Pop cap

[Xieveral]

because channels suck. It REALLY sucks thinking someone is in the same area as you but then discovering they're on another channel. Channels are a mark of Korean MMOs as a cheap bandaid solution to a problem without really solving it.

I don't know why anyone is concerned about the zone limit at all. It's not going to affect anything other than keep the server from crashing when behemoth or odin pop.

It prevents people that want in on the Odin/Behemoth battles from doing so and it prevents people from entering a zone to complete a quest objective.

Zones like Coerthas and Mor Dhona are always packed with players and those zones are mandatory for story quest objectives and many dungeon unlocks. If you can't get in, you can't progress.

For Odin/Behemoth, I would be very annoyed if I couldn't get in because I want to collect the Odin and Behemoth gear and I want the barding and to do that I need the currency they drop. Now if they spawned more frequently or the currency and items could be traded it would be less of an issue (but cheapens the experience)

Though I do not like it, channels are the better option as opposed to being screwed entirely.

SE should encourage, not discourage more people playing. To not be prepared for the population we have, did Yoshi and the rest of the team think that little of their game's potential?

[Rivienne]

I think a large part of this thread is a mistaken belief that channels are easy, and thus the correct fix. Note: they aren't. They are an additional infrastructure complexity, even if the system was built from the ground up with them in mind. Just because something looks easy to the user, doesn't mean it is to develop or support. Similarly just because something looks complex to the user, doesn't mean it is.

Some thoughts on the various possible arguments:

1) SE should have had some form of solution from day one: valid point.
2) SE should have added channels in the hot fix: not valid. (or even realistically possible. no one would release something of that magnitude in a hot fix.)
3) SE should have emphasized channel development over other types of infrastructure and content development before release: I am sure I know how well that would go over here.
4) SE should stop development now on other improvements and content for indeterminate amount of time to develop this right now (if they aren't already working on it): same as above. No one wants that.

So should they have had some form of solution in place at launch of 2.0? Yes, but they didn't, moving on..... Should they have implemented channels between 1.0 and 2.0: maybe yes maybe no, I would lean towards no. The type of overhaul they did to the infrastructure was a massive undertaking, and adding this on top would have added months of additional time for development and testing, when clearly they already were months behind on release (see CT).

Further based on the launch, it was clear they never anticipated this volume, so it never would have occurred to them 2 years ago to prioritize this type of design. Should they implement it now/in the future? I honestly don't know. It is an interesting question. Part of it is going to depend on future growth and long term sustainability. Will this be a long term problem? Or is it a problem now only because of launch spike? I don't know the answer. I don't know if the development team has any statistics to support such a clear cut answer either. So then it becomes "do we risk it on the assumption we will need such a system long term, or do we instead focus on other things such as DX11 client, overall engine improvements, and general new infrastructure/content like pvp?". My guess is unless they have strong evidence to support this being a long term problem, they won't prioritize it over other types of issues.

Also regarding population density in given areas: I have never seen even close to 500 people in Coerthas at a time, worst I have ever seen is maybe 300. Unless your world is actually seeing that kind of load already 500, or worse, you aren't going to see this issue anywhere except the big FATES where people drop whatever they are doing and all rush in, to watch or join in.

[Tooth]

What's a main city?

[VitaminMT]

I'd still like to hear of someone actually being afflicted by the population cap, and less of this random theorycrafting.

[Kewhi]

Why the Hell Fan Boys like you defending them. The game is shitty programmed it seems and Limit something this way is not ok for an MMO. They are enough other and better Solutions, increasing Capacity and improve Server stability, implementing a Zone System like in GW2 and so on. But this sounds like some Noobi shit from the last century.

Reading is hard.

Confirm/Deny?

[TheRac25]

SE needs to send a couple of their "server team" to take some software preformance engineering classes, oh and stop using python

[Rivienne]

SE needs to send a couple of their "server team" to take some software preformance engineering classes, oh and stop using python

Python? Is there confirmation they are using python for server code? I find that rather hard to believe......

[MachammondtheXXXII]

I'd still like to hear of someone actually being afflicted by the population cap, and less of this random theorycrafting.

lol, this so much. People act like the zone cap is 20 or something, when it should be at least 500 or more.

So many rustled jimmies here, calm down folks

<^.^>

[TheRac25]

Python? Is there confirmation they are using python for server code? I find that rather hard to believe......

its the only thing i know of that runs so slow besides poor coding, oh wait

[floredon]

Python? Is there confirmation they are using python for server code? I find that rather hard to believe......

ruby would be more believable, especially since it performs worse than python.