Please Do Something About Fourth Factioning-wip

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Ballto21, May 25, 2018.

  1. Ballto21

    Fourth factioning (the act of not spending the majority of time on any one faction or swapping between factions for alerts, farms, sabotaging hives/espionage on hives, etc) has constantly been an issue throughout the life of this game and has only gotten worse (at least on Emerald).

    Almost every alert triggered will see a massive increase in one faction's pop and a decrease in another (usually swapping from VS to TR on Emerald) and the faction which triggered the alert gets zerged by an outfit which does this.

    I assume the reasons the outfits do this are one or more of the following:

    >Trigger an alert on one faction, then swap to your main outfit faction to zerg the alert to get the alert rewards

    >Personal bias against the faction or large outfits who main that faction leading fourth faction outfits to try to **** on them

    >Easy ISO

    >Not wanting a continent to lock for personal preference of the outfit

    It's ridiculous. There was just a Hossin alert where VS had abou 34-35% pop and 39-40% territory control on Emerald. The alert triggered, and the VS population suddenly dropped by at least 3-4% with the largest increase being on TR. Then lattices got zerged and command chat acted like, well, command chat.

    The easiest solution to this would be to lock players into a faction when an alert starts. When alert is triggered, you cannot swap to a character of another faction on that continent. If for whatever reason a player doesn't want to play that faction for the alert, they can do their other faction on another continent since at least two are usually open at a time.

    Of course, that opens the possibility that the fourth factioners could just leave the continent reduce the population so the alert trigger faction would lose, but they wouldn't be able to get the alert rewards for it.

    EDIT: if any forum mods see this please remove the -wip from the title. It's a habit i have from another forum and I forgot about it.
    • Up x 1
  2. Wargeist

    The way the alert rewards are set up makes no sense either, and just enhances these sorts of issues.

    Say an alert starts, the faction that triggered it has around 50% territory control (which is common for the start of an alert) and your faction has about 20%. Why bust your *** for 45 minutes with an almost guaranteed loss staring you in the face for the small loser consolation prize of 50 ISO when you can switch to your character on the other faction for an almost guaranteed 300 ISO? So the problem swings both ways, depending on time of day and who is on when.
  3. Ballto21


    It also doesn't help matters that the extremely good players will swap to try for the lottery prize Showdown or Deringer sidearms.

    On Emerald the TR is especially bad for fourth factioning. Specifically, one particular outfit which I won't name where the officers/leader has a major issue with the leadership of a VS outfit which I also will not name.
  4. LtBomber

    Ballto21, welcome back. I somehow missed the entertainment (on stalkers :))

    However, you got a point here!
  5. DeadlyOmen

    It's a game. Relax.
  6. DarkStarAnubis

    Point is, there are no general rules about swapping characters (nor they would make sense since players are allowed to create characters in any faction in the first place).

    A Squad/Outfit may have (and rightly so) stricter guidelines, but lone wolves can do what they please.
  7. Ballto21


    games are meant for enjoyment

    i fail to see how it is enjoyable to put in the effort with your friends to get into a favorable alert position only to have a large chunk of your previous teammates swap teams to then kick your teeth in for their own gain/vendettas.
  8. DeadlyOmen

    One's enjoyment should not come at the expense of anather's enjoyment.
  9. BanthaFodder

    I think I heard something about the devs changing the way an alert will be triggered. No more cortium requirement, just 41% map control to trigger and it's going back to winner takes all. This may mitigate some of the 4th factioning.
  10. Ballto21

    so the enjoyment of the people who worked to get enough territory and cortium - as well as raiding enemy bases - does not matter so long as those who will ensure they lose the alert enjoy themselves?
  11. _Kettenblatt_

    I saw 4th faction hoppers at our server (Cobalt) too at Vanus. You see the alert was triggered and Vanu goes now to be more active. You can see now a many vets with KD of 2+. Every faction should get the max. value of ISO (300) to stop abusing and appreciate more the participation of each player by invested time.

    By the way; Teamkiller who leaves directly (and comes before from other empire) needs 45 minute ban (whole characters). Simple solution and stops most faction hoppers.

    But looks like developers don't care about the main forum and take an eye only on reddit,
  12. DarkStarAnubis

    Unless you want to play in an empty server the enjoyment of the majority matters more than yours or mine.
  13. Pacster3

    Why should it? There will still be one faction that is most likely to win. If NC starts an alert and have the highest population...why should people stay on the other factions? And that's not all: Their chance to win that alert will actually increase cause the two other factions will not double team like they do today(on some servers more on some less). Today it's about taking down the alert starter or have the continent locked and all cortium lost...there is no real reason to fight each other(the difference between 100 iso and 50 iso doesn't really matter). With the new goals it will be "win or bust" and if you can't win anyway(cause you are in third place) then there is no reason to attack the alert starter.
  14. BanthaFodder

    Because from my experience the major cause of 4th factioning relies on 2 things, territory control and corrtium balance. Right now when people see a faction has nearly enough cortium to start the alert while holding a solid 50%+ of the map then that's when the 4th factioning starts.

    With the new changes triggering an alert at 41% essentially means that it's anyones game now that it's winner takes all. I don't believe people are simply gonna ignore the alert starter when they hold a mere 41%. It's all gonna come down to platoon leads attacking the faction that looks like they have their hands full.
  15. Ballto21

    1-5% of the total population of a faction is significantly less individuals than the entire faction.

    Your logic is flawed here.

    Is the majority the faction they overpop?

    If so, you would need to determine the percentage of people who enjoy winning more than a difficult fight to pull out a win against a faction with superior territory advantage and who finds simply zerging fun.

    You would also need to take into account the third faction who did not have an alert or a massive pop increase, who likely will have a very little chance at winning as a result of no territory or population.

    Ideally, all factions would be 33/33/33 during an alert similar to how it was in Planetside 1. The implication of a system like that in this game is unlikely though due to a number of reasons, at least in the current state of the game.
  16. FLHuk

    [IMG]
    • Up x 1
  17. DarkStarAnubis

    By your own words you said in the first message a massive amount of population shifts allegiance...
  18. BamaRage

    I don't care about the fourth faction players other than sabotage has gotten to be a real problem.