A Typical Helios Primetime [NC Over Pop]

TR has been in the same position VS is currently in since launch. I have NEVER seen TR pop that high on Indar. NC used to be underpop while VS used to dominate population-wise, the only thing that has stayed constant is TR's population, which hasn't changed much since launch. Don't take what I'm saying as offensive, it's not intended to be, I'm just saying TR has been in this situation for a lot longer and we've been humming the same tune.

Spoken like a true NC.

Allow me to clarify, Mr. Bagginz -

I consider weekend Primetime to be 12pm Saturday to 12am Sunday. My reasoning is simple.

Most casual gamers also have lives. They will (most likely) wake up, Play a couple hours, and then go out for the night. Hence 12pm.

Hardcore gamers, or in all likelyhood, You and I, have no lives. We Will play from 12pm - 12am. If you're anything like me, Alternating between Forum and Game.

All-in-all, The entire day of Saturday is a Primetime, as it's the most likely time for people to play all week.

Completely ignoring the word "PrimeTime", The fact still remains - NC has an overpopulation. They have even before the merge. That of which you cannot deny. They have won EVERY Alert I've been apart of (which is about 4) and are always a part of the frontline fight. The only way I can escape NC is to camp TR's WG, and even that was tainted with the color blue for nearly two hours. Two hours at Red's WG. There should be no worry of blue there! (not to mention they nearly had us WG'd too!) If I remeber correctly, The population was similar to that of the pictures.

TL;DR - You had a point. But NC is still ridiculously over populated, and something needs to be done about it.

"Period".

yesterday night was the same on esamir waterson. nc got vs locked inside their warp. twas farming time for my mag

Are you serious? 5% on a 2000 player continent is 100 players, or TWO ENTIRE PLATOONS. Even 1% difference is a big deal when you're talking about populations in the thousands.

I would say triple, as the current max xp bonus from underpop is 15% I believe.

Funny, just before the latest alert, (~5pm PST Saturday) VS had 1% point HIGHER population than the NC on Helios. Yeah, as in WORLD population. That's prime time for ya - after everyone's done their shopping and visiting and are sitting down with their pizza and beers.

Yah and TR won that alert on Indar with the lowest population, hows that for some *** kickin.

Sorry if you're offended by me snipping you, haha I just didn't want to take up a bunch of space with a post everyone's guaranteed to have read.

Well, the phrase "prime time" refers to the BUSIEST period of time, so it's your definition of that word that's simply broken. It's not accurate to describe that map as depicting the busiest period of time. The reason that makes no sense, is because during the busiest periods of time, some call these time periods "prime time", Indar is most often pop capped.

Describing an entire 24 hour period as "prime time" is simply wrong, because that period is not specifically busy. During that 24 hour period, Indar goes from relatively very low pop, to full pop cap. So, you're use of the phrase "prime time" is simply incorrect, and inappropriate.

Why is that important? Because you're thread is titled "A Typical Helios Primetime". That title is inappropriate, because, as you've illustrated in the quoted text, you're ideas correspond to a period very different than what is referred to as "prime time".

I'm not denying the fact that NC has a pop advantage more times than the other factions. We've lost plenty of the alerts. Tonight we were at 48% pop, and 18% control of Indar. Nothing needs to be done about this. It swings back and forth, and soon enough the pop advantage will change. If anything, all this nonsense about how NC is "always dominating" only makes people want to abandon their faction more.

Don't think I'm trying to be a d or anything like that. You have to understand that if your screenshot accurately depicted "prime time" on Helios, then maybe you could say something had to be done about it. If you don't understand the meaning of that phrase, it's probably better not to use it. If you do understand it, then you should know that you're misleading people with that thread title.

TL;DR - Obviously you don't get what the phrase "prime time" means. Your title is patently false. Nothing needs to be done, because most of the time when people in the US are awake, the territory control is balance within reason.

Oh stop complaining about us Nc on helios ive seen Vs smash us hard and fast and TR is getting more organized. we might have the numbers but we argue soooooooo much among are selfs command chat is a jooooke. That you can divide and conquer us pretty quick quick. TR and VS have some of the most coordinated and organized attacks ive seen to date. if I wasn't such a hate monger to TR and VANU IM LOOKING AT YOUR ORIONS!!! id abandon ship.

I do like how your tank drivers will ignore enemy flashes when they start taking damage.


I will admit it. Its pretty nice.

thats like a typical day on connery NC has the highest pop TR sightly behind and Vanu severally under poped

CERES BELLOW ( EU server), 12 in the afternoon, but mostly all times goes like this anyway.

Liar, prime time looks different. It sits at 33% most of the time.

Agreed. I think everybody can agree primetime on Helios is fairly balanced, we always have 1 continent that's pop locked at 33/33/33. If there isn't an alert, then Indar is likely the continent that's pop capped. If there's an alert, like the one you mentioned on Esamir, we all get to have fun for 2 hours of fairly balanced battles.

VS was indeed 1% higher than NC in world population during that time, and TR did kick some major *** for winning it. TR started out on Esamir with only 29% but we did end the last hour with 33/33/33. Speaking of winning alerts, as NC I can tell you we haven't won a primetime alert since it got implemented. I've been to all but 1 primetime alert, so it's possible NC may have won ONE, but to say NC has won 4 primetime alerts is exaggerating. Yesterday during primetime we had 2 alerts one after another, and they were won by VS and TR. The day before that, primetime again, was won by VS & TR.

