Why isn't there any disincentive to empire hop?

once again it's very easy to identify someone's pc uniquely.
You can have as many accounts as you want, but how many
pc's are you willing to buy for new accounts?

yep.

It is true that anyone CAN figure out a way to get around almost any restriction, but the majority would not even bother so it would work as intended.

And again, I don't mind getting locked to one faction even though I like flying with a few others on my server (I do have low ranked VS and TR toons, mostly certed up from the 48 free daily certs). In PS1 you had to pay to play period, and they locked you to one faction every 6 hours, No one really had a problem with that and in fact it made ties to your faction much stronger (the reason I am NC now is because I was NC then. I am positive many PS1 vets feel the same faction loyalty continuing into this game that PS2 does not seem to promote.)

Until the way Alert EXP is earned is changed, people will simply continue to do empire hop.

The 10K EXP carrot is to ease to pass up, I can log in as TR play for 30 minutes and earn 10K.

If the they suspended Alerts for one week you would see all this faction unbalance dissipate but
the general population is way too hooked on getting free certs for no work (most of the time).

I don't see why there should be? One disincentive is you start from scratch with the exception for camo, membership and NS weapons ( I may missing a few ) and it sucks! I am BR 72 on TR and played on NC a few times because I am getting burnt out. I like it, but WOW you never realize how good you have it under all your upgrades and cert trees are gone.

I am helping pay for the development as well and I say it's a big waste of time and it would only back fire on me, the paying customer.

Which would require said F2P players to actually make more than one account. Is there any evidence that shows this as being the case?
I could just as easily claim that F2P players wouldn't bother with making more than one account, they would be too lazy, they wouldn't want to do so because they might some day choose to buy something, they would just log onto another character on another server etc.
I didn't buy his first response to this and I didn't buy this one either.

My thoughts on this is that if you don't make it an inconvenience, or otherwise limit it, to jump faction then you're just going to encourage it. I would welcome having paying customers, myself included, have to deal with a time restriction when switching from one faction to another. At the very least it would limit the alert jumping a little.

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

Perhaps, but you have to admit that WDS is about the perfect opposite of addressing the 4th faction issue as it only encourages people to play one particular faction.

Hilariously bad that the response to 4th faction is an incentive to 4th faction. Almost like we're being trolled by the game now.

I suppose that people do it to get past the max character limit of non-members, makes sense. I stand corrected. I guess it would then come down to how many "a lot" is and whether or not the majority, or at least enough F2P players for it not to matter, would choose to make another account to bypass a restriction. At least now I can see what's made them hesitant with adding in a restriction.
Doesnt change the second part of my post though.

There are tons of ways to make incentives for playing consistently for 1 faction.

I am amazed at the lack of creativity and understanding.

From a business standpoint - having paying customers be able to switch at their leisure is a good thing. More factions they play, more money is spent on faction unique stuffs. This is good and healthy for the longevity of the game - no revenue stream, means no reason to develop/patch/etc.

Now from a 4th faction switching standpoint, the poor guys (non paying players) makes up the bulk of your 4th faction. What causes these guys to switch? Well since they don't have membership/boosters/etc, certs/XP is harder to come by. The guy that has money can buy boosters, has membership, etc, so they have it far easier. Even the daily passive cert gain is enough that they can get some starter certs for alts without much effort.

So what happens when you give the free to play players an easy opportunity at some quick cert/XP gain? 4th faction switching is pervasively caused by alerts. Even on server that's been pretty balanced like Connery, I'm seeing more faction switching now especially during non peak hours, because everyone knows the Vanu on the server will go all out to win an alert. The NC can have highest pop on the server various times of the day, but turn on an alert, and bam, you see a rise in VS pop. People recognize what will happen, and the 4th faction switching ensues.

Timers can be bypassed, hardware locks can be bypassed, etc.

I was mystified why alerts were introduced in the first place, and although at times they do create some big fights, they are like 95% bad and destructive for the game. I say we should just disable them and toss them into the trash can.

^This is simply untrue. Once again I've been securing deployed software for more than a decade. The folks that can break the off the shelf systems, are going to hilariously do you more harm than any benefit they provide. Justice via techodarwinism... ain't it grand.

At the end of the day even if it was a bad implementation that stopped 80% of the faction swapping that'd would solve the issue as Sol has pointed out.

PS1 did this brilliantly by putting a timer on switching only every 6 hours. They could make it even less restrictive and put the timer on only during an alert. Heck they could do just about anything to help the issue, and IMHO it needs to be addressed.

If Freemium players need an XP boost then so be it, however ruining the competitive nature of the game isn't the answer.

