like someone to explain the difference and the pros and cons
I have been pretty vocal about this, so let me try an answer.
Official servers, as far as I know, are from Funcom itself. This is a free service they provide for multi player, and good for them! I started on officials, as did most people. But…
One day I woke up naked, disarmed, my house door broken and my thralls dead. A PVP server, I had been murdered and robbed in my sleep! I can understand PVP allowing them to plunder my house, but the fact that I was killed when I wasn’t even on line bothered me. I soon learned that this is a server option. All official servers use default settings, except for PVE or PVP. They have no admins or moderators, so often you will find that players will build walls around important places just to screw over other players.
I started looking for unofficial, or private servers that do not leave me on line when I’m logged off.
These are servers that players have rented, and are paying for, so they can have the settings they prefer. Private servers may be password locked, but most are open. Such servers often have an active admin that will not allow troll activities, and can ban players that are doing silly crap.
Needless to say, I never play on the official servers any more.
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Thank you Server I am on is down to 4 people because every oblesk is blocked , tired of running will change from official to un or private.
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Official servers provided by Funcom. No moderators or Admins to turn to for assistance dealing with griefing. “Vanilla” settings, that is no mods added. On PvP servers there are set raiding times. Not likely to be wiped, Funcom has stated no wipes on Official servers unless something disastrous occurs. But also no roll-backs or assistance if a Funcom patch destroys your things.
Private servers:
servers other players have rented. Servers can be password locked to limit access.
Will have Admins who may or may not act as moderators. Eg they can destroy other players bases even in pve … so can be a good or bad thing.
Servers can have Player developed mods…and anyone who wants to play on that server has to have those mods to.
Base settings (eg gathering rate, PvP window, decay timers, purge settings) can be altered by Admin … and altered at anytime
All settings, mods and wipes at Admins discretion…so you might wake up one morning to find the server wiped or just gone if the person renting the server decides to stop playing and doesn’t extend their rental agreement. And yes that happened to a friend of mine … server did not have decay on and the admins on the server didn’t want to clear abandoned buildings so wiped the server.
Admins can do rollbacks on the server to a previous save. Admins can spawn anything in game if they chose to. So again this can be a good or bad thing depending how they use it … good if they help someone to restore after a Funcom patch which destroys their items. Bad if they spawn items to gain advantage in PvP for themselves or selected players.
Many private servers from what I read on forums have a rule-set and events. Many say they do a community poll before changing settings or mods. Many seems to have Admins or a discord channel you can contact to ask about their server to see if it suits you.
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What the differences are for me:
Official:
Will stay until all servers get wiped. (Might happen under certain (extreme) circumstances.)
They are not moderated.
Nobody will be able to abuse admin powers.
Vanilla settings (including 2x harvest on pvp as vanilla)
Private:
Often got rules. (+ no griefing, + no blocking, + no offline raids… - sometimes crazy rules or similar)
Got admins, good against griefing - or creating godmode griefers.
May get wiped.
Owner might decide to stop paying for the server.
My own experience?
The private servers I played on… Well…
Eighter they were totally deserted.
Or serversettings go nuts.
Or peoples bases vanish in favor of someone else wanting to settle there.
Wipes being performed without even asking players.
Or admins being accused for vanished stuff. (Lost due to bugs.)
Maybe one plays for a week and then the server is gone for good? …
And the official servers got their own problems.
In the end its up to everyone to decide what they can live better with.
Blocked obelisks can be handeled by building somewhere near an unblockable obelisk (thinking of mid of map, near dregs or around left northern village).
Griefers might be evaded by building secluded.
I guess if one wants to play on private - eighter rent a server for yourself and your friends - or look into forums. That way risks like server being shut down might (?) or admin abuse be reduced.
If that is too much to think about and you just want to enjoy your time playing the game… go and join some official. Beginners should start on pve or pve-c. (No thievery there.)
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Nuria summed it up pretty well. Although I would recommend starting in single player if your interested in Pve. The offical PVE servers are a complete and utter mess (blocking areas, massive area claims, etc). Also, if your into building the decay system can play havoc to your base(s) if, heaven forbid, you take a vacation or something.
My experiences on private servers are almost as bad as the official ones. While some Admins are decent, many will use cheats to build bigger/better bases for free, give themselves/friends orbs/equipments, scout out your hidden bases,etc. I’ve had admins wipe the server on a whim. I’ve seen them change the server settings on the fly, for example if you joined a server for a specific setting and boom its changed. Overall, I was not impressed when official or unofficial.
I play on a pvp official, but i do not have a base and i make things as i go. not much to lose that way. When i get the itch for pve/building/etc i jump into my single player game…
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I’ve played CE since day 1 of EA and I’m not gonna lie,its gotten pretty rough at times lol. Pvp officials you get many many jerks…its the nature of pvp, like it or not…pve can be the same but with less ways to defend yourself…What I learned to do is find a server,pvp,pve,pve-c, log on and run around getting levels while keeping an eye on global.Some times asking how the server was.If global sux or I get a bad answer I’m out…usually you can tell pretty quik…not always cause jerks might not be on at that time or can just show up…private servers…I don’t do them anymore cause I was on one for awhile and it just shut down with no warning…I stay on official and I’ve been pretty lucky so far,plus it helps to he helpful with other people…I’m on pve-c now and we have a pretty good community, so far,but we keep getting new players daily so that could change…oh I hope not! Lol
Official servers are like Wild West. No rules, no overseers. Pure survival of the fittest.
Private servers are like servitude for a medieval landlord. You are at the mercy of the admin. They will cheat, sell stuff for irl money, ban you if you start winning or they dont like you.
Most of the private servers are just glorified building simulators with settings like 16.00 - 16.01 PvP times, and god forbid you managed to deal any damage within that 1 minute period cuz you will get banned for overstepping your boundaries. They can be shut down out of the blue, can be wiped out of the blue. Basically you put yourself at the mercy of someone else.
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I actually am running a private server myself on PS4 password protected. Very fun great rates and there is building around all obelisks, but its a MAPROOM!!! for everyone to use lol. Message me for information. ITS A PS4 server.
Unofficial servers makes me think of a popular line -
“With great power comes great responsibility”
Unofficial servers have admins (the owner of the server) that will abuse their power.
Official servers have no admins and you’re at the mercy of FunCom bugs when things go wrong with no one to help.
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1 is buggy, unstable, crashes, and terrible to play on. The other is… Oh, erm, right.
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Like to hear the difference from a dev
I have never seen a dev post on the forums. You may have a long wait.
Then why have them? I’m curious why they answer some certain forums but not all. I asked a fair reasonable question cause i wish to know. I paid for the game like everyone else?
Why won’t a dev respond to my question? I would like to know what is the difference. I have seen them answer questions is my question not relevant?
The devs are very active, they delete my posts frequently.
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No it is not relevant, it does not include any problems with the nudity settings so not worthy an answer from anyone at Funcom…
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