Hello from Australia.

I'm currently playing a Sith on the server Darth Malgus and was noticing that I can experience quite a delay when in certain areas (even though I have great internet).

My next thought was, is this the best server to play from AUSTRALIA. Or do you recommend another?

Please let me know your experiences.

Thanks.

Hello from Australia.

 

I'm currently playing a Sith on the server Darth Malgus and was noticing that I can experience quite a delay when in certain areas (even though I have great internet).

 

My next thought was, is this the best server to play from AUSTRALIA. Or do you recommend another?

 

Please let me know your experiences.

 

Thanks.

Darth Malgus is the worst choice because of the lag. Over 340ms from NSW.

I would recommend Star Forge as it’s only 240ms and is more active than Satele Shan.

Another Aussie player got me using a service called WTFast to connect to swtor. It drops my ping down to 220ms on Star Forge and Satele Shan. It only drops to 310ms on Darth Malgus.

Darth Malgus is the worst choice because of the lag. Over 340ms from NSW.

I would recommend Star Forge as it’s only 240ms and is more active than Satele Shan.

Another Aussie player got me using a service called WTFast to connect to swtor. It drops my ping down to 220ms on Star Forge and Satele Shan. It only drops to 310ms on Darth Malgus.

Awesome thank you!

Kinda hurts knowing my good character is on a bad server though hahah.

i have toons on both.

satele shan: 260-280

star forge: 280-300

the difference in ping isnt noticeable at all imo.

as for activity, harbinger (the most active of the servers) was merged into satele, so i find it doubtful that star forge is more active. its quite the opposite in my experience.

i reckon you should create a new toon on each server to see for yourself.

(connecting out of melb on nbn)

i have toons on both.

satele shan: 260-280

star forge: 280-300

the difference in ping isnt noticeable at all imo.

as for activity, harbinger (the most active of the servers) was merged into satele, so i find it doubtful that star forge is more active. its quite the opposite in my experience.

i reckon you should create a new toon on each server to see for yourself.

 

(connecting out of melb on nbn)

Trust me, Star Forge is way more active than Satele Shan.

You also should have exactly the same ping on both. There is no reason for them to be different.

Only Darth Malgus will have a higher ping.

The best server for Australia is the one closest to Australia. Unfortunately that server no-longer exists thanks to patch 5.5 United Forces. This patch essentially screwed over any Australian player because it left them with nowhere to go. It left Aussies with the choice of server A with poor connectivity or server B with poor connectivity. Apparently Bio-ware hates everyone from the Oceania regions.

To answer your question the North American servers will probably give you a slightly better experience than the European servers will. This depends on your location within Australia however. If you are in Perth you may be better off where you are on Darth Malgus. If you are in the Sydney area you will probably be better off on Satele Shan or Star Forge. Choosing a server is about connectivity (PING) and time-zones. It depends on what is more important to you. This is a case by case circumstance due to all players living in different areas. I personally go for the server which offers the best connectivity. However you might want to go for the server which lines up more with your local time-zone so you can latch on to another regions prime time.

As I said before you are being forced to pick the best of the worst here and it sucks. I am in the same boat unfortunately. Glad you are hanging on though; Oceania players like us are a rare breed these days.

The best server for Australia is the one closest to Australia. Unfortunately that server no-longer exists thanks to patch 5.5 United Forces. This patch essentially screwed over any Australian player because it left them with nowhere to go. It left Aussies with the choice of server A with poor connectivity or server B with poor connectivity. Apparently Bio-ware hates everyone from the Oceania regions.

 

SNIP....

 

As I said before you are being forced to pick the best of the worst here and it sucks. I am in the same boat unfortunately. Glad you are hanging on though; Oceania players like us are a rare breed these days.

Well said.

Our Aussie players have come to realize bioware considered all of them acceptable losses with that server move, when they leave. Not if they leave but when.

The best server for Australia is the one closest to Australia. Unfortunately that server no-longer exists thanks to patch 5.5 United Forces. This patch essentially screwed over any Australian player because it left them with nowhere to go. It left Aussies with the choice of server A with poor connectivity or server B with poor connectivity. Apparently Bio-ware hates everyone from the Oceania regions.

