Let's keep servers healthy and players happy with the queue system

[Warlow]

I have a suggestion.

Currently login appears to be a two part process, Validating Steam account & Server login. In ideal situations currently, you would validate steam, connect to login server and if there's a queue, you'd be slotted in and be given a reconnect timestamp to reconnect automatically. Unfortunately with the sheer amount of people smashing that login button, if the steam validation fails (and does frequently) the queue position resets and the player spends longer pinging that steam server validation and login server both.

If instead the steam validation provided a token valid for 24 hours (or less, it's your gig) a player could skip the steam validation step and immediately enter the queue gate to either connect or wait in position as intended.

Best case scenario, if the player has validated they won't contribute to the DDOS effect on the steam validation gateway & will also not reset in queue position if that step fails. Happy server, happy customers.

Worst case scenario, as far as I can think of, a player refunds or sub expires within the 24 hour (or whatever you set it to) period and gets free access until their next token validation. In the event of a sub expiry, you could simply add the expiry information to the token and let the login server decline if it's expired. Either way, it leads to less issues with the login process and a happier first-in-first-serve customer base.

I hope it's a workable idea, thanks for reading!

 

[Warlow]

I've been thinking... It could even be simpler. Let the gameserver give you a token when you get put in queue that allows you to skip the steam validation while the queue position token is still valid.

 

[Roland]

I think Steam validation should be done first and foremost. Then after that's done the player should then be handed over with a session ID to the login/character server. Would isolate a lot of issues I think and prevent hammering of the login server which needs to handle a lot of things like the queue and fetching account and character data from the database.

That being said, I would also appreciate a small improvement in form of auto-reconnect feature, the game should continue to try to connect without us having to click "Login" button all the time. Chances are that if someone tries to login, they want to continue to do it while in main menu.