Gundam Online - 160,000 Simultaneous Connections?

Hido writes "A new PC MMO title called Gundam Online: Universal Century is being developed in Japan by Bandai and Sammy , and is currently in its beta testing stage. The site says: 'We are trying pretty stimulating thing such as 160,000 people's simultaneous connection, a seamless space expression, reappearance of earth area in a full scale, and real-time-transmission in the specifications.' More info at the official Universal Century site - and here's a link to some more screenshots and movies." Quite apart from the wonderfully descriptive Engrish on the official site, has anyone seen, translated, or otherwise checked out Beta reports from this MMO title?

Comments

Re:Japanese otakus freak me out

[Creepy Crawler]

Come on. Guy geeks are Guys first. THEN GEEKS.

10six

[metalhed77]

10six, which was closed down promised 10^6 1,000,000 players simultaneously. Too bad it never got above a few thousand. Also too bad that it required being online > 7 hours a day to actually progress to a decent level. Ah, good riddance.

Re:10six

[iq in binary]

I loved that game, thank you very much.

It integrated one variable into the inherent multiplayer gameplay that no other game dared employ fully.

Teamwork.

That game was famous for a reason, it was one of the most innovative games I had seen in a long time. It was the most realistic strategy game on the net when it was around, it involved everything a real military general would have to worry about.

It's not about the sheer performance of a game, it's about the reality of it. ;)

Think about it, you'll know what I mean eventually.

Re:10six

[Hido]

Well its fair enough that they promised a million players simultaneously but you have got to realise the difference in scale. They are talking about making a dynamic world where things are constantly changing. The shape of the earth could change if a meteor hits the planet for example. I think what I find the best thing for this is that its going to be an reality. Unlike all those boring MMO's where you die then just get resurrected in UC you die then you die :) I mean if you want you could be a geek programmer eating pizza all day and getting fat if you wish to and you actually get FAT. I would say that makes it sound a hell of a lot more interesting then most games out there today.

Re:10six

[__past__]

I mean if you want you could be a geek programmer eating pizza all day and getting fat if you wish to and you actually get FAT.

But will you be able to post about games that let you play a geek programmer eating pizza all day and getting fat on /.?

Re:10six

[Hido]

So now your talking about a world within a world yes? Maybe we should put a request in to ask slashdot to design another slashdot within UC then we could post game happenings within it as well. Also instead of them being g33ks they would be these Otaku Shoujo loving guys who synthetic shushi posting about cyber girls within the year UC0079 :p

Re:10six

[Captain_Stupendous]

Riiiight... Who cares if a game is fun, as long as it immitates reality.

Re:10six

[TwistedKestrel]

You got that backwards. The parent was stating that he found the game fun, and that had nothing to do with the performance of the game, i.e. the fact that it could theoritically handle 10^6 players.

Nothing in there at all about imitating reality, or being realistic.

Re:10six

[metalhed77]

The teamwork aspect was good, but still, the game was horribly lacking in play balance. The only reason our MDN ( 10six for clan, which was mandatory in 10six) could even sustain itself was because we had one guy in korea who could watch our shit while we slept. When I woke up one morning to find that some super high level assholes had destroyed 2 months of work overnight, i figured that the game wasn't worth it. The fact that they were CONSTANTLY having to reset the game world said it all. I loved 10six, it was really addictive and fun. But it was simultaneously excruciatingly painful due to the ammount of time it required. Good riddance.

One key thing that would have really improved play would be enlarging the MDNs to be able to carry infinite users. That way, large MDNs would recruit newbies. Who would then grow up into powerful people. It would evolve such that MDNs would become governments. The Corporations never helped each other out.

I guess I wont be scrapping my PC

[Hungus]

All I can say is I have been a UC Gundam fan for more than 20 years, and the thought of this becoming a reality make me drool. I persoanlly suggest reading the FAQ FIRST ( novel concept I know) I am of course disipointed that this will most likely be a Windows only game

"Q : Will a Linux, FreeBSD, or OS X version be released?
A : The initial release will only support Microsoft® Windows®2000 SP2, Windows®XP HomeEdition, or Windows®XP Professional. Currently, there is no plan for other operating systems" Oh well it will give me something to do with my PC which for the most part spends its day serving media files locally (eg to the tv or one of my "other" computers (read Macs) and being a testbed for Various Ragnarok Online Clones.

