Ive just starting documenting for a game. I have some questions about a server that can hold 500 people and is possible 2D. How much per month would a server like that cost? would it be better to cut the map info 4 sections each having their own, smaller server? could it possibly be cheaper that 1 server for the world? The only thing about the 4 smaller serves that concern is what if everybody was at the same spot? Thanks in advance for the help!

Not the correct place to ask. :(

Hrm... moving you to... Hardware Discussion.

Well, the issues you face are: Just what is the server DOING with these connections? What does it have to process?


a 2D game can be basically nothing more than an IRC chat system, and you can have a fairly low end server and many hundreds of connections, even thousands maybe? (I'm not really sure)

And then you could have a real-time game like Worms, with lots of perpixel collision detections, and have the same server struggling to handle 32 players.


How much data per minute does each connection require, what is the spread of that data? (is it short bursts of all the data in a second every minute? is it a constant trickle of data over the whole minute?)

How much server side processing must be done for each connection? How does this relate to the number of other players on at the same time? (If you have 1 person, it takes 1x of time, if you have 2, it is 2x, 3, 3x? Maybe 2 gets you 1y, 3 3y, 4, 4y, 5 5y? This would be bad as you likely know, and your sever will crawl along and beg for you to just get it over and put it down)