Number of Servers at Launch?

[NCLynx]

Have the devs said anything about max # of people per server? I did a quick search but everything that came up was from 2003.

Also I'd like to know everyones guess on how many servers there may be.

There were 5 total (IIRC there were 6 in beta, but 2 were combined to become one Werner) in the original, then brought down to 3 still pretty early on.

Seeing as how a lot more people have interest in and have the ability to play PS2, I think there'll be a minimum of 4 servers for beta at least and 7 on release.
(Not taking into account the The9 servers either)

[DOUBLEXBAUGH]

With current numbers of 666 per side per cont, and ONLY 3 conts at launch, that is a max of 6k online per server at a time. So, servers should cap somewhere around 9k players. That seems like it needs to be well above 7 servers.

[Zulthus]

We're going to need a lot of servers. A lot.

[Mechzz]

Looks like we need a bigger boat server farm.

[Atheosim]

Originally Posted by Mechzz

Looks we need a bigger boat server farm.

Looks more to me like we need sanctuaries.

[Zulthus]

Originally Posted by Atheosim

Looks more to me like we need sanctuaries.

+1

[KTNApollo]

Originally Posted by Zulthus

We're going to need a lot of servers. A lot.

[Hyiero]

I swear I've read that it will be allowed 2k players per Continent with 6k per server,I'll look and see where I heard/read this.I'm sure they will do an open beta and get a good idea how many servers they will need at launch,they will probably go over instead of under on servers but I'm sure there goal is to have atleast most servers and 2/3rd's full at launch. As someone said, the population is directly related to the amount of fun you can have in PS2.

[Zulthus]

Originally Posted by KTNApollo

Yup.

[Gogita]

Wasnt it supposed to be around a 1000 max per continent in PS2? So that would mean at most 3000 people that can be playing simultaneously.... But the maximum amount of players per server can be higher than that, as not everyone is online at the same time. Maybe.... 10k max per server? I'm not so sure how the dynamics work here...

I wonder what the number of initial players SOE is expecting.

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by DOUBLEXBAUGH

With current numbers of 666 per side per cont, and ONLY 3 conts at launch, that is a max of 6k online per server at a time. So, servers should cap somewhere around 9k players. That seems like it needs to be well above 7 servers.

Let's not forget that Planetside only allowed for 166 per side per continent, spread over 10 continents. That's only 5000k per server.

Of course, hopefully Planetside 2 is a lot bigger than Planetside was, so yeah. It's going to need quite a few servers.

[kaffis]

Originally Posted by DOUBLEXBAUGH

With current numbers of 666 per side per cont, and ONLY 3 conts at launch, that is a max of 6k online per server at a time. So, servers should cap somewhere around 9k players. That seems like it needs to be well above 7 servers.

Wow. Are you seriously suggesting that servers approach a concurrent user-count 66% of the total player accounts?

That's wildly.. I won't even say optimistic, that's just outright delusional. If the game was made up of nothing but unemployed die-hards who sleep 7 hours a day and take bathroom breaks, but play literally 7 days a week all the rest of the day, those are the kind of numbers you would reach.

Don't sweat it, though. Sony has half a dozen games' worth of historical data to extrapolate concurrency estimations from. When it comes to predicting server load, they're probably the most experienced company out there, simply due to raw number of launches and raw amount of data across a variety of games.

Yes, 6k concurrent players per server -- at launch. Additional continents in the future will offer more headroom to grow into. I'm not going to insult Sony or waste the readers' time making wild speculations about what that means for total accounts per server. I'll leave that to Sony.

As has been mentioned above (and as I've pulled stats in the past on similar threads), perusing Steam can get you a good idea of concurrent users of FPS at various prime-times. I'd be surprised to see Sony open up more than a twenty-ish servers world-wide (that would imply peak populations matching the combined playerbase of Counter-Strike Source and Team Fortress 2, IIRC); I think it'll be fair to consider the game a smashing success if it can support 4-8 consistently full-ish servers night to night.

[Atheosim]

Yeah, what I'm concerned about is the fact that there are no longer sanctuaries, therefore simply logging in takes up pop on a cont. That's worrying because of what DxB said: If all three conts are locked, so is the server. Hmmm...

[Vancha]

This is something I've been wondering for a while and I've avoided mentioning it because I feel I must be missing something obvious...

If the population cap is 666v666v666 and there's 3 maps in total, then should PS2 hit a million players (and I don't see that being entirely unlikely), they'll need at least 167 servers.

Edit: Of course, not everyone plays at once...but even then, you could be looking at 100+

[NCLynx]

I ask because with a game like planetside I'd much rather have a server be to crowded than be on a server with a consistent low pop.