Servers would become full and the only way to invite friends would to be by giving them a child code. Which makes sense as new characters only appear via child contracts.

Yes, that makes sense with in the context of the game and its mechanics, but it would be a pretty bad business decision to turn away potential paying customers.

Posted By Ihathis at 1:06 PM - Mon May 21 2018

Yes, that makes sense with in the context of the game and its mechanics, but it would be a pretty bad business decision to turn away potential paying customers.

I forgot to add, more servers could always be added. Which IMO would be exciting as no server would pan out the same way, due to different player interactions, different technology unlocked, different story arcs that unfold etc.

Yeah honestly they'd just open up a new server wherever the population explosion happened. Just because a single server has that limit doesnt mean theres a limit to the servers.

so if a server got saturated then for a new player getting into that server using a ward of state is like being on queue? first come first serve?

Posted By Isamu at 5:21 PM - Mon May 21 2018

so if a server got saturated then for a new player getting into that server using a ward of state is like being on queue? first come first serve?

Wards might be disabled even. As the devs have only mentioned that a friend can already join a server, even when full via a child code.

"Share your Child Code. Every NPC in the game, children included, have a character code. If you share your child’s code with a friend, then after the child reaches age 15 they’ll be able to join your family as your child. This system also breaks an important barrier to entry on a server. Players can always join your server as your child if you share your child code with them, even if the server is closed for new players. This guarantees your friends will always be able to join your server with you if you've got room in your family for them."

Sauce: wiki

An interesting concern this one, what happens if the game ends up wildly successful and there aren't enough characters? There is another factor here, they could simply let you share extra souls that you don't really want with friends so that they could have characters to play. This means that each player who has three souls, two who have been not used or lightly used could bring directly into the game. With similar spawn in of new characters, under the same rules as the rest of us from launch. That means that three times the server cap could technically be allowed on the server, and of course there is the share your kid means of entry.

Another worry that might occur to you next would be having enough space. After all if we triple the numbers or more who fit on the server how are we supposed to house, supply provide interesting places to explore and other things that make a game fun? Well, the landmasses are supposed to be huge for a game scale and the overall world is supposed to have multiple landmasses per server, with the landmass existing on each of the servers you would probably have room for thousands of counts much less all of the mayors and settlement members who may want to participate in the game. This game could probably house millions of players on existing servers with all the landmasses on the servers and probably never feel over crowded, just thoroughly settled.

The real concern I would have is server operating strength. If a vastly larger number of players show up than was expected on launch date it could crash servers. That is a very real concern, and it is a hard one to address since it can be hard to predict how much interest the game may develop once game-play reviews and live streams are released. Once the Beta's are open for test plays I doubt the game creators will want or enforce a general hush order on the game's current players. If the game looks fun enough and gets enough positive support from its players we could see a huge influx of players in a short period of time after beta closes.

Server backups and stronger servers could be used to keep the game running with over time growth but sudden opening day server overburden could or would delay launch by several more months depending on the scale of the issue. Making the players wait again while better hardware is installed to handle demand. The thing is that people who have never heard of CoE might flood in after the Beta and stress tests and exposition, this could be a case of the game becoming a victim of it's own success if it is fun enough to attract a larger than expected crowd especially by a larger than predicted margin for its launch date.

Of course there is a solution to all of this, and it is in place already. Exposition and the release schedule itself is going to be several months long after the game gets some play testing in, this means that interest in the game will probably drive package sales in the store giving the game makers some heads up and time to expand the Server capacity before launch hits. Basically all they need to do it make sure they have enough Server power divided between the Servers for all of the existing packages leading into launch plus probably some 30-40% extra RAM and processing power just encase.