Hypothesis on low Vanu population

Having read a lot of posts on this subject i strongly believe that population issues are likely here to stay. It's probably best we get used to pop inbalances on the U.S. servers.

Generally speaking its an art design and also an idiological issue. The VS art design to a lot of people looks undewhelming and generally speaking people seem to view the VS as "scientologists" or "cultists" -seriously, alright whatever-

The retcon on VS art design and lore motivations done by the devs in the creation of the VS faction have likely left us high and dry in the long run.

People -in the U.S.- will most likely always identifiy better with "loyalty" or "freedom" better then "Technology". I know the servers for the E.U. and australia are different, largely because their cultural ideals do not lean so closley to the idealogical dispostions of the TR or NC.

Thats my two cents at least

I first started playing on VS, back in Nov. on launch day. It was my first time playing Planetside and Vanu seemed most interesting. After 2 months, people are saying VS is overpowered and NC is underpowered. I start feeling bad, so I switch to NC. In the NC, I feel as if I am the underdog. I'm proud to fight for the weakest faction.

After the recent warpgate switch, I notice, NC population is growing. NC is controlling more territory than when I started. Even TR has diffficulty against us.

Last week, I switched back to VS. And I feel good again because I play for the underpowered, underpopulated faction.
After the next warpgate switch, maybe I will switch factions again, to play for the weakest faction.

To all of you who think VS is underpopulated, why don't you join VS?

Glory to the Vanu Templars!

I first started playing in December after watching a GassyMexican YouTube. Looked fun. Picked a NC character first because I may have read here or in reviews (it was a shorts list of comments and reviews I glanced through) that the NC was the challenging class to play. After playing a couple of weeks, I noticed that VS always had the lowest population and the differences between the factions (playwise) was slight, if any. I wanted to help balance the populations so I bit the bullet (leaving my lvl 20 with all its cert points) and started a new VS character. To new players just starting out, the first couple pages of these forums can influence what character to roll. I came here to try and learn more about the game (avoiding the rah rah marketing home page). Never heard of Planetside it until I watched the YouTube episode.

I've been VS since but I don't feel like I've developed any loyality to the faction. Perhaps that's an issue? Other than losing the certs, nothing drives me to want to stay with one faction. Maybe its just more time that will develop the faction loyality.

Path of least resistance?

I started as TR, played up to BR 32 then when I one day couldn't login to my server, I made a vanu char on another to fool around a bit. I was instantly mesmerized by the beauty that is the Magrider and the Scythe. So I switched. I won't switch back to TR if the VS pop gets so bad that the faction ceases to exist, which hopefully is a long way yet, as playing on Cobalt it is amazing what we manage to pull off with our limited numbers still. I guess people really do pull and play toghether more when really forced due to issues like these. But we shall see what it is after the merger with Lithcorp. I know that I won't switch back.

recent experience :

situation was there was a squad behind cover 1 max 3-4 others and an operative somewhere that i had killed with an engi AI turret earlier. Decided to drop some grenades where they were hiding because i obviously can't attack into a MAX unit across open terrain as an engi. BTW the drop on the launcher is amazing for this purpose highly reccommend. Our forces were absent except i think 2 others.
[TELL] [****************]: go back to cod noobtuber
You told ****************: lol u ran straight at me, you go back to COD run and gun rambo
[TELL] [****************]: yeah ok stay behind a rock and spam grenades asswipe thats not cod **** at all
[TELL] [****************]: you're playing an iwin faction gj
You told ****************: lol you're hopeless.
[TELL] [****************]: so are you, wearing purple makes you so manly
-killed him with a rifle for the record.

The last thing he said to me before I ignored him made me think of this thread. For people such as the player above the color of your suit does matter. To me I don't really get why people care about the colors, you rarely see your character, in addition to that you can always get different color desert camo and be shot by your allies constantly . From playing both NC and Vanu I personally find I can kit infantry out to be rather similar if i chose to.

You do need to factor in players like these who think that playing Vanu will somehow invalidate their man card. I think there are probably a lot of players who don't play it simply off of looks. I personally strut around in my alpha squad purple/pink camo while stroking a glorious man beard! I myself am i guess fourth faction? though i'm not sure what that means, I enjoy the magrider tank and have friends on vanu otherwise i'm NC. If i feel like rolling a tank I will play vanu because I don't really enjoy how clunky the other ones feel. I didn't roll for OP or UP I didn't even really play vanu until after the nerfs lol.

Vanu are overpowered in some respects. For instance, their weapons look way too flashy, so it makes my game flash.

That was a terrible joke. I'm a terrible person.


But seriously, the Vanu have some pretty cool toys. I'm surprised the number dropped that low. Of course, it may just be the aesthetics of the Vanu. For instance:

I don't like dubstep. (Vanu theme is dubstep)
I don't like spandex. (Vanu have spandex)
I don't like looking like walking jewelry. (this is opinion based, but Vanu look like walking diamonds, essentially)
I don't like purple. (I don't like purple)

Again, aesthetics. Most people try New Conglomerate because FREEDOM! HECK YEAH! That and their maxes look like Optimus Prime (don't deny it. Thats awesome.) Then here are those who like the Terran Republic because of either their orchestral main theme or red stuff that isn't blood. Or is it?

