Steam Release Private Servers Question

[dirtyjack]

Hello,

When can we expect to hear any news on us getting our own private servers to train on and host line-battles?
Now with Early Access a musket shot away, I would assume this will come eventually.

Thank you,

Jack

[TrustyJam]

Community hosted servers will likely be available at the EA launch, if not then then soon after.

You can moderate these as you please but note that we are not supporting password protected servers for the EA launch (we may in the future if we see a need for it).

- Trusty

[dirtyjack]

From my experience, communities would like to have the Option to put and remove passwords on their own private servers for use in closed events, trainings, fun Regimental-events.

[anderon46]

I think the problem with password protected servers, is that given the userbase isn't huge and most people tend to be in companies, the casual player will just immediately be put off if the only active servers are locked. If the game wants to grow it can't really have that.

[Shiloh]

To start, as long as there is the functionality to boot people, that would be sufficient.

[Poorlaggedman]

Private servers aren't showing up in the in-game server list making them useless for the moment for the public at large

Actually... only about 25 servers are showing up in-game whereas there's 53 in the steam browser. You can't connect from the steam browser though (I hope that's fixed though)

-- nevermind. Now there's 53 showing up.

[Xolbadur]

I think password protected servers are a huge NEED for a game like this.
I'm part of quite a big Regiment which would love to play this game in organized Events, but we can't since there's no way to keep uninvited guests out of your Events.

And no, I don't think it would hurt your Playerbase if you offer that... Lots of People only play games like these because of closed Events and won't even touch it without them.

[Oxley]

It is certainly an urgent order of business that private servers can be password protected otherwise proper serious regiment vs regiment linebattles won't be able to happen meaning that organised communities from other similar games will not want to properly transition to WoR in a major way. My regiment included.

[keithsboredom]

Community hosted servers will likely be available at the EA launch, if not then then soon after.

You can moderate these as you please but note that we are not supporting password protected servers for the EA launch (we may in the future if we see a need for it).

- Trusty

This is a tone deaf response. Can you explain the reasoning for killing your own game in it's crib?

Passworded servers are a necessity

[Poorlaggedman]

Do you guys think that closing a server and imposing artificial game rules ("line battles") is going to contribute in developing the game for public consumption?

The thing is with line battle culture is if the game isn't adequately made for it then it's full of bickering and arguments and forces players to go against their own instinct which is inherently hopeless. The biggest problem with 'realism' communities across all games like this is a lot of people are totally happy retreating into locked servers a couple days a week for drills and closed events to the point they're only out and about to recruit. So unconnected new players are greeted with empty servers full of trolls and sub-par gameplay.

That was the trap we fell into in Resistance and Liberation. I believe almost anyone would agree. Some people blamed me for destroying the community because my events were too good (or I banned too many people). 10011 People only wanted to play events in closed servers because it more closely provided the team-oriented gameplay they came to the game for in the first place. The developers had not taken a radical enough approach developing it in order to make players work close together and not rambo about. So public gameplay was not what people wanted, they wanted forced behavior. It got so bad that it became more and more difficult to muster enough players to go into a server to begin an event. As soon as we reached a threshold of a 2/3rds full server, a stampede would come. But your average player all but refused to spend time in a server playing the game normally for more than 10 or 15 minutes. It'd be infinitely better if the game coerced desired behavior to the point that a 'regiment' can just show up in a server and operate realistically and be successful. I think the balance is reachable but we're not there yet.

I don't think a lot of people imagine this as being attainable so they just want a closed server. I admit that it's a little ridiculous to be able to have a server and not password it right now (among the more serious issues of not having admins - might want to add a disclaimer before people buy servers thinking it's anything other than a billboard ATM :p). But I'm glad it's the case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIkNv_gmKOM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIkNv_gmKOM

[keithsboredom]

Do you guys think that closing a server and imposing artificial game rules ("line battles") is going to contribute in developing the game for public consumption?

Some people blamed me for destroying the community because my events were too good (or I banned too many people).

idk who u are and i doubt anyone else does.

