i was wondering if it would be possible to create a persistent server where people can play on and where they can only play the characters that are “created” on that server and play with items are “dropped” by that server?
my guess is that currently the client creates everything so a server can’t really keep track of the progress reliably?
i’m asking because i very much liked the trading aspect of diablo 2. i know that there is and was rampant hacking going on but i guess for the most part people on the “REAL” trading forums were not into that. at least there was a certain amount of work you had to put in just to ruin the fun for everyone else.
if it were possible to have something like a dedicated server (even if its only via modding somehow) we could think of a way to make a server happen where public trading is a thing?
As mamba has said this is way beyond modding and there are many, many threads already about servers and the WHY they aren’t in the game and the reasons for not being able to afford them.
i was hoping that crate would have built the client internally via a client/server architecture so that you could possibly just make a client behave as a central server without too much additional programming time. since i can’t know how the engine works internally i was asking. i guess it was more like wishful thinking though.
i will look into the api… there are already mods that can be used to store your items externally so there must be SOMETHING there that could potentially be used to emulate some form of dedicated server.
I would be even happy with dedicated servers that only host games so player computers don’t need to be gimped by their bad upload speeds or need to split limited resources on both running the game and hosting it.
Crate would have to rebuild the entire game code to add in the ability for servers, saving to servers and most importantly and the hardest bit… An ongoing, time consuming, never ending bit of… Keeping the code and servers secure and constantly patched to prevent cheating of “secure” servers, saves etc.
Adding servers isn’t JUST the adding and the code… It’s the ongoing constant patching and re-securing of the servers and the 24/7 support staff to simply keep the servers running
I’m pretty sure you’re missing the point of this thread.
This is not a thread about ‘why aren’t there dedicated servers hosted by Crate?’
eNTi seems to be asking ‘why isn’t the netcode setup so that players can host dedicated servers themselves?’ In that regard, Crate needs only get the initial client/server interaction functioning. Beyond that, any serverside augmentation code (like checking for legitimate saves, etc.) would be created by players and would be the responsibility of those players to maintain.
seeing how some helpful people provide translations this could be kind of a compromise for the folks that like server-side saves. so since crate can’t provide the whole server infrastructure on their own it might be worth it to look into providing pure host/client versions of the game and maybe some dedicated individuals would/could take it from there?
if the architecture/api/protocols would allow it we could even create our own dedicated servers… which basically should only be a database with the login credentials and hashes from the characters and stashes. saving to a server is already possible (see steam cloud). creating a server browser shouldn’t be complicated either?
my guess is that it should be doable. just need more info.
yes, that’s the plan. there should be a dedicated server list (server browser). maybe the servers are able to communicate with each other so that players can hop between them. so basically there would be a 3rd party program (the server browser) or mod (if possible) that does the communication between the different servers and would keep track of the character data (some kind of anti-cheating). it kind of depends on the api and how much you can actually do with the data stream without hacking the ipc (which i couldn’t do anyway).
atm the dedicated servers could only support as many characters as any normal multiplayer game can support. this is primarily restricted by the engine and would also be a balancing issue. if you could reliably scale mobs to feel interesting and not just more bulllet-spongy for a lot of players i guess that would be a bonus.
good question… maybe you could mod a timer that just respawns mobs randomly after a set period?
