Dedicated server?

[WoodyDaOcas]

Hey there.. Thanks a lot for the game, the MP and so on, I just wanted to ask, what will be the definition of done, some dedicated server ? So far it's a ring network and if one of us has got a slow web connection, we can't play.. also, why do you have to set the ping value ? It's working, but not that well, basically the MP is not there :/
Thanks and have a nice weekend

[n9103]

The higher you set the server's latency, the higher the latency of actions for everyone.
Having it higher than needed means more input lag than is required, having it lower than needed means more desyncs and drops.
Connections within your own continent will probably be fine with a setting of 99ms or less.
Those crossing the Atlantic or going to Australia (lots of love -root!) will need at least 150-200ms to be reliable.

(from experienced player and server host's perspective)
I don't know that a truly dedicated server will be a viable option, since the current gameplay format doesn't lend itself to being either endless, or being predictably cyclical.
Unless you disable Rocket Defense, and then disable console commands (not a very good idea, since any meta-fixable problem will require two restarts) then the game will eventually reach the game over screen and require manual intervention to start a new game. Therefore not endless.
As it is now, I know of no clean method of getting a game to transition from the game over screen to starting a new map. Therefore not cyclical.

Without one or the other, a headless client isn't feasible.
Without a headless client, all hosting means I have to be hands on.
As a player, I want the game to be available all the time, but as a server host, I'm usually not interested in playing the game just to let others play.
To be honest, there are plenty of days I'd rather not even mess with the interface, but at the same time, I have no problems letting something run in the background.

Hope this sheds some light on the current situation, both for you, and for any of the devs looking for *some* insight into what a host is looking for.

[WoodyDaOcas]

Thank you, that was some interesting reply
Thing is, I have something like MC "dedicated" server in mind, something I can run locally, and all players can connect there.
I would just forward the port to that server and not that everyone has to see everyone (Tunngle) and stuff like that, thus the ring network reference.
It creates a lot of stress for all participants and their web connections, one of my friends ( not many ppl willing to play this complicated game )got a rly bad connection if you can imagine that and we played basically every online game just fine, the Factorio (I am not trying to make it look like I know what I am talking about, I don't : ) seems to have some poor net code, or tbh it looks like a simple MP-viable solution, don't get me wrong, it enabled us to play some interesting amounts of hours but still, I would like to host for everyone else to connect and to communicate just with the server, that would be awesome..
There is some unofficial dedicated server solution so I just wanted to know some official point of view on that.. Thanks ^^

[n9103]

Well, unlike MC, and the large majority of games out there, Factorio has between thousands and hundreds of thousands of discrete entities onscreen at any given moment.
That's several orders of magnitude difference in the amount of information that's being transferred between clients, compared to the maybe hundreds of entities that you'll have onscreen in MC, and maaaybe a couple thousand onscreen in some of the more swarm-oriented RTS games.

[Nova]

Factorio doesn't have "bad mp-code", it's just not finished. You play an alpha of the game, and this version is the first to have multiplayer.
We have to wait for 0.12 if we want better multiplayer. Even then I think it will not be "finished". 0.13 could be the version for everyone.

[MF-]

You should have searched first.

Rephrasing Nova from the Headless Linux server thread which you'd have found.
Adding a server to the current architecture would make latencies worse
Adding a server to a bruteforce "send everything" architecture would not be playable over internet at all.
The best option thus might be adding a "server" to aid with map transfer & storage

PS: The network is not a ring. It's a full mesh.

[WoodyDaOcas]

as I said, I don't understand that, obviously I am not claiming otherwise. Thing is, I know it's a first attempt or how do you wanna call it, but since this was even developed at first, that means it is gonna be like desired end result ? Like only viable mean of playing Factorio with multiple friends ? It's not about wording, if it a bad code or w/e, I would like to know if there is gonna be a server as such, like most of ppl understand it from other games
There are those with bad connection, living with that type of connection for 15 years, terrible DL speeds but excellent pings, which enabled them to play >everything< since, just not Factorio. How am I supposed to explain it to anyone, that it's just like that.. because it's a first attempt, or it's a planned solution?
And as you can see, I am not exactly new around here, I just don't make that many posts, so yes, I found that (one) topic on the dedicated server, but I am not a wizard, sadly, so that is not useful and even then, I am still curious about official plans for that.
Anyway, thanks for replies

[n9103]

It's a first iteration, yes.
But I expect people with bad throughput will still have problems, but the point where a connection is considered too slow will decrease as they do more work on the network coding.

[WoodyDaOcas]

thank you

[MF-]

as I said, I don't understand that, obviously I am not claiming otherwise. Thing is, I know it's a first attempt or how do you wanna call it, but since this was even developed at first, that means it is gonna be like desired end result ? Like only viable mean of playing Factorio with multiple friends ? It's not about wording, if it a bad code or w/e, I would like to know if there is gonna be a server as such, like most of ppl understand it from other games
There are those with bad connection, living with that type of connection for 15 years, terrible DL speeds but excellent pings, which enabled them to play >everything< since, just not Factorio. How am I supposed to explain it to anyone, that it's just like that.. because it's a first attempt, or it's a planned solution?
And as you can see, I am not exactly new around here, I just don't make that many posts, so yes, I found that (one) topic on the dedicated server, but I am not a wizard, sadly, so that is not useful and even then, I am still curious about official plans for that.
Anyway, thanks for replies

Actually, that's exactly the kind of connection factorio is designed for.
The game needs to exchange only tiny bits of data while running (preferably quickly).
Except for the issue of initial map sync, which should be gradually limited ONLY to the first game start / new player joining

I think "Server" in factorio world means "One who has the primary copy of the world on their HDD"