A lot of people might disagree with this. I quit PlanetSide 2 for about a year and a half after playing since 2013 and came back about 2 months ago now. I work at home so i have a lot of time to play at any time in the day NC being my main but recently i played with the TR and Vanu accounts i own as we all do and noticed while playing TR or Vanu that fighting NC was really the only decent fights i could get too. So i checked the map only to find that Vanu and TR only fight 96+ with NC. The only time i have seen TR and Vanu have a real good fight is when its an important base. Don't get me wrong i enjoy this because i'm never bored with NC being my main but when it comes to Events its never a fair fight with it being TR and Vanu only fighting NC. If there is away to see stats on this i would love to see them and also if i'm completely wrong on this i'm not a hard core PlanetSide 2 player that checks all the stats and what not. Other things that you might ask, Right now the server on Colbalt is this Indar Population VS-28% TR-36% NC-34% --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Territory Control VS-23% TR-48% NC-26% TR and VS fight NC 4 big fights TR and VS fights 1 big fight Also on a side note normally this server is balanced on pop but its always the same TR and Vanu fighting NC. This isn't a cry post too its more of a should i continue playing PlanetSide post Thank you.
Short answer: Only if you're a masochist who doesn't care about feeling like you're Accomplishing anything greater than gradual Cert gain (but not as FAST as you would by maining Vanu) Long answer: https://imgur.com/17r5jZK https://imgur.com/EXSSklC https://imgur.com/ALcNBr1 https://imgur.com/KWLfnOw https://imgur.com/UT3hZLp https://imgur.com/zweXKvy https://imgur.com/84T2kqt https://imgur.com/W69vQxq Bonus Answer: or you're dead inside and wasting time until an actually GOOD 3-way-Faction MMORPG comes out (next year)
The thing is the super tight faction pop control on continents actually prevents factions from defending themselves against double team. Since all factions are equal, the moment 2 factions unite against one, you have 66% vs 33%. There needs to be no limit so factions game so double team can happen against a faction with huge pop in order to keep the battlefield even. I've said this from the beginning, the game balances itself out, there's no need to try to make it balanced on paper, because it never works out that way, that's not just war, it's real life.
If there was no population limit.. Lets say each is 33% in pop; Now there's 2 opponents per side, so each has 15% or so leveled against the other side's 15% So each is facing 33%, across 2 fronts. For TR, for example, They have 15% vs 15% on the VS front, and 15% vs 15% on the NC front. If TR could hold over 50% of the population: TR can then field 25% for each front, the remaining sides have 25% split evenly. Now for that VS, to engage NC & TR, they have to split 25% in half. Same with NC. While TR, has a comfortable 25% per front, and can face both sides at once in even numbers at the worst situation. Without population control, as well, Say your fighting that TR at 50% population. In the best case, you have 25% pop yourself, now if you only fight TR, you leave your side defenseless to VS, and if TR focuses one side entirely, they have twice your entire population. If TR faces both at once, assuming they ignore each other, the fight is even; if they don't, TR then has the numeric advantage. This means, VS & NC in this example, are moments away from being crippled if one or the other attacks. While TR is never in a bad position, even against 2 forces at once, by sheer population volume. If TR decided to say, engage NC at that population difference; They would severely crippling NC, which VS now has less NC defending against them, giving VS more territory. If both NC & VS engaged the Over-pop TR in this situation, TR would break even across both fronts at once. While NC & VS, would have to completely ignore each other, which is impractical: And leaves TR still at equal strength. Lets' see, if it goes past 50%, which it would (and none of this is Specific to TR, you can switch every faction name around in the above, repeatedly), at 60%, every fight with TR is essentially a fight against a force with 10% additional reinforcements even with a PERFECT ceasefire