State of art for user-server multiplayer

I want to make a game where people can set up their own servers, like Ark or Eco
including Asset Store assets, what's the current state of art?

I don't want/need/care for cloud services, I want the end user to set up his own servers on his own accord without the meddling of a third party, unless he himself goes after it. (I believe this criteria removes PUN and PUN 2 from the list of available assets) EDIT: It seems all of photon solutions are excluded somehow by this limitation, even the "host your own server on your own machine" have a max CCU cap on the licence. If I am hosting my own server on my own machine, why do I need to pay a monthly subscription or even why do I need to limit how many users can use it? Why and how do it even keep track of how many users are using it? They really should clear up that, it sounds really slimy as it's written, hopefully I am very wrong about how it works

I will only consider FREE or ONE-TIME-PAY assets, no subscriptions will even be considered

 

You'll most likely want a headless Unity server then; probably with Mirror or Enet. There are of course other choices out there, and your decision will probably be based on your game's specific needs.

 

Mirror sounds pretty cool, gonna check it out

 

"State of the art" would be a custom network solution you write yourself, which is tailored to the requirements of your game. That is likely the most difficult approach to get right, unless you have some previous experience with networking.

Because their revenue model is subscription based, and they charge more for higher CCU. Though CCU is only a concern if you don't want an unlimited CCU license ($175/mo for self hosted).

 

I do have the experience, and will probably end up going this route, but let me tell you, this takes a whole lot of time i'd rather spend making the game instead.

They actually seem to have the best solution that I'd gladly use were not for the licencing they use. It's not mine nor anyone's else problem who or where people are playing my game, and I doubt they don't have a way to get all of the IPs of everyone playing my game if I were to use their tools, after all, it's a per CCU licence, they are bound to keep track of who when and where people play any game using their solution, even the "self hosting" version of it

 

Absolutely. You don't necessarily need "state of the art" to get an acceptable experience by the way.

I'm with you on this. It is a lot of money to commit to every month when the majority of indie games result in a financial loss. I personally think Photon is missing out on some revenue where many people would actually buy an unlimited CCU self hosted license for a one time expense of $500 to $1000.