Hm. I'm visiting more of a 4X MMO type thing -- you go out an seize lands for resources, and spend those resources to summon monsters (that said, I expect the actual game to be NWO with different monsters and spells).
I admit, I'm curious to see how this ends up. MtG has always been about throwing a bunch of creatures at your opponent rather than stomping your opponent in the face with a huge sword. (Well, unless you sacrifice your mob of creatures to Sword of the Ages)
Will I just be a wizard, running around with my bridge officers summoned creatures stupidly following along, getting stuck in walls or will it be something else entirely?
(Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
I admit, I'm curious to see how this ends up. MtG has always been about throwing a bunch of creatures at your opponent rather than stomping your opponent in the face with a huge sword. (Well, unless you sacrifice your mob of creatures to Sword of the Ages)
Will I just be a wizard, running around with my bridge officers summoned creatures stupidly following along, getting stuck in walls or will it be something else entirely?
There are multiple ways and many varied strategies to play Magic. Creature decks are just one way. Though I stopped playing long ago, there are plenty of other strategies as well. You have those that use offensive spells to wittle away at the opponent, counter decks designed solely to make other players burn through their deck to lose, draw decks with the sole intent to make players lose through drawing all their cards, decks designed to force people to tap mana and suffer mana burn from their own lands of death, denial decks that keep players unable to do anything, reflection style decks that reflect or steal cards, creature style and a mix of all the above and probably even more since it has been a very long time since I played. So no, Magic is not solely about throwing creatures at another player to win, as it is more of a game of chess but an expensive one since you often had to spend a lot of money just to get the right balance of cards (had a friend who maxed out a few credit cards on MtG booster boxes).
I am curious how this would work, since the lore of a planeswalker is vastly different from a standard mage or wizard. It would be interesting to see a system where actual consequences happen and curious how they would handle things like mana burn and such unless it is just a glorified card battle system. Which given the zen system probably fit in quite well with Magic, buying booster packs and the like. Though MMO is not something I would have expected. Shared world would sound more appropriate but I guess in this age, a shared world is not exactly something that can be watched as easily. Hrmm, it has the potential to being an eSport thing, given how grossly popular magic tournaments still are.
I know a lot has changed, last time I played was during the Rath Cycle and think the Legacy era, but eh, very long time indeed.
It's a lot about STO, some about IPs in general, and about as anemic on MTG as the OP article. My guess it'll be the next evolution of the Cryptic Engine but with MTG lore.
I still got my collection of MtG cards stored somewhere. I still remember what the rules and core gameplay is like with the trading card game, so I'm interested to see what kind of direction Cryptic takes with a MtG CRPG. I'm not expecting that they'll be doing something like the Magic 20XX games if it's going to be a RPG.
If you actually take out cards to fight each other and summon stuff I would actually play the s*** out of that.
What if its like Wizards 101 ?
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
Just... don't steal our DEVs like NWO did... please
POWERFRAME REVAMPS, NEW POWERS and BUG FIXES > Recycled Content and Events and even costumes at this point Introvert guy who use CO to make his characters playable and get experimental with Viable FF Theme builds! Running out of Unique FF builds due to the lack of updates and synergiesPlaying since 1 February 2011 98+ Characters (7 ATs, 91 FFs) ALTitis for Life!
I still got my collection of MtG cards stored somewhere. I still remember what the rules and core gameplay is like with the trading card game, so I'm interested to see what kind of direction Cryptic takes with a MtG CRPG. I'm not expecting that they'll be doing something like the Magic 20XX games if it's going to be a RPG.
If Neverwinter is any indication, it'll be "MtG setting and that's about it."
- MtG Summons similar to bridge officers in STO - MtG Sorcery/Instants/Interrupts as your basic MMO abilities - MtG Artifacts as gear, perhaps which convey special abilities in addition to basic stats. As with any other cryptic game, expect white/green quality artifacts to drop like candy and choke your inventory to death if your OCD has you picking up everything.
Still, I'd tap that for some mana as long as it has good character customization. Neverwinter really dropped the ball there.
(Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
Just... don't steal our DEVs like NWO did... please
It's not exactly something you can tell them not to do. The amount of devs on a project is related to how much money it makes, and of course if the devs wanted to move in the first place. I know some think people like Tumerboy were moved involuntarily, but if you read actual posts from him after the move, he made the choice voluntarily to move to the STO dev team and at least one time I know I read he was burnt out on city based environment design and wanted to do more exotic stuff that allowed him to stretch his imagination, since he'd been working on city designs since at least City of Heroes.
