Basically, I've been playing a few hours, and I saw zergs from TR taking entire continents, and some time later, a massive VS zerg w/ something like 30 magrinders or something. Which makes me wonder why didn't DBG make something against that, it ruins the game. Even something like a noticeable malus would encourage fair fights when it comes to XP gain. If you're above 60-65% on a base, why would you earn as much XP as if it was a balanced one, where the other side would actually have a chance to stop you ? Stop the zergs, make them nearly useless when it comes to XP gain if you're above 70% in a base, and it might at least decrease the amount of players participating, which would create more fights over the map, and more balanced ones.
You want us to stop Magriders with apple trees? (You can do this, but it doesn't work as well as you would think. In the early days of the game, players used to travel around in a zerg, content to just earn much more paltry base capture experience than we have now.)
i'd say rather than punish the zerg (some of which will just be solo players who were swept along by the lattice) they should add higher incentive for the underpopped faction, 10% more health, 25 extra resources a minute, 50% more xp etc
I take it you are from Cobalt and faced our armor zerg on Amerish and then on Indar (both continents then locked on our terms). Anyways, no. The last thing I'd say ruins the game is zerging. This is a unique gameplay element that no other game can offer, and it's hilarious. Mindless hivemind zerg swarming base after base. I find this to be one of the most awesome occasional aspects of Planetside, it's all about scale: it puts the "Massive" into MMO. If you'd like perfectly balanced N vs. N matches, pick an arena game, there are plenty ranging from CoD to UT.
The Devs have said right from the start they weren't keen on negative controls (and by weren't keen I mean they won't do it), but rather positive controls (bonuses for being underpopped), and to be honest I'm not sure it would stop Zergs, considering I've seen 50% server pop factions running over entire continents with 90+% of the cont pop and people seemingly happy enough to truck along with it. Personally I love fighting against a Zerg, you're not going to win, but it is a ridiculously target rich environment!
You don't punish players doing what the game was designed to do. I can't believe I just replied seriously to this thread.
Always the posts to have any player initiative or tactical advantage removed or undermined. Anway, I find zergs tend to break up or run out of steam due to stiffening resistance after capping around four bases on average. And the adrenaline surge of being carried along with one is great while it lasts. On the EU servers, at least, I don't see zergs happen so often as to say they are ruining anything.
I don't even think they want to stop zergs. We have platoons for that... Each zerg is really just a flock of sheep. You're either a good shepherd as a leader, or you're not. It's that simple. I love zergs. Especially when there's no decent platoons/squads up. I'll join the 96+ vs 96+ 65% vs 35% battle even when my faction is underpopped there, have as much fun as possible, and then redeploy just before the base flips (when on losing side). It's nice casual trip with K/D improvement and extra certs. That is if you know how to play, ofc. I see some ppl, tryhard platoons even, go 1 by 1 in to the meat grinder... That's idiocy. Hate random platoons and squads - they are useless and boring on top of that.
I love zergs when I'm on the underpopped side. I truly cannot understand those who zerg in the overpopped side though aside from newbies. It's just so boring.
You cant always do the meta. That's what directives help with. As an NC on Emerald I have given up on meta. Emerald VS are all about the meta, to the point of annoying. (backcapping may be strategic for alert wins but imo, it stops fun fights...) If I see an overall effort to take bases, I will be there. Experience tells me when not to bother. All in all it comes down to the players and the balance. There are many tools in the game. Those who can use them effectively wins. Most want someone else to do it. "im busy" I could say much more, but what would it matter?
I main exclusively a BR 77 char on TR Miller, with something around 550 hours in. Don't mistake me for a new player, that'd hurt my feelings. I don't want perfectly balanced fights, I want a fight where I can have fun, or at least to fight a battle my faction has a chance to win, or to oppose a long lasting resistance. Getting swarmed with dozens of players in tanks has nothing to do with fun, it has more in common with things like masochism or something similar. I can't believe some people prefer being spawn room warriors, instead of actually playing the game. The meaning of a game is to have fun. And obviously, having a fair fight, until an outfit full of dicks (DIG for example) comes in with a ****ton of armor, and just ruin the fight for everyone else but themselves is the way planetside 2 was meant to be. Yes. The whole point of balancing a game is to favor equality and skill, not farming. Just by even such things, you destroy the gameplay for those who enjoy large-scale even fights. But hey, I'm a troll, right ? I obviously look like one and act like one when I'm speaking of what's happening every ******* time on Miller now, I feel shame when I see my faction steamrolling everyone else because we're like 40% on the server.
