Simple Population Soultion

42% 31% 27%.

Can you guess these numbers? Those are the populations as of 4:05pm mountain time (GMT -6) on Connery. In order, those are VS, NC, TR. During an alert no less. And similar numbers are seen during all alerts. I didn't even log in upon seeing those numbers.

This needs addressing now. and here's the simple solution:

Remove server selection from us the players and instead drop us in to servers that have the best connection for us, or the least amount of players for our faction. A simple equation can be put in that states if the largest faction of one server is say, 5% higher than the second largest and or 8% more than the smallest, no more can join that faction. If the second largest have 5% more than the smallest, no more can join the second largest faction.

If you want to join your platoon located on another server, you squad deploy, but make a queue like you already have between continents.

the problems with population is the ability to select our server. Let us have the characters we want, but don't let us choose so easily where to go. This has the added benefit of mixing up the player base so that we fight different groups and Outfits rather than the same groups all the time.

EDIT: It also has an added player benefit of making it so we don't have to have 3 of the same faction on different servers just to dodge a huge population like I listed leading to a lot less information being held on SOE's side at the same time making unlocks global for that character that we want to play as. The biggest thing I hate about switching to other servers is not having the same things unlocked despite having the same faction. If SOE worries about losing money because of this, advertise the hell out of customization.

currently TR is recommended for Connery

Right now, it's even, which is rare. but as soon as an alert starts, watch what happens.

yeh VS pop sky rockets. yesterday the VS had enough of a world pop to have advantage on 2 continents

I play on Connery also, and most times it isn't horrible. I think the best solution is to stop giving XP for base captures, that would emphasize earning XP through fighting. Over populated factions tend to cap more empty bases and have less opportunity to earn kills since there is more competition. More would be willing to fight on under populated factions. You would need to do it in a way to not promote more farming though, such as scaling XP based on method used and its target. Or some other way that I can't think of but restricting where people can or can not play or what faction they play will only drive players away.

Yeah i see a lot of ghost capping being done on Connery. I think making it take 10 times longer then normal to cap a place with no one defending it at all should have been in place a long time ago. Its really a cheap and dirty tactic. And where is there any challenge? A single player can go to a non populated territory hit the point then either sit and wait or go do the same to another territory real fast.

When one faction has a lower population its almost a 1 way ticket to being warp gated. Because the rest of that faction is off fighting to keep their territory they have or gain a bit more then another faction sees they are busy so go to unpopulated territories and take those with no way the faction that owns that territory can get there in time to defend let a lone stop the capping. The only effective way i found to get there is to spawn an air craft fly there jump out and try to defend it. But all that takes a very long time to do. Not only that but you have no idea its being ghost capped until you see that it was lost.

If it told us it was under attack and there are none of our faction there to defend it at least we would know we are needed there to defend it. But as it is now if you are in a big battle there is almost no time to check the map to see what is going on. And many forget or do not know you can bring up your map to see if any need defending or that it shows whether any team mates are there or not. I suggest a system announcement when bases are being attacked undefended and that it takes 10 times as long to cap it until at least 1 person is there to defend it.

I suggest such a long timer because its not as easy as just redeploying there. A lot of times you have to redeploy to the warp gate spawn an air craft then fly all the way there. And at current times if you are lucky you might get there just in time to see it being capped. I believe it is a huge broken mechanic that is the elephant in the living room many don't want to talk about. As i have seen all sides ghost capping before. But i think this would at least put a challenge to taking the territory as there should be. Not a perfect solution but better then nothing.

Well don't complain too much... the good point with Connery, instead of the EU server for exemple (by what I read on the forum) is that the OverPop actually turn...
One day it's the VS, One day it's the TR and an Other day it's the NC... On Matherson (If I don't mistaken) there is always always a TR overpop (once again, I said that by what I read on the forum)


So yeah overpop, 4th fact° etc but at least it's not always the same to suffer of this. (the bad point is that we are the lowest overall pop) .

On connery, that is not the case. I present this wonderful little pic which was taken about 10 minutes before the end of the Alert Connery just had.



It doesn't change, it's always the vanu who get the over population. I asked in game at the Vanu to see how many of the were 4th factioners, and got at least 10 people immediately said they were. "Well there's no point playing when I can farm certs with Vanu so much easier!" is what one of them said. I don't see how it's fun when people start quitting because there's no point. I'm probably going to avoid alerts from now on because of this kind of crap...

I'm to the point now of agreeing with a 2.5 hour limit on changing factions with the same server. Upon logging out with one faction, you can't change to another faction in the same server for 2.5 hours. Either my original idea I posted or this would actually do wonders for making this game fair. Screw any buffs or nerfs to weapons, it's the population shifts that are a problem.

I have a solution. Howabout play an arena game instead of a global warfare game? I'm not trying to be rude, or a butthole or anything. But really; this is a global warfare game involving 3 factions fighting over property. There will ALWAYS be a 'population imbalance' by the very nature of the game. You and 4 buddies are defending Snowshear tower against 24+ troops. That's an imbalance. More people flock to Indar then Amerish; that's an imbalance. Etc etc.

I understand that being outnumbered sucks. In most fights I find myself in I'm outnumbered. It's irritating to see your side with 1-12 at several nearby locations and the enemy at 24-48+. But that's part of the game. It seems to me that a lot of ya'll don't actually want to play Planetside 2. You want to play an arena game...maybe an extended Counterstrike where you log on and fight against exactly even teams. Perhaps even with an auto-balance every couple of games so one side doesn't have more skilled players then the other. That's fine. I can understand the allure of those games. When I'm in the mood for that type of combat, I log onto them. But the fact remains that THIS is not one of those games. It's not an arena game. It's a global conflict game.

