[Suggestion] How to reduce TR overpopulation

The TR are overpopulated on my server and on many servers. The reason that the TR are the most popular faction is simple, they have the best starter HA, LA/Engineer and Infiltrator weapons in the game. I had to spend over 1000 certs and upgrades to get an HA weapon that is as good as the T9 Carv is out of the box. In my opinion, there is no NC or VS LA weapon that is as good as the Trac 5 for any amount of certs. Let's not forget about the TX1 Repeater. The Repeater is in a class by itself. There is no other Pistol that even comes close for any price for the VS or the NC. The Repeater is a huge advantage for TR Infiltrators (or Medic, LA or Engineer).

Yes, my main is an NC but I have played TR and VS enough to know what I am talking about. After playing TR HA for several hours, I made the following comments:

and

Everyone in my NC outfit who rolled TR characters with me agreed. In fact, we stopped playing our TR characters as an outfit (we also have a TR outfit) because we did not want to help an empire that was already overpowered and overpopulated on our server and make things worse for the NC there.

Given that TR infantry weapons are so strong right out of the box, why would anyone who is interested in being successful from day 1 in PlanetSide choose any other empire?

The solution to TR overpopulation is to nerf all 3 of their starter weapons as follows:

1. The T9 Carv, Trac 5 and TX1 Repeater should all cost at least 700 certs.
2. Players should have to spend 200 to 330 certs to bring them up to the point where they are now BR1 with no certs.
3. Replace the T9 Carv, Trac 5 and the TX1 Repeater with gimped starter versions of the same weapons that are equivalent to the gimped starter weapons that you gave the VS and the NC.

In order to get infantry weapons that are even close to the starter TR weapons, the NC have to spend over 2000 certs and the VS nearly as much. This puts the NC and VS at a permanent, unfair dis-advantage to the TR.

Make these changes SOE and the TR overpopulation problem will solve itself.

After using them I agree. Out of the box TR weapons are superior to certed NC,VS weapons.

VS guns are way too accurate for a fire rate what they got ... + it takes 20 shots to kill some one whit TR carbine (not head shots counted)
and why TR is popular ? well they got coolest looking armor + their color theme is best looking

this thread can now be locked .

Yes there is the coolness factor for the TR but the TR starter weapons are just OP.

I have no idea what server you play on but on my sever, SolTech, the Vanu have a population advantage every night. A few nights a week they they are in excess of 40% in wold pop. So your post, while I sympathize, is server specific.

The NC and VS armor actually looks better... both with starting and composite. The TR armor just looks extremely bulky.

I had a second char on Soltech, i stopped playing it and made a char on another server. Glad i hadn't put much time into that one. I now play a second char on Connery instead and enjoy playing there alot more.

I disagree HUGELY. The Carv is decent out of the box, but tends to struggle at longer ranges. Even when certed it's still a close/medium range weapon. Can it be used at long range? Yes, same as the SAW can be used at close range. but neither of them really shine in those areas. Personally I think the Orion is the best out of the box LMG. The Carv was probably the best starter LMG until the Dec stealth nerf. I'm curious as to what HA weapon you had to dump 1000 certs into to get it as good as a stock Carv. I run an EM6 on my NC, Advanced grip and Comp, plus a sight and that thing rocks, all for the low price of 330 certs. So what are you dumping 1000 certs into?

The Trac-5 is an ok gun. Like any of the default guns, it does decently all around. Needs to be certed to lower the recoil and is not anything special. As soon as people have either the money or the certs, they get a Jaguar or Lynx. Both are much better guns for CQB, or an AMC for longer ranges. The AF-19 is similar in that it needs some certs but it a pretty decent gun. I see most NC drop it when they get the cash for a GD-7F. The VS Solstice is a very well rounded gun, that is very accurate and fires at a good rate. Needs the least amount of certs in it.

As for snipers, first off you get the only starter bolt action in game. You can **** my pistol when you start with a crappy semi-auto sniper rifle. Second, you get the mag shot, which is a really nice pistol. The VS are the only ones who can complain in this regard as they get that stupid little Beamer.

You have a score sig for you NC character, I'd like to see the one for your TR one. How long did you play TR for. I don't want to have you tell me, I want to see the score sig that proves it. Playing with another factions weapons for 30 mins whiles you try them out is NOT going to give you a good idea how they function.

You've gone on a rant, with no facts to back up why you think TR weapons should be nerfed. I want to hear why TR weapons are better uncerted as opposed to your certed NC guns. Until then, this is just another bad troll post.

There, fixed it.

Your welcome.

Somebody doesn't know their guns. Ok, so, all TR carbines do 143 damage per headshot at 10m and 112 damage per headshot at 65m and beyond, all but one of the VS carbines also do 143 damage per headshot at 10m and 100 damage per headshot and beyond @115m, what this means is that other than certain points at mid range, VS carbines are doing the same or less damage than TR carbines. The 1 exception is the Pulsar C which incidentally has a low ROF, high recoil and suffers from COF and bloom issues which does more damage at close range and the same at long range (more at certain points of mid range). So, in most cases it's same shots to kill as TR.

Now let's look at ROF, on average VS carbines fire 711 rounds per minute, TR carbines fire 733 rounds per minute. TR have access to 4 high rof carbines, VS have access to 2, VS do have the highest ROF carbine, the Serpant, but this is only available to Engis, not LA's, so the most popular carbine is the VX6-7 which has the same ROF as the TR's highest ROF, the Lynx.