I should be able to have a private match with friends or against another group. This is a basic function of games in general. Its 2018, private matches and custom games are not a new concept, they are an expected/required feature, and have lead to some of the greatest communities and developments in gaming in general.

Also that poorly made video makes some terrible arguments, competitive events/tournaments always have rules surrounding them, for any game or competition. NW was a Mod, by ur argument we should of never stopped playing vanilla Mount and blade.

I WANT MY RIGHTS TO A PRIVATE SERVER!

[MercerQC]

I think the problem with password protected servers, is that given the userbase isn't huge and most people tend to be in companies, the casual player will just immediately be put off if the only active servers are locked. If the game wants to grow it can't really have that.

Ya but nothing about this game says it wants to be casual. It's pretty much the opposite, they definitely care about being authentic hardcore and definitely NOT casual.

So are they gonna answer the need of the MAJOR portion of people who will buy this, to not be a filthy casual and be part of organized events.
Or are they still gonna pretend they are building a game for a mass market and prevent people from having locked organized events to prove their point, cause if they do, this game is dead in less then 2 months.

The only way this game can have longevity is through organized community.

[McMuffin]

Do you guys think that closing a server and imposing artificial game rules ("line battles") is going to contribute in developing the game for public consumption?

The thing is with line battle culture is if the game isn't adequately made for it then it's full of bickering and arguments and forces players to go against their own instinct which is inherently hopeless. The biggest problem with 'realism' communities across all games like this is a lot of people are totally happy retreating into locked servers a couple days a week for drills and closed events to the point they're only out and about to recruit. So unconnected new players are greeted with empty servers full of trolls and sub-par gameplay.

That was the trap we fell into in Resistance and Liberation. I believe almost anyone would agree. Some people blamed me for destroying the community because my events were too good (or I banned too many people). 10011 People only wanted to play events in closed servers because it more closely provided the team-oriented gameplay they came to the game for in the first place. The developers had not taken a radical enough approach developing it in order to make players work close together and not rambo about. So public gameplay was not what people wanted, they wanted forced behavior. It got so bad that it became more and more difficult to muster enough players to go into a server to begin an event. As soon as we reached a threshold of a 2/3rds full server, a stampede would come. But your average player all but refused to spend time in a server playing the game normally for more than 10 or 15 minutes. It'd be infinitely better if the game coerced desired behavior to the point that a 'regiment' can just show up in a server and operate realistically and be successful. I think the balance is reachable but we're not there yet.

I don't think a lot of people imagine this as being attainable so they just want a closed server. I admit that it's a little ridiculous to be able to have a server and not password it right now (among the more serious issues of not having admins - might want to add a disclaimer before people buy servers thinking it's anything other than a billboard ATM :p). But I'm glad it's the case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIkNv_gmKOM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIkNv_gmKOM

Not everyone wants a private server just to line up all the time and shoot at each other. Furthermore, in line battle events, there are often skirmishers on both sides. Is it fun to sometimes do that and shoot at each other, yeah, it's cinematic and fun every once in a while. Still, a lot of people want private servers just so they don't deal with rambos, and they do not want to deal with rambos not because we only want line battles, but because it can contribute to morale losses in a match a significant amount. Before we did not like rambos because officer spam, now it's because of the morale loss. Finally, units who want passworded servers do not want to also always lock it off, many have said that they will keep it open and still do public events, that is the best way to recruit and expose people to the game, and everyone knows that.

[fury1ord]

idk who u are and i doubt anyone else does.
The guy was well-known and very active on the forum board of Resistance and Liberation community until the mod died out...

[keithsboredom]

The guy was well-known and very active on the forum board of Resistance and Liberation community until the mod died out...

forgive me, cares*

wait a sec did you just create a second account to backup your worthless nonsense forum cred!?

[fury1ord]

forgive me, cares*

wait a sec did you just create a second account to backup your worthless nonsense forum cred!?

Lel, no...

