Tuesday, 23 August, 2011 – Planet Battlefield News
DICE's Mikael Kalms posted on the EA UK forums today about how servers will work for Battlefield 3. If you are remember how BFBC2 and BF2 servers worked then this should be familiar.
Ranked server providers are back and this is the only way you can run a server, ranked or unranked. In unranked mode server admins have the ability to chose which weapons are unlocked for players, a feature useful for many competitive matches. One feature that was broken in BFBC2 was the ability to for Punkbuster to take player screenshots. Many will be happy to know this has been fixed in BF3.
A full list of all Battlefield 3 ranked server providers is expected in the near future (probably next month).
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RSPs
The game server machines themselves will be run by a number of Ranked Server Provider (RSP) companies. We do not allow other companies to run game servers, or for other people to run game servers from home.
We try to strike a balance where there are game servers available across the globe, while still keeping the number of RSPs at a level where we can offer reasonable support to each individual company. Since we prefer to work with larger hosting companies, and we focus on countries where we have a larger player base, there will not be game servers available in every country on the planet.
The list of RSPs which will run BF3 game servers at launch is not ready yet. Once it is, we will publilalalala widely.
Server administrators
While the RSPs run the physical machines, most if not all will be paid for and administered by the players themselves – individuals, groups of friends, or clans.
A server administrator control some aspects of the play experience – which maps are being played, which people are allowed onto the server, and can also affect the play style through various direct and indirect controls. Generally speaking, servers that are administered by reasonable admins attract players, while servers which have arbitrary rules imposed see less traffic.
Ranked vs Unranked
One of the biggest choices which a server administrator has to make is, whether to run the server in Ranked or Unranked mode.
In Ranked mode, player progression is tracked on EAs master servers. Weapons are unlocked by playing the game. Player progression is also visible on Battlelog. The server administrators will have to abide by the Battlefield Rules of Engagement.
In Unranked mode, player progression is not tracked on the master servers. Server administrators have free reign on such servers – no Battlefield Rules of Engagement to heed. They can control in detail which weapons are available to the players, etc. This mode is suited to playing clan matches, tournaments, or to those players who just like the fairness of everyone having the same range of weapons available to them.
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