My friend and I are programming a FPS MMORPG. We hope to have servers that can handle lots and lots of traffic so to get around the lag/latency/processing power issues I put together a concept and I wanted feedback. I know I'll have to hire a programmer for this. I'm not nearly good enough at C-Script to pull this off.

We plan on having the users download the maps along with the executable and resources to save processing power that way, so only updates on actively changing models in the game need be sent. We're also going to limit how much of the immediate surrounding gamespace the server sends (there's a plug-in in the AUM). Basically, it sounds like a LAN in the sense that the computers have the maps downloaded and are exchanging packets that only relate to the immediately surrounding players (I'm sure the server would have to hold onto some information like where the players signed out at and if a switch has been flipped on the map). The server will take the place of the LAN network and becomes the MMO's postal system, if you will. Basically, we want to have the player's PC pick up as much of the tab as possible (I mean, their machine would be powerful enough to run the game anyway) leaving our server open for less lag and more players. Is this a solid idea or am I off my rocker?

The big thing is that theoretically if it would work would the number of players limited to a single server only be governed by how much processing power the server had open to make exchanges of packets to the user's PC?

~Jarret