A personal (short don't worry) theory / speculation as to why "farmer condensation" happens.

Farmer condensation : the increasing density of players who just want to farm

I was wondering, the reason I was wondering is because I never ever (like ever) use the "join combat" option. So I don't know how it works, and I don't know how people use it.

When I started playing 6 years ago most people didn't use it, they chose where to go, they decided where to fight. Anyway...

When the population of a continent is lower (outside of prime time, can't be more precise), it seems there is a high percentage of players who "just want a fight" and don't care about anything else, even if an alert is running.

I'm guessing those players use the "join combat" option.

I'm speculating, that when the population is lower than prime time, the join combat option directs all players to the biggest fight, and/or to a big fight. Such as a biolab....

So imagine that I'm one of those miserable peasant farmers, I click join combat, I end up in the local biolab. After a while, I might get bored, so I click it again, but again, it directs me to the biolab.


If this is true (and I don't iknow whether it is but it would make sense), then that means that the join combat system is activelyt sabotaging the alerts by directing all players to a big fight.

If this big fight is in a biolab, the two opposing factions will "farm" each other for hours, while the 3rd faction, who doesn't have a big fight like that biolab, will basically push, rapidly taking control of the entire map while our friendly peasant farmers farm it out without a care in the world in the biolab.

Nah, the problem is that the game doesnt promote playing the core of the game (capturing bases) and does promote farming through KD.
They need to do better on the core gamplay. Add smaller objectives to complete and prominently display counters for such objectives. Give out more rewards for successful actions like pushing enemies from a chokepoint or highly defensible area (designated by a large amount of enemies held up in the same area for some time) so that players care less about KD and more about what they could do for their team. Who cares about having a high KD if you can achieve a high amount of successful chokepoint breaks or vehicle destructions and feel just as good about it as for KD? You can see the difference between a sad infantry farmer and a genuinely hard fighting guy who takes risks to kill something dangerous.

Balance the XP gains.

As it is now, the best way to grind certs is either to kill or heal/resurrect/repair/supply if you fancy more playing support. Killing gives you extra (KDR).

Capturing a base after a prolonged fight gives you what? 250-500 XP. Forget it. Who cares.

My suggestion: review XP gains and give SOMETHING random (directive weapons or armor for example) for winning an alert.

I just thought of this, even though it's so blatantly obvious, but I can check this myself, by "joining combat" myself! lol

It hadn't crossed my mind, but I'll give it a shot and report back if I find or confirm anything interesting !

Many of us don't use join combat except to see if it would take us to the place we've chosen and are trying to travel to.

I use the map filter option to display enemies and jump where the high concentration is at. Often means I'll be badly underpop, but so be it.

I play in formal platoons less and less these days simply because I don't find squad-platoon leaders to be very good. They tend to get their guys farmed or attack bases with little resistance. It's not fun gameplay. I would rather surf fights and try to make a difference that way.