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

Mors Magne

M
On the MMORPG.com forums there is the perception that ED is not an MMO: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/963/feature/8329/Elite-Dangerous-The-Glorious-Return-to-Frontier.html

I have read about the 'alliance' and 'friend' options on the relevant forum page below and it strikes me that the more players that ED can handle together at once, the more ED will feel like a MMORPG.

(Forum page that explains 'friend' and 'alliance' options: http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6300)

Therefore, how many players will ED be able to handle together at once?

I apologise if this has already been discussed - I couldn't find anything using a brief search on Google.
 

Memnoch

M
32 in an instance at last count. And it will be heavily instance in that regard. There might be hundreds, if not thousands of players in your vicinity at any one time but you will only ever see 31 other human players plus AI pilots. This might change as FD make further improvements to the networking model.

But personally, from what I have seen so far on scenarios with a lot of players, 5+, having a fully populated one would be amazing. Going on a 32 pilot "raid" would be so cool!
 

Dejay

Dejay
Elite Dangerous is certainly a massive multiplayer game. Every MMO has a limitation of how many players you can see and interact with at a time, for ED that's 32 because it's an action game, but ultimately it's the same system for example SWTOR uses.

Unlike other MMOs you won't have multiple servers though, but all players in one big bad galaxy interacting with the simulation and each other.
 

Adept

Adept
Just incase it's not clear, the number of players in the same shared universe is effectively infinite because of the p2p instancing when we meet each other. The actual game-server is just keeping tabs of data and watching out for cheating. Where big traditional MMOs spread the playerbase over a dozen servers, we'll all get to play in the same shared universe :cool:
 

Tinman

Tinman
Yes, 32, but remember that instances are basically a bubble around your ship that is defined by your scanner/visual range. Although the size is somewhat adaptable. This means that there can be players in one instance and another group of players in another instance some distance away. If one player from the first instance starts to travel towards the seconds instance the players in the first instance will eventually drop of his radar due to distance and the other players will eventually come into view. So if the system works as intended this will feel seamless from the players point of view.

In the sol system there could theoretically be thousands of individual instances each with 32 players in them in different locations.

Basically, you are only connected to the players you can visually see or pick up on your radar. Everyone else will pretty much be non-existent UNTIL you get close enough to them that is.

It's also worth to point out that the number 32 only applies to the number of PLAYERS not the number of ships. There can be considerably more AI controlled NPC's flying around. So large scale battles will still be possible. :cool:

And finally. Every player in the game will be connected to the galaxy server that keeps track of "metadata". Trading, news, wars, missions, high level NPCs, political changes and other types of data that affects the galaxy in large will be the same to everyone.

The instance limit (32) is only applied to direct interactions between players.
 

Memnoch

M
Tinman said:
Basically, you are only connected to the players you can visually see or pick up on your radar.
Click to expand...
I don't remember whether it was explained what happens to a player who then goes silent running and "disappears". You might not be able to "see" them anymore, literally if you were looking in the wrong direction but the game would detect that you "could" and therefore they don't fall out of your instance.
 

nsviper

nsviper
Ah i remember the days in DAOC (Dark Age of Camelot) when we finally managed to crash one of the zone servers when we hit about 300v400 fight in one zone on a relic raid...

Regularly had 100+ on each side on keep seiges - used to love that :)
 

Tinman

Tinman
Memnoch said:
I don't remember whether it was explained what happens to a player who then goes silent running and "disappears". You might not be able to "see" them anymore, literally if you were looking in the wrong direction but the game would detect that you "could" and therefore they don't fall out of your instance.
Click to expand...

Ok, I was a bit unclear I guess.

If they are within scanner/visual RANGE they are within the same instance (even if they are hiding). Then there is also a buffert zone beyond this where you will still be connected. The precise size of this can change based on different situations if I have understood it right. If there are few players in the system then I guess these instances could be larger.
 

Ixnatifual

Ixnatifual
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. Particularly the dynamic instancing with a 32 people max. I never call it an "MMO" when I talk about it with people I know because then I know they'll be disappointed when they find out how it really works.

EDIT: Not saying it's bad how it works. I think the game will be great and all.
 
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Cmdr Eagleboy

Cmdr Eagleboy
Ixnatifual said:
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. Particularly the dynamic instancing with a 32 people max. I never call it an "MMO" when I talk about it with people I know because then I know they'll be disappointed when they find out how it really works.

EDIT: Not saying it's bad how it works. I think the game will be great and all.
Click to expand...

Star Wars: The Old Republic which is MMO, have usually even less players on their whole planets, than 32 limit in ED.

ED is MMO. It fits every description.
 

Ixnatifual

Ixnatifual
Pecisk said:
Star Wars: The Old Republic which is MMO, have usually even less players on their whole planets, than 32 limit in ED.

ED is MMO. It fits every description.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure they can have around 200 people in the same zone. It's just that not many play the game these days.
 

Far Traveller

F
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?
 

Cmdr Eagleboy

Cmdr Eagleboy
Ixnatifual said:
Pretty sure they can have around 200 people in the same zone. It's just that not many play the game these days.
Click to expand...

zone has multiple instances, which usually doesn't have more than 80 people, also planets are visually big, you don't see 80 people in one place at once.

MMOs instance players a lot, just not telling them.
 

Fromhell

Fromhell
Pecisk said:
Star Wars: The Old Republic which is MMO, have usually even less players on their whole planets, than 32 limit in ED.
Click to expand...
not a very good game, but I once had 200+ players on Tattooine. It is possible. Fleet station can have around 250+ people before it opens a second instance

Pecisk said:
ED is MMO. It fits every description.
Click to expand...

what´s not an MMO these days... :rolleyes:
Really 32 is not much, maybe will increase some day, but with peer to peer who knows.

Planetside 2 is an MMO, recently a massive battle with easily 150+ people in the open field

32 people is more like a World of Tanks arena
 

Elegan

Elegan
nsviper said:
Ah i remember the days in DAOC (Dark Age of Camelot) when we finally managed to crash one of the zone servers when we hit about 300v400 fight in one zone on a relic raid...

Regularly had 100+ on each side on keep seiges - used to love that :)
Click to expand...

Yeh, I play now (sometime) Lineage2, in time where we have to wait for Premium Beta. There are 8000 players ingame :D thats nice number.. but, if we have 100+ ships in Elite and then we have to wait for docking clearance by Coriolis Station.. I have to make coffee break onto 5 hour :D
 

Cmdr Eagleboy

Cmdr Eagleboy
Ixnatifual said:
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.
Click to expand...

I think publishers don't care how it's called, as it is very popular due of almost insane ad pushing :)

I think we could call ED "online world with persistent universe" and it would be much clearer to understand for everyone, even people not knowing what MMO means.
 
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