Instancing Hexes and the 64 player limit.

From how i understand it, when a person enters hex, a new hex instance is formed if there isn't already one. And every time someone new enters the same hex they are added to the same instance until the instance is filled up to 64 players.

Then once an instance is full and a new person enters the same hex, that person then is placed into a new instance and so on. OK i think i get it.

OK lets say you have 2 instances, 1 full (64) and one with 10 players, and you have 20 players leave the full one instantly. Now you have 2 hexe's one with 44 players and one with 10 players.

How are the new players that enter the hexes sorted? Does the system try to fill the the first hex again leaving the same 10 players in an seemingly deserted hex?

I ask because I would hate to be the one player who spins up a new town hex and have to wait to see more players added to my town hex so it would feel a lot less deserted or is the system more complex than this?

 

I hope they will be able to design a more robust system that is active in a cloud for efficiency and performance globally.

Using a player 'master' just seems like going backwards 20 years from a tech standpoint. That is my assumption, at least.

 

Under the ranking ruleset the devs intend to put in place, you will sorted into the instance containing the largest number of "Friends". Friending being either the explicit "Friend" connection set via the "F" key, or implied from your previous interactions (trading partners, social interactions, etc).


If all the instances are identically ranked, then I presume some other balancing system will be used, and you will be sorted into the mid-sized instance.

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At the moment, none of this ruleset is currently in place. Chris has mentioned that ranking simply places you in the mid-sized instances to prop up the population.

 

Most games with instances give you a change instance option of some kind.

 

When was a sixty four instance limit announced?

 

It is the number they were using during the R3 testing round, not to be confused with an official "release" limit.

I'm sure if testing proved that a higher limit is possible, such will be considered.

 

OK, thanks. I have not tried R3 as of yet. I am weighing my options what with the recent NO Open PvP announcement.

 

I am just trying to wrap my head around that at some point a player will be sorted into a hex all alone. Set aside all the friend stuff and guilds etc. because there will be times when you log on and none of your friends or guild mates will be online. How long would that one player be in a hex alone?

I went to the new village and while walking around I did not see one player, I logged out then back in and just like that I started seeing people. No i wasn't in single player mode either.

 

Better to be in a hex alone where others can join you than be in a mixmatched hex, particularly with respect to PvP.

 

In that case, most likely simply transitioning to another town and back would have worked as well.

The devs noted that as a temporary solution if you were added into a different instance than your friends during this test round.

 

oh come on it needs to be more seamless then that.

Run into town "* where is everybody!" Runs back out of town.

* edited for language - Koldar

 

The whole term "temporary solution" appears to have been lost in translation here. My apologies for that.

I will reiterate : The "Friends" ranking ruleset is not in place yet, Chris is still working on it, and it was not ready for this round.

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That being said : Once there are more than three hexes in the game, what do you believe the chances of actually filling an instance to be exactly ?


If you want to meet up with your friends, my suggestion would be to choose a non-town hex to do so, ensuring that the cap is never reached to begin with.

 

This is why the primary social spaces -- towns -- will have a very high cap dependent on its size. The many dozens concept is dead and doesn't work as proven by these early tests. It really is now many hundreds that is necessary. Non-town instances, random hexes, etc. I can see being much lower since it does not need to accommodate large numbers of players, save for guild wars. But again, caps should be decided on a per-hex basis to take into account its design goal.