Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[forsaken1111]

What's your source on the D3 server architecture? Or is this just an assumption that it will suck because..... WoW's servers sucked several years ago?

I didn't say it would suck, I said your comparison was invalid because you're comparing WoW's architecture NOW to D3 at launch. WoW has had years of buildup and positive cash flow and engineers working to keep its server growth in line with subscription growth. To build a duplicate of WoW's architecture for D3 would be a massive waste of money.

Also, you just said I can't compare D3 and WoW, and then used WoW's launch to illustrate D3's launch.

You tried to use the smooth operation of a game which has been running for years as evidence that nothing will go wrong with D3's launch. I reminded you that WoW's launch was far from smooth.

Blizzard doesn't have a great track record for predicting day 1 server loads and preparing for them, mostly because they know (and do not care) that the existing architecture is not capable of supporting the number of people who will be buying the game. They already have your money and they know you will keep trying to get in for as long as it takes them to work out any initial problems.


Basically my opinion is that of someone who builds and maintains large server infrastructure on a daily basis. I know how the corporate office thinks, and they will not allocate the cash required to support the initial surge of players because that is money which could have gone to marketing for more initial sales or PR spin or a dozen different things.

Of course this is based on the unconfirmed statement that the game will be operating like an MMO where much of the processing is server side.


And believe me, I would love to be proven wrong.

[Darkmere]

Yeah, reverse engineer. I'm going to assume that my idea here is correct until someone comes up with a better one that fits D3's release model and makes sense from a programming and security standpoint.

SC2 uses a login protocol. All the game data is stored locally, I know this because it can be played offline, without logging in. D3 will *not* use the same system, because the game cannot be played offline. If character data isn't stored locally, at all, there's no code in the client to even manage that information. It would be a waste of time and space, and present the same potential security holes that D2 had. Both games require you to login to play. From there, it goes like this:

SC2: Login, get authentication from server. Access information stored on hard drive.

D3: Login, get authentication from server. Access server-stored character information, map information, monster information, item drop information...

IF the system works that way (and I don't see a reason why not, given what we know), then yes, you will have to reverse engineer the entire server-side software and rebuild your own to make it work. Denial doesn't change this problem into a simple one.

@forsaken1111
Point taken. How about something more recent then? I don't recall problems with SC2's launch, connectivity and stability-wise. North American B.net.

[forsaken1111]

I couldn't say, I don't play SC2 nor does it use an MMO type arrangement for authentication and gameplay. Most of the work in SC2 happens on your own computer. In an MMO your client-side processing is minimal and mostly limited to graphics and sounds, a lot of the CPU load is on the server where all the 'stuff' happens. That is a very general statement though as different MMO's handle the server/client relationship differently.

[kerlc]

sorry, darkmere it was not denial, it was just that i did not understand the process fully. well, i must change my assumption. the pirates will take WEEKS if not MONTHS to pirate it. but they will eventually. and then they will know how to do it, and then, this pirate protection is going down the drain rapidly. just like the PS3. it took a while, but they cracked it. and now, it's cracked. same thing happened to StarForce protection drive. and every known anti piracy thus far. there will never be an anti piracy gig that will not be broken. just sayin'.

[Darkmere]

Yeah I also said it was possible, it happened with the WoW pirate servers. Without knowing just how much goes on server-side though, there may be other issues with that as well. Time will tell, I suppose. Either way it won't affect me much, I'll be busy playing the game with some friends. Hopefully once it's released and things settle down, B12 inferno parties start happening. A man can dream, right?

[forsaken1111]

I'll certainly be buying it either way because I don't care about the always-on DRM personally. I'll see you at the parties.

[Niveras]

So you constantly need to be in order online to play? How does that make people not want to pirate it? (Assuming pirates will eventually fix the online issue).

So many people don't understand this: the server code is not released - it's not in your computer. There is nothing to crack.

And what about that isn't true for every other MMO in existance? Yet two big MMOs, EQ and WoW, have emulated servers. It's only a matter of time before the same happens to D3. D3 might have better security, but I doubt WoW's was lax in that regard even for the time of its release, when EQ emulation and hacking and goldselling were already possible if not common.

[Bdthemag]

I say we should start betting money on how long its going to take for D3 to be cracked. Im personally betting on a week or two.

[Niveras]

I don't know how long it took before WoW emulation reached a playable level. I'm sure it was easily possible to explore the world without mobs, because the zone files are all client-side, but I don't know how long it took between that happening and actual server emulation, with interactive mobs and raids and soloing them with souped up powers - or whether quests were even accessible that way.

Without that knowledge I can't put a finger on how long D3's crack/emulation will take. A loose guess would be months, depending on how dedicated the hackers are. If server source files are leaked or stolen somehow, expect a server emulation crack before the game is even released. Playability may still be an issue if the server files are from an older test/beta build that wasn't as clean as at release.

Edit: Also, to those who were wondering earlier, it seems almost a guarantee that D3 will be region locked (if it hasn't been confirmed already). SC2, WoW both are. D3 surely will be as well because it must deal in currencies through the RMAH.

[Neonivek]

Hurray for games that have time limits for how long you can enjoy them for...

[Darkmere]

A quick search for private WoW servers yielded setup instructions for the depopulated realms and all that, but I didn't see anything pre-2007. WoW was released in 2004. However... D3's maps are randomized and not generated client-side. I'd also assume they'd learn from their previous mistakes, so an estimate of weeks may be overly optimistic.

Diablo 3 is region-free, you can play wherever you want. You are, however, locked to the RMAH (but NOT in-game-gold AH) of the region you register the game from. Play with anyone, only buy/sell local with local currency. Proof of residence change will let you change your RMAH region, should you switch regions.

[kerlc]

acctually i'd say that couple of weeks will be just right. maybe even a couple of months, but definetly not years. because you see, pirates can focus on only one thing, that is way more than blizzard has. Blizzard probably has a team of experts for WoW, SC and now D3 servers, because any more would be a waste of money. but pirates on the other hand. they have a group of people who only crack, people who get the games, people who put up the torrents, and people who help the crack makers get the files they need. and that is for EACH GAME THEY PUT UP. every game has at least 3 groups of people working on it, of those at least 2 groups work on the crack. and these are pros, not amateurs, and there are many people from the industry itself working on the crack, because to them, a crack is not simply the thing to get the game working without those pesky protection programmes (sarcasm alert) but an art piece, and themselves instead of hackers as artists, making masterpieces. just sayin'

toad-edit: removed the general piracy flamewar below this

[kerlc]

i am sorry i said anything that made you jump into this discussion. i just said what (some) of the pirates see themselves as. but that's off topic, so let's get to something else.

like the ability of one of the classes to have an automatic crossbow, without it looking like it, better discussed in this comic i found.

[Xeron]

Dear god don't buy this game.Don't allow the hype to get to you FFS.Trust me on this you people will hate it once its released and stumble on the plethora of problems its going to have.Don't trust game reviewers either because they are PAID to give favorable reviews to some games.There are rare times when you find sincere reviewers

[Nadaka]

Dear god don't buy this game.Don't allow the hype to get to you FFS.Trust me on this you people will hate it once its released and stumble on the plethora of problems its going to have.Don't trust game reviewers either because they are PAID to give favorable reviews to some games.There are rare times when you find sincere reviewers

With all due respect, Blizzard has an excellent track record of putting out high quality games. The quality of the game itself is unlikely to be a black mark against it.

No offline play? black mark
No LAN play? black mark
Real money auction house? grey mark
No PVP on launch? black mark