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Server Load
Nitth
Member UncommonPosts: 3,904
So, Im thinking with companion characters server load will be effectivly 2x as much to potentially deal with.
Considering, a "main city" with 100 active player connections, The server will have to allow for 200 entities (scaling) + pre defined NPC's
Not that its any of my concern, Ill leave that for the guys at the bioware think tank. But this could be troublesome for launch day and unforseen events down the track?
Thoughts?
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
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Doubt that companions will have any affect on the server. They are pretty much pets in terms of that I am sure... We also are not fully aware of if there will be a huge player hangout similar to other MMOs. Personally, if there is a way, I will just idle on my ship ;P
Well some mmo like sword of the new world are build around the fact players will handle a full party rather than just one character, so a companion is like a peace of cake.
I'm more concerned about all those same companions aside every single guy; i mean in mmo where pet class are relatively sucessfull like Rift it look so bad already, since pet are usually copycat, what will it be in SWTOR? I'm just scared honestly. But apart from that i don't think it can be a problem, it not like they need a super smooth and high performance anyway, as if they had player aiming or a single mega server or stuff like that. So, no problem performance wise i guess.
Just stretching the scinario a little further,
If pvp was to occur within one of these "cities" or open terrain, each companion would need to ask the server for a friend or foe list and respond accordingly (companions participate in pvp i beleive)...which would lead me to speculate on how much data/server time the companions really require.
But like you guys have already said, this is probably nothing to worry about in the end. Just thought it would be a good discussion
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
They have a million plus people signed up for beta. Their closed beta will be plenty big enough to stress test the servers.
That's not a clarification, that's a repetition of what I said. It doesn't matter the point remains the same. They'll have plenty of people on hand to stress test the servers when they need them.
What is interesting about SWTOR's launch that people generally don't think about is that specific servers getting high populations will not neccessarily happen. Not saying they won't have launch day problems, which they might, but issues like server ques and lag due to large numbers may be completely avoided. The reason for this?
The guild program that is setup on the website right now. This program not only allows people to setup a guild and rule type before the game comes out, but also does not allow you to pick a server. It does allow you to pick rival/alliance guilds (up to 3 i think) so you can end up on the same server as your friends from other guilds, but it does NOT allow you to select a server.
What this means for Bioware is that they have the opportunity to place people evenly amongst the servers. It is safe to say that tons of people will use this program and if they spread people out enough it will avoid many problems. The main issue that this will avoid is server ques...which is pretty huge considering the scope of the game. No one will know where X guild winds up until the servers come up (potentially, there might be a way to see what server is selected..but that would defeat the purpose)so that makes it so the hordes of people don't flock to servers with X guild.
Of course there'll be server problems to lesser or bigger degree at launch.
And of course you don't need an open beta with hundreds of thousands of players to do a solid stress test, especially if it's server load tests.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
It's premature to say just how big their closed beta may be. It could easily be large enough to test multiple servers. There's just too much we don't know about their servers and their testing method to say one way or another. So far their testing has been very efficient and effective, there's no reason to believe thier stress tests will be any different.
Sorry to say you're wrong... and anyone who knows anything about stress testing (IE: I've been an ACTUAL QA tester for software companies for 10+ years) would know this.
That said, yes, there will be server issues at launch. It's impossible to avoid, no matter how hard/well you plan for it. Im not even planning to roll my character until later that evening when the dust settles a bit.
its a MMO -> fail at day 1 and get better afterwards, by definition.
Will everyone have access to companions on launch day? I was under the impression they had to be unlocked, but maybe this has changed?
My understanding of companions is that you get your first one on your beginning world as part of your characters story arc.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
this is correct. somewhere around lvl 5-7 thereabouts
Well um maybe I just am not seeing the issue here but...
A companion is going to be like any other NPC in a virtual game world. How many NPC's do you think the average MMO server is handling? Especially in highly popular games with instances. In older games you had one version of a place with one population of NPC's... In todays games you might have 100+ instances of that same place fully populated.
Why would companions be a problem? I mean whatever the player cap on a server is.. the total number of companions would be nothing in comparison to the total number of NPC's on the server.
On another note about the possible lack of an open beta and a comment on mass stress testing.
Exactly what Mass stress do you need? You can stress test a single server to work out server stress load. This does not require a massive open beta and can be done quite easily with a relatively small population.
However, pretty much everyone knows that when a game opens and the flood of people arrives... things are going to go badly at first. Just think of every other game launch.. right down to servers getting capped and half of a "pre launch" guild not even being able to roll on a chosen server etc etc