Private Diablo Server
#1
I have always thought a private game server is the best way to go for a community of legit players to maximize their usefulness of multiplayer, but the problem is that no one plays on the ones provided. It's not like anyone is to blame, the game IS almost 10 years old. I have entertained thoughts about getting one running in the more-distant-than-not future, but I would not even try if no one would play. If there was enough demand and HELP from others I would be quite inclinded to spend some time in the effort and stimulate some nostalgic interest in the game once more.

Anyways, what was originally going to be a short news post became: this, a Treatise on a Diablo Gaming Server. It overviews a little what I imagine would be a successful Diablo server if one ever came to be.

If you have any thoughts, nits, or whatever let me know here. If you have any interest in such a thing, it would be great to know that too. If there is enough support I would be willing to work hard to make it a reality. It would still be a ways off, but if there are enough willing to meet the challenges it could pay off.
--Lang

Diabolic Psyche - the site with Diablo on the Brain!
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#2
i am very interrested in this gameserver with only legit players
i will just look how many players are going to take part
and how will you see who is legit and who is not
there may be a problem that after some time many cheaters will be intruduced to this server or even too: it will be paradise for itemsavers
how do you think about a own scanner dedecting all comon dupes
the diablo-guard may be good but it only detect the comon dupes from europe
i think many people will behave like me, feared that there items may be stolen
but for now you will get my hole suport and help i can give you
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#3
danifilth,Feb 4 2005, 07:15 AM Wrote:i am very interrested in this gameserver with only legit players
i will just look how many players are going to take part
and how will you see who is legit and who is not
there may be a problem that after some time many cheaters will be intruduced to this server or even too: it will be paradise for itemsavers
how do you think about a own scanner dedecting all comon dupes
the diablo-guard may be good but it only detect the comon dupes from europe
i think many people will behave like me, feared that there items may be stolen
but for now you will get my hole suport and help i can give you
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#4
the Langolier,Feb 4 2005, 05:39 AM Wrote:I have always thought a private game server is the best way to go for a community of legit players to maximize their usefulness of multiplayer, but the problem is that no one plays on the ones provided.  It's not like anyone is to blame, the game IS almost 10 years old.  I have entertained thoughts about getting one running in the more-distant-than-not future, but I would not even try if no one would play.  If there was enough demand and HELP from others I would be quite inclinded to spend some time in the effort and stimulate some nostalgic interest in the game once more.

Anyways, what was originally going to be a short news post became: this, a Treatise on a Diablo Gaming Server.  It overviews a little what I imagine would be a successful Diablo server if one ever came to be.

If you have any thoughts, nits, or whatever let me know here.  If you have any interest in such a thing, it would be great to know that too.  If there is enough support I would be willing to work hard to make it a reality.  It would still be a ways off, but if there are enough willing to meet the challenges it could pay off.
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#5
im in

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#6
very strange posts skana
it seem to me like spaming but maybe it has got a sense i cant see
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#7
the Langolier,Feb 3 2005, 10:39 PM Wrote:I have always thought a private game server is the best way to go for a community of legit players to maximize their usefulness of multiplayer, but the problem is that no one plays on the ones provided.  It's not like anyone is to blame, the game IS almost 10 years old.  I have entertained thoughts about getting one running in the more-distant-than-not future, but I would not even try if no one would play.  If there was enough demand and HELP from others I would be quite inclinded to spend some time in the effort and stimulate some nostalgic interest in the game once more.

Anyways, what was originally going to be a short news post became: this, a Treatise on a Diablo Gaming Server.  It overviews a little what I imagine would be a successful Diablo server if one ever came to be.

If you have any thoughts, nits, or whatever let me know here.  If you have any interest in such a thing, it would be great to know that too.  If there is enough support I would be willing to work hard to make it a reality.  It would still be a ways off, but if there are enough willing to meet the challenges it could pay off.
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I am somewhat interested, however how would you set up the server? Would it be like Kali? Reason I ask is because Kali has some pretty severe connection/lag problems, esp. when you try getting more than 3 players in a game. Might a private server have less lag than kali?

I would be VERY interested if your server allowed for The Dark mod. I am aware that there are hundreds of Diablo 1 mods, but to accept one does not mean to accept them all, and I doubt anyone would be offended if you included The Dark.

http://www.thedark5.com/

Will you include a password function like on Kali? A buddies list? Just wondering.
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin
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#8
the Langolier,Feb 4 2005, 12:39 AM Wrote:I have always thought a private game server is the best way to go for a community of legit players to maximize their usefulness of multiplayer, but the problem is that no one plays on the ones provided.  It's not like anyone is to blame, the game IS almost 10 years old.  I have entertained thoughts about getting one running in the more-distant-than-not future, but I would not even try if no one would play.  If there was enough demand and HELP from others I would be quite inclinded to spend some time in the effort and stimulate some nostalgic interest in the game once more.

