Why doesn't CM have a player limit?

[adrenalinetooth]

Once the server passes 200 people, the server speed takes a hit, and game quality drops. God forbid cramming 140 marines onto that damn map, and god bless the poor squad leaders in charge of the 40 people in their squad.

Furthermore, we miss out on a lot of potential cool features for the reason that they would simply cause too much lag with high player counts.

So, a question to the devs: What is the reasoning in not adding a player limit? What's trying to be achieved here?

The only answer I can think of is that it allows for events to happen that would not be possible with 150~ players. Or, perhaps we just want bragging rights and want to see how many people we can cram into one SS13 server to set a record?

[Weaselburg]

You seem a little aggressive at the end there.

[adrenalinetooth]

You seem a little aggressive at the end there.

I thought the same thing when writing it, but I thought there was value in mentioning it, as it could be true. Although if it were, I don't think any staff would be willing to answer such an openly aggressive proposition.

[Heckenshutze]

2/3 of the players that join in CM logs out as soon they die, giving space for other new players to hop in. The game balances itself in that topic, also remember we're in summer so a lot of our beloved kids play more than usual so we see a lot of activity. I believe as soon we reach the limit of our server (where it's just impossible to play) a player limit would be added.

[taketheshot56]

I mean who doesnt want bragging rights about player cramming i dont know how apop feels, but it warms my heart to see 300 plus players on, I remember when 90ppl was high pop.

[Geikkamir]

Is it actually possible to limit the number of players that can join in BYOND? You can limit the number of people that enter the round, sure, but can you actually limit the number of people that can be connected?

[Simo94]

Because fuck that.

[OatzAndHoes]

I don't know why people love hipop so much. The game turns into a mindless mess over 200 players, and gets worse and worse the higher it goes. I long for the days when 100 players was considered hipop. Back then most of the players could remember eachothers names just based off the quick 20 minute deployment. 60ish pop actually felt like you were a tight knit group of soldiers going on a mission, and the skill of individual players actually could turn the tide of battle. SLs would know pretty much everyone in their squad, so a missing soldier would be noted pretty quickly even without a Bridge Officer. Now you're just part of a human wave, with so many people die that you can't remember any of their names.

What I'd really like to see is the server split into two seperate ones like /tg/ and goon have done.

[Casany]

All y’all talking about 60 player lowpop you don’t know of the days with 20 player lowpop.

Those were good days.

[solidfury7]

I like high pop and super high pop.

The only time I'd really consider amother server, was if it was one dedicated to RnR or not another replica server.

[Snypehunter007]

To discuss the original question, I would wager its mostly because we just don't need to block off players from the game, the only benefit would be less lag, but usually the lag is only for that "extreme highpop" round. While it sucks for that round, yes, it would cause a higher impact on how many players can get on the server and could potentially drive people away.

I also don't know if it is even possible to cap the limit of players on a server like you would see on a game like Mount and Blade where you have a hard-limit to server population caps, where you PHYSICALLY can't join the server. I believe the closest thing that SS13 servers do to mitigate player joining is dropping from the BYOND server hub once they reach a certain number of players, which I believe Paradise does.

Also,

All y’all talking about 60 player lowpop you don’t know of the days with 20 player lowpop.

I do, I've been around too long, even though I've (relatively) been here for a small amount of CM's history.

I don't know why people love hipop so much. The game turns into a mindless mess over 200 players, and gets worse and worse the higher it goes. I long for the days when 100 players was considered hipop. Back then most of the players could remember eachothers names just based off the quick 20 minute deployment. 60ish pop actually felt like you were a tight knit group of soldiers going on a mission, and the skill of individual players actually could turn the tide of battle. SLs would know pretty much everyone in their squad, so a missing soldier would be noted pretty quickly even without a Bridge Officer. Now you're just part of a human wave, with so many people die that you can't remember any of their names.

What I'd really like to see is the server split into two seperate ones like /tg/ and goon have done.

I do remember the times of vaguely knowing everyone's names in Mid-Sulaco days. it was enjoyable and definitely felt a little more personal, even if there were certain meta problems that did arise from that. Most days however, we just barely reach 200, though it usually hangs around 180 - 190, so it is close.

To address the splitting servers, it just wouldn't be viable. There is a reason why one version of Goonstation has about 20-30 ish people and the other one is MUCH, in comparison, higher. We'd have to be hitting 300 players daily to consider it and even then we would probably work on trying to stabilize server stability first before consider a server split. Maybe if we were still on Sulaco-era and hitting our current "normal highpop" maybe a server split could have happened, but even then, we stabilized the server and updated to a larger ship to accommodate. Because of the larger ship, we had more space to put things, more roles to add, more features to implement and so on and so forth. With a server split, considering the game is team oriented, it would really kill some of the roles we have, more so on the marine side than the xeno side, because the game just isn't balanced to be played among a (relatively) small amount of players anymore.

I can agree it does get lower RP the more people you get and I would hesitate quite a bit before attempting to running an event at 200 people or higher but I think that it is one of those things that is unavoidable due to our nature as human beings. It is just one of those things that sucks, but there really is no fix to.

I'm not going to even get into the idea of splitting the mod, admin, mentor, and dev teams between the two servers, as I've already got a headache ATM.

