As more realize the balance NC experiences mass exodus

Connery here. PubsFinest last i check 187 strong. Most of the time we have 40+ people on at primetime. NC fights on this server.

Sneaky bast*rds

I guess that would make TR like the fat skinhead in American History X, right.

Oddly the NS had the largest pop last night on my server. 35 percent. First time I have seen this.

And yet since yesterday the NC is locking continents.

Well, if the largest NC pop you've EVER seen is 35% (just over fairly balanced)...

Couple things.

Server population at character select does not accurately measure actual player population. I *believe* (just from observation) its just a count of total chars rolled on that server collecting dust.

I can pretty confidantly say that statement is accurate as Jaeger is rarely seeing more than a 3-4% gap between factions at character select...

..but you log in and check travel terminals to see the continent populations and it's wayyyyyyy off from those numbers.

I just logged off to go do errands because for the 3rd day in a row I logged on to see us completely outnumbered in all 3 continents. NC had, literally, and I quote:
3%, 17%, 13% population across the 3 continents. Perhaps not in that order. That is all but unplayable circumstances unless you want to cap empty bases.

2nd thing. To the L2P crowd that should have been prevented by a means of birth control:
NC guns do the most potential theoretical damage right? You're totally pro and always hit your targets with grim accuracy right?

How are you not unstoppable, and why aren't top players coming into these threads to debunk us with their tales of amazing statistics and performance with our weapons? Accuracy is NOT an issue for top end players, so why aren't they all gravitating towards NC? In a bubble, they are the best weapons if all weapons hit 100% of the time right? No... not at all...

Because the other factions guns are still way better in their hands. Combine that with our guns being the least 'entry level friendly', and youve got us losing top and low end players left and right.

I'm normally pretty reasonable, and open for discussion but I've seen enough since launch that I won't be convinced I am anything but correct.

Pretentious though it may be.

I bid you adieu. (google it)

Playing on Mattherson and really havent noticed any sort of dip in NC population, maybe slight increase even. Continent population is stupid thing to base your arguments on, I've seen times when there was 80% of some faction on continent while they had miniscule numbers on others (this is usual state of game in my experience, each faction zergs different continent).

Tbh I just dont like slow weapons that hit hard^^

Give me a fast shooting gun that sounds well and im happy I dont care about the dmg^^ The starter gun for engineer as terran is awesome for instance.

I think people should realize since you can only play on one faction per server, that during the first few weeks people are bound to try different factions, therefore play on different servers. So the shift in player population will swing around for awhile until people settle with the faction they like to play. Also all servers are quite different, and a reduction in NC pop on your server may mean a gain for another server.

On Connery I noticed TR dominate with the most population, NC second but not far behind, while VS is the distant 3rd. On Genuidine, VS is the dominant faction, NC outnumbers the rest during late nights and early mornings, and TR a distant 3rd. Just an example of two West coast servers, but very different results. People should not jump to any conclusions based on the population of a given faction on just one server that they play on.

Also as with a 3 faction system, seen in DAOC back in 2003, players will tend to flock to the highest populated faction on a server when deciding to join a faction. So if someone wants to play say VS, they'll more likely to join Genudine than Connery since VS population is high there. It's just how it works with players, not many want to be the underdog 3rd faction in a 3 realm system. Seen it in DAOC, totally expect it here. There are less people willing to fight the hard fight than some like to suggest.

And thats a worrying sign

lol...k, I guess Outfit X's 100+ active members are just sitting around at the warpgate. Its not just 666 that is making a difference on Connery. BTW, its not the size that matters. Its the quality of players you bring into your outfit that matters.

I also want to note that I am not seeing this population drop others seem to be seeing.

NC population on Jaeger seems ok so far.
So my NC Starter LMG sux? I was having a blast with the HA starter lmg all weekend and upgraded it's attachments and everything.

I have noticed that if a TR or V Hvy Assault creep on me and get the drop...it's a quick Brrrt brrrt and I'm dead where as I'm like in full FLAIL mode bang bang bang bang bang bang bang x 10 lol. Maybe a little off balance but damn it's all so fun! I'm sticking to NC with the gay blue and poodoo weapons, I'll make it work =)
Cheers!

I am gonna have to call Bullsh*t on OPs post. I play on Connery, and from the character select screen the VS are 95% of the time the lowest population empire. I play VS... I have since Beta and played as VS for years on the original Planetside.

NC on Connery fight, they have higher pop than VS almost every night, and they don't seem to have any trouble rolling over us when they set their minds to it. As a VS I hate fighting NC because 1v1 as LA I tend to lose most of the time and at medium to long range the NC guns hit like a truck. TR for some reason are far more manageable / evenly matched for my playstyle.

I see NC complain about balance on the forums now... on the livestream the devs suggested NC are in fact NOT underpowered compared to the other empires... If you are struggling as an NC I suggest you adjust your playstyle to fit the strengths of the Empire or play an Empire whose strengths better suit you.

NC on Connery are not diminished... frankly they kick a$$

Honestly doesn't matter what guns are involved, guy who starts shooting first will usually win, unless we're talking about some extremes (lolfiltrator with handgun vs heavy with shotgun for example).

I can say that as somebody who plays HA rarely (only when theres tank zerg to defend from) I really have no problems on NC. This is ofc personal viewpoint and somebody elses mileage may vary but I find TR and NC non-HA classes pretty similar, no hard data, just personal "feeling" (VS guns have slight advantage imo, but nothing extreme). Maybe HA weps are real dealbreakers, can't comment much on that though.

Very unlikely considering how heavy the Vanu fluctuate on Woodman.

I love to see NC whine. In the end of beta, there were countless posts from NC players complaining when their weapons were put inline with TR and VS. When you die in a tank battle, take note that the damage was probably done by an enemy lighting... not an MBT.

To quote one of the funniest posts I read in beta:
"If I wanted to be useless and look bad doing it, I'd play NC".

Playing NC means learning to use the phonetic alphabet and being made to feel like your constant goal is to undermine the enemy, not attack them head-on. Remember that all your "leaders" are former NC PS1 vets, and they came from a time when all they did was end run-arounds and Gen killing. They never wanted to actually fight.

I've always wondered if there was some preset respawn limit for the NC since after 10 minutes on a battle line they all disappear. Maybe it's just that they don't have some disembodied motivational voice saying "Fight Harder!", "You are about to lose this facility!", or "You didn't fail Vanu, you failed yourself".

1 thing to help you out here. The faction distribution you see on the continent select screen at the terminals is not population, But territory owned.
This can be verified easily by looking at the continent selection map from the terminals. Then pulling up your in game map. Go to the top right, there is a pulldown box for population. There you can select territory control. You will see the same numbers that you see when switching continents. You can then switch the pull down on the map to continent population and get the real population numbers by continent.
When you see 3% on the continent switch screen all that tells you is your faction is pushed back. The continent could still have balanced populations though.

Part of the problem is ghost hackers role playing on an empty continent. Not that I don't do it when I run low on resources, but really, do we need 500 NC to ghost hack Amerish?

I was on Amerish twice last night for resources. There were far too many NC ghost hacking that continent. We could have really used some help on Indar / Esamir.

It was maybe 50 people on Indar trying to fight back, and maybe twice that on Esamir.

The rest of the empire was ghost hacking Amerish, getting 1 kill per hour.