The Fourth Faction is KILLING this game! There NEEDS to be limitations on the use of alts!

Ofcourse this solution will not be popular but it will solve the problem fairly......you can switch empires every 12 hours only. 4th empire ppl still can get the bonus from alerts but have to stay that empire for 12 hours or not by not switching just for the bonus.

All these stupid ideas will just alienate half the player base. Whether their 4th faction or not won't matter.

I know for myself if i have to wait 12 hours or even 15 mins to switch toons then I'll just quit the game and go play something else.

I know no one cares if one bozo quits, but multiply me by thousands and then you can have your fun without the 4th factioners.... or any one else for that matter....

No one will miss any of your kind.

My "Kind" ? Care to explain what my "Kind" is? Oh you mean the "Kind" of person that likes playing a video game and doesn't like sitting staring at a screen waiting HOURS to play a game?

You dont have to do that. If you make your choice to switch empires then YES play THAT empire!

HERE HERE!!
i have a feeling when saying "here here" in agreement is spelled differently...

Only if SOE actually make your damn passive cert gain accumulate instead of having to log on to claim them.

They put in loggin in to get your certs, so they can say "This many players log in each day to our game(PS@) its huge, stock holders invest moar monies I mean if you like it you want moar and we like monies so we want moar . we need moar stock options moar stock options and moar alien big titty chicks and moar delivery and moar and moar and moar, and here is a STATIONCASH SALE buy STATION CASH we want moar "

I think that would help make thee pill easier to swallow. Good idea.

I think the forth empire stuff is more then just players switching empires for bonus's. It's people changing faction based on who is precieved as more powerful. I think you should only get to play one empire per server. No timed switching or anything, just make it so that you can't have a double negative effect when switching sides. Differnt servers act differntly. So their is no guarentee that your on the best faction on the best server. If VS or NC or TR or whatever is overpowered and your server has a low pop for that faction, then your stuck with it.

I see the main problem happening when your one faction on your server, then something happens and your faction on that server takes a hit and starts loosing alerts, so you start playing the over powered faction on that server. If you where TR and switch to VS on the same server, then your hurting TR and your strengthening the VS. The guys who stuck with TR are getting hurt twice, NC gets hurt once, VS gets helped once. Verses if you just played on another server, TR on that server loses 1 guy, and VS on another server gains 1 guy. It would also stop the guys that are logging on to screw up the opposing empire.

Meh, don't change anything.

I'm still in favor of changing incentives so that players will want to try to play in the most underpopulated faction. For example, I suggested this in another thread on this issue:

Players want experience and certs, so modify them to create balancing incentives.

For every percentage of population a faction has over 34%, impose a 5% experience/cert penalty until they are earning zip at 54%.

For every percentage of population a faction has under 33% give them a 5% bonus.

Players, particularly 4th factioners, logging on will tend to gravitate towards the lowest pop faction causing populations to even out like water finding it's own level.

Nobody is denied playing the alt they want to play, and there is no artificial faction caps. But players do have incentives to switch away from overpopulated factions in favor of higher experience gains elsewhere. Diehards will stick with their favored faction, but the fickle 4th factioners won't and a system like this might actually make them ... useful.

Wrong. You're assuming that not enjoying losing translates to being a sore loser. The latter would be related to poor sportsmanship. Someone can be upset/unhappy about losing any type of match in-game or real life, but still give props to their competitor(s). No one says you have to enjoy losing to show good sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is a personality thing.

Oh really?

Too bad my comment was strictly about that "one situation" and that "particular group of people" who farm kills from within spawn rooms. I didn't say anything about people making death-runs for the objective against a zerg or trying to be Rambo.

Backup - you're changing your story. You didn't write that people are mearly unhappy about a loss, you stated:

(Emphasis mine)

That's different.

Anyway, you enlightened me about the low-population whining. I believe you are right that those people likely don't have fun unless they win, and I maintain they are all bad sportsmen.

And this is a bad thing?
Game gets more money, game gets bigger and better....
Game gets less money, game dies.

It is about money.
110% about money.
This game would not exist without money.

As for faction switching.. You are basically stuck with it now. You might see some timers placed but only after they make cert collecting for other characters automatic. Otherwise people will revolt. They paid for it...

" I think you should only get to play one empire per server."

Not enough servers to support this idea.
Plus to late in the game to change it now unless you are going to make SOE delete peoples characters.
Example : I have 6 characters all on 1 account on 1 server. Now your rule gets put into effect, what happens to my other 5 characters? What servers will they be transferred to? There are not 6 west coast servers... You going to make me delete some characters? Or make SOE? I did in fact pay for them.....


Well?

That means at worst you would have your characters spread across 3 servers. There is no need to be on a west cost server for all 6 accounts. Really, what are the reasons? You plan to meet people in real life? Your ping is that much worse, and only effecting a small percent of your characters? And yea, server transfer of your choice, free. your character is still in tact, and everything that was unlocked is unlocked, its just on another server.

Not thinking i should suffer bad ping to satisfy this issue.
West coast = good ping.
East coast = bad ping.
Europe = even worse.

Plus I choose the side of freedom. Freedom to play any faction at any time the way i want.
After all this is a game, made for entertainment.

My idea : Use the carrot instead of the stick.
If faction A is lower pop then faction B or C, increase XP gain for faction A until population balance is reached.
Example : If faction A gave a 50% increase to XP gain due to low population. How long do you think it will stay at the lower population level given the chance to increase XP gain by 50%?

As the population imbalance increases, the XP % increases to balance.

Simple, and no blocking of any player choice.

The carrot is always better then the stick.

Here my a couple possible solutions, these are off the top of my head so they may need to be reworked/expanded upon.

1) Put a cap at 40% on faction population. Anything above 40% pop is game breaking anyway. Give priority to players with only one character on that server. People with multiple characters on a single server will be forced to the back of the line in switching characters/may not be able to at all.

2) Limit people to one character per server during alerts. This can either be the first one they log into during an alert, or their most experienced account. Add a warning before people log on that an alert is going on and once they get on they can't change accounts (if going on the same server) until the alert is over. Don't tell them who's winning.

3) Limit one character per server in the first place. For existing accounts, let players choose which accounts to keep on a server and which ones to move to another server for free. To be fair, I'm not a fan of this one since there are only 2 local servers in each area now. So if I had 3 characters, one would have to go on a west coast or european server, which means lag. This idea may need some reworking or be thrown out. Just throwing it out there.