As far as the Wizard 101 suggestion; I actually enjoyed that game, but it didn't have much depth to it, not to mention the fact their whole free to play model was practically just denial of service in disguise not allowing you to go beyond the starter area without paying money for each section. I could see a wizard 101 system working in a more grandiose setting, and it could be interesting. But I doubt a turn based system would be in mind if they are aiming for MMO, which tend to want more action oriented combat these days.
But I doubt a turn based system would be in mind if they are aiming for MMO, which tend to want more action oriented combat these days.
There's also the issue of existing technical expertise; while they could be doing something entirely new, the odds favor similarity to their existing products.
But I doubt a turn based system would be in mind if they are aiming for MMO, which tend to want more action oriented combat these days.
There's also the issue of existing technical expertise; while they could be doing something entirely new, the odds favor similarity to their existing products.
I am betting it is something that will be aimed more towards the eSports crowd. eSports are a big deal, especially in the Asian market, and currently the only MMO class game that can claim fame to that is Blade and Soul, as even WoW fell out of favor, hard, with eSports (hence their focus on StarCraft, Hearthstone and especially now Overwatch). But I think that's also attributed to Blade and Souls unique style of PvP system for the arena crowd, their 1v1 system and especially their 3v3 tag system allows for more unique competition, especially since they make gear worthless in the PvP setting by boosting everyone to the maximum possible stats for their character and the only thing that has to be really done is level up to unlock abilities and points, compared to the standard team free for all arena you might find in Champs or WoW. Couple this with the fact that Magic tournaments are still a hellacious big damn deal, even today, I would not be the least bit surprised if the MtG MMO was aimed at eSports first and foremost.
I am betting it is something that will be aimed more towards the eSports crowd.
Interesting, but given the IP they're starting with, the obvious way to turn it into an eSport is an RTS, not an RPG.
It will depend on how it is handled. BnS proved it can be done, and you also have games like Overwatch, Splatoon and so forth entering into that arena. It is a big deal these days after all with entire sponsoring like a sporting event now.
I am betting it is something that will be aimed more towards the eSports crowd.
Interesting, but given the IP they're starting with, the obvious way to turn it into an eSport is an RTS, not an RPG.
It will depend on how it is handled. BnS proved it can be done, and you also have games like Overwatch, Splatoon and so forth entering into that arena. It is a big deal these days after all with entire sponsoring like a sporting event now.
If it is handled badly it can fail hard. Really hard.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Maybe if they designed it around the original pokemon games quest adventure style, but used a final fantasy fight set up (3d rotating camera angle of fighting area) but with voice actors and a variety of animations to make each action and attack looks fresh) instead of long repetitive animations like in 'Legend of Dragoon and pokemon stadium" and travel/interaction graphics of an LoL ad so it feels real and not like the watching an animated gif with a voice actor.
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
So we're going to add a forth game to the fragile servers that can barely handle the three on them already, fun times.
Whats a little more weight...? :P
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
So we're going to add a forth game to the fragile servers that can barely handle the three on them already, fun times.
Servers seem fine, think you are a bit of an exaggeration there.
The reason they lower the shard cap during events is because of server performance problems, whenever NWO or STO experience server related issues guess who also experiences server related issues. The fragile nature of the servers isn't some well guarded secret. But please keep your head in the sand.
So we're going to add a forth game to the fragile servers that can barely handle the three on them already, fun times.
Servers seem fine, think you are a bit of an exaggeration there.
The reason they lower the shard cap during events is because of server performance problems, whenever NWO or STO experience server related issues guess who also experiences server related issues. The fragile nature of the servers isn't some well guarded secret. But please keep your head in the sand.
That server performance has nothing to do with the other two games, actually, as you will notice that people in zone X will have little to no effect on people in zone Y as far as performance and such. And it has more to do with client performance than server performance which is a big difference. To put it frankly, the game was never really designed with large swaths of people in mind. Hell, even CoH was never designed with it but they never bothered to change the zone caps (well they did hence why the Hamidon eventually got a 50 player cap limit). The more you have to draw and animate the more impact it has on the client, and in turn the specific cluster being used by the server. And CO is just a graphically intensive game. STO and Neverwinter don't even come close to what CO pulls off at any given moment.
So we're going to add a forth game to the fragile servers that can barely handle the three on them already, fun times.
Servers seem fine, think you are a bit of an exaggeration there.
The reason they lower the shard cap during events is because of server performance problems, whenever NWO or STO experience server related issues guess who also experiences server related issues. The fragile nature of the servers isn't some well guarded secret. But please keep your head in the sand.
