I realize what you are thinking, this old thread again but I want to voice my frustrations one last time and perhaps elaborate on some simple truths that other threads might miss. As it stands right now, the alerts on Miller are counter-productive to a good gaming experience. As I type there is currently an alert which is focused on taking three Biolabs on Indar. Now before the alert began the populations where all pretty much even, with VS being slightly behind, likely due to many of them being on Amerish, but the world population was fine. Go forwards 30 minutes and the populations are skewed towards a TR dominated force and the number is rising. We have all gone from a balanced game to one where a faction has started steam rolling people in the space of thirty minutes, forcing people who where happy and having fun on Indar to now face one hour and thirty minutes of being a cert pinata or sitting outside a spawn room hoping someone will come out to shoot. I do not understand how these alerts benefit the game anymore. The system was a noble idea, and I absolutely think that its a good idea to have a meta game that is time dependent. However, the current implementation has produced a negative affect, and until this can be re-worked I ask the developers that all alerts on Miller cease for the time being until something can be done about fourth faction switching and a better longer term plan is developed. I realize its very unlikely a developer will act on this thread, but I am confident that at the very least a moderator will read it, and maybe in passing will relay my feelings onwards in one form or another (Wishful thinking I know). I care about this game very much because its the game I have been waiting for many years to play after Planetside 1 became stagnated for me many years ago, and as such I want to see it become as popular as any of the other mainstream titles.
Should be a pretty easy fix if you just lock the character you're playing with when the 15 minute countdown starts, that means that you won't be able to switch to a character on the same server during 15 minute warning and the 2 hour alert.
I like this a lot. Planetside 1 wouldn't let you switch from one character to another right away once they did add the same server policy.
Yep fixes the problem, simple and effective. If you can think of that in 5 minutes why can't the developers.
Yeah, alerts are pretty ridiculous now on Miller. The TR swarm is getting old now, it's not just alerts either. Yesterday there were several times where a small number of us were holding off a small number of TR at a few small outposts and at a few towers. Next thing you know they run off and come back with 10+ ESFs, several tanks and MAX spam us. It's getting stupid, whenever they can't beat someone fairly they just spam the hell out of a base and there is nothing you can do. If it was a large battle then fair enough, but when it come to them not even being able to take a small outpost from us and the only way they can win is by spamming the hell out of us is pretty pathetic. It seems to be the only thing TR on Miller do lately and it's getting boring having to deal with it every single day.
grabbing passive certs on your NC alt when the timer pops up: you are no longer allowed to play on your main for two hours and 15 minutes
the largest problem is that the alerts do not control for population size. that means a smaller population should naturally be required to cap and hold relatively less of the continent in order to win, but that isn't the case. of course this gets problematic when talking about objective-based alerts. still it is a bit strange to expect from a smaller faction pop that they cap as much as a larger faction pop. waterson is usually flooded by TR overpop and this was not different yesterday night. TR had like solid 10% more pop than VS and NC each and TR won. that's not the problem. however it is an issue if a faction keeps winning every or at least most alerts due to sheer overpop. alerts are a great thing and really add some point to the fights. but one cannot deny that they are broken plainly due to faction switching and overpop
The system that calculates these alerts needs a total overhaul, there should never be global alerts like capture all biolabs if there is population imbalance on the server or if one faction is already holding the majority of captureable targets. Personally I´d like that they just get rid of the every alert that include all continents, they just wont work because there will be always population imbalance.
thats the thing I don't mind being outnumbered but it sure crushes your will when you think it'll be an even fight and TR magically gain 10% more pop. You can tell the NC aren't even trying to win anymore, everyone is just looking for a decent fight so most VS and NC just end up fighting each other to avoid the horde.
Exactly, forcing people to actually play their alts if they happen to log into them isn't a bad thing
I'd propose another solution. When the alert starts the character you are logged (or if you log and the alert is started) is the only one who can get certs. If you switch character you cannot take alert certs (or a very reduced number), other than resetting the timer for the main char. So you can collect how many passive certs you want.
You see the problem is during non-alert hours. for example I login my TR play a bit , get bored n feel like some plasma , hop into my VS that is in the same server. ^If you think they would implant a system that works during alerts I'm sure it'll be buggy and we'll be hurt for atleast a week waiting for a hotfix.
If the problem is the overpopulation on the 'alerted' continents why not set a limit of 33% population on each faction for the alert duration?
As soon as I will be able to get my passive certs passively - w/o logging in to each my character - the character lock for some time will be ok with me.
