Hi there. Never made a game before, always wanted to. Had an idea that I decided was worth pursuing. Learning Unity at the moment.
My game is a multiplayer experience with 8 players to a server and tons of simple AI, as I imagine it. Big crowds of people would be the way to go if there were one. Is this too strenuous on Unity? Is such a design possible?
Thanks.
Yep, completely doable with unity. The challenge is, that it is no small task, it will take time and a lot learning and skill building on your part. If are willing to put in the time and effort, there is nothing preventing you from building that type of game. Good luck!
Thanks for the fast response! Yes, I’m working hard to learn the ropes. Glad to know that my goal is attainable. I have imagined several “subgames” on my way to the main game that I can build that will teach me how to create individual parts and functions that I eventually want to incorporate.
How responsive can these AI be? For example, if a player does something violent (whips out a pistol) in a crowd, I would love for them to panic and disperse. Still not too intensive on the engine? Can they be individually killed, can they each maintain paths and agendas unique from one another? I’m mostly curious about where the “top” is with this kind of model. When should I start thinking that I’m going to push the engine too hard?
A first generation i7 ran 8 instances of Team Fortress just fine. The only limitation would be network bandwidth and latency.
A lot of the things you want to do are small amounts of activity, then only a little use of memory. On the server side you aren’t doing much more than changing the positions of a bunch of transforms, while it’s the clients which perform the really busy animation. As long as you’re not trying to animate tens of thousands of NPCs it shouldn’t be THAT much of a strain, but you’ll need to research it for your project when you get to that point.
Perfect. Thanks guys.
Remember like all art, video games is all about magic trick that pretend to be real, so start thinking about how to fake things, generally always go simple but no simpler.
Just do it and when it needs improving, hit the forums again.
My gosh I’m surprised this wasn’t one of those “I want to make an MMOG” type threads. OP actually has reigned in goals! Kudos to you, friend. 
Kudos accepted. Thanks offered.
Right now I’m trying to build the most simple version of the core game mechanic I can think of: 1 room, 2 players, 8 AI. The players would not know who the other player is, and must try to discern that while also attempting to blend in with the AI. Once the player is ready, they may draw a gun and fire, giving themselves away as a player but potentially killing the other player. Played in rounds, best of 5.
The idea is very Spy Party, if anyone has played that.
I have the characters built on tank controls with heads that swivel with mouse movement, behind which the cameras are floating. This is about as far as I have come. Coding is difficult. Is there some sort of coding only tutorial base I can access? Leafing through the API is proving monotonous and I’d imagine inefficient, and I feel like what I’m trying to do is so basic that it shouldn’t feel so arcane to figure out.
Start with pong, then multiplayer pong, then Pacman, then multiplayer Pacman, then go from there…
no thanks I do not want many of those skills, yet
Sounds fun. I hope you succeed. Too bad this wouldn’t work in real life since player would immediately be revealed as the only person who’s head is not glued to phone screen. 
List and break your features into smaller tasks. You’ll have better luck on google with that.
E.g Character controller:
Camera
Don’t approach it all in one go. You might get burnt out.
Do the official tutorials from Unity, it’ll get you on track. I highly suggest this for you.
Have fun.
Creating Pong requires learning how to move objects via transform position and knowing how to check another object’s info. Creating Pacman requires learning how to create an AI that is capable of navigating a maze to reach the player.
Both games cover some of the knowledge and skills you will need to reach your goal.
Pacman might teach you something about building levels. But this depends on how you approach the problem with unity3d.
You might also try making tetris clone. This one will teach you something about timing and defining levels.
I was going for the AI here as the lesson…
They’re definitely a good choice too because they’re not simply following the player. I remember reading up on the patterns each of the ghosts followed in a book, but there are also quite a number of articles on them.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/10/ghosts-pac-man-work/
http://kotaku.com/pac-man-ghosts-are-smarter-than-you-think-1683857357
http://gameinternals.com/post/2072558330/understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavior
Pacman is a reminder that good AI is first good “level design”, I mean it’s not just the lay out, but the whole of lay out + behavior.