Too much reward for the winning team

Everything in this game rewards the winning team too much. Yes, I know everyone is going to say to the victor goes the spoils.

But in reality all that happens is every one switches to the team that gets easy wins and the server dies. 50% off for locking a sector?? How fast do you think people are going to switch to that when one team locks in down consistently

The reward needs to be dumped on the losing so team so people WANT to play on that team.

The only thing that I feel needs to be added as incentive to play the underpop faction is an xp boost for underpop players.

Hex based population bonus, rather than the continent based bonus.

Hex based is meaningless. If it is hex based you can still play on a team with 40% world population and winning all most all the alerts and cherry pick battles to get the exp bonus as well if you so choices.

You get the best of both worlds.

It should be world wide the whole point of the bonus is to help make people want to play on a team that doesn't have enough players

The 50% seems a lot but i say give it a couple of weeks and see how it sits.

Total balance only matters when the aim is having the most territory. I couldn't care less what the continent population is, I only care about the population balance at the base I'm fighting at.

We don't need a couple of weeks, This has happened on almost every server since launch and they go added more stuff to make it even worse.

This games biggest problem is frustrated players who lose for months at a time because their faction is under populated. It makes me sad that they haven't figured this out yet.

Both XP bonuses are important.

Really, an underpopulated faction XP bonus makes players feel better about, most likely, losing strategically. It's not really going to solve anything, it's more of an "I'm sorry you're losing bonus" (to paraphrase Higby). At best, you might have the odd player switch faction if they have multiple characters on the same server.

Hex-based population bonuses would also act as an "I'm sorry you're losing bonus" when you're outnumbered. The difference is this time people can readily do something about it and it should encourage people to even out the fronts.

Do both.

The most important thing to do is get people to want to play on the team with less people.

If your team has 10% more people there is no battle that can load up with reinforcements at any time and there is 20 other battles you can pick from that will have good numbers for you.

Once the populations are even they can start micro managing with hex.

I am going to have to greatly agree with the OP. Continent locking bonuses essentially encourages even greater population imbalances.

Hey faction A, you already greatly outnumber the enemies (on Connery its not uncommon to see one faction in the 40-50% at times), for that we will reward you with 50% off your purchases, or a xp bonus, congrats. Yes to the hard work of large zergs, sitting in empty bases or spawn camping should go the spoils.

The concept behind continent locking and bonuses is, you give players an incentive to fight, you reward good play/strategy. But in the real game, there is very little strategy, it is mostly disorganized and mostly a zerg/numbers game. Those with twice the population generally win, and generally those with the most population at the time will be the ones locking continents.

So what you are really doing is giving large zerging groups, more armor, more libs, more maxes, because that is what this game really needs, large zergs being even more well equipped and less stoppable.

Please address population imbalances, not promote them. Its boring and frustrating for everyone.

I love the idea of incentive and alerts that matter, this method however just doesn't play out with current population issues.

do most players REALLY switch factions on a whim like that?
I have a character with all 3 factions, but ive never really been tempted to switch from my main all that often.

to the people complaining- do YOU switch factions often?

I think the whole 4th factioning thing is overblown.

Sorry but rewarding losers is not a good idea ( being polite)

Then you shouldn't get anything with that KDR.

The goal is to make game as fun as possible for everyone. The best way to do this is encourage a good playing environment for all players.

We are already down to the last server

Ya gotta love this new socialist mental outlook.

"Spread the wealth, there is no point in success".

Wow.

50% is a lot, but then again - it's meaningful. Have you ever noticed the bonus for dominating a continent before? Me neither...

If you are on the winning team. Do you really want to win because you have 10% more population or do you want a challege??

Switching to the winning team is not hard.

No because in a one on one skirmish you are effectively cheating. Everyone goes through being the low pop. Learn to play as a low pop. I hate it but am able to work with it.

The problem is most people don't want to work through it and quit. I am a lone wolf and personally don't even care what my faction is doing.

But the average player does. If they are on a team that is getting face stomped their is no reason to stay. You either quit the game or switch sides. This should be actively avoided.

I am not sticking around when we hit low population on the last EAST servers. Becasue one faction has too many people and no one to fight and the other side quits because they have no numbers numbers.

How is it cheating? It is a passive xp boost for fighting a fight that you are at a sever disadvantage.

I can easily do well in a battle where I am out numbered 3 to 1. However no matter how well I do a single person can't push back a massive army and just losing on every front is saddening and those willing to go through it deserve a boost for their efforts.

To say it is cheating is like calling using xp boosters is cheating. It isn't like it will give extra resources or an edge over an enemy.

I am talking about the post I replied to. You should not get a health bonus. Because in a one on one you are effectively cheating.