Call to the devs and server admins about the issues with open servers.

[ztripez 0]

Dear Devs of DayZ

We are the adminstrator for the Seattle 18 Server and started it because we had trouble finding a server where our whole group of about 10-15 active players could play together.

We love DayZ and play it alot. The Devs have truly created something that have been missing in the gaming community. All cred to you. We fully understand the vision the devs have of an open server policy, and agrees that this is essential for the full gaming experience. But we find that being able to play together as a group is at least equally important. We don't mind other players using our server, as long as our whole group is able to join for sure. We really don't want to kick any player from the server or anything like that just for us to be able to connect.

We know that there are alot of other admins sharing this view. It is not that we are egoists in any way. We want to play with our friends AND help out the DayZ community. There must be a way to meet half way in this. We, the admins, must accept the vision of open servers that the devs have, but the devs need to understand why people hosts and pay for the servers, because we are the ones making this vision a reallity.

One solution is that each server could bind a certain amount of slots, let say 25%, to a player guid. This way we have room for our friends and the server will still be open to other players aswell. This will probably also give other groups the incet to buy thier own servers in the future. Sounds like a win-win situation to us. We get the server to play on and the amount of server will grow over time.

We truly hope that the devs understand our frustation over this matter beause we really do want to continue to contribute to the DayZ community.

Sincerely

Picazzo & Ztripez

Admins Seattle 18

PS

We hope other admins will sign this to start a mature discussion about the issue.

DS

[caspar 17]

I would also like to have some 'reserved' slots, but as far as i know, ArmA2:OA (out of the Box) don't support this feature. There are only one way currently i am aware of realizing 'reserved' slots. Thats a 'login/join script' which checks how much free slots exist, and if < xx slots are free, it kicks automatically the one which tries to connect if he has no reserved slot.

If you try to do this, it will be very disapointing for players because they never know if the server is empty/free for them to play on, or just have a bunch of free slots. Even if you would write into the Hostname that xx Slots are reserved, other player dont know if those 'reserved' slot player are already connected and the remaining are usable for common players.

All in all, DayZ has a lot of Topics which are - more - important as to implement a reserved slot system right now. First of all it would be great to get the Lags reduced, then the memory eating leakage or/and need to restart the server every x hours. ect.

P.s.: Its not that i am against a reserved slot system for all Server admin,so they have the benefit for hosting 'uber' machines (mostly) for free. But at the moment i am personally happy enough to be a part of this alpha and hopefully will be rewarded later by not paying to host the server later on as it is on BF3 ect.

[Huey (DayZ) 87]

100% agree, we pay for 2 servers as we want to have a place where 10+ friends can meet up and have fun together.

Also, we want other people who love DAYZ to be able to play on our servers.. we need to come up with something to please both sides.

What will happen if people stop paying for servers?. a group of friends who pay for a server together (in most case) expect to be able to play together..

My 2 cents.

[rocket 16567]

Yes, want to do something about this. But finding a solution is difficult without it being engine developed.

[ProxyFuel 0]

I agree with ztripez here. A Huge problem atm is lack of server space, if the people who pay to have servers up and running can't themselves play, servers will disappear, and thus even less servers.

Just hoping people pay 70+ dollars a month so other people can play ain’t going to happen. There must be a way so the people who pay for a server can have some priority. Like 1 out of every 5 slots is reserved. That means for evey slot some player pays for 4 will be free for others.

But to ask someone to pay 70 dollars to then get “server is full” os no fair deal

[UtgardarLoke 0]

Without being to long winded..

I fully support Picazzo and Ztripez...

[caspar 17]

Well, i think your 'need' is reasonable and logical. But how to realize this? I told you before, ArmA2 don't support this actually, or at least i am not aware of it. And even if this would be supported (maybe with a beta patch, you never can know what happens). How ppl will know that free slots are real 'Free' or 'reserved' ?

I can only imagine a system where free slots on the search screen for ArmA Servers are shown on 'individual' base. Ppl which have reserved slots, see the Server as 'not full' and those who have no reserved slot see it as full. In the first step it would be enough if 'reserved' slots are for everybody occupied and will be 'kicked' for reserved slot player, at least they should know that 'their' server holds a slot free for them.

