In Beyond All Reason, the developers have created a mega battle with over 10,000 units and 110 players simultaneously in multiplayer.
What kind of battle was it? In Beyond All Reason (BAR), the developers organized an event to celebrate the milestone of 40,000 members on Discord, where players could battle each other with up to 160 participants and up to 15,000 units at the same time.
Normally, the RTS supports a maximum of 32 players per match, which is already a considerable number compared to other titles in the genre. More players are typically not possible because that would exclude many gamers with older hardware. However, for the community event, this hurdle was lifted.
Here you can watch the trailer for Beyond All Reason:
Mega Battle with over 110 players
How did the battle go? During the community event, there were several large-scale battles. The one with the most players had 110 gamers in a match, divided into 5 equal teams of 22 players each. The fight took place on a tight map with five main islands as starting points and several smaller islands in the neutral area, lasting about 45 minutes.
Anyone interested can watch the entire battle on the YouTube channel of WintergamingTV. The strategy content creator commented on the mega battle:
Much to the surprise of many, the infrastructure of Beyond All Reason held up well against the large number of players and more than 10,000 units simultaneously. Although the netcode of the RTS was not designed for this, the servers of BAR handled everything apparently without any issues. The netcode refers to the technology that synchronizes data between players and servers to enable a smooth online experience.
It was a different story for the players. The high number of units and players caused low frames per second, especially for gamers with older hardware, while gamers with the latest machines clearly had the advantage in this scenario.
What kind of game is it? Beyond All Reason is a free real-time strategy game in which you can command hundreds or even thousands of units at the same time. The title is inspired by genre classics like Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander.
The real-time strategy game is not available on Steam, but only through its own website (via beyondallreason.info) for free download. Unlike many other games, the title is funded entirely through donations and purchases from players in its own merchandise store. Donations do not provide any advantages.
Beyond All Reason takes a different approach than its genre peers in many ways – and it seems to be successful. Civilization 7 also aimed to be innovative, but it didn’t work out as intended, and the developers now have to focus on fixing their title first: Civilization 7 runs so poorly on Steam that Firaxis is postponing content and focusing on repairs first
