I have some general questions about the game.

First, welcome to the game! There aren't any dumb questions; all of us were new at one time and we understand that this game is rather complex. Fortunately most of that complexity you won't have to worry about starting out; after all the game is still playable at the basic level. You can worry about the more complex options after you've mastered the basics. For that matter the ordinary enhancements you can go into the store and buy are perfectly adequate for most of the game's content; you don't really NEED to worry about the (highly complex and convoluted) Invention system if you don't want to.

Second, on servers. Freedom is the most populated and it's true that it has lots of great players there. Unfortunately any population is going to contain jerks and with the largest total population you get the largest population of jerks. I've played a few characters there and I have to agree with the opinion that you're much more likely to run into bad players and rude players there than on other servers.

Most other servers have a surprisingly low number of rude players in my experience; part of that is demographics... this game tends to attract a more mature playerbase (most of my regular buddies are 40+) and that leads to a higher number of players who act like responsible adults. The vast majority of us are more than willing to help new players; anyone who's willing to listen and learn will find endless teammates willing to help them with anything they don't understand.

Population on servers is shown by the order of the server on the selection list. It goes like this:
Server you last logged into.
Least populated server
*
*
Most populated server

Freedom & Virtue are the two most populated; Freedom has most of the PvP players while Virtue has most of the roleplayers. I suppose I should mention that PvP is highly limited and only occurs either in Arena matches or in four specific PvP zones. Outside of the Arena and those zones it does not exist. Virtue is occasionally a bit strange... for the most part it's like all the other servers outside of the occasional player or group who're into RP and play and chat "in character". Usually it's no big deal but sometimes it gets weird.

My main server is Guardian, one of a group of 4-5 servers that sit in the middle ground of population and alternate the #3 slot in population. Guardian has a solid group of players and very few jerks. I think I've only run into 4-5 really rude players there in the last 5 years.

On most servers the Global chat channels are where recruiting for the tougher content takes place, once you sign up for the full game I'd recommend going to your specific server's forum and asking about the popular channels and joining them.

Once you make your choice of server the next thing you'll need to decide is what kind of character to make. For a new player just starting out I always suggest a Scrapper; they offer good damage with enough durability to be forgiving of beginner mistakes. Once you've the basic game mechanics down you may well prefer something else; that's perfectly all right too. You get 12 slots per server to create characters after all and you can buy up to 24 more per server if you want. Most of us have many characters of many different AT's; we call it "Alt-itis" and almost all of us suffer from it to some extent.

No matter what server you choose look to join that server's biggest Global Chat Channel. It helped me tremendously to level my first 50. Prior to finding that channel I soloed A LOT and had fun. Once I found the big global channel then I teamed a ton and this game became even more fun.

I'm at work and don't have COH on this comp any more otherwise I'd tell you how to find the Global Chat Channels easily - or maybe one of the nice souls above would help me out here! Also I've played WoW and CO and none of those games' comunities can compare to this one. Yes you will find some annoying folks but by and large you will find very helpful and resourceful people, as you can probably tell from the responses.

Welcome to the game and good luck!

Welcome to the game Abbadon.

What would I recommend for servers?

Well, that's the great thing about CoX, you get 12 free slots on every server. I recommend that you roll a character on every one of them and check them out for yourself. Just remember, there are jacktards on every server and they are not the norm in CoX. If you run into one don't take their comments or actions to be indicative of the rest of the players on that server.

One place you should definitely head to is the Mentor Project thread. There you will find people that have made themselves available to answer question, give hints and tips, or even mentor you if that is your need, as you explore the world. I personally play on Protector and Justice.

Join the 'N P C' channel to ask your question of Mentors within the game itself. To join the channel just type in your chat line /chan_join "N P C" (the spaces and quotes are required.)

Most importantly, have fun.

Something else that hasn't been mentioned so far is Mids' Hero Designer which is very handy for playing around with the various ATs and Powersets to see what you fancy.

