EU to US, and back to EU again

JocelynSherbourne

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
May 9, 2005
Messages
5
Hello,

About 2 years ago (before ToA, SI was pretty new), I moved to the US servers of DAoC, solely for the roleplaying and co-operative servers.

In true to all the warnings I recieved not to swap, I noticed there wasn't much difference from the two server regions, with the only exception that everyone at least understood what I said.

On EU, it wasn't difficult to find any groups. There was always someone, somewhere.
Particularely because half the server wasn't asleep at the time...

Now, any zone is pretty much a ghost town.
There's no "Broken Bridge camps" anymore. I remembere there used to be at least 2, up to 3 groups there, and Vindicator plate was "Memememe!" from the Paladins.

Is it much different in the EU servers? Has much changed?
Sure, Vindicator and Bloodied Leather aren't as hot anymore, with Atlantis' special armour, but are there groups? Do people still visit Salisbury, Mithra (oh, the days when the list of players were truncated in Mithra...)?

You can wander for days flagged as looking for players - even as a cleric.

As a Scout (or Cleric) with friends who left the game, you find it hard to make new friends to stick with, particularely ones that follow your day rythm.

What I need to know, is if it is worth leaving my newly attained level 50 Scout (my first 50, in 3 damn years of play :clap: ) in exchange for my old lesser Scout.

In all honesty, I'm a roleplayer and don't care that much for levels and experience.
I don't have Atlantis or the Catacombs, and I imagine Shrouded Isles don't come for free in Europe, nor the Catacombs engine? (or is that unaffected by the patcher).

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long read.
 

Levin

Can't get enough of FH
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I think the EU servers have developed a bit like the US ones in regards to groups in those places that we all remember with fondness, such as Mithra and Salisbury plains. Probably an effect of the /level 20 command, along with not too much new blood coming into the game.

Still all hope is not gone. I would recommend that you try and get the expansions, as i feel that the low level groups that do exist today usually hang around in those areas, especially Catacombs. It's quite fun to play a low level character there really, or at least i think so. If you get yourself a decent sized guild you should be able to find low to mid level folks to group with, i think.

As for roleplaying, on the Prydwen server there are quite a few roleplay friendly guilds. My own guild, Order of the Knights Templar, has in the past been not just roleplay friendly, but it's been at the core of our charter. A haven for anyone who wants to immerse themselves a little deeper. Lately it has been harder to find good roleplay since numbers have dropped over the board (since the exodus to WoW) and roleplay guilds now tend to be rather small, BUT, people are slowly starting to come back and with enthusiasts getting together to build things up again, all hope is not lost. Prydwen still seems to be a bit more roleplay-friendly than Excalibur, at least in my eyes.

I can't really say if it would be better for you here on the EU servers compared to the US ones, as i have no experience with the latter. But you should know one thing, if you do decide to come back to the EU servers you will probably be very well recieved and welcome wherever you chose to call your home.

I don't know if this helped you any, but there it is.

Good luck! ;)
 

Flimgoblin

It's my birthday today!
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Dec 24, 2003
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SI is free on the european servers and I'd imagine the catacombs client (but not the zones) will be offered too come 1.75 (in a month or so)

The lowbie zones are pretty quiet - the playerbase is older, most are playing their level 50s getting artifacts/master levels or RvR so that leaves a lot less for pve at all levels. The looking for group window appears to have gone out of fashion at ToA - it became really complex so people were put off using it.

There are still a few lowbies kicking around though - I recently levelled a new infiltrator to level 10 through a couple of lowbie groups - the free trial on the cover of some magazines appears to have brought in some people which is nice.
 

Thadius

Part of the furniture
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Sep 5, 2004
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I remember starting daoc with my first char about 1 month after TOA came out.

There were quite a few people in mithra
:eek2:

And even a group at the slavers on Salisbury :eek2:

Great days, especially farming the little fairy things and the digger camps(dont pull the tomb riader scout!!!11!)
 

JocelynSherbourne

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
May 9, 2005
Messages
5
Awwww!
The tomb raider scout! :D

I think it would be the wisest to come back to Europe, though.
I went to US because I didn't have a job at the time, and could play on very late hours, but now things have changed.
 

Huntingtons

Resident Freddy
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Jan 19, 2004
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slave camps :eek: i miss salis where friars were clerics and scouts were tankers :)
 

Darzil

Fledgling Freddie
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Jan 10, 2004
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I was fairly impressed to find 16 people under 20 on yesterday in prime time. People don't stay that low for long, of course. My friends who started on Saturday are about 12 already. They were enjoying grouping in Mithra (they've not yet got Catacombs).

