So this just happened on Miller during an alert (4:20 pm)

It seems to be the same on many servers. During off hours, Mattherson usually has considerable population imbalances.

Next time you need to post full stats for all the continents and the overall world pop.


Yes TR had a massive pop advantage on Amerish at the end of the alert.

When the alert started the pops were equal on Amerish.
The alerts starts and a large chunk of TR went to the alert cont. The VS and NC chose not too.

I didnt stay until the end of the alert but for the 1 hour or so I played VS had a masive pop advantage on indar and The NC had a massive pop advantage on Esamir.

It also doesnt help when people see the way its going to end and then just leave the cont rather than fighting for the last hex, This happens all the time on Miller as well.

You cant complain your out popped when your soliders choose to ghost cap rather than join in the alert.

Well, its astonishing how TR manage to keep such a large population? I mean if you consider their weapons, there is nothing that keeps players in that faction?
The Prowler? Ridiculous, I mean this totally useless anchor mode they have! Or the Striker? Hell, it only forces every pilot to constantly flare and be doomed if he thinks he can just "tank" the "one" striker --too bad when it turns out it was actually a whole squad.
Last but not least the Fracture, I mean I really pity those TR. While the VS got the marvelous and powerful Vortex, TR got this joke of an AV weapon. I mean it´s an AV weapon yet it kills infantry....ridiculous! A proper AV weapon like the Vortex never kills infantry!
The fact that the Fracture also kills VHCs faster than the Vortex is made obsolete by the TR having spent all their ammo on slaughtering infantry by the time any VHC arrives!
More people should play VS! We have the Lancer the Vortex and the Beamer! Oh, and don´t forget the Lasher!

- Most alerts I've played in Miller have equal population
- L2PostPics, showing only the last moments when someone is winning is not a valid evidence. All factions get full in prime time for alerts.

Server population wise, the TR got a boost after warpgate rotation, I've never seen it below 40% since then. So anyone who doesn't get in the continent during the alert just gets bored.

I think the last time VS got higher population was in the times of the "magic" magrider, NC got higher population (although not much higher than TR, 10% at best) before warpgate rotation.

To be fair, as a VS, either you hold Indar, or you compete for an alert. The population imbalances don't allow for both. So in the end, it is a hard choice dictated by the limitation imposed on the faction. The VS do not ignore the alert, we just give more priority to the Indar continent lock.

VS is trying hard these days on Miller to hold Indar for the Infantry bonus, because NC and TR are kind of grouping up against VS who have the cap, thats why neither NC nor VS are on amerish at that time

NC wasn't because they wanted indar to be neutralized
VS wasn't because they wanted to hold indar
TR had enough people to try neut indar AND take amerish

(also it doesn't help to have the slowest, lowest-damage and lowest health tank with the slowest bullet velocity)

Only issue is they need to grant you your passive certs regardless of log on or make them stack till when you can log in next onto another empire.

Other than that this needs to happen

And what would stop people from just creating two additional accounts in a F2P game?
it's just the same with hackers, they keep making new accounts and are basically untouchable
and as long as they don't spend money, they lose nothing

F2P model was the worst idea for Planetside 2 from the start, pay2win attitude doesn't help either (just look at rocketpods A2G FFS), and seeing hackers teleporting around though reported half an hour ago is just dandy, though hackers tend to be caught faster nowadays

SOE makes a sh*tload of money from F2P of course, but they are losing potential subscribers that actualy liked PS1 to the mass of casual gamers that like BF3 and CoD stylish games more
on the long run, F2P will make them less money and result in a worse game, just look at the current IMO terrible base designs, the plans to make combats even more kill-grinding and DPS dependant than tactical and the constant ignorance of people wanting more indoor fights, higher TTK, more side-objectives and so on

ever wondered why all the good **** that people are ranting about being OP costs 700 SC or 1000 certs, while actual sidegrades only cost 250 or 500 or 100 certs? shotguns, skyguard, rocketpods, ESRLs, AV Mana turret, Saron, Enforcer, Vulcan, just look at the store

sry for this much off-topic, just had to say it somewhere

/rant

I fear for the future of Miller tbh. If VS ever gets even number, will continent lock all three continents indefinitely.

This is completely mistaken, all populations are given as percentages. NC had a few people on Esamir, but there were no Squads Detected on any hex on Esamir during the whole Alert.

You could have 20 people total on one continent, if 10 were NC you would see that NC had 50%. In absolute numbers it means nothing. Had those remaining NC on Esamir swapped to Amerish it would have made no functional difference to have 30ish extra people come over.

Added to this TR had 60+% control of Amerish before the Alert started, so all the zerglings chose to swap to their TR Alts to claim the free certs, so the populations became even more unbalanced. Having multiple characters on one server in different factions was one of the biggest mistakes that SOE have made.

World and Continent information at the end of the alert for anyone that is interested.

World:


Continent:

So basially NC abandoned the continent and let TR cap it. You want to complain about something then complain that whenever the alert happens on Indar or Esamir then half our population goes off to hide in a biolab. <,<

Its getting intense with the above populations, SOE ought to fix these gamebreakers if they want their game to survive.

Where is all the wasps,252v's and synds? would be nice to fight against the nc once in awhile(and not in mani bio lab, esamir got 2 other bio labs down SE, TR and their 4th faction loves the hacksaws i heard)

Just had a Esamir Alert where TR held a 4-5% lead minium for the entire thing.

