How viable is it to host an MMO?
Is it possible on an Amazon Web Service EC2 Micro-instance?
Specs:
613 MB memory
1 EC2 Compute Unit (?)
I/O Performance: Low
And $0.020/hour ($14.4/month) after first year free.
MMO viability
Author
What are the specs of the Dead Frontier server(s)? How much does it cost and do they make a net profit from micro-purchases?
How much does it cost to travel?
In other words: you're leaving out basically all of the relevant details that we'd need to know to answer your question.
Some "MMO" games could probably live on a single micro instance, because nobody plays them and nothing computationally intensive is done in the game. Some MMO games have entire floors of major datacenters to themselves because they pull so much traffic and computational power.
Basically, we need to know if you're trying to hitchhike 15 miles or circumnavigate the globe on your own yacht.
In other words: you're leaving out basically all of the relevant details that we'd need to know to answer your question.
Some "MMO" games could probably live on a single micro instance, because nobody plays them and nothing computationally intensive is done in the game. Some MMO games have entire floors of major datacenters to themselves because they pull so much traffic and computational power.
Basically, we need to know if you're trying to hitchhike 15 miles or circumnavigate the globe on your own yacht.
Author
I want to make this an MMORTS:
There will be no pathfinding. Units will turn left to walk around obstacles.
The units and buildings will be divided up based on their tiles for quick look-up collision detection.
[edit] I think it won't have more than 32 players at a time.
There will be no pathfinding. Units will turn left to walk around obstacles.
The units and buildings will be divided up based on their tiles for quick look-up collision detection.
[edit] I think it won't have more than 32 players at a time.
We still need vast amounts more detail about what your hypothetical server would be doing. I don't know anything about the computational load or playerbase size of your game by looking at a couple of screenshots, sorry.
[edit] I think it won't have more than 32 players at a time.
32 players isn't particularly massive. Do you mean 32 players can interact in realtime, but the game is 'massively multiplayer' in that is has non-realtime stats / game elements that allow more than 32 players to interact in some way?
32 players is something you can almost host on your cell phone. The bigger problem is that EC2 runs on virtual servers, and EC2 Micro Instances in particular are designed to allow occasional (that means: rare) CPU bursts, while beng ultra low performance otherwise with ultra unpredictable jitter.
In other words, they are exactly the opposite of what one wants in a game with tanks shooting one at another. You may be able to get a big CPU burst for some hefty compute task that you need to do, but it may take half a second or so before your instance gets scheduled. This is not something the normal users of a micro instance worry about, and most of the time instances do nothing, so it's no issue (that's how Amazon can keep the prize low and offer a 1-year free trial).
If you do (and expect) the opposite of that, not only you will be unhappy, but Amazon will be unhappy too, which might result in them pulling the plug without telling you.
In other words, they are exactly the opposite of what one wants in a game with tanks shooting one at another. You may be able to get a big CPU burst for some hefty compute task that you need to do, but it may take half a second or so before your instance gets scheduled. This is not something the normal users of a micro instance worry about, and most of the time instances do nothing, so it's no issue (that's how Amazon can keep the prize low and offer a 1-year free trial).
If you do (and expect) the opposite of that, not only you will be unhappy, but Amazon will be unhappy too, which might result in them pulling the plug without telling you.
Author
What can I use for hosting then?
If I host it from a home computer, will a cable connection be lag-free?
If I host it from a home computer, will a cable connection be lag-free?
Hosting from your cable connection is not a good idea, except maybe for testing. You're probably going to want at least a Virtual Dedicated Server (or Virtual Private Server). You can get a decent VDS/VPS for around $30 per month that should handle 32-players in a simple RTS game with reasonable performance.
You could take the route of many other games. Lets say minecraft. The users have to download the server software themselves and host their own 32 player matches for other users to join.
And just specifying that your internet is cable means nothing. That could be 0.2mbit/s down or it could be 20mbit/sec down, you could have a 20ms ping, you could have 300 (which would be very very bad for lag free). You do seem the be the master of asking questions that need numeric data and not giving us that data... Hell you still haven't given us information on if its just 32 players having a skirmish or theres a huge list of player stats etc, what is the server for?
And just specifying that your internet is cable means nothing. That could be 0.2mbit/s down or it could be 20mbit/sec down, you could have a 20ms ping, you could have 300 (which would be very very bad for lag free). You do seem the be the master of asking questions that need numeric data and not giving us that data... Hell you still haven't given us information on if its just 32 players having a skirmish or theres a huge list of player stats etc, what is the server for?
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