Official NBR Battlefield 3 Clan Server Thread

*** NORTH AMERICA NBR BF3 SERVER IS LIVE AND ONLINE! ***
(special thanks to ValkerieFire for the initiative and funds to get it started! 11-2-2011)

CURRENT SERVER LOCATION: CHICAGO
STATUS: ONLINE
MAXIMUM PLAYERS: 32
CURRENT MAP ROTATION:
Grand Bazaar - Conquest - 2 Rounds
Teheran Highway - Conquest - 2 Rounds
Caspian Border - Conquest - 2 Rounds
Kharg Island - Conquest - 2 Rounds

Here is the EA Battlelog Link that will let you join it immediately (at EA Battlelog).
NBR Forum BF3 Server Chicago

NBR Forum BF3 Server Chicago Stats and Info (at GameTracker):
http://www.gametracker.com/server_info/173.199.90.208:25200/

NBR Friends List and Platoon (at NBR):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...-cards/619906-battlefield-3-friends-list.html

VOIP - Currently Using DEagleson's Mumble Server:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...hitelist-48-slots-server-nbr-community-d.html
IP = 79.161.131.167:64738 / Download Mumble here: http://mumble.sourceforge.net/

Donate now to gain admin privileges (if desired) and just to keep the server going...



For now we will put ALL NBR members in the NBR BF3 Friends list on the reserved list so you can get in and bump anyone else not on the list. If it gets too congested then we will have to restrict reserved list to donations only. But so far we've only had maybe 6 players on at any given time so don't think it will be an issue. HOWEVER, if you don't donate we can't keep the server going.

*** I just started a forum for the "clan" to coordinate and vote on polls, etc. It even has a chat feature. Link here: http://nbrbf3.free-forums.org/

Current Admins:
ValkerieFire
HTWingNut

*** NOTE: This Platoon, Clan, and Server are entirely organized by NBR members and not officially endorsed or supported by NotebookReview.com at all. See the lead moderator's note (Charles P. Jefferies): http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...ield-3-clan-server-thread-10.html#post8048992

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PRACTICE SERVER:
I started a 16 man server with a few friends of mine to practice, but restricted it to 8 players. Didn't realize you can't make them unranked yet, and after I did a bunch of stupid deaths lol. So won't use it as much as I thought I would until they can make it unranked so we don't screw our stats. Started the server basically to practice flying and trying out the vehicles. Feel free to hop in, but it's for practicing only. Don't shoot others unless they confirm it's ok. Me and a few buddies have strict control over it so it may reset or bump to the next map on a whim. Please share the vehicles, and give myself, chiefdog69, and Dohb0y priority if we want it.

It can run with only a single person on the map and set vehicles to respawn at 20% normal time it takes (varies map to map). They are all conquest large maps and most have airplanes and/or helicopters.

PM me for link and password. I only plan on running it for a month, but if it's useful maybe another month, hopefully unranked will be available soon.

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History of this first post below (because it's largely irrelevant now):

Spoiler

11-3-2011: SERVER STARTED (Thanks to ValkerieFire for getting it going):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...field-3-clan-server-thread-4.html#post8041712

11-1-2011: I am looking to spearhead renting an NBR Clan Battlefield 3 server. But before I do I want to get a feel for interest in users here at NBR. I think we need at minimum 32 player server. There will be no set times or days to play at this moment, but basically a server we can call our own and play together.

So please vote if you are seriously interested in contributing on a monthly basis for an NBR server. Also discuss ideas on how to manage this.

A quick search looks like about $50/mo for a 32 player server, so more people we get, the less it will cost us. I think if we can get a dozen or so interested users that are willing to contribute $5/mo we can do this. More users, perhaps larger server and/or a second server if money fits. Or maybe even a regular server and a 16 player practice server or something.

I think a majority of players here will be from North America or Europe, so we will have to take that into consideration too.

