Population lock

A Population lock means that an Empire has filled all available server slots to capacity for a continent. Total capacity for each world is figured to be roughly 500-550 players.

If a continent is pop locked, any player warping to the planet via a warpgate or broadcast warpgate will enter the warp queue until such time as server slots are freed up.

Each Empire is currently allowed roughly 133 troops per continent, or 13 full squads.

Population Lock status can be viewed from the Interstellar Map as a padlock symbol on one of the side windows.

Game History

During the year of 2003, population capacity was not evenly split between Empires. Each side could potentially fill up nearly two-thirds of the slots, leaving one-third to split between the other two factions. It became standard practice for an empire to rush a continent to capacity to gain a permenant number advantage over the opposition.

During the year of 2004, population capacity was evenly divided between each faction, allowing roughly \~166 troops per side to fill a continent.

For 2005, population capacity was reduced to its current \~133 per side per continent, this created the side effect of more fights across the galaxy.