Waterson vs Mattherson - which server to choose?

I've been on TR for a while on Mattherson, but the lady is very pro-Vanu, and I'm thinking of switching to them.

Since I'll be making a new character, she's thinking of going to Waterson with me, the other East Coast server besides Mattherson (the one we're already on).

I've heard that Waterson has, supposedly, a larger population than Mattherson - is that true? Exactly how true is it? How's the community?

Thanks for any help or advice.

Waterson has very active Vanu outfits.

I warn you though that I play TR on Waterson so you will be destroyed playing VANU

As far as population, Waterson is known as maybe the biggest Planetside 2 server. I am not sure how true that is, but we are at least as big as Matherson.

I don't know about Waterson, but if you can deal with the heightened ping you'll have a jolly good time playing Vanu on Helios. They're the middle pop faction right now, so while you will have enemies to fight you won't be gated 24/7.

It also means I can kill you with my mosquito :3

Waterson has the highest pops of the servers according to the #s released in the google docs, Vanu needs pop the most on Waterson

I haven't heard of such #'s being released - how big of a difference is it? Does it have twice as large a population as Mattherson or something crazy? Or is it more like 5-10% more?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmUavphHXmIxdFhHUzJfN1VYalRnWS0xMnBUdTJpM1E&gid=22

I highly recommend the Vanu on Waterson.

Despite being outmanned (27% VS, 35% TR, and 38% NC as of last night at prime time) we hold our own pretty nicely. There is a very sizable alliance that works together closely between outfits. Also we have several excellent outfits to choose from as well, with many of them heralding from the PS1 days.

Waterson has a great VS community. Small but deadly.

With more VS, I think the VS would dominate.

well mattherson vanu get along very well in my own opinion and experience. mattherson vanu are the best ! no disrespect to my fellow vanu on other servers.

I think that you will be glad to hear that the VS community in Waterson is INCREDIBLY good at playing the game the way it is supposed to be played. Though they have the lowest numbers, they make up for it with great organization and fighting skills, and this is coming from me, an NC DVS outfit member. I hate the vanu personally because they're very hard to beat despite having lower pop, but I also commend them for it.

Don't worry too much about the pop gap, however. The Waterson Vanu pop isn't really that low compared to the rest of the factions. Hell, one time I even saw a 57% vanu pop on Indar. Before the server merges, it used to be that the VS pop will always be around 22 or 27%, but now a days, I see the pops go 33% across the board. So really, you don't have to worry about the smaller vanu pop because it isn't that much smaller compared to the other two factions.

Waterson VS are an excellent community. We do need more people, but do really well for what we have. Our leader personalities are generally fairly relaxed, but have good stratigic sense. VDRS or VHOT run open platoon very often and can get in into an outfit fast. Plus I'd much rather fight against ODAM and DVS then TE. Also TR pubs are just hilarious to fight, though they have been getting better over the last two months since the total biscuit crowd died off.

Overall the factions pretty much play out like this, which is happily in line with the lore:

VS: smaller forces, but highly adaptable and can seem like they are operating as a Hive mind at times due to the Vanu Alliance and mostly mature use of command chat. The odd VS Zerg does appear every so often.

NC: Tacitly brilliant by strategically dumb. They pull off some brilliant maneuvers, but a lot of times fail where they should dominate. Really gives them the Rebel feel despite their large population.

TR: Lots of tanks, lots of air. Big outfits like ODAM and IR bring the fight hard, but then tend to concentrate their fire power a bit much in one location and are infamous for running between the VS and NC fronts, causing them to quickly lose everything they gained.

i believe this is more accurate.

Waterson is largest.

Only do Waterson if you plan on playing VS. There are queues for the other factions here during peak.

How many characters can we have on the same server? I currently have an NC & a TR on Waterson. Was trying out the different factions, but have yet to try Vanu. Waterson is the best ping times for me, so I'd like to stay there.

If you're thinking VS, there is no better place to choose than Waterson.

Great guys, awesome community. What we lack in numbers we make up with strategy and coordination.

The Waterson Vanu Alliance is a group of several outfits coordinating to bring Vanu's will to Auraxis.

I play on both servers TR Waterson (imo the worst faction in planetside2 globally) and VS on Mattherson.

I strongly prefer playing with the people on VS on Mattherson but

Mattherson server is terrible compared to Waterson. Population is too low for a second continent to be highly active at early/late primetime but too large to all fit on one continent. It lags like a mofo compared to Waterson, continent switching queues rarely work compared to Waterson.

If you want to play the game the most roll Waterson, I cannot stress this enough, the Mattherson physical server is absolute trash compared to Waterson.


Edit: http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/prime-time-alerts.113255/

AVOID MATTHERSON, I cannot stress this enough.

I honestly didn't know the numbers were that differen't, thats crazy.

Check my quote, it holds true. LOL

doesn't make sense.

if you go to make a new char, mattherson is never suggested, but waterson is.

Mattherson has the characters, Waterson has the actively logging in players. Mattherson server lags like a mofo compared to Waterson (granted it still performs very very well, strictly comparatively speaking) and lacks activity (I'm posting this atm because it's 11:15 ET on a Friday night and I can't find a fight, just ghost capping) so people don't use their characters there.

We are the biggest. http://www.planetside-universe.com/leaderboard.php?server=Waterson

Scroll all the way to the bottom and you will see a graph showing that we hold the highest percentage of players.