[Big concern] Ceres and Mallory merging

I'm glad to be getting more players together so we can have a higher battle density all around. However, from a VS standpoint I can't help but notice that Ceres has been having 20-25% population with TR/NC 35-40%.

I went over to mallory to check the situation there and it seems to be the same if not worse. Have you thought what's going to happen if you bring over twice as much NC/TR than VS? I don't think this will make things better and you might have a lot of VS players who were looking forward to the merge quit because it will be even worse than before.

I'm not complaining and I'm all for server merges, but this doesn't seem to be the right decision right now. At least right now the place isn't crawling with people everywhere and if your faction has a lower population you can choose some secondary battles that are more suiting to the numbers you have. But if the merge goes through like this you won't have that option either and I think it's going to have a further negative impact on the VS population.

This is coming from an outfit leader and pretty experienced FPS and MMO player. Perhaps you should consider this for a little while longer to see what better options you can come up with, and all constructive ideas ideas are apreciated. This game is most fun when factions are between 30-35% population and you can feel you're not getting zerged without anything you can do about it.

i've seen this problem mentioned a lot, and while I totally agree that it is a problem, I'd like to mention that server transfers are coming out soon. They were put off so they came after the mergers, for obvious reasons. Now I think they are slated for March somewhere, so you might have to wait awhile, and it might be good to wait and see if things change when the higher pops, people might move back to VS, people might return to the game when they see more, bigger fights.

That said, even if you have to tough it out for awhile, you use that time to check other servers, find the one you like, and prepare for that server transfer into a server with (now) better options. Its not ideal, but it IS better than it sounds.

Im from Mallory and while its true VS do have the smaller pop, its not by much. It always seems to be TR (Above35) NC (35) VS(below35), with the difference only being around 10%.

They do fight hard though, or maybe I find it easier to kill TR as there are more of them. Whatever, I am sure SOE had a real good look at data and numbers when they made the decision, so I wouldn't worry too much about imbalance

I'm pretty sure Mallory and Ceres are merging to make the TR and NC equal population wise. Unfortionatly, both servers have small VS pops.

so, not just on my server huh?

Jaeger's had a smaller VS population after they left- we'r about to merge with waterson ,and i hear they took a big hit in the VS pop after the patch as well

Waterson TR here. We have. Large TR pop and always outnumber everyone else but don't worry we suck. Got warpgated with 40% last night

If the population increases highly enough, then I expect Ceres to now have good fights on Esamir, which means VS players will now have the choice to play on Esamir and avoid Indar's SE warpgate. Some VS players might actually come back thanks to this.

Basically Vanu are going to be in trouble on every Continent but Indar, where the populations should be equal with the new players, as for Esamir and Amerish the Vanu will be out numbered badly, the massive excess of TR and NC will spill into them Continents and i doubt you will see them Vanu owed very often.

Mallory population levels seem to be pretty much the same to Ceres, its not SOE fault, you cant force someone to play a faction. Server mergers arnt going to fix Vanu, SOE needs to market the Faction better. We basically need a new PR rep and SOE need to stop pushing TR on every promotion they do. Just look at the whole Empire Showdown joke, i dont even think they have removed TB off the Start menu yet.

I'll be monitoring the situation and if it pans out the way we think it will then I'll be moving to another server. Though the problem with that is that the VS is underpopped everywhere.

It seems that the Vanu are lacking across all the servers, it's the same on Briggs, we have a consistantly lower pop than the other two, though the other two seem to shift, we're usually about 5-10% lower, which isn't TERRIBLE, but it does mean the map is rarely as purpose as i'd like.

Totally agree with the PR thing, Vanu needs some better publicity, and perhaps taking back the saron nerf at least which really wasn't needed at all. I can relate to the fact that magriders shouldnt climb 70 degree slopes but the saron was just fine as you buffed the dmg and armor of the other tanks.

Do something to let the playerbase know that VS won't be hammered away into non-existence it doesn't have to be major stuff, just things that bring more people back to their VS characters or motivate them to make a VS character. Right now most people want to make TR and NC chars because it's better on that side, especially with the populations, nobody wants to join the low population and get hammered.

Give VS some attention to move some of the playerbase this side

Well its not 18.40pm GMT which is Prime Time for EU gaming.






The Vanu need help, get Max Clifford on the blower...

Please nerf the NCs... do it fast.
The 4th faction must leave.

Please keep them.

that damn 4th faction eh ;p

We don't want em , they'll just back stab us again. We need more loyal VS players not 4th empire players

When the NC had the canyon warpgate on Indar they also had a lesser population when compared with the two other factions. This may change when the TR gets the bad WG. In any case, if things are the same on Mallory, which they pretty much are, it'll remain the same once the merge has been completed. It won't get worse, and it won't get better.

SOE has already gone out with the fact that they've looked at the data, analyzed it and chosen the server merges carefully. Merges are very much needed, and they're needed ASAP to keep the flow of battle running.

I think VS players are expecting an improvement to the faction balance after the merges, after this goes through I believe even more people will quit because they'll lose hope of getting equal population with TR and NC, SOE needs to do something to steer more people towards the VS or it's just going to snowball and the population will get lower and lower, while TR and NC will just keep getting higher.

Might as well put a Prowler image on the launcher with the message "deploy and enjoy" =P

lock the servers to create anything but vanu characters, when the pops balance somewhat, all 3 factions are open again.. or maybe an incentive when the server transfers come to even it out better

Also they should DRASTICALLY increase experience gain for people with lower population. If you have 20-25% population with the other factions having 35-40% you should get 50% more experience, that should incentivise creating of vanu characters more than enough, it needs to be noticeable, on top of the continent experience bonus.