So just to paint a picture. I often log on to the character screen and see this. VS-22% TR-40% NC 38%. This is the norm when I log onto Planetside 2 for Waterson, and I play VS. Occasionally, VS population approaches the 30% marker, but honestly we're always in the 20's. Is it the same on other servers? I have to say that when I see this, I often think twice about joining in to play. Most of the time my thought process at this stage is "Why bother?" I some times do anyway, and check out the continents. To my surprise, the VS on this server are pretty hardy, but it's honestly really hard to find any really good fights. Most of the time I feel like I'm dodging the enemy zerg. Here's the situation I find on our server. It would be interesting to know about other servers. Indar: This continent is where most of the people are. If you're going to find a fight, it's going to be here. You can scan the map and find multiple platoon occupied territories and raging battles. Granted, they're usually at the crown, but as VS you can find them out at Tarwich and Zurvane too with a few skirmishes here and there. Since the latest game update, Indar has remained neutral and only conquered by the TR and NC once. I don't honestly know if this is a good thing or not. Honestly I'm getting tired of the TR Tank zerg from crossroads to Tarwich, which then turns into a VS Tank zerg from Tarwich up to Crossroads, rinse and repeat. Esamir and Amerish: These continents are usually ghost towns. Thanks to the recent server merges, they occasionally have more population, but only when one side realizes they're losing their cap. In general, a platoon of guys attacks these continents, rages across it to about 3/4th's conquered [ghost capping so exciting] and only then do the other sides come out to play and try to stop the continent cap. If the VS are fast enough, we can do it in no time and surprise the other factions with a small fight at the end. However, numerous times we have 80% population on that continent and when it's just 2 more territories left, the other faction swells in numbers and we can't fight off the zerg. I don't mean swells as in, evens out with us. I mean swells as in, out right nearly doubles our population on the continent. Also, I expect both of these continents to be owned by the TR by morning. I'm proud to say as a VS, we appear to do very well against the two other teams despite being the constant under dog in population. I still however, feel like I just exist on this server to feed the other two teams certifications and get nothing out of it myself. I'm curious too, how the other side feels about this? Is the fight between TR and NC enough to be satisfactory? Do you even notice the VS at all? Do you see us as push overs when it gets to having to deal with the VS? Is it more awesome to have over whelming numbers? What's your perspective? I've read elsewhere that people think XP rewards will solve this and convince players to switch sides, but I disagree. Currently SC is character based. What I buy for my character on one faction, does not transfer to the others. So I've invested money already that I can't get back. Also, I've dumped who knows how many hours and earned so much XP that if I feel I have to switch, I might as well stop playing. I can already tell you that earning bucket loads of XP as an 'Underdog' is not going to make me feel less of a punching bag.
Well, TR on Briggs is usually sub 30%, often in the low 20s. We still hold our own. Don't let population be an excuse, stay with your team and when you eventually warpgate the enemy they won't be able to deny your awesomeness. Low pop isn't an advantage, but neither is it the end of the world. Spread the word, and keep fighting the good fight.
