Server

From the RuneScape Wiki, the wiki for all things RuneScape

"World" redirects here. For the fictional world in which RuneScape is set, see Gielinor; for the other worlds and planes of existence shown in the RuneScape game but separate from Gielinor itself, see Category:Worlds.

Not to be confused with Servant

The Servers are the computers that host RuneScape. Servers are maintained by Jagex and by contractors retained by Jagex. They are distributed across the real world. There are several types of servers used in RuneScape.

• The first server players will meet is the hosting server, which runs the main RuneScape website. It is unknown how many individual computers manage the site and as to whether the Grand Exchange Database, RuneScape Forums and Hiscores are all on this server.
• After selecting the 'Click Here to Play' button on the home page, the game first does a loading process which includes connecting to the Update server.
• The optimal World server for the player is selected upon loading the game, although players may select another server to connect to if they wish. Each world allows 2000 players to be connected at once. There are currently 171 worlds (five are German-speaking, five are French-speaking, and three are Quick Chat only), but more are routinely added.
• The player is connected to the Login server when the loading process is completed and a world server is selected.
• After logging in, the Friends list and Ignore list are loaded after connecting to the Friends server.
• The RuneScape Forums have their own servers, which are accessible even when the game servers are down.

Contents 1 Isolation of worlds 1.1 World switching 2 Persistence of character state 3 Locations 4 Themed worlds 4.1 Trade 4.2 Rune running 4.3 Player killing 4.4 Role playing 4.5 Group questing 4.6 Party room 4.7 Skill Total 4.8 Player worlds 4.9 World themes 4.10 LootShare 5 Technical issues 5.1 Recent events 6 Trivia 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Isolation of worlds

Each world server known by the short name world is fairly isolated. A player may be logged in to at most one world server at any given time. To ensure this is the case, a delay is in place between logging out of one and logging into another world.

For the most part, events that occur in one world will not affect any other RuneScape world. For example, character/item respawns and ore regeneration are all managed individually for each server. Additionally, players (along with chat messages) contained in one world will not be visible to players in another world. The only exception to this is the Grand Exchange which trades with players on all worlds.

[edit] World switching

Main article: World switching

Prior to the move to infinitely stocked shops, player would often change worlds rapidly to buy from one store many different times. However, the shop improvement update gave most stores infinite stock, and later the personalised shop updates returned finite stocks, but made stocks for a particular player independent of world. Therefore switching worlds is no longer advantageous when buying from stores. However players still switch worlds often in order to find more favourable conditions (e.g. more populated) for minigames, player killing or trading. This technique is known as world switching or world hopping.

Players may switch to less populated worlds for less players, so they can have more monsters, logs, ores (etc.) for themselves. Contrasting this, is the slower respawn time for many objects on less populated worlds - this includes both rocks and trees.

[edit] Persistence of character state

When a user logs off of a world, all settings particular to that character are saved to the player's account profile in a global database. Therefore, when logging into a different world, the character's skills, inventory, etc. will be restored to the same state, regardless of which server the character last logged onto. The only exception is that if a player goes from a members-only world into a free world, his/her statistics will be restored to the normal level.

[edit] Locations

It is recommended that players connect to the server closest to them, or that have ping number of less than 100, as they will experience more reliable connections and less lag. However, this is not mandatory.

Continent	Country	Free servers	Members servers
RuneScape
Oceania	Australia New Zealand	4 1	4 1
Asia	India	1	1
Europe	Belgium Denmark Finland Ireland Netherlands Norway Sweden United Kingdom	1 1 3 1 4 1 3 13	1 1 3 1 6 1 3 5
Americas	Canada Mexico United States	7 0 40	10 1 38
RuneScape German
Europe	Germany*	3	2
RuneScape France
Europe	France	2	1
RuneScape Brazilian Portugese
Americas	Brazil	3	2
Totals	Servers	Free	Members
	169	88	81

• The German servers are located in Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. ^[1]

[edit] Themed worlds

After the Themed world update on 13 August 2007, a new column on the far right of the world select screen was added by Jagex. This column highlights worlds associated with certain activities and servers Jagex have designated as the worlds that should be used for certain activities (due to certain servers not being able to cope with high levels of activity).

This makes it easier to find people who wish to do the same thing, like Trouble Brewing or Castle Wars.

