Networking Solution?? unet? pun+ ? bolt?

okay so iam a total noob about networking.
Target Platform: PC

reading things i become confused about something:

so.. what i want is, the way games used to always have it, you click Multiplayer -> a server list comes up like:

ScreamingEagles101st Carentan 24/7 - 10/16 players - 46 ping - ipaddress 123.46.7892:62002
WehrmachtSuperTroopers - 11/16 players - 62 ping - ipaddress 165.43.3292:62002
FuntimesFreeBeerSquad - 15/16 players - 82 ping - ipaddress 135.32.6432:62002


right..

i dont want peer2peer matchmaking, i dont want matchmaking, i dont want whatever BS

so that requires a master server??
... but .. theres ANCIENT games that still have a serverlist like that that i Highly doubt theyre still running a master server ??? hows that work??

is master server just for p2p matchmaking??

i want the networking where 50 years from now someone can still just type in your buddies ip address and it connects.. (like the original command and conquer still works)

anyway... matchmaking is annoying and sucks (from my experience gaming) and i want the old style

so many things talk about a master server, but i dont think its required .. cause seriously, westwood is dead.
iam noob and confused.
-thanks!

like here it says Zeus master server ... i dont want that
and it says "Bolt can be setup without Zeus server in a pure client to server architecture as well. This would require to develop your own components for matchmaking and scaling."
https://www.photonengine.com/en/Bolt


btw ... it Appears that bolt is what i want?? and its on sale for half off til Jan 4th

 

they always talk about master server because they want to advertise that they support matchmaking etc ??
and its not required or something??

its a mobile games thing?? (iam only interested in PC, so thats all my knowledge is in)

anyway .. i want internetless LAN, and serverlists with IP addresses
type in IP address -> connects

 

You can set multiplayer up in 5 minutes. Just add empty game object, add network manager and network manager HUD components to it. Add a simple player prefab, drag it to network manager player slot. Done. You can now connect to host by IP address, without matchmaking services.

List of local LAN servers , not as easy but I believe it can be done with multicasting.

 

Most games that feature "master servers" have a separate application that handles all of the server stuff. A popular term for this is "Dedicated Server".

Even if the original company or hosting service is long gone, if the game is still being supported, that means that their Dedicated Server is run on another machine and hosted elsewhere.

All the game has to do is call to a different address.

Like @FStar says, getting multiplayer to work on LAN is pretty straightforward and it'll also work just fine over the internet if you allow players to manually enter IP addresses.

There's hardly any differences in the various ways a game is hosted for multi-player; since most (if not all) use the same protocol. If you're using UNet, you won't be able to do peer-to-peer but your game will support everything else.

 

I can recommend my networking http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/atom-networking.379063/