Dear SOE...Population

PS1 didn't "do fine with low population." It did very badly with low population. Even players who like a First Person Shooter , and have no issues with it, WILL LEAVE THE FIRST PERSON SHOOTER IF THE POPULATION IS LOW. This creates a snowball effect.

This only happens in First Person Shooters, including MMOFPS. In a MMORPG like WOW it's actually beneficial to have less players around stealing your ore and spawns.

The absolute worse thing that can happen in a FPS is a low population. SOE sort of gets it, because PS2 is free to play to start with, but they obviously don't fully get it. They have to allow players to freely chose which server on log on, this way there will always be one full server even during off hours. Heck they may even get more subscribers this way because players will always want into the completely full server, and not the half-full server and they don't want to be put on a waiting list.

Wrong. That is not what would happen. What would happen if we were simply able to log onto any server we wish, is that for each region one server would quickly fill up to capacity and the teams would be perfectly even. Read that again: the teams would be perfectly even. And then the second server in the region would fill up halfway and still be pretty even. This is during off hours.

During primetime hours, the first server would fill up to capacity, and 200 players would be sitting at the log in que wondering why subscribers get ahead of the line. And then the second regional server would fill to capacity, and then the third regional server would fill up halfway.

What you think would happen is the absolute last thing that would happen. For one thing players do not like to "steamroll and spawncamp." Players actually think it's boring as hell.

I knew exactly what would happen and have one character, a TR on Connery.

I've been playing FPS and MMOFPS games since Quake and wwiionline. None of this surprises me.

PS1 cloaking AMS
PS1 mines
PS1 motion detector
PS1 spitfires

And allow players to chose which server to play on at the log-on screen.

problem(s) solved.

Oh my gosh. This guys post is so well written and thoroughly easy to understand that if SOE sees this and does not look at this game in a different light, they would be fools. Amazing post man, well though out, well worded, flows nicely and you make very, very good points. This is the type of balance debate that needs to be had on this server, one with context and one that spells out everything about the game that you have in this post. Great job.

MERGE. THE. SERVERS.

I do not wish to play server transfer roulette. That's what the server transfer idea will do...kill this game.

What happens if your server dies out? Forced to pay 15 bucks to transfer off or start all over without the SC and certs you got on the other game? Yeah no thanks. Merging servers is the only way to not kill em. To be honest...1 server per coast will help the game out.

What's with these new MMOs that decide to come out with a ton of servers ONLY to have them get cut off to like 8? Happened in SWTOR...happened in Warhammer Online. YOU WANT A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF SERVER TRANSFERS ALSO KILLING THE GAME? SWG. The one game I still have the burning urge to send death threats to SOE about.

Like I said in another topic, 90% of the players don't care about "metgame" they just want a fun fight.

DO IT NOW SOE

I've observed over and over while playing this game - joining platoons and people saying "well, too much resistance here, let's go to amerish" or just flat out zerging and avoiding other zergs.

You're right, though, that if a server is full, it's balanced, which is good. So it would probably result in one massive balanced server per region. The others would tend to line up how I suggested.

I've never heard anyone on platoon say, "well too much resistance here let's go to amerish."

This is literally the only SOE comment we have had on this thead? I went through this thread just to see what SOE said.....this is it? A "I think you'll be seeing a surge on double XP weekend?" After everything the OP said...that is what we get back? Man...let us at least know you HEARD us and didnt just say "well double xp weekend will fix your problems, hopefully, temporarily................"


To me, this is a SLAP in the face to anybody who has paid over $100...shoot anything for this game. I did not even realize this posting was originating from December 10th. We are now 2 months down the road and things are getting worse? Please at least come in here and say we are all wrong and that overall PS2 population is increasing at rates in which we do not know. However if it is slowly going down from its peak (short peak that is), then I do not understand how we do not have an explicit response from SOE on this matter.

Look at ALL of the threads of dying servers...Genudine for one...Helios...Jaeger....you name the "dying" server and there is a massive thread going back and forth on it. We still do not have any type of response on this? SOE you had such an AMAZING, pioneering idea with this game, it is a shame that you are slowly following down the path that all SOE games follow. SOE you have left so many bad tastes in my mouth from the past that it was very hard for me to give PS2 a chance even though i LOVED PS1 (until you killed it, like always) You did it to SW Galaxies as well.

This game was supposed to be different because the developers had a new goal in mind. Listen to the community, let the community drive content and development. That was your selling point to us SOE, that is why we all bought in. You produced the road map and it is awesome, you took our ideas and have put some into the game. However, population concerns are the absolute highest priority in this game at the moment. The balance between (weapons/vehicle...etc) factions is bare able, and even playable. However, the population and ghost capping issues are just literally game breaking, in the worst possible way. You can do all of these exciting things but if you kill your player base by not delivering what you promise (MASSIVE BATTLE ON AN EPIC SCALE), you will see a major exodus from this game.

This game has insane amounts of potential...I cannot believe you guys are even designing a new map and spending any programming/development time doing so. You are attempting to add more continents in addition to the other two empty continents? Look at the threads called "This game should be called Indarsid."

I will put it simply, why fix whats not broken when you can fix what is. The other continents are fine, they are missing population density. You guys seem to be putting the developers to work on the wrong things........... Population concerns literally FLOOD this forum. I hope you take something from the OP's posting because it was all very true and representative of how the dedicated PS2 player base feels.

If you have a twitter, please go retweet what I posted to higby and radarx

@mhigby @RadarX Do you remember this posting Radar? You said you were watching and we'd see a surge. http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/dear-soe-population.68182/page-18 …

Happens all the time on Genudine. It seems about 75% of the remaining player base's idea of fun is to sit around idle seeing "base captured" over and over again and avoid fights whenever possible.

Never seen it happen.

What I do see is players running to the crown because there are enemies there to shoot at, even if attacking it puts them at a tactical disadvantage and they die all the time.

Have to tweet it for them to give a damn.

One problem is that it would make it harder for players to get together, and if SOE is going to do that it's going to take a while until they do something to make everything convenient, even something as bare as a lobby or loginscreen friendslist/outfit/chat.

Mother****ing signed, do this before you sink your own game due to pride.

I'm truly sorry but... It's naive to think the reason they are reluctant to merge is pride(note, I'm not saying they can't be proud). It's more complicated than that.

It's actually that when things get desperate enough players will pay for server transfers. That way the server populations are fixed, and SOE gets some cash on the side! Brilliant!


Another reason to hate the jerks running this show.

I want to see at least one high population server per region. SOE, merge the servers please.

What's worse is when you use server transfers to balance out game population. You should NEVER give that kind of power to the playerbase. A large majority of players will jump ship to one server, leaving the rest of the servers empty and dead with players quitting. At the end of the day the outcome will be the same; an eventual server merge will be required, only it will be too late to save the game at that point.

COUGH COUGH* Illidan and Mal'ganis Horde in World of Warcraft are great examples of what servers transfers can end up doing -burning everyone who doesn't transfer.

I fear these server transfer tokens.... SOE really doesn't know what kind of fire they are playing with.