with the server issue, you might want to consider a model of server per area of map... many mmo games use this, they break off the maps/towns into servers so when a player is that area they will be on 1 server. Then using a separate server to connect the chat system between servers.
so instead of 2 servers covering wide map with 100 players, 1 server can cover left area and other for right, and hopefully players spread out fairly evenly and stress will be 50 players/server. I know the first model for 2 servers for entire map is still 50 player/server but that 1 server has to manage a map twice as big so data load increases (i think...) well it might not make any difference if all server does is tell player where he is on map and players load map off their hard drive...
This might not be best way to get game running smoothly but it'll hold up better than having a lot of servers trying to cover everything on each server.
anyways, I can't program... well, not enough to do it on a game scale... but I can be a game tester
