Is there any possibility for a west coast (or western Canada) server?

[Phanto]

I know there are many players who live in Asia or Oceania who would really love to play on a west coast server.

 

As an expat living in Asia, I often really struggle with lag. On a very good day, the latency is about 290, but it often has moments when it exceeds 400. 290 is surprisingly playable, but when it gets over 400, you're basically frozen. I've tried many servers including Reunion but had the same results.

 

Is there any chance this is in the cards?

 

 

[WanderingAries]

Not being 'in the know', I imagine it coming down a combination of demand on the existing servers pushing for more load capacity and the hope that the 'rogue server' status gets legally converted to 'official' as a result of "the talks". Both also dependent on costs of course in the end, but with the way I've read the donations going, that wouldn't seem to be too big of an issue if it's not a large jump. I haven't a clue how their servers are handled, so that's way out of my knowledgebase.

[Apparition]

There are two issues with this.

 

1. Homecoming uses OVH data centers to host their servers.  They currently use an OVH data center in Germany for the Reunion shard, and an OVH data center in Montreal, Quebec for everything else.  For... obvious reasons, nothing is hosted in an OVH data center in the United States.  There are no OVH data centers in western Canada.  So that leaves out the west coast.  Now there is an OVH data center in Singapore, and one in Australia, but:

 

2. Homecoming has too many shards now as is.  Right now, Homecoming only has the population to support two shards, not five.  A sixth shard would be too much.  I suppose that the Homecoming staff could move Torchbearer or Indomitable to the data center in Singapore or Australia, but that would pretty much force everyone currently playing on that shard to move, and at this point they're playing on that shard because they don't want to move.

 

Not a staff member, just two cents for whatever they're worth.

[Without_Pause]

To add, the overall population is decreasing so that doesn't help generating a need to add another shard.

[Phanto]

21 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

To add, the overall population is decreasing so that doesn't help generating a need to add another shard.

 I've put some thought into that. What if they merged three of the low population servers into one and then opened a west coast server? Net minus one server.

Edited May 25, 2022 by Phanto

[Bopper]

7 minutes ago, Phanto said:

 I've put some thought into that. What if they merged three of the low population servers into one and then opened a west coast server? Net minus one server.

iirc, that would cause the loss of many toon's names and many super group bases.

[UltraAlt]

19 minutes ago, Phanto said:

I've put some thought into that. What if they merged three of the low population servers into one and then opened a west coast server? Net minus one server.

 

Well, that would take out the only European server, so I don't think that is happening.

And Torchbearer was the original server, so unless Indomitable was merged into it, I don't think that happening.

Indomitable has been working so hard to up it's numbers, that doesn't see to be fair either.

 

I also kind of think if the reach extend the ability to easily play it into Asia that is really going to cause an case of NCSoft issues that I would rather not see happening.

[UltraAlt]

2 hours ago, Phanto said:

I've tried many servers including Reunion but had the same results.

 

Well, Reunion is in Europe....so....

[Turric]

I have noticed a very faint uptick in population on Indom lately. Not much, just a few, but enough to get Hami raids going reliably. And the other day we had 18 or 19 for the Itrials at night, which is pretty good.

 

On a related, but somewhat separate note, I wonder if one of the solutions to the problem of server merging would be how names are displayed. For instance, if there could be multiple Superman names, however only one tied to Superman @Turric  or something along those lines. Someone smarted than me would have to figure it out. It might be somewhat annoying at first, but I think there would be ways to get used to it, or work around it.

[UltraAlt]

7 minutes ago, Turric said:

On a related, but somewhat separate note, I wonder if one of the solutions to the problem of server merging would be how names are displayed. For instance, if there could be multiple Superman names, however only one tied to Superman @Turric  or something along those lines. Someone smarted than me would have to figure it out. It might be somewhat annoying at first, but I think there would be ways to get used to it, or work around it.

 

When they did it on DCUO, if I recall correctly, they gave you a rename token to rename your character. If you were the first person in to pick the name again, it was yours and the other character with that name had to pick a new one.

But, yeah, "Superman atTurric" seems to be a valid name in CoH.

Causes issues with the rest of the game mechanics if you try to link the global to the name.

 

So many Superman characters running around on DCUO, you get your 5uperman, xxxSupermanxxx, Superman tm, Original Superman, 52 Superman, CW Superman, blah, blah, blah... Original Superman, Real Superman, Superman Original, blah, blah...

 

I'm still going with "don't poke the bear" by making the game easier to access Asia.

