Ilumination

I am going to speak for the MAJORITY of server owners in this thread, despite the possible repercussions of doing so. This is an issue that needs to be addressed, and this thread should be brought straight to the attention of the Staff as soon as possible. I predict a dim future for the current DayZ servers, and I also predict an eventual drop-off of the number of servers currently available to the entire DayZ community. Why?: Two major factors: The severe hosting restrictions and cost of hosting. I'll start with the cost of hosting. Hive doesn't support any Linux platform, so a CHEAPER hosting solution is almost impossible for dedicated servers. So server owners that rent dedicated's are forced paying that extra 20-50 dollars per month for Windows Licensing. However, this wouldn't be as much as a problem if the hosting restrictions weren't so strict. What I mean by this is, is as server owners, we barely have ANY -REAL- control over our servers. I can understand keeping banning and kicking as reasonable, as it always should be. But I see threads of kids crying about being banned from a server for something they probably DID DO, but because the server owner can't provide 110 percent solid proof, the server owner gets the shaft. Not all of us run FRAPS 24/7, or can snap perfect screenshots of an offender. I do believe that server owners deserve a bit more credibility in our decisions of kicking and banning, especially with the following point in mind: Some of our servers cater to individual gaming communities, such as mine. My gaming community happens to make a decent amount of money, enough surplus to fund a DayZ server. But, how long will this last when server owners are completely unallowed to conduct any in-game perks in exchange for donations? The number of servers currently available is quite high, yes, but there is still no incentive to get our players to donate towards operating costs, other than relying on their "good of heart." The only appeal we can offer our players as of now is a stable, reliable server to play on. Well, if you know what you're doing (and most servers owners do), this is not a hard feat to accomplish. So again, there is no way to produce a unique environment that would give players the incentive to donate towards server uptime. 2+2 = 4. Owners renting out Windows Dedicated's are more likely spending 100+ a month (If you're not spending this much, wait until you're required to host MySQL on the same box as well, as they eventually plan on localizing Databases), but have virtually no method of generating money to help pay for it. This is eventually going to cause many servers to forcefully let their server die due to lack of funding. Besides a couple of staff members that run servers for the DayZ community, DayZ Devs and Staff are currently relying on established and inspiring server owners to produce and maintain more and more places for players to play. This in itself is okay, but it's not okay in this case because again, we have no way of generating donations for our servers. With this logic, we are being told, "Thanks for hosting a server at 100 percent your pocket expense with no way to recuperate that expense." Yeah. Again. This is only going to last so long before server owners get fed up with it, or just simply run out of money to run their server. I really hope these flaws are heavily considered by the DayZ Staff and current hosting policies and compatibility are revised with more consideration for server owners. To the rest of the DayZ Community: My thread is not in attempt to start fights with anyone. This is purely my educated guess/opinion as to what is going to happen with the current conditions server owners must endure. Please do not flame my thread or personally insult me. I welcome all positive/negative CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATION. This being said, thank you for taking the time to read my thread and I look forward to feedback.

Well, Curagon, if server owners should follow that logic, then the amount of servers being hosted should surely drop off even faster. Eventually there is going to be a point in time where server owners become intolerant (or in a phrase similar to your's: cease to like) [to] the idea of running a server out of their pocket with no way to recuperate the cost from the players. I understand this game is still in the early stages of development, so I'm not saying a change needs to be made today, tomorrow, a week, or even months from now. But eventually, somewhere along the line, if the DayZ team continues to expect us server owners to maintain places for the players to play (as they currently rely on us for this), inevitable revisions to the current hosting restrictions will have to be made.

I appreciate all the in-depth feedback and conversation pertaining to this topic. I think it's put a lot of potential implementable ideas and concepts out into the open for the future of DayZ.

To bring kicking and banning back into the conversation: I do believe there is some sort of automatic siding with Players when it comes to kicking and banning players. Cheating on DayZ is becoming more popular by the day, I could easily link you to another forum's thread of a member selling top of the line DayZ "hacks" for a pretty cheap price, the thread having many vouches of the exploits working without any problem. Ultimately, what I am suggesting is, is that if server owners are required to provide absolute proof for our actions of banning and kicking, then players should have the equal responsibility and treatment of providing absolute proof should they accuse a server owner of unjustifiable administrative action. /endthought

I can agree with this centralized server concept. If there is no other way to grant server owners more control without an efficient method of controlling the possible abuse, then centralized servers are the way to go. The database is currently centralized, so it's already half-way there. Instead of working towards localizing these databases, perhaps there should be a turnaround and work towards centralized servers via monthly subscriptions. I agree with this good idea.

I'm not saying that the existence of poor-conduct server owners don't exist. But I am saying that not all server owners are as you described. However, my thread never said anything about allowing Passworded Servers or Locked Servers. However, I do believe that we should ATLEAST be able to conduct reserved slots. And that's just "atleast." That would atleast get the ball rolling with some sort of incentive to donate. And my usage of "kids" was not meant to be derogatory, so I'm sorry you interpreted it that way. Anyhow, at mercy of you and other staff members, Server Admins need more control or in turn, we will eventually have no incentive to host our servers. The level of intelligence needed to make a game like this is very reputable, I am sure that you and the rest of the staff team could devise a management plan that would allow server owners more control, in-game options to generate donations, and give server owners a chance to establish their credibility in cases of kicking and banning. (This response intended for Vip')

Server Name: US 48 Slots: 50 Difficulty: Veteran Version: 1.7.1.1 (93825 Beta Patch) Location: Orlando, FL. USA Time Zone: EST Teamspeak 3: voice.bloodheroes.net:5453 Rules: Typical DayZ rules apply. No kicking for admins or members. Contact: PM me here as Ilumination, Chat with me on TeamSpeak (Always on), or use the contact form on my website: http://www.bloodhero.net Donations are encouraged and very appreciated. Every cent goes towards the monthly operating cost of $179.00. Dedicated Server package can be found here: http://www.comforthost.net/billing/cart.php?a=confproduct&i=0 (Yes, the package is 149.00, but the Windows OS License is an extra 30 USD per month. Check the configuration options.) My server is ALWAYS up, ALWAYS up-to-date, and NEVER lags. If you're looking for a very reliable and fair server to make your home, US 48 is your relief. Any questions or comments at all, feel free to contact me via the previously posted methods. Thank you!