[Poorlaggedman]

The only way this game can have longevity is through organized community.I have a different outlook derived from experience. I saw organization after organization come and go in every community I've been a part of. To borrow from a Tyler Perry's Madea skit on relationships, the organizations are the leaves that wither and die with the seasons. The game itself are the roots of the tree and developing that is paramount above all else. They're what matters long term. The roots will be here 12 months from now. Flash forward 12 months and many of the organizations and key players won't. I realize this is blasphemy but it's also 100% true. I dealt with several iterations of players in several communities and spent plenty of time pleading for old-timers to come back and get involved again. Two years from now there will be few of you left who are here today - write it on the calendar and take it to the bank.

Those organizations that last long unfortunately generally become pariahs because they were never guarded against becoming one. My favorites are the ones that pack up and move to other games and take a lot of players with them. Darkest Hour for example, I put 500 hours into that game and TBH I don't remember the 'big' organization, was it 29th ID? They're gone now. They never ran events. The ones they tried were poorly ran. Clan leadership always, always becomes disengaged but they don't step down while spending most of their time playing other games. Their servers seldom had admins and they could care less about things going on outside their immediate team proximity. What I find is gamers just want to play the game. Few and far between are people who game to whom the game is making order out of chaos. That's no fun to most people if you're not a specific type of crazy. Most people wither and fade away. The root gameplay being unfavorable to what the community wants and needs will accelerate that attrition.


Still, a lot of people want private servers just so they don't deal with rambos, and they do not want to deal with rambos not because we only want line battles, but because it can contribute to morale losses in a match a significant amount. Before we did not like rambos because officer spam, now it's because of the morale loss.
Does anyone honestly like rambos? So it makes me curious why there's always this tendency to oppose radical ideas to mitigate rambos. Why should it matter one bit to the score if some random guy is killed away from teammates? It shouldn't. I whole-heartedly support the right to rambo I just think the game should make it very hard to play and recover when out of line through suppression and make you utterly useless at close proximity to the point you physically cannot meelee and are autosurrendered against enemy in formation. It shouldn't be punishing the team for the actions of individuals. Going into closed events at this stage in development is willfully creating a mirage that the game functions better than it does.

People keep saying on the forums that it's already hard to rambo - it isn't. It's hard to help your team when ramboing but it isn't hard to rambo at all. So why not make it harder to rambo? I've got ideas, I'll share 'em around Christmas in another poorly-made video. 10012

[LaBelle]

Quite frankly plm, your experiences in another game based on a different niche game play type with different rules, different game mechanics, and different community, doesn't matter here.

I'd like to be able to reserve slots for my 50+ Texans now showing up nightly. I'd like to make sure they can play with the unit they signed up for. I'd like to ensure they can be with their company. I'd like to put up a password when we switch over to a drill camp. I'd like to have them learn the maps in peace, without fear of being shot down for simply trying to find good places on each map. I'd like the option to kick or ban the random disturbers of the peace that show up and scream over unit leaders on their own server, or shoot the captains because they can.

To be blunt, you don't lead a unit in WoR, and you aren't apart of the unit community. For you to dictate what's best for us is laughably arrogant. People play linebattle games to join units, that's the short of it. If this game, which was advertised as being completely "company friendly," does not implement some simple QoL for those units? The game will start to hurt by next week.

[Poorlaggedman]

I like the War of Rights Facebook post today and the terminology it uses: Line formation Teamplay. That's what players play games like this for. For many 'companies' (clans) are a means to an end. People join clans in a lot of games for a lot of reasons. It isn't unique to 'line battle' games. I assure you there's plenty of people not interested in joining a unit for as many reasons as people join one. I would never even dream of starting my own unit before private servers and before admins and even then I'd weigh full-heartedly the immense sacrifice in time and stress that causes when done properly as you're now just beginning to discover. With servers comes power, before that there is none whatsoever. What on Earth could you have done if you tried to discharge a member and he just kept coming around and refused to remove his tags? Nothing, just like you still can't. I don't set out to accomplish the impossible. The game is still being created and designed and this is a window of opportunity that will eventually close to fashion the way it's made. The window for creating and running organizations is never going to close. I really don't care about relationships or feelings or whatever because, like I said, those people and organizations come and go. I'm not going anywhere. I won't 'take a break' and go play Arma3 or Holdfast or whatever other games, I put my flag down and I stay put. I like 1st TX but I doubt you guys will be on 'nightly' very long. Don't burn yourself out.

