GhostProtocol

I originally submitted this post to /r/DualUniverse (which you should totally check out if you frequent reddit) but considering this forum gets more attention I figured it would be best to post it here as well.
 
So if you're a fan of MMOs or Sci-Fi games in general you probably noticed a post on /r/gaming about a possible $1,000,000 battle that was gonna go down in EVE Online. It blew up and even made national news in Canada. https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/7sa25p/after_15_years_eve_online_is_having_its_first/
 
Now for those who followed the event (or if you were like me you were there personally), while it was intriguing to watch and talk about it was clear that overall it was a pretty big bust. Granted, the reddit post in question somewhat predicted this, what couldn't be predicted was all of the server issues that would plague this battle. Being that EVE is a big influencer of DU and another sandbox Sci-Fi game, I want to address some of the mechanical and server-side issues that came up and what they mean for DU.
 
There's more reasons then just the server as to why not a whole lot happened but I really won't go into detail about them since they aren't important. This battle broke the previous record of pilots in one single system with a peak of somewhere around 6,100. That's HUGE, it may not seem like many but when you consider most modern MMO's aren't single-shard and that many games in general can't support more than 64 dudes in one instance, it's really quite impressive. Over 6,000 people in one place and as a result the server node, which was heavily reinforced by CCP, shit the the bed. So generally when a server node is under a lot of stress the game will automatically start to slow down so the server can keep up with all the calculations. This is referred to as Time Dilation, or TiDi for short.
 
Tidi can slow down the action down to less than 10% real time which means actions can easily take 10 times longer. Once the server gets past 10% tidi it begins prioritizing certain commands over others and that's when shit starts breaking, client crashes are frequent and modules break resorting you to spamming them hoping they turn on or off accordingly. The reason the fight ended prematurely is because carriers couldn't replace lost fighters due to server lag. Needless to say, even on lowest graphics settings (which is necessary in these fights), your framerate will be awful. Still, the fact 6,000 people were in one place and the sever had to calculate all of the actions of those players and their drones/fighters and the node didn't crash is somewhat impressive. Before Tidi the server would simply crash under too much load.
 
So I wanna raise a similar question regarding Dual Universe. Now I know the technology EVE was built on is outdated, and even tho server hardware has been upgraded over the years, the game still runs on a single core rather than multi-threading. Switching over to multi-threading would mean having to rebuild the game from the ground up. Dual Universe has the privilege of being developed today where the tech is better rather than 2003. Hell, Novaquark have even released videos displaying stress tests of how well the game handles a lot of people in one place. While impressive, it doesn't necessarily put all my doubts to rest. Calculating 1,000 people walking around in a small area isn't quite the same as 6,000 people shooting at each other among other things.
It could be argued that due to EVE's focus on PvP that those sort of fights are more prone to happen in EVE than in a less PvP focused game like DU. However being that it's a sandbox title, by nature anything can happen. Players generally like to work together to forge massive empires and alliances full of thousands of people. And naturally, wars will break out because let's face it video game wars are fun. It's not unreasonable to think that a fight like this could happen in DU if the pieces fall into place. What I'm wondering is if the game can handle it, obviously we don't really know as of yet, but I think it's worth being discussed.

I sincerely wish I'd funded Novaquark instead of funding CIG, real talk. Will happily buy a supporter pack as soon as they come out.

The four tutorials are now released on our YouTube Channel!
Tools & UI Basics (25 min) (WATCH FIRST) Atmospheric Ship Building (12 min) Interactive Elements & Linking (21 min) Rights Management, Outposts & Territories (8 min)  
Best Regards,
Nyzaltar.
 

Discord Server: https://discord.gg/tTsywcw
Organization Link: The SCEF 
 
Welcome, explorers, to the Sicarian Battle Network.
The SCEF is the group for all players. Both those who love what you would come to expect from an organization, and for those who enjoy being fairly autonomous and prefer playing mostly by themselves or with small, close knit groups of friends, but still want the opportunity to interact with a large organization and participate in the activities that only organizations will have access to in game.
 
