Zewp
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2012
- Messages
- 3,594
![Have Many Potato [2013] Codex 2013](/forums/smiles/campaign_tags/campaign_potato2013.png)
in 1.0 version called static server meshing world will be divided into zones and each zone will be handled by different server. So for example Planet A will be handled by server 1 and planet B by server 2. This is compared to now where whole system is handled by one server that tries not to fry up. That alone is not something that is not seen in industry the major difference is that this is completely seamless and you can send missile from server A that will arrive on server B to hit something.
That version alone can reduce server strain and multiply amount of people on server a lot. Say something from 100 currently into 1000s
2.0 version called dynamic server meshing will be like name suggest dynamic version of this where world will get divided in smaller and smaller chunks depending on load and servers will spin up and spin down depending on that load. Say you have 10000 people on planet, that's too much for one server so planet gets divided into different servers where oner server handles city second one outposts third one caves and last one surface stuff. But then you have still 5k people in city so city itself goes from one server and it divides works between more and more servers distric A will have separate server district B will have another etc. But then it might be that all 5k people will want to be in same disctric so district itself will get divided into more servers. So bar will be separate server, hotel separate server, corridor separate server. The whole point of this system is to enable massive amount of people in same place at the fidelity of what you can see they are trying to do including stuff like physics, destruction system and so on. And the most important part it all works in background seamlessly so player never notices it. This kind of version has theoretical capability to hold essentially all millions of players in the same world without any instancing.
Most of MMO games work on instancing where each server can handle so much people at the same time and can't handle more than X amount of people so you need to switch server essentially starting from start or interacting with completely different people.
Then there is cutting corners. For example you won't find in any MMO advanced physics because it is nightmare to have shitload of particles that all synchronize with clients and interact that would instantly make server cry, same with complex gameplay. You can have creature attack you but it's pathfinding will be very limited because server has to do not only few creatures attacking you but also everyone else on server.
Here in theory with their magical dynamic server meshing you can have true one world without instancing or cutting corners. In theory at least. Who knows if it will be possible, only attempt at it can show if it works or not.
The ironic part is that nobody really wants, or needs, this. Their game design makes it a really shit idea. You can't have virtual hangars on planets or stations, they have to be actually existing ones. During patches we already have the issue that we often get stuck in spaceports because too many people (realistically probably less than a dozen, considering the server size at the moment) are trying to leave the space port, so there are often no hangars available to retrieve your ship so that you can leave the station. This happened regularly during the exo threat event earlier this year, and it's going to keep happening during events and especially when everyone is suddenly in the same instance.
Not to mention that if we ever see anything like a real release for Star Citizen, you're just going to have whales with $12321321 ships camping outside spaceports all the time and shooting any new players trying to play the game. And there won't be anything anyone can do about it, because you're playing on a single instance with everyone else.