Is This Wise?

[DonMegel]

I know UDK can do anything but should it do anything? What I am looking for are very large maps with at least 25 AI units on each team that are controlled by a single player in RTS style. I also want at least 8 real people on each team that can play in FPS mode for a total of 16. This is my bare minimum and would love more AI units and real players, preferably double.

Is this feasible? Is it wise? Would I need a programming deity? Can I have more units/players? Should I go with another engine?

Feedback is appreciated, thank you.

[Kauppaneuvos]

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Devel...tarterKit.html Check out that to make RTS-mode and use regular UTPawns/Controllers to use FPS-mode.
You dont have to be a code-god but it helps a lot :P
Personally i think that UDK is good chose for RTS/FPS mix.

[willyg302]

As far as I know the max players for UDK/UT3 is 64. There have been many attempts to go further than that, I know a few mods that go 128 and even 1000 players, but it basically cripples the engine. But the numbers you're thinking about should be fine, just maybe not double.

Honestly, UDK is the best you can find unless there's a dedicated RTS/FPS engine out there.

[DonMegel]

[Do AI units count against the player total? What do you mean the numbers may be fine but not doable?

[Crusha K. Rool]

You shouldn't have many problems raising the number of players to 24 or 32 (keep in mind that the server load increases roughly (very roughly) exponentially with the number of active players) since that worked for UT's large gametypes as well. It all boils down to how complex the rest of your game mechanics are. If you have a really lot of shooting going on, a lot of dynamic objects in the map that the players need to be kept up to date about and a lot of different weapons and equipment that players can carry at a time, you will eventually run into problems with the network capacity.

I am pretty sure the limit refers to PlayerControllers, not AIControllers. But you should still keep the rest of the AI simple, as complex AI is very expensive for network cost.

[willyg302]

Yes, any player pawn that the engine has to keep track of (bot or otherwise) counts as a player. I meant that the numbers you mentioned (25 on each team, 8 players) would be fine, but you also wanted to double these numbers. I don't think double would work, at least with the current limitations.

[DonMegel]

What would you consider complex AI?

I was planning on the AI units having three weapons at a time but I was planning on having many more weapon options.

[McTavish]

That doesnt really mean anything in terms of the AI. What they ment was what kind of calculations the AI will be making, how many choices they will have, what they are doing every tick. Do they navigate themselves or run between waypoints for example ? That sort of thing. If you have no experience at all with programming or uScript or even if you have little then I suggest you start with a smaller scope. Try to get 2 players fighting each other, get some mechanics in there. Maybe try to add bots and see how you get on with 1 or 2. From there you can start trying to expand.

[DonMegel]

Oh no, I won't be programming, I'll have a programmer for that :-)
So AI units count against the player total? Are they easier on a server than real players? Could I mod it to have more AI with out bogging the the whole thing down?

[MonsOlympus]

Are AI units single entities? as in, would a player select a squad or individuals?

[Paulsan94]

[mikepurvis]

No, AI does not count against player total.

[DonMegel]

For the most part the infantry squad will be controlled as a unit but I had wanted to allow a player to take possession of a squad and give individual orders.

Could I have 50 AI units per team but keep the 16 players total?

[MonsOlympus]

Why I asked is was because you can optimize AI units in a squad so they dont need individual actors, alot of RTS games use this technique to increase unit numbers. In terms of individual units thats 800 total, all up that is alot of path finding even for nav mesh so Im not sure how that will influence things but its definatly something to consider as path finding is only part of the AI code. Right here Im not talking about network limitations of player counts, you do really have to consider replication of actors though and what you can do to try to optimize. Asking if something can be done and having the ability to get it done are two different things, I will answer your question with a yes, it can be done; can you have it, well I can only help

[DonMegel]

Oh no no, not 50 5 unit squads per team, 10 five unit squads for a total of 50 on each team.

Ofcourse if I could swing 50 squads per team that would be great!