AGDC08: The meaning of life in EVE Online really is 42 (no joke)
by Michael Zenke 
Sep 25th 2008 at 3:30PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Academic, Massively Event Coverage
While much of the talk was highly technical in nature, one fun element we took away was the mathematical nature of the EVE Online galaxy. When 'putting the universe together', the designers had to make a few fundamental decisions. How would it happen? On what level would the universe be simulated? What method would they use to make planets? Today we have a short clip of the talk, touching on those very subjects. Despite the depths to which most EVE players know their game world, we're betting you might learn something new about the depths of space, as created by CCP. Read on for the details.
"The entire universe of EVE originates from the number '42.'" |
Halldor: So this is the answer to the question about the way our system is hung together. We wanted to create a big universe in EVE Online, and it quickly became apparent that Solar Systems were a nice unit. Solar Systems are the big systems that servers emulate. EVE consists of over 5,000 solar systems, and we needed a way to quickly create those systems via simulation. We decided to go with what's called the disc accretion model. Think of it like you put a bunch of dust into space and you spin it around.
The dust settles in space in a couple of particular places based on an equation, that dictates the gravity and decides how the planets form. It's a great, scientific way of putting them together and to make Solar Systems for EVE only takes a little more than 24 hours. We realized when we were making them that the whole thing, all of the Solar Systems, is created from a single seed, a single number. We realized this after the cooking had already started on the systems, and we were sad. Because we wanted the seed to be "42".
We had the time, so we actually threw out the database that had already been created and restarted it with that seed. So the entire universe of EVE originates from the number "42."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
possum said on 4:56PM 9-25-2008
Hmm, 300,00 on one server is a simple untruth, lie whatever you like to call it, i am sure "they" have a different terminology and way of substantiating that 300k on on server statement.
These folks would lead you to believe that 300k players are on the eve server, most reasonable folks understand what they "meant" to say, like any politician they mislead to great lengths to get those folks not in the know to jump on the bandwagon.
If not for the statement and it's intention, WHy did CCP state it the way they did, this is to quell any arguments that may rise, they did it on purpose, there may indeed be 300k plus or minus a percentage registered to play from multiple accounts from the same folks that may come close or slightly over 300k but in reality CCP can show its own server records
...............and the number is only low double digits playing at peak times, to this day, avg number is around 9k to 13 k, quite a bit different from the intended reaction they wanted from their misleading statement.
let me fix it for them:
CCP has slightly over 300k subscribers registered to use the EVE server, this includes cancelled accounts and free trials, a large portion of these are from multiple accounts from the same user. At peak times we reach double digit numbers in the low 30k to 50k range. due to double digit peak time numbers lag becomes severe, be careful out there.
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Cyron said on 5:51PM 9-25-2008
Most companies that put user statistics out there comment on their total users, not making distinctions for one person using multiple accounts, and often including trials.
So yes, though the comment is somewhat misleading, it's not really any more or less misleading that similar stats given out by other massively multiplayer games
W. Graves said on 5:31PM 9-25-2008
Its all based on 42... no wonder its soo wonderful.....
@possum, stickler much? BTW when I say my city has 300,000 people in it, how many of those are actively interacting, I know its higher % than eve, but a very similar concept. Today peaked at 30,000 according to the server chart, and >10% concurrent interaction is pretty good in any game.
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Raptor said on 5:38PM 9-25-2008
While you're right that eve doesnt have 300k online at the same time, you're wrong about the rest of your post. Most of the time there is about 30k people online, with no lag worth mentioning (unless you're in one of the few highly populated systems) and the 300k is active subscribtions.
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ahnog said on 6:38PM 9-25-2008
I too would like to say that the case has been misrepresented. The 300k does not include canceled accounts. It is the number of active accounts. No, they are not online all at the same time. Average server load is somewhere around 10% of subscriptions at any given time.
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Flashman said on 8:25PM 9-25-2008
@possum: Even if only 10-15% of those 300,000 *active* accounts are online at any one time, the other 90% still have their skills quietly ticking away, market orders up, mailboxes running - and could show up in the game world at any time. So just because only 10% is 'running hot' at any one time doesn't mean the remainder is forgotten about.
Take the 'city' analogy: maybe you won't have more than 10% of people driving on the roads at any one time, but the city still needs to cope with the needs of the other 90%.
Go read an EVE quarterly economic report - you'll see that CCP's playerbase figures only include active, paid account (and not the extra two characters on most accounts). And so what if some people have more than one account? It's not like people with two accounts require any LESS server power than two accounts owned by different individuals (especially if the multi-account holders are dual-boxing).
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