Private servers

[Max1116]

 

Hello,

I am opening this topic to discuss something that I believe could be beneficial to SimRail: private servers. I will explain why I think this would be beneficial:

-Firstly, it could allow control over the day of the year and the specific time the server operates. Being part of the French community, we only have one server, which is constantly set to the same time zone. A private server would enable easier adjustment of this parameter.

-Secondly, it would facilitate player management. Since it is a private server, the administrator/owner can more easily address certain behaviors that might disrupt other players. This could provide a different perspective on moderation compared to that of official servers (this is not a criticism).

-For organizing events/scenarios, it would allow a "game master" to take the lead and do as they wish without disrupting official servers. Thus, those who do not wish to participate in scenarios will still have the official server to rely on.

-Enhanced possibilities for role-playing. We could take role-playing to a deeper level. For instance, imagine I want to create a server with an elaborate RP, where different players would have authorization roles on certain trains or signal posts. Other players could train others in specific roles, and there would be numerous other role-playing opportunities to consider.

Now let's discuss the arguments "against" private servers that I often hear.

-"It incurs a cost for the game." If the private servers are paid and hosted by the player (as in other games like Arma, Garry's Mod, BeamNG, or others), the cost to SimRail is nil. On the contrary, if hosted servers come into existence, SimRail could, if they wish, close servers that they themselves host.

-"There aren't enough players to justify more servers." On the contrary, private servers will attract new players. I know several people in my circle who are not willing to purchase the game until there are private servers. Indeed, not everyone wants to end up playing with strangers but would rather play with their friends.

I sincerely believe that if SimRail wants to continue attracting new players and offer an ever more enjoyable gaming experience, these community or private servers are a necessity.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

 

[GoppelPL]

It was suggested earlier and we've decided not to go that way.

[Dignité]

That's a truly sad news... But I do have a question in mind, if you're not going in that way, how do you plan to make multiplayer possible with custom maps or trains made with the SDK ? That's kinda essential. 

[Lulu]

9 hours ago, Max1116 said:

Hello,

I am opening this topic to discuss something that I believe could be beneficial to SimRail: private servers. I will explain why I think this would be beneficial:

-Firstly, it could allow control over the day of the year and the specific time the server operates. Being part of the French community, we only have one server, which is constantly set to the same time zone. A private server would enable easier adjustment of this parameter.

-Secondly, it would facilitate player management. Since it is a private server, the administrator/owner can more easily address certain behaviors that might disrupt other players. This could provide a different perspective on moderation compared to that of official servers (this is not a criticism).

-For organizing events/scenarios, it would allow a "game master" to take the lead and do as they wish without disrupting official servers. Thus, those who do not wish to participate in scenarios will still have the official server to rely on.

-Enhanced possibilities for role-playing. We could take role-playing to a deeper level. For instance, imagine I want to create a server with an elaborate RP, where different players would have authorization roles on certain trains or signal posts. Other players could train others in specific roles, and there would be numerous other role-playing opportunities to consider.

Now let's discuss the arguments "against" private servers that I often hear.

-"It incurs a cost for the game." If the private servers are paid and hosted by the player (as in other games like Arma, Garry's Mod, BeamNG, or others), the cost to SimRail is nil. On the contrary, if hosted servers come into existence, SimRail could, if they wish, close servers that they themselves host.

-"There aren't enough players to justify more servers." On the contrary, private servers will attract new players. I know several people in my circle who are not willing to purchase the game until there are private servers. Indeed, not everyone wants to end up playing with strangers but would rather play with their friends.

I sincerely believe that if SimRail wants to continue attracting new players and offer an ever more enjoyable gaming experience, these community or private servers are a necessity.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

I completely agree with @Max1116. Indeed, the ability to change schedules and no longer have to wait for a specific time to start a journey would be a significant benefit.

Having private servers would also help avoid the annoying behavior of certain players, for example, those who perform unnecessary maneuvers with their trains, thus blocking the traffic.

