Fee for BattlEye services

[$able]

I will soon be introducing a small monthly fee for the BattlEye technology being used on game servers.

That means that every server admin will have to pay this fee for BattlEye to protect his server. Players will not be affected by this, the clientside use of BE will still be free.


The reason for this is simple: I can't go on supporting this game for free. The development and maintenance of BattlEye takes a lot of time. Besides, BattlEye is a very effective system doing a great job at keeping servers clean and therefore has a major value to the whole Soldat community. It is not natural for such a service to be free.

Yes, Soldat is a free game, but that doesn't mean there are no costs attached to it. Game servers always cost money, regardless of how you host them.


While this decision stands (flaming won't help ), I'd still like to know what you think about this. I'd especially like to hear server admins' opinions about this.

- Thanks.

Update:

Please give Sable his deserved respect. I have nothing but respect for him. Sable has perfect work ethic. He is 100% accurate in detecting and fixing bugs. I'm not like that. Even if you are still having problems with BE he's doing his best. Some bugs are my fault, and will be fixed in 1.5.
It was his primary effort in integrating this system in Soldat and even if he quit today he should be thanked because he did this work for free for all of you to have the most fun out of this game - hacker free.
I made an agreement with Sable so the fees won't be introduced, but it will affect other things, I have to make money, we all need it.

[hyrr]

Yay for the non-BattlEye servers \o/!

[Leo]

Well, I can understand this. Personally I can afford this, depends on what "small" is for you of course but this will let out of BE a large percentage of Soldat servers. Most kids don't even have credit cards.

[KeYDoN]

tell MM to share his profit with u^^

[mar77a]

............

i hope this is pay per host and not per server

ps: if it ever is

[Biscuiteer]

Well.... this is interesting.

First you are humble enough to give us a reasonable anti-cheat system for free, then you decide to have us pay for it in the end? Thats a bollocks load of shinyfoo! If you are going to setup something for free, then you must dedicate yourself into keeping your program in good condition. If you can't handle it, then why the hell are you even here? Excuse my harshness but, damn. Its quite amusing on how you could even do this, even if it is your system. Now you might as well get out of here as fast as you can, because once you start payments everyone is going to either refuse or make their own anti-cheat programs - which will most likely be better than yours anywho.

I think i've said more than enough.

[Leo]

............

i hope this is pay per host and not per server

Me too

[Laser Guy]

Don't mind Biscuiteer, he's probably in a shock.

[EnEsCe]

If there isn't going to be a free less-frequently updated version available for people, then the flood gates from the Ocean of Cheaters shall be open once again. For me, it was nice being able to focus on adding features to Soldat, but looks like focus is going to have to go back to stopping cheaters which will, I guarantee, hinder any new features or bug fixes to future Soldat/server versions. Oh well :3

[PQ]

hah, let's see if the hackers make a crack for this. �  (Just like they have a crack to bypass BE)

If there isn't going to be a free less-frequently updated version available for people, then the flood gates from the Ocean of Cheaters shall be open once again.

Like he cares about that, he just wants his money


edit: oh lol it's april fools' day

[excruciator]

Battle eye was implemented because it's free. Yet now we have to pay for it. If the fee is going toward the upkeep of the program, that is understandable and reasonable, but if its for profit, then

Yay for the non-BattlEye servers \o/!

[Duck Boi]

Don't mind Biscuiteer, he's probably in a shock.

No, he has a valid point to which I agree.

[Shoozza]

Isn't that the same tactic ms uses to infiltrate china with windows?

I don't know if i would pay for BE.
Someone remembers the 1.3.1 times when everyone could hack? Well you know what will happen.
Also I think running the leagues without BE enables is a useless.

@EnEsCe
I already gave up that you will implement chatMod . But I would like to see more bugfixes instad of new features (like the flicker you told me it's imposibble to fix - MM told me something different  but thats offtopic i guess)

[Poop]

As a representative of the clan scene and league community, ill post my honest opinion.

I think the idea is ridiculous. Heres my reasons why:

1. Battleeye is not as reliable as you made it out to be. It might have made a small difference in terms of reducing the amount of hackers, however it consistently kicks and bans people that do not hack, consistently misses out on people that do hack, has holes which can be taken advantage of (Leaving the server after 3 minutes and coming back and you wont get banned), etc etc. Charging for a unreliable service which probably does not do the job its supposed to is ridiculous.