Having played NC since launch and having to unfortunately constantly fight the Vanu due to the NC's Indar placement (we tended to avoid heading up north into the boring TR area of Indar) this notion that the graph is misleading data due to the fact that every Vanu rolled with 2 of 2 people and every Vanu had the Saron unlocked is just absurd. The majority of Magriders just like the majority of Vanguards and Prowlers were manned by only one person. Even the ones with the Saron were often manned by just one person parked far away near a rock. They'd come out, switch to the secondary, fire fire fire until they took damage, then return to the drivers seat to hide for repairs. Rinse and repeat. The Magrider was OP and the Prowler was UP. It was obvious to anyone who played the game and the graph simply re-affirms that.

The Magrider is now balanced and as a result all the Magspammers fled to another faction or quit the game entirely. That is why the Vanu's population has dropped.

Yeah, its sad. Over here on connery the VS pop never gets above 28%, and if it has, I haven't seen it (but this doesn't mean I don't have fun on connery! I ain't leavin my outfit mates anytime soon!). I truly think the imbalance has to do with aesthetics and perception of theme. More people prefer "FREEEEDOM!" or "DEATH TO THE TRAITORS!" than technological advancement.

Maybe if we made the vanu green....

There is no hypotheses, it is rather simple:

Vanu were introduced to the other 2 faction's hill climb hinderance instead of just tweaking around the ADADADA strafe (the whole reason they were oped in the first place), their tank has lower armor and damage, I would have bailed too.

The entire reason was the stupid hill climb changes made in december.

The fault by SOE? not introducing them to those changes at that time, people spent too much certing and money on their mag only to see it nerfed to the ground soon after, the other 2 tanks being buffed gave them a reason to switch empires (whatever was left willing to play).

The whole collective reasoning for having an empire Oped from the start ( I do not know if knowingly or unknowingly ) and then nerfing an aspect to the ground is the reason for these dramatic changes in populations and player drops.

From top tank to worse tank, nothing else changed asides from that so any other "idea" of why they dropped in populations simply does not fit the case.

Do what the Borg do. Adapt.

How can you not like purple?!?!

The problem with this theory is that the VS population drop/NC population rise began in mid-January.

That was before the tank changes.

The warpgate also changed, so saying 'nothing else changed' is false. However, again, that was after the slide was already into its 3rd week.

Your speculation is what doesn't fit the facts, though it makes for a great segue into a "Vanu are just FotM kiddies" story so certain types can feel better about themselves by making up nasty comments about other people.

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story, though.

I do see it as a little more complicated. Someone posted a graph of players over BR10 and VS took a huge dive (with a roughly pro-rata gain in NC). I believe that is in part to the way drop is balanced in the game. Right now drop is balanced primarily with lower damage at range (and sometimes slightly slower velocity). What this means is as a player from TR or NC learns to compensate for drop, he can now out DPS a similarly specced VS guy at range. It also means the VS high damage "ranged" weapons get down to the worst TTK's in the game.

So there is no skill progression / scaling. It's simply a boost to low BR players who can't compensate for drop, but a handicap to players who can.

My solution would be to level damage fall off across empires, and instead lower VS velocity so that what you gain in not aiming vertically, you lose in aiming horizontally. e.g. verse a running player 150m away, the TR guy may try and aim just above the enemies head, well now the VS guy in the same situation would need to lead that much further ahead of the enemy.

Obviously the change in velocity would need to be balanced carefully, but at least it now scales with skill.

I do not trust that chart, there is a difference between what happened on a certain week and what is shown on a certain week speaking of active players, that alone makes me distrust what is posted even though he says he took the numbers directly from the server.

From what I know, my observations are based on reactions to changes made thus coming to conclusions, no other change was made so anything else would simply be a bandaid to the entire source of the problem, your change would could potentially make it better, worse or have no effect whatsoever, I am simply going by what I observed, I do not try to sugar coat the devs bad calls on changes even more, no one should.

You are bad and you should feel bad >:|

Dubstep? I keep getting aurally assaulted by pan pipes during slow moments in Esamir. Either I've missed something or I'm being stalked by New Age musicians with a better cloak than I have.

I couldn't get into the NC because they feel less like FREEDOM! than they do Atlas Shrugged groupies. As for their MAX looking like Optimus Prime, I...

...I cannot deny this. It's awesome. Dammit.

It is the blood of their foes and the shade of the fervour of their loyalty. Or their armour is strawberry flavoured.

...must resist urge to taste next TR I find...

In terms of low Vanu population, Magrider nerf, spandex, lolguns, purple, easymode, fourth faction, no recoil, bulletdrop, yadda, etc. Personally I blame the Illuminati.

The VS max needs a alien head. Something like:


Everything else can remain the same.

Maybe even add a tail, though I understand the physics for the tail will probably be a nightmare.

It was a problem in Western PS1 servers, as VS was the lower faction (although much less so on the EU servers than the US servers), however when they launched the Asia PS1 servers everyone played VS there and the servers were totally VS dominated.

Could you maybe elaborate on what discrepancy you noticed?

CupBoy has a thread running and has been very open to suggestions, additions and different interpretations and analyses of the data, perhaps you could share your thoughts. A misconception might get cleared up or a flaw in the data collection/interpretation revealed that will benefit everyone.

Don't just go "I don't like it" and dismiss it away (feeds into the 'it challenged my preconceptions so I'm choosing to ignore it' vibe).