Review of TA:K servers

Ok i know we are still a bit divided about what do we use to play.

So here i come with a solution that maybe many dont like but i guess is the best one for now.
But before i will put here some points of our 3 "servers" to play Ta:K.

Gameranger

Used for a long time for some player, most of them BR.

Good -
Is a pretty good server for games, we have a great bypass that have a good download transfer. That means that the game will lag just a bit or nothing, of course it depends the connection of the user, but still being the best in my opinion.

We can use the microphones to speak in game, but we need have an account to use that option, so maybe isnt a good thing, but how we could have that service i put it in here.

Game Ranger block use pm with ppl in game, that is a advantage that only game ranger have. This option avoid, tips of watchings to players that are in games. Of course idk how can someone pay attention in both, but its possible to do.

We can add friends into a list and see who of them are online and chat or invite to game.


Bad -
The server doenst have a main lobby for each game. We have there many lobbys, i guess is about 5, that would dificult our comunication, because is shared with players of many players of many games. That mean that we need open a room of tak to chat.

Game Ranger dont allow later players to join a game. That is a problem, if we are a bit late we cant join a room where the game has just been launched. That is possible just with an account.

Game Ranger block use pm with ppl in game, the same way is good it isnt. For simple way if we are late we could send a pm and say " hey you are in game? no? can i get in?". That would resolve the problem of later joining, but unfortunaly we must pay.

Forward ports if you use a firewall. Everyone needs that if you cant disable the firewall.


Score - 8,5

Game Ranger offer us many options, but we must pay for some, that could really be useful. Also doesnt have a good lobby. We can chat in rooms in a cleaner way at least.
But it offers the best Gaming, with no lag or just in rare cases a port forward if you use a firewall, example i need forward.



Voobly

It came as a promess for better time to TA:K, but almost killed it.

Good -

Voobly it have many options that must be improved. If have a good work can really be the best server for tak. It have a good bypass option, but we cant see because of the lag, and frequently freezes.

It have a new skin, a modern one. We can change the way we like.

We can add friends into a list and see who of them are online and chat. The chat and list really remind me of msn when someone said that to me.

We can enter in game after it launch. And chat with who is in game.

We can use microphones in game too, but we also need to pay for it.

Most important, it have an assistence almost 24/7, that we can contact admins, for resolv problems. Maybe the bigger point for Voobly now.

Voobly have a webforum. We can share experiences and bugs with all the users, what help in some problems.


Bad -

A promisse that almost killed TA:K is what almost everyone says. Need improve a lot the lag and freezes of games and looby. Maybe i guess is the worst problem.

We can chat to many that we got muted, that option is used to avoid lag but anyway it lag sometimes.

Too many updates. They keep updating whole the time voobly, off course its for improvement, but at least for us, Tak players, that improvements didnt come yet. We are still waiting for them, and didnt gave up.

We can chat with who is in game. Its possible to speak about games

If no one is logged in tak lobby you need access through the website of voobly.

Score - 5,5

Voobly is completely social server, with web forum and help assistance. But for tak it need many improvements. We can chat to much, and worst we cant play. ScreenLoad take ages to load, and we usually freeze in games. But i have not affraid to say, if those problems are resolved we can certainly have the best looby to play. I cant give a good score for something that we cant chat or play, but for the good ideas and if with that possibility of improvement it gains that score.


Warzone

Moved from GSA to warzone, it was very welcome and it became the new house of TA:K

Good -

Is know for most of every tak player and it our prefer in many years.

It have a video in Youtube teaching how to play tak, with thousands and thousands of view, what help to divulgue the game.

It have the better lobby and its the most clean of all . We can chat free and it have a decent filter.

The game doesnt lag to much, and is perfectly playable.

It also have an admin that can help us, but he is just one and isnt much time on for help us.

We can chat with who is in game.


Bad -

I have not affraid to say that, the only problem of warzone is the bypass and forward porting. The bypass of wz is just sucks. We lag and middle of nowhere we drop. 2v2 in bp is almost impossible, even a 1v1 is hard to play.
The port forwarding is a boring, diferent of GR. We need open port not for firewalls but for play a game and host a game. That is a problem that we all complain.

