The 4-11 On BC2 + Server Rent For March

Published on 02-24-2010 12:35 PM Number of Views: 623

46 Comments

Hi guys. Server rent for March will be due no later than 11:59 PM MST on Sunday, February 28th. As usual if you are donating via paypal please send it to:

dpgmaximus@hotmail.com

Or if you prefer to send a check, money order, or even cash you can send it to:

Jossi Ray Stanley
4650 W. Lupine Ave.
Glendale, AZ 85304-3541

Just make sure to put your gamer name in it so I know who its from.

The total that is due is $170. However, as many of you know we will be expanding into Bad Company 2 which means we will need to raise more money to get this going. I have discussed with a few of you what my options were. Here was the one of the options I wanted to go with:

#1. Have us re-locate our Deathstar server box to another Chicago location that is an official Ranked Server Provider of EA since our current GSP (Game Server Provider) which is Velocity Servers aka colocrossing.com has been ignored by EA numerous times for a license. This would of been the best option, but it seems like no RSP/GSPs out there who have a license and who offer colocation except myinternetservices.com, but they changed their mind because, "They do not want to monitor our hardware". So I asked them to re-consider and they pretty much gave me the same answer again. So with that said there is no RSP/GSPs out there who have a license who would allow us to do colocation with them even if they installed their own control panel so we are in compliance with the EA TOS. This would of been the best option for us financially, but it simply does not exist. Ive checked literally everwhere you can think of.

#2. Have us rent a dedicated box from gameservers.com. Here is the link: http://www.gameservers.com/dedicated/. We would simply rent the dedicated box for $149 a month and it has dual xeons with 4 gigs of ram, and unlimmited bandwith. On top of this have another clan like the The Inglorious Basterds (I.B. declined the offer btw) share half the expense which would mean we could host as many ranked BC2 servers as we wanted and our share is only $75 bucks! This would of been awesome for both clans, but I did a live chat with a sales representative just to make sure this offer was too good to be true and it was! They state they only have a web based control panel so the only servers we could host would be unranked BC2 servers. Yea... the whole point is to have ranked servers so this is out of the question! Another bad thing is that Silver package was only for NYC so that sucks too.

#3. Pre-pay and rent by the slot from gameservers.com and pick any location we want. So we would most likely choose Chicago. Comes out to be $40 bucks a month plus $100 a month for our secret recipe (please refer to the private forums in reference to the secret recipe) which means its a total of $140 a month and we are guaranteed to have traffic because of our "secret recipe".

#4. Rent a complete ranked server dedicated box for BC2 from Hypernia.com. I talked with their sales representative and we can have a Quad core Xeon with 4 gigs of ram, 100mb port, and unlimmited bandwith for $245 a month. This means we can host as many ranked servers as we want because they have their own client panel which means there is no worry of us or them being in violation of the EA TOS (EA Terms of Service). This means we could host a 32 man regular RUSH mode server, 32 man Hardcore Rush Server, 32 man regular Conquest, 32 man Hardcore Conquest, 32 man infantry only hardcore server, 16 man servers, 64 man conquest if that ever comes out, etc; etc. The only problem with this is the price obviously, but if we really wanted to go all out this would be it. Only problem is it means its going to be $415 and this is without the "Secret Sauce". If we include the "Secret Sauce" on at least one server for BC2 that is going to be an extra $100. Total then is $515 a month for everything... yea... ouch! But, man if we got all these servers popular and had enough donations from regulars and people who wanted to be trusted admins it could work, but what a gamble...

So there you have it gentlemen. This is what is having me bounce back and forth on. I mean there is a side of me who is wanting to go all out on this to seize the opportunity, but there is another side of me who is thinking, thats a lot of money for us all to put up to possibly face having nothing, but empty servers to the exception of one that would have the "Secret Sauce". But, there is also one side of me who wants to play this safe and just get 1 server with "Secret Sauce" and have guaranteed traffic, but as I said I keep bouncing back and forth on this.

