Massive servers? (+infinite space)

Just to clarify,
Will the universe in starbound be infinite? Will new solar-systems, planets etc. be generated as you expand outwards?
If so, I believe this as an awesome opportunity for massive servers (100 or more players at one time).
This would be really cool because of the multiple planets and solar systems.
Unlike Terraria (i know these 2 games always get compared ) where all the players on the server are on a single world, Starbound will stretch across multiple (if not infinite) worlds.
Just imagine;
-A large universe with many planets inhabited by players.
-Large cites and awesome constructions scattered throughout each planet.
-Massive guilds and space-stations orbiting planets.
Although, the downside to this, ,is that the host of these 'massive servers' would have to have an exceptional PC and Internet.
Thnx, Dannyboy.

 

It doesn't 'expand', it uses a rediculously enormous set of coordinates. It completely has the space for a near infinite amount of players, at least in physical place and number of Homeworlds.
This isn't Minecraft, you don't go to the edge and have it expand.

 

They are only generated when you visit a planet, to save on hard drive space. The more planets visited, the larger the hard drive requirements. The universe is big enough that it can be called infinite, because not even a 100 person server would ever visit all planets. Tiy said that even on large servers, people are not likely to ever meet each other unless they share cords.

The more people, the more hardware requirements though. When you are talking 100+ people your talking about thousands of dollars in hardware.

 

Thanks!:catface2:
it's awesome how you can get understandable, almost-instant responses on this forum!

 

Actually stand-alone servers don't require that much in resources. Servers don't have to process graphics or any of that, they just push 1's and 0's. It really depends on how much processing is done server-side and how much is done client-side, can't tell for sure until we actually get hosting tools and the game.

 

I don't think the servers will require much processing power, a simple consumer level processor like an i5 or i7 should be able to handle 100+ people without problems. However, RAM will probably end up being the most expensive part when hosting for that many people. It really depends how it's all loaded and processed like you said. I could see 100+ server requiring 16GB of RAM, or I could see it requiring 64GB of RAM.

I think another important factor when talking about 100+ people, you'll need some fast (and uncapped) upload speeds. Many ISPs will not allow you to host a server of this size on a residential connection and business lines are exxxpennnsive.