[What if] NC didn't exist?

Gamewise, not lorewise. Everyone on NC was split into VS or TR, the NC warpgate is a ghostown. Let's also throw in that this goes on for awhile, not just one day no one is on NC, I'm talking months.

I specifically picked NC because they are often picked as the drama faction. Oh not enough NC, oh always losing, NC don't have blah or weapons are all OP or I win shields or scat maxes, blah etc.


How do you think the game would react to this? What would happen to the other two factions? How would weapon balance be distributed? What do you think would happen?

(btw just food for thoughts, no arguing for paragraphs (LOOKING AT YOU DEMI.) just a thought provoking question).

People choose NC because of their Gauss System Arsenal with Hard Hitting Weapons...

NC enjoy Freedom...


So the Closest to that is VS

The VS seperates itself from the other two faction and is more likely to be free since everyone has the right to say something (Democracy)

And also VS would be still better than TR....a bunch of Spacenazis.

I'd get bored. I really really like the aesthetic of the NC. Significantly more than the other two factions. That alone wouldn't be near enough to scare me off the game if I lost it, but I WOULD feel a decided lack of variety from having one of the 3 factions disappear.

It would be boring. In the first place, the thing that got me really interested in Planetside was the idea of a large scale three way war.

You can always get war games between two opponents, but seldom will you actually see games being done in a 1v1v1 setting.

also, I don't really need a bunch of TKlers bleeding over into the other factions

Well originally during early development It was supposed to just NC & TR so VS should be the ones getting removed here.
Dunno if that was actually true though, just people saying.

They would start fighting each other.

Jokes aside, VS would have a hard time fighting TR at the current state, considering that VS arsenal for the most part was getting a nerf after nerf for the last ~1.5 years, while TR was getting a buff after buff for the same period of time (they got 1 big GK nerf though).

With 2 factions gameplay wise, one faction would inevitably be larger than the other.
As people get tired of loosing they would join the "winning" faction, and it would snowball out of control to the point where they steamroll everything.
Thats just my thoughts on it.

That's already the case. I think a two faction game would be more balanced and more fun. 3 factions give room for some advanced tactics, but let's be honest, this game is catered to and full of stupid kids.

Then I might stop playing. I only picked NC because they were blue, and were nice to look at. They seemed more realistic. I've gotten to a point where I can sort of master their weapons, and it would be a shame to start over

But what if NC was red or green?

It would be boring. Currently there is at least a bit of strategy between the factions in what to attack and where, as you can risk getting attacked from multiple sides or you could try and let the other two factions meet somewhere to tie up a lot of enemies against each other. Even if there's no strategy there's more feeling of progress if you can defeat one faction but not the other. You can also switch between which faction you battle if you don't enjoy a fight somewhere.

But I'm wondering what you would do with the NC equipment? Would all NC equipment become available to the TR and VS as equipment? So you could have an Enforcer on top of your Prowler or Magrider, or you could drive a Vanguard? The NC warpgate could become a nice base to fight over, perhaps even a base that can be enhanced with PMB's.

If NC, or any other faction for the matter, gets removed... well... In a 1v1 fight, whoever has the most population is going to win. One side will constantly overpop and constantly win, the other side will get tired of losing and fighting against overpop, the losing side will switch factions and join the zerg, one side will constantly overpop and constantly win. In other words, a never ending snowball of suckiness.

A blank capturable 3 point warpgate is actually a really interesting idea. What if we remove the middle base of every continent, so Crown, Eisa, Bastion and Nason's, and replace them with a blank NS warpgate that's connected to the lattice and functions similarly to any other warpgate except without the protected shield dome. Continent wide faction spawn and access all vehicle terminals.

Maybe even allow limited construction like turrets and such in the warpgate to fortify it. Might bring some of that early days Crown meta back.

The overall balance of the game would shoot upwards, I can tell you that much.

I believe it is true, VS wasn't suppose to be in the game until Higby pretty much demanded it. They rushed the faction and this resulted in them being poorly defined, to compensate they gain a lot of unique mechanics that... well allow them to compensate less(Low recoil, no bullet drop, heat mechanics, ect.) mechanics that otherwise break game balance in small ways.

After beeing part of the Spacecowboys (or future Amurica) for 4 years now, deleting us would be the first step towards breaking the game and i hope thats not what the company stands for.

Lets summarise that TR did not ave the vulcan or gatekeeper, lets summarise that VS didnt have some of their weapons, lets summarise that NC had a few good vehicle weapons, then we might see more NC players.

Nc looks sorta sexy in green. Also thats great amerish or hossin camo

It would be another shooter game with 2 factions and TR has better weps for CQB.

We have this now. It is called Server Smash.

http://ps2.fisu.pw/activity/
TK list in last hour(13:30-14:30 GMT 09-Jan-2017) per server:
Connery

1. TR - 204
2. VS - 151
3. NC - 122

Miller

1. NC - 198
2. TR - 132
3. VS - 120

Cobalt

1. TR - 145
2. NC - 141
3. VS - 113

Emerald

1. VS - 53
2. NC - 48
3. TR - 32

Briggs

1. VS - 11
2. TR - 8
3. NC - 5

Total

1. TR - 521
2. NC - 514
3. VS - 448

Looks like in the past hour, TR has taken the prize for most TKs. NC only finish first on Miller whilst on Connery and Cobalt TR are more trigger happy.

Interesting stats, strange correlation between the letter C and TRs self harming.

EDIT: Took the data a little further:
Averaged TK/Kills percentage accross all servers (Briggs disregarded, seriously 312 kills total in an hour )

1. VS - 4.7%
2. TR - 3.4%
3. NC - 3.2%

So, in the last hour, for every 1000 enemy kills, NC did 32 team kills, compared to TR's 34, and VS's 47.