So in closing, I will leave you all with this to think about...

DPG back in BF2 for 2 years roughly had the #1 ranked Gulf of Oman server. HUGE thanks to Reed who was the main person who helped provide this to us. Sure we had to run it 24/7 on one map, but man did people flock to that server and loved playing there! Also at this time we had the #1 ranked server on the planet period! It was called 24/7 Infantry Only Jalalabad and it averaged 63 out of 64 slots at all times. During this time server rent in total was over $500 bucks and within a 2 year period there was only a couple of times I could think of in which only Reed and I had problems with making the rent in which it was all on us. Thats pretty damn good if you ask me.

Can this happen again with BC2? Sure it can, but its really going to take some funding here. I am willing to throw in some extra on my end to get this done, but from here until the end of the month we are really going to have to raise some money in order to do so. There is obviously one main bill that has got to be paid for. If this month ends up like last month then the decision I will make will most likely be to go for 1 server plus secret sauce, but we shall see.

Some of you who are somewhat new or have not been in DPG for at least 1 year or more might be thinking, "Why not just get rid of the current server box we have and go with another?" I wish it was that simple, but when I got this server box back in the summer of 2007 it was on a lease to own plan. It still is. It won't be paid for until the Summer of 2011. So if its canceled that is pretty much all on my end till summer of 2011. It would of been great if we could of hosted all of this off of our current machine, but unfortunately we can't as I explained above. 90% of DPG is getting this game and we need a place to play, promote ourselves, and recruit and the only way to do that is to have our own server/servers.

I know this is an uber long post but, I just want everyone to be on the same page and to know exactly what is really going on as far as our plans for BC2 go.

Here is to a great expansion for DPG and may it be the dawn of some great times ahead! Cheers to all!

_{This article was originally published in forum thread:

The 4-11 On BC2 + Server Rent For March
started by
Max][mu$} _{View original post}

46 Comments

Special K - 02-21-2010

In an ideal world...Ya..Drop the other one. I too wish it could be that simple This all depends on how many consistant donators we get. I'd persoanlly rather not leave it up to community players who donate for admin. That is in my eyes a complete gamble. I would love to see a place that WE could play. People would probably be less frequent to our servers if it rotated gametype/map but in my opinion. If I'm paying money I want it to be for my enjoyment. Other people may have other ideas this is just mine. I'll still be stuffing money is Max's gstring....

Lazy - 02-21-2010

Dropped 35 for server rent hope it helps out

Hammy - 02-21-2010

Well, my opinion is that if we had one BC2 server with all of us playing on it all the time, it would get lots of usage because we're all there. BC2 is very team orientated and I believe people will come and play and stay given good teamwork and a good friendly environment that is controlled and rid of douchebags trying to ruin the game. If you expand out into multiple BC2 servers and now don't have as many DPG'ers playing together, it may not be enough to hold the crowds.

My other thought was can you sublease other servers to other clans? That may be a way to makeup for the cost and still go with the multiple server options.

I try to drop a little something off to offset the cost too, although the damn tax man is taking most of my money this year!

Max][mu$ - 02-21-2010

Originally Posted by -Hammy-

Well, my opinion is that if we had one BC2 server with all of us playing on it all the time, it would get lots of usage because we're all there. BC2 is very team orientated and I believe people will come and play and stay given good teamwork and a good friendly environment that is controlled and rid of douchebags trying to ruin the game. If you expand out into multiple BC2 servers and now don't have as many DPG'ers playing together, it may not be enough to hold the crowds.

My other thought was can you sublease other servers to other clans? That may be a way to makeup for the cost and still go with the multiple server options.

I try to drop a little something off to offset the cost too, although the damn tax man is taking most of my money this year!

On the subject about us being on seperate servers I can see the problem with that too. If there is a bunch of us all on our very own server it will show that we have a strong core group to possible applicants/recruits. So good point there Hammy.