I never liked the idea of the winning side getting more powerful anyway, it's bad for the overall health of a long term game, that's another thread thou. Bragging rights used to be plenty... o well.

PS1 had paid accounts where the timer system can work.

Just cause folks do this every day in the world of financial software, can't be possible cause... forum folks say so. No one has bank accounts or internet access to them I guess... cause there's no way any software could determine what machine your on... nope can't happen. Once software knows your machine uniquely, it can't use that information to call shenanigans on your multiple accounts... nope... Databases and machine id's don't exist... /droolsonself


www.BankofAmerica.com

Given you totally ignored my suggestion about disabling alerts entirely, I'm starting to understand your POV more. Here's where you don't get it... the bulk majority of the playerbase isn't competitive... the game is intended to have mass market appeal, and most of the players don't care about MLG and will never be anywhere close to tournament level type players. Competitive players are in the small minority.

And competitive players don't faction switch like this - they are loyal by nature. You want a real disincentive to faction switching, but that is contrary to having an open and accessible game that can cater to larger audiences.

And bragging rights... yup, it confirms your mindset. No matter what you do, the large majority out there simply aren't in this mindset. Just watch as people do silly things - ignore alerts, fight in the wrong spots, etc.

Go join some of the MLG stuff SOE is going to come up with and find your competitive gameplay there. Cause the PS2 general will never be at that level... and the free to play model attracts tons of casuals.

I'd also caution on switching timers you're recommending... they will discourage reverse faction switching... high BRs that are bored are still more likely to stick to their high BR characters instead of switch over, and these people actually bring some level of experience and skills that benefits the faction they might switch to. Disincentive switching with timers might just turn out to be like slitting your own wrists instead.

Meanwhile these alerts - all they do is constantly cause non natural displacements - pop swings, fights get dropped so people can move to a different continent, etc. Ie. alerts are just plain disruptive, their XP reward is both too low that some ignore them entirely and yet good enough to cause 4th faction switching.

Tell me - is there any value in alerts? Or if you want to be honest, maybe what you want is a real disincentive... but you can never make 4th faction types loyal or truly competitive.

Oddly enough I consider myself more of a roleplayer, and in my heart due truly feel "loyal" to the VS faction after years of playing PS. Im competitive, but more with myself, Im certainly no MLG star... lol... Didn't mean to ignore anyone ... and as far as disabling alerts, I like the little competitions, they're fun and bring meaning to folks like me that want to "win" for their "faction/outfit/division/friends". They also add alot of variety to strategery, which is alot of fun also.

The frothing cert insanity, I will never really understand. After like $20 worth of smed bucks, I had everything I'd ever need to buy in game, everything after that has been more like unexpected presents than necessary unlocks.

In general thou, I feel that the gameplay gets hurt by the 4th faction, which ever side gets it. I'd rather lose in a good battle, than just watch every fight turn into an eventual steamroll by faction switching.

I would love instanced arena's thou, although I have no idea how that wouldn't also hurt the overall game world I love.

Because triple the potential money.

Sums up how I feel as well.

I understand SoE's stance but I think they are too dismissive of even a simple timer to delay faction switching.
Could be as simple as '30 minutes from your last logoff, you cannot switch factions on the same server'.
That's called take a break, make a sandwhich, eat it, stretch your legs and use the restroom.
Sure people could make multiple accounts to skirt that but how many that desperate are actually helping pay for the game?

I just think SoE has too much to do with too few staff, so they have to choose their poisons then come up with excuses
why they don't things when it's really because they don't have the resources anymore.
They did just layoff a bunch of people, afterall.

Thought you gave up. Decide to change your mind?

Personally I have multiple systems that can run this game. Can't stop me there. If I didn't I still know how to proxy my IP. Your bank account idea is dead because this game is F2P, which you just haven't figured out yet. Attempting to ask for a card on a free account will only drive players off. That would leave HWIP which is pretty ridiculous for such a counter. Even then my PC has 4 hard drives. But then I am talking to the guy who earlier thought it would be a good idea to ban people for switching characters so I'm guessing its in the norm for you.

ps BoA is bad for you.

Dude, I could hide thousands of guids on your machines and you'd never know it. Cutting through proxies is super easy also bro, however, SOE can't aford me and doesn't need me. By playing on multiple machines you fly right out of the 80% we need to control. Your arguments are false, your premise is false, keep telling yourself your untraceable thou, eventually your gonna meet up with someone like me that cares, that'll be a bad day for you.

Average freemium player, could be pined and identified by a 1st year comp sci student.

This isn't about tech, it's about SOE's will.