Score - 8,0

WZ just need improve the bypass. If that problem is resolved we can play free and with fun there. But today ppl want come and play, and not pass 2 hours trying to forward a port. For players that just want chat, is perfect. We cant forget that many old players still go there, even with for a sec. If we get then and stop to talk maybe they come more times.


Final Conclusion

I said this many times but i have to say again. WZ and GR togheter are the perfectly server that we need. Also Voobly, if have improvements.
So for now, i advice to use WZ to chat and screw around when someone says "i want game", open a room in GR and invite them. Is perfectly usable and it dont lag your computer.

Those Conclusion i took analysing.
Playable
Chat
Skin
And other factors that we consider important (well at least me) :p

There are somethings that i didnt put here. Like for example create accounts, but there are other that i just cant remember lol

Please say what you think about this review, what score you would give and why. I guess its a good discussion, if you want join you are invited.


Thanks and see you all.

Well, you said everything. But im surprised, gameranger is most known than we think, i sometimes see some players from country we dont expect : russia, australia, vietnam or korean dont remember well. And there are still new players who open ta:k room and it's hard to catch them ^^ 2 players did when i was going to their room, they cloed it, and then you look for their nickname but they are not lonely ^^ i got the russian though, and see if they have forum ^^

About french, we're making a list, from fan who would like to play this game again, and then be on a place to meet us.

Well we're not here for that ^^

About what you said, i completly agree, open ports is a prick, specially when people dont know how to forward it lol.

Stay in warzone is a good idea too, there are alot of player who dont read at the forum, so they dont know we're playing in gameranger. We should stay on gamespy too.

lol lets stay "evereywhere" like my brother's Location!
Your review said all, nothing more to say about + & -
I like most warzone but some of us dont know how to open their ports....
I am afraid this make little risk for our community loosing lobby to talk...
We will see what future brings

It''s a pity that WZ bypass isn't just improved, because then it would be easily the best option.

I guess voobly would be more interesting then wz if fixed, and its closer to do that then wz. I said closer then wz. Maybe for the fact that is a new server and still being improved.
But if wz bypass is fix certainly would be great.
We need contact the main admin, i have no idea how.

btw i saw sir silent on warzone lobby, and he talked about voobly

I hate the fact that you cant wait in room for other people to be done on game ranger... if game has started no entry for you

Capt Savage wrote:

I hate the fact that you cant wait in room for other people to be done on game ranger... if game has started no entry for you

True, but you can open your own room and wait for other people to join you. Or you can click on their names and private message them to come and play with you. I always do the above and I almost always find someone to play against on GameRanger within half an hour. Unfortunately, sometimes sites are changed like clothes but we have to follow the mass of TAK players in order to keep playing with them online...

 

ARTHAN wrote:

Unfortunately, sometimes sites are changed like clothes but we have to follow the mass of TAK players in order to keep playing with them online...

Yea, but we can always stick in WZ. We can always go to Voobly when it gets better. We can go anywhere, as long as there is will to play!

my favourite is WZ by far

i hope good things...why not?

A little late, but I only just noticed this. I'm the developer of GameRanger.

Don't get your hopes up about WZ's bypass, even after the change in ownership. WZ hasn't been updated in years, and that's not likely to change given that Plotinus has stated he's not interested in having anything more to do with it (and he's the only person that's familiar with the code).

WZ's bypass, if you can call it that, is only useful for turn-based games that are not sensitive to latency/lag (remember, it was designed for Axis & Allies). It sends all the network traffic through their server. This is like saying a "shortcut" between you and your nextdoor neighbour is to go all the way around the world and then into his house via the backdoor to "bypass" using his front door. Plus, it's a tiny plane, so it doesn't let many people go with it at the same time. Oh, and there's a high chance of it crashing along the way.