 

To answer your question the North American servers will probably give you a slightly better experience than the European servers will. This depends on your location within Australia however. If you are in Perth you may be better off where you are on Darth Malgus. If you are in the Sydney area you will probably be better off on Satele Shan or Star Forge. Choosing a server is about connectivity (PING) and time-zones. It depends on what is more important to you. This is a case by case circumstance due to all players living in different areas. I personally go for the server which offers the best connectivity. However you might want to go for the server which lines up more with your local time-zone so you can latch on to another regions prime time.

 

As I said before you are being forced to pick the best of the worst here and it sucks. I am in the same boat unfortunately. Glad you are hanging on though; Oceania players like us are a rare breed these days.

100ms difference between US and EU is not “slightly” better. It is massively better.

100ms difference between US and EU is not “slightly” better. It is massively better.

Yes 100ms is a big difference. For some the difference between Europe and North America is not that different though. It all depends on where you are. Seeing as how the thread starter did not specify where in Australia he/she is we can only speculate which will be better.

Yes 100ms is a big difference. For some the difference between Europe and North America is not that different though. It all depends on where you are. Seeing as how the thread starter did not specify where in Australia he/she is we can only speculate which will be better.

I’m not sure where you are located in APAC. But unless you are in Hawaii, the best ping people will get from APAC to the east coast is about 180-220ms.

I’m in Sydney and my best is 220ms using WTFast. It is then another 100ms to the EU servers from there even with WTFast. Sydney has the fastest connection to the US. If they are else where in Australia, like Melbourne or Brisbane, they will have similar speeds (slightly slower by maybe 2-5ms). If they are else where in Australia, they will have higher speeds.

You can’t shorten the distance or the route from the east coast servers to EU servers. It is 70-120ms, depending on the routing. But it averages around 100ms.

If you play from NZ, it’s possibly to shave another 10-20ms off those numbers from Sydney to the east coast if you have a good connection.

If you play from any of the South Pacific ideas closer to the US, you will actually play with higher ping because they have crappy internet.

If you play from Japan or Korea, you will have similar speed as Australia or NZ because it’s nearly the same distance. If you play from South East Asia, you will have worse speed,

So unless you are in Hawaii, most APAC player have 180-280ms Ping to the east coast. Then add another 100ms and you have 280-380ms. I would say that is a big difference.

I kind of think I have a better grasp on the situation than you do because I’m actually in Australia and you are not. So I’m not sure why you are even arguing about it with me.

Well said.

 

Our Aussie players have come to realize bioware considered all of them acceptable losses with that server move, when they leave. Not if they leave but when.

I've been playing (on and off) MMORPGs for the last eighteen years and believe me BioWare is not an outlier.

Aussies and Kiwis have always been treated like red-headed step-children by US game companies even though we pays our subs the same as everyone else.

I'm an Aussie living in regional NSW (on broadband, no NBN yet where we are) and I play on Star Forge server. Connectivity is pretty average. I'm usually playing with red dot connectivity. A good day is when there are no dropouts or unexplained and unexpected boots back to server select and when I have 1-2 white bars in the connection box.

When you get NBN, will it be FTTN, FTTP, Wireless NBN or Satellite? If it’s either of the first two, you should get similar speeds to mine.

I’ve been through 3 ISPs so far to get the right speed, but also to get a stable speed with less ping spikes or packet loss. So far the best one is Aussie Broadband. They have no lock in contacts, so you can test it and if you don’t like it, you can leave. They also use the Telstra connection to the US which is the fastest and most stable. It’s like having Telstra but with Australian tech support / customer servers and a cheaper price. I highly recommend them.

Also try out WTFast.com. It’s a VPN gaming service and it reduces the ping and makes the connection more stable. I was having the same problems you are when I was on ADSL2 and WTFast really helped.

I've been playing (on and off) MMORPGs for the last eighteen years and believe me BioWare is not an outlier.

Aussies and Kiwis have always been treated like red-headed step-children by US game companies even though we pays our subs the same as everyone else.

At least Blizzard finally realised this and placed servers back in Australia. It would seem they see the value in our expanding population.