But again, this is something which get's deeper into ArmA2 Architecture as the DayZ Mod goes currently. I dont think this will be realized so fast, after all because its alpha.

[Guest]

I can only imagine a system where free slots on the search screen for ArmA Servers are shown on 'individual' base. Ppl which have reserved slots' date=' see the Server as 'not full' and those who have no reserved slot see it as full. In the first step it would be enough if 'reserved' slots are for everybody occupied and will be 'kicked' for reserved slot player, at least they should know that 'their' server holds a slot free for them.[/quote']

I don't think I've ever seen a system like this and imagine it would take a lot more effort than it's worth. I do agree with you in that it's not a priority issue right now, even with the current influx of new players. Our group of 15 never has an issue all getting onto the server. It takes a little bit of time, but no longer than 10-15 minutes to get everyone in and that's on a server that's usually at 50/50.

[streak 21]

Dear Devs of DayZ

We are the adminstrator for the Seattle 18 Server and started it because we had trouble finding a server where our whole group of about 10-15 active players could play together.

We love DayZ and play it alot. The Devs have truly created something that have been missing in the gaming community. All cred to you. We fully understand the vision the devs have of an open server policy' date=' and agrees that this is essential for the full gaming experience. But we find that being able to play together as a group is at least equally important. We don't mind other players using our server, as long as our whole group is able to join for sure. We really don't want to kick any player from the server or anything like that just for us to be able to connect.

We know that there are alot of other admins sharing this view. It is not that we are egoists in any way. We want to play with our friends AND help out the DayZ community. There must be a way to meet half way in this. We, the admins, must accept the vision of open servers that the devs have, but the devs need to understand why people hosts and pay for the servers, because we are the ones making this vision a reallity.

One solution is that each server could bind a certain amount of slots, let say 25%, to a player guid. This way we have room for our friends and the server will still be open to other players aswell. This will probably also give other groups the incet to buy thier own servers in the future. Sounds like a win-win situation to us. We get the server to play on and the amount of server will grow over time.

We truly hope that the devs understand our frustation over this matter beause we really do want to continue to contribute to the

PS

We hope other admins will sign this to start a mature discussion about the issue.

DS

[/quote']

I agree 100%. Would love to see the option to set reserve slots for members. I also have 2 servers that are full at prim time and clan members about 10 - 15 of us have trouble getting in.

[thomas.bowyer@hotmail.co.uk 25]

I personally think a simple solution to this is.. kicking for space. its not nice no, but hey, at some point you have to back the people willing to nut up and spend ££ on the game...

[BwickFS39 9]

I agree. my clan mates and i are considering getting a server but this one of the sticking issues for us we want a place where we can play together but whats the point of paying for your own server when the people helping you pay for it can't get on.

[christopher.hill449@gmail.com 314]

I agree!

[waphlez 2]

A lot of multiplayer shooters have this feature, and it does seem a bit out of place (maybe Arma III will have it). Though as a personal opinion, a group in 10-15 in DayZ is a bit ridiculous for a survival game like this, that's more suited to actual Arma IMO (do you guys even lose gear since as soon as one of you dies one of your 10+ other buds loots you?).

[Soapy (DayZ) 1]

I agree with ztripez here. A Huge problem atm is lack of server space' date=' if the people who pay to have servers up and running can't themselves play, servers will disappear, and thus even less servers.

Just hoping people pay 70+ dollars a month so other people can play ain’t going to happen. There must be a way so the people who pay for a server can have some priority. Like 1 out of every 5 slots is reserved. That means for evey slot some player pays for 4 will be free for others.

But to ask someone to pay 70 dollars to then get “server is full” os no fair deal

[/quote']

As a server host, I can say that I probably wouldn't just give up on hosting just because my friends can't join. I understand that keeping 10 slots reserved for my buddies is an unreasonable request, but when I'm trying to join my own server just to simply announce a restart and I need to wait 20 minutes to get in I do get a bit frustrated.

