Excelsior vs Everlasting

[drgantz]

I play Excelsior because it has the largest population, which is better for grouping.  I've noticed a lot of lag.  Sometimes when I'm  in an instance, lag gets so bad that I almost can't move.

I wonder if Everlasting might be a better server because with less  population, there might be less lag.

Does anyone think that Everlasting is a better server?

[Astralock]

 

 

On a serious note, yes, Excelsior has more lag in zones (Atlas Park, Ouroboros, and the Rikti War Zone especially), than the other shards because it's the most populated shard by far.  In instances though, I haven't noticed any more lag on Excelsior than the other shards.

[Greycat]

I do, but that's just because that's where the RP is.

[Glacier Peak]

Indomitable is where you should play if you're not wanting lag. 

[JasperStone]

12 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

Indomitable is where you should play if you're not wanting lag. 

I started in Indom ...nice and quiet

...

I have experienced no lag in Excel ... yet

[UltraAlt]

13 hours ago, drgantz said:

I play Excelsior because it has the largest population, which is better for grouping.  I've noticed a lot of lag.  Sometimes when I'm  in an instance, lag gets so bad that I almost can't move.

I wonder if Everlasting might be a better server because with less  population, there might be less lag.

Does anyone think that Everlasting is a better server?

 

Excelsior vs Everlasting

Freedom F2P vs Virtue

 

Higher population equals better chance for lag.

Lag is really more dependent upon your internet connection than anything else these days. Most computers should be able to keep up with this game otherwise.

 

I think Everlasting is better than Excelsior simply because it isn't the highest population server and what comes with that in regard to player base.

So if you goal is to be on the most populated server, I think it would be best for you to stay playing on Excelsior.

 

If you goal is to check how lag is on different servers, I would go over to Indominable if you live in US, Canada, etc. It generally has the lowest population, but that will allow you to see how population is affecting your lag.

Of course, Reunion is the European server.

[nihilii]

Side tangent, but... what is everyone's theories regarding the shift in player population per server? It used to be Torchbearer was the most populated, now it's a deserted land. It's impressive to see that magnitude of a change.

[Astralock]

41 minutes ago, nihilii said:

Side tangent, but... what is everyone's theories regarding the shift in player population per server? It used to be Torchbearer was the most populated, now it's a deserted land. It's impressive to see that magnitude of a change.

 

Before double XP was added to the P2W vendor, everyone that played on Excelsior when it opened was given double XP for a couple of weeks in order to incentivize people to leave Torchbearer.  It worked extremely well.  Then, not to start drama or anything, but some people believed that most of the community's "rotten eggs" stayed behind on Torchbearer, further incentivizing them to stay on Excelsior.

 

Eventually, Homecoming's population as a whole started crashing heavily in late 2020/early 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic waned.  Torchbearer and Indomitable started heavily bleeding people.  Excelsior itself lost a lot of people as well.  But Excelsior still had the most people, so those on Torchbearer and Indomitable started migrating to Excelsior to fill in the holes of people that left.  That heavy bleeding from Torchbearer and Indomitable has slowed down some, but continues as a trickle as more and more people left Torchbearer and Indomitable.

 

Over the past year, people have started leaving Everlasting for Excelsior as well.  From what I've been told, Everlasting is very cliquish.  If you're not in one of the big cliques, it's extremely difficult to get a team there.  So they left.

 

That's basically where we're at now.

 

Edit: If you notice over the past three and a half years, there's a definite trend.  As Homecoming loses people, so does Excelsior.  But with Excelsior remaining the most populated shard, people on the other shards started migrating en masse to Excelsior.  Excelsior's population remained relatively steady in 2021 and early 2022 as the other shards started heavily draining into Excelsior.  But now even Excelsior's population numbers are starting to wane.

 

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that 95%+ of the remaining Homecoming population will be on Excelsior by the end of next year, leaving the other shards ghost towns.

 

Edited November 24, 2022 by Astralock

[JasperStone]

I came back a year before COVID.

Almost all servers were in the yellow, Indom was at the top so... I went there.

Was very happy, well organized raids and most important I made new in-game friends.

Have a base that I worked hard on, small but mighty.

 

Last spring my work schedule explode. Basically from January until May ... no time to play.

Logged into Indom on Friday and sat in my base and left to go shower and make a drink.

Came back about 30minutes later ... nothing.

Chat was completely empty. Nothing. I mean no one had said anything. 80 people on the server too.

 

Started the move to Excel that night.

Still working on fitting in. Indom was a like my old Guardian server ...

Upside - lotsa stuff to do and join

Downside - have not connected to people like I did on Indom (Excel players are wonderful just have not connected with anyone yet)

 

[Astralock]

9 minutes ago, JasperStone said:

Downside - have not connected to people like I did on Indom (Excel players are wonderful just have not connected with anyone yet)

 

Yeah, that's the general downside with Excelsior.  It's really hard to connect with anyone there.  I've been playing there off and on for three and a half years.  Even leading content, I really haven't connected with anyone outside of those that I already knew from live.  Of course, out of those I knew from live, all but four or so have stopped playing.  So when I team now, it's almost entirely with PUGs.

