Yo Daily Reminder of Waterson's Problem

I crashed a while before the alert ended and saw TR had 47% server pop. Right now they're at 46%. In the end we lost Hvar 1 or 2 mins before the alert ended, I was there and the number of TR was insane, I was trying to keep them from getting into the Tech Plant by protecting the 2 back entrances with my ZOE, but eventually we got overrun and infantry started to pour in...It was remarkable that we managed to resist that long while being so outnumbered, but oh well. At least I got some nice certs.

First they nerf the only fair alerts (single continent faciltiy alerts) and make them so rare (they did this change out of nowhere, no one had complained) then World Domination Series...are they trying to make the unbalance worse?

I switched to VS because of this crappy unbalance (and fell in love with the Lasher, ZOE and overall designs) and I hope it can be fixed eventually, but all these changes actually make it worse.

This deserves a double post.

47% population.

47% population.

Is that balanced?

Indar in that screenshot looks like that, but TR were swarming Esamir and Amerish, and in the end many of those went to Indar to take Hvar from us.

47% population. Half the server was TR.

It could have been 60%. Waterson is the new Mattherson..

That does happen very rarely.

Usually the TR numbers are 'just' 40-50%. They normally start off at a high, yet still playable, population of around 35-38%, but the number always sky rockets within half an hour unless NC and VS withstand the first huge zerg and make a fight out of it.

You can't even really blame the guys who came to the server as TR first (unlike the re-rolls to TR, blame away) as the fourth factions is out of their hands. It's ruined the server though and if it wasn't for the fact it's just my alt server, I'd be really upset by how bad the balance is there. The guys and gals who have their mains on Waterson as NC or VS are not getting fair gameplay, and SOE just keeps saying 'Oh, we've got something for that. It's...something...awesome, it'll fix it. You'll love this....something...when it comes, soon.'

1 continent doesn't count.

Would like to point out this last tech plant alert TR started out with 2.... And we took 3 (Amerish, Mekala, and Eisa) with relative ease since it seemed VS and NC were busy playing Indarside...by that point the fourth faction switched over and we ended up trading Heyoka for Hvar by alert end...

I can confirm that NC and VS (especially VS) love Indarside. Primetime Amerish alerts usually end up with less than 15% VS pop on Amerish, even below 10% sometimes, while Indar has around 40-45% VS. TR all go to Amerish, VS all stay on Indar, NC players are divided between the two continents, having some fun fights on Indar against VS while the rest hopelessly tries to stop the massive TR zerg. This was born out of disappointment with the alerts, generally it's Indar > Esamir > Amerish in terms of what continent people like the most, and underpop factions are used to losing alerts so they don't see a point in switching continents. This means primetime Indar alerts are more or less balanced, Esamir ones less so but (usually) playable, and Amerish alerts are over before they begin because no one goes there except TR. I never go to Amerish either because 9% VS pop is unplayable.

Anyways apart from this, half the server was TR, so NC and VS were sticking to the continent with the best fights (Indar) while TR had plenty of population to throw at Esamir and Amerish both.

I'm really sick of this BS. Tonight, I just played TR on Connery. What a great server it is. Pops are fairly balanced... NC isn't an absolute joke... the TR doesn't constantly stack rush everyone with air, marauder/vulcan harassers and mass prowlers ... VS has a healthy roster of players... and I get a better latency due to the server being West Coast.

The amount of time, concern and money I've put into my Waterson NC has left me bitter. I just don't want to play there anymore. All I do now is solo because every time I join an outfit's sq/plt, I get frustrated by how bad they are. All they do is blindly zerg and they don't adapt to anything until it's way too late. There are lots of nice people who are fun to hang with... and there's plenty of good players... but, with the exception of DVSDelrith run 'toons (fun and effective), I can't find any teams that cut the mustard. Just cant. No matter how hard I look. Sorry... just being honest. Waterson NC is absolute poo.

So... Hopefully, I can be proven wrong someday. I'd like that. Until then, I'll play every now and then while I wait for a server merger or transfer token to be released (hope hope).

I agree with whoever might suggest that I should step up and lead myself or sthu. My response to that is I did. For several months before and after beta. It burned me out. I couldn't take any more stupid questions from teammates: "where are you guys?" "where are we going" "why don't we go to Indar?". Or, teammates not sticking with the group... etc. After a few months of that nonsense, all I wanted to do was roll with veterans who've worked out the best tactics and know how to both identify and tackle vital objectives. Unfortunately, that never happened. Most of the best players gave up on PS2 or defected to TR. Thus, each night, I'd have only a handful of skilled vets and a whole lot of dumb nubs.

I need progression to stay motivated. I don't enjoying teaching other players. That isn't fun for me.

If it wasn't for the Wraith cloaking Flash and the Harasser, I'd have given up some time ago (love those vehicles). They give me a way to play the game the way I like, yet not have to rely on teammates to be clever or strong. I can just roam around doing my own thing. If I have a capable gunner, I Harasser. If not, I go INF and solo. This is still fun. Though, not nearly as much fun as it would be to work in a full PLT of hardcore elites who are focused.

