I am working on a casual style SMO (Small Multiplayer Online) with a small team and am looking into the networking side of things very early on (as I have read is best).
Of the options available, what would people suggest? This will be a game which works very similar to MMOs people know and loathe (1 or many “worlds” (servers) which run at all times, players connect and have characters saved to that world, etc).
I have developed a working client<->server system using the Unity Networking/Master Server setup, but would like the ability to have a world “always” running regardless of players being connected. Also (I have not tried this yet with my current setup) would need some players to be in different scenes from others (towns, dungeons etc).
We have zero budget, but very low cost (£10p/m) solutions may be considered. I have found www.gamooga.com but am not sure if this will work for what I want to accomplish.
Did it ever occur to you to NOT answer a question if you are entirely ignorant on the subject?
How is what you said helpful in any way, especially since it is based entirely in ignorance?
TLDR: Why should everyone not immediately place you on ignore?
Could you link to that thread, for future reference? Very often I find a link to Unity’s forums, only to find no answer to the question asked (but nearly always a “I figured it out!” indicating they have an answer ). Would be nice to
The thread you have kindly posted on @CarterG81 - fair point, a link to the thread giving me an answer is best. I was looking to delete this thread once I had an answer but can’t seem to find the option.
The thing is that meltdown is right. You wont even be able to get a decent enough test server for 10/month.
What you could to though is to run the server on your own computer. But then you will start having connection problems and you cannot test your stuff probably. If it is a hobby project that might be okay.
@Ibzy just follow CarterG81’s advice on how to Build your SMO! Since he seems to be an expert
(an expert with zero MMO’s built, or even a Multiplayer Game at that)
and just ignore us experienced idiots like CarterG81 thinks of us.
CarterG81 (the non-experienced MMO expert) will guide you into how to Build your SMO in no time.
@jonkuze - I think Carter’s advice is more along the lines of “give it a go”, rather than everyone else’s “don’t even bother”.
With a combination of your suggestions, Carter’s optimism/encouragement, and a few others’ help, I have managed to get a multiplayer networked “game” (more Proof of Concept at the moment) up and running using my own machine as Host.
@BFGames - I have found a handful of possible solutions for servers starting at free (20-100 CCUs) and going up to tens of thousands at a higher cost. A game doesnt suddenly start and have 10,000,000 players trying to connect at once. As soon as the popularity exceeds the current licence, you upgrade as it is likely you have “some” revenue from it (Photon Server offers 500 for £25 p/m and then on to unlimited for £175 p/m - at 500 CCUs i imagine revenue should be enough to help cover some of the cost (have a decent paying day-job to help fund the early stages).
But still - thanks for literally zero suggestions for MMO networking solutions!
@Ibzy lets say your able to pay $25 for 500 CCU for your Photon Server Hosted at Home. You do realize you’ll have an extra electricity bill to pay right? or if you live at home with your parents, and you need to keep your server running 24/7 your parents might be asking you to fork up some money to cover the increase in electricity bill. Or maybe your lucky and don’t have to worry about paying for utilities at home. Next Bill will be your ISP (internet) Bill, are you prepared to pay for extra cost of Monthly Bandwidth that will hit your home Internet Service? Or maybe your lucky again and don’t have to worry about that bill as well… In that case OK you might have a chance here.
If you don’t have to worry about ISP Bill, or Electric Bill Running your Dedicated Server from Home on your Low Budget, then next and most important questions are how do you plan to Monetize 100 Users, or 500 Users? How do you Plan to Acquire 100-500 Users to Monetize?
Is your Game Designed to Properly Handle Micro-Transactions without Killing the Gameplay? Or do you Plan to Sell a Copies of the Game (Keep in mind most MMO Games are Free-2-Play, that’s the new trend, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon).
@jonkuze I currently own my own house and am running 2-3 PCs at a time already, mostly through no reason other than laziness as I’m clearly only going to be using one at a time, and my internet contract is unlimited bandwidth (with possible limiting measured employed during peak hours of course). So these “additional costs” aren’t a huge worry for me.
There are an abundance of monetisation options, else how would any game monetise? Advertising space, subscription fees, IAPs, selling game “copies” (digital download), premium currency/accounts for F2P to name a few off the top of my head. The thing about a scalable server solution is that with the demand for more capacity comes the supply of revenue, thus covering the additional cost. Once it gets to the point of needing more than a high spec “PC” the solution gets moved to dedicated servers.
Don’t worry - I’m not just some kid who thinks he can make the next WoW, I have thought things through. And by “no budget” I meant that I’m not willing to fork out for proper solutions until the game has enough substance and promise to be worth it.
The reason I edited my initial post to SMO is to show I’m not expecting to be running a full-scale, multi-million user game from my bedroom…I’ll use the office Joking aside, for this to go from SMO to MMO would be a big step, and would require a spout of development to implement the move from self-hosted server to dedicated servers. The only limiting factor for me is time - if I didn’t have my day job I would have 7x the time to work on this and develop something with real promise, but as I have to work (to cover my HUGE electric bill) progress will be a little slow, but with each little addition to the game’s functionality I only get driven to do more.
