Converting from Unity Host to my own

I am building a POC game at the moment - FPS multiplayer, very basic and straight forward - and have done so with the new UNET system.

I see that I am currently using the Unity Multiplayer server for hosting (the one that's currently giving 100 cc for free) and want to know how I will progress with this after the free usage is stopped?

My game will allow players to create their own game, making them the server/host at the same time, so not entirely sure as to what Unity's hosting is doing?

Pretty new to networking (the next step for me) so please forgive my noobishness.

 

Well technically Unity does not host your games in this scenario - it only provides you with a matchmaking service that allows you to connect to each other player. If you are not interested in this service then you will be able to write your own matchmaking backend.

Since no official information has been provided by Unity at this stage, I guess they will have some sort of Free tier to choose from with a limited CCU number. On the Unet website it says that 100 CCU will be included in the Pro level tier. Based on my experience with other networking solutions I think that they will have a limit of 10 or 20 CCU for the Free tier plan. So you would be able to have 20 users playing your game at the same time instead of 100.

If this is not enough or you want to write your own backend then I suggest to take a look at this thread where someone has tried to write his or her own MasterServer http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/master-server-sample-project.331979/#post-2173137

 

Ok, so the Unity service is matchmaking - is this storing some form of link from player a to players b, c and d or what? Sorry, as I say I'm new to networking. If this is all it is doing, why is there any need for a MasterServer? Can I not script in a "find open room" function and connect directly to it?

Probably be really obvious when you tell me, but doesn't quite make sense in my head at the moment exactly what the Unity service is doing.

 

They must have a free limit of nearly 20 CCU the reason for that is we can't actually code without testing the script and
they absolutely know that
banding free users from using the matchmaker system is an unprofessional move
lets just hope that they will make it cheap for a decent amount of CCUs
not more than 20$ a month for 200 CCU i hope