My understanding is that the dedicated servers are transparent, you don't know about them as players.
Players join a lobby system, create a room/play with friends, and then when the game starts, are sent to a dedicated server within a pool - that server is removed from the pool while a game is in progress. There is no way to join a server directly (as I doubt you are able to join a game in progress), rather you create a room in a server lobby and click 'Play' and you are then allocated a server to play on. Therefore, your server has no real configuration settings - those are decided by the players in the lobby system. You don't know which server you have been allocated until you are in game and see the MOTD. While this does deviate quite a lot from the usual server browser model; let's wait and give it a run through and then draw out some conclusions and provide feedback. I personally would find it handy to indicate a preference for a server group to play on (as the 'lobby room host') to be one of my ISP's game servers for both latency reasons and cost reasons (Free bandwidth to play on local servers), and I am guaranteed to be playing on a server that I will have a good time on rather than a possibly overloaded server I never want to play on. - Andrew -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of bl4nk Sent: Thursday, 6 November 2008 3:03 PM To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds] Left 4 Dead -Matchmaking Quoting the OP for this thread: > Clients will be able to "Quick Match", "Play Online", and "Play With Friends" when they want to play a game. It sounds like "Quick Match" will put you directly into a random game (hopefully the best possible for you at the time), "Play Online" will be a sort of server browser like we have now, and "Play With Friends" will most likely be a list of servers that your friends are playing on. That's just my views on how I think it will be. Whether or not it's like that is still in the air it seems. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I bet valve are looking at the drawing board as we speak, > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian M. Frain > Sent: Thursday, 6 November 2008 2:48 PM > To: 'Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list' > Subject: Re: [hlds] Left 4 Dead -Matchmaking > > > What if you have already pre-ordered it? This is like one of those EA > surprises when they say "oh, you can only install three times." > On the other hand we shouldn't guess and get riled until we hear something > from someone in the know. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 9:40 PM > To: 'Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list' > Subject: Re: [hlds] Left 4 Dead -Matchmaking > > Hope we are able to 'pick' which servers we can play on, otherwise I'm not > gonna bother hosting or playing this game. > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alec Sanger > Sent: Thursday, 6 November 2008 1:02 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [hlds] Left 4 Dead -Matchmaking > > > > Well I appreciate you taking the time to listen. > > To reiterate what others are saying, us every day average joes who spend the > money to run our own servers do it not only to give random people a place to > play, but to form a community. This really isn't possible if players are > randomly thrown in a server, as you get no chance to build/get to know > regulars. If we can't use L4D to help build our own communities, then there > isn't really a point in us paying for the hosting. > > Hopefully we are still able to join a game by IP or from a browser list, and > if not at first, I hope this feature is implemented by the time the final > game is released. > > >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> To: [email protected] >> Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 17:53:24 -0800 >> Subject: Re: [hlds] Left 4 Dead -Matchmaking >> >> I don't have an answer for this yet, but your feedback is noted. >> >> -Eric >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Steve > >> Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 5:50 PM >> To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list >> Subject: Re: [hlds] Left 4 Dead -Matchmaking >> >> Agreed. This system sounds like a cool thing to have along with the >> regular server browser, but not as the only option. Taking away the >> choice of which server to play on regularly takes away a major incentive >> for people to host servers... >> >> Cc2iscooL wrote: >> >>> I certainly hope they can be manually selected. I'm not paying for >>> server space to play on someone else's server. >>> >>> Matthew Gottlieb wrote: >>> >>> >>>> I don't understand why server popularity would matter if servers are >>>> > chosen > >>>> at random? >>>> Can servers still be private or manually selected? >>>> >>>> Also, thanks all the info :) >>>> >>>> ~ Matt >>>> >>>> On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 7:34 PM, Matt Lyons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>> > wrote: > >>>> >>>> >>>>> Can we get some specs on the banner please? >>>>> >>>>> Size, file type, size restrictions etc... >>>>> >>>>> Eric Smith wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> Left 4 Dead will use the new matchmaking system we've been working >>>>>> on. >>>>>> >>>>>> The new matchmaking system replaces the traditional server browser. >>>>>> By running a public dedicated server your server will be added to a >>>>>> list of servers available for clients to use when playing. Games are >>>>>> started from a Game Lobby by clients, who are then connected to a >>>>>> dedicated server when they start the game. When they're done, your >>>>>> server is added back to the list of available servers. Clients will >>>>>> be able to "Quick Match", "Play Online", and "Play With Friends" when >>>>>> they want to play a game. >>>>>> >>>>>> You will still have access to the traditional Message of the Day for >>>>>> your server. For Left 4 Dead, we've added a banner ad you can create >>>>>> that will be displayed to clients when they're playing on your >>>>>> server. There is also a ranking system to show the popularity of >>>>>> your server. >>>>>> >>>>>> This is the first version of what we've been working on, and we're >>>>>> going to want feedback from all of you once things start turning up >>>>>> tomorrow. >>>>>> >>>>>> -Eric >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit >>>>>> your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: >>>>>> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Matt Lyons (Bsc CS & Soft Eng) >>>>> Content Administrator, Internode Systems >>>>> 150 Grenfell St, Adelaide SA 5000 >>>>> Ph: (08) 8228 2877 >>>>> E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>>> WWW: www.internode.com.au >>>>> "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In >>>>> practice, there is." >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >>>>> please visit: >>>>> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >>>> > please visit: > >>>> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >>> > please visit: > >>> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds >>> >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >> > please visit: > >> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds >> >> _______________________________________________ >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >> > please visit: > >> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds >> > > _________________________________________________________________ > Windows Live Hotmail now works up to 70% faster. > http://windowslive.com/Explore/Hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_faster_ > 112008 > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds > > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds > > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds > > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds > > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
