The Anomaly isn't really THE Anomaly, is it?

[SteveB]

I left the Anomaly and immediately re-entered. I saw none of the players that were in there even though the Anomaly was far from "full" (plenty of parking spaces) before I left.

The quirk is that if there's a player in my group, that player is still there. Clearly there are likely to be more players online than the little Anomaly has space for. Is it just randomly placing me into an anomaly based on <something>?

On another note, I frequently see the message "Lobby is Full" upon entering the Anomaly, yet there are lots of free spaces in the parking areas and I don't get the feeling that players pile in after me, filling it up. What's that about?

...mind-musings of NMS :-)

[Mr. Bufferlow]

From the gist of recent posts, things are not well with MP and online services right now.

The game normally automatically marries you up in a group of players for your instance of the anomaly. I could see how that could change if you leave and immediately re-enter when MP is really busy.

I almost never use MP but the few times I have turned it on in the anomaly, players started populating the anomaly over about a 10 second span. I usually turn it off pretty quickly after scoping out the area and remembering why I have it off all the time.

I am not sure how the match making copes with that. I have never had my ship double parked with another so it somehow manages that aspect.

[SteveB]

Reading your post is interesting because I'm struggling to figure how many times I have entered the Anomaly in "Play Game" mode versus in "Multiplayer" mode. I'm also struggling to figure out what the differences were. I'll try to be more aware but, to be honest, I'm in it for fun more than anything else. :-)

I recently had a ship-to-ship collision of some sort while being "guided" towards where I was (presumably) supposed to be parked. It seemed clear to me at the time that I then went all the way in (close to the Nexus), and then back to a (perhaps recalculated) parking spot before the ship was successfully down on a pad.
I couldn't really see fully what was going on because that process is one that's totally hands-off & guided so you can't do much.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Originally posted by SteveB:

Reading your post is interesting because I'm struggling to figure how many times I have entered the Anomaly in "Play Game" mode versus in "Multiplayer" mode. I'm also struggling to figure out what the differences were. I'll try to be more aware but, to be honest, I'm in it for fun more than anything else. :-)

I recently had a ship-to-ship collision of some sort while being "guided" towards where I was (presumably) supposed to be parked. It seemed clear to me at the time that I then went all the way in (close to the Nexus), and then back to a (perhaps recalculated) parking spot before the ship was successfully down on a pad.
I couldn't really see fully what was going on because that process is one that's totally hands-off & guided so you can't do much.

I have never used multiplayer mode on the selection screen. My understanding is it is intended for situations where you want to meet up with specific player(s) in a specific location in the galaxy and it facilitates that.

[Malferellon]

Originally posted by SteveB:

I left the Anomaly and immediately re-entered. I saw none of the players that were in there even though the Anomaly was far from "full" (plenty of parking spaces) before I left.

The quirk is that if there's a player in my group, that player is still there. Clearly there are likely to be more players online than the little Anomaly has space for. Is it just randomly placing me into an anomaly based on <something>?

I don't know for sure, but because the Anomaly is used by a LOT of different players in multiplayer, I'm guessing it's instanced. Meaning there are lots of different copies of the same Anomaly running on the servers, and the servers automagically create/destroy instances based on how many players have entered the anomaly. The servers probably also have logic to guarantee that if you're in a fellowship with another player, you will both be in the same instance.

It's entirely possible that you and your fellow player did not see the same people in the Anomaly at the same time.

Originally posted by SteveB:

On another note, I frequently see the message "Lobby is Full" upon entering the Anomaly, yet there are lots of free spaces in the parking areas and I don't get the feeling that players pile in after me, filling it up. What's that about?

Again, I don't know for sure, but I'm betting that's meant to be an internal message to developers indicating when a new instance has been created to accommodate a player entering the Anomaly when there are no parking spaces left. During your transit from space to the interior of the Anomaly, a new instance was created and you were dumped into it (rather than being stuck in an Anomaly instance without being able to land, or possible landing where there is already another player's ship). There's a possibility that we players are never meant to see that message.

Bear in mind that I don't know any of these things for sure. I know a little bit about game development and how games are built, but I have no insider info into how NMS is built.

[SteveB]

Pretty interesting to think that two players may not see the same others when we share an "instance."

I and an in-game friend decided to do an experiment while playing together, even though I already had suspicions about how it would turn out, just from other encounters...

We stopped in space, essentially canopy-to-canopy. I had him summon the Anomaly.
He said OK there it is.
I wasn't able to see it.
He said it's right behind you.
I turned around but there was nothing there.

Interesting instancing in this game. I then summoned the Anomaly and we each entered "our" anomaly and did some fun missions together. :-)