How many players will ED be able handle together at once?

[Fromhell]

Interestingly, World of Tanks often markets itself as an MMO, which I think is total . I can understand how someone can think of ED an MMO, but not WoT.

of course it´s .

32 players =/= MMO

For me "massively" multiplayer starts around 100+ being able to interact in one place

besides...
http://games.on.net/2012/11/elite-d...nt-an-mmo-closer-to-things-like-call-of-duty/

no one would call CoD an MMO either

 

[Ixnatifual]

From that article:

David Braben has big plans for Elite: Dangerous, including taking his open-world space exploration premise multiplayer. But speaking to VG247, Braben said he’s not making a rival to EVE Online.

“This isn’t an MMO. You’ll be able to load and save your position, and you’ll be able to choose who you play with. It’s a very different thing, and it’s got more common with the way people tend to play things like Call of Duty,” he said.

 

[-o-]

I remember when ED first launched on KS, FD were out there saying ...

"We already have a large team who are very experienced at delivering complicated projects, and the key high-risk components (like networking) are already in place."

It is now 2 years later, and its probably safe to say that the networking component has been misplaced.

Personally, and I know I am in the minority here, I wish they had never designed the game around a p2p networking system. They should have focussed on making the best possible SP game, then added a MP layer on top of that where a bunch of your friends can join a local server.

After all, thats what the bulk of this MP will consist of - a group of friends playing together to acheive a common aim, rather than a pvp battlezone. DB even said that himself recently, so if we going to focus on a co-op MP type of game, why did they complicate, and degrade the game's potential, by binding it to this p2p system.

Maybe he was looking at these huge EVE MP games where 4000+ players are on at the same time and was hoping to eventually scale to that level.

The more players in a game at once, the less control you have of any outcome. Does it really matter if there are 400 NPCs in your field of view, or (200 NPCs + 200 players). Does it really matter if you are involved in a massive battle to take down a capital ship with 200 other people, or just with 195 NPCs + 5 players. For me I would prefer the 5 player scenario as I would feel more involved, but on the other hand, I never did jump on that facebook fad - is that still going?

 

[Mysturji]

So how will the 32 players per instance rule be applied on the Official Release Date, when thousands upon thousands of nostalgic gamers all converge on Lave Orbital Station to wipe a collective tear from their eye?

 

[metatheurgist]

The more players in a game at once, the less control you have of any outcome. Does it really matter if there are 400 NPCs in your field of view, or (200 NPCs + 200 players). Does it really matter if you are involved in a massive battle to take down a capital ship with 200 other people, or just with 195 NPCs + 5 players. For me I would prefer the 5 player scenario as I would feel more involved, but on the other hand, I never did jump on that facebook fad - is that still going?

Over time I hope to get to know lots of commanders, not just the friends I'll play with regularly. One day, when that Thargon battle fleet cruises into a system and all players are asked to front up, it would be awesome to dive into a massive furball and not only see my regular squad in attendance, but also other people I've met and their groups in the fray. It'll give the whole thing a lot more of a "band of brothers" feel.

 

[nsviper]

Pretty sure they can have around 200 people in the same zone. It's just that not many play the game these days.

Server i'm on regularly has multiple instances on fleet (3 or more), new instance open up if it hits 200 in any one...

 

[Iain M Norman]

It can manage over 100 in testing, but starts to verge on not being fun. It's currently set around 15. A final number is not yet settled on.

Via conversations with devs at Baftas.

 

[Juniper]

Clearly it's a subjective thing - what constitutes an MO versus an MMO? How many people at once? 10? 30? 100? 1000?

To me it's just a label. When people ask me "Is E: D an MMO" I usually respond with "Yes, but with a few caveats" and then go on to list the differences with a traditional client/server MMO like EVE or Everquest.

It's horses for courses anyway. If the alpha has taught me anything, it's that I'm most likely going to play alone or with a few friends.

 

[Dejay]

Server i'm on regularly has multiple instances on fleet (3 or more), new instance open up if it hits 200 in any one...

AFAIK that's actually not even the sharding they use. SWTOR uses an engine that not only instances maps but ALSO limits the number of players in a room / area and putting them in separate "shards" that can be split on different servers.

of course it´s .

32 players =/= MMO

For me "massively" multiplayer starts around 100+ being able to interact in one place

I've never seen 100 players actually interacting with anything ever in any MMO. A mmo is rather defined by lots of players inhabiting the same game universe and not having "lobbies" to start a session. The number of players visible on screen is just a numeric difference.

But I know you're just trolling

Clearly it's a subjective thing - what constitutes an MO versus an MMO? How many people at once? 10? 30? 100? 1000?

