Salve Citizens, it is I, Deodatus!
Today is a good day, albeit I am still fending off the remnants of a cold that has left me unable to deliver what I said I would in such a timely fashion. None the less, I forwarded a few technical questions to our Director of Development, Christine McGavran, last week before I went out for the count. She was incredibly gracious enough to take time out of her very busy timeline to answer the two questions I sent over.
Will this game also be designed to take advantage of the 64-bit version of WinXP/Vista?
The current issue with 64-bit processing is dissemination of hardware and software. So, in a nutshell – while the technology is great and something we’d love to program for exclusively, the number of in use systems that employ a 64-bit architecture (both hardware and OS) are limited in number and not currently fiscally. We might at some point, but right now we’re focusing on working as well as possible on the platform that the vast majority of our players are currently using.
After playing games like EQ and WoW, I was wondering how G&H is planning on handling the lag issues.
The issue with answering this question lies in the fact that “lag” is a vague term and is derived from a wide range of problems. Lag can come from any source – from user hardware problems, to bad connection, to server-side issues; this being said, I will assume that you are implying that if a consumer had the “ideal set-up,” both hardware and connection-wise, how would we handle the remaining lag issues. It comes down to how well we implement our code, server set-ups, and load balancing. Of course we’re trying to write our code to be as efficient and as clever as possible and frankly that’s what everyone does. It’s why major MMOs release patches to “enhance connectivity,” they’re constantly patching their code to streamline the experience. The best thing to do when it comes to lag is for us to build on the shoulders of our predecessors, thus learning the lessons of those in the past.
Another thank you to Christine for taking the time to answer these, and trust me folks, that team is working hard to give you the best gameplay experience possible. So, a little tid-bit for all the citizens of the Republic there! I hope that helps answer a couple of questions – no doubt it will generate some more. Either way, we look forward to hearing them and I will do my best to get some more questions answered for you!
Until that day,
Deodatus