George In The Meta
What's different about WARDOGS Europe servers vs Asia?
By George In The Meta ·
Short answer: WARDOGS on the Europe servers plays very differently from WARDOGS in Asia. In my first games on Europe (West) there was no AFK kick, no cheat-site spammers, chat was all English, and my team went three games in a row without a single FOB. I didn't just switch servers to find this out. I've played more than 200 hours on the Asia (South East) servers from Bangkok, and on 15 October I flew to the UK, so these are my first Season 02 games played from Europe.
Why compare WARDOGS Europe and Asia servers?
I'm not just server swapping. I've left Asia for Europe and I'm playing in Europe, which is something most people reviewing WARDOGS won't be doing. So I'm on low ping in both places. On Asia (South East) I sat around 30 ms from Thailand. On Europe (West) #13 I'm on about 13 ms, and that server's ping limit is 250 ms.
It's a small sample so far: three or four games on 16 October, the second day of Season 02, on my laptop rather than my PC. For what it's worth, my brother, who lives in England, doesn't play on the Europe servers at all. In his words, they're "Euro-trash". He plays on the American servers instead. When I told him what I'd found, he said that sounded fair.
Are there fewer cheaters on WARDOGS Europe servers?
On the WARDOGS Europe servers I haven't seen a single cheat-site spammer in three or four games. In Asia, the chat spammers that flood chat with links to what I assume are cheat or boosting sites were a regular thing, along with at least one cheater every game (what cheating looks like in Asia).
What language is WARDOGS chat in on Europe servers?
WARDOGS chat on the Europe servers was all English in my first games. Text chat, voice chat, the same: everyone's speaking English, with varying accents. That surprised me, because Europe is more than just English.
Voice chat does seem to get aggressive quicker. That might just be because they have the English to do it.
It isn't quite all, though. On 17 October I was in a lobby where a few players were typing in Russian, but that's maybe seven messages not in English in the whole time I've played on Europe, so call it 98% English.
Do Europe players build FOBs in WARDOGS?
Not much. On the WARDOGS Europe servers my team went three games in a row with no FOB at all, and in the third we were leading by about 30 points with none. A teammate called it out in team chat: "WHY WE DONT HAVE FOB". I asked if Europe just sucks at building FOBs.
When Europe players do build FOBs, they build them badly. There are no walls around them, and they're on low ground, so the enemy can shoot down into them. In Asia the APC sits inside walls and builds; in Europe it's out in the open every time. I've not seen anything done better with FOBs in Europe than I have in Asia.
Where the FOBs go is different too. On this map the standard in Asia is one FOB on the tower blocks, one on the drill at tower one, and sometimes a second just to the southwest of the tower blocks. In Europe, late in a round on 17 October, we had one FOB on the tower blocks, the one with our spawn vehicle in it, and nothing at tower one, the tower closest to it. The green team had taken tower two and built a drill there.
Ten minutes later we'd lost that one too. The score was 78 to blue, 10 to us and 78 to green, and our team had no FOB at all. Insane.
The next game was more of the same. At 11 to blue, 1 to us and 20 to green, our only FOB still didn't have any walls, and we died to it. On the map we'd spotted three green FOBs and one blue FOB. Meanwhile an obscene number of people on our team were driving Urals, and there were bunches of supplies dropped that weren't even delivered anywhere in particular. I really don't understand the play style of red in Europe.
By the end of that game we'd lost every FOB, including one I'd built myself. Seven of our team were just chilling up in the tower while the players building below and guarding the APC got rolled. Red really might be the blue of Europe (why blue always loses in Asia).
The next day was the same story. Red had one FOB, on the very outskirts of the zone, with some of the pallets still lying next to it because nobody had pushed them in, and that was it. I don't know if it's just red or Europe in general, but they seem allergic to building, securing and holding FOBs, and definitely allergic to having more than one at a time.
Does WARDOGS kick AFK players on Europe servers?
Not in my game. WARDOGS kicked me for being AFK on the Asia servers lots of times, usually within 10 to 15 minutes. On Europe (West) #13 I was away about 80 minutes, through a map change, and came back still on the server. Later the same day I was away 22 minutes over lunch and wasn't kicked either (the full AFK story).
Are WARDOGS matches different in Europe?
WARDOGS matches in Europe feel very different to play, though I don't know yet if they're more one-sided. One of my games was an absolute stomp: green got to 100 and everyone else was lower than 10. The whole play style does seem very different. That might just be because it's the start of Season 02 and everyone's back to zero after the wipe.
FAQ
How is WARDOGS Europe different from Asia? In my first WARDOGS Europe games: no AFK kick, no chat spammers, all-English chat, and far fewer and worse-placed FOBs than in Asia.
What is the ping limit on WARDOGS Europe servers? Europe (West) #13 shows a max allowed ping of 250 ms in the server browser.
Does WARDOGS Europe chat use other languages? About 98% English in my games: maybe seven messages in other languages, from a few Russian speakers on 17 October.
