[PREAMBLE] Population imbalance is starting to get under my skin. While it's possible for a few lonely people to fend off the zerg, or rack up insane killstreaks on mindless 4th Factioners, once the organized outfits roll in and skill is pitted against skill, there's nothing to be done about it. The current bandaid to the gaping wound of pop-imba (okay, I swear I'll never use that contraction ever again) is a minor EXP% bonus to underdog factions. While this "rewards" loyal faction players, it does nothing to make up for the terrible gameplay experience. Adding insult to injury, bloated factions rake in more consistent certs than underdogs via Facility captures and Alerts. I say consistent because these are guaranteed cert rewards to a large population, compared to the intermittent killstreaks and deathstreaks of skilled underdog players. Basically, the current system favors population imbalance, especially for unskilled players. If you cannot shoot, then you can revive/ammo dump/repair, and gobble up Facility caps and Alert victories. [ACTUAL CONTENT] Overpopulation in a faction must be discouraged. I wouldn't go so far as to say "punished", but there has to be some system in play that discourages 4th Faction shenanigans. To that end, I believe that just an EXP% bonus to underdogs is not enough, but that overpopulated factions also get a penalty of some kind. The question is, what? I've considered an EXP% penalty to overpopulated factions, but it's difficult to employ without ruining some aspect of the game, especially for new players, but it seems like the best solution to me. Presumably, loyal faction players, and loyal Planetside 2 players will continue to play because the game is supposed to be fun and not about grinding certs, while the opportunistic 4th Factioners will leave to graze on greener fields. At the same time, new players on overpopulated factions must be made aware beforehand that their chosen faction is A) overpopulated, and B) suffering an EXP% penalty, otherwise their gameplay experience will also suffer. Please note that the underdog bonus should still exist, to encourage new players to fill the ranks. It's also possible to break the EXP% penalty into different sources of EXP revenue, like Facilities or Alerts, but I personally don't think that should be done. Please note I'm not married to the idea of penalizing EXP gains, and am open to constructive criticism and suggestions. I'm also sure there are other excellent alternatives, such as SOE doing the right thing and implementing some code to prevent any one faction from reaching >40% server pop...but this is SOE we're talking about. Anyway, without any further ado... Discuss!
Hi, I'm playing main TR on Miller since launch when population was more or less balanced and have been loyal since. I'm not a 4th factioner and if there was a faction change token I would change to VS. With that said, if I get any kind of penalty for playing an overpopulated faction (which isn't my fault) then I'll quit this game. Period. I'll welcome measures like blocking the creation of TR characters on Miller until it is balanced again etc. Because while I do understand that friends of TR players will want a char of the same faction and if they dont have that possibility they may not start playing, it is obvious that the amount of players quitting due to pop imbalance is far worse. This has become such a problem that it is about damage mitigation. Cheers
I've been playing TR on Helios since launch, and there has absolutely never been a time where we ever had a numbers advantage for any significant amount of time. It was the VS first, then the magrider nerf hit, and then Genudine was merged with us, and now its the NC. I've been pretty patient, I think, with this issue, but if SoE continues its complete and total lack of response and this problem continues to get worse, I may quit altogether. Just my small testimonial for the TR here, there are many others who have been on the server just as long as I have who feel the same way, even the veteran NC players(the non-4th factioners) are getting sick of it, and I don't blame them, it's getting to the point where its just plain bad for everybody involved. At this point, I wish SoE would just acknowledge the problem, publicly, in long, well laid out post. We need to take a step in the right direction, continuing to ignore it is not the answer, and it's killing this game.
Yeah if you ask me it's reached the point where this is one of if not the biggest issue impacting the gameplay experience. The "Do nothing an see if it fixes itself" approach SOE has taken since launch isn't really cutting it. PS1 had much smaller populations per continent than this. It could get imbalanced there too but generally not on the same level of ridiculous imbalance that is common to PS2 right now. Personally I wouldn't suggest Exp penalties though. I would suggest longer respawns, and longer vehicle cooldown timers. That would actually help the underdogs some in actual gameplay terms. Also if you switch factions during an Alert you get no reward at the end.
Do not give penalty to over populated faction, just make underpopulated XP bonus greater (like double it).
