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== Overview ==
== Overview ==
There are five publicly accessible '''servers''' that run the City of Heroes game. Four of these servers are all physically located in Canada, with Reunion in Germany. [[Server Transfer]]s are free and plentiful, so it is not necessary to carefully select a server before starting a character.


There are fifteen publicly accessible servers that run the City of Heroes game. Eleven of these servers are hosted in the United States and are only accessible when using the US version of the game.<ref>[ftp://client.coh.com/US/CohUpdater.zip City of Heroes Updater, US Version]</ref> The remaining four servers are hosted in Europe and are only available through the EU version of the game.<ref>[ftp://client.coh.com/CohUpdater.EU.zip City of Heroes Updater, EU Version]</ref> Additionally, there are two test servers called the [[Training Room]] (one for US clients and one for EU clients) on which patches and other changes are tested before release on the live servers.
Additionally, there are the [[Beta Testing Shards]], of which there are presently four.
 
== Servers ==
 
=== U.S. Servers ===
 
Players using the US version of the game have access to eleven servers that are physically located in the United States. Six of these servers are located on the east coast, and the remaining five are located on the west coast.<ref>PlayNC FAQ Entry: [http://support.plaync.com/cgi-bin/plaync.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=884 Where are the servers located?]</ref> The US test server is also located on the west coast. Regardless of where the player lives, the US client enables access to all eleven servers.
 
==== East Coast Servers ====
 
The six east coast servers are physically located in Virginia.
 
; Freedom{{Anchor|Freedom}}
: Freedom is typically the most populated US server. It is known to be a favorite server among French-American and French-Canadian players. Historically, this server was originally named Prime during the beta-test but was renamed upon release. Freedom is considered by many in the community to be the unofficial [[PvP]] server.
 
; Infinity{{Anchor|Infinity}}
: Infinity typically has a moderate level of activity in comparison to the other US servers.
 
; Liberty{{Anchor|Liberty}}
: Liberty is referred to by many in the community as an "unofficial friendly server", along with Triumph.
 
; Pinnacle{{Anchor|Pinnacle}}
: Historically, Pinnacle was often perceived to be the last server to come back up after updates, which lead its players to jokingly refer to it as "the drunk server". However, this no longer seems to be an issue.
 
; Triumph{{Anchor|Triumph}}
: Like Liberty, Triumph has a reputation in the community as "unofficial friendly server". Triumph is typically one of the least populated US servers.
 
; Victory{{Anchor|Victory}}
: Victory has as a reputation in the community as "the unofficial Euro server" and "the unofficial GLBT server" because of perceptions that this server has the largest concentration of these two groups. It is also the server where the original beta-testers of City of Heroes were able to reserve their character names from the beta.
 
==== West Coast Servers ====
 
The five west coast servers are physically located in California. The training server is located in California as well.
 
; Champion{{Anchor|Champion}}
: Referred to by many as the "community server" for its friendly atmosphere and active forums.
 
; Guardian{{Anchor|Guardian}}
: Historically, Guardian suffered from frequent and allegedly unaddressed downtime that led some in the community to start referring to it as the "red-headed step-child server". However, this no longer seems to be an issue.
 
; Justice{{Anchor|Justice}}
: During the beta-testing period, Australians coordinated to make this server the "unofficial Australian / New Zealand server." Consequently, Justice commonly sees more players active through until maintenance, as the timezones for New Zealand (UTC+12) and Australia (UTC+10) mean that the maintenance window happens locally around 11:30pm (Sydney time). As such it attracts Australian players for the last 5 hours of activity (6pm-11pm AEST). Because standard maintenance windows are announced by Admin message and a ''different'' message is broadcast for [[Issue]] and special event releases, Australian players are often the first to experience them.
 
; Protector{{Anchor|Protector}}
: Protector is referred to by some as "the lonely server" or "the unfriendly server" because of its large number of players who prefer to play solo, though teams and supergroups are still not difficult to find.
 
; Virtue{{Anchor|Virtue}}
: Virtue has typically been the second most populated US server since the launch of City of Villains. This server has a reputation as the "unofficial role-playing server." As an example of this, some of the players on the Virtue server have set up a wiki to record player-driven continuity to the server, entitled [http://www.virtueverse.com The Unofficial Handbook to the Virtue Universe].
 
=== European Servers ===
 
The European servers are physically located in Frankfurt, Germany.  Any European City of Heroes player may log into any of the four servers. However, the four servers are generally divided by language.
 
; Defiant{{Anchor|Defiant}}
: Defiant is intended for English-speaking players. Defiant has a very low player population compared to Union, leading to occasional player discussions about the possibility of a server merge on the official forums.
 
; Union{{Anchor|Union}}
: Union is also intended for English-speaking players. It has a reputation in the community as being both the unofficial roleplay server as well as the unofficial PvP server. Union typically has the most player activity among the European servers.


; Vigilance{{Anchor|Vigilance}}
== Server Order ==
: This server is intended for French-speaking players. Vigilance has a very low player population.
On the server selection screen, the first server listed is the most recent one you have accessed. The remaining servers are listed in increasing order of current load. While the load does not directly correspond to population, high populations are the largest and most common causes of server load. An account that has never logged in before will not have a "last accessed" server at the top of the list, but instead will show all servers in current-load order.


