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{{TOCright}}
== 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. These servers are: Champion, Defiant, Freedom, Guardian, Infinity, Justice, Liberty, Pinnacle, Protector, Triumph, Union, Victory, Vigilance, Virtue and Zukunft (''[[wiktionary:future#Translations|future]]'').
Additionally, there are the [[Beta Testing Shards]], of which there are presently four.


The US servers (Champion, Freedom, Guardian, Infinity, Justice, Liberty, Pinnacle, Protector, Triumph, Victory and Virtue) are only available when using the US version of the game[ftp://client.coh.com/US/CohUpdater.zip], and the EU servers (Union, Defiant, Zukunft and Vigilance) are only available when using the EU version.[ftp://client.coh.com/CohUpdater.EU.zip]
== 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.


In addition, there is a test server called the [[Training Room]] in which patches and other changes are tested before being rolled out to the live servers.
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.
__TOC__
== Geographic Division ==


=== U.S. Servers ===
== 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.
|}


Although any player may play on any server, the servers may be divided into geographic divisions based on where the servers are physically located. They are as follows:
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.


==== East Coast Servers ====
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.


The east coast servers are physically located in Virginia.  They are:
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.
 
* Freedom
* Infinity
* Liberty
* Pinnacle
* Triumph
* Victory
 
==== West Coast Servers ====
 
The west coast servers are physically located in California.  They are:
 
* Champion
* Guardian
* Justice
* Protector
* Virtue
 
The Training Room server is also located in California.
 
=== 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, but they are generally split by language as follows:
 
* Defiant, English
* Union, English
* Vigilance, French
* Zukunft, German
 
== Server Differences ==
 
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.
 
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).
 
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.
 
== Server Nicknames ==
Some of the servers have a reputation for having a majority of a certain type of people that play on them.  These are informal nicknames for the servers, and in no way affect the gameplay mechanics.
 
===USA===
* Freedom - the most populated American server and a favorite of French-American and French Canadian players. Historically, this server was originally named Prime during the beta-test and was renamed upon release. Freedom is also the unoffical PVP server.
 
* Virtue - the second most populated server since the launch of City of Villains. Also, this server has a reputation as "the unofficial role-playing server."
 
* Liberty - shares the reputation of "unofficial friendly server" with Triumph.
 
* Pinnacle - jokingly referred to by its players as "the drunk server," because it often used to come back up last after updates.
 
* Triumph - considered to have the smallest population of the eleven US servers and shares the reputation of "unofficial friendly server" with Liberty. It also has the highest proportion of themed supergroups. Most are just short lived fads, with people rushing to create a themed character, then abandoning them a month later. On the other hand, some of the top 10 supgergroups on Triumph are also themed and uniformed (requiring the uniform to be worn at all times).
 
* Victory - has a reputation as "the unofficial Euro server" and "the unofficial GLBT server" because of perceptions that this server has the largest concentration of these two groups. Also the server where the original beta-testers of City of Heroes were able to reserve their character names from that period.  Currently becoming know as the "Badge Server" due to the high-concentration of active badge collectors on the server
 
* Justice - During the beta-testing period, Australians coordinated to make this server "the unofficial Australian / New Zealand server." As a byproduct of this decision, Justice commonly sees more players active through until maintenance, as the timezones for NZ (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. Unfortunately, this usually results in very low initial attendance as the server maintenance window, usually used fully (2 hours?) results in 1:30am players and a high drop off rate.
 
* Champion - often known as the "community server" for its friendly atmosphere and active forums.  Recent events have caused Champion to be called the "Hami Drama" server.
 
* Protector - sometimes called "the lonely server" or "the unfriendly server" because of its large number of players who prefer to play solo. It's actually not hard to find teams or supergroups here, but random invites will get you ignored by more people on Protector than anywhere else.
 
* Guardian - Known as the "red-headed step-child server" due to its frequent down times that neglected to be brought to attention in the past.  The server hasn't had a problem lately though.
 
===Europe===
* Union - The "unofficial roleplay.. PVP.. and well everything server".  The only EU server with significant activity.
 
* Defiant - Dead server, extremely small population, solo players.
 
* Vigilant - Dead french server.
 
* Zukunft - Dead german server.


== External Links ==
== External Links ==
 
* [https://forums.homecomingservers.com/status/ Server status]
* The [http://support.plaync.com/cgi-bin/plaync.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=884 FAQ entry] on the City of Heroes support site that gives the locations of the U.S. servers


[[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