across the other sides. If it raises to 75%, now there's 25% more TR available at any & all fights, which makes Fighting TR undesirable, this then royally cascades into one of the two sides being mauled by the Overpop & the remaining other faction. Now , with each side not allowed to literally match both opponents at once, the Issue of a cascading Population advantage isn't brutal. IE prevents two sides being discouraged from attacking one side by sheer numeric advantage. Would you like to fight ANY of the three factions when they have more than Both the remaining sides in players? If you were to engage them, You'd be fighting an uphill battle against more men than both remaining sides have. And if you dedicated your entire population against that faction; you leave yourself to be ganked, by the other. Which means, Whomever the Overpop attacks, is then attacked by the 3rd, as they have better odds getting territory & wins from the poor sod being attacked than drawing the Attention of the Over-pop Who can attack both at once without concern. IE, no population control, means One side becomes so massive they can't be fought. Any actual "double-teaming" is severely worse, when there is no population control, since one side can grow to tackle both even in Perfect-Cooperation, without a single issue in brutally warp-gating them both, at even a 60-75% population advantage. That's also why (as no perfect-cooperation happens in live play), that having balanced pops is not an issue. Getting an entire faction as a whole, to engage only one of the two opponents, isn't practical. And if one side could grow larger than both opponents, then They are quite literally going to promote a one-sided Gank on the underpop - rather than be fighting two forces at once & only them, which they could literally afford to do. (The two other sides, are not reliably going to ignore the weakened opponent, being mauled by the largest population.)
Just checked the stats for Cere's, the last time Nc Controlled a Continent was 5 days ago. Since then Vs have captured 7 continents and Tr have captured 4 continents. 6 days ago Vs captured 2 continents on that day
Yes, done it before. The system worked not perfectly, but definitely worked better than now, giving the opportunity for factions to fight back. The scenarios you described are hypothetical, they haven't (or rarely) occurred when the balance wasn't as restricted. Especially now with NS bots, the lower populated factions would simply receive all the NS troops to support them against the higher pop faction.
Personally I think this is an issue amongst all three factions. I've been playing since 2013, also on Cobalt, and there are many times I see 2 v 1 behaviour. I will agree I do see it against NC, but also TR. Out of observation (so this may be untrue) I find VS to be the least double-teamed faction.
It's not a faction issue. The 3-faction system just begs for unbalanced situations. There's a reason why there never was a simultaneous 3 sided battle in history. It's stupid.
Sorry, but I need to use your statement as it sums up a lot of misconception. The 3 faction system FIXES unbalanced situations. Consider a two faction system: If one faction has pop advantage, that's it. The other faction gets curbstomped and nothing can be done about it. Indefinitely until the population shifts during a different time of day, or FOREVER if the populations are simply imbalanced all the time. The game would die. For a 3 faction system if one faction becomes grossly imbalanced say 40% of pop, it is still possible to counter them if the other two work together. They have a combined 60% still. THAT is why we do 3 factions. A side effect of this is the unnecessary double team. It happens some. A common example would be when map control does not match faction populations. The dominant faction is more likely to get double teamed even if they have lower pop. You can also see situations arise where it simply doesn't make sense for a bit. If one faction warpgates another for example, it's going to setup a vendetta that will last long after the populations have swung in a different direction. For me personally I dig it. I play the underpop faction on purpose a lot. Both as an NS, and just by picking one of my other avatars. I would rather struggle against more people than be bored waiting on someone to kill.