And I agree with what you said previously. http://fenomas.com/tomatobb/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif

https://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q95/thedolenfiles/already_zpsmychtfjo.png
https://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q95/thedolenfiles/already1_zpse4bznare.png

[LaBelle]

You're comparing a post about private servers for events to a post about private servers for the sake of privacy. In that thread, my post was about what happens when events are held exclusively on private servers, and those servers are locked/passworded to keep the pubbies out of events.

In this thread, I'm talking about having the option to reserve slots for members of the unit, and to password lock for training reasons. I still stand by my thoughts in that last thread, stating that private servers can kill linebattle communities, but you're nuts if you think the two thoughts can't coexist. Moderation comes with the territory and server owners should be allowed to password/kick/ban when necessary, but also should know not to seclude themselves behind their wall.

[anderon46]

Ya but nothing about this game says it wants to be casual. It's pretty much the opposite, they definitely care about being authentic hardcore and definitely NOT casual.

So are they gonna answer the need of the MAJOR portion of people who will buy this, to not be a filthy casual and be part of organized events.
Or are they still gonna pretend they are building a game for a mass market and prevent people from having locked organized events to prove their point, cause if they do, this game is dead in less then 2 months.

The only way this game can have longevity is through organized community.

I appreciate you probably don't understand how to grow a community in a game. One way not to grow it is before the game is even out of early release, closing off the game to potential customers.

I understand your elitist views regarding realism. The game still needs to be accessible for everyone, so future realism converts aren't put off by empty servers.

Yours truly, the one without the rose tinted glasses.

[Xolbadur]

All I can say is that I'm part of a Community of around 20-30 people that would love to play this game in organized battles without any mic-spams, rambos and bullshit happening, while being able to have enough room on the other team for another organized group to join.

Yes, public matches already got their own appeal, but if there's no password locked servers for events then there's a lot of organized players that wouldn't even touch this game with their fingertips.
And buddies, it's not as if every single organized player would ONLY log on if there's an event going on.

Password protected private servers is a MUST for every game if it wants to hold Clans that like Events. End of Story, no rose tint glasses here.

[fury1ord]

All I can say is that I'm part of a Community of around 20-30 people that would love to play this game in organized battles without any mic-spams, rambos and bullshit happening, while being able to have enough room on the other team for another organized group to join.

Yes, public matches already got their own appeal, but if there's no password locked servers for events then there's a lot of organized players that wouldn't even touch this game with their fingertips.
And buddies, it's not as if every single organized player would ONLY log on if there's an event going on.

Password protected private servers is a MUST for every game if it wants to hold Clans that like Events. End of Story, no rose tint glasses here.

What about players who are not members of the unit but still want to participate in the organized events?

[Xolbadur]

What about players who are not members of the unit but still want to participate in the organized events?

They are free to join us as Mercenaries.

[fury1ord]

They are free to join us as Mercenaries.

Great! Where do they get the server password to join?

[Xolbadur]

Great! Where do they get the server password to join?

The Server most likely will have the name of our Regiment. They are free to look it up online and join our Teamspeak. If they are too lazy to do that or not interested in all, then it wouldn't be the kind of player that's interested in closed events to begin with.

I don't see the reason for your questioning, as I said, it's not that Regiments will sit on their password protected servers 24/7. It's maybe 2 events per week, 1-2 hours each.
And as I said earlier, a lot of those organized players that participate in such events, won't even touch the game if there isn't the possibility for events.
We're not locking anyone out of playing the game if we have our Events, but the Game is locking a huge chunk of playerbase out by not offering those servers.

[anderon46]

All I can say is that I'm part of a Community of around 20-30 people that would love to play this game in organized battles without any mic-spams, rambos and bullshit happening, while being able to have enough room on the other team for another organized group to join.