I will add a link to my signature once I’ve set up my development blog…
You asked for a MMO solution. Most of us who have actually worked with multiplayer games will automatically think on servers (and cost) as part of a solution like that. If you had asked for a code framework i might have answered differently.
But if you are going to host it yourself you can take your pick. Most of them have a limited CCU free version. Photon, uLink, smartfoxserver(?). Or you could buy something like Bolt on the asset store. Not sure how well Bolt would handle an MMO in the long run, but for prototyping i am pretty sure it will do pretty well.
The bandwidth requirements are what kill it for me currently. I have a dedicated server in a colo and I ran some tests and even with a non realtime system(10 updates per second) I start running into heavy network bandwidth costs assuming 40-50 players.
I would highly encourage you to run those sorts of tests before you go too far down the path and make sure your monetization scheme will cover it. This is after I optimized the crap out of my game protocol and utilized things like Protocol Buffers, MessagePack, etc. to try to cut down my bandwidth.
The good part is I can easily launch as either single player or multiplayer so for now I am just putting the multiplayer on hold until I see if it is popular enough to warrant those multiplayer costs.
Have you looked into possibly just Renting a Dedicated Server from a Host Provider like SoftLayer.com? I recommend checking them out. Zero downtime, good bandwidth, good hardware, good support, VPN access to your Server! The Best Host Provider in my Opinion. Probably cheaper than running your own Dedicated Server at a Colo. Multiplayer is a big win and selling point for a game so don’t throw in the towel just yet, check out some more options.
I hadn’t checked out softlayer, I’ll go compare. The dedicated server I’ve had for years, I use it for running my own mail servers, and some other apps so it is not just for gaming. The other option I have been toying around with is the high volume plans from DigitalOcean, they are virtual servers but can get 8 cores, 16GB RAM, and 6 TB bandwidth for $160/mo which seems pretty good if it performs as advertised…
Good to see some options being mentioned at last, albeit above my budget for now, but something I will surely be looking into eventually.
I’d like to hear people’s experiences with the “starter” solutions that have been mentioned too, how you got on if you’ve used Photon for example - problems, solutions, dos and donts etc.
With Photon Server you have to write/integrate your own collision system and pathfinding among other. However it really is a great solution, but might not be for beginners. Ulink is another beast but i have not used it that much so maybe someone else can fill you in.
I used leaseweb for a year and it worked very well. (Server)
Also check out Leaseweb, they have some of the cheapest prices I’ve seen when it comes to server hosting.
My preference is uLink due to the ability to run your server in a Unity instance, meaning you get access to Unity’s full engine on both the client and server side. And setting up auth physics is a breeze. You can literally run your server in a Unity editor, and open multiple Unity windows, each being a client, and debug/see what’s going on in each editor. That kind of debugging/workflow is hard to beat.
The uLink indie license is 550 Euro, which is still a good deal. Their pro licenses are much, much more expensive. More than your budget I know, but it gets my vote.
As much as I love it when trolls bring some kind of weird obsession with me (or more realistically a strawman of me) from one thread to a completely different one, I figured I’d give some perspective on this, so people can take Kuroato’s posts with a grain of salt, given his post history.
There are no idiots. There was only one person which everyone in the thread thought was needlessly negative and argued over nothing while ignoring all evidence. You can guess who it was.
No one is arguing what it takes to make a MMO. Kuroato is arguing against an imaginary version of me, despite how I pointed out multiple times I firmly agree MMO’s are very hard to make. There is no argument, yet he persists to the point of bringing it over to this thread just to…uh… bash me? Idk why, but it’s a bit creepy.
I actually have worked on a MMO (with a small team) in the past, as well as began developing my own (solo dev) before my current project. So although I am certainly no expert on the matter, I am not entirely clueless and I very often link to those who ARE experts on the matter of completing a MMORPG. I try to back up my arguments with sources. Meanwhile, Kuroato is pretending as if he has extensive experience working with MMORPG’s, despite how his experience is only with multiplayer (not MMO). Please do not be misled by his implications.
The portfolio of others, if it even exists, is not always public. Please do not assume that others have no idea simply because they do not link to their past work in their profile.
Kuroato insists that his firsthand experience proves it is correct for him to say making a MMO is impossible, and that I live off the “stories of others”. As if the tangible reality of others’ games is somehow worthless, despite how our entire society relies on the knowledge of others’ past works. Not just rational arguments, but Science itself is founded on others’ tangible accomplishments… but not in Kuroato’s world. This should give you some perspective on his attitude.
Thank you, and sorry I felt I should point this out! I just didn’t want anyone to be purposefully misled. (I find it strange someone is even attacking me in this thread, based on an entirely separate subject and thread.)
). Would be nice to