Hi,



My name is Alexander Hassoon and I’m the Producer on the Rent-a-Server program in Battlefield 1. I wanted to take some time to talk to you about what we have in store for it in in the near future.



Firstly, I need to cover some history! In previous Battlefield titles, Rent-a-Server was handled in-game on console by EA while PC was handled outside the game client by third-party providers. This setup gave PC server admins a large amount of control on the game server but often at the cost of the overall player experience. The console server admins had very little control, but the player experience was very similar to playing on official servers. We all remember how as a player you would end up on a server that did not allow certainly gameplay elements and you would be kicked or banned immediately by accidentally using one of the restricted items!



So the challenge we set to ourselves at DICE was as follows - How can we increase admin control levels while not sacrificing the player experience?



We started by implementing PC Rent-a-Server to the Battlefield 1 game client with the release of the Nov 15 patch. It was a very tough call to make but we felt it had to be done to offer a consistent experience for all players and allowed us control of the admin options there are.



We added a lot of customization options that were not natively available in the game client before, features such as Class Restrictions, Weapon Class Restriction and Explosives Restrictions. Server admins in Battlefield 1 can now control all these options while the players won’t be punished for using them by mistake.



So what does the future hold for the Rent-a-Server program in Battlefield 1?



We will continue working on adding more features and tools as well as a bunch of other cool stuff which we aren’t quite ready to talk about just now.



We see the Rent-a-Server program in Battlefield 1 very much as a live service that will evolve over time based on your feedback, so keep it coming as we hear you loud and clear.



Sincerely

Alexander “Striterax” Hassoon

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