Some of us happen to like games like this...where you might be facing innumerable odds, or where you might crush the enemy with overwhelming force. That's why we're here; we are here enjoying the game that was made for people like us. So why is it you folks who DON'T want to play this type of game keep insisting that the devs completely change the game from what they made...and what we want...into something else that YOU want when there are other games that fit that niche? Honestly, it's like...someone saying that they should implement swords and sorcery in the game with undead, ogres, elves, dwarves with flintlocks, etc. Hey, if you want to play that type of game, there is WoW. There is no need to change PS2 to that game.

I'm fine with odds stacked against me, I like being in battles of up to 48 on each side, and even the occasional zerg. But with all the balancing they want to do, they don't think to balance server populations.

If the populations were only a 5% difference, i'd be fine with it. But when one faction has near double the populations of the other two, that's the part that needs balancing. When you can't ever win because even with your side having 48+ theirs has 96+, not because of everyone joining from one faction to one one continent, but because a third of everyone on your faction and one other faction left and joined the VS, THAT's what needs to be addressed.

I don't want arena based gameplay and i never said, nor implied that. All i want is some way so that the difference between factions is not freaking 16%+ between the largest and second largest factions.

You can't "crush" the enemy when the numbers are severely in their favor. You always lose. Even when you gain ground in one area, the 44% population just splits in to huge platoons that are still impossible to defend because their numbers in essence are 16% higher at EVERY warfront. That's not taking in to the fact that you have to choose between splitting your own forces and maybe taking some ground, or focusing all in one place and losing all you ground behind you via ghost hacking.

If we all had 33% of the population, i'd be fine with odds that are 1-12 vs 48+ but as I said, I'm not fine with populations of 1-12 vs 48+ in all surrounding areas when the server populations look like they do in that picture I posted.

SERVER populations are what i want balanced, not continent or base populations, but the number of people on a server in one faction. I'm fine with one faction having more people, but 16% is waaaay too much.

Yeah something has to give. Tonight Tech plant alert ,VS had all but 1 tech plant. Came in 5 minutes doubled the pop and took everything. Not even a fight ,its a massacre !! All NC just gave up and pop more than doubled on continent !! Had enough pop to take on the other two factions and still run everyone over. Nice to see but sucks to play !!

And to further show a point,

http://sirisian.com/planetside2/population.php?world=1&timezone=-6

If that's accurate, at the time I took that picture, the Connery server had about 2100 players. 44%, or 924 of those players were VS. NC and TR having 28% both would have about 588 players each. 336 additional players on one faction compared to the other two is a huge number no matter how you look at it. If those extras were split between fighting the TR and NC, the VS would still have 168 more players than the other two. That's 3.5 full platoons for the VS to use on each faction. Considering they probably didn't do that much of a split, whoever was in their crosshairs probably had 5-7 additional platoons worth of VS coming at them. And that large discrepancy is what needs to be addressed.

Well you don't read what I said.

I didn't say Vanu never have 4th faction, I said EVERY faction have his over-4thfaction-pop

I play since Jully and only on Connery, so I know my number.... Sometimes it's TR sometimes VS and sometimes NC (even if it is more rare for NC)
All depend of who have the advantage (and because VS are good on Connery...well we have lot of 4th at the last 15min of allert) but it is very often that TR have it too (and at the begening of an allert)


Edit:

Cool you post that, so now everyone could see it.
Except of you are blind, you will see that the population is pretty egual (look at the other server and you will see that IT IS egual comparing to them) , and also we see that the "pop peak" is for everyone ! Yes you have a Blueu peak, then a Violet, then a Red, then a Violet then a Red then a Blueu etc....
Look at EU server, it's always always always red peak with the violet always always under the other two... or always always Violet at the top with blueu under the two faction...

Its even more hellish in off times. Very rarely do I see a remotely balanced pop; Its typically VS over everyone else.

Its a simple solution. Once an alert is called you cannot change empire. The alternative is changing empire when an alerts called costs 250sc

I can't believe Im saying this...But this could actually be a good idea. Similar to what Star Citizen is doing, one server but will instance based on location/friends list/ clan ect.

So Basically the server would try to put you on the same server as your outfit if possible.

The only thing id miss would be the community of my server. I know a lot of my Foes on mattherson, I see a lot of the same people, I kill them they kill me. Outfits get rivalries and such as well. Few other FPS games have this. That would suck to lose.

Perhaps the system could be designed to filter players not in outfits to even pops first...Idk. Anyway, I doubt SOE could create such a system without it sucking/not working.

agreed, I know my foes very well, and understand their playstyles very well. This is actually why I have made alts on my own server, not because I want to switch sides to whose winning, but because I already know the playstyles of everyone on the server, and I know many of the players. I like having a "server culture" because I get to play with people I am familiar with on all sides.

4:05pm? Before most people get off work, and well before prime time? Please repost percentages at prime time. Unless a continent is well populated, it's meaningless.

There is no 'solution'. People wanting even numbers should be playing games where there will be even numbers: arena games like the BF series.

In PS2, where movement, coordination means so much, any outfit can decide to drop 3 full platoons on your head at any time. There's nothing wrong with this and there's nothing to fix. It's just a part of the game and a part of war.

People need to stop trying to turn this into an arena shooter when it's an open world war simulator where people, outfits and hundreds of assets can move whereever they want - even if that means taking a sledgehammer to crush a walnut (or 3 full platoons to crush a single squad's resistance).

During alerts on Connery, TR 4rth factions over to VS. Just play a bit, record the pop, then when an alert starts, watch TR and a bit of NC pop drop and VS pop skyrockets.