While the in game power information has improved phenomenally since the early days, it can still be a bit clunky to navigate if you just want to have a quick play around to see whether a Stone/Ice Tanker takes your fancy.

More importantly, once you get up beyond one or two characters, Mids' is by far the best way to keep track of which powers, slots and enhancements you want to take for each one and, as you'll see from looking around the forums, it's also the best way to post a copy of your build for other people to look at.

Don't focus too much on the numbers early on though; fun is much more important and that's difficult to quantify

Welcome to the City!

One thing that I didn't see (although I skimmed the thread) is that the server dots are considered load on the server, not population.

This can mean that a specific server has a lot of hardware thrown at it but the load is light, resulting in a lower dot level even though it may be more populated than the one which has a yellow or red dot.

We do NOT know the hardware that each specific server has allocated to it. The servers are divided into West Coast and East Coast servers, so you might want to choose one depending on physical location, if you feel that network latency is going to be an issue (generally not).

Also, the last part is that the server list is always sorted from the lowest load on top and the heaviest load on the bottom, with one BIG exception. The lasts server you visited will always be listed at the top of the list.

If you want to choose the highest load server (likely the busiest) when you log in, it will usually be the one at the bottom (unless it is the one you last logged into, which will be at the top of your list).

If you want to see a lot of hub bub and activity (not all of it desirable), Virtue and Freedom regularly swap spots on the server list for highest load.

Justice usually is 3rd spot, but it tends to be a late riser (because it is also the unofficial Aussie/NZ server) so if you are east coast it probably isn't for you unless you like staying on later.

Champion, Infinity are usually 3-6th spot and I don't know that much about them.

Pinnacle, Triumph and Guardian tend to be lowest load.

If you do try out Justice, just be aware that most of the action is on JFA2010 and Justice United global chat channels, so it looks quiet on the surface.

Welcome!

I'd say that it is a pretty good time to give this game a try. They've been pushing out some nice updates for an overall upgrade, and have been steadily adding to the end game...finally giving people more to do with their high level characters.

I really enjoy this game's ability to get up and walk away if some requires attention elsewhere...it is what has kept my interest for over 6 years.

I won't comment on server choices as that will always be a matter of opinion that is intensely skewed by each individual, as you can see by certain responses already. I've had great luck where I'm at, and have had luck on other servers in spurts. I prefer the smaller servers.

Servers: Mileage varies quite a lot.

Freedom and Virtue have as many players as all other US servers combined. Freedom has jerks, and a disproportionate number of them. If you can get to level 50 without teaming with the same person twice, there's no negative consequences for being horrible to all your teammates. On a smaller server, jerks tend to burn through the population, and either change their ways or decide Everyone Here Sucks. So Freedom has lots of good players, but you may meet a disproportionate number of leeches, griefers, noisy idiots and other stinkers. If you start in Atlas Park, clear the Broadcast channel out of your main chat tab as soon as possible.

As far as my recommendations on server, that's tough for me to do; I've been here so long that I might think "Infinity's great, Big Purple Bug is on almost all the time, and he's always fun" or "Victory has those four really fast guys that are always running task forces." I don't know what the servers look like if you're new- I guess that's what I'm saying.

Welcome to the game!

Welcome to the game and the forums, Abbadon!

Quote:

Originally Posted by shaggy5 Victory:This is the only server I have had much recent problems with the player base. I still play here, and it's not a big deal, but if there was a place that I didn't enjoy some of the "main" players, it would be here.

Wow, sorry to hear that, shaggy -- Victory is my sole home in CoX, and I love its tight-knit friendly population (as one of the mid-lower population servers, you see a lot of the same people around). Feel free to gimme a shout sometime if you're on Victory and if I'm around I'll be happy to team with ya.

Yeah, I think Turg has it right, shaggy, sounds like a bug like that may have been the culprit. I know who you're talking about, and I guess it's just an unfortunate misunderstanding. Please don't let it chase you off Victory though!