Server resctructure.

All right here is the Deal right now as is bitfighter isn't that good 99% of people i get to join leave because of the bad connections so i think the servers need to be restructured as follows.

1 there is the the Major main Bitfighter master server. which hosts the country servers.

2. there are sub servers in various countries which the users select from ie : Usa Brazil Japan Norway ect.

3. then there are "rooms" which would be the currently defined user created "servers" as well as default servers for each area.


Yes i know it would be a ridiculous amount of work but I think less people getting bad connections would majorly help bitfighter get more players without better structure i dont see bitfighter catching on as easily.

amgine.

I have to disagree

Having a main server that hosts one big (or a bunch of small) servers (like League of Legends, World of Warcraft) will be expensive (eventually, if it gets big). I don't know why people would have connection problems, but it can be repaired by opening a port or by not hosting from a Wi-fi laptop. Bitfighter happens to be very light and can be ran on almost everything very well (my RPi can host a server with 6 people without lag on Wi-fi).

What we can do is easy though: we can take your idea, but make it community driven, as in host a good server (dedicated computer, no Wi-fi, open port) and have lots of levels on it. This will insure that the server is top-notch. We could have a few people host servers and we would have a collection of great servers.

Normally we have connection problems in BBBs etc since bitfighter.org is a Vps, thus not very good at hosting game servers, and it already hosts a bunch of stuff at the same time too (Master Server, http://bitfighter.org). But if we have a dedicated computer (virtually any computer, for example, a Raspberry Pi, or a Pentium 4) will do a great job.

I am actually thinking of making my old computer a Bitfighter server

I disagree .

We dont need a huge expensive server right now maybe 6 country servers for now would be good im sure there is decent free hosting out there somewhere.

also in the long run it will provide a better stable connection if bitfighter ever gets popular and suddenly get 10000 users.

with the current system it could be a problem you would have like 27 pages of server which would be a hassle to navigate.

Problem is with port forwarding is it also makes your computer very easy target for hackers which if you have tons of users could be a massive issue.

Yes, but port forwarding is pretty much necessary (well, Bitfighter somehow is fine without it, but's that's magic). I agree that the server list would be very clunky to navigate, I think that eventually we would get a smaller list version of the lobby.

International servers are an interesting idea. Is it possible to geographically map user residences simply through their connection to the master server? Knowing how diverse the Bitfighter population is might be helpful.

I'm not sure I agree with a revamp of the whole server interface because I just don't think it's necessary given our small player base. If Bitfighter explodes then some adjustments to server design would probably need to be made but then again a lot of things might need to be remade (namely, level design). However a couple international-based servers if cheap might be a good idea IF justifiable given Bitfighter's geographic diversity.

Well i think the server change should be made now instead of later thats like saying if there is a fire in my house THEN i will buy a fire extinguisher

If I remember right i said to raptor kaen and watsimmo to have backups for Bitfighter which never happened until BF crashed and was down for like 1 week.

also having a "room" based system would put less stress on users computers as it would jsut connect to a room instead of having to create its own mini server and play at the same time.

sky_lark, your dedicated server bugs on Mac were repaired a few days back for the next release

Right now there are more servers than active players, with Sam test being the best server (lag wise) right now (I believe).

my server while lacking levels (need more anc acceptign levels)

and not always being up (computer restrictions)

i think has a slighly better ping i could be wrong.

[watusimoto]

International servers are an interesting idea. Is it possible to geographically map user residences simply through their connection to the master server? Knowing how diverse the Bitfighter population is might be helpful.

I hosted a server in Germany for a while, which nobody played on, and people have at times hosted servers in the UK, Australia, and other places.

You don't need to do any geographic mapping. People will play at the server that has other players on it; barring that, they will pick the one with a low ping. Ping is a better measure of what's important than national borders.

And yes (theoretically) we could geolocate the IP addresses of players, but we haven't found a compelling reason to do so at the moment (though I agree it would be interesting).

I think the servers do need to be upgraded the number 1 complaint i get from new users is Bad server connections, or not being able to connect, or see a server others are on clearly we need to fix it.

Is there a way to almost always guarantee a connection ?

BUMP!

[watusimoto]

No -- servers can't connect to one another for a variety of reasons; usually we see this with servers hosted at home behind various firewall/NAT configurations.

Is there at least a way to imrpove client to client conection ?

[sam686]

A "Host on server" could be added so you host from a server instead of from your computer, and it uses your maps and some host settings into the server.

A "Host on server" could be added so you host from a server instead of from your computer, and it uses your maps and some host settings into the server.

We could try it and see if it works better progress is not made by doing nothing.

But there are tons of less popular games that have good servers like platform racing 2, gravity wars online to name a few. even more popular games had to start less popular.