[Without_Pause]

1 hour ago, Phanto said:

 I've put some thought into that. What if they merged three of the low population servers into one and then opened a west coast server? Net minus one server.

That's creating an absolute mess. It isn't like you can simply copy/paste one server to another.

[Phanto]

Opening a west coast server while merging old servers is not that crazy when you think about it, and in fact there are a lot of potential benefits to it:

 

- By opening a west coast server, you're now making the game available to a huge part of the world which otherwise can't easily play it. It would definitely bring an influx of players.

- Torchbearer and Indominable have very low populations. The populations are so low that it's hard to even get into a DFB group. Think of how unenticing that is for new players. If they merged with Everlasting then they'd have solid population numbers.

- Hardly anyone plays Torchbearer and Indominable so the naming thing shouldn't be that bad.

- If people feel sensitive about the Torchbearer name disappearing, then just give the merged server the Torchbearer name.

- Excelsior and Reunion (EU) would of course be left alone.

 

Edited May 25, 2022 by Phanto

[Marine X]

The only things I can put out there is it would be interesting to find out what the population would be like if it were available, and that NCSoft tried an Asian Shard and shut it down almost in Beta. Several Hero NPCs were imported from " City of Hero ", ( Korean Version ), including Mirror Spirit and Foreshadow. It never flew do to lack of interest from the Asian Market, I doubt it would fare any better now.

 

City of Heroes Korean Launch Promo

 

I agree with what several others have mentioned, that plopping a server in NCSofts Backyard may bring a very negative reaction, don't wake the sleeping bear.

[Without_Pause]

9 hours ago, Phanto said:

Opening a west coast server while merging old servers is not that crazy when you think about it, and in fact there are a lot of potential benefits to it:

 

- By opening a west coast server, you're now making the game available to a huge part of the world which otherwise can't easily play it. It would definitely bring an influx of players.

- Torchbearer and Indominable have very low populations. The populations are so low that it's hard to even get into a DFB group. Think of how unenticing that is for new players. If they merged with Everlasting then they'd have solid population numbers.

- Hardly anyone plays Torchbearer and Indominable so the naming thing shouldn't be that bad.

- If people feel sensitive about the Torchbearer name disappearing, then just give the merged server the Torchbearer name.

- Excelsior and Reunion (EU) would of course be left alone.

 

• An influx of players when peak users on a server right now is just over 1k at best.
• If a new server is added, how much is that is going in the news to actually attract new players?
• How many new players are you expecting?
• You do realize if 200 new players came to the server it would still make that server a rather small one?
• What if people left based on the removal over servers?
• Are the new players worth the loss?
• You do realize some people actually actively avoid high population servers?
• Or that you simply can't always keep a character's name by default when transferring to a new server?
• Or that people spend many many many hours building bases which can't be simply copy/pasted into a different server?

[Six-Six]

I'm in Asia too and I can relate to your latency lament. Yay for third world internet. I used to play in Reunion which was the most decent in terms of population to latency to time zone ratio. However, Indom's population drop has actually worked for me. Now I switch between Torch and Indom. Time zone's don't really matter as much since I mostly solo.  

[tanglin]

17 hours ago, Apparition said:

 ... there is an OVH data center in Singapore ... 

 

 

 

Is there a shard that is hosted by the OVH data centre in Singapore?

[Apparition]

35 minutes ago, tanglin said:

 

Is there a shard that is hosted by the OVH data centre in Singapore?

 

 

Negative, Ghost Rider.

[Jiro Ito]

On 5/24/2022 at 7:42 PM, Apparition said:

and at this point they're playing on that shard because they don't want to move.

 

 

 

Quoted for emphasis.  More people doesn't necessarily mean a better playing experience for everyone.  

 

If servers are merged, what happens to our stacks of FAT LOOT we have in our sg bases?  What happens to things on the auction house?  Not being snarky, genuinely curious.

[Apparition]

8 minutes ago, Jiro Ito said:

 

Quoted for emphasis.  More people doesn't necessarily mean a better playing experience for everyone.  

 

If servers are merged, what happens to our stacks of FAT LOOT we have in our sg bases?  What happens to things on the auction house?  Not being snarky, genuinely curious.

 

 

The SG base (and everything in it), would go bye-byes.  The auction house though would remain unchanged.

[Ukase]

On 5/24/2022 at 8:06 PM, Phanto said:

I know there are many players who live in Asia or Oceania who would really love to play on a west coast server.

