OFFICIAL NEWS

Talkirc

hmmm, got my attention. i could see this bringing a few old players back, and for some of them, that could prove to help guide newer players in the ryzom world. it would also encourage old long time players to stick around, keeping population of the game up.

i know of many that left because there was such a lack of population, not just the "no new content" reason that's most common.

while ryzom is old, it's still a gem unlike any other game, and this change will help to level ryzom in the current mmo world. let's face it, games that are giving options like this (eve runescape, gw & gw2, ect) are thriving. people play those games as a f2p, then one day they hit the wall and say hey, i can pay for X and never have to stop playing because funds get tight and i can no longer play.

sure there are still many things that don't compare to other games, but while some are bad, others are good.

ryzom will run on a sever that cost as little as 100 US dollars a month, so as long as there are 10 people paying, the server will survive. this false idea that the server costs 1000's of dollars a month is just insane. games like WoW might pay 1000's, but they're in need of not one server but dozens, due to population size. even if ryzom did gain a large number of old players comming back, and new players comming in, the server cost isn't going to reach 1000's a month untill there's well over 10,000 active players every day, until that point, a single low to mid level server will do fine. (for that matter, a privetly owned server is an investment, and since they will have more power then ryzom alone would need, the owner could run other services to make money, eg. teamspeak 3 servers, ventrillo, other voice chat services, a privet dns lookup service, ect. these things could make as much or MORE then the ryzom sub's provide, thus allowing other profit for the privet server owner.)

anyway, i know i'm just living up to my namesake, but i'll cut this long post short by saying this: it's a nice move forward for ryzom and is likely to more good then the nay sayers think.

talk

First im pretty sure ryzom is not just running on one single machine but is spread out over a few machines (when you see terms like shard or shards used this means server and servers) While theres only one play server there are multiple servers running that single play server. On even a low end server a single part say a stick of ram can and often does cost a few hundred us. Were not talking a white box gaming rig where ram tops at say 200 a stick were talking a server where a single stick of ram costs upwards of 300. Just to properly run this single server atys would require a server were say 16+gb ram minimal a raid array for sorage multiple gigabit high end nics likely 12 cores min to 16 or 24 cores for cpu. Now being that there will be at least 3 server machines running atys your talking each of them having this (data base server log in server play server) it could be ore than this. Theres a big difference between running a private server for some fps or even mmo where you have a 100 to 200 max and down time is no b ig deal and running a full blown mmo server. Even a web server costs a good chunk of cash ive built a few web servers even built a mmo server cluster.

Then there is the cost for bandwidth for even a basic leased t3 the absolute min you could run a small mmo on your talking a couple grand a month. Then you have fall over protection (redunency) where if the line goes down another picks it up. This is something that most providers will require you to have and is non optional but is extra if your running something like a mmo.

- free = 150 max, so you can equip a 150 pick, dig in 150 zone, so gather up to lvl 200 mats, but only can equip lvl 150 tool to craft.

ryzom will run on a sever that cost as little as 100 US dollars a month, so as long as there are 10 people paying, the server will survive. this false idea that the server costs 1000's of dollars a month is just insane.

seto,

i'm a hardware tech, believe me when i say that ryzom in no way needs more then one server for ALL shards. (in fact, if you ask one of the major players in the ryzom dev world {katemi [could be spelled wrong]} he'll tell you the same.

while building a personal server can be a semi costly endevor, (for about 8,000 us you can build a server that would run all ryzom shards, ts3 and many other softwares)

you can download the core server software and run them on a current level desktop, and people have. this is fact, not conjection or theory. as for the costs of servers per month: here's a few public game server companies and their prices.

https://www.gameservers.com/dedicated/
69.99 to 179.99 usd per month

https://www.velia.net/shop/region/frankfurt-am-main
59 to 69 eruo a month (avg 1.35 usd per 1 euro)

https://www.24shells.net/specials/?gclid=COuD6o-ji88CFUIvgQodFjYN _w
79.99 to 119.99 usd per month

that's just the top 3 finds with a quick google search for "dedicated game server hosting".

now, build that same server (up to 10,000 usd) pay less for dedicated static IP and 1 gbps+ with unlimited or multi TB traffic limit.... the whole point of the merge and reason for the PW hour is because ALL shards are running on a single server.

there's no way the game is running on more then one server or there would be no PW hour, and the offical reason for the PW's was because the back-up server is running on the same server as the play server (not to mention the test server as well).

as i said i'm a hardware tech, i build personal, gaming, and business desktops, as well as servers and i also consult and advise on hardware for mainframes.  ryzom may have once been a very intense program to run, but with the more advanced hardware we have now, it's not the case anymore.

the ryzom forge prompted me to look into the idea of programming, but it's not my specialty in any way and i'm very noob about it.

perhaps you missed the forum posts and/or the forge meetings about the shards all running on a single server.  it's possible that ryzom might one day need more then one server, but that's going to take 1000's of active players 24/7/365.  until then, a single server will do it all (and even with 1000's of active players, only the play shard, known as "atys", will need to be scaled to more then one server; the yubo (test shard) will only need one because it won't have 1000's, or be likely to have 100's using it at one time. the back up server might need to be scaled to a 2nd server, but i feel safe saying that it would take 10's of 1000's of daily active players to need that.

i hope that my links (as examples) will help you understand that this new step they're taking will in no way bring ryzom to it's death.  i can think of at least 10 people that sub by the year, that don't even play much at all, but still continue to support the game.

ryzom is a game supported by dedicated fans, there's a very high chance that the game will always have the needed subs to ensure the server stays up, the only real issue is the owners and how greedy they are in terms of profits, if they love ryzom like many of us do, they'll find other ways to make profit, and use the subs for keeping the game alive (not likely but we can always hope that profits aren't their only passion in life).

ok, i've said a ton again, living up to my namesake yet again.

if anyone doubts some of the facts i've shared, do your own searches, use keywords like "dedicated", "game", and "server" and you will be very surprised at how cheep a decent server is.

anyway i'll shut up now,
talk

This game cost a hell of allot more than you think. But your all welcome to believe what you want. Ryzoms teams a little more causual than most so maybe they will post what it costs and how things are done. Hey maybe youll prove me wrong but i seriously dobt that....