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

[Dejay]

Like I said, you go tell the average gamer that 32 players is an mmo and they'd look at you funny.

But it's more than 32 players.

BTW you avoided answering my question. If it would show 35 players on screen instead of 32, would it be a MMO then? Or what number would you say? 40? 45? 50? 99? Maybe from 99 to 100?

It almost seems to me that people want ED to be different from all other games, especially those other nasty MMOs.

 

[Hellhawk666]

Whether ED is an MMO just comes down to one's definition of what constitutes an MMO in the first place. If the simultaneous presence of a very large number of players is critical (and a large number of gamers would say that it is) then no, by that definition E:D isn't an MMO. However if the defining characteristic is the potential for meeting a massive number of other players over time, then yes, it is. By either definition E:D is certainly an MO, but maybe not an MMO.

From the little that I have experienced of the networking system in alpha, instancing is like playing on a multitude of private servers, each with a limit of 32 players, and with your game being handed across between servers as you move about. This isn't strictly accurate as the instance travels with you, but it doesn't feel like you are in a "bubble".

In the final game you will encounter other ships as you fly between destinations, and occasionally some of them will be other players. I don't think there will be a restricted feeling to this, in fact I think it will feel very open and convincing, but there will definitely not be the experience of massive space battles between fleets of hundreds of ships.

 

[Dejay]

If upload speeds where higher, there would be more players allowed. You simply wait for upload speeds to get higher, change a config setting and suddenly ED graduates from MO to MMO?
For the classification of what a game is, the game design is important, not performance limitations. That's like saying Elite wasn't a 3D game because it was only wireframe

 

[SzaryWilk]

Bob_H, Nauht and others .... I see that you still do not understand what it means MMO

MMO does not depend on the number of players, is not a 32 / 200 or 1000 players....
MMO does not depend on the type of servers....
MMO does not depend on Peer-to-Peer networking.....
and.... and....and...

MMO is the name of a complex interaction between players, communication interaction, economic interaction, fight between players, political interaction, social interaction..and...and....

Elite dangerous is MMO game because it will have all these elements interact between players these are the facts

So it looks. I see that there are people who want to change the facts and diminish the importance of the ED as an MMO.

 

[pompomJuice]

Feels like MMO to me

 

[Juniper]

It's all semantics. If you want to call it an MMO, fine. If you want to call it an FPO, fine. If you want to call it a banana milkshake, that's fine too.

I'll be playing this MMO predominantly single player offline, so I don't really care what you call it.

 

[Nauht]

And again third time I'm saying this - to the average gamer and layperson whi doesn't know about Elite and maybe dabbles in MMOs or even a hardcore MMO player this is not an MMO.

Complex game mechanics that suck you in? Other games have that in abundance. Dedicated servers? Other games have that with more players.

What defines a MMO is the number of players you can interact with at once.

I'll answer the question of how many players if some of you will answer mine - how many players make it a MMO? Not 32. Way too small. BF4/COD hosts more.
Game mechanics? Any Total War or Civ series has more depth.

Why have FD themselves chosen to market the game only as multiplayer?

It's only the fans here that are touting it as a MMO.

And no-one's taken up my challenge in posting in Reddit or some other general gaming site to argue that 32 players constitutes a MMO. I'd love to see what the guys at MMORPG.com thinks.
Probably cos deep down you know that it ain't so and you deep down you know that the general gaming populace wouldn't class it as such either.

Let me know when the game officially supports greater than 64, then we can have a serious discussion about whether this is a MMOG or not.

But it seems there is no convincing some people. Meh, if it helps you enjoy the game better who am I to take that away from you with reality?

 

[Nauht]

Bob_H, Nauht and others .... I see that you still do not understand what it means MMO

MMO does not depend on the number of players, is not a 32 / 200 or 1000 players....
MMO does not depend on the type of servers....
MMO does not depend on Peer-to-Peer networking.....
and.... and....and...

MMO is the name of a complex interaction between players, communication interaction, economic interaction, fight between players, political interaction, social interaction..and...and....

Elite dangerous is MMO game because it will have all these elements interact between players these are the facts

So it looks. I see that there are people who want to change the facts and diminish the importance of the ED as an MMO.

Really?

ED will have a persistent world with a persistent economy with a marketplace/auction house feature? What about social aspects such as the ability to form groups of friends or guilds?

