Brad's Sever Population Analysis
Dundee
Well, I went to Fenin Ro today and did some research. I'll get into
what I found in in a sec, but first let me say a few things.
'Crowded' is subjective. What is fine for one person is crowded for
the next. While one person might feel Blackburrow has too many people
in it because he has to search for a gnoll to kill, the other might
think is good because there are others around to help him out of a bad
situation. It also depends on where you are, what your play style is,
what you're trying to do, etc.
Our target capacity has from the very beginning has been around 1,500
during peak hours. Other than Fenin Ro (which many people flocked to
for various reasons), we've pretty much kept to that target. I
typically see between 1200 and 1500 people on most servers. When the
numbers grew, we added more servers. We will continue to do this.
How did we arrive at that? Through various calculations and watching
beta. We actually had a server to almost 1800 during Phase 3.
How did we make sure there was enough room? More math, and making sure
there was a decent spread of low, mid, and high level zones.
Simple math will tell you that with approximately 70 zones, were
people spread out evenly, that's about 21.4 people per zone. Of
course, it doesn't work that way really, because there are cities,
outdoor areas, and dungeons. But it was a good start, and we knew we
were ok.
We knew through planning that most people would be in outdoor areas,
then dungeons, and then cities. So in early beta we watched and we
made sure the zones were big enough.
An issue did arise during beta that was not totally unexpected, that
being during the beginnings of the different phases, most people were
in the low level areas. As time went on, people spread out, and in
that different people advance in levels at different rates (for a
variety of reasons -- time invested, play style, etc.) the spread
became more even the longer we waited.
This meant that at the beginning of the phases (and now also right
after commercial launch) there was some unavoidable 'crowding', but we
found that it wasn't too bad and that it didn't take long for people
to spread out. In fact, it was a good incentive for many to spread out
and explore.
Here are some of my findings, none of which really surprised me but
may shed some light for a few of you:
72% of you are in outdoor areas
18% of you are in dungeons
10% of you are in cities
50% of you are in lower level areas
36% of you are in mid level areas
3% of you are in higher level areas
(I'm not counting the 10% in cities)
A few other general observations:
As in real life, people are mostly near population centers.
Blackburrow is a low level dungeon and had 44 people in it. Paw is
also low level and had 9 people in it. Blackburrow is close to Qeynos,
Paw is pretty far away. Why did we place Paw out there? Perhaps to
reward exploration and travel.
People choose the path of least resistance and easy escape. Most
people hang out near zone borders. Unrest is a great example (minor
spoiler: there are lots of things in the house and even rumors of a
dungeon underneath).
Blackburrow is also a great example. I've been playing EQ a LOT lately
(about time I'm able to enjoy the game :), and spending a lot of time
in BB with my level 10 character. When I play I walk right past the
people near the zone border (and all the corpses) and head down into
the zone, and usually hang out near those two snakes under the bridge
that is near the door behind which to the right are the elites. With
40 people in there on average, that area is fine. There are people
around so when I get swamped by a few too many guardsman, I can
usually get help (if not, yeah, I run to the zone border). But there's
almost always something to kill. If I get gutsy or some of my friends
are on, we head deeper in, and it doesn't take any time at all to find
rooms full of various gnolls totally untouched. People just don't want
to leave their comfort areas, at least initially. But as the game
progresses, the knowledge base grows, and people start to spread out
and understand the game better, using better tactics and teamwork.
Now I know what many of you are thinking. This issue is more complex
than running a few numbers through a spreadsheet. There are issues of
camping, trains, the ease of pulling NPCs to the zone border as
opposed to fighting in the depths of a dungeon, etc. And these are
real issues, and we are constantly working to improve upon them, but
neither are they simple issues to resolve. But, at least based on my
experience playing and watching and talking to people, they are
avoidable to a great extent if you want. We have some great ideas
we'll be working with to improve upon those issues, but they're not
showstoppers and 20,000+ people every night, including myself, are
still having a blast.
You don't have to hang out in areas where there is camping. You don't
have to hunt in dungeons. You can spread out. It depends on what you
want, what your mood is, etc.
Sometimes I'll be after an item, so I'll hang out in that area and try
to kill the NPC that spawns with it, or trade for it. Other times I'll
be in the mood for experience points, so I'll spread out and go to
areas where I can almost always find a kill (yes, including BB with
40+ people). Other times I feel like socializing in cities, or
exploring outdoor areas and tracking various prey (yes, rangers are
handy :)
I suppose I'm rambling at this point, and I'm sure some of you will
still disagree and will feel that the servers are too crowded and that
you can never find a kill or an item you want. This simply hasn't been
my experience most of the time, and when I play I see lots of people
running around killing NPCs and having a great time. Perhaps we'll
have to agree to disagree, but I did want to take the time to explain
my position on this matter.
In summary:
1. No, we don't feel crowding is a major problem now. It is, however,
something we are sensitive about, and we add servers as necessary.
2. We are generally at or below our target populations which we found
were very playable during beta.
3. People will spread out. 36% of you are in mid level areas and 3% in
high. As time goes by, the world will appear less 'crowded'.
4. If you feel the game is too crowded, spread out. Yeah, it's more
dangerous, but it's also more exciting and you may learn things the
timid players might never find out.
thanks for listening,
-Brad (bracing for the flames and passion-filled disagreements :)
-
Dundee - http://dundee.uong.com/
Jim
>Blackburrow is a low level dungeon and had 44 people in it. Paw is
>also low level and had 9 people in it. Blackburrow is close to Qeynos,
>Paw is pretty far away. Why did we place Paw out there? Perhaps to
>reward exploration and travel.
