Population Cap.

I was wondering about the population topic going around. I never found a good answer to my question. I was thinking there should be a population limit, BUT it should allow you to set it from a default like for example, default was 500 units, I think there should be other default settings like 350 250 150 50 etc (example). But what im really looking for is a feature that allows you to set your own custom one for example, I wanted 1000 units, I think there should be a way to allow one to customize it. But more importantly! there should be a check-box for unlimited population. Ive played past RTS games of all kinds and what really got in my way was population limit, sometimes there would be mods to the game to make it unlimited but never to be used online and such. I know these limits were set because PC standards were mostly to slow (In classic RTS games pcs were old and couldnt handle much as we all know). I really want an option to make population unlimited. The population limit being unlimited as it is made me buy the game XD. Me and my friends were hoping the same thing and I never really got a clear thread on this topic exactly, if there is something related to this out there sorry, but I could not find it. Anyways ill see you all around.

-ATI_Killzone

I don't think they wanted a pop cap. As of right now you can build as many units as you want, which I believe was the target for the developers. Considering this game could very well go into a galactic size level, it would really suck if you couldn't go higher than a certain amount of units.

I don't think there is a plan for explicit population limits.

As I've said before in other threads about this very same thing, there will be in all likelyhood a unit cap.

But the idea behind it is not about limiting how much you can build, like Starcraft's Unit cap, but more so about providing an upper limit like in SupCom.

Also given the long term view Uber has on PA, both as a game and a platform you will be able to adjust the unit cap such that you can support hardware beyond the norm or just future hardware that will be faster than what we have access to now.

In short, there will be a unit cap, but you don't have to worry about it.

Mike

My interpretation of what the developers have said is that they want a unit cap that is completely scalable. So, there will likely be an optional unit cap at various levels (like 200, 500, or 1000), but there will also be the option to play with no unit cap.

There is no population cap. You framerate will just slow down.

It is likely that there will either be a player-by-player unit cap or a 'Universal' cap that all players draw from, though it will be of a magnitude not seen in any other game. Neutrino says he wants the possibility of 1,000,000+ concurrent units in a game.

In a 40 player mega battle that's a population limit of at least 25,000 units per person if this is player-by-player. Or if it's 'Universal' it'll be whatever the Devs want to set it at. One million, two, five?

The Devs are hand crafting this engine to handle those sorts of numbers.
Starcraft this is not.

The pop cap is what your machine can handle

why even mention 500-350-250-150!-50!?!
Can we get a forum moderator over here? I think this is ban-worthy.


currently the game is unlimited, do your best to try to hit 25,000 (the final product's limit) and come back when you have.

One 0 too much for 1 mio units and 40 players .

Currently 1000 units is quite hard to play, serverside lag and low fps.
1 Million, thats speeding stuff up a thousand times. I hope they get that done, such large scaled battles would be really cool.

The official population cap is when your computer catches fire (or 1 million units, whatever happens first).

Game caps will be possible (and are necessary) for people with puny girl PCs.

Thanks. Edited.

I just hope they will make an option to either make it unlimited or be customized.

You really think you'd be able to break 25,000+ units?

Yep. I like L--O--N--G games.

In a 20v20 match, the likelihood is that you'd not last that long.
And in a universal pool, you'd need to break 500,000 to reach the cap if you were one of two 'last-men-standing'.

That's even more unlikely.
A unit cap that allows one million units is not restrictive.
Don't try to claim otherwise because it makes you sound ridiculous.

I did not claim one million units IS restrictive.
I said I would be able to break 25,000+ units.

I doubt I'll play any 20v20 matches, and I don't really care how long I'd last, even if I did.
The idea is to have fun, not to win.
If only "winners" played this game, it would get very boring very soon.

I'm still of the opinion that 25,000 units per player is more than enough.
At a conservative estimate that 2/3 of your cap is mobile offensive units that's still 16,500+ units to keep track of, per player.

Total Annihilation with the unit cap at 9,999 units and on the largest Metal maps, was unreachable with even extreme game lengths (we're talking several hours) if you were playing anything more than easy AI. The turnover of units kept you well below that number.

25,000+ (again, that would be the bare minimum to reach a potential of one million units; the actual limit would probably be greater than that) would only be reachable if you were sandboxing against the weakest AI and intentionally trying to delay the game for as long as possible... basically just to prove a point.

A variable, but optional, unit cap that is set on game creation would be interesting to see.

Explicitly setting a hard limit on the number of units goes against the scalable design of the game, regardless of how possible people think it is to exceed it. This game should be playable in ten years time on computers that have far better hardware than we have currently, and the possible game size should be correspondingly larger.

That's how I see it, anyhow.

Regardless of how bad that could be for gameplay?

Again, this 'Million units' seems to be a milestone just to prove a point, and to hell with the gameplay consequences. That number... that 'goal' of just trying to prove whose engine is the betterest may very well be why we have every unit made of paper mache and held together with string, just to keep battles locked at a breakneck pace regardless of if you have 5 units or 5,000; a crippling effect on good gameplay in a strategy title.