I think we've passed the point now where its getting to a serious problem and risks cycling out of control as people just stop playing out of frustration. I'd be interested to hear more from other servers and how they have contended with these issues.

TR have had a population lead since the get go. Something around 2-3% But its the point now where prime time, they are reliably leading by 5%+ most alerts, again in prime time, which the closest balance is to be expected if not at least hoped for. This, in the past most of the time equated to about a platoon more, but against roughly equal numbers would be spread out enough to not entirely swing battles. It now however equates often to 2 full platoons, normally in 3-5 outfits at 1-3 squad strength, running around as flying platoons easily turning battles. So , most major battles the VS or NC are having to deal with 1-2 extra platoons moving from battle to battle - meaning is next to impossible in most situations not to get flanked or overrun.

Its the way the game works, 2 platoons, can rarely win against 3 or 3.5 if said platoons are competently lead and understand how to flank, or are focused on a given objective. Indeed the issue certainly is not that the TR are mindlessly zerging (and this not some 'whine' about how TR weapons are Op, or how your fighting inherently unfairly or dishonorably), most of the time is fairly effective infantry maneuver tactics with sizable air and armoured support. We just don't have enough men to check most moves at this point a worryingly high proportion of the time.


I suggest that there needs to be some intervention on servers like mine suffering these issues. At the very, very least Recommended servers to specific fraction, with Miller as one for the both the NC and VS needs to be on the cards in a matter of weeks maximum.

I also think in order to temp 4th fractions more, the xp bonuses either need to be made more extreme, or there needs to be some other factor that scales inversely with population that makes it more than a series of tragic loosing battles you simply cannot win. I'd honestly be surprised if most TR who care about playing the game in a engaging manner as opposed to just farming certs disagree with me.

If not something more drastic like a temporary moratorium on TR characters for a set period of time until the pops equal out at prime time might be needed.


Appreciate other servers have issue with NC overpop, I can't speak to those, but overpop as a whole is an issue that requires engagement by SoE at this stage. Ideally the first line of more subtle nudges in empire specific recommended servers should work.

I have had VS character in Miller since December and TR has always had the biggest population on continents and server wise.

During this alert TR was about 50% of Amerish's population (Last 30 minutes). TR was 40-45% of the Esamir population at the same time. Only in Indar they were under 30%.
I joined in when there was less than 30 minutes left of the alert and TR pretty much had VS pushed back at the warp gate.

BTW, isn't that NC's last area a tower? Or was it the farmlands? With 20 minute cap time if the attacking team only has 2 points under control, they can last for a long time defending. I think there should be a tower near all of the factions or none can have a tower next to their warp gate.

Agree with this mostly. It has become a bit silly now. Literally every inch of the map tonight was crawling with TR. There's basically nothing NC (in particular) can do other than fight a rear-guard action in some form of last ditch stand. It can't be much fun for TR either as there is no real battle.

I'd have no problem fighting a desperate rear guard actions over and over, if doing so was fun. Buts it just a matter of being religiously overrun, suppressed by armour and/or air or outflanked, then spawncamped. Repeat.

THe relative skill and outfit inter cooperation levels probably are not miles off each other. But again its simply the, 'we only have 80 men, I can check your advance of 100 odd with that. I cannot also check the advance of 40 to my left or right flank without breaking in the center. Fight lost.' Indeed, spesfically tonight, we could not hold the 3 hills south of Nott by geological survey. We could hold one, suppress the second with the numbers we had, we simply have no numbers to even have a left flank. FU I think it was took the 3rd to the north east (said flank). Fight lost. Thats not a comment against FU, or LFN (who I also saw do a lot of flanking). Its a comment that pressed in the center and another flank, we knew it was there, we simply could do nothing about it.

We had Synd, OOTP, Fush, DL and LSD at least involved on that one front on and off. Around 100-180guys by my count, Facing off against about 180-240. The fact that it was 'platoons spotted' doesn't really betray the imbalance. 1 : 1.5 was suggested on the TR side, I think it was closer to 1 : 1.7. Doesn't seem like much, but when we are talking as I've noted, largely organised outfits, descent lead. It's enough to get into this 'uncheckable moves' issue.

Current game mechanics don't endear themselves much to it being fun or feeling like a situation in which a whole lot of control can be exercised, the only time we can hold is the rare occasion when the terrain is hugely in the defenders favour and im certaintly not advocating the entire of all 3 maps be remade to make attacking a ww1 style frustration-a-thon. I really worry about the effect lattice will have if it transitions to servers with these level of population problems.

Its part of the emergent problems of a game this size, something about passing a 4-5% threshold in overall population size, suddenly creates a range of 'steamroll or be steamrolled' issues.

There have been a few threads about this issue. I wanted to let you all know that we are aware of your concerns about population imbalance and how it affects daily gameplay and the Alerts system. We're working on solutions internally, but welcome your constructive feedback.

Also, I wanted to address a comment that was stated, "Ideally the first line of more subtle nudges in empire specific recommended servers should work." We've already implemented this and it seems to be helping in some cases.

Normally Miller is pretty even in population across all three empires, at least during my regular playtimes. But the 4th faction might be a problem in the matter of OP and maybe imbalances on other servers.
Why don't you just add a empire switch timer like we had in PS1? Would at least reduce the empire hopping related to events