As far as us subleasing servers to other clans, I was informed by Hypernia that we are not allowed to do this at all for its against the EA TOS. This would of been a great idea, but in all honest its like how will they know? Well personally, I don't think they could find out other than monitoring the name of the server and as soon as they found that out then they pull the plug on us. Don't want to risk having an uber popular server for us and then have our GSP pull the plug. That would suck.

Hammy - 02-21-2010

Originally Posted by Max][mu$

On the subject about us being on seperate servers I can see the problem with that too. If there is a bunch of us all on our very own server it will show that we have a strong core group to possible applicants/recruits. So good point there Hammy. This would of been a great idea, but in all honest its like how will they know?

I don't think it would be hard for them to figure out, so probably not the best idea to try to deceive the host.

I personally prefer the Hardcore mode if the gameplay is like the beta. Having only 1 server certainly would limit our gameplay options. Do we know yet if it can have varied modes (CTF, TDM, etc.) mixed in the rotation? I think this game is going to be different than COD in that with COD you needed to run CTF or something like that to almost force teamwork. I think BC2 will really bring in team players looking for a cohesive group of players to game with looking for a home server to stick with, unlike MW2 that prevents players from really having somewhere comfortable to game.

I don't think it will be that difficult to become a popular server given the players we already have that help build a community around the server. If we start fragmenting to having too many servers, issue may arise. I like the idea of having a normal server and a hardcore server though if we can swing it. Having more servers than that may be hard to keep populated in the long run.

Hammy

Max][mu$ - 02-21-2010

Having 1 regular server and 1 hardcore would be $280 if you included the special sauce. We might be able to do that...

Hammy - 02-21-2010

Max,

How sure are you that we need that "special sauce"? The game is going to be brand new and we should get a pretty good influx of players. It seems like a pretty big cost. Is it something that could be added later if we needed it or does it have to be done with the server purchase/rental?

I'm good with whatever. I'm just looking forward to having a server to play on with DPG. Hardcore or regular really won't be that much of a deal since getitng together with everyone will be where the fun is!

Hammy

Sneaky Pete - 02-21-2010

I say drop this 'special sauce' as the game will be new and if we're in the server all the time playing, which I'm sure we'll have a bunch doing, no need to have it. It's a super high cost that I don't think will be necessary at all. Just my 2 cents. I'll see if I can drop you a couple loonies closer to the end of the month after my retirement contributions and tax credits.

Apples22 - 02-21-2010

I agree with Pete and Hammy. We have enough people getting the game that we won't need any special sauce. Also having one of each mode would be nice but really I will be happy with any server we have and will play on it.

Max][mu$ - 02-22-2010

I agree special sauce should only be used in worst case scenarios. I was planning on seeing how well things go without it since it is expensive. Hopefully we can have a popular server without it and without doing 24/7 on a certain map. I like having a map rotation.

Max][mu$ - 02-23-2010

Alright there is quite a bit of news in reguards to our BC2 server situation. Yesterday, I found xfactorservers.com who happens to have an EA ranked server license in the same datacenter as our current host (Velocity/colocrossing.com). They even have colocation and would allow us to switch to them on a month to month contract. This means we could host as many BC2 ranked servers as we wanted to. On top of this we woudn't even have to change our ip range nor even move the machine since they are subcontracted with Velocity. All sounds good right? Well... not exactly. I tried to see if we could still have remote desktop into our own box and somehow have it so they upload w/e files they want for the ranked server stuff for BC2 and make it so we wouldn't have access to it with a password or w/e. They say due to the EA TOS that EA will not allow remote desktop into a dedicated machine no matter what. Only option would be to have us allow xfactorservers.com install a control panel. According to Bo if we did this we would lose a lot of our freedoms of having a server box. A few things in particular he mentioned were B3, TS, and w/e else is customizable, but the main thing which we all love and care for is our beloved FTP!

As you guys know we share half of our server box with the Fever Clan. They run a TS server as well as B3, and other things that are customizable. Virus of the Fever Clan was in support of us changing hosts since he too wants a BC2 server, but didn't like the idea too much of losing all that freedom on his remote desktop end.

