Q: Why would anyone want to play the underpop faction?

When I Joined in january I first created a TR on Miller. Got to about BR20-30 then VS got nerfed (magriders especially) hard in march (???) so I made a VS toon on Woodman when they were severely underpop.
I got it up to BR61 until recently the vanu overpopulation got out of hand, so I deleted my character (yes I DELETED a BR61 just like that) and started from scratch with a TR which is the lowest pop on the server.
So my current character is 3 day old.

I also spend most of my time defending, so i don't really care about 'winning'.
I just do my best to slow the purple tide.

I've actually said this several times over the past several months. Looking back, even as VS populations fell globally following the Magrider nerfs, Mattherson stayed relatively even and Waterson VS dropped harder than any other server. It is not surprising... if you were a new player (or even an existing player) looking for an even fight as VS, everyone knew that Mattherson was where you wanted to be.

It is only as of the last month, with a lot of Mattherson NC switching to VS, and then ZOE, that Mattherson population has become imbalanced. Now lots of TR on Mattherson are leaving for Waterson, worsening the balance on both servers further.

Thats the zerg mentality. :/

Waterson TR is all about the Prowler zerg. Can't keep pulling them Prowlers with no resources!

real gamers stick with their faction regardless of pop or perceived imbalances.

I just want to point this out.

After last night's amp station(?) alert ended on Mattherson, Vanu dropped from roughly 45% to maybe 35%.

Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, people care about the characters they've invested a long time and a lot of money into? People don't want to abandon their BR 63 characters that they've spent so long leveling up. That's why people stay. Another reason people stay is because they like their outfits, believe it or not.

If I wasn't dedicated to my NC toon, I'd have already joined VS.

Waterson VS are outnumbered, sure. but damn if they don't punch well above their weight. If a cont pop maxes out and becomes equal, the VS win almost all the time.

Maybe i speak only for myself, but my fun is in playing and levelling up. Levelling up in the early stages is much more fun because upgrades are cheaper so you often get to spend. And you spend for meaningful stuff.

That's why i have only bought a handful of weapons (at the start). No point in making the journey quicker when
THE JOURNEY IS THE FUN !

I had not a single remorse deleting my BR61 VS Woodman toon.

Real gamers go where the real challenge is. In the underpopulated faction!

What i mean by 'zerg mentality' is the attitude of choosing the easiest path to victory.
eg: 2 guys are beating up on a 3rd one. the zerg mentality calls for you to join the 2 in order to have an easy 3 vs 1, instead of joining the lone fighter to make it an even contest.

I personally don't understand why people play as the over-populated faction. The game just isn't that fun when there are no targets to shoot at. Idly wandering from empty base to empty base is mind-numbing, though I guess some people get their kicks from this kind of play.

IOW, how do you even know you are any good at this game when you are basically unchallenged in every encounter? My guess, the battle islands (Nexus) will make people understand this fact as many outfits will simply be unable to compete. Then they will cry to nerf the battle islands, hopefully SOE ignores them to maintain the integrity of the vision.

Sorry, that was a bit off topic.

TLDR: I can find many reasons why playing the under-pop faction would be fun. I can't seem to find any reasons why playing the over-pop is fun.

The %205+ XP is nice plus all the farm kills you get when facing all the VS zergs, Might not be able to take much territory but you can sure as hell make VS and NC rage when a group of 8 hold off a platoon +

THIS

Same thing on Mattherson. During territory control alerts on indar, the cap almost always hits and NC plays fantastically.

Yup... that's why there is always about 19-20% stable population. Those are the ones that have faction loyalty, outfits they want to stick with or gamers who like being an underdog. It's the other 10% that turn into the fourth faction zerglings.... once you jump once, its easier to jump again.

I think that the overpop getting flooded with bad players who only jump to a faction because they are bad and can only get good experiences when they outnumber their opponents. Therefore when a pop lock happens... there is a greater percentage of bad players on the overpop faction. That and the jumpers have less ties with the new faction's outfits so are less coordinated (if at all)

Those die-hards that stick around during underpopulation times tend to be better at using those factions weapons. (Trial by fire if you will)

It's the forums. If someone writes "black", most responders will reply "no, it's white!" There is no way any of you enjoy being the subject of soul-crushing population imbalances.

When your resource ticks are +17 even with subscriber bonuses, it's a slow slog to recover them.
Switch over to the other side and you can pull whatever you want within minutes.

Which sounds more entertaining, considering this is a game..

It goes a lot faster the second time, and improves each time. My first toon got killed over 100 times while I tried to figure out why the people around me were fighting over a biolab landing pad while these other people were shooting from this room over here...

I was apparently a little slow in figuring out the glow was a shield.