How many players can play on a server?

[Bodean Abernathy II]

What the title says. Looked it up and kept getting different answers. 4, 8, 12, 64, 128 which one is it? Just plan on hosting a server for my friends and I to play on.

We have a dedicated host of out own but how many players can be on a player hosted one/host dedicated server?

Thanks in advance.

[Shurenai]

More than 8 is not technically officially supported, But there is an ingame option to host for as many as 16 players via ingame hosting.

If you have a super tanky top of the line Server PC, you could probably swing as many as 64 by disabling horde nights. Maybe. But I wouldn't recommend it, as it would likely have a lot of issues.

And to note, The maps are at most 10km squared, and even 16 can start feeling very crowded very quickly.

And also to note, every additional player is an additional number of zombies active at one time, but the server has a built in limit (that is adjustable) of 80 by default; So with a default horde night setting of 8 zombies per person, no more than 10 people would have zombies- This also is a problem just when a lot of people are wandering around, if one player has 20 zombies loaded around them, maybe some guy across the map has less than he should or even none. So definitely tune this value to your use case. (I'd suggest a value of no more than 16 per expected player, personally. And to not go over 200 unless you've got a monster rig.)

So...Officially as a moderator, I'd recommend 8-16 tops unless you're extremely confident in your server PC, at which point as much as 32 but no higher.

[Bodean Abernathy II]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

More than 8 is not technically officially supported, But there is an ingame option to host for as many as 16 players via ingame hosting.

If you have a super tanky top of the line Server PC, you could probably swing as many as 64 by disabling horde nights. Maybe. But I wouldn't recommend it, as it would likely have a lot of issues.

And to note, The maps are at most 10km squared, and even 16 can start feeling very crowded very quickly.

And also to note, every additional player is an additional number of zombies active at one time, but the server has a built in limit (that is adjustable) of 80 by default; So with a default horde night setting of 8 zombies per person, no more than 10 people would have zombies- This also is a problem just when a lot of people are wandering around, if one player has 20 zombies loaded around them, maybe some guy across the map has less than he should or even none. So definitely tune this value to your use case. (I'd suggest a value of no more than 16 per expected player, personally. And to not go over 200 unless you've got a monster rig.)

So...Officially as a moderator, I'd recommend 8-16 tops unless you're extremely confident in your server PC, at which point as much as 32 but no higher.

Thank you so much. Didn't expect all that info but It really helps. It's just my core group of buddies which is about 8 people so that should be just at the breaking point. It's hard to find good info about server hosting on most games so I really really, really appreciate it

[Crater Creator]

I’d assume the official supported limit of eight players is with a dedicated server in mind. Since you asked about a player-hosted server, I’d expect the practical limit there to be lower than that if anything, because the host’s machine has to host the game for everyone at the same time it’s processing the game client for one player.

In my experience, trying to locally host more than four players at a time is asking for trouble, even with solid hardware and a central geographic location. But I haven’t tried to test the limit in a long time, and my internet connection was upgraded since then etc. etc., so I don’t have a reliable figure.

If you have a dedicated server, I see little reason not to use it.

[borndl]

My expierence from my favoroute server:

0-10 player: no problems at all.
11-15: low amounts of lags when using vehicles but otherwise no problems
16-20: vehicles arn't that useable anymore but otherwise playable
zombies no longer work sometimes. They no longer move and fall through the ground.
21+: containers open with lag, zombies no longer spwan, trader are bugging,...

[Bodean Abernathy II]

Originally posted by borndl:

My expierence from my favoroute server:

0-10 player: no problems at all.
11-15: low amounts of lags when using vehicles but otherwise no problems
16-20: vehicles arn't that useable anymore but otherwise playable
zombies no longer work sometimes. They no longer move and fall through the ground.
21+: containers open with lag, zombies no longer spwan, trader are bugging,...

Thanks! Will probably go no where near 12 people but I appreciate the info.

[Bodean Abernathy II]

Originally posted by Crater Creator:

I’d assume the official supported limit of eight players is with a dedicated server in mind. Since you asked about a player-hosted server, I’d expect the practical limit there to be lower than that if anything, because the host’s machine has to host the game for everyone at the same time it’s processing the game client for one player.

In my experience, trying to locally host more than four players at a time is asking for trouble, even with solid hardware and a central geographic location. But I haven’t tried to test the limit in a long time, and my internet connection was upgraded since then etc. etc., so I don’t have a reliable figure.

If you have a dedicated server, I see little reason not to use it.

Cool, thanks again homie.

[Solomon]

Um, the servers from the Pobx community have 100 slots and have been hitting 30+ daily consistently, with peaks of even more (40-50-60). If there would be massive issues with it, I doubt players would keep playing there
It's not hosted locally but if you rent a server then it can hold a lot

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by Solomon:

Um, the servers from the Pobx community have 100 slots and have been hitting 30+ daily consistently, with peaks of even more (40-50-60). If there would be massive issues with it, I doubt players would keep playing there
It's not hosted locally but if you rent a server then it can hold a lot

Refer back to my first post "If you have a monster PC..."

They also have a lot of external/third party tools to help them manage lag and issues that someone making a new dedicated server for their friends isn't likely to have.

Also the PobX server, while hitting 30+ daily, does have the exact issues previously outlined. Things like some people not getting any zombie spawns because the server just can't handle that many zombies. Vehicles being wonky or outright vanishing, lag with container openings...

Just because you Can go to 30+ since the dedicated server software doesn't restrict you from raising the value doesn't mean that the officially supported limit isn't 8. Going over 8 is going into 'Here be dragons' territory.

[SylenThunder]

Originally posted by Solomon:

Um, the servers from the Pobx community have 100 slots and have been hitting 30+ daily consistently, with peaks of even more (40-50-60). If there would be massive issues with it, I doubt players would keep playing there
It's not hosted locally but if you rent a server then it can hold a lot

Have tested this on extreme hardware. Even with the best server hardware the money can buy, the game client is incapable of supporting this. 30 is the hard limit even with extreme hardware. Past that and you will have data corruption both in player data, and in map data.

For standard hosting, the limit is 20 players.