80,000-100,000 players on SW:TOR servers - interview with Richard Vogel

[Athael]

Eve Online has 1 server. I've seen 63,000 people logged into it at one time.

Doesn't really apply, since due to the nature of the game (most areas/zones are just huge empty 3D cubes with pretty skyboxes, most players recycle "character models" since there are a finite amount of ships, etc), it's less resource-intensive to have lots of people in EVE compared to a game like TOR or WoW.

[Civil]

I'm calling BS on Vogel. They might be able to get 200,000 bots to stand there in town naked, but nothing remotely close to that "playing" the game. The server crashed in beta fighting a world boss with just 50 players and it was laggy as hell.

[Semihage]

I'm calling BS on Vogel. They might be able to get 200,000 bots to stand there in town naked, but nothing remotely close to that "playing" the game. The server crashed in beta fighting a world boss with just 50 players and it was laggy as hell.

How do you know beta was in full production server? But you do have a point though.. and honestly.. nobody knows until we actually play the game. I recall that during the final beta weekends, most planets I was on had 150+ people and it was completely lag free.

[Shiveron]

200,000 idle bots standing there doing absolutely nothing is hella different than even 1000 players all actively running around questing/raiding/pvping/trading/trolling/etc.

[Malleus]

Full voiceover costs a lot more, yet it did happen. Why not more servers?

Because they spent all the money on full voiceovers?

[Strah]

200,000 idle bots standing there doing absolutely nothing is hella different than even 1000 players all actively running around questing/raiding/pvping/trading/trolling/etc.

And what makes you think that bots are idle and are standing there doing absolutely nothing?

[Profyrion]

200,000 bots is nothing compared to 200,000 players filling city chats, sending pms, killing mobs, looting, filling ah's... I would be extremely surprised if their servers could handle even 10,000 players at a time.

You have no idea what their bots were programmed to do. The possibilities are nearly endless. Think.

[Festisio]

Get used to seeing:

Coruscant 1
Coruscant 2
Coruscant 3
Coruscant 4
Coruscant 5
Coruscant 6
Coruscant 7
Coruscant 8
Coruscant 9
Coruscant ...

Talking about immersion!

Agreed. Really really poor.

[Gsara]

actually EQ used this long time ago amd im pretty sure wow doesnt use 1 server per actual server.. matter of fact i know the world is one and instances are another and BGs are another etc..

You are correct, each server in wow is actually split down to 5 sub servers per realm.

As far a server populations and stress testing etc etc. Every game does stress tests before release, WoW's stress beta was also 100k bots on the original server hardware they used until 2006 when they upgraded all servers to a higher end much larger set up. The stress for those servers was 200k as well.

Sharding of servers has also been in use since the 90s, its nothing even remotely new. 20-30k caps on server pops is actually very high end for online gaming, this is what what Blizzard currently uses as do a number of other companies. SWOTOR will be roughly the same cap wise, hence the need for alot of servers for launch because honestly, imo, this release will be the biggest we have seen to date from a P2P mmo that doesnt massively fail. Yes I said it, as I lvl my sith inquisitor right now, this game is really good. (yes I still play wow and have no plans to leave wow)

Whoever mentioned SWG, that game owned until the massive fail of Sony.

[Deleted]

Get used to seeing:

Coruscant 1
Coruscant 2
Coruscant 3
Coruscant 4
Coruscant 5
Coruscant 6
Coruscant 7
Coruscant 8
Coruscant 9
Coruscant ...

Talking about immersion!

And that is why the servers have such capacity over WoW's servers.
On WoW all players are on 1 place.
In SWTOR a zone can have up to X players, and if there are more (wich there ARE, a LOT) it creates a secont zone wich is the same. And a third. and a 159rd.

You will still be able to visit your friends and change between them tough!

[Shiveron]

And what makes you think that bots are idle and are standing there doing absolutely nothing?

You have no idea what their bots were programmed to do. The possibilities are nearly endless. Think.

Do you REALLY think they sat there and programmed 200,000 bot's to each run around doing different activities in the game? The cost to program an AI or individual AI's to control that massive amount of toon's would be immense. I can almost guarantee you they were idle.

[Deleted]

I would consider a server with 5000 people on it to be a healthy enough number. Could be completely different though with everything being different instanced planets instead of 2-3 mass continents like wow.

Comparitively to WoW, 5k seems amicable. However, I think it's about time that the big game companies should invest in better servers, inorder to hold more players. Imo, more people on a server = a more organic, and actual MMO experience. People should want thriving towns and cities in these games, not ghost towns/ bored players and tumbleweed .

[Wooblez]

if this is true it's puzzling to me that they are releasing early access in such small waves and for barely any players.

[Deleted]

if this is true it's puzzling to me that they are releasing early access in such small waves and for barely any players.

its not puzzling, most of swtor players are not vocal and do not write on forums. So unless you have counted every single player invited then its pure speculation to how small or big the waves have been. Even numbers playing now wont represent a true figure of how many people were invited to early access because they will be at work, uni etc.

[peterpan007]

if this is true it's puzzling to me that they are releasing early access in such small waves and for barely any players.

Exactly my thoughts - some of my mates are saying that some areas are really quiet ... if this is truly the case then let more people on goddamit!