Question from Devs: So how many players does this game support in multiplayer?

[keith.lamothe]

There are some ability-based efficiencies that we need to make in general, but no there's nothing deterministic about this game; as with any action game, it's very non-deterministic except for the bits that we already construct on both ends.  There is a problem with the general ability-use messages being more bloated than they need to be, though, and this really underscores that.  It should be reasonably not too bad to make that more efficient, we just haven't had time yet (though we left space in which to do so).

In the case of the shard spawn, that's not the ability-message bloat, there's not a linear number of ability messages (unless the individual shards are sending them post-spawn, and I think you said the chase targets and behavior switches are not going over the wire anymore), it's that it's having to send all those new entity objects out over the wire to everyone.

But yea, give me about 2 solid days and I can have the QueuedAbilityUse and AbilityUseResult objects serializing to the network at, maybe, 5% of the current average size?  That's probably pessimistic, actually.

[x4000]

Yeah, I was figuring on about the same there, too.  I think that we could probably make it so that certain aspects of game entities actually serialize more compactly, too.

There's also a heap-static compression method that can be used now.  Are we currently using that?  Because if not, then all those game entities are being sent at a way bloated size over what they could have been.  I remember at once point we weren't doing the compression there because of the worries about transient heap allocations, but that shouldn't happen anymore.

[keith.lamothe]

There's also a heap-static compression method that can be used now.  Are we currently using that?

For chunks, not for entities.

Because if not, then all those game entities are being sent at a way bloated size over what they could have been.  I remember at once point we weren't doing the compression there because of the worries about transient heap allocations, but that shouldn't happen anymore.

Great   After I do the selective-serialization to omit fields with default values, and the binary serialization, I can add that on top for messages over a certain length and the resulting average size will probably be pretty absurdly low

[x4000]

Yep, for sure -- though with being more selective with the serialization, and doing the binary serialization, those two things alone ought to mean we don't need any actual compression on top of that.  Well, for "messages over a certain length," sure, but that would pretty much be the initial world send and that's it.

[keith.lamothe]

Yep, for sure -- though with being more selective with the serialization, and doing the binary serialization, those two things alone ought to mean we don't need any actual compression on top of that.  Well, for "messages over a certain length," sure, but that would pretty much be the initial world send and that's it.

Or messages with 100 new GameEntity objects

[x4000]

True.

[Oralordos]

I think the urban predator may kill the servers. I just ran into one on Toll's server, I keep getting disconnected as soon as it's flame comes onto the screen.

[Toll]

In case you're curious, the spikes have shrunk considerably. I now see spikes of about 50kbps, with the occasional spike of about 100kbps. And to be frank, I'm thinking those spikes are chunk-changes, since they come at random intervals of generally more than 20s. Aside from those spikes, it generally tops at about 20kbps.

[Hyfrydle]

I'm having real problems which I think are caused by issues from an earlier version. When I connect to Tolls server I start the game fine but I'm unable to exit the chunk I'm in. I've tried abandoning the character and nothing happens I've also tried to commit suicide but nothing seems to be harming me.

After a short while I seem to get disconnected and then can't login again until I shut the game down to desktop and reopen. Is there no way to get rid of this character so I can try fresh with a new one?

[Toll]

What you could do is to change your name in the settings. That'd cause you to start over completely though...

[Hyfrydle]

Just changed my name and now can't see your server is it down?

[Toll]

It should be up and advertised, but I can't see it on the server list either... neither from my own computer or my parents computer (I'm running remove desktop to my home computer right now). Was about to make a mantis issue about that, actually.

[Toll]

I did get it to show up on the server list, but I don't know if it'll remain there. If not, you can connect to 213.114.78.71.

[keith.lamothe]

I did get it to show up on the server list, but I don't know if it'll remain there. If not, you can connect to 213.114.78.71.

I see you (I assume you're the one with a max players of 200) and one other server in the list in-game; and I'm seeing that in the database itself too.

If you experience "I'm advertising but I'm not showing up" again, let me know and I can check the db to see if you're getting at least that far.

[keith.lamothe]

I did get it to show up on the server list, but I don't know if it'll remain there. If not, you can connect to 213.114.78.71.

Also: did you intentionally set your server name to the empty string, or did it just get lost somewhere?