Now let's compare recoil, they all have low recoil other than the Pulsar C, recoil should not be a problem using any VS or TR carbines other than that weapon. Ok, so COF, the Lynx is slightly gimped at longer ranges, and the Jaguar shows above average stats for hip fire (another one of the TR's high ROF carbines) all the rest are average, on the VS side all of the carbines are slightly more accurate when ADS and moving, except for the 2 high ROF options, the VX6-7 and the Serpant, which are both average (same as TR values), at close range, the VX6-7 is great from the hip. Admittedly all VS carbines have 0 bullet drop which helps at range, although in the case of Carbines they are doing so little damage at range and burn through their mags so fast I don't really see that as much of an issue. What's more it's been proven by several people that bullet drop only actually makes you miss at 170m, meaning that at 100m, a shot at the head is going to hit the chest presuming that COF doesn't fk it up and in that sense TR and VS carbines are the same unless you are firing on the move (at 100m why would you).

Now at this stage I can see that you might see VS being a little ahead, however, all TR carbines have an extra 10 rounds per mag, that is enough for 2 kills at close range with a couple of rounds left over if you have perfect aim, easily enough for an extra kill if you don't, also both the Jaguar and Lynx allow you to move faster when ADSing than any VS carbine, something TR are always complaining about it relation to the VS Orion on the LMG side.

The way I see it, they are pretty damn balanced, as usual NC get the slightly rawer end of the stick here since they have a great CQC option which sadly is gimped by it's reload speed.

LevelCap made a video on his favourite Carbines across all factions for LA, he liked the Lynx the best. Doesn't mean it is the best, but considering he plays VS and is very good at the game, I'd put some stock in what he says.

Finally, let's look at the two default Carbines, which is what most players starting up these days who want to play Engi or LA are going to be stuck on for a while. Soltice vs TRAC-5, The Soltice reloads much faster, although both weapons reload fast, the TRAC-5 of course has more rounds per Mag and a larger ammo pool (although both weapons have enough ammo for 5 full mags). The Soltice has slightly lower recoil however both weapons have such low recoil values nobody is going to struggle with recoil on these guns. The Soltice is slightly more accurate when ADSing and moving, both are the same firing from the hip. The Trac-5 has a significantly higher ROF, 750 RPM or around 12.5 RPS, and the Soltice has 698 RPM or around 11.5 RPS. Both have their strengths over the other, looks pretty balanced to me.

Pretty much this.

Regarding infantry weapon balance the only thing I'd change is increasing the RoF on the best CQB LMG up to within 45 RPM of the other factions (the same way all 3 factions are within 45 RPM of each other in the other weapon categories - NC are currently 100 RPM behind in LMG).

As for default weapons: There may be an argument to be made for swapping the SAW for a more CQB-focused LMG as the default weapon as that's the kind of weapon the other factions get as default. However I'd only agree this if the sniper default was also changed - they cannot change the default which they perceive as a disadvantage (it's actually an advantage at range with 200 damage per shot and 0.0 starting CoF stock) while keeping the one which is an advantage (OHK headshot bolt-action instead of semi-auto).

I agree there is a problem overall with population balance (not necessarily just TR), but on your server, during EST primetime last night TR had a mere 1% advantage over NC, whereas VS was at a distinct population disadvantage. You were three-capped with only a 1% disadvantage. Your problem was a lack of NC coordination last night, not population. And right now, granted it's morning but still part of the weekend, NC has 38% of the population, with TR at 36%.

Saying the TR are overpopulated and have superior gear is just the cheese factor to this whine thread. I've seen countless servers where the TR are in 3rd place population wise. Get over it and motivate people to play the non-TR factions. Bring some friends into the game to roll with you.

You mean like the over 900 friends I have in the outfit I lead?

Yea, I should try that.

If you have 900 people you shouildn't have a TR problem then. So quit whining!

Its all about gameplay. In actual gameplay, the TR starter weapons are just superior. You can tell from the first time you fire one. Like I said, this is just too easy (playing a starter TR character).

I don't know about a possible solution, but Waterson is a bit ridiculous- it's common to see TR at or above a whopping 50% global population, and at that point it's near impossible to not lose an entire continent simply due to how many bodies they can throw at an obstacle before it falls.

Also, TR does not start with the best Infiltrator- that would be NC, solely because their default rifle is a bolt-action while the other empires have to pay to unlock one. The Repeater is admittedly annoying as hell- especially on Infiltrators (who are nearly completely invisible on low graphics settings), who can uncloak and fill you with lead from what's essentially an SMG before you can react.

I can assure you, it does not take twenty shots to kill someone with a TR carbine. The default TRAC5 is amazing at killing people, even ignoring that TR weapons have larger magazines than the other empires' equivalent weapons, which is a huge advantage in a game with such a low time to kill.

A bit over-eager to halt a discussion there, aren't ya?

Please do a bit of research before making a post or you'll undermine your entire argument. The Serpant [sic], or rather the Serpent, is a carbine like the VX6-7 and as such is available to both Engineers and Light Assaults.

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Facts are facts, this is no whine. Like I said, about 15-25 of us in my outfit rolled TR, then VS characters and played each several ours and we all agreed, TR starter weapons are just OP. The uniforms are cool looking too

It actually takes 7 bullets for all TR default guns (that are not snipers) to kill someone assuming they're not using the medic's AOE heal or are not in a friendly territory which is connected to a biolab. I just tested this.

If you have decent aim, it's probably going to take 10-15 bullets to kill someone who isn't crouching and jumping and attempting to run circles around you. This is a good bit higher kills per clip potential than the other faction's non-LMG guns.