My thoughts on it:
- if it meant I could have a (public/TOG) match (with enough players) on it every one or two nights on it, I would consider it, but if it was for a weekly match like now, I would think it's a bit early for it.
- also ArmA can play fairly well on on user hosted servers for lower numbers with certain missions, especially coop. Until player numbers become regularly high, it might be a bit early. TvT is different. So if you select your missions carefully, you can work around it in the meantime.
- For battlefield 2, it was about $2-3 per slot.
Might be a touch early, but it could take off real soon.
Last night we suggested running a
dedicated server process (arma_server.exe which runs a small text window) on a user's PC while running the game himself on the same PC as a client. I believe on a high end PC (CPU and RAM mainly, plus video for the client and probably ADSL2) it should work fairly well. It would allow for the client to crash CTD mid-game while not affecting the server.
I just tried running
arma_server.exe now and it's all fairly simple. Ideally you need a config file for it. Without one, it defaults the
server name to your PC name and makes
all your missions available for selection. You can simply use in-game voting to change it. You can leave the console window on your second screen to monitor it. Have to try this out further.
An interesting topic on
server.cfg file here.
Code:
passwordAdmin = "xxyy"; // password to protect admin access
password = "xxx"; // password required to connect to server
hostname="TOG server 1.05";
motd[]=
{
"Welcome to TOG's ArmA server."
}; // Welcome message
motdInterval=1;
voteThreshold=0.2; // when 1/5th agrees, this is enough to confirm a vote
reportingIP=""; // private server - no reporting to GameSpy
// voteMissionPlayers=3; // start voting when 3 players connect
// checkfiles[]={"HWTL\dta\data3d.pbo","dta\data3d.pbo"}; //list of files to check for identity
kickduplicate=1; // do not allow duplicate id
// equalModRequired=1; // require equal mod
MaxMsgSend = 256;
MinBandwidth = 768000;
MaxBandwidth = 1024000;
maxPlayers=8;
Not sure about the last few parameters, like bandwidth. Seemed to run better with lower figures:
MinBandwidth = 64000;
MaxBandwidth = 256000;
Usage parameters:
Code:
arma_server.exe -config=server.cfg -netlog -port=2302
BIKI: ArmA:_Dedicated_Server