How about 1.000.000 in the same galaxy? Because that's the real number not the 32 in the same instance.

 

[Hamerstein]

Could someone explain what would happen if two instances of players meet and the new instance is too small?

What I mean is - say 20 people are flying around in a group and they can all see each other - that's an instance, right? So what happens if another group of 20 people meet them. They won't all fit into the new instance, will they?

It depends on the relationship between each group of 20 people. Sessions (instances) are determined by proximity and the grouping structure of those in the session.

If both groups of 20 players were in their own alliances (see grouping rules) and they intersected each other's locations, they would retain discreet sessions. If some were in smaller alliances or solo, then the players would form new sessions, ideally 2, containing 32 players and the other 8. Exactly who ended up where is determined by other rules (favorable latencies with the session handler, size of alliance, inclusion lists, ignore lists etc.).

Hope that helps.

 

[Im_Lost]

I've never seen 100 players actually interacting with anything ever in any MMO. A mmo is rather defined by lots of players inhabiting the same game universe and not having "lobbies" to start a session. The number of players visible on screen is just a numeric difference.

The ONLY MMO I've ever played where having 100s of players fighting the same battle and it actually work is Planetside 2. But they have a Sony sized budget behind it, which Frontier don't.

There is litterly nothing else like it though, which makes for some amazing sights. You see scenes like this in no other game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6dDMkwklQ0 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA2rb9P5V-o
Considering each of those large ships hold 12 people, plus the armies on the ground. That is quite a technological achievement

 

[Gibbonici]

Elite isn't marketing itself as an MMO and I think this is on purpose because when you say "MMO" lots of people will have very specific expectations, not all of which Elite will fulfill.

I completely agree with this. Many of the discussions about guilds and PvP in ED are based on the MMO experience and may well have no context in the kind of game ED is going to be. Or they might. We just don't know, but I do think it's a mistake to assume that traditional MMO features and issues will automatically have a place in ED in their traditional forms.

 

[ste]

I dont know about anyone else but this part of the game confuses the hell out of me, even after reading all the explanations.

If I play by myself could I see 100,000s of different players in a session, (are we all playing the same game at the same time) but only 31 players at any one time?

Is that how it works?

 

[Dejay]

If I play by myself could I see 100,000s of different players in a session, (are we all playing the same game at the same time) but only 31 players at any one time?

Yes, a bit like as if the game would stop rendering after the 31st ship.

 

[Juniper]

How about 1.000.000 in the same galaxy? Because that's the real number not the 32 in the same instance.

As I said, it's a subjective thing. A million people might be playing Half Life 2 at the same time, but if they never see each other in-game then it's a moot point.

 

[ste]

Yes, a bit like as if the game would stop rendering after the 31st ship.

That sounds like a good enough solution to me, as with space this big how often are more than 32 players going to be in the same place at the same time. Probably not that often by chance.

EA were trying to pass Simcity off as an MMO, and thats lucky to have 4 players at the same time.

 

[Fromhell]

I've never seen 100 players actually interacting with anything ever in any MMO. A mmo is rather defined by lots of players inhabiting the same game universe and not having "lobbies" to start a session. The number of players visible on screen is just a numeric difference.

you´re obviously not playing MMOs then. Or your servers are dead.
1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KnOiJp6QnA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws5XbzrZiDw

2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLqb-m1ZZUA&feature=youtu.be&t=8m9s

3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhXzuOFvlFE&feature=youtu.be&t=2m27s
(count the dots)

 

[deusx_ophc]

there are and there have been games trying hard at massively, even old school mmorpg like daoc had 120-150 players in one screen and 500 fighting big historic sieges.

but all that has nothing (or little) to do with ed. ed is an instanced game, massivley will only be the galaxy and the total number of players shaping its course.

 

[el_tel]

Eliteangerous is an FPO

 

[nats]

But what happens if you are see a dogfight ahead with 31 ships in it and you join them and then someone else comes in as well? How does it pick and choose which player to drop out of your instance?

And what happens from your perspective - will the ship furthest away from you just disappear?

And what will happen from that players perspective? Will another ship a distance from him disappear instead?

And what would happen if you were in that ship that doiisappearee fromthe instance - would all the other ships around you just disappear and you would find yourself in another instance instead with different ships?

So you will constantly see ships disappearing and appearing?

I dont understand this at all really. Is the 32 visible ship limit based from your perspective or is it based on an area in space? So could you for example have two lots of 32 ships fighting in the same space in another instance at the same time? And will they swap between the two instances or not? Is it like two separate dimensions in the game? How do these dimensions interract or cant they?

Flipping confusing.