I personally think a simple solution to this is.. kicking for space. its not nice no, but hey, at some point you have to back the people willing to nut up and spend ££ on the game...

The problem is that gives server hosts too much power. Any admin could kick you at any time (whether you're shooting at them, or just got done rebuilding a helicopter) without you even getting a notice. So I would have to say that is a wholesomely bad idea.

I can only imagine a system where free slots on the search screen for ArmA Servers are shown on 'individual' base. Ppl which have reserved slots, see the Server as 'not full' and those who have no reserved slot see it as full. In the first step it would be enough if 'reserved' slots are for everybody occupied and will be 'kicked' for reserved slot player, at least they should know that 'their' server holds a slot free for them.

You could always put something like RES SLOTS=5 in the server name, or 45 player max. Wouldn't be a perfect system but players would be able to know when the only remaining slots are reserved.

[liquidje 38]

I personally think a simple solution to this is.. kicking for space. its not nice no' date=' but hey, at some point you have to back the people willing to nut up and spend ££ on the game...

[/quote']

That works with other games, not so much with DayZ. How would you like it if you are building a vehicle and get kicked? Or there is stuff in your tent and you get kicked and can't get in? Or if you just ridden a building of zombies and get kicked, only to respawn on another server with 20 zombies around you?

The implications are BIG. Also, there are a lot of people willing to spend the money just to help the project. And yeah, there are some people who only want to spend money if they get something back. For these people, they better look at another game.

[johndstill@gmail.com 172]

Agreed here!

[daniel_limb@hotmail.co.uk 0]

As a server host' date=' I can say that I probably wouldn't just give up on hosting just because my friends can't join. I understand that keeping 10 slots reserved for my buddies is an unreasonable request, but when I'm trying to join my own server just to simply announce a restart and I need to wait 20 minutes to get in I do get a bit frustrated.

[/quote']

obviously you have never heard of the BERcon which is a rcon for arma servers running battleye

login using server ip port & the rcon password

then as if by magic you can type

say -1 "insert message" and a global message in RED will be sent to the server with the content of insert here and that it was sent by the admin

[MarKeR (DayZ) 57]

Guys... Maybe a simpler way to do it in the mean time, would be to lock the server for 5 or 10 minutes.. Let players leave, then unlock and let your clan members join then... I'm sure you would use team speak etc... Easy to coordinate... No one gets hurt..

[Kuro5hin420 7]

I agree something along these lines would be awesome, but also troublesome to impliment and also use in a fair way.

Guys... Maybe a simpler way to do it in the mean time' date=' would be to lock the server for 5 or 10 minutes.. Let players leave, then unlock and let your clan members join then... I'm sure you would use team speak etc... Easy to coordinate... No one gets hurt..

[/quote']

iirc locking a server without express permission from the devs is a blacklistable offense.

[MarKeR (DayZ) 57]

I agree something along these lines would be awesome' date=' but also troublesome to impliment and also use in a fair way.

Guys... Maybe a simpler way to do it in the mean time, would be to lock the server for 5 or 10 minutes.. Let players leave, then unlock and let your clan members join then... I'm sure you would use team speak etc... Easy to coordinate... No one gets hurt..

iirc locking a server without express permission from the devs is a blacklistable offense.

You can lock servers in some instances, which would not effect filing the server up.. For example, when the server first reboots, I have been known to flood control manually to let players in quicker.. Also BEC has an auto flood control!!

There have been lots of instances where I have locked the server when full to stop the idiots continually spamming the server trying to join! Although that really doesn't need done these days, on the odd occasion amybe!!

These are both very similiar to locking and letting enough space for a few donators to join!

[filip_vdm@hotmail.com 13]

I also rent a server for the reason I was tired of having to look around for a decent server with no lag/good ping and where all my real life friends could join who play DayZ (about 8 of em) but even I who pays it now 32 €a month have difficulty to join my own rented server which is absurd. I am strongly thinking of quiting this game even tho I love to play it.

I read many posts about this 'issue' and many forum moderators go like 'you should feel privileged to contribute to the community and to be able to play' well dear sirs your statement is wrong.

