Where to find a server provider?

[colosseum 34]

All,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I can't find pertinent information anywhere else.

Me and some friends are looking to buy some game server space for Combined Operations, and we're not sure where to start. We'd need at least 16 player slots (preferably more) and the ability to play any custom missions I make.

Where do I go to get access to a server that can do this, and does anyone have any specific recommendations? Google just turns up a lot of BS that doesn't really seem trustworthy to me.

Thanks in advance!

[eddieck 10]

Would this be for a public or private server? If it's public, I strongly suggest looking into either a VPS or lower-end dedicated server so you'll be able to use a packet sniffer to detect in-game hacks.

If it's private (or if you just don't need that level of access), maybe take a look at some of the more well-known GSPs like NuclearFallout, Art of War, Jestservers, etc.

[colosseum 34]

Definitely private -- it's for a group I've known for years now, and new players would just be given the password. If the GSPs you mentioned are reliable, I'll definitely take a look at them. Thanks very much!

[DieselJC 196]

I have an Art Of War server and have had nothing but headaches with it...its been a hassle since day one..so in my opinion shop around and avoid AOW..

JC

[DeadNoise 10]

NFO has some great servers and ive had nothing but good things to say about them.

[ballou 10]

try out gamingdeluxe servers best support i have come accross for a long time

[gossamersolid 155]

www.nfoservers.com

Very powerful servers, great customer support.

[Sim.M 48]

Jestservers is the best by far for Arma2 Combined Ops - especially if you use mods like ACE. Jest is really fast on his response time on trouble tickets and will automatically update your mods if they are on six-updater.

My Unit is very happy with jestservers.com

[MissileMoose 10]

Another vote for JestServers.com.

Great service that'd be hard to find anywhere else. As stated above his ticket response time and service is second to none. Though he's not much of a pilot as I found out on Take on Helicopters, he killed us both before we hit the ground. :p

Give him a try, his prices aren't the cheapest (not far off though!) as he runs each server on high end hardware (100/100Mbps), but you certainly "get more than what you pay for". I've hosted my server with him for nearly a year now and the only downtime I've experienced has been caused by myself and ACE updates every Friday. :D

Give him a go, you won't regret it. If you don't like the service (you will) and want to cancel, he'll refund you for the time you've not used.

[colosseum 34]

My problem is that all my interested parties bought Skyrim and fucked off for good...

[colosseum 34]

Do these companies make you agree to pay for a set period? Do I have to buy 6 months' worth of server rental? Or a year? Or can I just pay for a month at a time?

[eddieck 10]

Do these companies make you agree to pay for a set period? Do I have to buy 6 months' worth of server rental? Or a year? Or can I just pay for a month at a time?

Most will allow month-to-month. That counts for both game server providers and VPS/dedicated providers.

[zild1221 10]

Low Ping Game Servers. After reading comments on the forums about what host to use, I had two choices. LPGS or Jest. Both had good reviews. I plan on hosting quite a few servers in the future, so I contacted both companies. Both were quick to respond. At this point, I am with LPGS. The only reason I started with them is because they were half the price of Jest.

So far support answered all of my pre-sale questions, server installation questions, and mod extraction requests in a very timely fashion.

We have been running Warfare BE ACE with everything cranked AI wise. The server has been running butter smooth. We just did a 4v4/6v6 with people coming and going. 15 hours of people capturing towns and recapturing other towns. Server ran pegged at 50 FPS constantly.

I can only recommend them.

[nomad_man 10]

what hardware do they use?

[eddieck 10]

We have been running Warfare BE ACE with everything cranked AI wise. The server has been running butter smooth. We just did a 4v4/6v6 with people coming and going. 15 hours of people capturing towns and recapturing other towns. Server ran pegged at 50 FPS constantly.

Are you sure about that? Unless they're using some epic unreleased CPU from the future, there's no way you'd get 50 FPS on a Warfare BE game with large amounts of AI, especially after 15 hours.

What were the exact AI settings?

[zild1221 10]

We turn off the AI squads completely an run 30+ AI per player. That way, we have full control. Plus, it seems to make the server run 1000x better.

We have all the reinforcements on (resistance and occupation), patrols on, track ai on map OFF, UPSMON on, assault teams 2, all the ai and reinforcements set to hard, patrols on 2.

I think that is all the relevant stuff. I think the big thing was turning off the auto controlled AI. To us they are pretty much useless. They never actually capture towns or anything. Also, for the most part, we split into teams of 2 or 3 and took towns. This meant that it kept a ton of AI from spawning in a bunch of towns. Most we saw were 7-8 active towns at a time if that makes sense.

[eddieck 10]

We turn off the AI squads completely an run 30+ AI per player. That way, we have full control. Plus, it seems to make the server run 1000x better.

Ah, that makes sense. The AI squads for command AI does cause a lot of server FPS drop and lag. (In my experience, on Takistan and with an E3-1230 CPU, 6 is the maximum - any more and you'll get severe client FPS drop. A few hours into a game with 8 or more and every single client, even with low settings, is at 5 FPS.)

[zild1221 10]

Yeah. I found it more useful anyway if everyone just commands their own AI. I up the starting cash so that everyone can afford to. You should give it a try, much more enjoyable.