These worlds are recommended by Jagex as the best place to perform these activities. However, they are only recommendations; players may still use any world they want to perform these activities, with the exception of LootShare, Bounty Hunter, Drop Parties and Duel Tournaments, which are only available on the appropriate themed worlds.

[edit] Trade

Worlds where players gather in the large cities (such as, Falador, Varrock or Seers Village) to trade items.

[edit] Rune running

Worlds where players can run runes for money or craft runes to raise their Runecrafting skill.

[edit] Player killing

Worlds where players kill others on PvP Worlds, Bounty Hunter, the Duel Arena and others.

[edit] Role playing

On these worlds, it is intended that players will get together with either friends or others they meet on the roleplaying forums and act out their roleplays (commonly called igrp or In-Game Role-Plays) as if they were in another setting (including new names for places/characters/items and a group of people going from one place to another). This actually does not happen that often.

[edit] Group questing

These worlds are where players gather together and do quests. They are popular for players looking for a partner for either Shield of Arrav or Hero's Quest.

[edit] Party room

On a party room world there will be many people in the Falador party room waiting for balloons to drop so they can get the items in them.

[edit] Skill Total

On these worlds, players with a total level of 1000 or over can log on to these worlds. Besides the total level requirement, there are no further limitations.

[edit] Player worlds

Certain worlds have become specialised by the player-base for particular activities, usually for socialisation with similar players which share common attributes like language, or to participate in events which require many people, such as parties and games. These worlds are...

World	Free/Members	Location	Activity		World	Free/Members	Location	Activity
2	Members	Mort'ton	Temple repair		46	Members	Ape Atoll	Agility training
88	Members	Piscatoris Fishing Colony	MonkfishFishing		89	Members	Dorgesh-Kaan	Agility guild
91	Members	Al Kharid CatherbyFarming patch	Tanning guild Farming guild		99	Members	Rogue's Den, Burthorpe	Thieving training Cooking training
131	Members	Mort'ton	Temple repair		132	Members	Yanille	Fletching guild Alchemy guild
60	Members	Varies	Penguin Hide and Seek		22	Members	Barbarian Village	Fishing training
78	Members	King Black Dragon	Hangin with the KBD		97	Members	Enchanted Valley	Fletching Guild Firemaking Guild
56	Members	Wilderness	Agility Guild		157	Members	H.A.M Trapdoor	Goblin Killing
141	Free	Wilderness	Revenant Hunting		64	Members	Sophanem	Pyramid Plunder

[edit] World themes

The list of worlds may change at any time, this is the current world list as of 9 November 2009.

World	Free/Members	Activity		World	Free/Members	Activity
RuneScape
1	Free	Trade		2	Members	Trade
3	Free	Trade		4	Free	Trade
5	Free	Trade		6	Members	Barbarian Assault
12	Members	Duel Arena – Staked/Friendly		15	Members	Castle Wars
16	Free	Running - Air Runes		17	Free	Bounty Hunter
18	Members	Bounty Hunter		20	Free	Fist of Guthix
24	Members	Castle Wars		25	Free	Fist of Guthix
27	Members	Trade		31	Members	House Parties
35	Free	Fist of Guthix		36	Members	Running - Nature Runes
41	Free	Fist of Guthix		42	Members	Role-Playing
44	Members	Fist of Guthix		45	Members	Burthorpe Games Room
53	Members	Pest Control		54	Members	Duel Arena - High Lvl Tournaments
58	Members	Blast Furnace		60	Members	Great Orb Project
61	Free	Great Orb Project		66	Members	Running - Law Runes
67	Free	Fist of Guthix		70	Members	Runecrafting - ZMI Altar
71	Members	Barbarian Assault		75	Free	Fist of Guthix
77	Members	Shades of Mort'ton		78	Members	Vinesweeper
79	Members	Fight Pits		81	Free	Bounty Hunter
82	Members	Castle Wars		83	Members	Duel Arena – Tournaments
92	Members	Fist of Guthix		93	Free	Fist of Guthix
98	Members	Fist of Guthix		99	Members	Running - Law Runes
100	Members	Group Questing		102	Free	Party Room
103	Members	Party Room		104	Members	Trouble Brewing
105	Free	Trade		107	Free	Fist of Guthix
110	Members	Fist of Guthix
113	Free	Skill total (1000)
114	Members	Skill total (1000)
115	Members	Pest Control		116	Members	Fishing Trawler
119	Free	Fist of Guthix		121	Members	Bounty Hunter
128	Free	Fist of Guthix		129	Members	Clan Wars
130	Members	Trade		132	Members	Duel Arena – Staked/Friendly
138	Members	Rat Pits		141	Free	Clan Wars
143	Members	Bounty Hunter		144	Members	Pest Control
149	Free	Fist of Guthix		152	Free	Bounty Hunter
160	Members	Quick Chat		161	Free	Quick Chat
165	Free	Trade		167	Free	Fist of Guthix
RuneScape German
146	Free	Fist of Guthix

