QW Interview on Ranked Servers

http://www.planetquakewars.net/content.php?article.56

I was going to just take chunks of this but the whole interview is actually very informative. Sounds like a lot of the arguements that EA made for BF2 Ranked servers. At least they didn't use the "play will be better and more competitive on ranked servers" argument that EA used 😀 I'm hoping that the fact that the ranked servers don't really give you any in game advantage will mean that they are less divisive than the system for BF2. I personally would love to just be able to track stats for our server like we used to do back in the BF42 days. I don't care how I stack up against the kids who play for 6 hours a day, I want to know how badly I'm kicking Bubba's ass!

ETQW Developer Interview wrote:PlanetQuakeWars.net - How do ranked servers work in Enemy Territory Quake Wars (ETQW)?
Stephen Gaffney: ETQW has two types of server: ‘Ranked’ and ‘Unranked’:A Ranked server is a trusted server with a locked configuration, guaranteed to be playing the most up-to-date pure version of the game, hosted by a trusted provider, which collects detailed player stats and reports them to our persistent database. Players can go to our website and view their stats, see what achievement badges and military rank they’ve earned, compare their stats with those of other players and decide how to focus their efforts in future games.An Unranked server is completely open. It still authenticates ETQW user accounts for the purpose of copyright protection, but doesn't report player stats. Unranked servers can be run by anyone, for free.

PlanetQuakeWars.net - Will a Ranked server only be available for authorized Game Server Providers (GSPs), or is there a way to get a ranked server certificate on your own server?
Stephen Gaffney: We're going to work with a select number of GSPs for the launch of the game. We’re happy to announce they’ll be providing a large number of free, public Ranked servers along with rentable Ranked servers for clans. You will not have to pay to play ETQW, although clans may well choose to pay a GSP for the services they provide.We're limiting Ranked servers to GSPs for a couple of reasons. The first is quality of service. We simply want to make sure that Ranked servers meet a certain quality standard, so that when people go to play on a ranked ETQW server, they can be sure that it's fast, secure, and well-managed. To that end, we're working closely with dozens of GSPs worldwide to ensure that the servers they provide meet our requirements and offer a great experience to our players. The other main advantage of providing Ranked servers via trusted hosts is that you can be more confident that the statistics they collect are accurate and free of exploits. If we allowed any server to report statistics, this would make the system exploitable and ultimately result in players losing confidence in it. With our Ranked servers, we’re doing our best to make sure that all the statistics they report are based on the same set of ground rules.We may eventually increase the number of GSPs that are authorized for Ranked servers, but for the initial game launch we're focusing on select high-quality GSPs to make sure all of our criteria are met. We think players will also be pleased to hear that neither Activision nor id Software nor Splash Damage will receive any revenue from trusted providers for the servers they rent to players. Our only concern here is to guarantee quality of gameplay experience and integrity of the persistent stats. As there are no other costs to pass on, the player will pay only for the costs associated with the hardware provided by the trusted provider.

PlanetQuakeWars.net - Are those servers limited to a special number of Slots?
Stephen Gaffney: Both Ranked and Unranked servers can host up to 32 players. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s important to remember how focused and tense ETQW’s gameplay is. Because of the nature of the objective-based team play in ETQW, you'll have your whole team in direct combat with the entire enemy team, all the time. Everyone in the game is focused on attacking or defending one area, not spread out over the entire map, so the server always feels packed. We've been playtesting and balancing the game for 24 players, which we consider to be the sweet spot, but we’ve also had excellent 6 v 6 matches and are confident ETQW will play well for clans in competition.

PlanetQuakeWars.net - Is it possible to run custom Mods or other custom maps on a Ranked server, or is this limited to official Maps and add-ons?
Stephen Gaffney: We are, at least initially, only allowing Ranked servers to run the most up-to-date pure version of ETQW, playing only official maps. This is to guarantee players’ game experience and maintain the integrity of the persistent player stats. If we were to allow any and all community-made maps on Ranked servers, it would be fairly easy to create a map that favored a certain class, which would obviously affect the rate at which a player could earn XP. However the door is not closed: we’re keen that the community create new mods and maps, and we’re looking at ways we can include popular mods and custom maps on Ranked servers. Ranked servers will allow you to set custom map cycles, which allows server admins to create custom campaigns with your favorite maps. Ranked servers are locked to Campaign mode only to keep the player stats consistent. Unranked servers are completely open, and will be able to run any and all mods and custom maps, as well as Stopwatch and Objective game modes.

PlanetQuakeWars.net - In older interview we read that it's not possible to earn better weapons due to playing on a ranked server. Is this still true? What is the advantage for players to play on a RS?
Stephen Gaffney: ETQW’s XP unlocks work very differently to those in some other games. Only the player stats are persistent. All the weapons, items, deployables and vehicles you need to play the game are available right from your first spawn – you don’t need to earn them, or keep track of what you’ve earned. We have upgrade paths for all classes in the game, so everyone can earn increased tactical abilities, but only over the course of our campaign mode. A campaign generally consists of three maps. Once it’s over, all unlocks and XP gained during that campaign are reset, and the playing field becomes level again. Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that ETQW’s XP unlocks tend to be improvements to stuff you already have, not a whole new weapon or item that you need to perform your class role. We were really conscious that persistent unlocks might present a barrier for new players jumping into ETQW within just a few months of release. If everyone else is running around with fancy new weapons which are more effective than your pea-shooter just because they've been playing the game longer than you, you'll probably think that this is very unfair, and you'd probably not want to play the game much more after that. So because of this, we made the decision very early on not to have persistent weapon unlocks. Ranked servers preserve your player stats and persistent ranks based on your global experience points, but since ETQW doesn’t have any persistently unlocked weapons, you don’t need to play on a Ranked server to get them. The advantage of playing on a Ranked server is that your deeds and achievements are recorded for all to see, and you know you’ll be playing the standard, pure version of the game so you won’t have to download lots of additional files before you can get into the action.