If you were to include the whole of APAC, there are actually more people in the region than the US and EU combined. So it makes sense for gaming companies to cater to the area. Except some of our NA breathren are a little slow on the uptake.

You only need to see how successful the big games are that cater to the region to understand why it adds to their success.

The backwards thinking of some of the NA gaming houses limiting their audience is pretty dumb.

When you get NBN, will it be FTTN, FTTP, Wireless NBN or Satellite? If it’s either of the first two, you should get similar speeds to mine.

I’ve been through 3 ISPs so far to get the right speed, but also to get a stable speed with less ping spikes or packet loss. So far the best one is Aussie Broadband. They have no lock in contacts, so you can test it and if you don’t like it, you can leave. They also use the Telstra connection to the US which is the fastest and most stable. It’s like having Telstra but with Australian tech support / customer servers and a cheaper price. I highly recommend them.

Also try out WTFast.com. It’s a VPN gaming service and it reduces the ping and makes the connection more stable. I was having the same problems you are when I was on ADSL2 and WTFast really helped.

Thanks for the tips. I looked up our address. Technically we're supposed to be connected to the NBN between July and September next year with FTTC (Fibre to the Curb).

Because we're in regional NSW a lot of providers don't 'provide' access, so our options are rather limited. Not sure if Aussie Broadband offers services in our region.

Because we're in regional NSW a lot of providers don't 'provide' access, so our options are rather limited. Not sure if Aussie Broadband offers services in our region.

It should when you are on NBN.

In the mean time you could test WTFast.com on a trial to see if it helps. There is one small limitation with the trial, you can’t pick the points you want to travel through.

It wasn’t until I paid for the service that I got much better speed. It costs me $10.99 a month and works on most games.

When I was on ADSL2, it dropped my ping on the US servers from 280ms to 230ms. Now I’m on NBN, it’s dropped it to 215-220ms. On the EU servers it even drops it from 330-360ms to 300ms.

You don’t really need it for NBN speed to the US, but it helps traveling across the US because there can be lots of ping jumps. WTFast uses dedicated servers and paths to the destination game. So I use it still to smooth out those ping spikes.

Without WTFast, the average speed with just NBN is about 225ms,

So I’m not sure why you are even arguing about it with me.

There is no argument; even if you are looking for one I will not entertain you.

March 2021 here, and I can assure you, the servers (North American) that the oceanic populace are forced to use are completely terrible (unplayable). I would recommend bioware warn paying customers prior to purchase.

This game had the potential to be so much. But alas, looks like I'm back online to find a different alternative.

If Australian's are reading this prior to acquisitions - take it from me: Don't buy! The lag is horrendous. They shouldn't offer this product to the Australian market. There needs to be governing bodies that oversee this type of product, and how effective it is, prior to putting it on the market demographically.

March 2021 here, and I can assure you, the servers (North American) that the oceanic populace are forced to use are completely terrible (unplayable). I would recommend bioware warn paying customers prior to purchase.

 

This game had the potential to be so much. But alas, looks like I'm back online to find a different alternative.

 

If Australian's are reading this prior to acquisitions - take it from me: Don't buy! The lag is horrendous. They shouldn't offer this product to the Australian market. There needs to be governing bodies that oversee this type of product, and how effective it is, prior to putting it on the market demographically.

I’m Australian and been through all the server merges and moves over 9 years. And yes it sucks that I now have to play with 220ms ping on the US east coast instead of 20ms in Australia, but the game is still mostly playable as long as you don’t want to do ranked pvp.

Some advice for any Aussies looking at playing swtor.

1. Make sure your ISP isn’t Telstra or use the Telstra international backbone sub cable to the US. The peering is terrible through Telstra and you will get 40-80ms higher ping.

2. If you are on the east coast of Australia, you should choose a NA server to play on. The ping to the EU servers is too high.

3. Consider paying for WTFast vpn gaming service. This allows you to choose two points of routing to the servers and you can avoid trouble spots that crop up over long distance routing. Plus, it also smooths out the connection so it’s stable with 90% less lag spikes. My ping from regional NSW is between 218-230ms.

4. I’ve tried many ISPs, the most reliable so far is Superloop. Although AussieBB was good, they started using Telstra as a default for some international routing and I had to drop them. Superloop have their own sub cable because they are mostly a backbone company.