 

I don't blame Excelsior in particular.  It's just been the general trend in online gaming.  It's a lot more difficult to make new friends in online games now compared to fifteen years ago, for various reasons.

Edited November 24, 2022 by Astralock

[lemming]

1 hour ago, Astralock said:

Over the past year, people have started leaving Everlasting for Excelsior as well.  From what I've been told, Everlasting is very cliquish.  If you're not in one of the big cliques, it's extremely difficult to get a team there.  So they left.

I know there are some names on Everlasting, but I've never had an issue with teaming there.  I started up some stuff there over the summer and ported a couple characters from Excelsior.   There's a different style, but not too much different.

 

That's not to say there aren't cliques, but there are a few on Excelsior as well.   For most people, I'd say either server works fine.  Both have Task Force channels and people that run particular content.

[Ukase]

22 hours ago, drgantz said:

I play Excelsior because it has the largest population, which is better for grouping.  I've noticed a lot of lag.  Sometimes when I'm  in an instance, lag gets so bad that I almost can't move.

I wonder if Everlasting might be a better server because with less  population, there might be less lag.

Does anyone think that Everlasting is a better server?

I suggest you try the Brainstorm (AKA Beta Test) server. See if you have lag there. The set up there should be just about identical to what's on the server now. And there will be maybe a dozen people, if that on there. If you have lag there, then you know it really has nothing to do with population, but something else is amiss. 

[twozerofoxtrot]

5 hours ago, Astralock said:

From what I've been told, Everlasting is very cliquish.  If you're not in one of the big cliques, it's extremely difficult to get a team there.

 

Someone lied to you.

 

Cliquish? Maybe with regards to roleplaying styles.

 

But I play mostly off hours and am certainly not in anyone's clique and have no issues starting groups, or seeing most teams fill out in a few minutes. 

[twozerofoxtrot]

7 hours ago, nihilii said:

Side tangent, but... what is everyone's theories regarding the shift in player population per server? It used to be Torchbearer was the most populated, now it's a deserted land. It's impressive to see that magnitude of a change.

 

As someone who left Torchbearer myself my take is this:

 

Torch was the first server up, and while the rest turned on in a few days that first rush of the community that had tracked the SCoRE story in March(?) all had to roll up there, and of course the shard ballooned to become the most populated.

 

 

Then two things happened.

 

First, Everlasting and Indom received their "Unofficial" statuses.

 

Spoiler

Point of fact here: although there was no great announcement by the Dev team to these classifications, the shard Sub-Forums had their names changed to include their unofficial titles.

 

This resulted in people who wanted to be part of those communities migrating away from Torch, and likewise of course the handful of European players who moved to Reunion. Thus the first migration. 

 

 

 

Next, as time went on the novelty and nostalgia of CoH's revival petered off, people who had started up on Torch that first week moved on to other games, other priorities.  The population began to drop, and if you didn't consider yourself an RPer or a PvPer then the only other logical option as Excel. Even when people came back from sabbatical they may have moved to Excel just to stay with the bulk of the population. 

 

Torch has had the ignominious distinction of being the "shrinking" server for literally years now. Thus the second migration. 

 

 

Anyway just my fan theory after seeing the demographics shift these past 3.5 years.

 

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by twozerofoxtrot

[lemming]

4 hours ago, Ukase said:

I suggest you try the Brainstorm (AKA Beta Test) server. See if you have lag there. The set up there should be just about identical to what's on the server now. And there will be maybe a dozen people, if that on there. If you have lag there, then you know it really has nothing to do with population, but something else is amiss. 

Before my computer upgrade, Brainstorm would lag more than Excelsior.    I'm thinking it's more to do with graphic settings, or the network speed.  Both I have seen impact lag issues more than what the server is up to.

[Snarky]

I play on Excelsior.  I had a weird experience on Everlasting.  True story.  Someone did not like how I played my Brute snd harassed me in game and on the boards.  Just a bit.  But I drive a semi in metro traffic for a living.  I regularly get cut off and brake checked….two days ago in the pouring rain was last time.  My blood pressure never even goes up.  I was trying to determine if they were on drugs or armed but it is really a guess.  
 

Anyways I play on Excelsior and rarely do I experience lag. Sometimes just a hint of a stutter.  Or if I run a MSR or play an invasion event targeting is hard and you get a ting false recharge on power trays.  My graphics are dialed all the way up.  

[MistressOhm]

*salutes the Snarkish One*  Kudos, man.  People in little cars do some STOOOPID shit around big trucks.  Me, I'm on a bike, I'mma give you all the room you need.  Bikes + bogeys = BIG mess to clean up. 

[Ukase]

I'm just going off of memory, but after about 6 months or a year when Torch first opened up, there were whispers of an elitist attitude on Torchbearer. In my head, only, pure conjecture, kind of putting 2 and 2 together, my theory is that more than one person got playstyle or build "shamed", and they expressed themselves and it clicked with other players. It's not terribly hard to believe for me. There were some excellent players on Torch when I was there. Still are. At least one of them got banned for doing something foolish, but I still don't know what that specific action was, and don't care to find out. 
But I think that was what started at least some of the migration.