Anyway... I'm not helping the situation by being so darn negative. I'm sorry to do that because I know many NC are really trying to turn things around. And, I hope they do. All Waterson players will have a better experience if the NC turned into a force to be reckoned with.

While I am disappointed you decided to make a TR character, you at least had some tact about it by playing on another server so your not adding to the problem. I think its great that despite currently playing TR you still are passionate about NC's circumstance on Waterson. Like you I have invested thousands of hours into my NC character & hold a bitter resentment of state of Waterson. While I could continue to fight the good fight, I've chosen to just play other games until sh*t gets sorted out. This may be perceived as "contributing" to the problem but no, I am not going to subject myself to scenario's where I go into a room clear out 5-6 people, then die to the never ending swarm of mediocre players who then turn around & talk trash about how I got wrecked after wiping out a entire organized squad. Once PS2 gets some additional updates & NC actually receives armaments equal to things like Marauder, Striker, Vulcan, Fractures & addresses the 4th factions issues I'll consider returning.

I think a lot of the reason that Waterson has more TR is because some of our outfits like ODAM -do- enjoy teaching new players. So while the other factions get the same stream of new players, Waterson's TR retains new players long enough for them to feel effective and have fun.

And of course, the people who want to think about the "meta game", winning alerts and such, will be drawn to the team which is already winning those alerts. Naturally, the more tactically-minded players switch that teams, the less reason the remaining tactically-minded players have to stay on their current team.

My solution:
Everyone switch to TR on Waterson. After a day or two, SOE will come up with a solution to save their game. Until it's THOROUGHLY broken, I don't think SOE is going to fix it.

I won't use my Waterson TR char even though I have plenty of certs into it. I've seen too many weenie NC players switch. Not my style. I like being the underdog. Just wish the NC played smarter with their disadvantage, like the VS. VS often plays extremely well despite their numbers. Even before ZOE. I'd play VS more... however, I just hate their colors... and I prefer weapons that shoot bullets.

Connery TR is not the same. They have their dumb zergs, but they don't own the majority of the pop. And, VS seems to be biggest contenders. Even NC do fine. Much better than us, anyway. I'd love to play there more.

Waterson players tend to be on EST and NC tend to have school or day jobs. Can't hold everything 24-7.

This has been going on for as long as I can remember, and I have been playing for a year now. I play this game largely exclusively.

Even as I type this, as per usual, alert on Waterson and TR population jumps to a 20% advantage worldwide against NC, even greater against VS.

Also as per usual, some yahoos with limited cognitive capacity see fit to claim there is no problem here.

This is a 24/7 server. It's not legitimate to claim that since population problems aren't as bad for about two hours a day at primetime, there must not be a problem.

Sure, I can have fun taking down 6 or 7 enemies with me when I die... but in the long run, that's just not sustainable. At the moment, it doesn't appear to be of any interest to the powers that be, whether those powers are devs or accountants, I don't know.

The bottom line remains the same. The minute a viable alternative shows up, everyone not on the overpopulated side will jump ship, if they haven't already. Right now, for me, that looks to be October 29th, possibly earlier if I feel like playing a beta version.

At that point, all the people who so much enjoyed a ridiculously overpopulated advantage will have nothing left to shoot at, and will be stuck trying to find exploits in games with limited server capacity for their easy-win button. Sad, because this game has an insane amount of potential if people only wanted to play it in a challenging way.

Unfortunately, even devs can't fix stupid... the players who can't stomach an honest challenge are really the only ones to blame here.

No, I agree that 4th faction is a problem. But 9:00am est is off hours for Waterson for anyone with school or a day job. I shouldn't even be on the forum now. It's mostly a war between the unemployed or late shift at this hour.

Alert continent population at TR dominating victory:

72% TR
12% VS
16% NC

Yes, it is about 9am. Yes, I work strange hours. No, it doesn't matter. It's a ratio.

Wow, you're so MLG brah!

The population between TR and NC has been fairly balanced for a while now. If you think this is bad you obviously didn't play in December and January where TR rarely ever went under 50 % global population.

The problem now is all the NC that just jump over to TR as soon as an Alert starts. VS also seems to mostly ignore alerts and just do somewhere else. VS mainly seems to bother with alerts when they're on Indar and then we're often stuck at an even population.

So basically, tell those cowards that switch faction as soon as the alert starts.

NC really bad tho. I have seen NC have 36-37% population when an alert starts and seen 5-6% drop, on NC alone VS pop only changes 1-2 maybe even 3% sometimes but never anything as bad as the NC pop decrease.

This.

Waterson has also attracted quite a few European players that like to plat odd hours. I live in Europe so my prime time is the middle of the day in the US. My outfits operations are in the middle of the night for me.