NFOServers.com seems to be fairly favored with powerful servers and can get CPU priority for about $50/mo, discounts if you rent it ahead in multiple month segments. It also includes a free website for your clan as well as free 15 slot mumble server.

Users who spend the $5/mo will get admin rights and priority access to the server, so will bump any non-member, if that's possible. I know it was with Bad Company 2.

Thanks.

 

It's a shame EA won't let us host our own servers. I wonder what the hardware requirements for one would even be?

 

I am in. I was more interested to see if I could host my own server since I have the hardware, but I would gladly pay $5/mo if we did it together. If we can get enough people I am definitely in.

SERVER IS UP AND RUNNING... NBR Forum BF3 Chicago Server

 

Count me in

 

Still searching for a job. But if I do get one, I'll definitely contribute to the server.

 

They're probably a lot lower than you think. The rubberbanding occurring now on servers is directly due to the fact that EA in all its wisdom decided to let only a handful of providers host, and obviously shared hosting (multiple game "servers" are actually housed on the same physical server) + a new game = massive stress on server resources. I doubt you'd even need a xeon, I bet a decent i5 home rig would run a server just fine if the net connection was good.

Anyway on topic, I think it's a good idea to have an NBR server and would play on it, it would sure save the hassle of trying to find servers constantly. I know it's more expensive but 64p is where it's at now... were we thinking along the lines of a clan server where we just hang out with other NBR and the odd pub, or a server that attracts pubs and is nearly always full, with priority given to NBR members? An example is that one of my favorited servers is an =eGo= server, because it is a 64p 24/7 conquest server that is always busy and usually has an admin or three playing, meaning nicer players and no griefing.

I'm not sure if I can contribute money right now but I'd def be interested, and like you said the platoon is getting pretty large.

Management ideas, hmm. Like I said above, personally I search for 64p conquest servers with lower ping or recognized names when I go into multiplayer, so we'd need a vote to determine what game mode the server would use (or have a schedule like "monday rush night, tuesday TDM, conquest otherwise"). The max slots will obviously be determined by funds raised, and ping we'd need another vote of some kind to settle on a location (I feel like chicago is a decent choice because it's sort of central to NA). I think you can do the priority slots thing separate of admin, not sure how they've done it in BF3. In either case you'd want a decent amount of admin players so that at any given time there would be one available to kick etc.

 

Im unemployed at the moment but hopefully il have a job to go to after new year or something.
The best i can do is the 100 slot Mumble server im hosting.

And if the server does get hosted in the US, im guessing im looking at a 100 to 130ms delay.

 

My clan has a 64 slot conquest server that you guys are welcome to play on:
Battlelog / Sign in
and a link for those of you who don't have battlelog:
http://www.gametracker.com/server_info/173.199.86.75:25200/

It was full essentially nonstop since launch (and was ranked 28th overall on GameTracker until today) but last night it crashed and wasn't getting listed in Battlelog (and therefore the whatever list "quick match" accesses) so we have been unable to get it populated again. It is running no killcam, no health regen, and FF on for now.
My clan is only a couple of people right now (we used to be a larger BF1942 clan back in the day, but almost all of those members wandered away...). We also have a 72 slot public Teamspeak 3 server that people don't use as much as we would like.


As far as building a server goes: if were possible the issue would not be the hardware of the server itself, but rather the connection. In order for 64 players to have a relatively lag free experience I am pretty sure you would need a very robust connection, most likely something a fair amount better than your typical consumer cable connection.

 

Multigamer.no is the sole provider of Ranked BF3 servers in Norway and they are directly hooked up to AltiBox FiOS ISP.
They also help out Battlefield.no with their free gaming community package.

Even that lagfree connection gives rubberbanding. D;

But i appreciate you sharing the server info with us Mjolner.
Idk what ping i would get connecting to it, but the way i see it in BF3 it doesent really mean anything. xD

 

Yeah its a west coast server so it probably would not work well for those of you in Europe. Members in easter Asia should be better off, but of course right now people get rubberbanding on every server regardless of ping because apparently DICE does not understand how to write proper netcode. I am actually on the east coast of the US and I get a ping of 76 to our server and it seems about as playable as any other server. It seems to lag sometimes and not others, which means it is probably just the same issues that all servers are presently getting, not my connection.