I've given up on /level, as it's killing the game. Having said that, 15 is now the lowest of the 10 characters, so I may soon have all mine 20+ anyway. I have /levelled three times - once because I could (and regretted it, cos I hate the autotraining rules that'll lose me points now if I lower my crush), and twice to join groups already 20-25 with a character type that they needed (cleric and earth theurg).

It certainly seems to be a good time to start, as there are a fair number of people around at lower levels.

Darzil
 

Phuzzy

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
53
From my experience you'll be much better off on the Euro servers.

I Beta-tested the Euro servers, and then switched to the US RP servers for 3 years against the advice of my Euro friends. They were right & I was wrong, so here I am back again & very glad of it.

It's not just the time-zone difference thing, although that alone would be more than enough reason to play on the Euro servers i/o the US servers, especially since ToA. It's also the mentality-difference. The US mentality is very different from the Euro mentality, and as time went on it just got harder & harder to relate to it in any positive way. I can't imagine ever playing anything on a US server again TBH.

There seem to be plenty of new players on both Excalibur & Prydwen, as I see loads of badly-equipped lowbies running around, and new NooB guilds being started regularly.
 

Flimgoblin

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Darzil if you /level there's no autotraining - my armsman was thrust specced then respecced at 40 - was at 1 in thrust (much to my delight as I wanted to go crush)

though back in the day /level did grant a weird form of autotraining.
 

Thadius

Part of the furniture
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Do you remember Sailsbury giants? \o/

Oh yea, i never did find that white horse that Ozwaldo said if you killed, you couldnt ride an horse ever again
 

gervaise

Fledgling Freddie
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Jan 4, 2004
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The major - probably the only reason - for coming back would be the time zone difference and what impact that has on the available playerbase. Checkout http://daoc.darkzone.net and overlay when you play vs. when players are on etc.

Some downsides: very limited server choice in Europe of course if you want an English server - if the servers are merged then it could be one. US could see a different server soon (euro could see to of course nothing is known).

It is certainly true that US peak populatins are down again - worse than European ones at times (even they are falling). What really hurts you of course is that you miss the peak population - I did to when I tried to play European servers from US. It's much easier to play the correct time zone so I will revert back to European servers when I relocate again.

As to US players being <<insert expletive here>> that's drivel of course - which you will know. There are good and bad, mature and immature players etc on both sides of the pond.

Last thought. There are Europeans playing on US servers who have posted on these boards - a quick search should identify them (Jaffa?). Finding and grouping with them could be another option.
 

JocelynSherbourne

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
May 9, 2005
Messages
5
Thanks for all the response, but I've decided to order Guild Wars instead, and did.

It was at a low price of £18, which equals around 210NOK, about £5 more than a DAOC subscription.

I may later return to DAoC here on Europe, though, and order ToA while I'm at it (that is one good perk of DAoC EU. ToA at the price of a subscription. Down in US it's still retail price, and the CD Key costs more than that).

I also think Guild Wars suits me better now, as before when I used to play DAoC (which was in 2003 surprisingly, or 2002, if I read the numbers wrong), I had no job or a :fluffle: , and now I have both.

Seeing as GW doesn't require so much of your time, it was probably my best choice.

Continue having fun, you people :)

A pity, I was hoping to find Hufner and Ludo again :(
 

Sharma

Can't get enough of FH
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Dec 22, 2003
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Thadius said:
Do you remember Sailsbury giants? \o/

Oh yea, i never did find that white horse that Ozwaldo said if you killed, you couldnt ride an horse ever again


Meh, found that horse tons of times, although I do remember back then I was scared to kill it in case that was true. :p
 

Malcolm

Can't get enough of FH
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Dec 23, 2003
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Well despite having a level 50, i've never /level-ed an alt and I'm sure there are other idiots like me levelling sub-20 :D

One of these days, I'll get around to making a badge for people who want to advertise their insanity in this regard on forums such as FH ;)
 

Flimgoblin

It's my birthday today!
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Malcolm said:
Well despite having a level 50, i've never /level-ed an alt and I'm sure there are other idiots like me levelling sub-20 :D

One of these days, I'll get around to making a badge for people who want to advertise their insanity in this regard on forums such as FH ;)

My wife refuses to /level and she /freelevel declines any freebies.
 

Thadius

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Sharma said:
Meh, found that horse tons of times, although I do remember back then I was scared to kill it in case that was true. :p

I never did :<
 

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