Anyways, what was originally going to be a short news post became: this, a Treatise on a Diablo Gaming Server.  It overviews a little what I imagine would be a successful Diablo server if one ever came to be.

If you have any thoughts, nits, or whatever let me know here.  If you have any interest in such a thing, it would be great to know that too.  If there is enough support I would be willing to work hard to make it a reality.  It would still be a ways off, but if there are enough willing to meet the challenges it could pay off.
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Been there, done that. It wasn't TOO difficult, back in the day, but lately I haven't been able to get it to work. :P Pity, all my old Blizzard games refuse to connect to the net (Diablo, SC, WC2), so I couldn't even test the latest server software.

Sometime in the (hopefully near) future, I'm going to set up a combination game / web server, and host my updated version of the old Mod Workshop, in addition to a gaming server (probably dedicated to D2 / old Blizzard games, but who knows? I may just focus on the classics, and skip D2 entirely). All I'll need is some networking components, and the urge to set it all up. Wouldn't take me more than a day or so, I'd wager, but the issue is the networking. This old comp is a bit of a PoS, as is my other, so I'd probably wait until I decomissioned this box. But we'll see. I have to go pick up my spare box (and another one being donated to me - an old DOS box that I intend to set up for nostalgia and retro gaming :D), and see if I can even set that one up. I forget if the network card even works in that one (I seem to always be having issues with my networking between these two comps, although that may have been because I was possibly using a patch cable instead of a crossover cable - they're all yellow, so I get them confused sometime :P).

In fact, maybe I'll do that this weekend. We'll see. At any rate, the point to this nonsensical rant was that the drive for such a thing is virtually non-existant, and even if there WAS demand, it's not something you could set up in a matter of minutes. It's generally a one-day setup, at least, with added time dedicated to post-setup configuration, etc. I'd be glad to help, but in the meantime, I'll point you... evidently nowhere, as I just spent the last 20+ minutes trying to find the last time this topic came up. :P Oh well. Try here.

At any rate, I have to run, but I'll come back here and let anyone know if I actually get anything constructive done. :D
Roland *The Gunslinger*
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#9
Unless the server is used for mods, it seems fairly pointless to me. These things do tend to encourage people to play (for a few weeks), but I can't understand why. I don't see the great benefit over using b.net itself, and you fragment what little community remains even more. I guess the benefit is that you don't have to password games, and therefor finding which games are up is easier than finding private games on b.net. However, I don't really see where this is significantly different from using a standardized name/password convention and a semi-private channel on b.net.

And these days, the private channel is hardly necessary. If one wanted to run a guild out of "Adventurers Wanted", they wouldn't have too much difficulty dominating the tone of the channel.
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#10
danifilth,Feb 4 2005, 05:49 AM Wrote:very strange posts skana
it seem to me like spaming but maybe it has got a sense i cant see
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He was probably having connection problems and was unable to see his replies, which were to you rather than Lang's original post.

My connections not infrequently would kick me off of forums and I would sometimes hit "send" or "Post" more than once, and end up with duplicate threads when I only wanted to send one.

It happens now and again.

Occhi
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
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#11
Quick note re: The Dark.

Since TD is a Hellfire mod, it has no support for a bnet style interface. However, if someone were to create such an interface, TD (and all Hellfire installs) could be played directly on bnet, as well as on any private server. Thus, I don't see the value of a private server for mods either. It's also quite easy to make older versions of Diablo connect to battle.net, so v1.07 mods such as VK or ME are also quite viable.
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#12
[vL]Kp,Feb 4 2005, Wrote:Quick note re: The Dark.

Since TD is a Hellfire mod, it has no support for a bnet style interface.  However, if someone were to create such an interface, TD (and all Hellfire installs) could be played directly on bnet, as well as on any private server.
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If TD could be played on bnet, I'd have to add another cushion to my computer chair. That would be an awesome thing.

I swear, TD is to Diablo as CS is to Half-Life. The only thing that stops TD is the lack of bnet support.
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#13
Update:
Webserver is up and running. Check out the link in my signature (Roland's Mod Workshop). Let's just hope I don't get TOO much traffic. :P Maybe I can ask my ISP for a static IP address at some point...