 

I was thinking Chicago as well. Good central location, and great ideas on having different days for different modes. I would like to cycle maps though until we find ones that people like most. It seems there's no way to have reserved or priority slots yet, but should be coming, so having an admin on 24/7 more or less would be important.

Obviously I'd like the people paying to have ultimate priority, as well as admin privileges, but if someone can't pay, then maybe they could be required to have X hours on admin duty to get priority access as well. I'm not sure how all that works though. It would be nice to be able to get a live feed with view of the in-game chat and scoreboard without needing to be in-game.

I'd like to just buy a 6 month slot, it's about $10/mo cheaper that ways (for 32-man), but you have to pay for it all up front. But it would reduce the number of users required to pay, although they'd have to come up with like $25 to $30 up front for those six months. Not sure if that'd be something users could swallow. Plus if we decided to go for a larger game player count not sure if we'd be stuck at 32. 64-player is nice, but maybe 48 player is a good compromise. I find 64-player way too busy, but we'll have to leave that up to the users, and based on income. IMHO if we can't at least get enough interest and money for a 32-player it's not worth it. I think $50-$60/mo is manageable. $100 or so, probably not.

I could possibly start a PayPal donate campaign here to see how many people are actually willing to pay, and refund back if we don't have enough interest. I think we need 50% more users that say are going to donate than we actually need because I'm afraid not 100% will contribute on a monthly basis for whatever reason.

 

I'd be willing to kick in for this if we hosted it in the US.

 

HTWing, I'd definately be down to go for a 6 month server.

 

Hosting location would definitely have to be considered, we have a lot of European players too...

 

i have to buy a laptop and ship it from us to Europe i believe after that i can decide because i still dont know what is going to happen to me without laptop but it would be nice to play with others that you are in a same community for few years.

 

I wonder if US east coast would work.

 

I may talk to the guys at NFOServers and see what they have to say about hosting and European pings. I don't think we'd have enough interest to run both a US and Europe server. New York may be the best, it seems to have a great internet backbone due to the populace there, and possibly a good hub for European packets.

 

I am definitely in to donate, but I think I would rather see a central USA server since I am on the west coast (Las Vegas). However, I think the server should be located to support the majority of the donors, so if we have good turnout from European donors, then I would be in full support of an east coast server.

 

I would be willing to go for a 6 month server for sure, and yes New York is an excellent place to host it.

 

I also think 32-48 slots would be optimal. Although 64 man games are fun, it would increase the overall cost. Some maps are completely unplayable with 64 players, so to maximize our flexibility & map choice & keep initial costs down, I recommend we go 32-48max as Wingnut said before.

 

Looks like we have 10 YES votes for North America. I checked out GamesServers.com. I played on one of their servers and it was very smooth. They allow you to switch server locations 4x per month for free, so we could even move the server around the country until we find a location that works best.

Does anyone have a recommendation on a server provider? I have no experience with this, but gameservers.com seemed average in price and has nice features, plus the pings are good on many servers (I assume the ones that were not were just too far away).

What would people prefer for voice chat? Ventrillo, Team Speak 3, or Mumble?

10x$5 would get a us 32 slot server with a 32 slot voice channel. We can increase the size as we get more donors if necessary.

 

Mumble is probably the best choice of the 3, and we even have a server that deagleson is hosting right now, so some of us already use it. Again I do prefer 64p servers but this depends entirely on funds raised... metro is about the only unplayable map with 64 players, with siene being kind of annoying (mortar spammers) and damavand occasionally being a meatgrinder at C. The larger maps like caspian and firestorm actually feel kind of empty with 'only' 16 per side. So it's a tossup map-wise... smaller maps will feel cramped with 64p, and larger maps will feel empty with less than 64p.

