For the first time in Expanding Land history, 50 AI-controlled bots have been unleashed into the arena. This is a beta stress-test — the bots are here to push the server to its limits before the upcoming alpha release.

The bots spawn, eat food, split-kill, and interact with the map just like real players. They're not here to stay — they're here to help the developers find edge cases, test the new anti-flicker viewport system, and validate the server under sustained high-density load.

What's being tested?

• Viewport stability — the new 65536-node query cap is being tested with 50+ entities moving simultaneously across the map
• Cell synchronization — verifying that view_state flushes work correctly when bots rapidly spawn, die, and respawn
• Map scaling — the dynamic map resizer is being exercised with rapid player count changes as bots join and leave
• Memory and CPU — monitoring the Hetzner CPX22 (4GB RAM, 2 vCPU) under sustained 50+ player load

What's next?

Once the beta stress tests pass, the team will move to alpha — opening bot access to selected testers who want to practice against AI opponents before facing real players. The bots will be configurable: speed, aggression, split frequency, and target priority.

Want to watch the bots in action? Join as a spectator at expanding.land — 200+ free spectator slots are always available.

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Read the full Glossary

Includes a quick comparison of the top 5 cell/growth games by max players, bot status, map type, and cost.

• Controls & basics — mouse movement, splitting, ejecting mass
• Early game survival — eating dots, avoiding bigger cells, staying near edges
• Splitting — the 2× rule, when to split vs. wait
• Virus mechanics — defensive hiding, offensive virus shooting (7 W presses)
• Mass management — decay rates, strategic ejecting
• Map positioning — corners vs. edges vs. center
• Advanced techniques — tricksplit, popsplit, bait-and-switch
• Expanding Land-specific tips — dynamic map, 1024 players, spectator learning

• The bot problem in modern IO games — fake players, hollow leaderboards
• Every cell in Expanding Land is controlled by a real human
• Real competition means every kill is a real outplay
• 1024 player capacity means arenas fill naturally without needing bots
• Dynamic map shrinking keeps matches dense even with fewer players
• Multiboxing allowed (up to 4 accounts) as a skill-based alternative to bots

• Max players — 1024 (EL) vs 200 (Agar.io)
• Bots — none in EL, prevalent in Agar.io
• Map — dynamic ¼× to 4× scaling (EL) vs fixed size (Agar.io)
• Server language — Pure C (EL) vs C++ (Agar.io)
• Multiboxing — regulated 4 accounts (EL) vs unregulated (Agar.io)
• Mod support — Legend Mod, Delta, and Agar2 all compatible
• Price — 100% free with no pay-to-win

• Live server status endpoint: GET /status returns real-time JSON with player count, spectators, uptime, and current map scale
• LegendMod homepage and Help Center now show live ONLINE/OFFLINE badge with dynamic player counts fetched from the game server
• Map scale indicator displays current map tier (1/4, 1/2, 1×, 2×, up to 8×) in real time
• Status updates run on the accept thread with lock-free volatile reads — zero impact on game loop performance

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed cell flickering/blinking during spectate mode — increased MAX_QUERY_NODES from 8192 to 65536 (8×) to prevent non-deterministic spatial query truncation
• view_state now properly cleared on every spectate mode transition, fixing one-frame blinks caused by stale add/update classification
• Full-map spectate was already immune (bypasses spatial queries) — grouped, center, and free-roam modes are now stable too

• MAX_VIEW_NODES limit set to 16384 — prevents out-of-memory crashes during extreme zoom-out while keeping 30× headroom for spectators viewing crowded arenas
• Viewport culling now sends only nodes visible in the player's current view — eliminates FPS drops when zoomed out on large maps with many cells

Session Management:

• Conditional logout: client auto-signs out when joining a private server that isn't Expanding Land, preventing opcode 102 conflicts that caused disconnects
• Login buttons (Facebook, Google, Discord) are now disabled on server types that don't support them, preventing confusing error states

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed cell color inconsistencies under high player density by including name and skin data in every update packet

• Cell merging logic restored and stabilized — merging now works correctly under high-density scenarios where many cells overlap
• Player identity consistency improved: name and skin data included in every cell update packet, fixing cases where cells appeared with wrong colors

Client-Side Improvements:

• Mobile touch controls: "Stop Where Finger Was" (Target Mode) fully restored — cell stops immediately on finger release when enabled
• Multibox auto-spectate fix ported from jim branch to the TypeScript branch
• Full Map spectate button now correctly triggers legendmod.sendAction(56) exclusively on Expanding Land servers

• Fixed game disconnects that occurred on imsolo and agar2 servers when logging in via Google or Facebook authentication
• Login opcode 102 (_lw_sendLogin102) is now conditionally skipped for legacy server types that don't support it, while remaining active for Expanding Land
• Encrypted WebSocket (WSS/TLS) connections enforced across all server types for secure communication

• Entire server written from scratch in pure C
• 1024 concurrent real players per arena — zero bots, zero AI opponents
• Pre-allocated memory pools, split quadtree optimization for efficient spatial queries
• Server located in Nuremberg, Germany (Hetzner) for EU-optimized latency

Gameplay Features:

• Resizable map system: ¼× to 4× dynamic scaling based on active player count
• 200+ spectator slots with free-roam camera
• Anti-teaming system using exponential multiplier decay (Delta Server architecture) — each action bumps a multiplier, decay = base × pow(1.086, multiplier), natural recovery via compensation constant
• Ghost cells on death — see exactly where you died for learning from mistakes
• Session stats: time alive, highest mass, food eaten, players eaten
• In-game chat system

Compatibility & Access:

• Full compatibility with Legend Mod, Delta, and Agar2 browser extensions
• Android APK available (standalone app via WebView wrapper, no Play Store needed)
• Discord OAuth login integration
• Strict no-bots policy — automated play detected and blocked
• Up to 4 multibox accounts per player (regulated, not unlimited)