Oct 12, 2017 - Shiro Patch-Day+2
Hi, all. I’m a numbers guy so I crunched the
best/max case scenario to see what our servers can supposedly handle at stated
maxes. Prepare for a long one. Tl;dr? Server maxes were built to support 10x the
average population. But theoretical usage and real data are grossly different.
Now we know from server balancing efforts and from interaction with other players that actual data doesn’t support an absolute max scenario. (That is, servers have wildly different populations and very few Free Companies actual have the 512 max members. Most have between say 10 and 30 on average, maybe?) So bear with me as we chew some numbers and make some huge assumptions here for sake of argument...
- 10 million+ total player base (per recent announcements)
- 66 servers (per server status page)
- 2,880 plots per server (30 plots per division x 2 divisions per ward x 12 wards x 4 residential zones)
- 49,152 apartments per server (512 apartments per apartment building x 2 apartment buildings per ward x 12 wards x 4 residential zones)
- If all house plots were FC owned (we know they aren’t) and all FCs had the max 512 player rooms, then those 2,880 plots would provide 1,474,560 rooms
- Therefore, each server can support 1,523,712 total apartment + FC rooms at absolute max
- If every server had roughly the same population (it doesn’t), then 10 million players ÷ 66 servers = ~151,515 players per server
- Therefore, 2,880 plots / 151,515 players = At max (all player owned), only ~1.9% of players could own a home. Leap of faith: Our benevolent developers have large-scale player enjoyment in mind. Therefore, surely this isn’t what SE intended. (Right?!)
- Ergo, per above numbers, they must have intended for some houses to be player owned and some to be FC owned. (✓ This is possible!)
- In fact, their ~1.5 million room max is TEN TIMES the average population per server. So in theory, they may believe that they have put systems in place so that everyone can have a personal room.
The ‘problem’, of sorts, is that in order to access the FC- “end game” content (garden -plots- for more at once + cross-breeding; FC airships; Tier-3 FC buffs... Etc?), you *need* to own a house.
One solution might be to add a company workshop and some place to garden (make a roof “room” that is a garden with like 10+ plots?) to all apartments. But that still only covers ~1/3rd of the population. And then if everyone else had an FC with a house, only ~100k people might need to get an FC room. And again, best case, that’s only ~20 maxed out free companies, or ~30 maxed out FCs for everyone to have a 300k room and no need for apartments.
So SE did put ways in place in theory for all players to have a place of some kind to call their own...
The ‘problem’ is that theoretical allowances and actual data are grossly different. Servers don’t all have ~150k people. Housing isn’t owned by FCs alone. And most FCs are barely a 10th of their max membership size. Hence why they created apartments in the first place. Hence the massive “housing shortage.” Hence the general unhappiness in the player base with how housing was handled...
P.S. Pardon the necro revival of an old blog I had. Needed some place easy to post this and this was already setup! EZPZ.
Now we know from server balancing efforts and from interaction with other players that actual data doesn’t support an absolute max scenario. (That is, servers have wildly different populations and very few Free Companies actual have the 512 max members. Most have between say 10 and 30 on average, maybe?) So bear with me as we chew some numbers and make some huge assumptions here for sake of argument...
- 10 million+ total player base (per recent announcements)
- 66 servers (per server status page)
- 2,880 plots per server (30 plots per division x 2 divisions per ward x 12 wards x 4 residential zones)
- 49,152 apartments per server (512 apartments per apartment building x 2 apartment buildings per ward x 12 wards x 4 residential zones)
- If all house plots were FC owned (we know they aren’t) and all FCs had the max 512 player rooms, then those 2,880 plots would provide 1,474,560 rooms
- Therefore, each server can support 1,523,712 total apartment + FC rooms at absolute max
- If every server had roughly the same population (it doesn’t), then 10 million players ÷ 66 servers = ~151,515 players per server
- Therefore, 2,880 plots / 151,515 players = At max (all player owned), only ~1.9% of players could own a home. Leap of faith: Our benevolent developers have large-scale player enjoyment in mind. Therefore, surely this isn’t what SE intended. (Right?!)
- Ergo, per above numbers, they must have intended for some houses to be player owned and some to be FC owned. (✓ This is possible!)
- In fact, their ~1.5 million room max is TEN TIMES the average population per server. So in theory, they may believe that they have put systems in place so that everyone can have a personal room.
The ‘problem’, of sorts, is that in order to access the FC- “end game” content (garden -plots- for more at once + cross-breeding; FC airships; Tier-3 FC buffs... Etc?), you *need* to own a house.
One solution might be to add a company workshop and some place to garden (make a roof “room” that is a garden with like 10+ plots?) to all apartments. But that still only covers ~1/3rd of the population. And then if everyone else had an FC with a house, only ~100k people might need to get an FC room. And again, best case, that’s only ~20 maxed out free companies, or ~30 maxed out FCs for everyone to have a 300k room and no need for apartments.
So SE did put ways in place in theory for all players to have a place of some kind to call their own...
The ‘problem’ is that theoretical allowances and actual data are grossly different. Servers don’t all have ~150k people. Housing isn’t owned by FCs alone. And most FCs are barely a 10th of their max membership size. Hence why they created apartments in the first place. Hence the massive “housing shortage.” Hence the general unhappiness in the player base with how housing was handled...
P.S. Pardon the necro revival of an old blog I had. Needed some place easy to post this and this was already setup! EZPZ.