Yes, public matches already got their own appeal, but if there's no password locked servers for events then there's a lot of organized players that wouldn't even touch this game with their fingertips.
And buddies, it's not as if every single organized player would ONLY log on if there's an event going on.

Password protected private servers is a MUST for every game if it wants to hold Clans that like Events. End of Story, no rose tint glasses here.

I totally agree that at some stage private servers are standard and needed. However in a game still in early access, so before its full release, they shouldn't have them. you want to grow the userbase before the full launch before those are in place.

[Xolbadur]

Or kill it by not having it, because they won't attract a huge playerbase that is dependand on those servers. Really smart.

[anderon46]

Or kill it by not having it, because they won't attract a huge playerbase that is dependand on those servers. Really smart.

3000 new users, and over 5000 backers on kickstarter without private servers. Hows that happened? lol

[Xolbadur]

'Cause they got tricked by buying the game, thinking that those servers exist, like me. And sales numbers =/= active players.

[anderon46]

'Cause they got tricked by buying the game, thinking that those servers exist, like me. And sales numbers =/= active players.

Ah did the kickstarter specify there was definitely private servers during the alpha?

[Leifr]

Ah did the kickstarter specify there was definitely private servers during the alpha?

No. Tricking implying dishonesty on the developer’s part, they have always been very clear that private servers would arrive with EA. Password protection will come at a later date, sooner rather than later.

[Xolbadur]

Ah did the kickstarter specify there was definitely private servers during the alpha?

Sorry for thinking that a game with server offers private ones with passwords, like every other game. Dude, if you're trying to ridicule me here, it won't work.
I brought my points across and you're already grasping for the last straw with your arguments. I'm done discussing this with you.

[anderon46]

Sorry for thinking that a game with server offers private ones with passwords, like every other game. Dude, if you're trying to ridicule me here, it won't work.
I brought my points across and you're already grasping for the last straw with your arguments. I'm done discussing this with you.

From what Leifr said it seems pretty clear passworded servers were confirmed but not stated when it would be released. Seems no-one needs to cry after all. :D

[Shiloh]

No. Tricking implying dishonesty on the developer’s part, they have always been very clear that private servers would arrive with EA. Password protection will come at a later date, sooner rather than later.

I've discussed this with my company and the general consensus is we will consider investing in a server ONLY when we can password protect it, toss and even ban players.

[dirtyjack]

Having private servers with option for password gives the ability for regiments to train without being bothered by others, organised small events AND to also host public events.
Frankly, I'm coming in with a fairly sizeable EU community and we'd like to have both options. We played the public and love the atmosphere and ,generally speaking, the people.
We'd also want to have the option to organize, pretty much daily, private server events (both public and private) but for that we'd need the option to turn password on and off.

It's the flexibility that we want, not to seclude ourselves from the rest of the community.

[MercerQC]

I appreciate you probably don't understand how to grow a community in a game. One way not to grow it is before the game is even out of early release, closing off the game to potential customers.

I understand your elitist views regarding realism. The game still needs to be accessible for everyone, so future realism converts aren't put off by empty servers.

Yours truly, the one without the rose tinted glasses.

Why do you think Warband: Napoleonic War is still being played even tho the game is 5-6 years old. The only reason is because of the organized community that could organized events on locked server. War of Rights just like NW is a niche game and everything I have seen about this game shows it's not trying to appeal to general gamers. No kill feed, no leaderboard(even at the end of a game) very vague system of which team is winning. The devs have pretty much done nothing, gameplay wise, to appeal to casual gamers. But at the same time we get the message, we don't want locked server because we want everything to happen on public server, to grow the community like you said.

It doesn't make sense.

This is the kind of game that will shine through organization of ruled events. The only reason I bought NW, is because I saw a video of a regiment during an organized Linebattle and I thought it was insane. I played NW for 4 years, twice a week during organized event. Without those events, I probably wouldn't have played the game for more then a month and I am not the only one. For the last 3 years of the game, there was only one main public server that was populated. The rest of the time it was locked servers with organized events.

