The zombie MMO H1Z1 is set to launch with 150 to 200 servers. The size of the servers is still unknown.
The early access of H1Z1, on Thursday, January 15, is only about 20 Bond movies away, as SOE President John Smedley posts the first server numbers. He tweeted that they want to start with around 150 to 200 servers.
looking like we’ll have 150-200 H1Z1 servers on 1/15.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) January 13, 2015
And Smedley added in his typical fashion, with a certain degree of self-irony: 2Even the disgusting carebear-PvE servers will be ready for early access. I don’t agree with that, but people tell me I need to live with it.2
even the disgusting PVE carebear servers will be ready day 1. I’m not happy about that but people tell me I need to get over it.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) January 13, 2015
Smedley plays, as known from streams, in H1Z1 like a real “psycho.” The studio head enjoys shooting at his employees in the streams and particularly likes to set things on fire. He is not particularly competent, but he’s extremely engaged.
On a PvE server, the “carebear” servers, which Smedley refers to, will not allow players to harm each other, but will only be busy with zombie hunting and crafting.
The exact distribution of servers by various server types is not yet known at the moment. This is expected to be provided in the next 40 hours.
The servers will start relatively “small,” with an area of 8×8 “kilometers.” This is already known. Later, the play area will grow significantly and become more geographically diverse.
A maximum number of players per server is not yet known. The servers are supposed to seem “relatively” deserted, typical for a post-apocalypse. They explicitly do not want the hustle and bustle of a starting area in a typical MMO. Players are expected to spawn at different points in the world so that there is no crowding. Friends who want to start together will have to agree on geographical features and find each other first.
We have closely followed H1Z1 over the last few months. Everything we have about it can be found on our thematic page.
