Microsoft shows off "ultra-MMO" Age of Ascent

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tymeservesfate

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#1 tymeservesfate
Member since 2003 • 2230 Posts

http://www.totalxbox.com/79115/microsoft-shows-off-ultra-mmo-age-of-ascent-touts-100000-player-battles/

"touts 100,000 player battles

Azure cloud allows for "unique" experiences, says exec

if you're still waiting for evidence that the much-vaunted Xbox Live cloud will have a real impact on how games are designed and played. Speaking during a presentation about cloud gaming at Develop this week, Microsoft's Robert Fraser has detailed the company's partnership with Age of Ascent - an HTML-based "ultra MMO" in which up to 100,000 players can do battle in the same session, thanks to scalable Microsoft Azure server support.

Created by Illyriad Games, the title is currently in alpha. It's a space dogfighting sim featuring theatres of war based on planetary scans and star maps carried out by NASA and the European Space Agency. Microsoft fell in with Illyriad at last year's Develop event, and has carried out a "whole ton of work" to provide the game with "elastic" access to servers.

At peak capacity, the game has access to around 250 load balancers and game servers, all of which are available to Illyriad for $75 an hour. According to Fraser, "that's the kind of thing which uniquely cloud can provide you in terms of access to scale, and a different kind of experience."

Given that Xbox Live is based on the same Azure infrastructure as Age of Ascent, I wonder how long it'll be before we encounter action games of comparable breadth on Xbox One?"

Power of the cloud, say it loud :-O

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chikenfriedrice

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#2 chikenfriedrice
Member since 2006 • 13561 Posts

Sorry couldn't watch the video...too much ass in your sig

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Heil68

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#3 Heil68
Member since 2004 • 60681 Posts

@chikenfriedrice said:

Sorry couldn't watch the video...too much ass in your sig

yeah, what the **** gives?

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chikenfriedrice

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#4 chikenfriedrice
Member since 2006 • 13561 Posts

@Heil68 said:

@chikenfriedrice said:

Sorry couldn't watch the video...too much ass in your sig

yeah, what the **** gives?

Distracting!

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Heil68

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#6 Heil68
Member since 2004 • 60681 Posts

@chikenfriedrice said:

@Heil68 said:

@chikenfriedrice said:

Sorry couldn't watch the video...too much ass in your sig

yeah, what the **** gives?

Distracting!

and I'm at work...

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chikenfriedrice

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#7 chikenfriedrice
Member since 2006 • 13561 Posts

@Heil68 said:

@chikenfriedrice said:

@Heil68 said:

@chikenfriedrice said:

Sorry couldn't watch the video...too much ass in your sig

yeah, what the **** gives?

Distracting!

and I'm at work...

Me too

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uninspiredcup

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#8  Edited By uninspiredcup
Member since 2013 • 58647 Posts

Looks, boring.

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blue_hazy_basic

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#10 blue_hazy_basic  Moderator
Member since 2002 • 30854 Posts

Was gonna come in and say "Meh MMO" but looks kinda interesting, but I still prob won't play it.

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GrenadeLauncher

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#11 GrenadeLauncher
Member since 2004 • 6843 Posts

Newsflash: MMOs already use dedicated servers.

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Daious

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#12 Daious
Member since 2013 • 2315 Posts

@GrenadeLauncher said:

Newsflash: MMOs already use dedicated servers.

this

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lostrib

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#13 lostrib
Member since 2009 • 49999 Posts

So basically it's a browser based advertisement for the Azure cloud computing...

no thanks

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foxhound_fox

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#14 foxhound_fox
Member since 2005 • 98532 Posts

MAG taught us that quantity meant nothing without quality.

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Wasdie

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#15 Wasdie  Moderator
Member since 2003 • 53622 Posts

I love how they call it the "Xbox Live Cloud". It's not. It's Microsoft Azure. Azure hosts XBL, not the other way around. Misleading crap.

I followed the game a bit before all of this. Their ideas for the tech are sound. They realized that modern MMOs are not written to take advantage of modern infrastructure and servers. They rewrote from scratch, using the same principles as stock trading software does, the entire backend network with Microsoft on the Azure Cloud. The result is incredible performance.

The game itself is pretty lame. They tried to set a record for the amount of people in a single game, they only topped out at like 750 people active at once which is well short of the record. I don't expect too much from it. The gameplay isn't that promising. I like the fact that it's browser based, but I don't like the setup or gameplay of the game.

The whole cloud aspect of this game is how the back-end of the game is run. MMOs have been using dedicated servers for decades and new ones are starting to move over to a cloud based solution. This is just a new engine that fully utilizes existing cloud server tech.

A lot of new MMOs are starting to switch to this but it's a long road. The devs of Star Citizen are also utilizing the cloud to spin up hundreds of instances within their MMO. It's a clever solution but it's in its early days.

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xWoW_Rougex

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#16 xWoW_Rougex
Member since 2009 • 2793 Posts

This ain't got nothing on Eve. nothx

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dobzilian

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#17  Edited By dobzilian
Member since 2012 • 3409 Posts

I will stick with FF14.

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WitIsWisdom

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#18  Edited By WitIsWisdom
Member since 2007 • 9479 Posts

I was truly interested after reading the thread... that soon left after trying to figure out who in the hell thinks this looks like fun...

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cainetao11

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#19 cainetao11
Member since 2006 • 38026 Posts

@chikenfriedrice said:

@Heil68 said:

@chikenfriedrice said:

Sorry couldn't watch the video...too much ass in your sig

yeah, what the **** gives?

Distracting!

A true work of art.

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cainetao11

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#20 cainetao11
Member since 2006 • 38026 Posts

@Wasdie:

Dude at this point they'll put "Xbox" in front of anything that may be positive.

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General_Solo76

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#21 General_Solo76
Member since 2013 • 578 Posts

I got as far as mmo, then stopped reading there.

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edwardecl

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#22  Edited By edwardecl
Member since 2005 • 2240 Posts

An HTML5 game that uses WebGL that is advertised that it can be run on low end hardware like a Chromebook... are you fucking kidding me? Why would Microsoft be showing off something that not only does not use DirectX but does not need a Microsoft operating system or console to play, maybe I'm not getting something here.

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Vaasman

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#23 Vaasman
Member since 2008 • 15541 Posts

Kinda just looks like a poor man's space dog fighter.

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Jankarcop

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#24 Jankarcop
Member since 2011 • 11058 Posts

@general_solo76 said:

I got as far as mmo, then stopped reading there.

Now you know how I feel when I read cinematic game, sports game, or racer.

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SolidTy

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#25 SolidTy
Member since 2005 • 49991 Posts

I'm not into MMOs and the Dev isn't my favorite, but well, something.

@Vaasman said:

Kinda just looks like a poor man's space dog fighter.

@WitIsWisdom said:

I was truly interested after reading the thread... that soon left after trying to figure out who in the hell thinks this looks like fun...

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hehe101

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#26 hehe101
Member since 2011 • 734 Posts

Good news but can you make a good game not this crap thanks

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lostrib

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#27 lostrib
Member since 2009 • 49999 Posts

@Jankarcop said:

@general_solo76 said:

I got as far as mmo, then stopped reading there.

Now you know how I feel when I read cinematic game, sports game, or racer.

To be honest, as a PC gamer, I didn't get much further than that either