That server performance has nothing to do with the other two games, actually, as you will notice that people in zone X will have little to no effect on people in zone Y as far as performance and such. And it has more to do with client performance than server performance which is a big difference. To put it frankly, the game was never really designed with large swaths of people in mind. Hell, even CoH was never designed with it but they never bothered to change the zone caps (well they did hence why the Hamidon eventually got a 50 player cap limit). The more you have to draw and animate the more impact it has on the client, and in turn the specific cluster being used by the server. And CO is just a graphically intensive game. STO and Neverwinter don't even come close to what CO pulls off at any given moment.
How do you know? Unless ive missed it, i dont remember them posting this information.
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
How do you know? Unless ive missed it, i dont remember them posting this information.
...nice, is it going on the fridge??
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
I can't imagine this launching without some sort of randomized "booster systdem", kinda like lockboxes, but even more integrated into the game, possibly required to make any real progress.
That being said, I am a M:tG player from the 90s, on and off through current day. I do like the lore of the game overall, especially the The's Brothers' War.
The reason they lower the shard cap during events is because of server performance problems, whenever NWO or STO experience server related issues guess who also experiences server related issues. The fragile nature of the servers isn't some well guarded secret. But please keep your head in the sand.
I highly doubt the actual servers all run each of the games concurrently. There's probably a set of servers for each game, all connected to a set of account servers for login and chat servers for the chat.
How do you know? Unless ive missed it, i dont remember them posting this information.
It's come up in discussion, but it's also fairly obvious from both the failure modes and general understanding of architecture. There are basically two things that break in event fights, and both are functions of number of entities in a small area, rather than total global player count:
Draw Limits: there's a limit to how many objects and effects your client can render; when you exceed this limit, lower priority objects disappear. A typical manifestation of this is critters turning invisible. This is a client-side problem. It's been happening since 2009, I remember invisible Clarence back then.
Effect Limits: there's a limit to the rate at which effects can be applied to critters; exceed that limit and the surplus just vanish. This was historically very obvious for anniversary mega-destroid fights, particularly when dealing with plasma beams which produced an extremely high tic rate of effects.
In theory we could also have bandwidth limits (the number of messages that have to be sent to clients is quadratic in number of people in a small area) but it isn't a common failure case that I know of.
I can open both STO and Champs on the same PC at the same time, wouldnt that mean they are separate servers?
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
I can open both STO and Champs on the same PC at the same time, wouldnt that mean they are separate servers?
No.
Then how is this possible?
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
I can open both STO and Champs on the same PC at the same time, wouldnt that mean they are separate servers?
No.
Then how is this possible?
While I suspect that STO and Champs do have separate game servers (and may be multiple servers per game) it would not be technically challenging to just have them be separate applications on the same server.
While I suspect that STO and Champs do have separate game servers (and may be multiple servers per game) it would not be technically challenging to just have them be separate applications on the same server.
While I suspect that STO and Champs do have separate game servers (and may be multiple servers per game) it would not be technically challenging to just have them be separate applications on the same server.
like a partitioned hard drive, basically?
I guess that makes sense. Though im not sure how they pulled off linking chats but the sto server can be down and champs up, or both are down but the test servers are still up.
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
I guess that makes sense. Though im not sure how they pulled off linking chats but the sto server can be down and champs up, or both are down but the test servers are still up.
The chat server appears to be a separate machine, which is why you can sometimes be SNRing on CO and still able to chat, or be able to play but not have chat, but the key thing to understand is that a game server is actually a program, not a piece of hardware (technically, it can be multiple programs on multiple servers, each map instance could be separate).
yeah, chat is definitely a separate thing, as is login, because i've seen many times where the login server has been offline yet people already ingame can continue playing with no issue - as long as they don't try to switch characters
yeah, chat is definitely a separate thing, as is login, because i've seen many times where the login server has been offline yet people already ingame can continue playing with no issue - as long as they don't try to switch characters
Yes, the chat server and login servers are their own thing, something the industry practices as a whole as redundancies basically, to produce the minimal impact if a function of one wouldn't devastate the others. So if the chat server was affected the game server was not hurt by it, or login server wouldn't cause those currently gaming to be booted. There are pros and cons to it, of course, but in the end, I think most of the industry uses that type of set up.
Yes, the chat server and login servers are their own thing, something the industry practices as a whole as redundancies basically, to produce the minimal impact if a function of one wouldn't devastate the others. So if the chat server was affected the game server was not hurt by it, or login server wouldn't cause those currently gaming to be booted. There are pros and cons to it, of course, but in the end, I think most of the industry uses that type of set up.
Seems like it would be a headache to program and maintain.
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
Seems like it would be a headache to program and maintain.
You can run a chat just fine as a totally separate program (voice chat, etc), why would it be more of a hassle for the integrated chat to be independent? For a login server it's actually better because if means you don't need to keep updating the security on each of your programs.
It's not just MMOs that split up processes between servers.
