On my server, at least, I'm at the point where I can literally predict (with basically 100% accuracy) what's going to happen. Indar has a 33/33/33% population split (fluctuates, but it's basically even): TR holds the entire top half of the map. TR gets focused into the 3 way battle @ the crown/nearby amp station. TR loses left half of map, TR loses right half of map - holds crown/amp station for hours. Loses crown/amp station - retakes entire top portion of map - eventually get funneled back into the Crown - repeat. Esamir is 70% SOME population. It's typically vanu, but it's so overwhelmingly populated against us - it's not even worth going. Amerish is 70% TR - we basically always own that map. After we own it - we leave, and another faction will take it (typically in the same fashion, 70% population). In another words - all the fighting is focused on ONE zone, of ONE continent, and very seldom (but it does happen) do I get good battles outside of The Crown.. In conclusion: There's no reason for us to go to Esamir, we'll get slaughtered. There's no reason to go to Amerish - we'll slaughter so hard it will basically just be a game of "Cap all the points with the zerg!" while basically zerging over kills. There's no reason to go to any zone in Indar except the Crown (the fight actually happens in any of like 5 nearby zones to the crown: Crossroads, Crown, Amp station, maybe I'm missing 1-2 more). The reason is pretty simple - I have 2 choices: I can stay engaged in combat where the huge battle is, getting points any number of ways, and pull off a good amount of XP while still remaining in combat. I can take my outfit and go cap the left or right side of the map (or both). Doing this will almost certainly result in very minimal combat (typically no resistance, any resistance is basically like my 25 guys fighting over killing 1 person.) I will recieve very minimal XP, and won't very much enjoy not being in combat... (basically it's babysitting a cap point in 12 zones). All I'm saying is I would love to see more of the map. Esamir is far and away my favorite continent - and I just don't really ever get to go there... there's just not enough population for it. Amerish is also amazing, but I don't really get to FIGHT there - it's basically just roflstomping the enemy. Just 3 quick notes: I LOVE this game. It's AMAZING. The battles are incredible, I enjoy the vehicles, I don't personally have any issues with balance, I die equally to every class, to both factions. I'm a premium member, I've put about 20 bucks into the in store game - I'll probably put more money in at some point. No need to bash me for hating on the game, I'm just letting you know my day to day experience. I'm super glad that at least ONE continent has it's population balanced. When I'm fighting in the crown, don't get me wrong, I'm having a BLAST, I just want to leave the Crown... And finally, OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS (we've won esamir, we've lost amerish, we've lost indar). All I'm trying to point out is - for the most part, my experience has been this (very very very repetitive/not getting to explore most of the map), and I've only ever played on one server, so maybe this problem doesn't exist elsewhere. TL;DR - All the things in teal! **On my server, Indar has 33/33/33% population. Esamir has 70% (normally vanu), and Amerish has 70% (normally TR). All the balanced fighting (even population) is done on one section of the map, normally The Crown and nearby zones. If we go to esamir, we get stomped 4:1. If we go to Amerish, we stomp 4:1. If I want to make any XP at all, I stay in the crown. I can go and cap bases - but it's not worth any XP, and I won't really see much combat. All I'm saying is I want to see more of the map. I love this game. Obviously there are exceptions - I've had good fights in other places, but the norm is being funneled into 3 zones on Indar, and never leaving.**
I think this is a problem on a lot of servers... There's too much motivation/power in camping a continent you control and too little motivation/power in trying to push into someone else's continent. Exp boosts by continent population would help this a lot.
I've talked about this a lot in my outfit. I personally think it would have to be pretty significant, but it could fix the problem. Here's the thing - if you get a 50% XP bonus for fighting on a continent where you're viciously outnumbered.... you won't even NEED the XP bonus! Why? I'd put money that the continent is about to balance itself out from the flood of people in the outnumbered faction screaming "I WANT 50% XP BONUS!"
Question: would you really want to spread the population over all three continents? If there often isn't even enough population to cover one continent, wouldn't spreading that out be a bad idea?
I believe much of this relates to the fact that, on Indar, the only bases that are highly defensible surround the Crown; all other fall extremely eaily. I do have suggestions on how to improve this [ http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/how-to-make-planetside-two-a-better-game.52304/ ]. However, on the East Coast's "Mattherson" server, population balancing is as follows: The Terran Republic oftern dominate Indar; It is approximately balanced within Esamir, though the Vanu Soveriengty tends to dominate there; And the New Conglomerate controls the majority of Amerish, occassionally falling to the Terran Republic swarms.
This issue will be gone once they add more continents, remove the static empire footholds on each cont, and give each empire a single home continent.
I said absolutely nothing like that. yes, that would be a terrible idea. Again, said nothing even remotely like that - I simply said I want to see more of the land, I don't want to be stuck in one zone. How stupid do you have to be to read that and say "He would like there to be 5 people in each zone always. That is the synopsis of this thread."
Kind friend, I would suggest you read my post again, this time with more of a view to understanding it. Perhaps in future, if you find a post that is incomprehensible to you, you will attempt to figure out what it means instead of hurling abuse at the person who made it.
We aren't saying there should be an equal population on all continents, but that each continent should have a roughly equal number from each faction. Maybe there are only 99 people on Amerish, but it'd be nice if it were 33/33/33 instead of 75/12/12.
