Considering BZFlag Server Hosting

Place for people to discuss public servers, and also for admins to lay out the details of their servers
Post Reply
AlliedArmour
Sergeant
Sergeant
Posts: 831
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:29 am

Considering BZFlag Server Hosting

Post by AlliedArmour »

Hello all,

I am considering offering BZFlag server hosting on a commercial hosting company. I'm right now seeing if this is a viable offer by checking how many people would be interested in buying a server.

Information and Pricing per user:
30MB for textures, maps, etc.
Additional 5MB per server.

$25 USD initial setup fee.
$10 USD/mo for first server.
$5 USD/mo for additional servers.

Anybody who would be interested in purchasing a server please reply or contact me. If anyone wants further information or has a suggestion to make, please ask! :).

Thanks in advance,
Allied
Last edited by AlliedArmour on Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Winny
Grouchy
Grouchy
Posts: 2381
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:27 am
Location: Ottawa eh?
Contact:

Post by Winny »

5$ a month per extra server?! Better off to just set a bandwidth cap on their account.
User avatar
CannonBallGuy
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 2083
Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:31 am
Contact:

Post by CannonBallGuy »

The prices seem pretty high to me. I'd want 10 servers with a total of 50 player slots for $5/month and I would not expect a huge setup fee.
Image

Merry Christmas!

"Look, if I don't buy booze for the kids, I don't get any incriminating pictures to show to their parents, my business goes down the sink, my girlfriend leaves me and the baby goes on ebay. So help me search..."

"go Play With Toys urself in a dark alley u donkey ******" - Lt-Kirby2007
User avatar
blast
General
General
Posts: 4931
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2003 3:49 pm
Location: playing.cxx
Contact:

Post by blast »

For the textures, if you're hosting those, then each client has to modify their DownloadAccess.txt file to allow access. So you probably won't even do that.

In your description, you're kind of vague. What kind of access would users get? Would they have a web-based administration page? Do they get SSH? Can they adjust their own configuration? Is there a bandwidth limit? Player count limit? Shot limit? Is there -cacheout hosting to improve map load times? What does the setup fee go towards?

Another thing to consider is taxes. Depending on the income you make on this, you might have to pay taxes on the income. You also have to handle refunds, credits for downtime, and thoroughly tracking all transactions.
"In addition to knowing the secrets of the Universe, I can assure you that I am also quite potty trained." -Koenma (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Image
AlliedArmour
Sergeant
Sergeant
Posts: 831
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:29 am

Post by AlliedArmour »

The way I'm currently planning it, users will get access to their storage space via FTP and a web interface for controlling the server. Naturally, hosting textures on this server is only optional - not required and people do not have to.

Bandwidth and player limits I am currently gathering more information for - one of the reasons I posted here, to find out who would be interested. This will help judge whether or not to provide more or less, I would not want to overdo, or underdo it.

As of current results, player limit could be from 10-20, this is still highly "beta" information, treat it as such.

Whether I have to pay taxes or not, is not a concern of the customer ;). The other things you mentioned are, like most sensitive things - still undergoing discussion.

I hope this clarifies some points, and thank you for pointing out the deficiencies blast.
User avatar
ramires_pl
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 46
Joined: Tue May 02, 2006 3:15 am
Location: Europe, Poland, Gliwice
Contact:

Post by ramires_pl »

I am wondering too of commercial servers but ppls will not pay for this so long that BZFlag will be OpenSource. They will think that isnt fair.

I know that isnt fair for hosters but what can we do?
--
ramires
owner of bzflag.pl servers
@admin on some maps :)
Polish BZFlag forum, maps, tutorials and more
Polish MyApple e-store in devel version - Suggestions on pm
User avatar
macsforme
General
General
Posts: 2069
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:43 am

Post by macsforme »

Good idea, but the setup fee is a bit much, and the more "professional" server owners would almost definitely want SSH access, and probably at least 200MB of space for logs and recordings.
AlliedArmour
Sergeant
Sergeant
Posts: 831
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2005 1:29 am

Post by AlliedArmour »

Logs and recordings is a valid point, I will consider increasing the hard drive space per server per customer. Consider that as increased, exact amount pending.

SSH access will probably be my preferred method of letting server owners handle their servers, but I can't say for sure yet. I will need more input.

Looking over it again, I can drop the setup fee to $10 USD.
User avatar
macsforme
General
General
Posts: 2069
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:43 am

Post by macsforme »

CannonBallGuy wrote:I'd want 10 servers...
Not to dampen anybody's enthusiasm for hosting servers, but we already have like double as many servers as players. Wouldn't most people prefer a higher quality of server (with more players) than having more servers on the list (with more maps, but few or no players)?
User avatar
CannonBallGuy
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 2083
Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:31 am
Contact:

Post by CannonBallGuy »

Constitution wrote:
CannonBallGuy wrote:I'd want 10 servers...
Not to dampen anybody's enthusiasm for hosting servers, but we already have like double as many servers as players. Wouldn't most people prefer a higher quality of server (with more players) than having more servers on the list (with more maps, but few or no players)?
I already host bzflag servers (and pay for the privilege). I was simply stating the minimum I would expect...
Image

Merry Christmas!

"Look, if I don't buy booze for the kids, I don't get any incriminating pictures to show to their parents, my business goes down the sink, my girlfriend leaves me and the baby goes on ebay. So help me search..."

"go Play With Toys urself in a dark alley u donkey ******" - Lt-Kirby2007
Post Reply