[Suggestion] 4th factioning & how SOE should force things around

Yes, so? Is that even what we're talking about? .

I don't even...
Nothing will stop a zerg. My suggestion is not about stopping zergs, it's to make them less powerful and for people to feel they stand a chance on the CONTINENT. It's to make the game more balanced.

Wait..what? Higher population doesn't consistently make people leave a continent? What game are you playing? I'm playing a game where higher population wins every day. If you look at the countless of threads about "this and that empire is overpopulated" and "SOE do something about population imbalance" I'm not the only one.

Now you're just spouting nonsense. Sorry but I can't figure out if you're just saying things randomly or trying to argue here. Not trying to be mean, I really AM baffled.
Why shouldn't PS2 be balanced? Explain this to me, please. Are you one of those that are the most happy when your empire has 60% on a continent and steamrolls everyone? If so, then you and I are completely different. I don't enjoy the game when ANY empire has too high population. I enjoy even and fair fights, anyone who has been in one probably remember them as the most fun fights they've had.
Doesn't balance matter just for the sake of how fun a game is? No matter win conditions? I'm not trying to make PS2 into any game it isn't, I love PS2 but I would love it even more if SOE did something about population imbalances. I think many would agree.

Exactly WHAT are your fears with an automated system that balances population across the board?

It's a terrible idea. This is a F2P game, that means you can't force players to play a certain faction, or on a certain continent, or in a certain base. You can't punish players for the choices of a majority.

When I play I look for balanced base fights, I don't give 2 ***** about the continent balance.

Agree.

They could however, display wait times on the Character Selection screens. And those wait times should prioritise the under populated faction, if they don't already.

This Right Here.

A better alternative to give underdogs a better chance is to increase the amount of time it takes to cap an underdog's base by the overpopulated faction.

Say there is a Threeway at the Crown. NC has 40%, TR has 30%, and VS has 30%. And lets say that the VS owns the base currently.

If the TR gets the advantage and pushes in, they cap at the normal percentage. Lets say the NC get in there instead, now it takes longer. But lets say the VS pushes them back out. The influence that the NC had is capped faster by the same amount that it was slowed.

Basically underdogs take longer to cap territories from, and can capture territories faster from higher population factions.

This wouldn't fix it entirely as numbers advantage is still an advantage. So another thing could be to simply double the exp/resource bonuses we already get. This will help mitigate some of the faction hopping by those who are looking for cert gains. You might not win an alert because of faction overpopulation... but you could benefit more from it then they do.

In otherwords.. make the underdogs more desirable to play as than actual winning. This will destroy 4th factioning, if it exists.

Just responding "it's a terrible idea" doesn't exactly make me know where you're coming from with this attitude towards this idea (an idea which has been proven to be the best way to balance population time and time again).
Don't you think SOE can figure out a smart way to make this work so noone has to wait very often? I do.

What does it matter if it's F2P, P2P, or any acronym? Doesn't a balanced game make it more fun no matter what type of game it is?
Noone is forcing anyone any more than people are forced to wait to go to a continent which is full right now. Noone is getting punished. Don't know where you got that idea from.

Yeah, me too. Let me ask you this; do you think you'll find balanced BASE fights easier and more often if population was more balanced on the continent or if you have one empire with 50-60% population on the continent?

No. If you've ever played the game you would know this.

I've already told you why it's a terrible idea, lots of other people have told why it's a terrible idea. We have this discussion once a week, and every week we have to tell someone else why forced population is a terrible idea.

I don't know if your suggestion would work or not, but I totally agree with this principle.

I think on my server (Woodman) the times when VS suddenly become the highest population during alters, is less to do with 4th factioning and more to do with certain Outfits that only turn out for alters.

A large majority of TR Briggs prefers being underpopped. The way we approach and attack bases actually has a large impact, so tactical superiority is key to taking a base from a higher popped enemy.
It also hardens alot of our players as skill levels and teamwork have to rise in order to survive. Most people are dependable and follow orders and sometimes we get to do a good old last stand at a biolab against overwhelming numbers with no shortage of targets.

Then when the 4th factioners arrive, average skill level drops, pubbies arent dependable and alot is just mindlessly zerging bases with nearly no one defending them.

Being overpopped sucks infinitely more than being underpopped.

If you are underpopped you lose more territory sure, but since there is no endgame who cares and it just makes even more satisfying when you start taking your bases back even though you only have 24% pop.

Eh. So there isn't a bigger chance that a base has a more even population if a continent has, i.e. 33/33/33 vs a continent with 60/20/20? Wouldn't the chances for a base to be empty or completely zerged be bigger with a 60/20/20 population?
I can't for the life of me see the logic behind your reasoning there. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

No, you haven't, really. You've only said that players get "punished", "forced", "it's a F2P game" which is your limited way of imagining a population throttling/balancing system that works.
I could see it working very nicely without you even noticing it was there, maybe at the most congested times you'd have to queue for a continent. But this is already how things are now, during prime time alerts I have to sit in a queue to go to a certain continent. I don't feel punished one bit for that.

Exp rewards, capture time modifiers, world wide damage bonuses, etc. NONE of these suggestions will PREVENT players from suddenly jumping on a server and destroying the gameplay there. Destroying as in flooding one Empire/Continent creating huge population imbalances which makes gameplay for players like me boring.

I guess I'm among the few that have this oppinion then .

Continent population is irrelevant to base population.

To be honest, I'm not sure it would work or not. It relies on two things:

1. Fourth Factioning exists - still not sure that people aren't simply running with mains instead of alts during alerts or vice versa (to level them quicker), or if peeps just want to be with their outfits.

And if it does, it leads to:

2. Fourth Factioners are switching during alerts to maximize their cert gain.


So assuming 1 and 2 are true, we're assuming fourth factioners are trying to play a character that will get max cert gain. If this is true, my ideas will work. They won't want to play on a faction that A. Takes damn long to cap anything from lower pop peoples, and B. The 'losers' get way more certs than them unless they totally dominate them.

The masses in online games typically go for the route of least resistance, so I'm going to assume people are switching factions to maximize cert gain. So I think the idea of underdogs getting massive bonuses and cert gains will help them out. It will make the fourth factioners want to play as a underdog, which means they will flood to whatever faction is hurting, and even out things so they're equal.

What is the fascination with controlling other people? Are the bulk of these posts coming from socialist countries?

That would stop faction hopping...

but it would do nothing to the real problem which is just people who play FotM based on recent updates.

I'd like it just because it'd save me 5 more min loading and logging out to get my daily certs though

Nothing can really do much about the huge swing of FotM players. We can reward underpop more.

Stack underpop bonus for server, continent, and region. Boom, fighting outnumbered is suddenly really really worth it.

And boom, eventually that faction goes overpop because people flock to it for the bonuses.
And it'll go on and on. lol

Leave as is, we dont need noobs from other games and dont fully understand the game meta asking for changes.

They can try, but like you said, as they try to, they kill the bonus.

Region underpop should cap out lower though, or better yet only for defending a territory or something (or the very least, a territory you can attack on lattice)... otherwise we'll have infiltrators jumping out of ESF's way behind enemy lines to get +100% xp on every kill in a fight between the other 2 factions in a fight he has no business in

Oh, and kills from spawn room should just not count for any XP... can't leave spawn? fine, redploy. So sick of spawn room heroes

SOE is going to punish anyone for playing.. period.

And BTW why do you think that your ONE faction play style is the only thing that matters ?

I play all three factions on two different servers and I never have a problem finding a good fight.

Perhaps you should diversify your PS2 experience and go play the other factions.