Lets face it, noone likes getting zerged... Yesterday i tried playing several times and each time I ended up quitting in frustration when no matter what faction i'd play there was never an even fight, the 3 factions would simply zerg around empty bases avoiding each other, at one point the NC had a nearly 80% overpop at the base they were zerging and were already zerging the next base along the lattice aswell... absolutely boring and pointless! so how do we get rid of this zerg mentality? nerf them! my idea is fairly simple, for every 1% of overpop, reduce experience gain by 5%. at 55% overpop they're getting 25% less xp. at 60% overpop they're getting 50% less xp. by 70% overpop they can no longer gain xp. (its early, sorry if my math isn't correct!) any zergling thinking about joining the mindless faceroll might think twice when they're getting nothing from it. this would also encourage zergs to actually have the balls to face eachother, rather than rolling over undefended bases. i also dabbled with the idea of including resources in this nerf, so by 70% overpop you won't be gaining any resources. these nerfs would only take effect when there are enough players (30 maybe?) from the underpopped faction in the region. just so they don't end up taking effect in warpgates etc where your faction will obviously have 100% pop.
Hex system. And no ****. However, making negatives to discourage grouping, isn't the way to go either. (Nor is buffing the other side's combat power) Which means, reducing your own numbers drains the enemy's ability to fight without overwhelming numeric advantage, And discourages teamwork, as that has the risk of nullifying your entire profit from anything. As well, if allies appear; Those already there now are either resenting having allied support which just taxed them, or have no real value to not farm the ever living **** out of the place. A zerg itself barely gives anything to anyone in it, at any reliable pace: You compete with the entire zerg for the limited number of opponents to kill, objectives to hit, etc. Overpop itself isn't limited to Zergs. Overpop can and is, any force larger than the other in relative size. 1-12 vs 24-48 , is overpop. 1-12 vs 48-96, is also overpop. 1-12 vs 12-24, is also overpop. With no solid numeric values, the % is also useless; And easily abuse-able. Even with numeric values, easily abused; For one thing, this is a three way. Which since those fighting can't control the population difference; nor does it care whom came first. All it takes to drain any value in fighting as a group, is an enemy that literally leaves all but a handful. Or the situation where there is 3 sides; In which case, TR & NC fight each other 50% pop each, VS pops in at 10%, changing the numbers to 45% each. VS is the underpop, but are the TR & NC the overpop? What if this was VS's base? What if it wasn't? As you are literally punishing for something controllable by any side; And something the individual players can't control. Additional players or lose of players, result in a punishment for those already there. That doesn't encourage teamwork, or helping - That discourages it. What it doesn't discourage is the Zerg; You already gain little, so what are they to notice?
I think a better solution is to make fighting while outpopped (within reason) fun. For example, add some guerilla mechanics that allow smaller groups to assault larger groups and slow/stop them. Add ways for players to exit the spawn in relative safety without being spawncamped all day.
While I agree. I think we can all just assume this is beyond the resources available to the devs. But who knows.
I do, picking off clueless Sunderers and Lightnings from a distance with my max lockdown Prowler is one of the best farms ever. The art of zerg-control. 60k/hr without any boosts.
As haxtime above, I LOVE zergs, the are one of the reasons I will play this game. Being on the receiving end of a very is a xp/very bonanza unlike anything else. 200-250 unboosted and unsubbed certs an hour easy. Grab one of my regular gunners and get in a harasser or magrider and farm all day long.
I'd rather not be penalized for simply having a dude build a base in the same hex as me. Nor should my airkills be mitigated when most of the pop doesn't contribute to AA, or if I'm one NC that enters a vs tr fight, or just threeways, who gets screwed then?
Some bases need an overpop to take so any xp nerf system would have to take that into account. Also I'd like to see all Directive progress halted at the 0xp point The penalties could be applied to anyone close enough to see the cap points on their hud. That should leave plenty of space for air and armor to do their thing.
Not like a proper zerg is getting EXP. The only directive progress able to be completed in general, is base capping, base capture, and leading. And if it needs that range. The majority of Zergs, let alone vehicle zergs won't trigger it; Spread across a distance, and some use long range firepower. It also means any large amount of a Defense just getting in, would be fully penalized, and punishing all allies in the hex properly defending, in addition to any allied galaxy drop flying by.
Exp penalties/incentives really don't do much. I'd go with a resource nerf to overpop. In this game nanites=force multipliers. Be it MAXes, vehicles or infantry consumable spam via grenades, mines etc. When a faction zergs another with 70-80% population, they don't need their force multiplied. The dudes getting zerged however, are desperate for any advantage they can get. No resource gain, I think, is a bit too over the top. Something like 25% slower gain for overpoping side and 25% faster gain for the overpopped side is more fair.
That's the reason why i mainly play as VS : with the Lancer we can do that. -Our base is zerged => Redeploy => Spawn sunderer => Place it on enemy's flank => Exterminate enemy armor, including sunderer, with the several allies that spawn into your sunderer. Since the engineer turret's range was nerfed, TR and NC can't do that anymore and rely on vehicle.
They'd already have the number of Force-multipliers. Unless you take them out fast, the reduction in nanites would be hard to notice. Multiplying the underpop's nanites however is too easily abused. But that's the most tame thing I've seen, in terms of negatives. So I can roll with it.
Considering the massive changes they just did to Indar, I have no doubt they could build a teleportation system in every single base. Just build a teeny tiny tunnel structure beneath the spawnbunker. Each tunnel points into the direction of the point you'll go to, with at the end of this short tunnel a teleporter. This way it's easy for players to determine where they'll end up using the teleporter and the devs don't have to make a full-scale tunnel system. All you need then is to change the +/-100 bases in PS2 existence to have at least two additional spawnbunkers somewhere in it's area placed in such a way they are harder to spawncamp simultaneously... It's not going to be a small job, but I think that with the effort they put into Indar, they should be able to pull it off.
Speak for yourself, if possible, its all i ever do...... Unfortunately the VS zergs of late seem to be deflating. I much prefer it when my empire is being zerged hard, by both sides at once. 2 zergs is better than 1.
To be honest, getting zerged is not always a bad thing as it means a lot of XP and kills if you do it right (not camping, rather suicide bombing and shotgunning). Nerfing by %pop is a very bad idea as in small fights even 1 more or less player has heavy impact on %pop. Rather BUFF the underpop faction by giving them more shield or more implants or less ressource cost or something like that and make that dependant not only on % but on a combination of absolute numbers and % 40% - 60% and at least 5 Players more - 10% more shield for underpop faction* 30% - 70% and at least 10 Players more - 20% more shield + additional implant slot* *just an example, not the real numbers - those would have to be evaluated VERY well...