[Suggestion] Solution for Overpop

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Alphateur, Oct 14, 2015.

  1. RedArmy

    id love to play my NC or VS more - but ive got so little unlocked on them it just pains me to play them
  2. AxiomInsanity87



    Not a member? That explains everything.

    Your idea can apply to non members maybe? seen as non members are just fodder.
  3. AxiomInsanity87


    Yeah but at least it would be something. If you want to get right down to it, theres nothing that would work really.
  4. FateJH

    "I would like to play with my alts characters more but I play them so little that I don't have much equipment unlocked on them so I don't want to play with them so that I can unlock equipment on them?"
  5. JojoTheSlayer

    Daybreak could enforce a one character pr server OR a faction swap same server cool down of 15 mins or something.
    Sure, it wont stop the "die hard" 4th faction guy wanting to join the overpop via alt accounts and so on, but most wouldnt bother with that and instead play on another server. Which would be the intent. Its better to have the 4th factioners switch server than just switch sides and making the problem worse, regardless of which side is overpop at the time.
  6. _itg


    If you put people in the queue, obviously members would jump to the front, as usual.
  7. AxiomInsanity87


    It would be better to subject non members to it though as it would make them think about getting membership more.

    Membership is cheap anyway and worth it.
  8. Alphateur

    Is that data up to date? I mean, when did the devs disclose that information?

    During the start of that alert TR pop was at the % of 40s, and as the VS and NC were more and more being steamrolled by zergs, TR pop increased to above 50 - indicating the *possibility* of players switching to the winning faction.
  9. Taemien

    "At least its 'something'..."

    Is a waste of time and resources, something that the PS2 doesn't really have the luxury to waste.

    As for what WOULD work, my cap-timer solution would alleviate the issue. It may not fix the population issue itself (or change it entirely). But it would make it so the underpopped factions have a chance to win alerts by taking away the advantage overpopulation gives by slowing them down immensely.

    The only issue it would cause to underpopped factions is they would need to change their tactics and stay mobile. If they get into a fight where the enemy keeps pouring it, leave the area and let them sit there. Sounds like ghost capping, but not really since the overpopped faction will (should, if they're smart) have people everywhere. Course if they don't then they will lose.

    But that's a case of the better (smarter) side winning. The only people opposed to that should be well.. the ones who rely on numbers to win instead of smart placement and skill. It does put more emphasis on troop placements which some may not like. But this is going to be a case of not being able to please everyone.

    The idea is to make it more fair for those who don't have the population. Its not a guarantee. And well it shouldn't be a guarantee. That's the problem we have now. A overpopped faction is guaranteed a win.

    Its simple math and observation that tells the story. Obviously if half a faction logs out, the overpopped faction will seem to 'rise' in population. Here's how it sort of plays out. I'll use a TR overpop as an example:

    Lets say there's about 600 players online at the start of an Alert. Population percentages are as follows:

    40% TR
    30% NC
    30% VS

    That means the numbers are actually:

    240 TR
    180 NC
    180 VS

    That 40% is already a grave advantage. If the NC and VS don't leave each other alone, then they will be on average about 33-66% outnumbered in most fights against the TR. But with only a few lattice lines they can go through, they're going to attack one another. Especially if they find themselves in any sort of stalemate against the TR.

    About 30 minutes into the alert, what I said above happens. They stalemate against the TR, fight each other, and the TR slowly encroaches. Frustrated.. about a quarter of the NC logs off and a third of the VS logs off.. the numbers change:

    240 TR
    135 NC
    120 VS

    Now the percentages (what we see) changes:

    49% TR
    27% NC
    24% VS

    Whoa.. the TR jumped up by almost 25%! But they really didn't. They're still at 240 and why wouldn't they be? They're winning so they aren't going to log off till the end. Do these percentages seem about right? Of course they do. We see this happen all the time during alerts, the numbers I listed aren't too far from the truth.

    Now if I add in a 2% (because I'm being gracious) faction switch.. or known as 4th factioning, the numbers don't change enough to even bother listing them. Something like 51% TR and 1% less on the other two.

