[Suggestion] Why is the population issue discussed so repeatedly and never addressed at all?

Since the title was misleading and was deleted, I will change the title and resubmit with the exact same content in the body of the text.



I personally think that the population problem is as critical as cheaters, bugs, and game balance.
I think this issue has been a frequent problem and has been discussed in many places.
What I still don't understand is the lack of approach to this problem even if it becomes an issue each time.
In the past, there were still population balance queues and other measures taken, but no further action has been taken and I wonder why.

At least I don't find it interesting to fight in a camp with an overwhelming number of people.
So I participate in camps with fewer people.
But it is true that I am fed up with too many games that are not games.
When you apply Lanchester's Laws to your thinking, you will need to have at least twice the skill and kill ratio of the enemy to beat the other camp in Soltech's VS.
Moreover, there are factors such as certs, so if a beginner joins a camp with few people, it may not be out of line to say that it takes more than 10 times the time and effort of a veteran to finally get even.
The problem with this game is that the worse the situation gets, the more pronounced the problem becomes.
But still, the lack of any action on the population issue among the first four items raised is very frustrating.
I recognize that this game is not a game where you can play all day on the premise that you have the number of people.
However, I would still prefer to have the servers closed during non-peak hours if there are times when I can't play.
Of course I really want to have fun all the time.
But the current situation is too unreasonable.
At the time of this writing, there were 8 VS, 50 NC, 40 TR, and 6 NSO, for a total of 104 people.
I don't expect equality, but the difference in the number of people who can't function as a game is something I think we have to protest against.
It is not a battle during those hours when the number of people is that low.
When a particular camp is over 50%, Nanite is not resigned, and there is no conscience or anything, the game is truly a taste of all the unreasonableness of this game.

The difference in the number of players in this game is too much, even though a basic online game can be a big problem if just one player is missing.

they are doing a good job with managing "low hanging fruit" features but they are not really developing the game anymore and we all know the population problem is not going to be solved by tweaking some numbers here and there. the game needs a server merge but they simply go "no comment" about that, for some reason. another thing that would get people to PS2 is a revamp of the game engine (new graphics, untie RoF and FPS so you wouldn't see the game on social media being played exclusively at its absolute worst graphics in order to increase RoF)

Personally, I would like the camps with too many people to no longer be able to log in, I noticed the flaw as I was rewriting the text.
I believe that at least the population problem remains the same and is a critical issue. And in the end, there was no more sane proposal than the server merger.However, the temperature is completely different from last time. I may be out of my depth as soon as possible.

Honestly, I don't see many chances left for the devs to bring out a banger update that manages to bring back some pop. They had success with the escalation, oshur of the and the arsenal update. But many of those players that played during that time left because the quality of the core game and new introduced features have not been finished or improved upon sufficiently. The guns in the game are still not balanced. Capture the conduit, take way, way too long to fix by removing most of the bases that feature it. Construction fortification of the does not feel like it has been finished let alone polished . NSO faction still left in the dust. The Chimera is by far the worst tank and their infantry arsenal is still incomplete. You have things like this compounding and eventually many players just start leaving the game and especially stop investing money/time. The devs probably have one shot at this. They need to come out with a banger of the two fix, many of the core issues. And if they can't fix everything, perhaps things that they could fix by adjusting numerical values like gun balance. Arsenal update 2 or even an NSO complete/ buff update would catch a lot of attention and bring back some pop. I could even see the developers asking the planets I'd community on making a trailer featuring the robot faction or a trailer featuring a new arsenal update. I'm sure There are people more than happy to do it.

I just wish they'd stop wasting time "fixing" audio issues or changing the sound of "annoying" guns and instead do something about server merges and address real, game-breaking bugs.

Servers and such are publisher level issues. There's not a lot the devs can do other than sympathize. If they make a move that helps us, but hurts the publisher, then things will get worse for everyone.

WE NEED SERVER MERGES / TRANSFERS PLEASE!!!!!!!!

mithril locked a character transfer thread, daybreak doesnt care who they ban or how much money you give them they will still ban you regardless. that should tell you enough that they literally dont care your char is on another server, they WANT you to make a NEW one so you can SPEND more MONEY for THEM.

In Soltech, the population of VS is now 12%~15% even during peak hours in case of yesterday.

Today the time of day when there are fewer people is around 0%~4%.

https://ps2.fisu.pw/population/?world=0

I have no idea why they choose to do nothing, not even do the bare minimum of communicating the situation with the players.

There's a couple things that needs urgent addressing:

• Cheating. As there's less pop, a cheater can cause a lot more damage. There's been a cheater going around terrorizing the servers, and there needs to be a quicker, more efficient method than waiting till a gm can review the emails to ban them manually. Multiple solutions have been suggested by the playerbase, if you really don't want to listen to them come up with something yourselves, but do it quick! The longer it takes to address the more players and support you lose!

• Server transfers/merges. Connery needs to be merged with Emerald, Cobalt needs to be merged into Miller. If you're not gonna do it at least allow server transfers to salvage some pop. Again you're just killing off players that want to play but can't because there's no pop on their server and they don't want to restart from scratch on a new server.

• Sunderer rework/overall balancing of things. Sunderers, infils, a2g, and overall vehicle interactions between themselves and infantry need to be balanced overall. The negative effects are felt especially during low pop, since a single esf can pretty much lock down a hex for example. And deployed sunderers still die way too fast. Again there's been many suggestions to fix this, please look into it. Alternatively create a special map for off hours where the center base has hardspawns for all the factions, ensuring the fight doesn't end. Players would also like to see Koltyr brought back for off hours. Fix Oshur also or at least just the center base so everyone doesnt just log off when it opens.

• Certain bugs need to be addressed, the audion bug, the falling through the map, hacked terminal from the map, etc.

• FInd a way to generate a bit of hype. Overall the roadmap isn't bad and I do appreciate a focus on directives and events. Keep doing that, we need more. However the game needs a bit of hype to bring back some attention to the game, and hopefully get a few players to return to check the game out. But the first 3 points need to be addressed before this, because you won't retain players if key issues aren't fixed first! I'm guessing there's not enough devs or budget for a new vehicle or continent. So focus on generating hype through events, it could be outfit wars, trying to break the guiness world record again, bringing back events like when the flare gun launched, whoever gets the most kills in a week with that special weapon get a prize, etc. Be creative with ways to generate some hype and involve yourselves with the playerbase. You have a passionate community that've been loyal to this game for 12+ years and want to see it succeed, take advantage of it.

MMOFPS devs have been listening to the wrong players for decades (plural). How's that working out for ya. Dead game? Yeah, thought so.