Which server is the least populated and more lore friendly?

basketcaseNZ · December 2016

Hi everyone. Seasons greetings.

I'm playing on the North American server. Its very heavily populated, and some players have non lore friendly names, and run around just randomly killing NPCs for fun. I was wondering if this is the same on the European server?

There are so many players its really distracting, but maybe its because its the holidays and everyone's off work and school.

Cheers guys.

Browiseth · December 2016

i hear EU is definitely less populated; as for the lore-friendly thing, you really can't expect people to make and play their characters the way you want them to

redspecter23 · December 2016

With the recent merge of the three factions, there are now very few places you can go to get away from the masses. Even some remote corner of Bleakrock will have a few players coming by every few minutes. As for players killing NPC's, there isn't much you can do about that. As long as there is some incentive for doing it, players will do it. Just pretend that it's a normal part of the world you're playing in. Elves, magic, long lost ruins, treasure! and people that just want to run around and kill NPC's.

GabiAlex · December 2016

EU PC is pretty populated also and you can see not so lore friendly names. At least ZOS were inspired to had some restrictions on character naming like now numbers and that it had to start with a capital letter, also the possibility to use space so thanks ZOS for not letting us bump into xxXDovakiin69Xxx.

i suggest to do like i do in every game and hide the nameplates for more immersion.

Thybrinena · December 2016

I'd assume that EU is less populated but don't let that fool you into believing inactivity. The server is buzzing, in terms of chat and players on screen. The game is looking healthy and as long as Zos, keep listening to players then there's a chance that may continue for quite a while.

As names and lore - it is always a difficult one. Many names transcend the actual game because players have had them in all their mmos. There's plenty of RP'ers on the EU server if that shed's some light on your query.

DigitalShibby · December 2016

EU is crowded, stay put.

lehran · December 2016

You're going to run into people murdering NPCs for fun no matter where you go -- Dark Brotherhood quests are a thing, as is the achievement where you have to murder something like 100 people. Plus it's a halfway-decent way to get gold fencing off their loot if the player is averse to grinding mobs or doesn't want to play the guild trader market. I'm sure some do it purely for fun too.

Join an RP guild, find a more quiet town (not the main city in the zone) to play in, as there's usually less immersion-breaking players there (probably just people running through and/or doing quests in the zone).

Runs · December 2016

Because of the event exp bonus I have been leveling on EU lately...

I would imagine it is more crowded than PC NA purely by looking at the number of PvP campaigns. Not counting the under 50 campaign or the no CP campaign PC NA only has 2(Haderus and Trueflame), PC EU has 4(Haderus, Trueflame, Ebony Blade, and Spellbreaker). Granted they look empty, but why have extras for lower pop?

FriedEggSandwich · December 2016

I play on both and the only real difference is EU zone chat is slightly less active, probably because there are more languages. NA does seem to have a few more un-lore-friendly names, but EU has them too; I'm one of them. I also kill a lot of npcs because it's a great way to make gold. The populations seem similar.

The only other observation I made was that on EU I never got randomly chellenged to a duel, or snip-talked. During my first week on NA I got challenged to 2 duels by random strangers in open world pve, and the first one responded to my "gf" with "I just bagged the **** outta you". I have no cp and was wearing terrible gear. I was also level 19 with no ward or heal. My fault for accepting the duel I suppose

KochDerDamonen · December 2016

try the consoles, on PS4 8/10 people I see have some nonsense like "*** slaying DK" for names

basketcaseNZ · December 2016

Thanks guys I guess I'll stay put.

I should have said I'm on PS4. I'm guessing it would be the same across platforms.

starkerealm · December 2016

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

I play on both and the only real difference is EU zone chat is slightly less active, probably because there are more languages. NA does seem to have a few more un-lore-friendly names, but EU has them too; I'm one of them. I also kill a lot of npcs because it's a great way to make gold. The populations seem similar.

The only other observation I made was that on EU I never got randomly chellenged to a duel, or snip-talked. During my first week on NA I got challenged to 2 duels by random strangers in open world pve, and the first one responded to my "gf" with "I just bagged the **** outta you". I have no cp and was wearing terrible gear. I was also level 19 with no ward or heal. My fault for accepting the duel I suppose

I honestly have auto-decline duels active on most of my characters. (It should be all, but I don't always remember it's there.)

Either way, NA's way less duel happy than it was when the system first got implemented.

ArchMikem · December 2016

basketcaseNZ wrote: »

Thanks guys I guess I'll stay put.

I should have said I'm on PS4. I'm guessing it would be the same across platforms.

There's a reason the ESRB doesn't rate online interactions. Multiplayer gaming is chaotic, and since this is a MMO? (Massively Multiplayer) There's gonna be players everywhere, with incredibly non-lore friendly names. If it bothers that much you can actually turn off nameplates I believe so they don't pop up when you look at them.

However, it's not impossible to feel like the game is empty at times. Try playing early morning or late night, most will be offline, and stay away from the major hubs like Rawl'kha, Vulkhel Guard, Davon's Watch, Mournhold etc. There are definitely many places on the map I'd consider "The Boonies" where you won't run across other players, if so then only a few that'll run by on their own quest.

FriedEggSandwich · December 2016

starkerealm wrote: »

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

I play on both and the only real difference is EU zone chat is slightly less active, probably because there are more languages. NA does seem to have a few more un-lore-friendly names, but EU has them too; I'm one of them. I also kill a lot of npcs because it's a great way to make gold. The populations seem similar.

The only other observation I made was that on EU I never got randomly chellenged to a duel, or snip-talked. During my first week on NA I got challenged to 2 duels by random strangers in open world pve, and the first one responded to my "gf" with "I just bagged the **** outta you". I have no cp and was wearing terrible gear. I was also level 19 with no ward or heal. My fault for accepting the duel I suppose

I honestly have auto-decline duels active on most of my characters. (It should be all, but I don't always remember it's there.)

Either way, NA's way less duel happy than it was when the system first got implemented.

I have thought about auto-decline, but I like duelling and on EU I pride myself in never having declined a duel, but those duels were always when I was hanging around duelling areas. I declined the 2nd duel request I had on NA (which was while I was deconning staves at the rawl woodworking station) because the guy was cp 200 and something. It pained me to decline it but there's not much point duelling when I have lvl6-25 mismatched gear on, unmorphed skills and no cp. What surprised me was people's desperation to duel a lowbie while said lowbie was clearly busy doing something else. It hasn't put me off the NA server though, I like it there and I'm enjoying the leveling experience again tbh.

basketcaseNZ · December 2016

ArchMikem wrote: »

basketcaseNZ wrote: »

Thanks guys I guess I'll stay put.

I should have said I'm on PS4. I'm guessing it would be the same across platforms.

There's a reason the ESRB doesn't rate online interactions. Multiplayer gaming is chaotic, and since this is a MMO? (Massively Multiplayer) There's gonna be players everywhere, with incredibly non-lore friendly names. If it bothers that much you can actually turn off nameplates I believe so they don't pop up when you look at them.

You can turn off name plates on PS4 but you still see their target info in very big letters on their health bar.

basketcaseNZ · December 2016

Thanks very much everyone.