Worked better you say? Yeah, the lowest Population gets NS reinforcements now, that's mainly VS. If the Highest Population attacks the 2nd, or the low-pop attacks the 2nd, then what? They have less population than the High-pop, and none of the benefits or help of the lowest pop. So they get attacked by both sides, and get nailed onto oblivion. So the only side, that "gets to fight back", with unrivaled population numbers, is the Overpop against whomever they please without concern, While their target gets to Die. If they targeted the Underpop, they would now face NS reinforcements.. If they targeted mid-pop, they'd fight a smaller enemy with no benefits at all. Which is also whom the Underpop Usually goes after for the exact same reason. Lets' give you another example: There's like 50-200 TR guys sitting in VR, waiting to pop onto the map. If TR were to gain 60-75% overpop, the underpop would gain the NS troops. The sods who are in the middle however, gain neither the NS, nor have the population advantages, so are the best target. And of course; With 60-75% of the population on the map, TR in that case can literally handle both fronts at once with equal pop. When one faction has enough people, to fight 'back' against two other factions at once, with the entire population of those factions as their defence & attack force, that single Faction dictates the entire map. If they don't evenly split, whatever they attack is now the weakest link (and that's either the Mid-pop Or Under-pop) Leaving the remaining side to either fight Overpop, or take land from that same target. NS only helps the Underpop, IE 1 of 3 sides, the lowest population. When The Overpop outnumbers the Mid-pop by an entire 10-60%, that Mid-pop group is straight screwed. While these days, the Underpop, gets Reinforcements, so they're less vulnerable, and more dangerous, Specifically to the mid-pop. IE, Do you not recall when the Overpop went after a specific faction, which led to the 2nd faction joining in, rather than get Swarmed by the overpop? Right now, that pop balance, prevents one side dominating strictly from Sheer population mass. Which, Snowballs hard, and Forces both opponents to attack the largest force or be overwhelmed, if there was no Population control. It also means, if the Overpop attacks the Mid-pop, they're screwed, since they don't have the people & don't have the benefits of being underpopped. Typically, having one side be able to outpopulate two entire Factions IF they dedicated their ENTIRE force to one-front line.. is a bad thing. As 66%vs33% , with the 66% being composed of two enemies, needs & requires them being perfectly coordinated, and not at all engaging each other; a rarity. Unlike if the 66% was one single faction, where there can be no infighting, and where the entire count can blend & split as it pleases.
That's exactly what people (at least the OP) don't want. For my part, I'd prefer the 3 faction system if maps were grossly triangular and one warpgate didn't give a huge advantage (north on Indar, south on Esamir,...)
I don't really care what the OP wants as he doesn't quite know what he's talking about. /shrug. When the game first released the warpgates didn't rotate. Ever. You can see remnants of this if you look closely at the ground on the maps. Some warpgates have vanu markings around them.
Yes, worked better, and I can testify this because I've experienced both systems. As I said, the claims you bring up are blatantly false, or simply didn't occur enough to make them relevant. The pop restrictions now prevent factions from fighting against double teams, which I can say do not require coordination as you said lol. Literally a leader of a large outfit tells another leader from another faction, hey dude, lets just attack *insert faction here*. -Ok cool, I'll stop attacking you guys. There's little to no coordination as you say, two factions simply decide to cease fighting and focus on the third, each faction separately pushes whatever fronts they have with that chosen faction. The controls ensure that there's no way some players can log off the double teaming faction and go balance out the one that's getting destroyed. This means there's almost always a 66% vs 33% when a faction gets double teamed. Before the numbers would vary, maybe a faction had 20%, another 30% and the third 50%, sometimes, the two strongest united against the third, but very quickly it gets adjusted, either players decide it's too boring and switch factions or attack the other. I'm having trouble understanding how you defend a system we've seen work worse than what was there before
