4th Faction = 1% of Population

This has always been the case. People blame 4th factioning for their sudden drop in population, but it's moreso related to people simply logging off and not playing anymore because they don't like losing. When the game is no longer fun, you find another game that is.

During the height of the TR overpop on Waterson last year I actually switched to my VS and NC alts just to get a challenge, so I agree. I never really played very long on them though, as I hate the cert grind and much prefer my 70.

4th faction only happens when one side is winning all the alerts. It's characterized by a large population imbalance, where during the middle of an alert, the side that is precieved to be the loser loses a significant portion of their players, where the faction everyone thinks will win suddenly get a bunch of players.

Has it accured to anyone that maybie the precieved losers just log off because they lost their nerve and modivation, where the precieved winners hear about an alert and jump on to win the certs?

Anyone who is that hungry for certs, usually plays one empire, because they are after a good character with lots of gear/weapons/etc. Earning 50 certs a day for winning an alert just doesn't fit the motivation....

IMHO, pop swings after an alert has been declared have more to do with "Biolab alert? Screw that, I'm gonna go play something else for a while." than with anything else.

Also remember that, for reasons unknown to normal people, SOE decided to use percentages (%), not finite numbers to display populations on maps/servers.

This means that a % drop for one faction will result in a % rise for another faction.

Example:

Let's say all three factions each have an equal population of about 33% each.
TR = 33%
VS = 33%
NC = 34% (to make the total for all factions 100%... apparently SOE doesn't do decimal points...)

An Amerish ghost-cap Alert appears.
The NC currently hold over half of Amerish.

The '4th faction' losers get shifting.
(to grind their 'alts' or stroke their small ego or whatever.... )
TR = 32% (1% loss)
VS = 32% (1% loss)
NC = 36% (2% gain)
so just a 1% population shift from two factions results in a perceived 4% population difference between the factions.

Here's the same scenario with 10% shifts:
TR = 23% (10% loss)
VS = 23 (10% loss)
NC = 54% (20% gain) but a whopping 31% difference.


Now are we starting to see how the '4th faction' so imbalances the game?


Solutions:

- put a cool-down on changing between characters of a different faction.

- Lock the Alert continent.

- Display population numbers as finite (NOT percentages) so players can actually see what's going on.
From this:
TR = 33%
VS = 33%
NC = 34%
to this:
TR = 332
VS = 329
NC = 351

As suggested here:
https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2...-more-numbers-to-the-map-than-just-48.147220/

great ideas but i think they should only lock swapping characters when there is an alert on - any other time you should be able to swap around like normal
only reason i say this is usually when i log on i log on to all of my alts for the free passive points first before playing my main character, if there is a cool down ALL the time then i wont be able to get my passive points each day

I want to second this. ^

Firstly, it's true.
(Often I was getting +15% defence bonus, +x% population bonus and every kill was netting me 'Extreme menace' bonus XP too.
As the underdog, even now, you can make certs/XP like a bandit)

Second, this suggestion plays to the cert/XP grind chase that a lot of players (and more likely the '4th faction'ers) will be attracted to.
If you make sticking with the underdog more attractive than the dominating zerg, populations will naturally balance out (or pendulum back and forth slightly...)

It's a game PR 101. Always pitch the highest numbers you got (like total number of subs ever made), never admit the lowest (like how many players are online in the middle of your average workday)
In this case it makes a bit of sense as it limits the kneejerk reaction of 'zomg from the hard numbers i see the game is dying!!!!' and number of people heading for the exit. Sure, you can get that info in a roundabout way, but most people don't care enough and if the game doesn't tell them that, they will never know.