    As you can see, players logging off from frustration is probably the real cause of the number switching. The math proves that. And what I said by observation is also true. You can watch the overpopped faction's movements and see the fights. They don't typically rise in number across the maps.

    Their 48-96 presences don't all rise to 96+ and so on, not without losing portions elsewhere. But it doesn't matter because they have literally enough people by the time the under popped factions get frustrated and log off that they can fight a two front war easily.

    In most cases if the under popped factions have a truce and just fight the overpopped people, they can stand their ground. Truces aren't unheard of either. There was a notorious one between the TR and VS on Genudine-Helios before the merger with Connery that lasted from 2012 to 2014. Even though the NC had 35-41% of the pop, the alerts weren't always a given. I mean we won most of them but it was tough going.

    But in those days the alerts were more about bragging rights than random events that shut off a continent (this isn't my stance on them, its the general perception). And players are not likely to communicate within their own factions, much less try to do it with another.
  10. AxiomInsanity87



    If you want anything being said in this thread to not be a waste of time and your idea to be taken seriously https://dgcissuetracker.com/secure/Dashboard.jspa?selectPageId=10600 put it up here as a gameplay thing.

    I like your idea but don't be talking about anything being a waste of time when this whole thread and everything in it is just that lol.

    I think your 2 screened theory borders on tinfoil. Who actually does that?.
  11. FateJH

    Of course, it was originally a chart posted to Reddit. The question is not whether the data is up to date; the question is why you feel that the data would fluctuate significantly, that "if they didn't do it before" "they would be doing it now."
    Wonderful. The argument is being driven by insecurity.

    Look. Don't take our word for it. Don't take the dev's word for it. Don't take the word of that little voice squeaking in the back of your head.
    Go to The Rebel Scum tracker and scan by the hours for your server. Try to match it up with an Alert you felt was greatly inconvenienced by the fourth faction. Check multiple Alerts and build a pattern. Post those results. (Remember: when one line goes down, at least one of the others has to rise by the same amount.) If you want to prove something, you actually need to show your work.
  12. Taemien

    I've posted ideas in the past in not just PS2 but Landmark, EQ, and so on. Sometimes they even get implemented. Like the idea to buff old school raids in Everquest for the new progression server. That one in particular was the quickest to be implemented. That was during the summer.

    So they do read the forums. If you want, you can post my suggestion to the issue tracker. I'm not down for making yet another online account anymore then I need to.


    Which theory are you referring to? If its the one on the truce a while back.. that's not a theory, I based that on screenshotted evidence between the outfits involved.

    If you're talking about the numbers I listed on populations, I actually gathered that from observations. I measured the fights my faction was involved with and came up with some numbers and then did it again half way into the alert. I also noticed the number of people in the platoon dropped by the same amount. I just put two and two together.

    Besides, I don't see any reason for the developers to lie to us. They're not marketers. Despite what forumside wants to believe. Being a game dev myself, I just code crap, I couldn't see them having any reason to make up a story like that.
  13. AxiomInsanity87


    People using 2 screens while playing.

    You're going to in depth for me right now. I am only able to brainfart at the mo lol.

    Carry on ;)
  14. Taemien


    Oh that.

    No no that was listed to show that its easy to login to different accounts. Its a visual and nothing more. I originally took that to show why IP blocks, MAC address blocks, and Computer ID blocks to stop fourth factioning would be useless. The reason people were going crazy about it was they thought it was an endemic for players to do it to destroy sundies.

    So I made the image to show how easy it was to circumnavigate their changes that would inevitably hurt multi-user households, college dorms, and military barracks, which all share the same IPs. And I brought that up in this thread briefly because someone suggested to put a faction lockout. That wouldn't work and well as we all know isn't needed.

    Can't stop people from logging out and no playing. Which is the real issue of alert imbalances.
    • Up x 1
  15. AxiomInsanity87


    Aaaaaah

    I understand now lol.