is this cable modem of yours ? I've heard that the ping of cable modems is very high.

[edited by - granat on July 12, 2002 11:57:37 AM]

have u seen or heared of the game Utopia?

Its a persistant province management game. Very simple, a game of statistics really. An example command u might give is an invasion and it will take like a day for your troops to return.

its at games.swirve.com/utopia

this game is my inspiration. It claims to have like 80,000 players.

during general online play that I enjoy partaking in, my ping to players in the USA and europe is quite often less than 100msecs. The bandwidth is not spectacular for a cable modem. I''ve never seen it download more than 100 kb/s and its upload speed is certainly not that high.

but a slow real time game, might have reasonably low requirements. I might get away with the current cable connection for a bit.

So much is it to rent one of these stand alone servers? I''m certainly not a wealthy chap.

80,000 players != at once.

At a rare peak I bet they only have 500 players logged in at any given time. They only need bandwidth for maybe 300 or 400.

Ben


IcarusIndie.com [ The Rabbit Hole | The Labyrinth | DevZone | Gang Wars | The Wall | Hosting | Dot Com ]