Question about Central shards

[Valerin]

I'm considering a possible return to the game (going to do the 14 day trial), and am trying to decide what shard to start out on. I played Napa Valley back in the day, but my ping was always terrible there, and most of my old friends there have left the game. So to start anew... which shard would be recommended? I don't care much about population, in fact I think I prefer a smaller population than a huge one. Both PVP and PVM are an interest; I did well at both while I was playing.

Thoughts?

 

[ingsmsico]

Re: Question about East Coast or Central shards

where do you live?

if you live on the east coast, LS has a low population, play there.

the EM site is http://www.emquantum.com/LakeSuperior/

tons of open house spots, you can find full storage spots easy.

PvP is rough, people mostly cheat and you need a fully jacked suit. but if you are good then you can deal with it obviously.

 

[kelmo]

Re: Question about East Coast or Central shards

Try them all. *winks*

 

[Valerin]

Re: Question about East Coast or Central shards

where do you live?

if you live on the east coast, LS is pretty dead, play there.

tons of open house spots, you can find full storage spots easy.

PvP is rough, people mostly cheat and you need a fully jacked suit

Yeah I guess I was in my old mindset when I suggested east coast. I moved to Texas recently so I guess I'll be looking for central...

And yeah pvp cheating was one of the few reasons I left the game.

 

[Valerin]

Re: Question about East Coast or Central shards

Any thoughts on Lake Austin?

 

[ingsmsico]

Re: Question about East Coast or Central shards

Try them all. *winks*

a lot of people do this. they make chars everywhere.

I think this guy just wants to start off somewhere, it kind of sucks slowly working up multiple chars on a bunch of different shards.

depends what your goals are.

 

[GarthGrey]

Re: Question about East Coast or Central shards

Yeah I guess I was in my old mindset when I suggested east coast. I moved to Texas recently so I guess I'll be looking for central...

And yeah pvp cheating was one of the few reasons I left the game.

I don't believe there are "central" servers now. East/West I think is your choice.

 

[Valerin]

Re: Question about East Coast or Central shards

I don't believe there are "central" servers now. East/West I think is your choice.

so something like Lake Austin isn't based in Central Time zone? What would be the best shard in terms of ping for Texas?

 

[Tinsil]

Yes. The cheapos stupidly got rid of actual "central" servers.

Everything is now on the east/west coast.

 

[Valerin]

Is there a way to test ping to the different servers?

 

[Shelleybean]

Re: Question about East Coast or Central shards

I don't believe there are "central" servers now. East/West I think is your choice.

so something like Lake Austin isn't based in Central Time zone? What would be the best shard in terms of ping for Texas?

I live in Texas and play on Legends. It's a small population shard and I don't have complaints about connection speed or lag. There is also plenty of room for housing and I know of a few keep spots if you're interested in Legends. Just send me a pm and I will help you out.

 

[Quenchant]

Is there a way to test ping to the different servers?

Yes,

Log in and look at Latency list after the login screen. You can check shard population by clicking on the % Full button. Least populated shard is at the top of the list. This is for the classic client. Not sure how the EC does this. I ping slightly better to east coast than west coast and I live in Texas.

Q

After thought.....
or download UOTrace.... servers are in the format sonoma.owo.com or lakeaustin.owo.com. You can check ping and number of hops and few other things this way.

 

[Kellgory]

Lake Austin is a West Coast server, and being in Oklahoma I ping just about the same to West Coast servers as I do to East Coast, so I imagine you will probably be about the same in Texas.

 

[Valerin]

Yeah after some pinging, I decided I'd be just as good going back to Napa. Thanks for the advice everyone.

 

[Tukaram]

I came back 6 or 7 months ago and since all my characters are on Great Lakes that is where I went. I'm in North Texas and my speed seems fine. The population is minuscule unfortunately. I was able to place 2 max lock down houses immediately, I found quite a few sites for 18x18's.

 

[Basara]

yeah, the Central Server farm actually disappeared somewhere around the early LBR era. I found references to it in 2001 updates regarding the servers, while it was already gone in 2002, when East Coast Server downtimes and maintenance posts already included GL, LS, etc. as part of the East Coast server farm.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Lake Austin was at the west coast server farm even during its beta and new-account-exclusive era; part of the mistake might have been from the Devs stating that they could see Lake Austin the LAKE from their office, when explaining the name, and people thinking that they were referring to the machine hosting it.

 

[AesSedai]

- Here in Texas I have found east and west US shards work fairly, equivalantly well. I play Napa Valley (haters: pls don't read that) and hope to expand to Atlantic soon, to hang with other good people; but please don't tell anyone that either

 

[AesSedai]

... Lake Austin was at the west coast server farm even during its beta and new-account-exclusive era; part of the mistake might have been from the Devs stating that they could see Lake Austin the LAKE from their office, when explaining the name, and people thinking that they were referring to the machine hosting it.

- I agree.
By the by, Portalarium is the closest to Lake Austin, regarding any relationship with UO...

 

[Fin of LS]

At one time many servers were actually located in and around the Austin area, where Origin Systems was headquartered. That changed when EA bought them out. For my part and I live in Oklahoma and work a cable connection, my ping rarely exceeds 50 MS on any US based shard. Maybe 125-150 if I wanted one of the Asian shards.
So depending on your set up, it probably wont matter.

As a returning player myself a more important consideration may be shard population, if you intend a solo career--there seem to be many low pop shards and you can place anything you want alomost anywhere.
However, since it is a MMO, you might want to consider potential for interacting for crafting, PvM and PvP. Just a thought.

 

[Valerin]

all good info. One more question; what are the shard maintenance times for East vs West coast?

 

[IanJames]

http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=125230

You can find the shard maintenance times there. Please note that the East coast times are actually at 6AM, not 5AM

 

[Beer_Cayse]

Re: Question about East Coast or Central shards

Lake Austin is a West Coast shard ... low population but folks are helpful. I play it from the East Coast with little issue.

 

[Basara]

At one time many servers were actually located in and around the Austin area, where Origin Systems was headquartered. That changed when EA bought them out.

This urban legend again? EA had already owned Origin Systems for a significant time before UO ever entered Beta, and IIRC before it was even proposed. I've also heard it stated that none of the production shards were ever in Austin, and even the Central servers, when they existed, were somewhere in the area between Chicago and St. Louis - but the devs involved have been gone so long it's hard to confirm.