; Zukunft{{Anchor|Zukunft}}
Please note that if a server starts having technical issues, it will shoot to the top or the bottom of the list, depending on its current load, regardless of how many or how few players are connected to it.
: This server is intended for German-speaking players. Zukunft has a very low player population. Zukunft is German for "Future".<ref>Wiktionary: [[wiktionary:future#Translations|Translations for "Future"]]</ref>


== Server Differences ==
== Server List{{anchor|Servers}} ==
{| class="wikitable grid" width="90%"
! class="header" style="text-align: center;" | Server
! class="header" style="text-align: center;" | Average Population
! class="header" style="text-align: center;" | Server-Wide Traits
! class="header" style="text-align: center;" | Notes
|-
| '''Excelsior'''{{Anchor|Excelsior}}
| <font color=darkred>'''High'''
|
| Currently the highest population server<br />Unofficial PvP Server
|-
| '''Everlasting'''{{Anchor|Everlasting}}
| <font color=goldenrod>'''Medium'''
|
| Unofficial RP server
|-
| '''Torchbearer'''{{Anchor|Torchbearer}}
| <font color=darkgreen>'''Low'''
| 1.5x Experience Rate
| The first server to be brought up by Homecoming
|-
| '''Indomitable'''{{Anchor|Exalted}}
| <font color=darkgreen>'''Low'''
| 2x Experience Rate
|
|-
| '''Reunion'''{{Anchor|Reunion}}
| <font color=darkgreen>'''Low'''
| 2x Experience Rate
| Physically hosted in Europe.
|}


Within the U.S., the servers are functionally identical.  They all have the same maintenance schedule and their [http://www.cityofheroes.com/servers/index.html server statuses] are all listed together.
The PVP and RP servers are "unofficial" as purely suggestions of where to find types of play.  There is no obligation to engage in PVP or RP on these servers, or to (for example) pick an RP-appropriate name, nor is PvP or RP explicitly prohibited on any other server. Reunion is physically in Europe and has a higher proportion of European players, but there's no requirement to play there or not based on where you live.


However, there is one difference that rarely occurs: Changes that are triggered at a specific time are time-zone specific.  For example, when the [[Heart of Light Badge]] was triggered, players on the East Coast servers received the badge at 12:00 EST and players on the West Coast servers received the badges at 12:00 PST (three hours later).
Higher population servers are more likely to host player-ran activities, such as Costume Contests and iTrials or Raids where lower population servers will schedule the same activities sparsely. Indomitable used to be known as the unofficial PvP server at launch with enthusiasts realizing that most PvP activities occur in Excelsior. The designation moved to Excelsior shortly thereafter.


Changes that are rolled out as part of maintenance patches are not affected by time zones; players all receive these changes as soon as their respective server comes back up.
On January 4th, 2024 after the licensing agreement was announced, Homecoming introduced server-side boosts to XP to encourage new players to join the lower population shards instead of higher ones. Players are also permitted to move characters to lower-population servers to take advantage of the server-side boosts temporarily (while keeping in mind that a Supergroup on the prior server needs at least one player joined as a member without being automatically deleted after transfer.) To this date, the boost remains in effect.


== Notes and References ==
== External Links ==
<references />
* [https://forums.homecomingservers.com/status/ Server status]


[[Category:Game Client]]
[[Category:Game Client]]

Latest revision as of 00:41, 10 August 2024

Overview

There are five publicly accessible servers that run the City of Heroes game. Four of these servers are all physically located in Canada, with Reunion in Germany. Server Transfers are free and plentiful, so it is not necessary to carefully select a server before starting a character.

Additionally, there are the Beta Testing Shards, of which there are presently four.

Server Order

On the server selection screen, the first server listed is the most recent one you have accessed. The remaining servers are listed in increasing order of current load. While the load does not directly correspond to population, high populations are the largest and most common causes of server load. An account that has never logged in before will not have a "last accessed" server at the top of the list, but instead will show all servers in current-load order.

Please note that if a server starts having technical issues, it will shoot to the top or the bottom of the list, depending on its current load, regardless of how many or how few players are connected to it.

Server List

Server Average Population Server-Wide Traits Notes
Excelsior High Currently the highest population server
Unofficial PvP Server
Everlasting Medium Unofficial RP server
Torchbearer Low 1.5x Experience Rate The first server to be brought up by Homecoming
Indomitable Low 2x Experience Rate
Reunion Low 2x Experience Rate Physically hosted in Europe.

The PVP and RP servers are "unofficial" as purely suggestions of where to find types of play. There is no obligation to engage in PVP or RP on these servers, or to (for example) pick an RP-appropriate name, nor is PvP or RP explicitly prohibited on any other server. Reunion is physically in Europe and has a higher proportion of European players, but there's no requirement to play there or not based on where you live.

Higher population servers are more likely to host player-ran activities, such as Costume Contests and iTrials or Raids where lower population servers will schedule the same activities sparsely. Indomitable used to be known as the unofficial PvP server at launch with enthusiasts realizing that most PvP activities occur in Excelsior. The designation moved to Excelsior shortly thereafter.

On January 4th, 2024 after the licensing agreement was announced, Homecoming introduced server-side boosts to XP to encourage new players to join the lower population shards instead of higher ones. Players are also permitted to move characters to lower-population servers to take advantage of the server-side boosts temporarily (while keeping in mind that a Supergroup on the prior server needs at least one player joined as a member without being automatically deleted after transfer.) To this date, the boost remains in effect.

External Links

Retrieved from "https://homecoming.wiki/w/index.php?title=Servers&oldid=320881"