As for the last argument, I also believe that the creation of private servers would attract new players. Many of my friends own SimRail but don't play it because they don't want to end up with extremely troublesome players, which is common on some servers.

 

[Max1116]

 

1 hour ago, GoppelPL said:

It was suggested earlier and we've decided not to go that way.

It's too bad for the game, I genuinely think it's a missed opportunity. I agree with Dignité on his question regarding unofficial mods. Does this mean we won't be able to play them in multiplayer?

And in that case, why leave only one server for certain languages? We're human, and we don't all get along perfectly. Even though efforts are made by some, speaking from my personal experience, I'm tired of being stalk every time I go to a signal box or doing any action. It's frustrating, and it's making me less and less inclined to launch the game.

 

[Max1116]

I'm waiting for your arguments guys 🙃

[Fatality]

 

Private servers are a very bad idea from my point of view. Especially from the point of view of the French community, which is already very small. It would only divide the community even further. I also understand why the developers don't want to go down this path for organisational or financial reasons, or whatever. The game is still in development and it's obviously not a priority for the vast majority of players and devs themselves.

There's still plenty of things to discover on SimRail looking forward to see y'all in game.

Fatality 😉

 

[Max1116]

 

Don't be blind; the French community is already divided, you know it very well. As for the financial issue, where is the problem since it's paid for by the players, a point that I develop in my initial message that you clearly didn't read.

Getting into the game is one thing, but I don't want to play with people who are two-faced and talk behind the backs of other players, including server moderator.

 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Max1116

[Fightdrug]

11 downvotes and 6 upvotes i guess that say everything how many people are want that 🤔 and i am not sure about that ( i am just a lonly coffee drinker ) but i would say have such a function cost the developers money too because some service need to stay ready to open a server 24/7

[Max1116]

There are many downvotes coming from the same place, from haters, but whatever 🙄
For the cost issue once again, as I explain in my post, it's the player who pays, not SimRail. So it's transparent for the game developers.

[Fightdrug]

vor 33 Minuten schrieb Max1116:

There are many downvotes coming from the same place, from haters, but whatever 🙄
For the cost issue once again, as I explain in my post, it's the player who pays, not SimRail. So it's transparent for the game developers.

and 3 upvotes are from fanboys that follow you 😁 anyway when the developers dont want that in there game then you need to deal with it and respect that because its not your game

like a wise man ones sayed : ,,i dont like that but i will respect that"

[Max1116]

Where did I say that I don't respect this choice exactly? I genuinely think that it would be a significant added value to the game, that's all. I never claimed it's my game. I made this post to present my arguments, to debate with mature individuals (on this point, I was a bit optimistic evidently). But apparently, it's frowned upon to try to be constructive. Next time, I'll do what others do, just a simple empty petition without any arguments.

[Dignité]

1 hour ago, Fightdrug said:

11 downvotes and 6 upvotes i guess that say everything how many people are want that 🤔 and i am not sure about that ( i am just a lonly coffee drinker ) but i would say have such a function cost the developers money too because some service need to stay ready to open a server 24/7

I don't actually understand the downvotes. Let me explain myself : 

Private servers will allow people to have control on what is happening. It requires some development it's a fact, but at the end, it's just making every player happy ! If someone wants to have an arcade server, then someone has already done it or you can do it as you please ! If you want something more serious to gather around strong roleplay and have fun, you can. The problem right now is that on official servers, people have different needs or way to play. On the (only) french server we have, it has been an issue with some events popping sometimes or tensions between communities (for bad or good reasons that's not the point). Having private servers give multiples good aspects : 

- Possibilities to have more control on the game (weather, time, timetables, maybe even actual visual or implemented events !)

- Giving every community the possibility to play the way they want

- Having maybe one or two fat servers to deal with API if you can't make them work in an other way but 2 servers for data is cheaper than running 34 public servers

Actually, this is a solution to most problems of players during multiplayer, dealing with toxic behavior, create event that makes sense for some et caetera.

With all this, I can't even figure out how can someone that play Simrail can be against having private servers...

