No Dedicated Servers or LAN Play in Command & Conquer 4

[zakski]

Lead designer Sam Bass said that the features had to be sacrificed in order to implement some of the game's features: "if you go to another machine - friend's house, Internet café - whatever, you can login with your profile and all the stuff you've unlocked is accessible to you there. It all lives on a server so you can't really do dedicated servers with that."

The thing about going to a friend's house is that typically you will want to play with or against him/her and you will probably bring your own pc/laptop to LAN. The idea of me/a friend going over to the other's house and then watching/be watched play a game that less than 2 years ago would have LAN and would not require any internet connection at all is bonkers. Guess Im giving it a miss in favour of other rtses like supcom2 (unless that is doing the same as well)

 

[Paragon Fury]

I normally like changes in gaming... but this is one change I can't get behind. I really hate the lack of dedicated servers and there is no legitimate reason why they should take them out.

Expensive. Very expensive.

And PC gamers are not the market they used to be. You're just not worth that much anymore - not enough to invest in the cost of servers, anyways.

 

[Olikunmissile]

Command And Conquer died along with Westwood, but the ever-disappearing LAN/dedicated server support in newer games is disturbing. I don't want LAN parties to go away.

This ^

OT: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU EA, STOP RAPING C&C. Ugh, this has really annoyed me.

EDIT: Now I'm a little bit cooler. I am still very very annoyed with this decision. I most likely will not be buying the game because of this, unfortunate really.

 

[Caliostro]

if you go to another machine - friend's house, Internet café - whatever, you can login with your profile and all the stuff you've unlocked is accessible to you there. It all lives on a server so you can't really do dedicated servers with that."

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuullllllllllshiiiiiiiiiiit.

Games like TF2, pretty much the whole Battlefield series, America's Army series, CoD 4(Modern Warfare) and 5 (World at War), amongst many others, all have unlockable items AND dedicated servers so this is a pretty poor excuse.

Then again, C&C 4 was already looking like shit, and I'm not even a big RTS fan, so this really doesn't change much.

Especially seeing as consoles are now becoming more and more like specialised PCs.

Yet they're still inferior in every way... Doesn't sound quite right does it?

 

[kibayasu]

PC gamers need to get it through their collectively thick heads - developers are dropping dedicated server support because it is becoming prohibitively expensive. Now while I can understand a slight bit of rage at not being able to pay for and host your own dedicated servers, you cannot honestly believe EA, IW, EPIC or anyone else owes you free dedicated servers now can you?

And so the reason they just don't create official dedicated servers is?

Though again, dedicated servers on an RTS are... well, mostly pointless. I've been playing Dawn of War II for a year now without them just fine. Though you people should have seen no LAN coming after Red Alert 3.

 

[Nimbus]

Since when have RTSes had dedicated servers anyway? Hasn't it always been PTP? Seriously, this isn't news. The no LAN stuff sucks balls, but someone will find a way around it.

PC gamers need to get it through their collectively thick heads - developers are dropping dedicated server support because it is becoming prohibitively expensive. Now while I can understand a slight bit of rage at not being able to pay for and host your own dedicated servers, you cannot honestly believe EA, IW, EPIC or anyone else owes you free dedicated servers now can you?

Dedicated servers for PC games generally are and always have been community driven. Take TF2 (Just an example: applies to almost every game); there are no Valve-run servers. Every single server is set up, run and maintained by the people who play the game. How the fuck does that cost Valve a damn cent?

 

[SonicKoala]

No LAN? What the hell is wrong with these people? The Dedicated servers I can live without - I didn't even know RTS's used them, anyway. But seriously, the no LAN thing just seems like a huge slap in the face.

 

[Stryc9]

I was already planning on having nothing to do with C&C 4 before I read this because of all the other changes they've made to the game but this really didn't help matters any. One of the big reasons I've bought all the other C&C games up until now is LAN play because my group of friends still get together and play over a LAN quite a bit and the C&C series has provided us with gaming goodness for the last 10 years, it's really quite sad to see it go like this.

 

[Motiv_]

And... in before a boycott group starts, gets a huge amount of members, 90% of whom buy it the day it launches anyway.

 

[logiman]

What`s with all the hate on LAN servers from big-game developers nowdays?
MW2, C&C4, StarCraft2..wtf?

 

[Zer_]

Oh wow... Talk about developers keep slapping us in the face with their tiny cocks. What's with this new trend? This notion that matchmaking etc is a good feature? It sucks ffs! :S Dedicated and lan support works absolutely perfect. Why try to fix something that isn't broken :S I just don't get it...

Matchmaking works for an RTS to a degree. Blizzard's age old battle.net doesn't even use dedicated servers. You may still have a game list to choose off of, but they won't be dedicated servers, they`ll be P2P games I believe.

Anyways, don't jump the gun.

I wasn't only refering to RTS's but sure...

It depends on the game itself man. Left 4 Dead's matchmaking makes perfect sense. L4D DID have dedicated servers, but you could only connect to those servers through matchmaking.

An online racing sim would also work well on a matchmaking system (hell, they've used such systems on PC games since the 90s).

In the case of Modern Warfare 2, I was totally against their choice. Matchmaking doesn't make sense for a game where you have 8 or more players in any given game. Heck they had to reduce the maximum number of players to 16 (12?) to accomodate a reasonable matchmaking. It doesn't appeal to me. In the case of L4D, though you have four, or eight people playing a single game, thus matchmaking makes sense. L4D's case is further re-enforced by the fact that it's very much a co-op game.

 

[Indecizion]

Epic dissapointment. like wow why so many disappointments atm

 

[Bigeyez]

Most RTS's tend to not have dedicated servers anyways so thats not even a big deal. (WC3 is the only one I can think of that does) Lack of LAN support is a big deal however. While it's understandable to think that most people have internet connections, it does suck that in 5 years when the servers get shut down there wil be no other way to play online. (Until people hack the game and find a way to make it playable)

 

[stabnex]

FRANCHISE MURDER!! WHOOO!! This game will officially never sell ever again.

 

[Spiner909]

No LAN? Noooo!
No dedicated servers? Eh, don't care.

 

[B4D 9R4MM3R]

Thier way of saying "The C&C franchise has been dying for a long time now, and if this game bombs then we will be able to kill it witihin a year"

It doesn't help that EA were the ones responsible for slowly killing C&C anyway. The gameplay has changed so much in this iteration it has completely turned me off of it.

 

[RanD00M]

Allow me to clear my throat for this one.*clears throat* WHAT?!?!,are there no new games that I can lan in with my friends.
I guess a not so wise man said once "It's like developer's are trying to kill PC gaming.".And when he said that, I though he was crazy. But now I see his point.

 

[Tharwen]

Oh come on. What is with the constant ***** slapping of PC gamers lately.

Its like they've chained the platform to a wall, stuck electric cables on its nipples and are spitting on it whilst making small cuts into its chest and pouring hot candlewax into those cuts calling me a ***** and pulling my hair while choking me.

..I'm sorry what?

my feelings exactly

 

[Saucycarpdog]

Sounds [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/92748-Update-StarCraft-II-Will-Not-Support-LAN] familiar. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95584-No-Dedicated-Servers-for-Modern-Warfare-2-PC-Fans-Freak-Out]

What makes you say that? [http://kotaku.com/5458493/no-lan-or-dedicated-servers-for-bioshock-2-multiplayer]