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Robert avatar image
Robert asked

Server Authority

So the model I'm working on for multiplayer, is an ARPG, entirely room based. There's no global server/room list. You can only join on a friend (either friends list or invite) and since I intend to use Steam I figured hooking into Photon is probably the best way to go. Photon however told me they suggest using Bolt.

I read up and noticed that PlayFab has custom servers that can be used. I'm trying to decide the best route using PlayFab. If I want a room created only by a player rather than a single server everyone connects to, that can migrate hosts if someone leaves, but with authoritative code (because of course everyone cheats if given the opportunity) what is the best route to go?

Based on the thread here https://community.playfab.com/questions/331/206711347-Persistence-with-server-authority.html I'm guessing option 2 might be my best bet, using cloud script or the client api to make calls into photon. Or would it make more sense to use PlayFabs servers?

I only ask here because I know there are multiple ways to do this and wanted to get a feel for people's recommended way for those of you who've done this before.

Matchmaking
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brendan avatar image
brendan answered

Since you're describing a realtime game that requires server authority, your options would be things like custom game servers or Photon (Enterprise or Bolt), generally speaking. The other post has the main details on those.

Webhooks aren't an effective way to drive server authority for realtime games. They're Web API calls to our service when triggering events occur in Photon Realtime. So, they are not low latency, and the limitation in CPU time and Server API calls means that they're really intended for relatively lightweight operations.

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Robert avatar image Robert commented ·

So it sounds as if Photon Bolt probably is the correct way to go for that outside the custom game servers. Thank you for taking the time to answer.

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brendan avatar image brendan Robert commented ·

It may be, though I would make a list of your requirements to validate against it. For example, if you want to allow for hundreds of players in a room, that may not be the way to go. Also, when using Photon Bolt, you would not use our external game server hosting logic, as Bolt has its own matchmaking service.

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Robert avatar image Robert brendan commented ·

I intend to have no more than 4-5 people in a room at any given time. I would be using PF to grab character info before starting the room and for authentication and other account related items.

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