Malarky (Developer) wrote:You can enable logs on unranked servers with a CVAR, it just won't report them to the stats website. I'm sure there will be plenty of server side mods using this feature once the sdk comes out.

This is good news for people running unranked servers as it should allow you to track your own server's stats.

Good info. I just wish it would come out!

A few things that jump out at me.

The idea that they are thinking about allowing Ranked servers to run custom maps and mods is cool. Let's see if they keep that up.

We're going to work with a select number of GSPs for the launch of the game.

- Servers will be at least $4 a slot or more because they have just created a monopoly. I hate this more than anything.

This is to guarantee players’ game experience and maintain the integrity of the persistent player stats. If we were to allow any and all community-made maps on Ranked servers, it would be fairly easy to create a map that favored a certain class, which would obviously affect the rate at which a player could earn XP.

Seriously, has the ranked server situation stopped cheating and exploits? No, if anything it has encouraged it even more. Ranked servers for BF2 was a dismal failure. It did nothing but hurt the game.

Remember when games use to just be fun to play?

:Sigh:

DocJon wrote:
Good info. I just wish it would come out!

The latest rumor is September. The buzz is that they will release a demo at or just before QuakeCon in August and the full game soon after. Just a rumor though...

Atomm wrote:
Seriously, has the ranked server situation stopped cheating and exploits? No, if anything it has encouraged it even more. Ranked servers for BF2 was a dismal failure. It did nothing but hurt the game.

Remember when games use to just be fun to play?

:Sigh:

I thought the ranked servers in 2142 were even worse. Its clear they are only interested in the extra money.

September? I'm seriously thinking of canceling the order. This is getting way outta hand and never should have been delayed indefinitely once they started taking pre-orders months ago.

Halo 2 is out now, and probably will be just fine for awhile. As Paladin suggests, a duel boot of Vista would be a good option.

lexx wrote:
I thought the ranked servers in 2142 were even worse. Its clear they are only interested in the extra money.

September? I'm seriously thinking of canceling the order. This is getting way outta hand and never should have been delayed indefinitely once they started taking pre-orders months ago.

Halo 2 is out now, and probably will be just fine for awhile. As Paladin suggests, a duel boot of Vista would be a good option.

Paying $250 for a game, however, doesn't sound like a good option. I'd sooner play that game that was being played in the TrackIR demo.

Edit: If that's what you guys want to do, tho, go for it. Even in a small clan, we can't please everybody, and people playing more games can only be a GOOD thing. That's what we're supposed to be about - and we might draw in more people that way.

lexx wrote:
I thought the ranked servers in 2142 were even worse. Its clear they are only interested in the extra money.

September? I'm seriously thinking of canceling the order. This is getting way outta hand and never should have been delayed indefinitely once they started taking pre-orders months ago.

I know this may sound lame but that is only 3 months away. I do not know about you guys but time flies by so damn fast anymore. It is already almost half way through June. Sep will be here faster than you think it will believe me.

I am content playing BF2 still since it is only once a week for me. I am not sick of it at all.
I just wish we could find servers playing the map packs. Then we would have something new to do.

Hey we talked about this before but how about arranging some scrims on Fridays nights? That would give us some semi-organized play. Hell that is what we should have been doing all along but I won't go there 😉


We also could all try counter strike or something else if we get bored.

Paladin, I'll explain my reasoning why an arranged scrim on Friday Night is bad.

Friday Nights have always been laid back, no pressure kind of situations. It allowed some flexibility in scheduling because everyone has different needs. It requires next to little effort or planning by staff.

Now a scrim on the other hand requires everyone to be on at a specific time. It requires a large time commitment from staff. This really runs counter to the whole idea of Friday Night Fights.

As for time flying by, I agree. Things are flying by.

As for Halo2, it will be a flop. Halo1 for the PC was only a minor success. It was popular at first, then died a very quick and quiet death. Sort of like both Star Wars Battlefront games. By tieing it to Vista, they have skewed the shelf life even further for Halo 2 towards that quick death.

Another concern for Halo was the lack of a Linux based server component. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, Linux is a preferred choice for a lot of Game Server providers simply because it does not expose them to all the hassles of maintaining a public facing Windows Server, ala constant worms, viruses and slow patch schedules.

I have not seen the server requirements for Halo 2, but I imagine it also requires windows Vista. That is the kicker, the final death strike to Halo 2's online gaming experience. How many GSP's advertise they are switching to windows Vista? Why would they? After all, it increases their costs dynamicly. Not only does it mean they are paying fee's on top of previous costs, but now they have additional development costs for maintaining two completely different OS's under "mission critical" (as most gamers would have you believe) requirements.

I equate this to releasing a game for the Mac only, then requiring all the server owners to put up Mac Game Servers to run it. Not gonna happen.

Update, Halo 2 will be run as part of the new Windows Live service based on the current XBox Live.

Like Xbox Live, Games For Windows Live has two tiers of membership - silver and gold. Silver membership is free, and gold adds additional features for a monthly ($8) or annual ($50) fee. Xbox 360 owners don't need to do anything to enable the new feature.

This my friends, is the whole reason we are seeing game companies moved towards a closed environment for game servers. Think about it, instead of providing free public game servers as an expense, you could turn them into revenue generators? Hmmm.... We're FUQ'd......