Heh, what time did Brad visit these areas? Both BB and Paw typically have
twice those numbers whenever I'm in there. I'm on sometime between the
hours of 6:00p and 11:00p CDT.
Everytime I walk into BB, each and every single elite or commander is camped
by numerous groups - "take a number".
Paw is no better, everyone and his brother is after that damned Runed Totem
Staff, and the other decent level NPC's are camped as well (although not as
bad as in BB).
I've been spending almost all my time now hunting elephants and various
giant beetles in the North and South Karanas zones. The experience isn't
all that great, and the loot stinks, but it's the only game in town unless I
want to camp.
>People choose the path of least resistance and easy escape. Most
>people hang out near zone borders. Unrest is a great example (minor
>spoiler: there are lots of things in the house and even rumors of a
>dungeon underneath).
People don't like having to travel halfway accross the continent to retrieve
their corpse. All the magic users can bind themselves close the the action,
but a pure melee class character is screwed. The nearest town to Paw is
Qeynos, and the Karanas commute is oh so long. How bout throwing in a bind
point somewhere in N Karanas?
>Blackburrow is also a great example. I've been playing EQ a LOT lately
>(about time I'm able to enjoy the game :), and spending a lot of time
>in BB with my level 10 character. When I play I walk right past the
>people near the zone border (and all the corpses) and head down into
>the zone, and usually hang out near those two snakes under the bridge
>that is near the door behind which to the right are the elites. With
>40 people in there on average, that area is fine.
Everytime I walk in that area, there is a ton of people camping the snakes,
as well as the gnolls. Hell, if you had moss snakes spawn in that area I'm
guessing they'd be camped too.
Brad - next time you're playing your level 10 Fennin Ro character in BB and
not experiencing overcrowding, give me a /tell and I'll be sure to come by -
for once I'd like to play all of BB without having to wait in line for a
kill.
By the way, does John Smedley have a player character? If so, is it +PVP?
:)
Stryke
K. Laisathit
>
>
>Heh, what time did Brad visit these areas? Both BB and Paw typically have
>twice those numbers whenever I'm in there. I'm on sometime between the
>hours of 6:00p and 11:00p CDT.
I agree in regard to BB. But Paw? If anything, Brad's number is too high.
I spent a saturday afternoon in Paw. The whole time, the number of
players averaged 5, my group of 4, plus 1 solo who hugged the zone
entrance. It peaked out at 10 or 12, but the people quickly leave.
>I've been spending almost all my time now hunting elephants and various
>giant beetles in the North and South Karanas zones. The experience isn't
>all that great, and the loot stinks, but it's the only game in town unless I
>want to camp.
That's probably more a important issue. Yes, the world can confortably
support 1500 players. The problem is, not all critters are created
equal. Even if they con the same, some are tougher, while some
carry richer loots.
Later...
Thomas Mucciaro
not so much crowding, but that at over 1000 I begin to see
serious lag and packet loss. Maybe the new update will fix
this, but 1000 seems to be the magic number for the infrastructure
to support. I think Brad's post misses the point in this regard.
massanas
back.
He must be smoking some premium shit to not see the damn overcrowding :)
Guess thats what you do when you finally get the game out. First month its
out you buy yourself a butt load of premo shit and spark it.
Charles B. Naumann
I am 13th level and do very little camping. Of course, I
have no cash and I am leveling very, very slowly. I
will take this over standing in line, but it still sucks.
Everytime I go into a new area, I die. It takes about
3 hours to recover from a death. This is not fun.
Shamans are much better at soloing than most other classes
because they can heal, fight, and run. Soloing is the best
way to get experience.
Runnyeye? The one time I went into runnyeye a huge Eyeball
came up and started hitting me for 50+ damage. No way
I am hanging out there.
Charles Naumann
Riprock <rip...@southwind.net> wrote:
: Now, my only character is Ethril who is now a 14th level
: Barbarian Shaman. I have yet to camp ANYWHERE! Now if I
: decided I needed a particular magic item or such I would
: consider camping. However, I have not needed to camp as of
: yet. The only item I really wanted was a Runed Totem Staff
: and I bought it for 30 plat (a high but fair price). Now,
: yes, I do other things besides trying to level. I get drunk,
: explore, guide people to Freeport, get drunk, insult Trolls,
: get drunk...
: I ran across two people camping the Orc camp in Misty
: Thicket and I told them they oughta expand their horizons,
: considering they were level 14. They hadn't even been into
: Runnyeye! I couldn't believe it! THAT is one big reason why
: places are crowded. People are scared to explore. They're
: scared to try potentially dangerous things. They're afraid
: of wasting time while they could be leveling!
: I'm so long winded! Basically, Ethril has YET to camp and he
: is extremely proud of that fact!
: -Rip-
: --
: Love Unconditionally, Live Sacrificially.
Wayne Sheppard
Charles B. Naumann <cnau...@HiWAAY.net> wrote in message
news:s65GpaLl#GA....@pet.hiwaay.net...
>
>
> Shamans are much better at soloing than most other classes
> because they can heal, fight, and run. Soloing is the best
> way to get experience.
>
Huh? Soloing is a hard way to get experience. It all depends on your class
and level, but around lvl 9-10, you can gain experience much faster if you
group. Not just any old group, but a well-balanced small group.
Wayne