[edit] LootShare

RuneScape
7 - Free	9 - Members	10 - Free	11 - Free
14 - Free	22 - Members	23 - Members	26 - Members
28 - Members	29 - Free	30 - Free	33 - Free
34 - Free	37 - Free	39 - Members	40 - Free
43 - Free	46 - Members	47 - Free	48 - Members
51 - Free	52 - Free	54 - Members	56 - Members
59 - Members	64 - Members	65 - Members	69 - Members
76 - Members	84 - Members	85 - Free	88 - Members
89 - Members	91 - Members	92 - Members	94 - Free
95 - Free	97 - Members	98 - Members	106 - Free
108 - Free	111 - Members	112 - Members	113 - Free
114 - Members	117 - Free	118 - Free	124 - Members
126 - Free	127 - Free	131 - Members	134 - Free
137 - Members	142 - Free	145 - Members	151 - Members
153 - Free	154 - Free	155 - Free	157 - Members
158 - Members	159 - Members	168 - Members	169 - Free
170 - Members	171 - Free
RuneScape German
	140 - Members	139 - Free

[edit] Technical issues

Sometimes a technical issue will occur which may cause every game world to crash and log out players in the middle of the game; it may or may not also affect the RuneScape Forums. Players may not be able to log back in if the login server is also affected. The problem is usually resolved in a short time. A server rollback may or may not occur which will reset players back to status before the crash occurred. (This rollback is different from an edit rollback or revert.)

Occasionally only a single world will crash/experience a glitch and depending on the problem, the other worlds may be purposefully taken offline, or not.

Information about this will appear in the forums Technical Support section. Other fan sites may also have information if the forums are down.

[edit] Recent events

• In mid-April 2008, Jagex removed all eight servers from Eastern Canada to the United States.
• On 23 April 2008, World 36 had a glitch where non-members were allowed to enter the world, but could only access free-to-play actions.
• On Friday, 13 June 2008, all of the servers experienced downtime due to problems with one of the game's internet service providers, Telstra.
• On 10 August 2008 all of the servers crashed multiple times during the day. The crashes lasted a few minutes but went down again soon after. The servers then completly went offline for the rest of that day
• On Thursday, 23 October 2008, an error with the login servers showed up. At 19.15 GMT all servers were down. The RuneScape Forums went offline as well.
• With the release of the 150th quest a server blackout happened. The blackout lasted for about 50 minutes.
• On 2 July 2009, all the Australian and New Zealand servers went down. Players were logged out and when attempting to log back in, they were given the message that "Their account has not logged out from their last session"
• In 16 July 2009, servers were going offline in a large amount at a time. Jagex Mod Gibson stated, "We have pinpointed the world crashes to a problem with one of our ISP's in America."
• In 16 July 2009, some servers went offline. These worlds are: World 1,2,7,8,9,21,22,26-32,42,47,48,56,70 and 100.
• In 9 November 2009, there came a new kind of worlds out: Skill total (1000).

[edit] Trivia

• Before the 22 new worlds update, World 156 had not existed. However, players were once able to access this world using easy-to-decipher URLs.
• World 150 was added as the sixth German world on 15 October 2008 with the introduction of PvP worlds. However, World 150 became a RuneScape French world on 10 December 2008.
• On July 16 2009, 41 worlds went offline. The worlds affected:4, 5, 7-9, 13-14, 17, 19, 21-22, 26-30, 37, 42, 47-48, 56, 62, 64, 70, 72, 100, 113. Jagex has the issue under control, although a few worlds remained offline for a while.

[edit] See also

• RuneScape German
• RuneScape French
• RuneScape Brazil
• RuneScape Netherlands
• Login server
• Lag
• Head banner

[edit] References

• Update:Themed Worlds
• Update:22 New RuneScape Worlds

[edit] External links

• Game Guide - Themed Worlds