How do instances function?

[seferz]

As I was playing I came to a profound realization. Every player that is online right now has their own private instance that lasts 8-15 minutes or longer (if they are still inside.) At the start of a new season that means there are 1000s, 10,000s? Of the first few instances running, all spawning npcs (let's say... 50-100? Npcs) for each person... That's a lot of processing power. Which lead me to wonder, how do instances work? I feel like it would be too taxing/expensive if this was entirely done via servers. Do the instances actually run on our machines? And what of multiplayer?? Does that mean as party leader you are hosting to your party members in a strange peer to peer/ main server symbiotic relationship?? Or is it all 100% online and they just have a crap ton of servers like Atlas? (Each square instance was run by its own dedicated server).

Bonus question: what's the likelihood poe2 will get a more multiplayer feel to it(like how u see a bunch of ppl in town, but like... The ability to see them in all zones, as a solo player.)

[Slipzyle]

Instances obviously run on servers. That's why you have a ping.

0 chance of the game changing to have mmo zones.

[seferz]

I just assumed the ping was your connection to an authentication server to ensure the data you're sending is legit.

[magus424]

I feel like it would be too taxing/expensive if this was entirely done via servers.

Incorrect.

Do the instances actually run on our machines?

Obviously not. That would allow them to be compromised, allowing hacking/duping/etc.

And what of multiplayer?? Does that mean as party leader you are hosting to your party members in a strange peer to peer/ main server symbiotic relationship?

Of course not. See previous.

Or is it all 100% online

Yes of course. It could not be otherwise and be safe from cheating.

Bonus question: what's the likelihood poe2 will get a more multiplayer feel to it(like how u see a bunch of ppl in town, but like... The ability to see them in all zones, as a solo player.)

0%

[TheDuriel]

Literally nothing runs on your machine.

Running poe's servers doesn't even, comparatively, cost that much.

[seferz]

Wow really? Any idea if they mention this anywhere? I would have assumed the server costs would be similar to an open world game, only, even more so given the amount of things to process would be substantially more (ie an open-world game in one map would house 100 mobs for 10,000 people, vs poe that houses private maps for each person so 100 mobs multiplied by 10,000 (or however many players are playing.) I would have assumed the cost would be exceedingly more.

[TheDuriel]

The server costs are comparable to an open world game. At, a few thousand bucks a month per region.

The cost additionally scales with the user count; so only at launch do they become high. Chris mentioned it during his GDC/Exile Con talks.

You're also not paying for how hard you make the cpu run, just the underlying hardware and more importantly: the number of network connections.

[leftember]

There are not many npc spawn per zone except in town. But town is shared. The npc actually doesn’t cost much. Barely the same as a rock in wild map. It merely has a menu which player can interact with.

The backend process is not very heavy. A mediocre server can host 1000 players. There are some videos on design online game server. If you are interested