Poplock per empires and server

[Sabrak]

I don't think it has been discussed, and I was wondering about that.

How do you guys think the poplock will be working, or how do you want it to work?


We know that they aim to have 1999 (2000?) players per continent, 6000 per server, and we all seem to take for granted that every empire will be even (666vs666vs666(667?)).
It would mean the poplock per empire is at 666.

But what if it was higher?
Say, 800.
We'd then see some battles around 800vs600vs600, or 800vs700vs500.

If empires populations are pretty even like it often was in PS1, then we'd have one empire overpopulated on a continent, while being underpopulated in another.


Also, about the 6000 players per server.
What will happen once the server is full?

We'd have three continents with 2000 players on each, which would be pretty epic.
But it'd also mean you couldn't leave a continent to join another one, except if you plan on wasting your time queueing.
It'd also imply not being able to kick the enemies out of the continent (not even some of them) because they couldn't even leave if they wanted to.

So wouldn't it be interesting to turn the maximum number of players per server down a bit?
All continents wouldn't always be full with 2000 players, which might open things up by allowing us to sometimes change continents when we want/need to.



TLDR: I think that a higher empire poplock per continents and a slightly lower global population per servers could make the global strategy metagame more interesting.


Your thoughts?

[SgtExo]

I dont think we will often see that the servers a currently full because not everyone that is in that server will be logged on at the same time. Meaning that even if the server population roster is listed as full (6000 characters exist in that server) I would rely be surprised to see all those ppl being played at the same time.

[megamold]

usually the "full server problem" get fixed by only allowing slightly more players on a server then there are playable slots ( so 6000 slots on a server , max server players : 7000 )
because of low pop and high pop hours the server should never be really full.

[Trafalgar]

Usually in a f2p game there are vastly more existing characters than characters who actually play, so I don't think that would work very well, unless you're referring to a 1000 player login queue, rather than 7000 characters being allowed to exist for each server after which no more can be created.

Login queues wouldn't really fix anything with regard to per-continent caps if per-empire caps are balanced and pop caps between continents are also the same, if the server stayed at the max online cap all the time, anyways, since at no time would it allow more than a maximum limit of players for any faction online, or 666 of any faction on a particular continent, if that's how it works.

(I doubt we'll have to worry about it unless pretty much everyone all goes to one server, though... which I could see happening if all the outfits go to the same server to be able to compete and cooperate with each other)

[Sledgecrushr]

The total pop of a server might be closer to maybe 20k people? With only about 25% on at any given time.

[Ajaks]

Also, how would the additional continents impact the cap? We know they plan to add additional continents as the game progresses. Will the server cap increase each time a continent is added? If we're assuming 6k players based on 3 continents at 2k per, will it be 20k when the game reaches 10? Will full servers become "empty" everytime a landmass is added until the population catches up to the increase?

[Sledgecrushr]

This is why I want to be able to change servers without having to pay. If your server is dead then you and your outfit can pull out and head for another server. If its done really cool then this could really enhance the depth and immersion you feel in the game.

[Anubisstargate]

So I was just wondering, is it really 6K pop per server? 2K per continent? I thought it was just 2K per server.

Has that been said on any website? Because I cannot see anything said about a 6K server limit.

[Zaerath]

So I was just wondering, is it really 6K pop per server? 2K per continent? I thought it was just 2K per server.

Has that been said on any website? Because I cannot see anything said about a 6K server limit.

I don't know that it has been explicitly stated, but they have said that three continents are shipping at launch, and that they are "aiming for" 2000 players per continent - just some basic math.

[Anubisstargate]

Yeah I've heard that but I assumed they made the mistake of either meaning per server as they are focusing video's on one continent or they really can make 6K pop per server, which means they really have completely seperated the continents from the others and it's in seperate sections of the server kinda like a world's thing in minecraft.

[Aesir]

Most MMO's have "one" cluster of servers under the name of one. Taking other games like WoW as an example, each region was one physical server rack in a server room, in addition to each region was 1-3 racks just managing the regions so that transition between zones was easily possible without any loading screens or lag spikes.

PS1 worked in a similar method, I can't remember how often I just could play till I entered a hotzone were that regions rack just crashed, getting everyone that enters that area an disconnect.

PS2 will work in a similar matter, and that will probably not really change, this allows to simply add more to the infrastructure of a server, so a server would in theory hold all players together if you put enough effort in it.

Since it was stated 2k players will be the limit per continent, with 3 continents at launch, how will this turn out if the number of players will exceed that 6k mark? What will happen with the addition of new contents? How many servers will there be at launch? What will happen if we get several servers for one region once there will be more continents, thus exceeding the 6k threshold?

I do hope we will get some answers on that during beta.

[Rago]

Anyone explains "POP" for a Foreigner ?

[Sledgecrushr]

Anyone explains "POP" for a Foreigner ?

Pop=population

[Gonefshn]

I've thought about this a lot. It will be very difficult to strike the balance where you have enough people playing but you are never locked out of the game/server due to over population.

The scary thing too is if you plan to get on a certain server with your outfit or friends and it becomes full immediately at release before you get in... :(

[Sledgecrushr]

I've thought about this a lot. It will be very difficult to strike the balance where you have enough people playing but you are never locked out of the game/server due to over population.

The scary thing too is if you plan to get on a certain server with your outfit or friends and it becomes full immediately at release before you get in... :(

Server transfers can be our friend.

[Gonefshn]

Server transfers can be our friend.

Definitely but my main point was a server could become full and lock making you unable to transfer to that server.

You could technically wait until it lost some players and wasn't full anymore but you would have to log on at the exact time it gained open slots before someone else fills them. It could be like winning the lottery to get into a popular server.

[Aesir]

Another thing that could easily work till we get more different continents would be to open copies of the existing 3 continents once a server reaches it's limit with just 3, during it's spikes.

I rather play on Indar#2 than sitting in a queue for hours to log in, while probably half of my outfit still in queue or scattered across the 3 continents because of POP-Lock.

I don't see server hopping as the solution, even if your character would be bound to your account rather than a server, all you do is shifting the problem from one server to another, probably costing alot of immersion and patience on your side.

[Ailos]

There are some good ideas here, each with their advantages and drawbacks. I have a strong feeling that this is yet another one of those things that has to be tested thoroughly in Beta, 'cos... well no one has ever done this before, and your guess is as good as mine, which will probably be as good as the dev team's.

[Nemises]

...well..it has been done before, with PS1 :P

At prime time, the poplock /queues were terrible

[kaffis]

usually the "full server problem" get fixed by only allowing slightly more players on a server then there are playable slots ( so 6000 slots on a server , max server players : 7000 )
because of low pop and high pop hours the server should never be really full.
Heh. You allow way more than "slightly more" than the hard population cap. If you allowed 7000 players, maximum, to even have characters on the server, you'd be happy if you could "fill" one continent at prime time day-to-day. That doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

[Sledgecrushr]

...well..it has been done before, with PS1 :P

At prime time, the poplock /queues were terrible

Yeah I remember long ques back in the day and they really sucked. How many people are going to quit because there is going to be fifteen minute ques just to log onto "your" locked server.