I'm already limiting the updates a player can receive about players and NPCs to only players within a certain distance.
My question is, should I also limit the amount of updates to a fixed number? Like if 500 players/NPCs are in range should I only send updates about 200?
If all my players are within update range without another limit it could be a 40MB a second upload. Although it's doubtful this will be a common occurrence.
NPCs will naturally be spread around, so that's not as much of an issue.
Max Player Update
Author
should I also limit the amount of updates to a fixed number
There are three options here:
1) Limit the number of entities you send updates about -- more entities, means shorter visible range.
2) Limit the number of updates per second -- more entities, means longer time between updates.
3) Use a fixed number of updates per entity per second -- more entities means more bandwidth used, and more players will get loss/lag.
There is no "best" option here -- it depends on the needs of your game.
Author
I'm thinking I might spawn powerful NPCs in areas that are too populated that will kill off some of the players and disperse them to a number of spawn points.
I'm thinking I might spawn powerful NPCs in areas that are too populated that will kill off some of the players and disperse them to a number of spawn points.
A very good gameplay based solution!
Also, something that powerful guilds will start using to "farm" powerful NPCs -- it might even turn into a core game mechanic of your game :-)
By comparison, do some Googling on the "portal storms" that Asheron's Call 1 used to disperse avatars.
I'm thinking I might spawn powerful NPCs in areas that are too populated that will kill off some of the players and disperse them to a number of spawn points.
In Eve Online developers used to put more resources into less populated areas.
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