The people who would get kicked from the server for making room or any other reason and get tired of it, if they are willing to contribute to the community like we do they should rent their own server, making the community even bigger and having more servers to choose from. It would also become beneficial to teamplay cos they could consider to join the clan who rents/owns the server. So THAT way would be win-win for all.

So in short let admins kick but keep banned at tight leech like it is now and your 'community' will grow and even consist of people who love the game and want to contribute. Otherwise I give it 3 months and the community is dead.

[shawnbayer75 83]

I think all of you have valid concerns and it is obviously something that rocket is not ignoring however I think if you have not read it, http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3593 is worth giving a read because it explains the thoughts behind the current policy.

[Manlius 2]

I am also 100% supporting the ideer of reserving slots for players and it should not be any big problem BUT people are making this issue so big that its crazy, we rent servers whit 40-50 slots so whats the problem to make us reserve 10 slots for our friends ?!?!?!

But wen anyone hear this they go NO NO NO you dont understand anything its a free mod we should be happy whit it as it is, hey i am making the payments here and its about 50£ and 70£ every month a game server and a dedicated server, so stop crying about us server admins, if we want reserved slots then give us this, whats the problem there are still 30-40 or more slots open for the Commercial of DayZ that they get free from us hosting servers.

its crazy i have bean talking to the company were i am renting servers at and they think that DayZ Rocket and there Dev team are totaly out of control becours they make allot of people angry whit there system and all there rules, this ends up whit companies renting out servers get allot and i mean allot of extra work 24/7

i think its time to support the ideer of reserved server slots, even if there are allot of problems to take care of this is up to the devs.

its about time that we all rise ouer voice and support echouter in every way.

Admin of the ALL-INcrew Servers

[liquidje 38]

I am also 100% supporting the ideer of reserving slots for players and it should not be any big problem BUT people are making this issue so big that its crazy' date=' we rent servers whit 40-50 slots so whats the problem to make us reserve 10 slots for our friends ?!?!?!

But wen anyone hear this they go NO NO NO you dont understand anything its a free mod we should be happy whit it as it is, hey i am making the payments here and its about 50£ and 70£ every month a game server and a dedicated server, so stop crying about us server admins, if we want reserved slots then give us this, whats the problem there are still 30-40 or more slots open for the Commercial of DayZ that they get free from us hosting servers.

its crazy i have bean talking to the company were i am renting servers at and they think that DayZ Rocket and there Dev team are totaly out of control becours they make allot of people angry whit there system and all there rules, this ends up whit companies renting out servers get allot and i mean allot of extra work 24/7

i think its time to support the ideer of reserved server slots, even if there are allot of problems to take care of this is up to the devs.

its about time that we all rise ouer voice and support echouter in every way.

Admin of the ALL-INcrew Servers

[/quote']

There is a post DIRECTLY ABOVE yours which explains not only that slot reservation or something similar is looked at, but also states WHY it is like this at the moment. But here goes:

1. They are working on a system

2. In the meantime, kicking as a temporary solution is NOT allowed, because of heavy implications.

So no, there is no problem to give you 10 slots, there is a problem as there is no system in place to accomodate this.

its crazy i have bean talking to the company were i am renting servers at and they think that DayZ Rocket and there Dev team are totaly out of control becours they make allot of people angry whit there system and all there rules, this ends up whit companies renting out servers get allot and i mean allot of extra work 24/7

What your hosting company says is not relevant at ALL. They only get extra work because server owners complain about issues which are CLEARLY outlined in all the relevant threads for server admins. You are complaining about something you should have known from the beginning. If you missed it, that's your own problem.

There are many requests for servers still being processed, so cocky admins who don't have patience for an ALPHA MOD to develop these kind of secondary features are not helping at all. You want to play a mod which is being alpha tested right now as a full-fledged game.

Grow up. You sound like a 12-year old with "if we want it then give it to us" and "we are paying for it!"

[chrispowdrill@yahoo.co.uk 10]

Oh yes i will back this one, it is fustrating trying to get all of our members in our server to play together espesh when some members are having to wait upto an hour to join