So in the end, I did not want to jeopardize us losing the Fever Clan over some stupid control panel and didn't want us to lose some of the many freedoms we currently have on our server box. Bo is right, its our box and not xfactorservers so who is EA or anyone else out there to tell us what we can and cannot do on our machine that we pay for!

Last, I wanted to have us test some IPs on a BC2 beta, but I was informed that xfactorservers does not currently have any beta servers. However they will have retail ranked servers up the day of release. Normally, I like to test a server before we decide to go with a GSP, but I jumped the gun on it. Here is why:

I was referred by Rudedog (Jim) of fpsadmin.com who had a post stating that xfactorservers had a special going on. 99 cents a slot! Thats even better than gameservers.com. Some of you may be thinking that maybe the reason why its so cheap is because the hardware and connection suck! This is simply not the case. Xfactorservers are a subcontractor of our current host and therefore use the same fat pipe that you guys have played on before with our CoD4 TDM, and CoD5 servers. You guys know those run great so there should be no issue. Also here is the hardware our servers will be on:
Dual Quad Core Xeons 5410s to 5520s, 12 GB - 16 GB of memory, dual HDDs.

I went ahead and pre-paid for this. A total of 2 servers. One 32 man regular mode on Rush, and one 32 man hardcore infantry only mode or mixed mode.

Two servers should be more than enough. Sure it would of been nice to host a bunch of BC2 ranked servers, but Bo is right we would be losing a lot at the same time.

So there you have it gentlemen, This will bring our total for server rent to $234 a month instead of $170. Permithias was nice enough to donate $35 so $199 now remains.

Apples22 - 02-23-2010

Thanks for getting things sorted out Max.

remedy - 02-23-2010

thats an awesome compromise. i'll smack you silly with some dollars within the next 24-48 hours.

Apples22 - 02-23-2010

I think we should have one server thats HC infantry only and one server that is normal conquest with vehicles. Just my input.

remedy - 02-23-2010

Originally Posted by Apples22

I think we should have one server thats HC infantry only and one server that is normal conquest with vehicles. Just my input.

agreed. its like he talked to me on xfire and totally agreed with me and then posted it, this man is psychic.

Kellithe - 02-24-2010

Originally Posted by Max][mu$

...
We would simply rent the dedicated box for $149 a month and it has dual xeons with 4 gigs of ram, and unlimmited bandwith. On top of this have another clan like the The Inglorious Basterds (I.B. declined the offer btw) share half the expense which would mean we could host as many ranked BC2 servers as we wanted and our share is only $75 bucks! This would of been awesome for both clans, but I did a live chat with a sales representative just to make sure this offer was too good to be true and it was!
...

Just wanted to say that -ib- didn't decline cause we were against splitting a server with you guys, but because we just can't raise the $$, even at $75/month (which as Max said was too good to be true). We're having to go with a single slot server. Just didn't want ya'll to think we were blowing ya'll off. Not to mention trying to keep our WAR Server with... "Secret Sauce" (lol Max!)

I hope ya'll find an option that works for ya'll!

Much from -ib- to DPG,
Kell

Edit: Oooops, you did find an option that works, good deal!

Thunderbolt - 02-24-2010

When summer hits i will take care of the rent for a whole month on my own untill then i'm doing internship so less money. I'll see what i can miss once a while

Rotory7 - 02-24-2010

awesome work, ill send what i can, but i still need money enough to buy the game when it comes out, and i havent got my tax return yet

Pr0cl1v1ty - 02-24-2010

still havent gotten your tax return? damn thats along time. i got mine feb 5th

Max][mu$ - 02-24-2010

Yea Apples we will probably do one in which its 32 man conquest on normal and the other Hardcore Infantry Only on Rush and CTF or something.

Rotory donated $15 towards server rent. $184 now remains. Thank you Rotory for your donation as well as Permethias!