50% VS overpop, 100% frustration

if you have to add *mic drop* after something without any real meaning, your not really worth reading...

hit scan rocket is meh unless you have a bunch of guys on a hill, still if you weren't so leaky eyed about it you might be able to see through the tears, even most VS dont want out of render range AV options like that.also TR is getting a practically hit scan option for the harasser, who knew (not as good as an infantry option sure, but still)

lasher... really you are going to call that op? ok...

maxes are pretty fine as is, other then TRs lack of a good long range AV option.

no bullet drop is the card people with no argument like to bring up but sure. before the guns had worse damage drop off to compensate and they ended up being some of the worst weapons in the game until they were equalized. but on top of that you also get a noticeable velocity drop on any weapon with no drop, meaning you end up leading more as well. really though at the ranges combat takes place most of the time bullet drop is negligible. but I guess you needed another point to latch onto?

so tell me where dose this make VS easy on every front? last I checked you were implying all VS kit was easy to use, which simply isn't true, and disingenuous at best.

yup, thats exactly what you said.



If you would like to have a real conversation I'm all for it, just leave the leaky eyed dramatics at the door.

As much as I love vehicles, the current system of acquisition allows for there to be SO many that leaving infantry without high range options simply isn't feasible. The first thing I would do, is implement some sort of limit on how many vehicles of a certain type can be spawned (and be active) within a given hex. The sheer number of vehicles in play has forced DBG to water down their potency, which has seemed to satisfy no one.

Firstly: Spawn limitations - If there are, say... 12-18 MBT's (of your current faction) already, the vehicle spawn starts flashing a warning light, and MBT spawns are disabled. The same could be done for lightnings, perhaps, but probably not sunderers / harassers. This would apply only to vehicles spawned locally, not ones driven in from elsewhere... so there wouldn't be any irritation with running to a panel to spawn a MBT, and finding the lockout went active due to an armor column driving in from behind the lines. (The goal being to avoid irritation that occurs with the current spawn system, spawn options disappearing, etc)

Secondly: Slight, general armor buff: Assuming that the above has helped reduce the total number of vehicles stacking up everywhere (if it does not, skip this section) - Increase resistances slightly to all non-vehicle based AV (except tank mines and C4, although C4 should do ~60% of a MBT, not ~80+ %) The slight buff should be incremental - if things look good, step it up slightly more. The first buff should not allow for surviving even one more rocket, but rather a few fury / basalisk rounds, the idea being to start small, and move cautiously on from there.

Now, for your actual question:
Option A is the first, and most obvious choice. I would slightly nerf the Prowler's primary for reload time and potentially non-lockdown shell velocity, it's already the fastest out there. Lockdown should be much more responsive then it is now, perhaps with less deploy / undeploy time, and in exchange for this reload / potential velocity nerf, perhaps incorporate a proximity sensor when a non-friendly unit crosses within 15 meters (not radar, but an audio warning tone, perhaps.) - Random bonus idea: When a vehicle is killed when locked down, resupply 2 - 4 shells.

STRIKER:
With a nerf in place, this AV power can be refocused on TR infantry. Firstly, buff the striker. For the current mechanics, reduce the CoF, if not remove it entirely, increase rocket velocity, and perhaps add a mechanic where subsequent consecutive hits deal additional damage. (Say, +10% damage bonus per rocket strike, requiring that subsequent rockets hit within 1.5 seconds of one another to gain the bonus. The bonus can be capped at ~3 if it proves too potent to go beyond there. )

Alternately (or additionally), Add a firing mode - Give it back a lockon / no dumbfire mode (requiring a reload to swap between the two) that has a ~50 meter range boost over other factions' lockons vs ground vehicles, and +75 meter bonus for air. In this firing mode, the damage bonus is halved, and the bonus velocity is lost. The idea here is long-range versatility, while retaining a close-range option - it still has no real viability versus infantry, and MAX resistance could be increased against striker rockets, if they prove to be an issue there.

