Wardogs Zone has its own server, and it opens at launch

Our own server

Back in August we said that if the site kept growing, we would get the community a server of its own the day BULKHEAD let people run them. The site kept growing. This week BULKHEAD named its hosting partners and opened the order books, and ours is in. From the minute Early Access unlocks, Wardogs Zone EU #1 is in the browser with 100 slots on it, and we would like you to fill them.

It has a page of its own here on the site now, so you can read every setting it runs before you join, copy the address in one press, or hand it straight to Steam. The page carries the headcount as well, which tells you whether there is room on it before you sit through the loading screen.

What a community server changes

An official server hands you ninety-nine strangers. Ours hands you people from the same Discord. The proximity voice fills with squads that already know each other, the pilot flying you in has a name you recognise, and the FOB going up on the ridge is one somebody drew in the base builder the night before.

It also gives us somewhere to run things. Launch night. Squad nights. A gun line whose spotter actually answers. A full hundred-player fight we can promise will be full, because we are filling it ourselves. Nothing about the match itself changes: the same maps, the same Control Zone, the same three factions.

How to find it

The Join through Steam button at the top of this post is the quickest way in, because Steam passes the address to your game and lands you on the server. The same pair of buttons is on the server page, and if you would rather do it by hand, the address is 216.144.249.69:7777.

In the game itself, open the Server Browser from the main menu, pick Europe, and look for the line it lists itself under, which reads Wardogs Zone EU#1 | 30s tick | Rotating map | Clear only.

• Select a region first. In the beta the list stayed empty until one was picked, so if you see nothing, that is the fix.
• The console works when the browser is slow to refresh. Open it in game and type open 216.144.249.69:7777.
• Decide your faction with your squad before you join. The three teams fill separately, and a squad split across two of them is no squad at all.
• Turn voice on. Playing with people you know is half the point, and the other half is hearing them.

Launch night

Early Access unlocks at 16:00 UTC on Thursday 10 September and the server takes players from that minute. We will be on it from the first drop and in voice the whole evening. If you want to meet the people behind the site, that is where and when.

There is an event for it on the Discord calendar. Hit Interested and Discord pokes you when the doors open. The squad-up channels are where the four-person crews come together, and a vehicle full of people you know beats a solo queue every time. The launch time where you live, the download size and the pre-launch checklist are in the countdown post.

House rules

It is a community server, so it runs on community rules, and they are short. Play the game, talk to your team, and treat the other ninety-nine people the way you would want a full server to treat you.

• No cheats, no exploits, no griefing your own side. The same zero tolerance as the Discord.
• Deliberate teamkilling and camping a spawn gets you removed. Accidents happen in a hundred-player fight, and nobody is banned for a misjudged mortar round.
• Keep voice usable. Music, soundboards and shouting over a squad call get muted.
• Staff play on the server and moderate it. Anything that needs a second look goes through a ticket on the Discord.

Get squared away first

An evening with the site is enough to walk onto the server knowing the ground, so do the reading before you queue and spend the night in the zone instead of the menus.

• Price your first kit in the loadout planner, magazines and medical kit counted.
• Draw the FOB you want to stand on in the base builder and share the plan with your squad, so the first thing that goes up on our server is yours.
• Learn the ground in the map explorer: towers, settlements, spawns and the Control Zone placements each rotation rolls between.
• If you run a gun line, keep the artillery calculator on a second screen and hand the relay code to your spotter.
• Buy in on Steam if you have not yet, so the only thing standing between you and our server is the download.