CCP Veritas gave an interview about the server-side of the 6VDT fight. He admitted that the server lagged and also that they aren't upgrading because such fights are extraordinary, therefore a supercomputer would run with 5% load in 99% of its time. But we not only do "have" large battles but also they are pinnacle events of EVE, they can't be just cut down as outliers.
I already had a suggestion, to kick out smaller ships, but it would cut down exactly the 4000 players playing effect. So here is the better one, which doesn't exclude anyone, and designed to the realities of the large-fleet combat.
In large-fleets most players are in doctrine DPS ships, shooting the same broadcasted primary. In 6VDT TEST Prophecies and Zealots fought CFC Megathrons. They are trying to shoot the same target, at the same time. Let's use that!
When TiDi reaches 30%, grouping is enabled on server side (players can't initiate or stop it). In this state, the DPS ships of the same types and on the same grid are moved into N-ship groups. One out of the N pilots is randomly chosen to pilot the group, he has the same interface as normal. Technically, the other N-1 ships are removed from the grid and the leader ship gets its damage increased N-times. So if N=10, where were 10 Megathrons, each issuing commands and moving, there will be just one. The players on the other ships will get the same data as the actually piloting one, they can rotate the camera and observe the battle, they can chat, but they can't issue commands, besides a "leave group".
To not turn these players into complete spectators, the leader role rotates between them. It is also needed to average out the different skillpoints and fits. Since the leader is random-selected, the DPS of the group is equal to the DPS of the sum of the individual ships on average (if a max skilled and an noob is grouped, half time the group has 2x great and half time 2x noob DPS). If the grouped-ship is attacked, it is always the actual leader's resists that matters. If the ship explodes, he is in his pod, the killers see it flashing and disappearing as target, but the group (unless it was down to 1 ship) will live on, with 1 less power and another leader.
Due to this change, the battle participation number will be decreased to 1/N for the server. The group is one ship server-wise, and also one ship on the overview and brackets, with only a number next to it showing that it shoots harder and needs to be killed multiple times. It looks atrocious to take control away from players, but remember, they are willingly shooting broadcasts anyway, so they are actually better off. To avoid any kind of player dissatisfaction, this can be made opt-in, players can choose to be grouped with other ships of the fleet. I'm sure all FCs will order their pilots to activate this feature for maximum alpha (the group shoots in the same millisecond).
The server can automatically play with N, and reorder ships to balance performance and maximum number of independent pilots. Of course lot of problems has to be addressed, mostly with E-war and smartbomb damage, but I'm sure it all can be balanced, and allow smooth, 50-60% TiDi battles with 10K participants.
I already had a suggestion, to kick out smaller ships, but it would cut down exactly the 4000 players playing effect. So here is the better one, which doesn't exclude anyone, and designed to the realities of the large-fleet combat.
In large-fleets most players are in doctrine DPS ships, shooting the same broadcasted primary. In 6VDT TEST Prophecies and Zealots fought CFC Megathrons. They are trying to shoot the same target, at the same time. Let's use that!
When TiDi reaches 30%, grouping is enabled on server side (players can't initiate or stop it). In this state, the DPS ships of the same types and on the same grid are moved into N-ship groups. One out of the N pilots is randomly chosen to pilot the group, he has the same interface as normal. Technically, the other N-1 ships are removed from the grid and the leader ship gets its damage increased N-times. So if N=10, where were 10 Megathrons, each issuing commands and moving, there will be just one. The players on the other ships will get the same data as the actually piloting one, they can rotate the camera and observe the battle, they can chat, but they can't issue commands, besides a "leave group".
To not turn these players into complete spectators, the leader role rotates between them. It is also needed to average out the different skillpoints and fits. Since the leader is random-selected, the DPS of the group is equal to the DPS of the sum of the individual ships on average (if a max skilled and an noob is grouped, half time the group has 2x great and half time 2x noob DPS). If the grouped-ship is attacked, it is always the actual leader's resists that matters. If the ship explodes, he is in his pod, the killers see it flashing and disappearing as target, but the group (unless it was down to 1 ship) will live on, with 1 less power and another leader.
Due to this change, the battle participation number will be decreased to 1/N for the server. The group is one ship server-wise, and also one ship on the overview and brackets, with only a number next to it showing that it shoots harder and needs to be killed multiple times. It looks atrocious to take control away from players, but remember, they are willingly shooting broadcasts anyway, so they are actually better off. To avoid any kind of player dissatisfaction, this can be made opt-in, players can choose to be grouped with other ships of the fleet. I'm sure all FCs will order their pilots to activate this feature for maximum alpha (the group shoots in the same millisecond).
The server can automatically play with N, and reorder ships to balance performance and maximum number of independent pilots. Of course lot of problems has to be addressed, mostly with E-war and smartbomb damage, but I'm sure it all can be balanced, and allow smooth, 50-60% TiDi battles with 10K participants.
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