Test poll
Added 2021-01-25 02:49:06 +0000 UTCThis poll probably won't mean or change anything.
Comments
This is implemented, but might have some risks for majority of players if server is exposed to public. It will work perfectly fine (and better than was ever possible) for local matches, but with exposing player IP to public can lead to some rather expected DoS and DDoS attacks PB2 website had to deal with due to usually just a 2-3 people that seem to be always around. I think nobody also deals with DDoS attacks unless website has some revenue past certain low limit (according to US law, at least some time ago). Most probably something like cloudflare or some VPNs are here for rescue, but I'd not expect lots of UDP traffic to be free for whoever decides to host dedicated server. I could expect some developers to be able to host PB2.5/3 servers on their own dedicated servers that aren't on their local machine, but that would be close to simply donating for servers (also, nobody tried doing so with SD2D so I have an unsure feeling about that). Also, if we are sure servers are private and secure - anti-cheat algorithms could be added because anything that is hosted by players technically is also can be manipulated in various ways. Possible cheats I see so far are ones that give faster reaction times (unlike in common competitive games PB2.5/3 does not send offscreen information by default at all, which could have some downsides too, but at least cheating software won't be able to use it). Hopefully these could be fought with skill-based matchmaking and somewhat decreased ease of account creation, but I assume it might be not enough at some point and more complex cheat detection will be implemented.
UnrealCrash
2021-03-02 05:08:16 +0000 UTCOn the nose of player to server costs, have your thought about letting us run dedicated server programs for the game on standalone?
DukeofLeet
2021-02-27 14:18:58 +0000 UTCDon't hurry, PB2.5/3 might end up being as bad even though I think that won't be a thing :) Also keep in mind that current Patreon donations are honestly not enough to cover server costs (including DDoS mitigations). So far I could expect things either to change or ad-full sponsorship will be the only way. I do feel somewhat bad about that considering game doesn't have much space dedicated for advertisement banners so far (it tries to look pretty). Alternative is Steam as far as I understand but I'd not expect them to print money out of nowhere as well, quite possibly in that case game will have to become not free-to-play. I don't know if there will be enough players to play with then, at least in long-term after release year(s). I have some ideas on what could be done with lack of revenue from ads, donations, purchases but that is something I will uncover later. Netcode logic seems more or less complete as of now. I haven't given game for test to any e-sports players nor tested with screen refresh rate of something like 144 fps at this point to definitely say if it is really good in this aspect. Yet improvements in this direction are clearly done if game was compared to PB2. Just in case PB2.5/3 does implement plenty of network tweaks though, hopefully, they won't be needed. These include stuff like ability to start multiplayer matches that trust player per-limb positions and velocity - something that can be good in simple competitive matches (has few flaws here and there that can be patched out, like lack of reaction to movable walls that player does not see on his screen due to various in-game events), but then, it is also something that can lead to obvious cheating/hacking especially in public matches. Reason why it was implemented is for cases when servers or player-to-server connection won't perform well enough for whatever reason, which is definitely better than player being teleported to place where it is at server especially if match is set to be in a players vs enemies mode(s). In the end, as you can see, it is also somewhat ready for these outcomes where PB2.5/3 will be hosted on purely bad servers too. Then netcode does implement time-nudge for 2 * ping time which progresses world towards state that matches time where player action would happen if it was done right now (basically something as shooting at flying grenade takes same skill and aim offset as it would in singleplayer mode, this specific case I tested with ping of 50 ms, 100 ms, 200 ms). With all netcode features though, high ping is a high ping, and with something as "don't send item unless player sees it" policy (some cheaters are known to be faking their ping in some today's competitive games, so prediction of player's camera position according to ping either benefits cheaters that can increase their ping in fake way or cheaters that can see past screen bounds) as well as general impossibility to predict enemy's shooting event - high ping will be a problem of low server count. Something like that. Use donations to support me, but due to reasons above - they probably won't be enough to cover server needs. It might also be best to wait for pre-release hype if there will be any - it might tell more about what to expect.
UnrealCrash
2021-02-15 18:31:50 +0000 UTCI would most like my money to go into: - ads - servers - you working on netcode logic all for pb2.5 if i get good confirmation of this ill probably up my donation amnt
Kidney Bean
2021-01-25 03:32:38 +0000 UTCYou mean destructible world or just walls and player? Calculation complexity is usually where particles, fire, entity and explosion logic starts though. It could be a thing to test, but it might not test too much at the same time.
UnrealCrash
2021-01-25 03:21:23 +0000 UTCI think it's planned for something like this. A Alpha/beta testing that would be invite only. Not 100% sure as things change.
Tempus
2021-01-25 03:18:49 +0000 UTCI wish that we could see a small playable tech demo to screw with the enhanced physics and test the new engine on more hardware, the demo itself maybe being in similar in size and content to that of the star defenders 3d demo? I am not requesting a multiplayer demo however.
DukeofLeet
2021-01-25 03:09:22 +0000 UTC