How we will operate.
As an organization we're ultimately focused on one thing, enjoying the game, which means providing the opportunity to engage as many play styles as possible. Everything from individual jobs like mining, building, trading and military occupations, to organizational structures ranging from military chain of command, to a loosely ruled 5 man band of brothers, just having fun playing games after work. But no matter what you choose, you'll still have the support of the organization. Lets dig into the details.
 
The Primary Operations Command-
The P.O.C. is our version of a typical organization, you know, with territories, factories and big awesome fleets of military and commercial ships. This is the place for the players who love the big group organizations and being apart of a large bustling community of players.
 
As part of the POC you'll be given an occupation as a way to support the organization when the need arises. While there are certainly more occupations that could become relevant, here are a few that we already know we will have.
 
Military:
Marine- both a pilot and an infantryman, responsible for manning defenses or engines of war when called upon to fight.
Combat engineer- for the builders who don't mind getting dirty, CE's may be stationed on military installations and vessels that are destined for combat, and have to fix them in the middle of it.
Recon specialist- born for the shadows, those who join recon can expect to be far from home, behind enemy lines and gaining Intel on the enemies of our organization. or blowing them up...
Civilian:
Builders- just want to build in peace? builders can be expected to work far from the front lines building ships, buildings and anything else we might need. Ideally, really far from all the explosions.
Miners- for those who love digging in the dirt, you'll have free reign over any mining equipment in our inventory and likely be stationed wherever the most ore is.
Traders / transport- truck drivers of the space age, these guys keep our supply lines moving. Everything from ammo to ore to trade goods.
 
+ any other jobs that may come in handy.
 
Officer roles are also available for all of the above occupations. Officers will be in charge of a group of people in the same occupation, and will be chosen based off of a combination of merit and leadership skill.
 
The Detachments-
The detachments are for the lone wolves and small groups who enjoy each others company, but don't want to get to buried in the operations of a large organization, yet still want access to the end game content that large groups provide, and the support network that comes with in the event of a raid. As a detachment member you will be almost completely autonomous from the main organization, lead by the group founder or an elected member. Detachments don't need to be near organization territory and can establish their own base anywhere on any planet, and can actively recruit new friends into the org.
 
Detachments are still part of the organization though, so while detachments will be almost completely separate from the main group,  detachment commanders will have to follow general guidelines set by POC officials (like don't blow up this allied organization) and will be asked to passively keep an eye on their local area to assist recon teams with helpful information (like large fleet movements, bases and org vs org battles)
 
 
 
Any questions? ask them here, PM me or join my discord if you want to talk! (link up top)
 
Basic Command structure + Ranking: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1-i-j7JAMllsDsNdUOekeabjWpzUa0da657zlPoTR7eI/edit?usp=sharing 

o7
Eve bittervet here.
I don't think DU will turn into Eve. I'm sure NQ is aware of what could happen, and they'll put in appropriate tools to stop it. Now..that doesn't mean that some people (*cough goons *cough) won't try to grief. But players should also have tools to make them regret it
 

AS Lethys and IndiVestor pointed out already, this is a team game. Socialise, fraternise and be the best possible friend and the worst possible enemy.

Anyone who sees EVE and thinks "full of griefers", are people who never socialised in EVE, cause in EVE if you play solo, it's you against the entire server.

The REAL problem with EVE, is the Killmail mentality of "look how many Orcas and Skiffs I've blown up". NQ just needs to get rid of those things for players. A killboard will only encourage bad PvP,.

EVE's problem is not the griefers, it's the fact only 1 out of 5 massive engagements in fleet ops is actually awesome. 4 out of 5 is you beating on smaller forces or a Rorrqual. And the Killmails are the catalyst of said problem.

I just created my account, saying hi, will read all the stickies before I post any questions, thanks