Subject says it all. Continent locks go by way too fast.. making territory gains that much more meaningless. Destroys good fights, making everyone reset. And, I'd guess, a lot of people who spend a time building a base, that's gone too cause the continent locked. IMO it should be at least twice as slow to lock a continent. There should also be slowing penalties based on over pop... meaning somehow you get less VP if you are 40% of the continent population (effects off peak hours).
Continent locking in general is/was a bad idea in my opinion. A developer reaction to an uproar cause by a vocal minority.
I agree that Continent Locking was a mistake, even with the Victory Points. Keep all the continents unlocked so people can fight wherever they want. Keep the Victory Points, and after a faction gets 15 points, they get the continent-specific buff and the warpgates rotate. If they want to keep continent locking as a thing, then there should be more continents added to the game. Otherwise, there are only 2 possible terrains to fight on at any given time (except when server pops are high).
No penalty for overpop but yeah conts do need to lock slower i dont even get to enjoy my cont lock bonus cause its gone so fast and how will i survive without indarside?
I think the main reason for it was to counter dwindling player populations. With the population on Connery the last year it would have been all Indarside all the time, with the 3 other continents being mostly empty/ghostcapped. At least now the game is only Indarside 50% of the time. They could merge some servers still though, and allow all 4 to be unlocked. Connery + Emerald combined would have enough players to make it work, but that would probably piss off some people on the west coast if Connery got merged into Emerald (or piss of people on the east coast if the opposite happened)
Maybe. Even in prime time though, Amerish and eventually Hossin were usually empty, while Indar and Esamir had at least some people playing there. If continent locking was removed, I'd imagine everyone would flock to Indar and Esamir again. It is Indarside because that's what most players seem to enjoy. I know I'd be annoyed by a server merge. What we really all need are universal servers.
OP - so what sever are you on, what time of day do you play, are you on PC or PS4, exactly how long does it take for a continent to cap ... and are you actively trying to stop the continent caps?
Continent locking serves several purposes. It concentrates population onto 2 or 3 continents, thus creating a more consistent experience. It serves as a "Victory" condition, such that conflicts have a purpose and an end, although temporary. It creates a more diverse experience, so that you get to play on more than one continent. It ends conflicts were one side has won, rather than having them camp the warpgate. As for base building, it wouldn't make sense for bases to last past warpgate rotation anyway. That's kinda the idea, you fight till you "win" then it resets and you go someplace else, with perhaps a fresh continent. I think adding a continental lattice would make things more interesting, and encourage more fight on Hossin. Not sure how it would work, but as much as I like Indar it does gets old quickly, and Hossin and Amerish are better designed for large fights. I think the queue system is enough for overpop. As long as there's continental balance, it's totally fine for one faction to send all their forces to one base. As others have said, punishing overpop means that below average players are hurting their team. This isn't good for teamwork. There are ways to counter zergs, what's frustrating is being outpopped everywhere.
I've never been terribly keen on the idea, but I wasn't opposed to it in the past. I just didn't think it was going to do the wonderful things people thought it was going to do. Now that I've had plenty of time to experience it, and with the VP system, I'm really not caring for it. I like the VP system, but continent locking destroys good battles, and it takes a good chunk of time to rebuild those battles on a new continent. I've already seen one person say that continent lock is their signal to logoff, and I'm sure that's true for more than just one. We need ideas that will not disrupt the battles so abruptly. I think the PS1 guys have some of those, and I'm sure there are others too. In May 2014, when continent locks were still being developed, I posted a thread expressing my concerns and an alternative idea to add some grit to the game. If you'd like to revisit what people thought about it then, read through it. It's very interesting. The title is: Let's dispense with this myth that Continent Locking will save the game https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps...-continent-locking-will-save-the-game.179291/