FRACTURE:
Firstly, I shall say this: the range goal of the Fracture should be 450-550 meters, where Lancers dropoff entirely (This allows Lancers to still remain on top for maximum range, BUT, in exchange for this, Fractures should have a maximum damage potential of ~10-15% more AV damage potential per reload, if not slightly more (But less overall compared to pounders. I haven't done the math on this, so i'm not sure if these numbers are viable - Having said that, this is my general impression of how i'd like it to be. )

Practical idea: I have a number of ideas for this one: The first is most practical. Remove the Fracture CoF entirely, increase the round velocity slightly (Say, 30m/s to start with), and decrease the damage versus infantry. (This would involve a tooltip that shows less damage, but vehicles would have resistances lowered vs fractures - this would help to avoid a repeat of the fracture AI capability that got it nerfed in the first place. The net gain would be more damage versus vehicles, less vs infantry.)

Crazy idea: I like the idea of changing Fractures to mimic my damage stacking concept for the Striker. Change fractures from a single-fire series of rockets, to a burst-fire of micro-rockets, fired approximately 50-75ms apart, each increasing the damage of the next round by ~10% - total damage would be the same, but the result would be a swarm of smaller, highly accurate AP-tipped micro rockets that fill the air. With twin Micro-fracture round equipped MAX arms, the buff that the micro rockets apply could potentially have a delay, rewarding trigger discipline. (Fire one arm, wait for impact, fire the other arm, and suddenly the rounds have done 30% more damage, resulting in an effective one / two style AV punch)

let me elaborate, your starting weapon is arguably the best weapon in the entire game. It nearly mirrors the qualities of the most powerful LMG while being easier to control due to little to no horizontal recoil and having the lovely .75ADS (A common trait in your army)

Hitscan rocket launcher is kind of a big deal considering that NC and TR have to take target speed, velocity and drop into account while you do not.

I didn't say the Lasher was OP, I said it was easier to use, which it is. The spin-up and general poor accuracy leave the MCG out and the Jackhammer is, well, a shotgun.

If you can't see what a factor not worrying about drop is in a game like this I don't know what to tell you. Even if you have to lead a bit more it's still one less thing to worry about. isn't game-breaking but it -is- yet another feather in your cap.

Oh, and to this bit:

It's not a conspiracy when you can observe the same VS players who come into every thread to shout down NC and TR complaining about their purple bull****. When those threads get shut down but 'nerf the Prowler' ones persist. Conspiracy implies someone working from the shadows. They play their little meta game in plain sight. Developer complicity to VS dominance continuing since the game began, on every server (and on the console as well from what I hear) isn't some smoking gun, it's a ****ing huge smouldering bomb crater. Calling it 'conspiracy' is flattery. They couldn't be worse at hiding their bias if they tried.

Conspiracy seems a bit steep. But as they say "Squeaking wheel gets the grease."

translation: ******** VS are the vocal majority.

Sounds like you enjoy shooting out of your spawn in a 70-30% defense, watching the timer tick down. cert nirvana !

Any vast over population (VS, NC or TR) is just a symptom of the systemic balance problems in PS2. NO other MMOFPS has more balance problems than PS2. When you are outpopped by 50, 60 or 70%, the battle is boring for everyone, attackers and defenders. I was playing on miller which had a vastly underpopped NC during an alert yesterday. I quit PS2 and played another game that has balance functions built in.

I could write the exact same thing about the vocal NC and TR counterparts. It's still a conspericy. You are seeing bomb craters in the vallys that don't exist....

I started playing Planetside 2 on VS because I liked their looks and colors, but the thing I liked the most was the backstory.

Recently, I started again on Emerald with my friends and we went with the NC, but we ended up being dead no matter how many YouTube videos we watched or how many flanking maneuvers we thought were required. After being pwned (and we sucked at the game, still do) so many times, we decided that switching back to VS would give us the time to learn the game without being insta-killed, and still be able to actually gain EXP through contribution.

On Emerald, as the NC, the amount of times I've spawned in to be killed by a teammate before venturing into the 'danger-zones' is A LOT. I've seen teammates destroying terminals, teammates, blocking routes out. It seems like people switch to the NC faction from whatever faction they are actually running with only to make it harder for us to win vs. their actual faction. I've not seen that happen once while on VS (Connery).

