Knights and Merchants.net Forum

Map size
The map size limit is probably not going to go above 256x256 for a few reasons:
- Performance: Some older computers already struggle to run maps of that size, and pathfinding from one side of the map to the other can cause lag with large groups.
- Minimap becomes too small/unreadable.
- Walking from one side of the map to the other takes ages, you end up having to feed your troops before you even get a message about them being hungry for the food to arrive in time, and then the serfs starve on the way home

Map size will restrict the multiplayer player limit because you need a certain amount of space for your village. If you look at existing 256x256 maps, there's probably room for another 2-4 players at the most. So I don't think the multiplayer player limit will go above 12.

Performance
If you add an extra 4 players to your average multiplayer game, that's 50% extra units and houses, and so a significant increase in CPU load. I think a 256x256 map with 12 players at x3 speed could cause lag, but it would need to be tested. Certainly older computers would struggle with it as they already struggle with 256x256 8P x3. More players also means more chance of dropouts, ping spikes, waiting for everyone to click ready, etc.


Overall I think we could consider an increase of the multiplayer player limit to 10 or maybe 12 to add some more variation to the game. And I think we could consider increasing the global player limit to 16 to allow for really big co-operative missions and better control of the AI (could be especially useful with dynamic scripts). It would be another nice feature for the next release.
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I'll wait for a response from Lewin or Krom.

Hey why is there a limit of 10 players in a game? That is, what is holding the current limit of 2 spectators in 8-player games? I it would be great if there could be at least 4, because spectating is very fun