OFFICIAL NEWS

- 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....

Seto

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....

If customers know what’s done with their money, especially on more or less open source stuff, they give it more easily away.

I don’t want to know everything or specific numbers, just some more information than we already have. And more advertising on things that are going on behind the curtain, to make all see that there is a lot going on. And maybe to attract more volunteers.

Yubina

I don’t want to know everything or specific numbers, just some more information than we already have. And more advertising on things that are going on behind the curtain, to make all see that there is a lot going on. And maybe to attract more volunteers.

Not just to you but to those who claim its cheap and base this off of hosting plans for fps game servers (i know of the one of those personall in that list) you put a mmo on one of those that server will chock to death. They are capable of maybe 64 simo not 100s . I did a netstat on my con. There are a total of 3 servers i can see from my end.
shard.ryzom.com
shards.ryzom.com
server-ipip-ip.whatever (did not copy it down as it is just a rev dns for a raw ip.)
shard.ryzom.com is the log in server once logged in it goes to close wait
shards keeps a active established connection this is the play server
the 3rd server-ip... is the chat server (can only see it when your in megacorp.io do to log in happening in the background and megacorp acting almost like a proxy you wont see shard. pop up there. But the active connection to the chat server you do see.

So even if it only cost them 100ish per month per server for a colated remote hosting service plan (it cost way more) the real cost is tripple what every one wants to believe. As with out doubt ryzom has 3 servers minimally hosted on 3 seperate machines. Chances are its really 6 physical machines for redunency purposes to prevent things like mobs becoming unresponsive or chat going down or players not being able to log in. So 1 server each at any given time is powering ryzom probably load balanced between the 2 per part. Now this is assuming of course they are using one play server for every region of ryzom and not multiple physical macines 1 or 2 per region. Just because we only have one play server does not mean that ryzom runs on one machine.

As for your own thinking the problem would still exist. Even if the ryzom devs said it was costing them between 3k and 10k a month etc people would still say well they made their money for the costs after just x people so they should reduce the ammount we pay etc etc.

The owners are not just doing this to give us a game to play they are doing it to also make money. And truth of the matter is they are operating on a shoe string budget. They have employees etc. Again even if it only cots them a 100 a month to host the server theres still their employees pay checks. If and i sure they do have a 3d art team in the us the starting slary is 40k usd for a 3d artist out of colledge. Thats what they should make most will work for way less just for their portfolio. But the point is they have programers artists admins who keep the servers going likely a on call contracted tech to fix the hardware or a service plan to next day deliver parts/full servers etc. Break all this down by the month and you got minimally a few grand per month not 100...

What they are doing with this idea is working to increase profits so they can do more for ryzom when it comes to content bug squashing etc.