The main thing with 64p servers is that they are what most people look for now, and I was thinking that once it's running if it was always full/stable/popular enough, we could start "selling" reserved slots; I've seen it done on a few servers where the MOTD says "reserve your slot for $x /month".

So it looks like we'd need some kind of voting on the following:

• server location
• game modes and/or scheduled modes
• map rotation
• any special server rules (no kill cam, fast respawn etc)

 

I'd be willing to float $20-$25 the first month to get it going. I just can't afford to pay $25/mo.

And I think we need a minimum of 15 "yes" responses to even consider it because as much as I'd like to think 100% of users will contribute things fall through for any billion number of reasons.

 

I'm in. I can do $5. Where is the server going to be located? I vote US server. I'm near Chicago.

 

I am starting a server now. It will be in Chicago since that is what I've heard the most. If we don't like it, we can switch companies later. Will update this post soon with more info.

EDIT:

I am learning this as I go. Hope this works.

http://www.gametracker.com/server_info/173.199.90.208:25200/

 

Whoa ValkerieFire, way to take initiative! I know we talked briefly, but man you're gunning to go! . Check your PM...

 

Nice! I definately want in on that. Be good to game with some NBR Peeps.

 

Nice! Lets get the name changed on that server and get it rolling. This is great because I was going to start my own server awhile back.

 

Nice! Can't wait to try it out!

 

Trying to get it going now. Going as fast as I can. Will update when I know more.

UPDATE: Got the name in. NBR Forum BF3 Server Chicago

http://www.gametracker.com/server_info/173.199.90.208:25200/


MORE UPDATE:

It's up. Here is the battlelog to get to it.

NBR Forum BF3 Server Chicago

60ms Ping from my work in Las Vegas. I will be back later today. Should be faster for those of you on the east coast.

I have no idea how to change settings yet. It is more complicated than I thought. Will update when I know more.

Also the wait for server function is disabling some servers, so this server provider is not enabling it until it is fixed.

 

Link above is broken, here it is:
Battlelog / Sign in

It is also linked in our platoon page now.
If you need help configuring it let us know.

 

I could pay for the first 2 months to get the ball rolling, on an EU server though.

 

how much would it cost to upgrade to a 64 player server? If you sell reserve slots, you might find it's worth it.

 

Right now no one is on the 32 person one. So I think we should fill it first. But to answer your question this one is $42/month, so 64 would $84.

I will try and learn how to update the game settings.

 

Is there going to be password to get into the server to prevent hackers and such?

 

I was on it, but noone else. I left because I can't do anything unless at least 8 people are playing. Lame rule. I'd be happy just flying around practicing until the server fills up a bit more.

 

So far I don't know how to do any of that. So far I don't see anyone trying to get in. I can make you and WingNut admin's as soon as I figure it out.

I am at Battlelog now. Anyone want to try it out?

I am in now. Anyone else. I can go until 1:45 Pacific time. Then I will be back later.

 

talon and I are in. We need more people.

 

I'm headed home, hopefully can get on soon. Time to send some lead down range. Carry on troops, as you were...

 

3 people are in, need 8 total.

 

Here are the instructions of Deagleson's mumble server.

Download here...

Mumble.com | Mumble Server Hosting

Then enter these settings

imgur: the simple image sharer

 

I will try and reduce the # of players later today. I will be gone for awhile.

 

If you can, the first setting to change would be the map rotation imo, caspian only gets old.

 

Installing Mumble - Mumble

And its best to get air maps only, as they are the best. :3

 

Any PayPal address for server support

 

^^ This!

And btw nice going. I'll try to get on this evening after work. At the moment, it shows 6 players online. Hopefully we get more in as i need ppl to pwn!

 

We need 2 more players to start. D;
Support the game, join it nao!

 

I am actually working at work now, but I will try and implement changes AsAp. Also I made Wingnut an admin, so he can make changes also.

 

I'd get on right now, but I can't at the moment... will try later. Hope this works out.