Dwindling TR Members

TR numbers are steadily going down,

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmUavphHXmIxdFhHUzJfN1VYalRnWS0xMnBUdTJpM1E&gid=2

Seems new players are trying TR but not liking it but players who stick to TR seem to play alot (underdog mentality) and try to make up for having less, at least on Mattherson.

Any other TR feel like we are slowly turning into a extinct species?

What the? I'm certain VS were the least populated faction in the community.

Well, tonight on Helios, I played as both TR and VS (new VS character, just to see the other side of things). I can tell you that during the alerts, I was getting killed by alot of very low level NC, like lvls 1-10. Seems like alot of folks are giving in to the inevitable.

The Terran Republic is the least populated, Vanu Sovereignty is the most populated, but the least active.

yeah.
Ive been noticing the same.
I dont see much low lvl TR players too.

The stats show new TR member joins getting lower every day compared to other factions.

What about 4th faction who roll their alts and end up playing them more, makes things worse for TR pop.

Do you think its because of low pop that new TR players get face rolled and decide they want to be with larger numbers?
Lets acknowledge that there is strength in numbers, especially on Auraxis.

What do you think needs to be done to increase TR numbers?

I think its because of the 4th and 5th faction. People HATE the southeast WG on Indar, so much that they will play another faction until the faction in the SE WG has been moved, also it still seems that the 4th faction is going strong with the NC. I have a feeling the numbers will change again when the WGs change. Maybe servers will balance when the NC gets SE WG again.

Works the same across all 3 factions .. You don't see many " new " low levels of your own faction , since they don't kill you and you have no way to gauge their level ..
As an NC I see low level TR and VS player's .. More VS than TR atm though

Yea, TR pop is on the decline. We recived a lot of nerfs, and then the worst warp gate. i personally think TR is still good, but some players have the mentality that they are only going to play a faction if it is better than the others. And new players just aren't really attracted to the idea of being a militaristic government. They rather go with the "Space Merica!" freedom fighters, over used idea. TR are leaving, and new TR are not joining.

Dislike. I want to see more TR, they're the most fun to fight (from an NC point of view).

true. unless they shoot me in the back. which is alot of the time lol

I think it has less to do about warpgates but more because of the sheer numbers. Zergs rule, a platoon almost always wins against a squad, most of the time.

I read on other posts too about pop sizes and how its really becoming a problem. Its making this game unfun. But many of us dont want to drop the game so we NC or VS just to up our chances of survival.

But still, TR has the lowest gains for new members, steadily. Im not talking over-all members, new players. If TR doesnt get and keep new players, we will always be at a disadvantage.

What can be done to attract new players to TR?

Well, completely disregarding the link you provided, I have an explanation.

You say you're TR on Mattherson. Well, recently the leader of The Enclave took a break from PS2 for a week due to something out of his control. It seems things are in order again but I won't really know until tomorrow. I personally believe it's likely that we'll be back doing ops again starting Monday.

I'd say the Enclave has ~200 members active during ops, give or take and Enclave does ops monday through friday. If things are going as well as I believe they are, you should see a rise in TR activity this upcoming week.

This has nothing to do with existing TR members or performance of TR.

Its about new players joining.

We have steadily declined in new membership and without it, regardless of server, TR will eventually be at a disadvantage.

Old TR members will eventually get bored and move on, or play less, so new TR membership is vital for a good game.

We are NOT winning the war on recruiting.

I just wonder what can be done to change this?

traitors, all of them!

Well easiest solution would be to give rewards for joining the weakest faction on a server (based on a combination of activity and the number of characters maybe).
Give them an XP boost for a few days or 50-100 certs for a good start.

An other solution if they can't solve the faction balance problem would be to forbid joining the strongest faction (you simply can't create a new character for this faction then) until the weakest faction makes it up to the other factions strenght.

3rd solution would be to limit the population that can be online per faction (max. 40% for example?)

And well for example if you have a TR character on Ceres then you can't make a NS or VS character on the same server (I don't know if other sides have also this problems, but I often saw TR chars intentionally killing teammates, especially tanks or mates who repaired generators, while the NC zerg attacked the base, so I bet that this were NC people who just switched the character to "work" behind the lines).

Even after the nerfs, phoenix and scatmax is just too attractive.

Try active characters instead:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmUavphHXmIxdFhHUzJfN1VYalRnWS0xMnBUdTJpM1E&gid=3

36-31-33.

So NC are a massive 3% more than they should be, Vanu are gimped with a HUGE 2% less than they should be, and TR are just right.

Also, lol at 'underdog mentality' on Mattherson. TR often hits 40% in primetime, and has some of the biggest zergs in the game with AOD and TE. You're trying to pretend to be a martyr, but you really aren't. It's only the vanu that have to fight against the odds.

There is a boost already for having the lowest pop on a continent. It doesnt work to deter players to switch.

I dont think SOE is going to tell new players they cant join their friends in a faction and risk them not even trying the game.

Yes. Ive seen a few TR players blow their own stuff before a enemy zerg shows up, double-crossing spies are always a problem when you allow team switching in a game.

Still, new players are not going TR, and will steadily decline even more as our numbers grow less because you wants to be on the wrong side of a zerg.

I Just dont know how they can fix this?

In my first post I mentioned that TR players play more (underdogs) but still doesnt change the fact that we need new players to keep our numbers for a good game.

You are not underdogs. An underdog would be playing with a disadvantage. Anyone who plays on Mattherson during primetime and thinks TR is the underdog is a ******* moron.

I wouldn't be totally opposed to an "Empire in Need" incentive bonus like PS1 had, maybe with some perks.
Say a new player jumps online for the first time, is picking his/her server, reading the factions, etc.
Maybe;
:: Show global population % among all the empires, with their respective incentive bonus exp %.
:: Lowest empire gets largest global exp bonus, varies on how low their global population % is.
:: Lowest empire maybe would get a first time sign up cert bonus of maybe 50-200 certs depending on how screwed the particular empire is at the time of creating that first character?

Of course, like said would be a first time (very first character) 'new' account bonus to help them get started, also would give them the incentive to join a lesser empire rather than joining the winning bandwagon, to further balance empire populations? Kind of a hit or miss, and not an entirely for sure fix to pop imbalances.