What about a persistent world?

 

[Dejay]

Really?

ED will have a persistent world with a persistent economy with a marketplace/auction house feature? What about social aspects such as the ability to form groups of friends or guilds?

What about a persistent world?

Yes yes and yes.

 

[Lochemage]

I think if you take the mechanics of the networking that happens under the hood, it may seem a lot like a multiplayer game rather than an MMO. Players host sessions and there is p2p networking to handle most of the grunt work.

However, if you just take what a player would see in the end result, everything points to MMO. You have a persistent world that is the same or a continuation of what it was when you played the other day. Your location within the world, faction status, and the equipment you had before remain persistent.

 

[Nauht]

Yes yes and yes.

I should clarify that - persistent online world.
Guilds or organisations?
Online marketplace/AH where you can put up items for sale then log off, come back a week later to see if anyone's bought your items - thus affecting the universe economy.
Economy that moves if you log off.

Basically everything online and not saved to your HD.

Will I read about some fantasic raid or battle or discovery by another player because I've been offline due to other commitments? Will my guild go explore and discover some new area that they can then mine but protect from other online players without me being online? Will they raid another person's capital ship and share me the loot when next I'm on?

 

[tooterfish]

So to clarify... You're not asking if Elite is an MMO, you're asking if it's EvE Online? That's so obviously a loaded question it's not worth answering.

I will say the worst thing an MMO can do is try to be another MMO.

 

[Nauht]

So to clarify... You're not asking if Elite is an MMO, you're asking if it's EvE Online? That's so obviously a loaded question it's not worth answering.

I will say the worst thing an MMO can do is try to be another MMO.

Eh? Strawman much?

I never mentioned anything about EVE at all. All those things listed are features in most if not all MMOs.

Insert EVE/GW2/SWTOR or whatever real MMO is out there.

 

[tooterfish]

It isn't a strawman, you seem to be setting up the question in a way you know has to be answered no. I apologise if that wasn't what you were doing, but this discussion has done the rounds a billion times.

If you want a real answer, none of those things is what makes an MMO an MMO (it's not an MMO without an auction house?)

Elite's universe is persistent, all online players share and affect the same universe and they can all meet seamlessly and dynamically. That's an MMO. It's got nothing to do with auction houses or guilds or "raiding" or any other superfluous nonsense.

Yes, the economy will move whether you're online or not. The prices of commodities will rise and fall in reaction to famines, wars, new worlds colonized, new resources found... no doubt player actions will have effects too, but they're not the centre of the universe like a certain other game.

Will I read about some fantasic raid or battle or discovery by another player because I've been offline due to other commitments?

How do I know what you'll read? Battles and discoveries will no doubt be going on if that's what you mean...

Will my guild go explore and discover some new area that they can then mine but protect from other online players without me being online?

Again I don't know, you'd better ask them that... but they could if they wanted to.

Will they raid another person's capital ship and share me the loot when next I'm on?

Boarding is an expansion... but, probably eventually. If that's their bag. Or maybe they'll get hooked on Bake Off and make everyone some nice cupcakes.

 

[Lobstris]

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.

I completely agree with this. I'd have been perfectly happy with a primarily single player game, with multiplayer confined to limited 'add-on' missions running via dedicated server. The current p2p system seems like a bit of a mess.

 

[SzaryWilk]

Really?

ED will have a persistent world with a persistent economy with a marketplace/auction house feature? What about social aspects such as the ability to form groups of friends or guilds?

What about a persistent world?

If the game have auction system is the MMO game, if not have...this is not a MMO game ?? otherwise you can not trade ??

If the game have "built" clan system is the MMO game, if not have...this is not a MMO game ?? without it, you can probably also have friends with whom you can enjoy the game ??

It seems to me that for You only MMO game is EVE Online

 

[Dejay]

AFAIK you actually will be able to sell / buy exploration data to players.

But of course a global (or rather galactic) trading network doesn't really fit, since it would basically contradict what the player is doing: Trading by moving cargo.
A global auction house or trading network would require a kind of instant / quick delivery system.

Ergo, there there can never be a realistic space trading MMO since it can't have an auction house. It can't be done!

 

[Patrick_68000]

In the same spirit, I would be curious to know how many players can jump together, in the hyperspace