Waterson

I have the opposite experience...

To me Waterson seems to be harder server, there is no organization on waterson, it is like a server of lone wolves vs zergfits..

The guy saying go try Connery NC out to give you perspective on bads.. he is not joking..

You need to realize that pop imbalance and incompetent players are a problem for every faction on every server because they're some of the CORE MECHANICS of the game. None of your problems are unique, they are not significant, and they are not worth posting a thread about.

You see Waterson as the harder server because you are Mattherson VS, go Mattherson TR/NC and go up against DA and the coordination of Mattherson Vanu and we'll see how your perspective of hard mode changes. There's no way Waterson is the harder server for anything except maybe air and that's because to me it sounds like Prey has more numbers than QRY on Mattherson thus making the air game on Waterson POTENTIALLY harder from an A2A standpoint.

While the Waterson VS are still a shell of what they used to be, they are far from what OP describes. The biggest problem I see at this point is many times they do not participate in alerts, leading to a somewhat frustrating experience if you do want to participate. The last few weeks, Ive seen the alerts they did participate in won and many times even with a population deficit. I get more random squad invites from VS than I do on NC too.

VS used to stomp faces with 25% population. Something happened, and Im guessing a lot of their high level players and leaders just quit playing. They were really, really bad for a while but now things are on an uptick.

NC has done the same thing. There used to be a lot of infighting and most of the Outfits were zergy and derpmode. Now the NC work together a lot more and arent as derpmode by far.

TR were the population Juggernauts for a looong time on Waterson, and didnt need to learn how to be as good as the VS used to be. Now they fall in the middle, and the best TR Outfits I dont see much of anymore. They were carried by population and a conglomeration of slightly to absurdly OP weapons that they no longer have.

Unfortunately, for some reason some of the NC seems to think they still need to pound them back into their warpgate on every alert, essentially handing the VS victory. I dont think memories of 2013 and TR's utter dominance then are going to fade away very quickly.

We can't be that bad, we do pretty well considering we are often under populated.

Though I do get TK'd more than I did on NC

Yes there are definitely alerts (for example) where we lose horribly but usually that is due to 25% pop and very few people on command chat. However, give me 28% pop and a few other good guys on command and we will have a pretty good chance of winning the alert or at least placing second. 33% pop during primetime and we're almost unstoppable.

This is my Mattherson TR for comparison:


Still seems easier than Waterson..

I live on Waterson, this is my opinion, too. TR has some decent cohesion/outfits, but there's no outfit left that I would say is 'good' AND 'well-rounded'. There are plenty of decent, specialized TR outfits. There are plenty of bad, diversified outfits. The problem is, they don't work together. Waterson TR is where Waterson NC was 8 months ago, serious role reversal going on. NC has there **** together now, they actually seem to have a functioning command channel, or at least dole out responsibilities well.

VS is the only faction that wins alerts w/ underpop. There's really nothing else to say about it. OP brings up a few valid points:
Waterson VS won't gun for you unless you or your tag are well know, or they really need a ride somewhere.
You want a heal or rez? I hope your squadmate is medic, they seem to be about 1 in 50-60 in pub groups.
The infantry charges are hilarious, but we've got nothing on Connery for footzergs.
No one plays AA in this game, it seems, VS isn't special on this count.

Let me answer some of OPs questions:
Organized air? Waterson VS seems to be mostly solo pilots, save for the few well-recognized outfits. Personally, I feel I get more assistance from lone friendlies in the air on VS than either of the other factions. The mentality seems to be, 'I'm here to help myself, but if I can make points saving you, we can be friends for 30 seconds, lol.' Compared to TR and NC, I appreciate that.
Good pilots? The majority of practiced, experienced pilots have either left VS, or quit PS2. I think this goes for most servers/populations.
As to the last two, I think those are just general PS2 problems.

I only have 1 non-Waterson character, and I rolled NC on Connery. Let me put it this way, when NC has SW Indar, there's always two zergs (NC & TR) butting heads at West Highlands. I'm certing that character out to drive Harassers: I turn up the tunes, turn on the troll lights (err, lumifiber), start honking the horn, and commence to pulping meatbags. The lack of coordination/faith in numbers makes Connery a whole different world to play on, one where I run people over for the lols, haha.

Well the NC have "one" outfit that can produce it's own zerg....Not necessarily outplaying the VS.

except that account was created in 2014 AFTER you had learned the game, your other two accounts were created when you didn't know how to play as well or get XP as well. An XP gap of several hundred and the time which you created the account is a dead giveaway. For instance if I recreated my TR on Mattherson right now I'd probably be hovering around a KD between 30-60 and a XP/Min of 300-500.

Jesus

I don't think forumside grasps the concept of experience when making new characters and just how much it means compared to any combination of certs. It's scary how much you can look back a month on your character and compare it to the first month after launch. Unless you somehow hit your skill ceiling at launch, it's likely gone up by 2-6x when you compare them, assuming you didn't forsake FPS games for a year+

Na, Jesus is a way cooler person than I am.

That being said here is the kill board from 2 very recent battles with me being on the front line against the very deadly threat of Mattherson Vanu. Average KD between those two separate fights was roughly 60 https://www.planetside2.com/players/#!/5428010618040867281/killboard.

People say tanking is boring, but if you get within 100 meters of infantry it's a real challenge and if you're good it's really rewarding. I still die from C4 fairies which fly high above my LOS, but otherwise I last pretty darn long in my Prowler.

Anyhow, it's pretty apparent that my current KD doesn't reflect my total KD which is why I'm saying Liberty's claim that Waterson is more hardmode isn't possible. The level of organization among all three faction on Mattherson has no competitor when comparing servers in the U.S

Ah yes, I've seen you tanking a few times. You're very talented, it's no wonder people see your opinion as an authority on these matters. Still, you're TR, so you still suck via association (obviously).

You always blow up my Lightning

.

I would totally agree, My K/D and XP/minute ratio has been increasing on basically a constant rate since 2012. That being said because I tried to play with such crap FPS as infantry when the game launched without getting very many kills I dented my overall K/D and XP/Minute. You should almost always be learning new stuff as you play the game, unless of course you've spent a ton of time in one particular role and know almost everything there is to know regarding that role.

Deep insight, really makes me think about my place in the universe.

The roughest thing for me was that I hadn't touched FPS games in over a year, PC FPS games in over two years. Had to dig myself out of that hole and still digging myself out of that stat hole with my focus remaining on infantry. Mind you, I've been selling my soul recently like you vehicle cheesers did and I am getting fond of 2nd/3rd seat gunning for tanks and/or libs.

Lol, shelling from infantry render distance is easy and boring. Fight within 100 meters of a massive infantry fight and not only will you feel like you deserved your kills, but you'll also feel the exhilaration feeling of multiple people trying to single you out and instagib you. with C4 or just try to mass rush you with rockets. Mattherson infantry typically don't put up with my tank shenanigans for long until people really start to pull heavy AV or pull LA to come after me.

On a side note, there is almost nothing more awesome than having basically every allied tank around you dead and being the only tank in the middle of a big battle. You actually feel like a tank, engineers will repair you while you take a massive amount of fire and kill things, and until a C4 fairy flys above your LOS to drop 2 sticks of C4 ontop of you tank and Instagib you it's one heck of a fun time. Don't knock front line tanking until you've tried it.

It's all a matter of perspective. It's sometimes amusing to hear what people are thinking when they aren't in the loop or in a particular circle of influence. Friend or foe. Do you take the time to tell them or let them think what they are thinking? All part of the mind game of battle.