If one side, right now, is dealing with 66%, that requires the 66% to be focused solely on them. Which means they have to completely not engage as a faction the other opponent, and have no same-team advantages as them. IE they can barely operate near each other in the slightest. When a single faction holds 66% however, they out-pop both sides unless they are solely focused on that single faction. Which I might add, still leaves a full 66% population that has full allied support for that number. IE every single Sunderer, router-pad, command channel chatter, and force is able to be coordinated & benefits with full access to every asset on the field. VS\NC, in my previous examples, Can't access each other's sunderers, auto-turrets fire upon, and no easy communication methods. If there is 30 NC & VS, and 60 TR, that's 60 TR able to use every sunderer, vehicle, and router on the Field, with insurance of owning the spawn point if defending. Unlike the NC or VS, whom need duplicate of every spawn system, and will trigger every land-mine or auto-defense of the other. Hell, they can't even share their radar data. A force that actually is on the same team, is far more effective let alone on a macro-scale than one divided across-lines. No single faction should be able to hold off the entire population of both opponents at once. As that means, If those two actually fought each-other, They'd be mauled by said Single faction. And would have to ignore easy Pickings, if said Massive faction didn't perfectly split their forces equally. Lets' put your little bit into a scenerio; Platoon A of NC, has 32 men. Platoon B of VS, has 32 men. Platoon D & E of TR has 64 men. TR has 64 men, able to entirely match both A & B Platoons at once, with full benefit of controlling all TR assets. A & B, can not share spawns, Land-mines, sensor-data, nor vehicles. So effectively, Platoon B has lets say 4 Sunderers, to field their 32 men. Platoon D has 4 Sunderers, as does Platoon E, for a grand 8 Mobile Spawn-Points, all 64 men can spawn at any of them. Platoon A, has 4 Sunderers, to field their 32 men. If E takes out 3 of A's Sunderers, there is now 1 Sunderer for 32 men; Even if B had all 4 Sunderers, they can't use them. If E loses 4 Sunderers, E's entire group of 32 can still spawn at the other 4 Sunderers in Platoon D's possession. How about Medics? E & D can actively heal each other in proximity, allowing intermixing of forces, a combined & solid front line or back-end. A & B , can not heal, revive, or even repair assets, of each other. If A loses their Engineer, it doesn't matter if B has 32 engineers. If E loses their Engineer, any engineer from D, is able to repair or supply the nearby allied forces. 100 Men on the same team, is a lot more effective than 100 men split in half. Also Double-teaming happens to lower or medium-population groups, which without population control,Goes well past 66% differences. Let alone if the Over-pop attacks the underpop, even with NS reinforcements, That's going to be hell. However, if they attack the Mid-pop; Whom have no bonuses of any kind nor reinforcement.. Then the Underpop, just has to not poke the bear, and they get every additional bonus they like. Now lets go into that Coordination; Unless the entire population of 33%, is under the yoke of a single commander.. You are not getting the entire faction to cease any & all engagements on an entire front. Sure, a couple platoons might focus on one-enemy, over splitting their men to attack two at once, but not the whole faction. And that means, their lines are now less populated; IE vulnerable & likely far from responding to a threat from fac #2. Which literally means, every single squad has to not attack or engage any of those bases, while the opponent is stuck in a deadlock with the majority of their forces. This description should sound familiar: It's usually how the Underpop undermines one of the two other factions. By burrowing into one, often enough not needing much men, as their primary are against the other side. Couple of bases are lost, backend shatters, said side is now mauled by both. And those actions lead whatever faction to do it, Being Targeted for the next Map as payback, for literally screwing them. Now imagine if one single side could have 60-90% of the population, and being Mid-pop was 20-5% of the population. Would be hell, if the Popular faction on said server, didn't spread their forces... since they'd outpop every fight by a factor of 2-5x at a mere 50-60% overpop. (Do I mention, that TR on several servers would reach that 75% overpop, and NC on miller, where even if Both sides managed to Get around the sheer number of problems of effectively using the numeric count for long periods, Their opponent could send forces equal to their entire population at every base at once.) People currently Snowball alert wins. Do you seriously think they'd not play their favorite faction, driving it to 90%, and steam-roll every fight? We have the NS for ***** sake: Their entire existence is that Pop balance isn't even, with Player populations. If players would actually Go balance the pops out, so one side isn't steam-rolled, We wouldn't HAVE the sodding locks, nor NS. VS wouldn't have the Underpop Rep, and NC wouldn't likely have the History-of-Indar saga of being mauled by the map & both TR & VS.
