Why can we switch factions?

Why are people allowed to switch factions on the same server. All people do is look to see who is winning and then play that faction. It is such a server breaking function.

We should only be allow 1 character per server.

Because monies and nanites

Because some regions don't have enough servers.
Because forced population balance would only hurt the game.
Because server mergers made faction restrictions impossible.

Take your pick.

So switching factions on alerts does not hurt the game?

Free to play, your way!™

I think an empire lockout timer like we had in PS1 would be a good idea. I suppose you could still create a new account to get around it, but I don't think many people would go through the hassle, give up their NS unlocks across characters and split their SC over two or more accounts just to 4th faction.

So we can play with our friends.

You have friends, don't you?

Dumb reason for switching factions.

My friends are smart enough to say "Hey what faction are we going to play" before we make characters.

What kind of people are you hanging out with?

I like the idea of a lockout timer.

Hi, I see you are new to the forums so it's understandable that you may have missed some information. This idea has been passed around multiple times and Higby has even wieghed in on it.

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2...ou-who-are-sick-of-4th-faction-alerts.150807/

In Short
PS1=Subscription play
PS2=Free to play

PS1 - lock out works for everyone
PS2 - paying player are the ones who get shafted. Idea still fails to stop cross faction sabotage.

Because money. Three characters to spend cash on equals more potential money in SOE's pockets.

Well if it's all about money...
Why not have a cooldown for switching factions...but it is removed if you have membership?

oooo good one.

Did we forget the part where this is a F2P game and you can make multiple accounts?

It was a very bad idea to implement as it was, just makes the balance of the game swing quick to the winning side hard.

Because Briggs.

Empire-locking is basically impossible with the F2P model, as one can make as many alt accounts as they want.

This is one of the things that you simply can't compare with PS1.

Because multiple accounts are free to make. There's no point in restricting someone when you can just make another account.

You appear to not once have acknowledged some one else's point of view in this thread. You have actually belittled those who responded with constructive comments. See here -

and here

I'll leave the deep insightful assumptions as to the whys of your character to other, more juvenile players, such as not being loved enough as a child, or never getting along with friends at school, or being forever alone in your old take-out laden room. Instead, I'll simply ask

Why this thread?

I'm sure this has been discussed ad nauseam, but the solution is simple. Give people 5 minutes after logging in to ANY character on their account AFTER an alert has begun, to decide which faction they would like to support. After the 5 minute timer is over, a player may switch factions, but at the cost of not receive any benefit from it related to the event. AND. they need a great big warning that pops up that advises the player of such before switching factions with no less than a series of three "ARE YOU SURE?" or "THINK ABOUT THIS?" or "YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!" buttons that need to be clicked, so there is no confusion and to try and deterr anyone from doing such. The issue comes down to money. I believe SOE needs to keep faction switching open at any time, but it needs to be discouraged and mitigated in some way during events. The bottom line is this......Even the faction loyal players on the team losing to "4th factioners" are or may be paying customers as well and you don't want to discourage them from playing.

I was mostly being facetious. Something like that could work if the switching timer was short (like ~10 minutes, so switching to a new account isn't a big advantage timewise). Really the best way to encourage faction loyalty would be to encourage the social life of each faction, giving us more outfit tools, immersion that makes you associate with a faction; things that make you want to log on and play with a certain group instead of switching around.

stupid idea if people could switch then everyone would switch to the one with the highest population and then we will see servers with 2%, 2% and 96% populations per empire. also it would get rid of the idea that once you pick a empire you stay with it and become loyal to it and help it win.