Stop the NC migration to Helios!

SoE what are you doing?
There has to be faction population limits. Since the server merge, the NC population on Helios has gone from 40% to 60% of the server population. This isn't just random people joining the game but entire outfits transferring here.
Server transfers need to be regulated by faction population on that server.
For instance here on Helios the NC population out numbers the TR and VS combined so the NC needs to be locked out from transferring here, and other factions should be offered incentive to come here to even the population out.
Population needs to be regulated at around 10% of each faction.
Now that being said there are gonna be people who reply to this post saying how great it is to be grossly out numbered and if that is your stance on this subject by all means transfer to Helios and and help solve the problem. However if you don't intend to transfer here as either TR or VS then it is a moot point and your wasting everyone time by posting such.
Everyone wants a good pitched battle where the outcome is in doubt.
SoE if you don't do something to control this people will either join the majority faction on their current server, transfer to a server that favors their faction or simply quit playing.

Helios is so grossly out of balance it is nearly unplayable. The recent server merge only increased the NC overpopulation and now with the new alert system, there is no way to win one of these unless it happens during peak hours where the lock outs take effect. This mornings alert was to take Amerish where TR had 2 territories, VS had 3, and the NC population was 66%(server wide) . (Durring the alert, Amerish population went from 89% NC, 5% TR, 6% VS to a whopping 72% NC, 13%TR, 14%VS). NC players that have been on the server a long time are even upset with the unbalanced population, but the alert system has given them a reason to play again on account of a massive amount of free XP since there is no hope of TR or VS winning one. The Amount of complaints I am hearing about the unbalanced server population is staggering, but I hold little to no hope that SoE even cares or has any plan to address this issue in the next 3 months. Just a few (dozen) examples:

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/3kdc-helios-and-planetside-2.113057/

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...one-about-the-pop-imbalance-on-helios.112998/

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/lock-factions-at-36-6.113081/

Those are just the ones posted in the last 10-15 min. It seems every other post is about dealing with population balance, but that is the one thing SoE has never even tried to address nor do I believe they will until they feel it in their cash flow. It seems stupid in a game such as this to not have any population controls in place. All the servers need to be balanced some how and they all need this action yesterday.

The merge hasn't happened yet...

Troll is bad.

Well the troll may be right though.....NC nearly always has about 45% pop everywhere after 5pm. Its the most even before that with NC and VS about 38% and TR with the least. Actually TR period has the least amount. The merge just meant that the alerts lock out NC but the other empires can get to them no problem.

To begin with, Helios had a NC population of around 40% and up.

We were merged with Genudine, which had a gross 50% and up.

We are now in the process of being merged with Connery, which I am told has a 45-50% NC population.

He's not trolling. We have a right to be upset. Heliodine is a disgusting Empire of NC rabble. As it is, They were the first ones to cap Indar, Amerish, and Esamir at the same time. With 60% Population. Tell me - How the hell is that a fair fight? They've won pretty much every Alert that has taken place so far. With populations of 50% and up.

That's equal to 3 Enemy's to every one friendly. (50% + 25%-/+ = 70%)

I'm not saying NC are overpowered, or even "good" for that matter. They just have an insane amount of Population. Which, as Zergrushes have proved many times before, is enough to completely decimate an enemy.

This next server merge will be the end of VS and TR on Heliodine. NC will take over, And personally I will quit (until server transfers are allowed).

Heliodinery will ruin all three severs.

Not just Helios, NC have skyrocketed recently, they always have a pop advantage on Waterson. It's a growing issue, that personally for me completely kills the game. I can handle being outnumbered here and there but jesus christ you can't do anything or make any progress anywhere with this many NC.

nobody would migrate to an unbalanced server except easily farmed bads.

what is happening is the other two factions are migrating away, and i would recommend that they continue as the worse it gets the sooner it will receive attention.

Nope. Hop on Connery during prime time and you'll see TR and NC pretty even. VS is even only on Indar, which suits them fine as they have North WG.

During outfit ops, yes, NC might be incredibly unbalanced. Other days? Not so much.

I've "won" two alerts if you count having the most territory as winning, it's not impossible - actually taking it all probably is for non-NC factions though. It's definitely true NC pop is getting out of control. Playing in an outfit is really the only way to have fun as TR because you can't really do much alone because NC usually has a firm hold on the usual high activity solo-farming areas.

The situation is a bit complicated though. Soon there may be only one US west coast server, and some people just want to play one faction and want decent ping. If I couldn't play TR on a west coast server I'd probably just quit.


My outfit was talking a lot about this the other day and one thing many agreed on is that the XP incentive is way too low. Right now being dramatically outnumbered only gives 10-15% extra XP. I believe it should probably be triple that at least to add a decent incentive. Some players though maybe a penalty to XP for being overpopulated might help too - being the highest pop usually = more certs just due to being in usually winning battles due to sheer numerical advantage.