I suppose a game server will be next. Perhaps... But not likely anytime soon. ;)

Update 2:
Downloaded GIT (Gamer's Internet Tunnel), spent about half an hour running between my two computers and installing various files (and a half hour before that tracking down said files) so that I could test out Hellfire MP, and sure enough, it works. I was able to play a game via IPX between my two computers, and I guarantee it'd work via the internet (if you wanted to connect to my GIT server). Absolutely wonderful!

Too bad we still don't have a Battle.Net-esque service for Hellfire to use, because while GIT allows you to do MP Hellfire (without paying for, nor using, Kali), it only lets you set up one game at a time. I.e., the server creates a game, others join, and when that game is "cleared", the server operator would have to start a new game. So, Kali earns points there for having a match-up service, but otherwise, this is great for two to four people to get quick Hellfire games going. And, as DeeBye (or someone) said already, it should work for The Dark, too. :) But, again, it's really no different than Kali, and lacks the match-up service that Kali offers.

Guess we're still stuck with Kali for the time being, until someone implements a Battle.Net interface for Hellfire. KP, you're the resident expert on this, is there any chance of someone doing it? I.e. is there still code bound inside that could be utilized? Or could someone whip up some sort of extension to accomplish the task? I'm not a programmer, so I wouldn't know how to do it, unfortunately.
Roland *The Gunslinger*
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#14
Funny... I was going to mention Kahn as a free alternative to Kali, but a quick websearch reveals that all Blizzard games have been banned from KahnCentral.net. Funny since it is just an IPX emulator, but you know how these things are.

Still, one could easily use any IPX emulator, and use IRC as a matching service.

I don't own Hellfire, so you can count me out in any case.
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#15
There is a chance of somebody doing the interface, but it's not very likely. I'm quite busy for the foreseeable future, and most of the other vL who could do this have vanished into WoW. Most of them haven't even been seen since WoW opened in late November (but if somebody could rescue them, they might be willing to help). If I embark on this project, I'll mention it on the LL - but don't count on it being in the immediate future. :)
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#16
Thank you Occhi.


Thats exactly what happened. All i wanted to say was i thought langs idea was a good one. Danifilth if you checked the membership #s you would have noticed that ive been around for awhile. If i was a spammer it would have been noticed long ago.






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#17
skana,Feb 5 2005, 12:46 PM Wrote:Thank you Occhi.
Thats exactly what happened. All i wanted to say was i thought langs idea was a good one. Danifilth if you checked the membership #s you would have noticed that ive been around for awhile. If i was a spammer it would have been noticed long ago.
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:D

My pleasure.

Occhi
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
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#18
skana,Feb 5 2005, 01:46 PM Wrote:Thank you Occhi.
Thats exactly what happened. All i wanted to say was i thought langs idea was a good one. Danifilth if you checked the membership #s you would have noticed that ive been around for awhile. If i was a spammer it would have been noticed long ago.
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Bah, you could be skana's evil twin, visiting for a week or two and wreaking havoc on skana's favorite websites! This cannot stand! I propose a 2 week IP ban.
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#19
Hi all!
Well first of all, there is already a private server wich was online about 4 or 5 months. Now temporaly its down, but it will be back online this week or the next one so far.
Im glad to see there is still people interested in this game!
I still play In b.net in USEast in the channel diablo LE, mostly in mornings, if Im not there you can leave a msg in my bot: Stratobot.

Ill talk with the person who runs the server, if he confirms the activity of the server Ill post here the link for the file, and all the stuff necesary.

Well thats all for now,
Stratovirus
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#20
There are many ways to have a semi-private community. B.net is possible a variety of different ways, but in my opinion, each is inferior to a private server. The argument isn't that a private server is required, but that it is the best solution of those available. I would much rather play on a private server than fumble through b.net.

I was really looking for comments on everything else: Would making membership invite-only (from any member) help keep the server standards up? Is there really enough interest to "require" creating new characters only, not to mention all content? Would the member/character ranks encourage interest, or do you think they are too corny? Anything else the mod should fix/change that you have found annoying for 8 years?

I guess my goal is for my site to slowly evolve from what it is now (I know, it sucks:) to the place for a bunch of classic-Diablo-playing fools! However, I wouldn't really care to put a lot of time and effort into it if there aren't many more classic-Diablo-playing fools! besides me left.
--Lang

Diabolic Psyche - the site with Diablo on the Brain!
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