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Pat Murphy
The Wandering Wizard
Join date: 2 Dec 2002
Posts: 142
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02-11-2003 10:21
The town has brought up an interesting dilema:
Is SL going to be financially viable?
Unless there is something else going on in the town (an object or script that is slowing the server down), then it doesn't take much in the way of object and AV density to slow a server down to a crawl and make it virtually unusable (This could also be seen with the old welcome area). For most online games like this it's my impression that we are talking about tens of thousands of subscribers, with thousands online at any given time. Is the SL system going to be able to handle this. It seems that based on the current performance the number of servers needed to handle all those people will make the cost exceed the capital gained from a reasonable subscription cost. Also the town obviously shows that cities are next to impossible, and it would kind of stink to have Rural/Suburban areas only.
Don't get me wrong, I love SL, I think the whole thing is ingenious, and I know it's only beta; but the release date is slowly nearing, and it seems to me they SL will need a significant boost in performance and load handling in order to succeed after public release.
Maybe I'm jumping the gun here. Maybe the developers are on the virge of solving a lot of slowdowns, and making the system more robust. But I dunno, I must admit, I have my doubts.
Just being honest, not trying to be a naysayer,
-Pat Murphy
_____________________
That's how they showed their respect for Paddy Murphy
That's how they showed their honour and their pride;
They said it was a sin and shame and they winked at one another
And every drink in the place was full the night Pat Murphy died.
-Great Big Sea
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Josh Starseeker
Typical SL addict :)
Join date: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 111
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02-11-2003 11:07
I've been thinking the exact same thing...
In order to be a commerical success, SL will have to be able to support such things as having an entire sim filled up with a city, with dozens, even hundreds of people in there at the same time...otherwise, you would need a LOT of sims.
I would hate to think that we will still have to deal with population limits and lag / crashes after public release...so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that enough servers can be brought on-line to handle the ever-increasing load of incoming players.
J
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Ama Omega
Lost Wanderer
Join date: 11 Dec 2002
Posts: 1,770
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02-11-2003 11:51
As far as I can tell the sim servers need to be beefed up by a factor of 5 or so at least. Currently the sims max at 20 people and with 20 sims thats 400 people max online at any one time.
EQ averages 2-3k people online durring peak times on each server shard.
Will second life have seperate worlds? The current sim configuration suggests not....
What is the goal (approximatly) for each sim and the world as a whole to support player wise? 1,000 simultanious users? More?
Has any though been put towards "zoning"? I mean, designating some sims as "City Sims" and giving them greatly imporved resources? It seems logical to me because you don't want to pay the same server costs it takes to get a city running smoothly for a rural area or the outlands.
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