Guard Frequency Episode 432 | Let’s Call It Server Meshing

Cits and Civs, Captains and Commanders, you’re tuned to episode 432 of Guard Frequency — the best damn space sim podcast ever! This episode was recorded on Friday, February 17 and released for streaming and download on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at GuardFrequency.com

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This Week’s Schedule

• Flight Deck
  • Elite: Dangerous
  • Star Citizen
  • Improbable Worlds
• Feedback Loop

Links & The Like

Elite: Dangerous

Elite Dangerous has declared the missions bug fixed – unless people have new things to complain about – and has declared the daily background simulation “tick” to be working as intended. So, in the spirit of Guard Frequency’s longstanding tradition of helping game companies with their definitions, we’re going to talk about the word “tick” and why this is a bad choice. Also, more Powerplay clues and hints and a personal story of why this is going to be a distraction from the Thargoid war.

Star Citizen

Star Citizen released Early Access Pre-Alpha Release Candidate Prototype Experimental Test Build 3.18 to all backers on the PTU this week. They have also confirmed 1) that they don’t exactly know how they’re going to statically or dynamically mesh the servers, 2) that putting Pyro in the game can’t wait for them to figure that out, 3) that they’re not afraid to retcon the lore to fit the game as it develops, and 4) that they don’t want you to call it a retcon. Also, they’ve officially called salvaging a career path in 3.18 and promised next week they’d update mining stuff in 3.19. That last bit was for Chiv.

Third Wheel

Let’s talk about Improbable Worlds Limited. An aptly named company that raised about $400 million in venture capital with the main goal of making a software backbone for massively multiplayer games called SpatialOS that could host hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. It powered games such as “Worlds Adrift” and “Nostos,” which you probably haven’t heard of because they did not last long. Since then, they’ve bought three studios, sold the most prominent one to Tencent, and rebranded themselves as an MMO consulting company who claim to have contributed to notable games such as Sea of Thieves, Elder Scrolls Online, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. What do those games have in common? Well, as far as I know none of them host hundreds or thousands of players in a single instance. As far as we can tell, no one has ever figured this out, even after throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at it.

Community Questions

• Should CIG stay the course and hammer away at server meshing or should they start finding ways to live without it, like they’re doing with Pyro?
• What should we call the “tick” if they’re not gonna tell us exactly when that daily clock “ticks” each day?

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