How to fix uneven teams

Uneven teams is the bane of FPS games. It is even worse on planetside, because it persists for long periods, resulting in big zergs and lots of ghost caps and spawnroom camps that just aren't fun.

So how about giving players an option to opt into a "shared character xp" where you have a character on each empire and they are linked together via one xp pool. So if I'm earning certs on my TR I'm also earning certs on my NC and VS (though I can still spend them separately). If you opt into this program (which is a pretty nice benefit) the downside is that you are added to the pool of people who will be automatically team switched to balance the teams, and if you are team balanced you are locked out of changing empires for 1 hour.

This is a huge incentive, but it also solves a major problem that has been in the game since release, and does it in a way that doesn't frustrate players, because they have to opt in to feel its effects.

Another option would be a similar idea, but perhaps easier, where you can opt into being a team balance volunteer, and if things get too far out of whack you get offered a chance to switch in exchange for some period of double XP (with the aforementioned empire lock).

It's obvious that the current incentives are not good enough (especially since if you want ISO sometimes you just simply have to switch even to an overpopped empire because otherwise you're never going to get to upgrade your implants).

A third option is to make the reward ISO based. Switching to the underpopulated team gives you an ISO boost if you play for a full hour after the switch on that team. Maybe a 200 iso reward for being a good sport.

I like the idea in principal. I have a basic question, how would you care about ppl, who initially join the ubderpoped fraction, is it always the lowest Pop fraction or that with the least teretorry?
Most ppl have one heavy main, sometimes also real problems with the other fractions.

Well and iso, most hard vets have all maxed, but they can do some to the balance, if not just farming.
Bad players who are willed to swap would be only some more zerg or victims.

i like the idea as an idea. but as a whole it wouldnt help.

the issue is not realy pop its faction inbalance.

on connory the heavyer pop is VS there numbers are higher due to the embalance that is in the game its self as a whole the guns are slightly over powered. have no bullet drop and can pritty much rip though nearly every class at close or long range look at there snipers they pritty much have a point and shoot one hit kill sniper to start out with from the start at br 1

it has no bullet drop. no weapon sway and can one shot head shot upto a HA

then look at the NC as well and how unbalanced some of there guns are. the starting carbine for LA if used right can pritty much be a hand cannon for someone that know how to quick scope or knows even how to use there scopes or sights.

and then you have the TR that get heavy nurfs thrown at them ragulerly becuse hay the devs play on the other factions but DONT play on TR at all. the main faction the devs play is VS theres only like one or 2 that play on NC and there are none on TR

if there where the guns would be more balanced. but there not. you can see how over powered they are just playing the game as a TR. the TR are sapost to be the highest DPS in the game. have guns that our fire the other 2 factions yet somehow VS and NC can do this at range with there guns and some of the none faction spesafied ones. this leads me to beleave that TR are not the DPS faction but in fact are the anti buff one.

as you play you notice this offten. a HA or a LA with a stalk weapon that is for TR goes agenst any gun in the VS or NC and a good 6 out of 10 times the enamy is going to win outright. its not a matter of who saw who first eather. its a matter of " i shot this guy in the back of the head with a full mag on my carbine and he turned around and droped me in one shot from a default gun for his faction " type set up.

if gone into fire fights had enamys dead to right. and had them just turn around on me and still drop me in only a few shots even though im dumping a full mag on them. if the TR are sapost to be the DPS kings of the server with there guns then they better beable to outshoot anyone elses guns easaly more offten then they out shoot us.

the other issue is geting 2-3 taped by the gauss saws on NC while you have full armour and health.

anyway back to my point. each faction has there hidden perks. nc is base damage but they lose bullets in clip. TR are DPS but lose damage from clips. and the VS have no bullet drop with no real draw backs that i have ever seen both playing agenst them or with them.

by balancing this set up out the way it should be. the issue with teams would be fixed.

if all the guns had a base line damage or where balanced at all people wouldnt pick just the VS to play on. or just the NC they would play in all 3 equaly. becuse if there was balance no faction would be better then any of the others.

imo the easy fix for overpops is just giving the underpoped nation exp and iso benifits for exp if the vs(miller) has like 30 or 25% pop they gain 50 or 80% exp more than the other nations
and more iso per continent lock

if they win with an underpop they gain more iso aswell

this is not perfect but i believe it will raise the overall pop on the lower pop

Balance is boring.

I'm pretty sure Candyland is very well balanced.

I like the idea of more experience (a small percentage boost) for being on an under-represented faction on a map. Or even in individual battles on the map.

Even if that doesn't reduce zergs, it does at least give people who are zerged something for their (often frustrating) effort.

Otherwise I generally check pop in a fight on the map and if its uneven will purposely pick to fight where it is at least balanced (if not in our teams favor). I also faction hop for alerts because the difference from winning versus losing is so severe it just makes sense to switch. But that is for another thread...

If i do remember each faction has a sniper rifle with the whole ( no sway option ). The VS weapons are not overpowered and NC weapons are just fine. I play TR and VS on emerald and i have no idea how you get the TR are under powered/weapons are not balanced, maybe the TMG-50 could use some love but other than that can you list some weapons? maybe some other things that are not balanced? Also not every VS weapon has no bullet drop, only the ones that have no use for it minus the phaseshift..

there is so much wrong in this post completely with contradictions in itself...

Vets don't care about XP or ISO. But they care about nanites. Use nanite generation as leverage to balance fights, but it has to be on a local level, as low-pop factions zerg just as hard.

After that post I assume u have not played a vs character to lvl1? Their starting sniper is no OHK.

Well the rest of ur post is crap. If you loose solid 6/10 against vs and NC, jump on those fractions, it won't change bcuz ure just bad.

this is intended for players that have a player in rivaling nations to cert up their player in a much faster way and to attract new players to the new faction it would actually attract me to play more as vs because i do have a char there and would like to train him a bit faster

Removing ghost capping would help this matter greatly.

There must be some way of implementing a system that stipulates a base must have opposing players in the vicinity of the base in order to capture it. Theoretically they could add a force multiplier to this, ie an overpop faction can't just send one person to base hop, they would have to send a few units to facilitate the capture ( that number increasing incrementally depending on pop), thus giving defenders a chance to respond and potentially diluting zergs in the process.

Just increase +xp percentages for underdog factions and there will be balance in no time. 50% max isn't motivating enough when other faction has 5 times more players. +500% XP and everyone and their uncles want to play that faction.

Faction imbalance is a problem, but fight imbalance is a bigger problem, and none of these faction-wide bonuses do anything to address zerging. What's done on a local level is much more important.

Basically, this just isn't the right fit for the people you describe. Or they are welcome to reroll and progress an all-faction character with the understanding that they will be susceptible to team balancing. I don't really see a drawback here, this is mostly for a small portion of the population that believe in things like sportsmanship and like fair fights more than winning, and are willing to risk things like still being on the underpopped side.

Sure, but this isn't meant to address fight imbalance. One thing at a time. You are always going to have fight imbalance if there is faction imbalance (except in rare circumstances), this is just part of it. But also an important part. I also think that if you do get switched, it wouldn't hurt to add additional temporary bonuses to your character in compensation (things like always having the biolab benefit, or maybe even always being able to pull libs and heavy tanks).

Yep, this is also a good idea, but still when people are more interested in ISO than xp it doesn't work as well.

The problem with this is that it encourages a strategy of sitting in your warpgate and building up a zerg (probably of galaxies), then swarming around and crushing bases one at a time.

I'm amazed you were able to read it. What language is it in?

You would be a good candidate for the system I proposed. Most people won't do what you're doing without a little nudge, and this would provide that nudge.