Anyway, I would still encourage Aussies to play the game. It’s a good game and totally playable if you follow some of my advice.

I’m Australian and been through all the server merges and moves over 9 years. And yes it sucks that I now have to play with 220ms ping on the US east coast instead of 20ms in Australia, but the game is still mostly playable as long as you don’t want to do ranked pvp.

 

Some advice for any Aussies looking at playing swtor.

 

1. Make sure your ISP isn’t Telstra or use the Telstra international backbone sub cable to the US. The peering is terrible through Telstra and you will get 40-80ms higher ping.

2. If you are on the east coast of Australia, you should choose a NA server to play on. The ping to the EU servers is too high.

3. Consider paying for WTFast vpn gaming service. This allows you to choose two points of routing to the servers and you can avoid trouble spots that crop up over long distance routing. Plus, it also smooths out the connection so it’s stable with 90% less lag spikes. My ping from regional NSW is between 218-230ms.

4. I’ve tried many ISPs, the most reliable so far is Superloop. Although AussieBB was good, they started using Telstra as a default for some international routing and I had to drop them. Superloop have their own sub cable because they are mostly a backbone company.

 

Anyway, I would still encourage Aussies to play the game. It’s a good game and totally playable if you follow some of my advice.

Damn, Honestly mate your so right there, Australians are so rare now, Thanks for all the tips I will consider this, I love swtor, I cant recommend it enough, in fact I prefer swtor version of star wars over the others, It would be nice to join a guild full of Australians, as one of the things for me is not just the ping as I reside on star forge, but also the Aussies themselves. I would like to get on like 7pm or an appropriate time, to hang with the boys instead of missing guild events due to specific time zones. But ah well, it is what it is I guess..

Damn, Honestly mate your so right there, Australians are so rare now, Thanks for all the tips I will consider this, I love swtor, I cant recommend it enough, in fact I prefer swtor version of star wars over the others, It would be nice to join a guild full of Australians, as one of the things for me is not just the ping as I reside on star forge, but also the Aussies themselves. I would like to get on like 7pm or an appropriate time, to hang with the boys instead of missing guild events due to specific time zones. But ah well, it is what it is I guess..

I miss our Aussie APAC servers. It was a completely different culture to the American ones. It was a real shock getting use to them when we first merged. They we’re much more aggressive/trollish compared to the APAC servers that were more laid back.

I miss our Aussie APAC servers. It was a completely different culture to the American ones. It was a real shock getting use to them when we first merged. They we’re much more aggressive/trollish compared to the APAC servers that were more laid back.

It was a shock for me too. I remember my first few group finder experiences on Harbinger after we merged from Dalborra. I was thinking "These people are horrible!". Thank goodness I still had an Australian guild.

It was a shock for me too. I remember my first few group finder experiences on Harbinger after we merged from Dalborra. I was thinking "These people are horrible!". Thank goodness I still had an Australian guild.

As far as the two NA servers, I do prefer SS over SF. SF reminds me too much of the old Jedi Covenant/POT5 days. Back when Harb was a thing, I rolled a few toons on the server and found the game much more enjoyable.

Currently, SF certainly is more populated than SS but I am willing to sacrifice constant pvp queue pops for the SS "peak time" pops if that means I have a better experience.

I think (I dont think, it is a fact) that Darth Malgus (EU) is much less toxic and friendly than NA servers.

I dont know if the latency is bigger in relation to a NA for Australians.

I imagine how Australians may struggle in a NA server lol. Actually anybody would struggle in a NA server. Sorry for the nice and respectul people from US but unfortunately its the reality.

I think (I dont think, it is a fact) that Darth Malgus (EU) is much less toxic and friendly than NA servers.

 

I dont know if the latency is bigger in relation to a NA for Australians.

 

I imagine how Australians may struggle in a NA server lol. Actually anybody would struggle in a NA server. Sorry for the nice and respectul people from US but unfortunately its the reality.

The latency is much bigger for Aussies. It’s between 300-500ms depending on where you are in Australia. It really makes playing on DM unrealistic for anything that is lag sensitive.