2. Im sure you realize that many people will not buy this extra "service" for their servers. And considering the fact that since battleye was introduced to soldat, I doubt the game coders are doing any work on anti-hack things, this will mean there will be countless servers out there that have no anti-hack service. Many of these will be league and clanwar servers (League and clanwar players constitute the highest percentage of the soldat population which buys registrations). And considering the fact that enesce and MM have stopped working on the anti-hack system of soldat since BE got introduced, you basically realize that it will be difficult for them to bring the soldat's antihack up to par quickly and are taking advantage of this upper position by being a twat. Ridiculous.

3. How much money you think you will make off this? Lets say the big public server hosts buy it (Leo etc). Lets say a few big league server hosts buy it. Ill count that total as around 30 servers. U13 and Enesce will proabbly make it optional, most people wont buy it. Fracs wont buy it as their servers are free. Selfkill and clanplanet will also make it optional and most people wont buy it. And most other servers are being hosted on people's own computers, maybe 5-10% of them buy it (Although I doubt even that much). Ill give you maximum 50-75 total servers that will buy this service. Depends on the price your going to charge, but if its really "low", you will be making poo money off this.

[Animagladius]

Well, I can understand why you're doing this. I mean... The BattlEye is needed to protect the servers. And things that are needed and irreplaceable... Well. If the admins want protection for their servers, they'll continue using it, even if they gotta pay a little fee. And you know that. And it's just the most natural thing in the world to charge some money for the (rare) things you're doing. Economic thinking. :3 You know they can't replace your BattlEye (in fact that it's implemented into the game or program), so if they want to continue keeping their servers running, they gotta pay. And they will... As long as the Soldat-team is supporting BattlEye. If someone else would write a program which is good enough to protect the servers, and that for free, I'm sure they'd change to that service.


Sorry for my bad English, I didn't use it for long. o.o

[Poop]

And just as a continuation of my last post, at this point im hoping Battleye is removed from soldat and the game coders go back to work on antihack systems (Even though this probably means alot of other features get left out). Cause quite frankly, with only 5-10% of total servers eventually using battleye , the coders will have to work on thier own antihack systems anyways, and since those 5-10% of total servers that use battleeye can just use soldat's antihack system, the need for battleye is completely removed.

Atleast with new versions and soldats antihack we knew that there would be almost no hackers for the first little while after every new version got introduced. There is no guarantee like that for battleye, and seriously, what service will you be providing by charging a fee? I doubt its "Stopping hackers" since battleye doesnt really do that too well right now with all the 14 year olds making cracks for it.

[Laser Guy]

Don't mind Biscuiteer, he's probably in a shock.

No, he has a valid point to which I agree.

After thinking more about it I'm starting to agree even more with him actually...


And look athis nick... "$able" hmmm... that dollar sign just fits well.� 

[Leo]

And just as a continuation of my last post, at this point im hoping Battleye is removed from soldat and the game coders go back to work on antihack systems (Even though this probably means alot of other features get left out). Cause quite frankly, with only 5-10% of total servers eventually using battleye , the coders will have to work on thier own antihack systems anyways, and since those 5-10% of total servers that use battleeye can just use soldat's antihack system, the need for battleye is completely removed.

Atleast with new versions and soldats antihack we knew that there would be almost no hackers for the first little while after every new version got introduced. There is no guarantee like that for battleye, and seriously, what service will you be providing by charging a fee? I doubt its "Stopping hackers" since battleye doesnt really do that too well right now with all the 14 year olds making cracks for it.

I am sorry to say but this is stupid. There is no way to have a new version of Soldat every now and then to update the anti-hack system while BE can be easily get daily updates if it has too. The hard coded anti-cheat system was, is and it will always be completely useless.

[BombSki]

if this is just to keep up with the maintenance costs, isnt it possible to let the BE server run on whichever server the lobby is running on? isnt it possible that *someone* gives u some cash and makes it available for everyone?

i do agree with poop that BE really isnt 100% secure, but removing BE atm will mean soldat gets plunged back into prehistory concerning anticheat. if you make people pay for it, youre also gonna have to fix unneeded BE bans, and add stuff like this:
http://forums.soldat.pl/index.php?topic=26753.0

anyway, more info would be nice. costs per slot, per server, per person? how much is it gonna be (estimate)?


edit: i wonder when enesce starts asking fee's for using the scriptengine

[Etheryte]

I am sorry to say but this is stupid. There is no way to have a new version of Soldat every now and then to update the anti-hack system while BE can be easily get daily updates if it has too. The hard coded anti-cheat system was, is and it will always be completely useless.

Seconded. BE is exactly what Soldat needs to fight the hackers. Sure, there are flaws, but which system doesn't have flaws?