Population imbalance ruins being on Waterson.

VS have about 20% of the total server population, and a %50 xp bonus isn't really cutting it...

The server merge was the worst thing that could have happened what with the server imported being NC and TR heavy but VS light...

how about forcefully removing TR and NC troopers randomly from the server and forcing them to choose another until the populations are more stable to sort out the mess?

No.

At this point, I am considering whether or not vehicle timer, and resource incentives will be necessary to fix population imbalance.

In Briggs , you get 0% TR , 16% VS and 84% NC ( During heat battles ) . Cheers

The only change I noticed with the server merge is that the NC sometimes overtake the TR in population now. Other than that, 40-50% TR numbers and poor VS population hasn't changed.

Well the problem is not just the server imbalance, the issue is a consequence of something bigger.

The lack of metagame, decent balance philosophy and map design, made it bleed the playerbase that was huge when it was released.
And SOE pushing back most of the promises of the so called "roadmap" makes people impatient and say :" you know what?Screw it , I will return once they change their minds and implement the changes that makes the game meaningful and balanced."

Instead of building an interesting game SOE decided to go full ****** on the marketing and made all its bets on MLG, see the results.
Waste of time and money.

VS had 29% pop yesterday during primetime. First time in over a month we've been that high during peak times. Then again, it was the first time in a month we had VS on Amerish. It was like a whole new game for 95% of the VS/Waterson players, don't think they've ever seen Amerish before.
Some of the leaders even learned there's Bio Labs on Amerish too!

I had fun, nice to get out of Indar once in a while. Well I had fun, till PS2 crashed on me 12 seconds before the alert ended!

If they were doing free server transfers for NC/TR players, then I might consider it.

Our population hasn't really grown it fluctuates due to the playerbase of TR/NC, when it's prime time for those two factions we're always around 25-26% only on alerts are we ever balanced and we actually prove our worth and this whole ideology of the fourth factioners as many claim will come to Vanu if we get buffed is a myth. The fact that so many players now have invested themselves in NC/TR for so long that they won't change.
Base designs as a whole are still a problem, with no influence meter we can get overwhelmed especially on tower bases where they completely surround us and hold B and C that we can muster every vanu possible and hold the tower which I've seen on so many occasions and whoever is attacking gets 10 mins or so(I forgot what the time is when they don't hold all three) to just bombard us and we can only delay it while not able to push out due to them not having to spread ad gain territory around us, this will hurt us even more in the new lattice system.

Somethings need to be addressed, base designs would help. I know we should take Matt higbys sayings in jest but when he said '10 men could hold a base from 100 people' in an demoing interview. While that may not be realistic, it would be atleast possible with 50-60 against 100 if the bases were actually designed well. Right now I see tower fights turning into a last stand situation for Vanu being attacked from every angle at tower bases which are far and wide across the maps and thus play an important role along side Bio labs/amp stations. I would like to stress though that wouldn't completely solve our problem and it's not just Base designs I'm just adding this to the discussion though and much more needs to be done. Other than that I am enjoying fighting the huge numbers I just wish I could get the hell out of the spawn room these days now they don't need to stand on a point to cap a base!

There's a server where TR outnumber NC? What magical server is this?

They're talking about Waterson. Miller is another TR strong server.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmUavphHXmIxdFhHUzJfN1VYalRnWS0xMnBUdTJpM1E&gid=54

Waterson is the lowest VS pop server. It the lowest pop faction on any server for that matter, though Helios and Briggs TR are not far behind.

As a VS on Waterson, the main reason why the pop imbalance sucks for us so much is that we are forced to completely abandon at least one continent, even during primetime. The only continent we end up fighting on consistently is Indar unless there is an alert, which is unfortunate because I truly enjoy fighting on Amerish more than anywhere else. While I am not a huge fan of Esamir, it is still a welcomed alternative from Indar.

Even with our population disadvantage, we have no problem rolling the TR & NC zerglings. VS has no problem rolling towards either TR or NC warpgate during primetime, where we continue the time-honored tradition of fielding multiple squads of burster maxes and lancers to cause havoc at your warpgate.

The last 2 nights during primetime we pushed very hard for the TR to try and break their Indar lock. We had some great fights at Copper Ravine Station on Sunday night, and Old Stockpile and Feldspar Canyon last night. The fights made me wish VS had the Indar bonus since I kept running out of C4 and Tank Mines after blowing up countless cert piñatas (sunderers and prowlers) flowing from your cert factory (warpgate).

If the NC could take Tawrich and Crossroads instead of sending platoons north to cap empty bases, we might be able to break the lock during primetime. :facepalm:

Haha wow I can't believe Ceres has the most active population... I guess that's my hopes gone then, I thought we were underpopulated the game feels dead here *_*

Ceres is a "Recommended" server right now. You're receiving a lot of new players who log in, decide they don't like the game, and quit. Maybe in a couple weeks some of them will stay and fill your ranks, but for now it's basically a false positive on Ceres population.

That isn't to say that all those people log on at the same time, it might be sporadic log ins outside of primetime.

Hey Smoke, it is crappy that the VS have such a low pop (I've never seen it as low as you say, but I'm a prime time only player) but I must admit, you guys do a very effective job of coordinating. Like you mentioned, during alerts, when pops are capped, the VS do very well, generally speaking. I hope that these recent rounds of buffs help more people come to your faction so we have a balanced system, but forcefully moving players just sounds like a terrible idea. As you can see by my signature, I started playing very shortly after the public release, I play with my outfit who I've been with through a few games now, and we chose NC when it was at the bottom of the list in terms of balance (I don't think we were really that bad off, just a couple of disadvantages, nothing that couldn't be overcome with experience, but I digress). Now, would it be fair I be moved by random chance? I'll be honest, I'd be pissed, I don't know if I'd play past another couple weeks after that. So much of an MMO for a lot of people is playing with friends, and to be told suddenly "sorry, leave your friends and go play over here, where you don't know anyone" would likely sour a lot of peoples game play experience. To me, it seems like a recipe for disaster, there's just no good way to go about that. Not only that but I believe the VS only run pop advantages on a couple servers, there's just no where to move people too right now to achieve a proper balance.

I believe SOE is trying to fix the situation, but just like it took time for the population disparity to grow to the point it has, it will take time to be fixed. Hopefully things balance back out.

Plus spandex and lasers? No thanks, freedom and high powered, hard hitting Gauss guns for me. That new headshot noise is what they mean when they say "Let freedom ring!"

So your suggestion is to "forcefully" remove people from their friends and outfits and toss them into an entirely different server they have likely never played on. Even though a lot of people choose servers based on where their friends are already playing or just play to play with their friends. Your idea is awful and if this ever happened to me I'd quit the game and take my money elsewhere and so would others. Suck it up, transfer when available or come up with an idea that doesn't force players to do something against their will. VS are just the underplayed and least popular faction almost everywhere.

Yeah at the moment VS are struggling here in Ceres too. It's usually NC 40%+ / TR 30%+ / VS 20%+ Thankfully the VS probably have the most organised outfit on our entire server so they often do pretty well. Sometimes they get the numbers too but rarely. If you give time for the 4th faction to realise what the FotM is you will probably get an influx of them.

Ah yes the stalwart NC multi-platoon ghost capping zerg. You would think the VS still had the continent bonus, with how large a force they send north to push our warpgate. Maybe they haven't gotten the memo yet?