[adrenalinetooth]

To discuss the original question, I would wager its mostly because we just don't need to block off players from the game, the only benefit would be less lag, but usually the lag is only for that "extreme highpop" round. While it sucks for that round, yes, it would cause a higher impact on how many players can get on the server and could potentially drive people away.

I also don't know if it is even possible to cap the limit of players on a server like you would see on a game like Mount and Blade where you have a hard-limit to server population caps, where you PHYSICALLY can't join the server. I believe the closest thing that SS13 servers do to mitigate player joining is dropping from the BYOND server hub once they reach a certain number of players, which I believe Paradise does.

Also,

I do, I've been around too long, even though I've (relatively) been here for a small amount of CM's history.



I do remember the times of vaguely knowing everyone's names in Mid-Sulaco days. it was enjoyable and definitely felt a little more personal, even if there were certain meta problems that did arise from that. Most days however, we just barely reach 200, though it usually hangs around 180 - 190, so it is close.

To address the splitting servers, it just wouldn't be viable. There is a reason why one version of Goonstation has about 20-30 ish people and the other one is MUCH, in comparison, higher. We'd have to be hitting 300 players daily to consider it and even then we would probably work on trying to stabilize server stability first before consider a server split. Maybe if we were still on Sulaco-era and hitting our current "normal highpop" maybe a server split could have happened, but even then, we stabilized the server and updated to a larger ship to accommodate. Because of the larger ship, we had more space to put things, more roles to add, more features to implement and so on and so forth. With a server split, considering the game is team oriented, it would really kill some of the roles we have, more so on the marine side than the xeno side, because the game just isn't balanced to be played among a (relatively) small amount of players anymore.

I can agree it does get lower RP the more people you get and I would hesitate quite a bit before attempting to running an event at 200 people or higher but I think that it is one of those things that is unavoidable due to our nature as human beings. It is just one of those things that sucks, but there really is no fix to.

I'm not going to even get into the idea of splitting the mod, admin, mentor, and dev teams between the two servers, as I've already got a headache ATM.

I don't think a server split would be good. I think capping the connections in whatever way possible is the best idea.

When highpop happens, 1) The game lags, 2) quality of RP drops, and 3) it turns into a managerial mess for anyone in a command role.

Most importantly, by not setting a cap, devs have to limit the potential of their work and streamline projects in order to make sure it wouldn't crash during high player counts. If there was a reasonable limit, devs could make fancier things without worrying about their projects causing too much lag during high pop.

In my opinion, the sweet spot for enjoyable gameplay and RP is between 80-180 players. My initial question still stands though.

[spookydonut]

Coding the game for 200 people isnt much different than coding for 300 people.

[xXen0zS1ay3rXx]

Servers cost money, having a second server or server limits would cost them sweet sweet cash

[Pogo92]

Something that might be worth considering, although it would take an incredible amount of effort, would be a high-pop only map that serves to alleviate some of the crowding on certain maps due to High Pop. It's a fun idea but would probably never happen.

[Lukey111]

Something that might be worth considering, although it would take an incredible amount of effort, would be a high-pop only map that serves to alleviate some of the crowding on certain maps due to High Pop. It's a fun idea but would probably never happen.

Most of our ideas never happen, but that sounds like a good idea.

[Vispain]

First of all. Cash wise...they had to close donations.

Second of all. Why have a player limit indeed. Well, as other said lag is only really seen on Extreme High Pop.
Even at 200 plus the game is still fine and at 300...then you start getting lag. Its crazy the amount of people we can take in. On extended rounds we likely get more than 300 as that is just the start of the round and I guarantee you late game there are not 100 plus people screwing around in deadchat as the pop remains at near 200s. CM is possibly one of the most optimized and highest reaching in player populations.

Thirdly, in regards to poor SLs dealing with 40 squaddies. Any SL worth their salt ENJOYS it. You can't keep everyone together but you can keep a majority of them with you. Leading a platoon size force is fun...provided you have previous SL experience and understand you can't keep everyone tightly knit around you. Its a platoon size force. Not a squad at that point. As such...expect to deal with situations like your "squad" being all over the place with the only thing tying them together being you and what you say and order.


Last but not least, if Pop size is such a struggle on how the roles are according to some of you...remember that CM can always be changed to adjust. From what I understand that was the reason for the Sulaco to Almayer switch.

[KeyWii]

All y’all talking about 60 player lowpop you don’t know of the days with 20 player lowpop.

Those were good days.

[apophis775]

Ya'll don't remember the 4 player lowpop servers on the old old sulaco.

[Karmac]

Ya'll don't remember the 4 player lowpop servers on the old old sulaco.

I remember when it wouldn't start because there weren't enough people with xeno prefs on so it'd just restart the lobby and keep doing it till some xenos readied up.

[Wesmas]

I remember when it wouldn't start because there weren't enough people with xeno prefs on so it'd just restart the lobby and keep doing it till some xenos readied up.

Sucked for me, cause that was the time I was awake.

[Meatshield]

I hope this doesn't happen. I dont find lag an issue at all, although I find connecting a bigger issue. Having to wait two or more hours to see if you can play is a shitty idea, up there with "lets make CM freemium".

[spookydonut]

With the move to beta and some code changes we've actually massively reduced cpu usage which is generally the biggest cause of lag. There's another few huge changes in the works which should reduce cpu use even more.