What is new about OT servers (december 2024 version)?

[MutantAssassin]

Hi, everyone! It's been a while since I last tinkered with OT servers. Even though it was just a hobby for me, I still miss it—it was a lot of fun. So, here I am, trying (once again) to dive back into this world. To do that, I need to understand what’s changed.

The last time I attempted this, I wrote a thread asking what was new in the OT server scene. Unfortunately, at that time, I couldn't dedicate myself to this hobby. Now, four years have passed, so I guess it’s time to ask the same question again.

What should I know about the current state of OT servers compared to the good old days when Tibia was at versions 8.6 or 8.7? Are open-source clients well-developed enough to handle the latest protocol versions (like the one used in TFS 1.6)? How powerful is LUA scripting nowadays? Will I need fewer source code edits to implement cool features in my server?

I’ve also noticed that most tutorials these days focus on remote server hosting. Back in the day, only a few (mostly professional) servers were hosted remotely—most projects were amateur and ran on home internet connections. Is that no longer feasible? Would hosting a server this way just result in immediate DDOS attacks, rendering it unusable?


Cheers,

Assassina Mutante.

 

[Bloodbringer]

it used to be about having fun and now it's all about earning money

 

[Handicap Ninja]

$=√666

it used to be about having fun and now it's all about earning money

 

[Gesior.pl]

Back in the day, only a few (mostly professional) servers were hosted remotely—most projects were amateur and ran on home internet connections. Is that no longer feasible?

I would say no. Only test servers are hosted at home PCs.
Home connections were hard to configure to make OTS available from internet 15 years ago and they are still hard to configure.
10-15 years ago VPSes/dedics were expensive. Now you can get VPS server that can host RL map for 100-500 online for 5-10$ per month. Running slow laptop (~10 W/hour) at home 24/7 would consume more electric power that this VPS costs. Now even talking about running PC (30-150W/hour).

Would hosting a server this way just result in immediate DDOS attacks, rendering it unusable?

For last ~7 years you could just buy OVH.com VPS or dedic and it was enough to stop DDoSes on server with 500 online.
There were attacks on 1000+ online servers that went thru OVH anti-ddos, but they were costly, so only biggest servers were attacked and they often lasted only few minutes. They were often bought by competition, just to make OTS offline, not to get any money for 'stopping attack'.

But around 3 months ago there appeared a guy who DDoSes all OTSes, even small OTSes with 10-20 online and asks for money on Discord.
To stop him, you must buy multiple VPSes (4-15, each for 5-20$) in different datacenters, add OTCv8 proxy to your client+server and configure network between your VPSes, to make them all work as one big anti-ddos system protecting OTS.

How powerful is LUA scripting nowadays? Will I need fewer source code edits to implement cool features in my server?

Scripting is faster as now you can use objects in Lua, not some numbers (cid, pid etc.). So modern programmers who are used to object-oriented programming can read and write code faster.
Disadvantage is that improper variable management in Lua can cause the server to crash - it wasn't possible on old engines with IDs in place of objects. Problem with TFS 0.x scripts converted to 1.x and TFS 1.x Lua programming I described here: [TFS 1.x+] How to NOT write LUA scripts or how to crash server by LUA script (https://otland.net/threads/tfs-1-x-how-to-not-write-lua-scripts-or-how-to-crash-server-by-lua-script.271018/)

 

[MutantAssassin]

For last ~7 years you could just buy OVH.com VPS or dedic and it was enough to stop DDoSes on server with 500 online.
There were attacks on 1000+ online servers that went thru OVH anti-ddos, but they were costly, so only biggest servers were attacked and they often lasted only few minutes. They were often bought by competition, just to make OTS offline, not to get any money for 'stopping attack'.

But around 3 months ago there appeared a guy who DDoSes all OTSes, even small OTSes with 10-20 online and asks for money on Discord.
To stop him, you must buy multiple VPSes (4-15, each for 5-20$) in different datacenters, add OTCv8 proxy to your client+server and configure network between your VPSes, to make them all work as one big anti-ddos system protecting OTS.

May all the worst things happen to this guy. He’s practically made it impossible for any "for fun" server to exist, leaving only professional servers able to handle these kinds of expenses. This undermines the very foundation of our community. Honestly, I’ve almost completely lost the motivation to work with OT servers again.

Scripting is faster as now you can use objects in Lua, not some numbers (cid, pid etc.). So modern programmers who are used to object-oriented programming can read and write code faster.
Disadvantage is that improper variable management in Lua can cause the server to crash - it wasn't possible on old engines with IDs in place of objects. Problem with TFS 0.x scripts converted to 1.x and TFS 1.x Lua programming I described here: [TFS 1.x+] How to NOT write LUA scripts or how to crash server by LUA script (https://otland.net/threads/tfs-1-x-how-to-not-write-lua-scripts-or-how-to-crash-server-by-lua-script.271018/)

Thanks for replying.

Assassina Mutante.

 

[Gesior.pl]

This undermines the very foundation of our community.

Yes. You can get 2 cores 4 GB RAM Cloud server in hetzner.com for 3.29 EUR per month - which can handle 8.6 RL map or any evo server with 100-200 online - , but you can't host it without 20-50 EUR network of server to protect from DDoSes (+ spending few hours to configure all these servers, their network, they antiddos filters etc.)

 

[MutantAssassin]

Despite the troubling news about criminals using DDOS attacks for extortion - effectively killing amateur servers, which are the heart of our community - I’m still eager to learn about the current state of open-source OT clients and how well they are developed to support servers running both newer and older protocols.

Cheers,
Assassina Mutante.