Possible Dedicated WoV, and WoE Server

[Anthony W.]

Hey, me and a few admins at the Microsoft Flight Simulator server Fstopgun(Teamspeak IP:fstopgun.org, website:fstopgun.net)are discussing the possibility of adding dedicated WoV and WoE servers, and we wanted to know what the WoE and WoV community would think about this. Feel free to tell us(Okay, were begging you to tell us,LOL).

[Viper6]

Hey, me and a few admins at the Microsoft Flight Simulator server Fstopgun(Teamspeak IP:fstopgun.org, website:fstopgun.net)are discussing the possibility of adding dedicated WoV and WoE servers, and we wanted to know what the WoE and WoV community would think about this. Feel free to tell us(Okay, were begging you to tell us,LOL).

I for one think that would be great, A question I have would how would your team handle all the mods that are being used in the sims?

Would your servers handle just the stock sims? What about all the add-on aircraft? In any case the ability to play multiplayer with out all the

hassle of hamachi and things would be great!

[WDH]

Hey, me and a few admins at the Microsoft Flight Simulator server Fstopgun(Teamspeak IP:fstopgun.org, website:fstopgun.net)are discussing the possibility of adding dedicated WoV and WoE servers, and we wanted to know what the WoE and WoV community would think about this. Feel free to tell us(Okay, were begging you to tell us,LOL).

 

Hey Anthony W.,

This EDH>._)!Have you spoken to DogHouse>._)?We could be interested.

 

Brady

[Anthony W.]

Hey Anthony W.,

This EDH>._)!Have you spoken to DogHouse>._)?We could be interested.

 

Brady

 

I know Doghouse, I'll talk to him

[ONETINSOLDIER]

What would we say to this?

W00T !!!!!111

 

Concerning the mods/aircraft issues, as we do, I figure they could do multiple installs of the most popular mods running on a rotating basis with a list posted here or where ever. Same thing with aircraft, a list of the most popular . I realise that multiple installs would require someone to do the switching which could be an issue with the uptime of the machine this server runs on.

Unless they got room for all of them at once.(not like theres a lot like unreal tournament)

Any suggestions?

Edited January 1, 2009 by gwar

[+streakeagle]

I hosted a 24-hour/7-days-a-week server for SFP1 and WoV for a couple of years.

It does bring in more traffic than having no server at all, but you can only host a dogfight session unattended.

 

Besides that, here are the key problems with hosting:

 

Stability: a person with a bad connection can crash the server (typically those with dialup and some DSL ISPs exhibited this behavior)

 

Settings: no two people want to fly with the same settings. I was a hardcore "all hard settings" host for most of the two years. The hard settings turned away many newbies and some veterans. I myself can stand anything less, since "hard" makes the weapons and flight models as detailed and realistic as they can be on this game engine. The number one settings issue is being able to see the "HUD" box and/or mini radar display versus having a "clean" realistic display with no text clutter, etc. TK solved that problem for me by adding the display toggle, mapped to "alt-d" by default. I set full hard settings except for HUD and visual spotting, but once in the game, each player can use "alt-d" to get the screen view he prefers... I must admit the targeting box with player ids is useful during training.

 

Install options: which patch level and what addons? The average person comes online with the game as purchased, which is easily patched up to whatever level is desired. But expecting a noobie to install a ton of addons one at a time is unrealistic. In my experience, stock/patched is the way to go. However, special packages such as those by CheckSix! are very easy to install and can add important/fun aircraft that draw crowds: F-14, F-5, and Saab Draken. So, if the community can agree to an online package and someone puts it together into a single drag-n-drop or self-install package, that is really the way to go.

 

Game: When I originally started hosting, there was only SFP1. Then came WoV and SFG. I figured out how to get SFG to work with SFP1 in Hyperlobby and would alternate hosting SFP1 and WoV nightly or weekly. I found more people would fly if I hosted the WoV and therefore stopped hosting the CheckSix! package which used SFP1 as its base. Now we have SFP1, SFG, WoV, WoE, WoI, and FE. While I have hosted and played all of those online, WoV is still the most popular. The stock planeset for WoV has a lot of appeal. If WoI was officially supported on Hyperlobby rather than requiring a hack to get it to work (i.e. copying and renaming the exe to WoV.exe and then pointing the Hyperlobby path for WoV to the WoI folder), WoI might be even more populare due to its planeset: Mirages , F-15s, and F-16s in addition to the typical TW F-4/A-4 combo. I personally like the merged WoE/WoV install for online MP: huge, great planeset with a stock install (even the F-104G is automatically included now). However, I only had a few people ever participate when I hosted that, maybe more people would support it now.

 

Boredom: most people get tired of dogfight mode fairly quickly. Either they get burned badly by the veterans, or they want more realistic situations than the everyone for themself deathmatch. Once a group decides to fly co-op, it is just a matter of time before they get bored with that and leave for a more capable and interesting multiplayer sim like the IL-2 series. I have never seen a virtual squadron fly this sim series for more than a year, usually less than 2 months. However, there is a small core group that has been playing SFP1 online since its release. For people that like the half-decent stock flight models and somewhat realistic avionics/weapons/damage modeling of the 60's timeframe, there is no better sim.

 

The number of people actively playing these games online is so few, that having more than 1 or 2 servers up is wasteful. Everyone needs to fly on the same server or you might as well be playing single player.

 

I will gladly provide tech support to anyone trying to host/play multiplayer for Third Wire sims. I do not normally have the time to actively fly with a squadron, but I can pop in an out, especially if I get an email telling me when and where to be.

 

Good Luck!

[+ST0RM]

Thank you for dedicating a server for the TW series. I hope it's used.

 

On that, using mods has got to be a standardized affair. There was once a call to come together on what everyone would want for a M/P install, but it died like the interest for M/P did.

 

When I fly M/P, it's with one person and using only vanilla (but patched to current standard). We havent had anymore show interest due to real life issues. Just look up in the M/P area and the threads are over 6 months old.

 

Hamachi has worked well for most of us also.

 

-S

[Viper6]

any news from this front? hamachi lets me host but i can never join a pre set up match i'd love to fly a strike with human escorts.

[+ST0RM]

I'm busy until Wednesday of next week, then I'll put a time and my Hamachi net here and see who can join up for some Co-op.

 

Has anyone succesfully used the CA Teamspeak server lately? It wouldnt allow me to log in and locked my account last week.

 

-S

[ONETINSOLDIER]

TS worked for me at 2230 hrs PST (-8 GMT)

[bsunshine]

....any news guys???I realise its a challenge but would love to fly these simms online..