Primetime on a west coast server for most consider 5pm pst - 10pm pst. And during this time you can always find at least one continent that's pop capped with even population. Especially these days with us having 1 or 2 alerts during primetime hours, the alerts are pulling everybody together for balanced 2 hour fights. It has done some really great things at giving us good battles.

Now the OP, and others, have a point about NC dominating during non-primetime hours. I do wish SOE can find a way to help those that play during non-primetime. I'll say that NC on Helios has a Chinese outfit that play during non-primetime hours, and they're a fairly large outfit, and they were the ones that capped Indar. So they're the problem, they skew the population for people that play outside of primetime hours. I'm not sure what SOE can do about it other than to launch asian servers and offer them free transfers.

i honestly feel bad for you tr is experiencing this on briggs this weeken we got an all time low of 22 % essentially killing the tr as a fighting force , i personally created a vs character because there is no point playing my tr main, with the sadness of my heart i say' no longer playing tr' , i know how you feel and i dont know how to feel about it i ve never played a game in which population disparities killed the game for me , not wow , not eve , not any other mmo , but in a game that plays as an team based fps , team balance is at the utmost essential.

Why do people keep comparing the TR to fascists? Militarist police state yes, bucnh of racist murderers that care only for themselves? No. We're the guys who have been trying to save everyone and reunite with earth to sort out this mess.

For the same reason I've been told that "Vanu are Scientologists!". It's the first thing that pop's into peoples mind when told that TR are Opressive by nature.

The Red and Black doesn't help either.

Proof? I haven't seen 33% population since before GU3. So, Fie on thee! Methinks thou art a liar!

I can't believe I am the minority when I say VS cosmetics (especially when upgraded) are much better looking then other factions. IMO the stock light assault and medic for both TR and NC look like a toy soldier from the 90's. Are there that many men that are really that afraid of wearing purple?

Really what I hate about the Vanu profile is the sounds of the guns. When I shoot behind a crowd of NC they immediately hear the lasers and proceed to rush me. I almost consider using a new NS gun for this reason, but I dont enjoy either that much.

Speaking as a near daily player of a Genudine-Helios, I can tell you that the VS "core/skill" (as I like to call them) do show up, but they don't enjoy meaningless zerg fights. You wont catch them on Indar twiddling their thumbs much. Ever since the events, I think we just wait around for them, and attack.

Which brings me to my next point. SOE we need planned events as opposed random. Why? Events are the only time a continent is even on Helios. Because of this (pop balance) additional XP, and faction pride the events are MUCH more fun then normal play. In fact, since the update I've noticed my PS2 playing patterns have changed. I now long in to see if there is an event, or a timer. I there is, I stay and play, if not then I come back later.

I'd love to plan for events. Maybe team up with some outfits and coordinate strategies half an hour before hand. I do realize that if they have planned events we could potentially walk into a warpgated continent, as such I would like SOE to neutralize all territory before and event, maybe force everyone inside the warpgate until it live. Would be quite amazing to see hundred of people just swarm out of a warpgate.

22% does not necessarily kill the TR as a fighting force. On Helios, we've had numbers like that for weeks at a time. The VS will have 34-38, NC 36-42, while the TR are lucky to get 25%. This is during prime time. It's nothing to worry about.

The only time I'd worry about numbers like that would be if VS had <25% as well. It happens on Helios overnight and during the day. It's not one force being low that makes it hard to play - it's one force being really high that does. If both opposing forces seem to be attacking you at once, don't worry - they'll move on to each other soon enough.

As a TR player you have only a few options when you log into Helios.

1. Go to a continent with low TR pop, and try to fight against wave after wave of NC zerg, until raw NC numbers finally overtake.
2. Go to Indar if no alert is going on, since that is the only place you will have a chance of semi-even numbers. (unless its off peak then you are screwed when China NC dominates).
3. Have a nice back and forth battles with VS while NC caps all your territory around the fight.
4. No matter what cont. you take, know that it will be taken back an hour later.

While it can be fun, its also frustrating after a while. Thank goodness TR has some good players, to at least hold our own as much as possible.

Playing NC on Helios.

1. Pick whatever cont. you want, you will have a presence there. Hope there isn't a que.
2. Run with a zerg, or not. Choice is yours. Want to grab certs and farm, ok, want to go look for a small fight, ok.
3. Be able to hold not only any continent, but also be able to hold front against VS and TR at the same time.
4. Know that no matter what cont. you take, you will have a chance to defend it with numbers, and China players.

It must suck to wait in a que, and it must be hard to find even number fights sometimes, but the flexibility of being able to pick and choose where and how to fight must be nice.

Now last night, VS had 1% more pop than NC. This is rare, an I have seen odd numbers during the weekends. But on average NC is always a large % over TR.

Some NC want even pop, and some like the pop advantage. What can help? Besides not letting anymore NC be created on Helios, free transfers for NC to lower NC pop servers, and the wild idea of traitor tokens (being able to change factions with all equivalent gear to a lower faction), I don't know what else can be done.