I don't think that VS are OP, I think that people claim that something particular is OP enough times so that everyone starts using the 'OP' thing, and that generates more QQ, then more people switch over to VS to use the 'OP' item. Granted, I still suck at the game and my BR is only 33NC and 25VS so I'm not a wizard of knowledge, it just feels like people complain about silly things, because in my experience I can't kill a barn with an RPG right now.

In summery, the 'OP' factor is skill, and if you look at the ranking leaderboards for Connery VS takes the cake.

and everyone is about 100 certs or less from an equal weapon (msw-r anchor). whats your point? also its not "my army" your bias is showing pretty hard again.

so does anyone not using a lancer.... its one of the least pulled solo launchers for a reason. the alpha of the standard rockets are usually much better in most situations. even then I'm a proponent of removing its ridiculous range (the only real problem with the weapon)

and yet the jackhammer preforms better on average (easier to take advantage of by a normal player) and the MCG and Lasher are about tied. so that doesn't stack up, you just think its easy to use becasue its purple.

The only time it is a factor on most weapons is with a suppressor. other then that you dont even need to take bullet drop into account on most weapons in standard combat range at most bases. if you are taking long range shots with your LMG you are doing it wrong.

Except everyone would know you were talking out of your *** because it's not NC/ TR ALWAYS WITH MASSIVE OVERPOP ON EVERY SERVER WINNING THE MOST ALERTS.

VS is just fun to play, from a Magrider point of view... its a glass tank, lots of things that work against it.. but it is so much fun to drive... nothing to do with it being OP

This isn't 2012. Where players are fresh to the game and have an unformed perspective. It's over 2 years into the game (a game with an active Dev team, but one where the Dev team hasn't changed the game experience much), and people have figured out (through experience) for themselves how things tend to pan out and how they want to deal with it.

Pattern Recognition, Learned Helplessness, Powergaming. Minmaxing, etc. Whatever the reasons, this is the behavior we are seeing. It's the behavior patterns we've been seeing for years, on a game system that had not changed significantly in year. And if you are like me and want to see that behavior change, then you have to change the system. You have to change the Game.

This pattern of behavior has been consistent now for years. It is rooted to the meta and game's reward/motivation factors.

*IF* the server is populated enough, and/or enough Continents are locked, and/or the Alert is on a popular Continent, we can and do see more balanced participation in Alerts. But for other times, it's Population Imbalance and the other Underpop Factions migrating to (and stacking and unbalancing) the Continent where there Faction has Overpop.

I don't think it's that clear cut.

1) Most people don't want to keep playing a tedious game that they already know they can't win. It's why games like Hearthstone offer a "Concede" option. It's unrealistic to expect a Faction's players to want to keep playing on a Continent they don't like, or a Population Imbalance they don't like, when they know it's very high percent chance a lost cause.
2) Lots of player are trying to Grind Certs, and some have characters on each Faction. If you can predict an Alert Winner, logging in as that Faction (and even playing on a non-Alert Continent) can get you a heft Cert bonus.
3) Most players (non-Hardcore Organized) in PS2 have terrible tools for communicating and interacting with each other (I had better tools and much better communication in Star Wars Battlefront 2 than in PS2). For most, Q-Spot is as sophisticated as shared Intel gets. And when it comes to Strategy, the game is thoroughly bankrupt outside of basic Zerg Joining or Zerg Support (most of it monkey-see-monkey-do). Orders are a joke, /yell and /reg are limited and cumbersome and infrequent and unreliable, /tell is cumbersome and narrow (and relies knowing the person or bumping into them), and even most Squads+ are just some 1+ guys who are coming up with stuff in a vacuum. This is (one reason) why you see a massive Zerg still plodding into the wrong Faction's territory during an Alert. You can't rely on your Factions Strategy, and you can't rely on the Strategy of other Factions.
4) Some people just don't like to fight against specific Factions. Maybe it's fotm, maybe it's aesthetics, tactical differeces, etc. But sometimes (often?) Alerts get lopsided because the Underpop Factions are fighting each other instead of the Overpop.