I used to work at a large company that had their own department for processing all the payment checks each day (instead of having it done by a bank or outside service). We're talking hundreds of thousands of checks a day on average. The checks and payment stubs would be scanned in on high volume scanners, the images read by the computer, amounts on the check and stub of a transaction verified against each other, manual verification for any kicked out, deposits made and sent to the bank and payment info to the company data centers to go against accounts. Maybe a few other steps to that that I can't remember.
Images were kept on a data server.
Character recognition was handled by a dedicated server.
Check vs. stub verifying was handled by another server.
Data transmission was on a dedicated computer.
Some things were handled client side.
Network traffic between them all had... you guessed it... a dedicated server.
Comments
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Will I just be a wizard, running around with my
bridge officerssummoned creatures stupidly following along, getting stuck in walls or will it be something else entirely?I am curious how this would work, since the lore of a planeswalker is vastly different from a standard mage or wizard. It would be interesting to see a system where actual consequences happen and curious how they would handle things like mana burn and such unless it is just a glorified card battle system. Which given the zen system probably fit in quite well with Magic, buying booster packs and the like. Though MMO is not something I would have expected. Shared world would sound more appropriate but I guess in this age, a shared world is not exactly something that can be watched as easily. Hrmm, it has the potential to being an eSport thing, given how grossly popular magic tournaments still are.
I know a lot has changed, last time I played was during the Rath Cycle and think the Legacy era, but eh, very long time indeed.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
PARSER USAGE GUIDE: click here for an easy how-to ٩(๑･ิᴗ･ิ)۶٩(･ิᴗ･ิ๑)۶
Spectre beats Eido in an SG run: VIDEO HERE
It's a lot about STO, some about IPs in general, and about as anemic on MTG as the OP article. My guess it'll be the next evolution of the Cryptic Engine but with MTG lore.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
- MtG Summons similar to bridge officers in STO
- MtG Sorcery/Instants/Interrupts as your basic MMO abilities
- MtG Artifacts as gear, perhaps which convey special abilities in addition to basic stats. As with any other cryptic game, expect white/green quality artifacts to drop like candy and choke your inventory to death if your OCD has you picking up everything.
Still, I'd tap that for some mana as long as it has good character customization. Neverwinter really dropped the ball there.
As far as the Wizard 101 suggestion; I actually enjoyed that game, but it didn't have much depth to it, not to mention the fact their whole free to play model was practically just denial of service in disguise not allowing you to go beyond the starter area without paying money for each section. I could see a wizard 101 system working in a more grandiose setting, and it could be interesting. But I doubt a turn based system would be in mind if they are aiming for MMO, which tend to want more action oriented combat these days.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Silverspar on PRIMUS
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Silverspar on PRIMUS
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
That being said, I am a M:tG player from the 90s, on and off through current day. I do like the lore of the game overall, especially the The's Brothers' War.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
I highly doubt the actual servers all run each of the games concurrently. There's probably a set of servers for each game, all connected to a set of account servers for login and chat servers for the chat.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
- Draw Limits: there's a limit to how many objects and effects your client can render; when you exceed this limit, lower priority objects disappear. A typical manifestation of this is critters turning invisible. This is a client-side problem. It's been happening since 2009, I remember invisible Clarence back then.
- Effect Limits: there's a limit to the rate at which effects can be applied to critters; exceed that limit and the surplus just vanish. This was historically very obvious for anniversary mega-destroid fights, particularly when dealing with plasma beams which produced an extremely high tic rate of effects.
In theory we could also have bandwidth limits (the number of messages that have to be sent to clients is quadratic in number of people in a small area) but it isn't a common failure case that I know of.Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
like a partitioned hard drive, basically?
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Silverspar on PRIMUS
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Courage is doing what is right even when it isn't popular or safe. Honor is retaining the dignity and virtue in one's self, so it can light the way for others in the darkest of times. Compassion is showing patience and mercy towards others, even when it isn't returned or deserved. A hero is defined by these 3 words, they set him apart from others as a beacon of hope and excellence.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
I used to work at a large company that had their own department for processing all the payment checks each day (instead of having it done by a bank or outside service). We're talking hundreds of thousands of checks a day on average. The checks and payment stubs would be scanned in on high volume scanners, the images read by the computer, amounts on the check and stub of a transaction verified against each other, manual verification for any kicked out, deposits made and sent to the bank and payment info to the company data centers to go against accounts. Maybe a few other steps to that that I can't remember.
Images were kept on a data server.
Character recognition was handled by a dedicated server.
Check vs. stub verifying was handled by another server.
Data transmission was on a dedicated computer.
Some things were handled client side.
Network traffic between them all had... you guessed it... a dedicated server.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!