RSW

Looking through the list of completed games, it doesn't look like there have been many(any?) large games played. Do you think there would be any difficulties scaling to, say, 40 players? I mean this question both from a technical perspective, and also from a gameplay perspective (I'm thinking RSW core). Will the default game parameters automatically adjust to a large number of players to generate a galaxy that still has a target time of about 20 turns till completion?

Well, you can't really draw long-term conclusions from looking at the list of completed games, because the live database only saves games for up to 30 days. But it is true, the largest games we have ever had going involved 15 players.

I think this is mainly a function of small population, rather than game design: there just aren't enough people (at the moment) to fill a 40-position game. But in principle, a game should scale to any size without difficulties, though in a very large game it may be unlikely, at best, that players ever meet those players on the other side of the galaxy, which might lead to some odd gameplay dynamics.

The RSW server will automatically scale the number of worlds and fleets (and artifacts, in the Classic game) according to the number of players in the game. Since each player's score is generally proportional to the number of worlds he/she owns, and since the proportion of available worlds per player scales with the number of players, the rate of score increase should remain roughly equivalent in large games as in small games.

David

in a very large game it may be unlikely, at best, that players ever meet those players on the other side of the galaxy,

The phrase "other side of the galaxy" makes me wonder at the topology of the galaxy. In the 3-player game I'm playing, one player is definitely "in the middle" of the other two players, which seems to be a disadvantage. In a large game, does the galaxy "wraparound" or are some players blessed with "edge" positions, while others are in the middle?

The galaxy is, at least in the current design, always mapped around a sphere. It usually connects all the way around, but in some small galaxies it might just happen to come out disconnected, so that there are definite edge positions. That's uncommon, though.

David