Continuous value could be added from a few game mechanics:
1. Games could have a true end. One faction wins, game over, server reset.
2. Different maps. Could be worked in the "game over" scenario or could be running concurrently.
3. Different "ages": the game code could adequately work with past, present and futuristic units, giving users different experiences when they play.
As for AWS costs, I really have no idea the kind of load you would get from that game, but given a C3.xlarge is about $175 a month (or less for reserved), I'd be shocked to hear that you cannot serve at least 175 concurrent users from that server-- giving about $1500 a month profit per server utilized. IMO dev costs, engineer time etc will far far outstrip the infrastructure costs.
1. Games could have a true end. One faction wins, game over, server reset. 2. Different maps. Could be worked in the "game over" scenario or could be running concurrently. 3. Different "ages": the game code could adequately work with past, present and futuristic units, giving users different experiences when they play.
As for AWS costs, I really have no idea the kind of load you would get from that game, but given a C3.xlarge is about $175 a month (or less for reserved), I'd be shocked to hear that you cannot serve at least 175 concurrent users from that server-- giving about $1500 a month profit per server utilized. IMO dev costs, engineer time etc will far far outstrip the infrastructure costs.