Interview with: Stephen ‘Malarky’ GaffneyBusiness Development Manager
Splash Damage Ltd
PlanetQuakeWars.net - How do ranked servers work in Enemy Territory Quake Wars (ETQW)?
Stephen Gaffney: ETQW has two types of server: ‘Ranked’ and ‘Unranked’:A Ranked server is a trusted server with a locked configuration, guaranteed to be playing the most up-to-date pure version of the game, hosted by a trusted provider, which collects detailed player stats and reports them to our persistent database. Players can go to our website and view their stats, see what achievement badges and military rank they’ve earned, compare their stats with those of other players and decide how to focus their efforts in future games.An Unranked server is completely open. It still authenticates ETQW user accounts for the purpose of copyright protection, but doesn't report player stats. Unranked servers can be run by anyone, for free.
PlanetQuakeWars.net - Will a Ranked server only be available for authorized Game Server Providers (GSPs), or is there a way to get a ranked server certificate on your own server?
Stephen Gaffney: We're going to work with a select number of GSPs for the launch of the game. We’re happy to announce they’ll be providing a large number of free, public Ranked servers along with rentable Ranked servers for clans. You will not have to pay to play ETQW, although clans may well choose to pay a GSP for the services they provide.We're limiting Ranked servers to GSPs for a couple of reasons. The first is quality of service. We simply want to make sure that Ranked servers meet a certain quality standard, so that when people go to play on a ranked ETQW server, they can be sure that it's fast, secure, and well-managed. To that end, we're working closely with dozens of GSPs worldwide to ensure that the servers they provide meet our requirements and offer a great experience to our players. The other main advantage of providing Ranked servers via trusted hosts is that you can be more confident that the statistics they collect are accurate and free of exploits. If we allowed any server to report statistics, this would make the system exploitable and ultimately result in players losing confidence in it. With our Ranked servers, we’re doing our best to make sure that all the statistics they report are based on the same set of ground rules.We may eventually increase the number of GSPs that are authorized for Ranked servers, but for the initial game launch we're focusing on select high-quality GSPs to make sure all of our criteria are met. We think players will also be pleased to hear that neither Activision nor id Software nor Splash Damage will receive any revenue from trusted providers for the servers they rent to players. Our only concern here is to guarantee quality of gameplay experience and integrity of the persistent stats. As there are no other costs to pass on, the player will pay only for the costs associated with the hardware provided by the trusted provider.
PlanetQuakeWars.net - Are those servers limited to a special number of Slots?
Stephen Gaffney: Both Ranked and Unranked servers can host up to 32 players. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s important to remember how focused and tense ETQW’s gameplay is. Because of the nature of the objective-based team play in ETQW, you'll have your whole team in direct combat with the entire enemy team, all the time. Everyone in the game is focused on attacking or defending one area, not spread out over the entire map, so the server always feels packed. We've been playtesting and balancing the game for 24 players, which we consider to be the sweet spot, but we’ve also had excellent 6 v 6 matches and are confident ETQW will play well for clans in competition.
PlanetQuakeWars.net - Is it possible to run custom Mods or other custom maps on a Ranked server, or is this limited to official Maps and add-ons?
Stephen Gaffney: We are, at least initially, only allowing Ranked servers to run the most up-to-date pure version of ETQW, playing only official maps. This is to guarantee players’ game experience and maintain the integrity of the persistent player stats. If we were to allow any and all community-made maps on Ranked servers, it would be fairly easy to create a map that favored a certain class, which would obviously affect the rate at which a player could earn XP. However the door is not closed: we’re keen that the community create new mods and maps, and we’re looking at ways we can include popular mods and custom maps on Ranked servers. Ranked servers will allow you to set custom map cycles, which allows server admins to create custom campaigns with your favorite maps. Ranked servers are locked to Campaign mode only to keep the player stats consistent. Unranked servers are completely open, and will be able to run any and all mods and custom maps, as well as Stopwatch and Objective game modes.
PlanetQuakeWars.net - In older interview we read that it's not possible to earn better weapons due to playing on a ranked server. Is this still true? What is the advantage for players to play on a RS?
Stephen Gaffney: ETQW’s XP unlocks work very differently to those in some other games. Only the player stats are persistent. All the weapons, items, deployables and vehicles you need to play the game are available right from your first spawn – you don’t need to earn them, or keep track of what you’ve earned. We have upgrade paths for all classes in the game, so everyone can earn increased tactical abilities, but only over the course of our campaign mode. A campaign generally consists of three maps. Once it’s over, all unlocks and XP gained during that campaign are reset, and the playing field becomes level again. Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that ETQW’s XP unlocks tend to be improvements to stuff you already have, not a whole new weapon or item that you need to perform your class role. We were really conscious that persistent unlocks might present a barrier for new players jumping into ETQW within just a few months of release. If everyone else is running around with fancy new weapons which are more effective than your pea-shooter just because they've been playing the game longer than you, you'll probably think that this is very unfair, and you'd probably not want to play the game much more after that. So because of this, we made the decision very early on not to have persistent weapon unlocks. Ranked servers preserve your player stats and persistent ranks based on your global experience points, but since ETQW doesn’t have any persistently unlocked weapons, you don’t need to play on a Ranked server to get them. The advantage of playing on a Ranked server is that your deeds and achievements are recorded for all to see, and you know you’ll be playing the standard, pure version of the game so you won’t have to download lots of additional files before you can get into the action.
