The "World Server" may be the most important server in the game.
This is the part that holds all the information about the terrain
and objects in the game, and translates that information to data
that the client can use.

The world server can be thought of as the map to everything. It
keeps track of where you are, and what is going on arround you.
It interacts with the other servers to make sure that the game
is an enjoyable experience.

The world server should hold data on the shape and makeup of the
world, resoures, location of items/objects, and weather.

The world server will actually be a cluster of servers that
communicate with eachother to insure that the task of controling
the world is split up into manageable chunks, and that the user
need not ever experience the anoyance of zoning from one area to
another. The world should be a single cohesive whole. The only
time the character should ever experience anything similar to
zoning is if they use magic to teleport to another place.



Here is a diagram that shows how the server would communicate, in theory.



Each square box in the image represents a "zone server," or a chunk of the world.
For purposes of the diagram I numbered each section as if it were part of an
array (which it basically is). The arrows indicate the flow of data between
the machines. Each of these world servers should ideally be on their own physical
machine, and not share a machine with other major processes.

One section is color coded to explain in more detail what the arrows represent.


Simply put, the zone servers would have an area of overlap between them, that
would hold mostly the same information between the two. A character or object
is assumed to be on the server that they started on until they cross the
boundry between the two machines, however they will start recieving information
from the other machine as soon as they enter the overlap zone. This way the
transition between the two machines should be much less noticeable.

The actual machines would physically be in the same room, and answering to the
clients connection on the same interface, so barring any strange network hickups
the user should not notice any real pause when the character changes geographical
reagions.

The big question, is how much of an overlap should there be. How many screen
widths of extra information should the machines share with eachother by default.
This behavior of course should be modifiable on a per character basis if the
character has some special power or ability to let them see further, or move
excessively fast.