There is no progress to be made in this kind of game with the current map, the lines will always ebb and flow. There will be break outs that race up a flank that no one wants to defend. What they can do is not much, i would suggest a raise in the bonus XP for being outnumbered, that might encourage some to play a char on the other faction, or spread the population out as some NC players move to low pop continents in the hopes of netting more XP due to raised bonus. If i ever saw platoons somewhere with no NC, id be mighty interested in fighting that for 100% bonus XP. Even solo i could net a nice bit of XP giving 48+ dudes hell. Another option would be a pop cap of 33% per continent, but that could end poorly, i suppose a queue system would work well enough there, cap it at whatever 33% would be. So if each continent could have 1000 players, no more then 333 NC could be there at any given time, while others play else where and wait in queue.

I dont know, i personally would rather be on the lower pop team and lots of enemies to kill, rather then the higher pop team with nothing to kill. But im not going to start over, NC pride and time invested and what not.

I dont believe anyone would want to start over or change faction. You are the minority NC die-hard that I enjoy going up against. If the server capped a factions population at 40% and gave paying members priority log in followed by players with seniority on the server and the fair-weather players last, many of the issues could be solved. With the alert system, locking continents seems like a daft idea. If one faction wants there entire pop to be on a single continent, so be it, but some kind of population control system would go a long way toward solving many problems and easing the burden of adjusting faction buffs and nerfs as the needle constantly shifts from one faction to the next. The big picture is that population is broken. I honestly believe 90% of the OP complaints would stop if there was some kind of logical pop control in place.

I look forward to when the game returns to strategy and group tactics as opposed to who can zerg with the most numbers.

I'm NC on Helios, and even I think this is a problem. I'll log in, but if I see NC population over 40% I'll just log out. It's not very fun with such uneven populations.

Yes I see your point I can't imagine that this gross imbalance is fun for anyone. You guys must be running around crazy trying to find someone to shoot at. And when we merge with Connery it will get worse for you because then the content lock will be on two of the three continents constantly for you guys. How much will that suck when you can't get to where the rest of your "outfit" is?
Of course to alleviate the congestion Sony will offer us more maps but then we will be back to OMG the population is imbalanced again, and the cycle will continue.

Yeah, I'd love for the factions to be balanced. I wouldn't ever switch, but maybe they can make better incentives for other players to switch.

I'm not advocating forced anything. What I'm getting at is population control. Merge the servers but after that where there is imbalance like Helios, do not allow the further production or transfer of ANY faction that has a greater than 10% advantage in number over the others. And offer incentives for people of the over-populated faction to transfer to a server where their faction is needed.
Something like...Hey NC on Helios we'll give you 1000 certs and a free transfer if you'll transfer your account to (name of server here).

They should also make it impossible for anyone to make a new NC character on the imbalanced server (or other faction if they have the most pop). I have played many MMORPG's that had factions and if one faction was more "popular" than the others they would lock it until the balance came back.

Helios is dying right now right here.

And you have played which FPS game that have done that successfully without losing players? Yeah, at the end of the day, this is a FPS game, people want to login, roll the character they want to roll, and kill people & get killed. Locking population won't solve the issues, they need to tackle the core of the issues.

1. Aesthetics, NC has every positive aesthetics that an average American FPS gamer looks for in a FPS game. You want to make other faction more attractive, aesthetics is where you want to improve for other factions, especially VS.

2. Free, optional, server transfers to allow those playing NC on an NC overpopulated server, to transfer to a server with less NC players. Some players will move because not everybody likes to zerg roll with little enemies to fight against.

3. Give gamers in Asia their own servers, this will take a chunk of players away from NC during offhours, where most people are complaining about. 3KDC make up a big % of the NC population between 11pm pst - 2pm pst.

4. I'll say this but it won't be popular, but they need to stop letting people see the % of faction population on the servers. MMORPG's hide those data, they never let you see the % of the side you are picking. When new players create characters, and they see 30% VS 26% TR 44% NC, which do you think they're gonna pick? I can tell you which they won't pick, they won't pick the 26% faction. Gamers are fickle, gamers in general do not pick the losing side willingly. Don't believe this? Then explain why there are servers that are TR dominated? Yup, it's because people do pick the winning side more so than they pick the losing side.

Because Higby is NC, the NC get a lot of bonuses. There won't ever be a population of NC below 30.

I feel a bit bad, because my NC alt is on helios, but it was there pretty much since day two. I want to play it sometimes but you can't help but notice the massive pop% they have, so I end up just getting back on my main because it's always underpop'd.