Re:I guess I wont be scrapping my PC

[Winterblink]

I'm having a hard time understanding how anyone (even an uberfan of Gundam, 20 years!! my respects, sir) can be truly disappointed by this. Were you expecting anything else, really? After years and years of the /vast/ majority of games only coming out on the Windows platform?

Re:I guess I wont be scrapping my PC

[Hungus]

I have some great gundam games for my PSOne, Note I am only disapointed that it is going to be Windows only not in any way am i dissapointed with the game itself. And as a 20 Year Gundam fan I am of course also a romantic .. so yeah i do set myself up to be disappointed at things like this.

is the glass half full or half empty?
The vessel is at 50% capacity

All to be Run by the Persona Corp

[infonography]

Pretend you haven't seen Darkside Blues, go on I dare you.

They wanna simulate 160,000 sumeltanious ...

[floydman]

connections....

Lets slashdot their ass...

wooot

[Xenkar]

Gundam Fight! Ready? GOOOO!
I hope we get the chance to save the Earth from the Dark Gundam.

Re:wooot

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong Continuity. Mobile Fighter G-Gundam took place on a different timeline, like Gundam-W, or Turn A Gundam...SO YOU FAIL IT!!

Check the FAQ and the BBS

[Dolemite_the_Wiz]

There's a ton of information there.

It seems that this is a Japaneese-centric production for this game and the servers will initally be housed in Japan.

Great Idea, but I'd like to see how this pans out in reality.

End of Line.

Dolemite
______________________

Re:Check the FAQ and the BBS

[Hido]

I think it would work out pretty well cause the main body of the players will be Asia based so that would be on the right track. Players from abroad in this case (USA & Europe) would most probs go through a leaf which would be located in USA would solve the rest of the problems. If anything is going to be a problem I think that will be the language barrier cause they are planning to use Unicode so anything you type will be native to you. So to speak to other players from another country for example your going to have to learn another language :p

Actually it's being developed by...

[Cacophanus]

Bandai and Sammy are merely publishing the game (with Bandai taking the lion's share of the deal, for obvious copyright reasons). The actual developers are an Osaka based company called "Dimps". Thus far it is a truly impressive game, and one that I hope will receive an international release (and when I mean international I mean somewhere else other than Korea). Naturally, the Japanese players will rule the roost on this one.

Reports on this game

[Hido]

Well so far it seems like there is really very little information coming out and the little that had come out was completely hammered down by Bandai. Also another problem is that out of +-16000 applications for beta testing only 500 were accepted. I remember one case where this guy ended up posting some pics from the alpha and last I heard he was crying cause he got his account nuked :p If anybody else finds some info on this game I am more then willing to do some translation so send those url's :)

old news

[danbeck]

Wow.. this has been around for ages and it finally gets on Slashdot?

Re:old news

[Hido]

What you have got to consider is the fact that this is a game which is mainly being based in Japan. Plus remember that in the Japanese forums this game is being talked about constantly, but slashdot is all English which limits it to people like me who are able to speak and understand english. Even with all that I think the biggest reason for this not coming under the spot light is the fact that there is very little info coming out of the guys who are making the game.

Looking forward to US release

[Tighe_L]

I am looking forward to the US release of this game, and well as the G1 Transformers Game for the PS2.

Beta testing

[Mark Dentari]

I got to talk to one of the designers about beta testing but it seemed that the language barrier stopped me from getting closer to being a tester. I've been a Gundam fan since 1980 and it would be nice to see this game completed though. I hope they work out communications problems because this could be a huge game.

woogamage

[zushiba]

I played this game at E3, The graphics are awesome but the controls are HORRIBLE i hope they fix that before we see it (if we see it) There is no easy way to just go in a straight line.