Congratulations SOE on forcing out server minority factions

If players made better decisions, certain outfits would never have existed, the game balance would be completely different, and no one would have even requested the lattice system; there wouldn't be a perceived need if people spread themselves out intelligently. Relying on PS2 players to make sensible choices is like relying on a puppy to lay down its own newspaper.

Your exp bonus idea should probably work.

OP, do you really believe what you said there?

While, recently, VS on Connery are having higher numbers more consistently than the other two faction the truth is that population fluctuates. As somebody who plays all three factions (when possible, I try to play the least populated one), I have witnessed population shifting in favour of all factions.

Also, number-wise, VS on Connery has been underdog for a long while. Now that VS got higher numbers so many TR and NC crybabies cannot stand it. Got taste of your own medicine?

Eh, the need for lattice isn't really about whether or not players make good decisions.

Lattice is about having the game be about fighting, not ghost-capping. If players made ideal decisions all the time, the need for lattice would actually increase, because we'd all be ghost-capping around each other at every possible opportunity!

Scaling based on the number of participants is a core problem of the game at both the tactical (base) and strategic (continent) layers. We currently have static systems which are fixed to fit certain-sized fights, which results in bases which don't scale to max zerg size (bio labs become invincible because additional flanking pathways aren't dynamically added as the fight grows in size) and continents which don't scale either (amerish is overwhelmingly ghost-capping during off-hours, while the other two continents' lattice starts to feel overly limiting when either is pop-capped by multiple empires.)

I don't really fault the devs too much, since it's not a particularly obvious problem (especially early in the development) and the solutions can be pretty involved.

How does this relate to lattice? Well the ideal lattice system would dynamically scale based on continent population. With low pop, lattice would be tight and force the right amount of action and enable the right amount of flanking for a low-pop continent. As pop increased, lattice links would be added dynamically (based on pre-set definitions) up until you hit the population limit (at which point the lattice could probably be completely removed.)

In the past I've suggested similar systems for the continents themselves, to help address pop imbalance issues. Basically it's a system where continents shut down once dominated, disabling spawning and kicking players off ~10 mins after domination. Meanwhile, new continents would be opening up based on the current global population. This would be paired with a continent pop limit decrease, so there would actually be far more 33/33/33% continent fights than we have now (much like Planetside 1.) The result is the playing field (number of continents) is always the perfect size for the game to feel active and avoid ghost continents, and (more importantly) where pop-balanced fights are significantly more common than they are now.

That actually depends on whether they're making ideal decisions for their own cert gain or for the empire as a whole.

The original idea behind hex/influence was that people would spread out to fight over the map or concentrate if they wanted one specific base. Small fights at small bases, big fights at big bases. This actually happened during the earliest Indar alerts, where people actually wanted territory and would stop at nothing to get it. It still happens somewhat on Amerish continent alerts until the zerglings start stacking one particular empire. Sure, they were trying to go around each other at every possible opportunity- but because they were also trying to prevent each other from going around, it resulted in a lot of chaotic, "you had to be there" fights.

The real problem is that defense is not nearly as rewarding as unopposed attack.

Connery is a strange server. The population is rarely balanced, and VS may or may not be the most commonly overpop, but there are hours or days were TR or NC end up with numbers as high as 55% server pop. It make finding a sustained fight that doesn't devolve into a zerg or spawncamped frustratingly difficult. We need continent locking ASAP.

Another thing they can change - Remove certs for ghostcapping even on lattice. IE: If you have 12-24 and there is only 1 person contesting you in an area, no experience for capping that base. Zero. Nada.

Yes, you're right Master Yoda.

A 10% world population advantage basically means you can win any alert using only knives.

Yea we (EXE) are still going strong. What i have noticed is we have some of the Venu leadership that run TR alts. When the Venu starts to over-pop hugely they seem to be switching to their alts and helping even it out a bit. Or they might be bored of the rolfstomping zerg. Either way the Venu tend to be disorganized at that point and we can hold bases. Also I've noticed that the Venu are turning more into the way the NC was with OK leadership but alot of zerg tactics that can be out smarted.

As for the XP boots they are fine. But it be nice for a massively over-pop faction to take a xp hit like 1-5% over across the board. Not bad enough to be stupid but enough to give incentive to play an alt and even things out. This would only happen at 40%+. I doubt that will happen.

I have to say as a daily player on connery NC side.
Those purple guys seem to win alot more than anyone elce for shure.
Overpopulation during the week is pretty much 24/5 except if its a good day and vanu doesn't overpopulate the main map being used.

Sugar coat it any way. they have overpopulated connery for the past while with serious power. the only time i notice NC win is when just about all the resources are being used and the enemy is already on a weakening legg.

Maybe SOE needs to or SHOULD introduce some sort of timer to change character on the same server..... ....personally think its lame in the first place how you can make a character different faction same server. Though this game was advertised as an MMO not just a FPS ?