Updated map of RotMG server locations

#1

View the map here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=145lv3x1r0lJjK59f5m7mMmepDKSsUPop&usp=sharing

So it was like 11 PM and I was getting ready to go to bed when I saw @Zquidx trying to help another user find their closest RotMG server. I noticed the map he linked was fairly out of date, and did not contain any of the newer servers.
Naturally, I moved my sleep time back a bit and got to working on a new, updated map. But I found some surprises along the way…

Explanation of how the map works

How did I get this information?
Basically, I used two pieces of information that the game gives out for each server: the IP of the server, and a pair of coordinates. (I guess that makes it 3 things?)
The pair of coordinates was what the old map used to determine the location of the servers, and is what the client uses to determine which is your “Best Server”. However, I have good reason to believe these coordinates are not wholly accurate. If you check the “advertised location” tab on my map, you’ll find there are some very, very strange location markers.

Wait so Deca is lying to us?!?!?!
I guess you could put it that way…? But what they have done makes a lot of sense to me. It makes a lot of sense to just buy a cluster of servers, and then assign coordinates for each server such that people living in different locations will connect to different servers as their Best Server, rather than everyone connecting into one of the servers.
In general, it really won’t make a significant difference that you connect to a server in Virginia rather than somewhere in Oregon.
RIP the people in South America though, I’m going to have to be the bearer of bad news here.

Ok so how do I use the map?
Use the “actual location” tab to figure out which server is actually closest to you. This is just an approximation of where the server is located based off of the IP, so it won’t be 100% accurate but it will be accurate enough. In a lot of cases, this may not actually be what the game thinks is your “Best Server”. But now you know what your true “Best Server” should be, and now you can connect to that instead if you’re worried and want to try to mitigate as much connection lag as you can!
Use the “advertised location” tab to see why the game picks certain servers over others for Best Server, as well as admire such inspiring server locations like the 3 servers on Null Island and EUSouth being “located” in Ireland. Very strange server locations (like that of the aforementioned 3 servers and the other one off in the Arctic Circle) are likely intended so that people generally don’t connect to those as their Best Server. Why? That is something I cannot answer as I do not know.
Disclaimer: This is just for the Nexus servers you will connect to (eg USW2 as it shows in the server select screen), just like the old map. I may look into obtaining locations for the realms in the future, hopefully they are not too different in location than the Nexus servers, but only time will tell.

I come from the future, there is a server missing from your map
Just let me know, I will update the map if/when I can. In general if there is any issue regarding the map just tell me and I will try to fix it.

brief changelog because why not:
[10/11/2020]
- USW4 is now not in the Seattle area, and in the SF area
- They fixed the 0 long on EUEast2’s advertised location, so it is now not pointing into the ocean and instead to Stockholm as I assume was intended
- USMW changed location and now it’s in the same location as USMW2

Ping in asian servers
#2

USNW is in Maryland

North Western U.S. is on other side of the country

Great geography skills Deca.

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#3

I don’t know, honestly. That one seems to be one of the weirder ones just in how they probably could have bought a closer server but chose not to. Maybe they bought a cluster and they had one left over from everything else, so then they just decided to use it for USNW.

#4

Just thought it was funny tbh.

Nicely done with the map btw.

#5

Huh, didn’t even relize that there’re new servers

#6

Is it not still the case that the game runs on Amazon servers, a service that Deca pays for, rather than them being Deca’s own servers? (For example, as mentioned in this comment: Server Latam). Your posts make it sound as though Deca has purchased the things, but if it’s an Amazon service then the actual locations would be dependent on where Amazon chooses to site the hardware. (Disclaimer I know hardly anything about this kind of thing).

#7

I assume Deca has some say in the region the servers will be in when they are purchased, so they can have NA/EU/Asia-specific servers. To what degree, I don’t know.
And yea, they are Amazon servers.

#8

What happens when you choose the “best server”? isn’t it the server that has the best connection to you?

#9

Not really, “best server” is decided using the coordinates assigned with each server. It will try to pick the closest server to your own coordinates. If the coordinates were accurate to where the server actually was located, then this would most likely be the server you’d have the best connection to.
However, as the coordinates are not accurate, this will often not actually be the server you’d have the best connection to in reality.
For example, I would connect to USNW based off of my coordinates being in the Pacific Northwest of North America, because the closest server according to coordinates is located in Oregon.
However, in reality, USNW is located in Virginia, and my closest server is USW4 since that is located in Washington. Yet the game will never recommend USW4 to me as best server unless I lived somewhere in Africa, due to the game saying the coordinates of USW4 are at 0,0.

#10

Thank you textbook for this insightful analysis!

I was wondering if you had info on server stability though as ping/latency is not the only factor for a lag free experience. For example I know pub halls doesn’t go on certain servers because they’re unstable, and lag when a lot of people go to it.

#11

No clue at all, unfortunately. I don’t think I’m knowledgeable enough on that topic to give any meaningful guesses.

#12

It might be worth making it clear that this is the location of the nexus servers, as the individual realms (I believe) are not necessarily always in the same location as their hosting nexus, which can (I believe) happen when a nexus has a surge in player traffic and increases the number of realms (I haven’t checked this for a while, but believe I was convinced of it previously by someone analysing IP info about a particularly laggy realm and it turned out to be nowhere near the nexus server, tho I don’t have any facts at hand to quote).

#13

I hadn’t thought of that, but it makes sense.
If I have time in the future, I will see if I can obtain location of the potential realm server locations as well, and figure out how to organize that data so people can get a sense of which server would be best for them overall.

#14

That wouldn’t make any sense if it is true… But I doubt it is. The realms are as fast to respond as the nexuses for me. If I go into an asia server I’ll get an asia-timed response in the realm too.

@Textbook How did you actually get those new coordinates?
I live in Brazil (SP) and USS3 is my best server and has the best ping for me.

On the DECA advertised location, USS3 is around 600km away from me. In comparison to the rest of the servers that are at the very least 10.000+ km away (literally all the other servers beside USS3). I get the same lag in USS2, USS, USNW, all US servers. But USS3 is the fastest, so it wouldn’t make too much sense having it at the same place as USS2 as you pointed being the actual location.

#15

It was a few months ago, even into last year – perhaps the thing is ironed out more now, as when I’ve just looked on Resource Monitor - Network tab (Windows), it shows something Amazonny starting ec2-32 for the address, which it didn’t used to have for the realms/servers. So perhaps it’s smarter now.

#16

For the “actual location”, it is based off of the IP of the server. It could be that the realm servers are located closer to South America, but I don’t know. I’ll have to see in the future when I have time.
The “advertised location” at the least for all servers cannot be 100% accurate. It’s possible that an “advertised location” is different from the “actual location” yet is in fact the accurate one, but I’m not too sure how I would confirm that.

Either way, there isn’t anything wrong with using USS3 still for anyone in South America. It is the closest (or one of the closest) server for both “actual” and “advertised”.

#17

sees the map

panic

bump, i guess

#18

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