I don't think this will scatter the whole Simrail community in teeny tiny groups, I do think that it will allow Simrail to grow even more and make some people buy the game to play the way they want without having to deal with toxic comments or having people sabotaging their way to play.

And even more if the SDK comes out, it will be a must-have to keep the game attractive. If you can't play with your friends on the content you want, what's the point of this game ? And if the SDK isn't coming, well, that's an other (big) problem but it's not the subject here 😉 

[Dignité]

@CEMO @Fatality You seem to be confused by my message but I am actually intrigued to know the part that is confusing you from your player perspective 😉

[Kaito Kid]

You've picked my interest about custom made content and public servers @Dignité, I hope we get some answers concerning this point.

[Kierwin1987]

Well, private server could be an option as creator of this topic described.

 

Oficial server could have their rules, unoficial also their own rules.

[Howky]

On 10/20/2023 at 11:17 PM, GoppelPL said:

It was suggested earlier and we've decided not to go that way.

You don't want to go that way why ?

Technical problem ?

 

 

As already written here, it would be nice if each community could have its own server.

Check out flight sims, it works beautifully there.
They have their own communities, rules.
And it's not a problem for a community to pay for their own server independently of the OR team.

Otherwise, even the older Open Rails simulator has the ability to create its own server.

 

[GoppelPL]

34 minuty temu, Howky napisał(a):

You don't want to go that way why ?

Because we want to host all of the servers ourselves, and that's how it stands until said otherwise.

[redmastercz]

On 11/26/2023 at 5:01 PM, GoppelPL said:

Because we want to host all of the servers ourselves, and that's how it stands until said otherwise.

So, is there any chance that we will be able to at least "rent" a server from you for community/your own map ect.? or you only plan to include MP on official maps?

Edited November 28, 2023 by redmastercz

[Howky]

On 11/26/2023 at 5:01 PM, GoppelPL said:

Because we want to host all of the servers ourselves, and that's how it stands until said otherwise.

 

Well that would make you wonder if the developers are going against themselves.

Private servers can bring in more players.
But so far from what I hear from others and in discussions. Many players are discouraged or already discouraged by playing SR. 

 

[Gazz292]

before the update, most servers had 1 or 2 players in them, even EN1 could be deserted half the day. 

So add in private servers taking away people, and the official servers would be even more depopulated, how long till the dev's think 'hardly anyone playing, may as well cancel the project and shut everything down' ?

 

a lot of people who want private servers say they want them so basically 'they can play god'   the 'my server, you play it how i like or get out' 

i know some people just want to mess about, crash trains, go as fast as they can in reverse and do other 'weird' things. 

But SimRail is supposed to be a consumer version of the professional train driving training simulator, i bought it so i could pretend i am a real train driver and drive as if it was real life, each time i drive i try to learn something and do better than my last run, be it learning the route, braking points, running to schedule etc.

 

[wutt]

Who would be hurt if they let players host there own servers, peer to peer or paid.

[Gazz292]

People who want to drive in a well populated server?

With SimRail hosting the servers, everyone who wants to drive or dispatch uses those same servers, we are all on the same page so to speak.
That's why some servers are routinely full most of the time. 

Having even more servers that only selected people can use will just dilute the player base and make it seem like hardly anyone is playing, 

There are people who have taken to learning another language so they can drive or dispatch on a more popular server with lots of people in it, as their own language server is empty most of the time.

 

 

 

[DeepFritz]

I think a game in which you need about 140+ players to have the full multiplayer-experience is just not made for having private servers. And with every track that is added to the game, the number of players needed will only go up.

I already find it somewhat questionable to have different servers for different languages. If this game takes off, expands its track network to other countries etc, I think we should only have one big server for all.

[Kaito Kid]

The only thing about having private servers it would be for hosting custom routes/lines, I would honestly would like to know about this, how is custom content gonna work in multiplayer? We know very little (or nothing) about how this is going to work, and I think that it's about time to open this can of worms.