When the Population Overpop on a Continent starts hitting ~45+%, you start seeing some really nasty gameplay. It shifts from objective targeting, to (intended or not) outright grief bullying. Gank Squads start popping up, some yahoo Hardcore Squad tries to setup a lockdown denial area at a Faction's Warpgate, Mammoth Zergs wipe out newbies that trickle out of Spawn Rooms, etc. If you're not into playing from inside a Spawn Room, then being on the other end of that kind of gaming just becomes unplayable.

As Infantry, my most hated unit is the Magrider (it's like a giant Infantry Armored Exoskeleton that can climb all over the place and deliver Insta-Death). After that it's probably the LPPA Scythe (it's like a giant Infantry Exoskeleton that can fly and has a MASSIVE Mag compared to other ESF A2G AI). After that it's probably Harasser.

Fortunately, I know how to fly ESF. And so I can Spawn an ESF and suddenly massively overmatch all those units. But most players can't fly ESF, and I think some of them just avoid playing VS.

Well they can, they could reach for the stick.

But to be honest there's still a lot more potential carrot left too before they need to do that. Exp rewards and the resouce system 2.0 could both help address overpopulation.

I have been playing multiplayer games for a really long time. The one common trait is people will always flock to the easiest and most powerful faction. Now I don't want to see vanu nerfed in any way but I do think its time for some buffs to nc lmg and maybe a slight recoil reduction for tr lmg. One of the best weapons we have is the cyclone with 652/167 but its an smg. I would like to see at least 1 lmg in our arsenal come down the line with the same 652/167 format, perhaps Anchor X2.

On top of that issue, the next biggest yet most downplayed problem is our nc max.. sure It can instagib a couple of people before you die. That its inferior to longer range dmg in which the max itself isn't in any real danger while consistently dealing damage. I have been literally begging for the Devs to realize nc need that heavy machine gun ns weapon as soon as possible. It would even things up for us being able to use our max in the same situations they can use theirs. Give them ns shotgun just so they can not complain as well.

I hope devs read this because it really is that important. When the above changes happen; I bet you real money the number of skirmishes nc win will increase. The last thing is our reaver, compared to the other two it feels like a toaster in air and it either needs some benefits in armor/hps or needs to be just as maneuverable as scythe/mosquito.

But if you step back and look at all the pros and cons you can see vanu have mostly pros.. Best lmg, vanu, Best fighter jet, vanu, best max, vanu, and one of the most under rated traits, best default camo. I get migrains fighting vanu at night. Its just silly. But its the reason why at most times vanu have the most pop.

Question to the Original poster what was the Server pop 20 to 40 minutes post alert did it even back or did the NC pop shot to the top in that time period?

I wouldn't like to play VS on that server. Must be boring as hell ...

They need to give more incentives for balancing the factions, not just XP when VS is already farmed up from the days of overpowered PPA and ZOE, the damage was done and DBGs needs to get its team to the drawing board for new ideas.

I mostly play VS, I chose them because they were at the time the underdog. They often remain the underdog during morning and mid afternoon hours most days at 23%-ish and NC above 35%. Then the NC log in and the population jumps in their favor around 40-50% on many weekdays until the evening hours when VS and NC kind of balance out with a percentage in either's favor. TR are notably the lowest pop on most days and evenings but when they overpop they do it with vast numbers.

It's not you, it's not other players doing anything wrong. It's the game not balancing population.
The devs have tried numerous things to account for balance with the exception of marketing- (suggest they rotate the game graphics at log on to show each faction, not just the NC as shown today in the primary marketing spot in the center of the screen).

How would you suggest the devs balance population?
What I've seen from their attempts over years now is:

• Teleporting functions have been reduced
• The Hex has changed a couple of times to alter flow (hex wasn't even on some continents and those were consistently low pop).
• Continent player entry tries to balance by not allowing new players on them until someone else logs out, works well between two factions but doesn't seem to for all three.

I feel your frustrations. When too many on any side have a population advantage it sucks being bored in the zerg or sucks not being able to counter. It's just not fun...

If the devs do anything to drive players to other factions the community would have a hissy fit.
As is, if I logon and the population is too far askew I usually don't play and check back later to see if population is better balanced. It's just the way it is...

Ok now Orion is not OP anymore, VS overpop is OP?...hahaha whats next, purple color is OP? Those whiners are so funny Can't wait new OP thread reason