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Planar Protector
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: UK
Posts: 2,542
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Brad post on expected server pop (April, 1999)
I bolded the bit about the original EQ team's target server capacity being 1500 because there's been some controversy around that. Best to hear it from the horse's mouth.
Quote:
alt.games.everquest ›
Brad's Sever Population Analysis
7 posts by 7 authors
Dundee
4/30/99
Repost: This is By Brad McQuaid and was posted at EQVault:
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 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.], 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 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
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 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
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