This game will attract the exact same community, hell the devs are the one who did North and South(a mod that was played by that same community)

Fortunately the devs have kind of retracted what they were first saying here in this thread and are now saying on steam that they will definitely bring locked servers.

Yours truly, the one without the rose tinted glasses.

[Leifr]

TrustyJam has, to my knowledge, never played Warband. The development team, except Hinkel, have zero connection to North and South.

They never said otherwise, only that password protected serves would not be available at EA launch.

[Poorlaggedman]

I've discussed this with my company and the general consensus is we will consider investing in a server ONLY when we can password protect it, toss and even ban players.
Definitely the way to go. What I'm paying for now is basically a $111/month billboard. I'm a little worried about the server host web control panel as the max ban you can add through their system is a whopping hour. I don't feel misled, because we would have seen any existing admin controls tested or used by now if they had existed. I just would never in my life recommend anyone anywhere owning a server without any real control over it outside of which map to start it on.

I sympathize with some folks feeling jipped while I also understand why the developers released on steam after running out of crowdfunding steam keys. December is the best time to release like this for a good reception. I'm sure the servers will have some rudimentary admin abilities soon. We've existed up 'til now without admins or passwords but it's not sustainable forever. I didn't see the ball rolling on the steam release so fast.

My bet is that within a week or three we'll have some simple admin abilities, at that point if you want to do closed server stuff then you're going to want to change your server name to something like "*DO NOT ENTER, Private event* [Server Name]" and it should keep a lot of people out if you're doing some super secret training stuff.

[anderon46]

Why do you think Warband: Napoleonic War is still being played even tho the game is 5-6 years old. The only reason is because of the organized community that could organized events on locked server. War of Rights just like NW is a niche game and everything I have seen about this game shows it's not trying to appeal to general gamers. No kill feed, no leaderboard(even at the end of a game) very vague system of which team is winning. The devs have pretty much done nothing, gameplay wise, to appeal to casual gamers. But at the same time we get the message, we don't want locked server because we want everything to happen on public server, to grow the community like you said.

It doesn't make sense.

This is the kind of game that will shine through organization of ruled events. The only reason I bought NW, is because I saw a video of a regiment during an organized Linebattle and I thought it was insane. I played NW for 4 years, twice a week during organized event. Without those events, I probably wouldn't have played the game for more then a month and I am not the only one. For the last 3 years of the game, there was only one main public server that was populated. The rest of the time it was locked servers with organized events.

This game will attract the exact same community, hell the devs are the one who did North and South(a mod that was played by that same community)

Fortunately the devs have kind of retracted what they were first saying here in this thread and are now saying on steam that they will definitely bring locked servers.

Yours truly, the one without the rose tinted glasses.

I agree that at some stage locked servers are needed. Its just when the game isn't even officially released as a full game, having a large percentage of the active population in locked servers is not going to help the growth of the game in the long run.

I played M&B from the early alpha, and I can confirm there were no private servers there before its official launch either. shock.

[SCG_Neun]

I think password protected servers are a huge NEED for a game like this.
I'm part of quite a big Regiment which would love to play this game in organized Events, but we can't since there's no way to keep uninvited guests out of your Events.

And no, I don't think it would hurt your Playerbase if you offer that... Lots of People only play games like these because of closed Events and won't even touch it without them.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. How hard is it to password protect a private server and what's the difference between a public server and a private server without this feature. Also, banning tools that allow quick and easy management of your server are a must. I know it's still Alpha, but I'm really hoping they implement the ability to password protect a private server soon.

[Matt(Fridge)]

There has to be an ability to lock servers at some point. In order to preserve the competitive scene within the game. So many people wouldnt come otherwise without organized events. There just has to be a way to lock things up when things get serious. It is annoying when you are trying to have an organized game against another unit but having random people from elsewhere barking orders when they should not be, charging at inappropriate times, or even worse are the people who think the only way to have fun is to troll. In theory companies are supposed to be able to match up with and play against other companies. But this does not work without an ability to keep the unwanted out