 

As an expat living in Asia, I often really struggle with lag. On a very good day, the latency is about 290, but it often has moments when it exceeds 400. 290 is surprisingly playable, but when it gets over 400, you're basically frozen. I've tried many servers including Reunion but had the same results.

 

Is there any chance this is in the cards?

 

 

You mention latency and struggles with lag. A change in the location of the server would do what exactly? Why would anything change? I would imagine a "new" server would be the same size, speed, etc. Maybe even the same physical server, I've no idea. 

My thinking regarding internet & computers has always been there's a bottleneck somewhere. Could be your hard drive, could be your memory, the size of your page file (if you use that to pretend you have more memory than you do). Could be you've got ISP service from a cable provider who love to put a throttle on your uploading packets. Maybe even a throttle on your downloading packets too.  Could be your ISP is burdened with other traffic that slows things down on your end. Or, it could be the server. I just find it unlikely because others play with no lag on the highest graphic settings. Some folks play with multiple instances on the highest graphic settings with no lag or latency. 

Obviously, some folks have a better system than others - but mine is easily 10 years old and seems to carry 3 instances without issue, with no lag or latency - except during those events like the Map Server event when it was difficult to target foes that you could actually attack. Having well over 100 folks in a zone might have something to do with that, too. That's a lot of flowing cape graphic math, I guess. 


In short - given that literally hundreds of players are playing this game without latency or lag most of the time  -  couldn't it be something to do with your system? Just asking. 

[Phanto]

3 hours ago, Ukase said:

You mention latency and struggles with lag. A change in the location of the server would do what exactly? Why would anything change? I would imagine a "new" server would be the same size, speed, etc. Maybe even the same physical server, I've no idea. 

My thinking regarding internet & computers has always been there's a bottleneck somewhere. Could be your hard drive, could be your memory, the size of your page file (if you use that to pretend you have more memory than you do). Could be you've got ISP service from a cable provider who love to put a throttle on your uploading packets. Maybe even a throttle on your downloading packets too.  Could be your ISP is burdened with other traffic that slows things down on your end. Or, it could be the server. I just find it unlikely because others play with no lag on the highest graphic settings. Some folks play with multiple instances on the highest graphic settings with no lag or latency. 

Obviously, some folks have a better system than others - but mine is easily 10 years old and seems to carry 3 instances without issue, with no lag or latency - except during those events like the Map Server event when it was difficult to target foes that you could actually attack. Having well over 100 folks in a zone might have something to do with that, too. That's a lot of flowing cape graphic math, I guess. 


In short - given that literally hundreds of players are playing this game without latency or lag most of the time  -  couldn't it be something to do with your system? Just asking. 

 

It has nothing to do with my system, or the server capabilities. It has to do with me living 7,000 miles away from the servers. I'm in Shanghai, China. 

 

All but one of the servers are located in eastern Canada. The other is in Germany. I'm asking about opening a server which would be physically located in the west coast of North America. 

 

I've played several MMOs which have servers located in California and my latency averages between 130-200, which isn't ideal but is totally playable.

[GM Impervium]

I can certainly appreciate your desire to play the game smoothly. Unfortunately, we don't have any current plans to open any new shards, or move/merge any existing ones.

I'm not saying these things will never happen, just that it isn't in the cards at the moment. Sorry =(

[Phanto]

54 minutes ago, GM Impervium said:

I can certainly appreciate your desire to play the game smoothly. Unfortunately, we don't have any current plans to open any new shards, or move/merge any existing ones.

I'm not saying these things will never happen, just that it isn't in the cards at the moment. Sorry =(

 

Thanks for the reply!

[Ukase]

8 hours ago, Phanto said:

 

It has nothing to do with my system, or the server capabilities. It has to do with me living 7,000 miles away from the servers. I'm in Shanghai, China. 

 

All but one of the servers are located in eastern Canada. The other is in Germany. I'm asking about opening a server which would be physically located in the west coast of North America. 

 

I've played several MMOs which have servers located in California and my latency averages between 130-200, which isn't ideal but is totally playable.

I appreciate the explanation. I wouldn't think distance from the servers would have had such an impact, but I've confessed previously, I'm no expert. 

[Marine X]

Something that might be worth looking into would be setting up a VPN. I have seen it solve problems, in the past, for people who have connection issues with Homecoming. Detroit was a black hole for many until they were able to get around it. It may let you improve your connection to the servers by creating an optimum pathway from where you are to the Servers. Not an entry level project unfortunately, but there are a few Free or low Cost VPN products out there if you wish to try.

Good Hunting.