Given the choice between logging and this...

I logged.

I only post this because it illustrates a situation that is getting so bad that people like me are choosing not to play under certain circumstances. Interpret it as you will, but it's happening.

During the Esamir alert on Emerald last night,I had to choose between fighting a big fight, which meant fighting VS, or fighting TR, which meant fighting small fights against the severely underpopped empire. I really wanted to fight the big fight, but I had no interest in fighting against VS zerg. I enjoy fighting the TR, but they were basically missing in action (that's kind of important, too.) So, my only real choice for participating in the alert was to fight against VS zerg. Other conts either had massive overpop for NC or massive overpop for VS. There simply were no good fights elsewhere. So, my only real choice for playing in a big fight at all was to fight VS zerg. I found the option of logging more appealing.

This, from a 5 year veteran of PS1 and a very active beta player in PS2. This is the first time EVER that I didn't find the available fights appealing enough to participate in. For the first time in my Planetside career I logged when there were big fights available.

The question, of course, is, "What's so bad about fighting VS zerg on Emerald that you would log instead?"

It is one I suggest SOE employees attempt to answer.

PPA ?

Couldn't be that.

When your opponent tells you he's playing Rock (PPA sound effect) you play Paper (heavy combat vehicle) and win.

Not for long when there's fifty rocks.

PPAs literally cannot damage heavy vehicles.

If your opponent tells you he's playing Rock, stop choosing Scissors (infantry). It's not gonna work, man.

I'll fight anyone, let me at them! And I don't care how big they think their zerg is.

Youre saying that as if you couldnt bring 50 papers.

The Rocks are usually mounted on something that can damage vehicles, PPA Harassers aren't actually all that common. It's mostly Magriders from what I've seen.

Usually we can't, being outnumbered and whatnot. Of course situations vary, so maybe I've just been really unlucky.

Says the guy playing the most overpopulated faction.

Sure, and remind me: how well does a PPA Magrider do against a dual-AV MBT?

Funny how everyone complains about how gimped tanks with AI weapons are but Magriders with AI weapons are unstoppable.

So What's so bad about fighting VS zerg on Emerald that you would log instead?

DA/AC cert farming, GOKU spam, overpopulated, better coordination, likes to ruin every even fight, Orions and PPAs, difficult to see at night/on Hossin... The list goes on and on as to why we hate fighting the VS.

All that being said, here are some miscellaneous shortcomings I have noticed while fighting the Emerald VS:

- They are terrible pilots. I usually see them get wrecked in dogfights and they are very easy to shoot down with Skyguards and Bursters.

- They are ridiculously easy to sneak up on. I have noticed that the Emerald VS are ridiculously easy to sneak up on and catch unawares as a Light Assault or Infiltrator. I don't know why, but they just seem less aware of their surroundings than the NC. It is extremely easy to jetpack above a group of VS and drop C4 on them for a boatload of kills. One time I was even able sneak up on their Sundy and hide underneath it and spawn kill them for a solid 5 minutes before anyone found me. I could never pull any of this off against the NC.

- They're bad at sniping. There's so many VS snipers, but it seems like they all suck at it. Don't know why, but it seems like they always miss.

This is very much the truth. My KDR against VS snipers when counter sniping usually stands at around 7. Against TR? 3.

With very few exceptions they also cannot reasonably tank-fight. Like, running a dedicated 2/2 AP tank more then half the time I see them completely unaware of where fire is coming from or, and this is my favorite, they freak out and magburn directly into a wall/rock/other obstruction, exposing their rear armor to me.

There are of course exceptions to this; I have seen some quite good VS tankers and snipers. They are just in the minority.

(Seriously though: My favorite thing ever is catching a PPA farmer unawares with an AP vanny at point blank range and watching as they freak out entirely and then send rage-tells about how the Vanguard shield is OP when their dedicated infantry fighting tank was unable to take a 2/2 AP tank in a straight fight)

I did notice the GOKU chat spam tonight.

LOL, do they always do that? I've never seen another outfit on 3 servers do such a thing. Mass caps-lock taunting of enemies?

It's the most petty, immature, tasteless example of sportsmanship that I've seen out of an outfit. (in this game or any other).

I've been shopping around for an outfit for my Emerald VS toon. It seems I can mark one off the list. I would never be associated with such behavior. I would be ashamed.

I logged tonight from a tR right. I decided that my connection wasn't good enough when I had a ML7 wrap around a rock and kill my lightning TWICE it rounded that rock. Yep, two hits that went around the rock were enough to kill a full health ;oghtning. He had really good aim.

Not naming names, since it was clearly my connection. CLEARLY. Besides, it's common. We all know ML-7s can trace.

Yep...they do that every god damn time.

It was originally something done to piss off Buzzcut and his Enclave.
It is something that should have stopped a long time ago after he and TE left yet they continue to do it to the annoyance of most and some on their own faction.

This is just one of the reasons TR and NC for the most part will not fight the VS. I know most of my kills on my NC character are 95% TR the rest VS.

The VS on Emerald are just immature and childish and lack any kind of sportsmanship at all. At least against the TR you have the typical friendly razzing and banter between the NC and TR in chat but still get a "good fight" or "good game" out of them when all is said and done for the most part. Not to mention the TR are actually fun to fight against and put up a good fight at times even with an underpopulation.
That and the VS overpop zergs and then bragging about how good they are after steamrolling an underpopulated faction or base is just another reason many will not fight against them and instead redeploy elsewhere or just log off.

So sorry TR I still will fight against you primarily on my NC toon even though you are underpopulated..but I have been playing mostly on my TR character as of late and actually enjoying it more than my NC.

Very few liked the Mattherson VS and their shenanigans. 90% of the time they were overpopped, abused the **** out of whatever weapon they could, and now you can't choose between Waterson or Mattherson. Not to point out the obvious, but Mattherson/Emerald VS are killing the game for quite a few people. If they rolled NC/TR alts, at least during alerts, then this might remedy the problem. Otherwise people are gonna move back to Connery, which I don't want since you all need to stick to your own servers.

Not to incite more verbal turbulence but I find it amusing that I had to resort to the exact same thing as the OP, different Server same problem(VS, let's leave it at that). Heh...

Yeah, I play TR on Emerald and I know what you mean.

Late at night, the only real battle options are 50 different ways to be farmed by VS.

It's not appealing, or fun in an way, and most of the time, I just choose not to let them farm me, and stop playing.

The VS on Emerald have a very... aggravating strategy. They overwhelm you with vehicles and population. Most fights are an immediate spawncamp for them, and if you can manage to hold out, it's only a matter of time until their vehicle spam overwhelms you. No matter how many you kill, their resource gain is so high, and their players are so into vehicle play, that they will replace the one you killed with 3 more.

The PPA's, the bulldogs, the lashers...

You try to pull your own vehicles, well, you don't have the resources to maintain enough to wear theirs down, their Magriders are on top of mountains, so you can't even flank them. and no surprise, but they've got an entire platoon of C4 fairies, just in case the plebs get uppity and try to fight back armor with armor.

There's not much to do really. There just aren't enough people playing our faction, and more and more are leaving to join VS everyday because they want to be "winners".