Voobly talk the talk, and tried their best to copy GameRanger's network system (I have logs of them trying), but as you've seen, it also lags. It lags because they ended up using a method similar to WZ as a fallback when their direct connections fail. Their help and assistance is mainly needed because a) their networking is so bad, and b) to manage all the bickering and complaints about ratings. I'm not sure where you get the idea they have voice/mic communication -- they don't have that at all.

As far as the GameRanger points go. Joining a room that has already launched is not a paid feature. It's not a feature at all. It was intentionally done this way to avoid users getting confused with games that don't allow late-joining. Especially since you can't tell from the outside whether TAK is in the lobby mode, or is actually playing. If the host has launched the game, you can re-join or join manually up to 2 minutes afterwards, but that only applies to users already in the room. I may extend that to allowing users to join the room itself up to 2 minutes afterwards as well.

Note that you can also right-click the game, and Show Game Info to see how long ago the game launched, and also who is in the room. From there you can add those users directly to your friends list (may be helpful for finding new TAK players).

Regarding ports, most people don't need to do port-forwarding or open their firewalls at all. That will be improved even further in future.

Of the three of these, GameRanger is the only service that is growing (and rapidly), and the only service that has a strong track-record of reviving games that were otherwise dying. As Joker said, there are very good reasons for that.

Everytime I enter WZ I only see Misty or Joker
But dont even remember the last time i did it

I like the fact that Game Ranger can be run on a mac platform. Do you know a good emulator to run TaK? I am not looking for a virtual machine. You would really get us into Game Ranger if you could create a lobby for tak users. We want to live in a house not in the streets.

Scott Kevill wrote:

A little late, but I only just noticed this. I'm the developer of GameRanger.

Don't get your hopes up about WZ's bypass, even after the change in ownership. WZ hasn't been updated in years, and that's not likely to change given that Plotinus has stated he's not interested in having anything more to do with it (and he's the only person that's familiar with the code).

WZ's bypass, if you can call it that, is only useful for turn-based games that are not sensitive to latency/lag (remember, it was designed for Axis & Allies). It sends all the network traffic through their server. This is like saying a "shortcut" between you and your nextdoor neighbour is to go all the way around the world and then into his house via the backdoor to "bypass" using his front door. Plus, it's a tiny plane, so it doesn't let many people go with it at the same time. Oh, and there's a high chance of it crashing along the way.

Voobly talk the talk, and tried their best to copy GameRanger's network system (I have logs of them trying), but as you've seen, it also lags. It lags because they ended up using a method similar to WZ as a fallback when their direct connections fail. Their help and assistance is mainly needed because a) their networking is so bad, and b) to manage all the bickering and complaints about ratings. I'm not sure where you get the idea they have voice/mic communication -- they don't have that at all.

As far as the GameRanger points go. Joining a room that has already launched is not a paid feature. It's not a feature at all. It was intentionally done this way to avoid users getting confused with games that don't allow late-joining. Especially since you can't tell from the outside whether TAK is in the lobby mode, or is actually playing. If the host has launched the game, you can re-join or join manually up to 2 minutes afterwards, but that only applies to users already in the room. I may extend that to allowing users to join the room itself up to 2 minutes afterwards as well.

Note that you can also right-click the game, and Show Game Info to see how long ago the game launched, and also who is in the room. From there you can add those users directly to your friends list (may be helpful for finding new TAK players).

Regarding ports, most people don't need to do port-forwarding or open their firewalls at all. That will be improved even further in future.

Of the three of these, GameRanger is the only service that is growing (and rapidly), and the only service that has a strong track-record of reviving games that were otherwise dying. As Joker said, there are very good reasons for that.

Scott Kevill...
As you see GR was consider the best Server. I see that should have a better score, is the only one who have future just not for us but for all old games. I would like you to thank you for that.

Sage, that is almost impossible in my view. We dont live in the streets, but once we lived in a mansion, lets say like that. GameRanger isnt perfect because of that lobby we miss. But is almost perfect, we are too much perfectionists. Gameranger for now, is more than good.