[Suggestion] Promote Balance instead of Prevent Unbalance

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by DarkStarAnubis, Jun 10, 2018.

  1. DarkStarAnubis

    Despite the fact PS is a sandbox, it has some built-in hard rules for population overpop/underpop and faction balance/unbalance. According to those rules continents are locked and players are stacked in queues.

    While I recognize the good intentions in those rules I believe they do more harm than good, so here's my proposal:

    Aside for hard-limit sets by the server's hardware (max population on a given continent/server) all continents are always 100% open for players but:

    (a) Continent-wise (winning an alert) the amount of certs/Iso-4/prize etc is proportional to the factions (attackers vs. defenders) ratio weighted from the beginning to the alert till its conclusion. So a faction winning an alert with a constant massive over-pop will gain very little, whereas a faction winning an alert being always severely under-pop will earn a lot. Conversely for the factions trying to stop the alert.

    (b) Region-wise the amount of XP gained for any event (but conquering the region) is again proportional to the factions ratio (attackers vs. defenders) in the region, computed in real-time when the event happen. So if a base is Zerged so the ratio attackers/defenders is very high again the attackers will earn very little in XP when they kill/blow up things. Conversely, the defenders will earn less if they have a massive advantage and more if they are severely under-pop

    (c) Region-wise, the amount of XP gained for conquering the region follows the same logic of the continent. If a region is Zerged at the end the attackers will earn very little.

    "No risk - no gain"
    • Up x 2
  2. DeadlyOmen

    Balance is boring.

    There are plenty of opportunities for players to create beneficial balancing opportunities without socialistic carrot/stick alternatives.
  3. FateJH

    It is the system's perogative to enforce as much balance among players as is reasonable the game. It is the player's perogative to milk every inch of imbalance from the system as is unreasonable for their opponent.
  4. Prudentia

    Players do not give a **** about balance.
    it is the game designers job to get people to join each faction equally.
  5. DrPapaPenguin

    I see a problem, and it's to do with starting a fight in the first place. There needs to be a grace period before the negative modifiers kick in, or it has to start with a certain popuation number, like 48+. Otherwise invading a hex will be extremely dissatisfying if there is no one to fight, but we need that territory. More so that it is right now when no one comes to fight you.
  6. Xebov

    In a nutshell you are saying "We penalize your faction because the other faction doesnt participate." You trying to solve an issue that is none and making it worse in the process. Every overpop will even out at some point.
  7. Prudentia

    overpop doesn't balance itself out by time. it only gets balanced by the devs changing the game
  8. DarkStarAnubis


    True, you could manage that by adding hysteresys (aka your grace period).

    If 20 players zerg an empty base and the base remains void of defenders they will get the base but with poor XP gain.

    If a few defenders appear and then they give up seeing it is an hopeless fight the attackers will get a tad more XP.

    If the defenders appear in huge quantity and despite that, the attackers manage to hold the point(s) enough to get the base, they'll be rewarded by plenty of XP.
  9. Xebov

    He mainly talks about base/region and in this cases overpop does even itself out over time.

    What i miss here is this: What exactly do you hope to acomplish with that? Zergs are part of the game, they develop and at some point they either stop existing or are countered. And this works most of the time.

    So far you would even make things worse. Capping needed but empty terretory already yields little XP, lowering it makes it even more less likely that players follow a capping tactic because they recieve even less. You want to penalize players for something they can do very little about.