Source: http://www.planetquakewars.net/content.php?article.56
Splash Damage Ltd
PlanetQuakeWars.net - How do ranked servers work in Enemy Territory Quake Wars (ETQW)?
Stephen Gaffney: ETQW has two types of server: ‘Ranked’ and ‘Unranked’:A Ranked server is a trusted server with a locked configuration, guaranteed to be playing the most up-to-date pure version of the game, hosted by a trusted provider, which collects detailed player stats and reports them to our persistent database. Players can go to our website and view their stats, see what achievement badges and military rank they’ve earned, compare their stats with those of other players and decide how to focus their efforts in future games.An Unranked server is completely open. It still authenticates ETQW user accounts for the purpose of copyright protection, but doesn't report player stats. Unranked servers can be run by anyone, for free.
PlanetQuakeWars.net - Will a Ranked server only be available for authorized Game Server Providers (GSPs), or is there a way to get a ranked server certificate on your own server?
Stephen Gaffney: We're going to work with a select number of GSPs for the launch of the game. We’re happy to announce they’ll be providing a large number of free, public Ranked servers along with rentable Ranked servers for clans. You will not have to pay to play ETQW, although clans may well choose to pay a GSP for the services they provide.We're limiting Ranked servers to GSPs for a couple of reasons. The first is quality of service. We simply want to make sure that Ranked servers meet a certain quality standard, so that when people go to play on a ranked ETQW server, they can be sure that it's fast, secure, and well-managed. To that end, we're working closely with dozens of GSPs worldwide to ensure that the servers they provide meet our requirements and offer a great experience to our players. The other main advantage of providing Ranked servers via trusted hosts is that you can be more confident that the statistics they collect are accurate and free of exploits. If we allowed any server to report statistics, this would make the system exploitable and ultimately result in players losing confidence in it. With our Ranked servers, we’re doing our best to make sure that all the statistics they report are based on the same set of ground rules.We may eventually increase the number of GSPs that are authorized for Ranked servers, but for the initial game launch we're focusing on select high-quality GSPs to make sure all of our criteria are met. We think players will also be pleased to hear that neither Activision nor id Software nor Splash Damage will receive any revenue from trusted providers for the servers they rent to players. Our only concern here is to guarantee quality of gameplay experience and integrity of the persistent stats. As there are no other costs to pass on, the player will pay only for the costs associated with the hardware provided by the trusted provider.
PlanetQuakeWars.net - Are those servers limited to a special number of Slots?
Stephen Gaffney: Both Ranked and Unranked servers can host up to 32 players. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s important to remember how focused and tense ETQW’s gameplay is. Because of the nature of the objective-based team play in ETQW, you'll have your whole team in direct combat with the entire enemy team, all the time. Everyone in the game is focused on attacking or defending one area, not spread out over the entire map, so the server always feels packed. We've been playtesting and balancing the game for 24 players, which we consider to be the sweet spot, but we’ve also had excellent 6 v 6 matches and are confident ETQW will play well for clans in competition.
PlanetQuakeWars.net - Is it possible to run custom Mods or other custom maps on a Ranked server, or is this limited to official Maps and add-ons?
Stephen Gaffney: We are, at least initially, only allowing Ranked servers to run the most up-to-date pure version of ETQW, playing only official maps. This is to guarantee players’ game experience and maintain the integrity of the persistent player stats. If we were to allow any and all community-made maps on Ranked servers, it would be fairly easy to create a map that favored a certain class, which would obviously affect the rate at which a player could earn XP. However the door is not closed: we’re keen that the community create new mods and maps, and we’re looking at ways we can include popular mods and custom maps on Ranked servers. Ranked servers will allow you to set custom map cycles, which allows server admins to create custom campaigns with your favorite maps. Ranked servers are locked to Campaign mode only to keep the player stats consistent. Unranked servers are completely open, and will be able to run any and all mods and custom maps, as well as Stopwatch and Objective game modes.
PlanetQuakeWars.net - In older interview we read that it's not possible to earn better weapons due to playing on a ranked server. Is this still true? What is the advantage for players to play on a RS?
Stephen Gaffney: ETQW’s XP unlocks work very differently to those in some other games. Only the player stats are persistent. All the weapons, items, deployables and vehicles you need to play the game are available right from your first spawn – you don’t need to earn them, or keep track of what you’ve earned. We have upgrade paths for all classes in the game, so everyone can earn increased tactical abilities, but only over the course of our campaign mode. A campaign generally consists of three maps. Once it’s over, all unlocks and XP gained during that campaign are reset, and the playing field becomes level again. Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that ETQW’s XP unlocks tend to be improvements to stuff you already have, not a whole new weapon or item that you need to perform your class role. We were really conscious that persistent unlocks might present a barrier for new players jumping into ETQW within just a few months of release. If everyone else is running around with fancy new weapons which are more effective than your pea-shooter just because they've been playing the game longer than you, you'll probably think that this is very unfair, and you'd probably not want to play the game much more after that. So because of this, we made the decision very early on not to have persistent weapon unlocks. Ranked servers preserve your player stats and persistent ranks based on your global experience points, but since ETQW doesn’t have any persistently unlocked weapons, you don’t need to play on a Ranked server to get them. The advantage of playing on a Ranked server is that your deeds and achievements are recorded for all to see, and you know you’ll be playing the standard, pure version of the game so you won’t have to download lots of additional files before you can get into the action.
Source: http://www.planetquakewars.net/content.php?article.56
Last edited by -[Silver.Inc* (2007-06-12 17:45:04)