Therein lies your problem. Your definition of fun will not suffice for all other players. Some do like playing Whack-A-Mole from the spawn room. Some like sitting on a hilltop sniping. Some like rolling in armor shelling choke points. Some like running you over with stealth flashes. All of these activities are valid examples of "playing the game." I don't like being on the receiving end of these activities but I do recognize the fun aspect of those engaging. You may not feel that some (or any) of these are fun but obviously others do. There are times I like fighting with or against the zerg. There are times otherwise in which case I redeploy in search of more "fun" battles or call it if that ends fruitless. As others have stated, if a fair, balanced fight is a priority to your fun, try arena games. I understand that many auto-balance and some use performance metrics to aid that. Again, as others have stated, Planetside 2 is specifically designed otherwise. Or organize your own unit and counter the zerg on its own footing.
You know what, call me a toxic elitist, but I think that a first person shooter was designed to shoot people instead of sitting idly on a point because you're in a 80-20 fight.
It's your decision. Either you sit in that spawnroom, or gather your friends/allies and do something about it... It's all up to you. No1 is forcing you to do anything. Actually, you don't even have to sit in that spawnroom. Or what? You expected to kill all 100+ players with your pistol or something? By running straight in front of their line of fire? Yes... good times with the AI enemies in those other games. Five AI enemies with machine guns. No problem. Knife them all while they are shooting at you.
There shouldn't be penalty for zergs because well, throwing numbers is the most effective way to secure a base. What the game should do, however, is to provide (bigger) incentives for: 1) "Balanced" fights (6-4 to 4-6) - XP bonus for everyone involved 2) Local underpop defender faction (holding the contested base, 3.9-6.1 or worse) - XP and resource bonus, HP regen, healing speed, revive speed, revive timer, repair speed, resupply rate, deployed/base turret heat recovery, class skill recovery bonus depending on the severity of pop imbalance * This way it would kill many birds with one (well, technically two) stone: 1) Players are rewarded for choosing to participate in a balanced battle rather than joining the already-lopsided zerg 2) Players are rewarded and assisted for fighting against zergs 3) Defenders are always rewarded for defending unless they severely outpop the attackers, in which case the attack wouldn't be a serious threat to the base anyway * I'm against meddling with damage dealt/received or any changes that practically do the same (e.g. extra health). Illogical and arbitrary TTK changes are really bad if you ask me.
You dont really earn as much xp because its "naturally balanced". Zergs dont really get that much xp. They have to fight over scraps because enemies get more scarce. Meanwhile on the defending side there is stuff to shoot everywhere. Sure its imbalanced population wise, but the kills/xp rewards are also higher. At least thats what i have experienced. I always try to redeploy to a "defense fight" because its x10 more profitable kills/xp wise than running with a boring zerg fighting your teamates over a few kills.
You're probably misunderstanding me here. I DON'T expect to accomplish anything when there's an 80-20, but I don't expect anybody on the 80% side to accomplish anything either since hardly anyone is going to move out of the spawn because, you guessed it, there's a lot of enemies, and hardly any allies. So people just end up sitting in that spawnroom on one side, and people end up just staring into the spawnroom on the other side praying that some idiot is dumb enough to peek out. It's not good gameplay on either side. Hell, I'd argue that it isn't even gameplay at ALL. It's sitting down, waiting for the timer to tick down before you move onto the next base. I don't expect to win an 80-20. I just don't want 80-20s happening, and I don't want zergs to virtually ghostcap empty lanes because nobody's going to bother trying to fight against that except for AC players with a hardon for defending against overpop. Now when 1 zerg hits another zerg head on? Yeah, that's going to be an okay farm, but that doesn't happen as often as it should be because people just seem to not want to fight against each other sometimes. We need more encouragement for people who actively fight, we need more encouragement for at least fairly even fights. I'm not asking for equal pop on each side, but at least keep it within 33-66. We could use some disencouragement to people just passively moving along as a blob of players taking everything effortlessly because nobody's going to fight 2 platoons of zerglings.
Most times a 'zerg' is a platoon that is rolling you because you don't have a platoon to counter it. Stop framing these whine threads in a way that demonizes the core components of the game. Honestly forumside... geez.
