Why isnt there some sort of limit on how the factions are split up on the server

Create 2 alts of each other Empires.
Log in with one of the Empire lowest pop character.
Fight for glory and for the character you have fun with, don't bother with pop stats.

That's not a bad idea. Well, it's bad if taken exactly, but some weighting would be nice.

Those two are great ideas man! Very creative and promising I'd say, plus not much coding (as you only have to add who you've killed - variable you have during kill - and actually going to stats - to the actual counter.

I'd also consider a

1. continent lock only during alerts but with a margin, say 10%. So if VS have 40%, NC and TR 30% each, then no VS can join unless there is 1% more NC and 1 % more TR - only during alerts. This might have also work with an increased limit - for example - 15% for uncontested continents.

OR even better

2. queue handicap for overpopped faction With queue handicap, all non-member VS would be last to be able to join (after no more NC or TR waiting) if VS reach 10% more than every other faction

If the resource system worked properly (ie. resources were actually fairly limited and slow to come by) then you could probably fix the discrepancy fairly easily by giving more resources (on a sliding scale) to the underpop factions.

If the side with 30% vs the one with 40% could afford to field a lot more force multipliers then that would surely help significantly.

Right now it's actually the opposite I think. The overpop faction generates more resources (since it is generated pr. player - and they have more of them). Also, resources tick in every minute and it is hard to run out of them unless you manage to throw them the window by immediately blowing up (a learn to play issue). Too many resources means that the real limiter for resources is people's willingness to use them more often than scarcity.

-Stigma

I have a simple fix. Forget bonuses. Any faction with more than 35% population on a continent stops receiving any XP period. You can zerg all you like, but you wont be rewarded for it. At all.

Certain VS outfits, back in the day, would have burner accounts logged in and running in the background that would sit in the TR and NC Indar warpgates and just idle there to keep real players/outfits from being able to fight on that continent because it would be "full". Also, being at a pop "disadvantage" would boost VS resource gain and such. You could tell this was happening because the fake players would stay in the warpgate, not moving except for an occasional twitch to keep from getting kicked and all had names like "TR674134" and they would all log off once the VS outfits were done their ops for that night.

If at any point a faction has greater than 40% overall population on a server, that server cannot spawn alerts.

The other thing they really ought to do is scale the base capture times by continent pop. You have 80% of the population on a continent and are ghost capping so that you can gain an advantage if there is an alert there? Well, have fun waiting twenty minutes for a single point base to cap.

People wouldnt want to play if they couldnt play the faction they wanted.

There is also population locks. When all three factions lock the continent, the populations are equal.

Next time you feel zerged and unfairly treated, look at continent populations.
Sometimes the populations are equal even though a single faction steamrolls the other two.
Usually because the 2 factions getting steamrolled are stuck in a stalemate with eachother somewhere.

Zerging and overpop are what MAKE PEOPLE PLAY THE GAME idiots. This dream of 200 vs. 200 fair type fights will never happen cause there's too many people who want to be on the side with more players. Zerging is fun to a big chunk of the player base. Overpop makes that fun Zerg even better. If you were to delete the rewards for zerging like XP and Capping, etc... All you'd make people do is log off. No one wants to play this balanced, fair pipe dream of a game.

And those that DO want fairness usually just succumb to the masses and join the overpop. Why? Cause you're not gonna be the unlucky ****** getting spawn camped 24/7. It's a no brainer, so give up on these threads.

There was talk that the devs might create the NS Merc faction which players could opt into and support the under pop faction. However they are limited to NS weapons while playing NS Mercs.

I honestly would love to see a population balance. If there are already 2 times the Vanu than TR or NC, then no other VS should be able to join in. Either put them in a waiting list or suggest them to join another character in another faction.

This would solve most of the current alert problems...

Then you're gonna have no Vanu cause no one is gonna wait in ques to play a game. I can guarantee 90 percent of the people would log off and do something else.

But we already have queues for maps with too many players in them... It has only to be extended as faction balance, preventing a situation where there is too high percent of certain faction players in a certain map.

It's damn boring to play with unbalanced number, both for attackers and defenders. Only morons would want to play in such situation for easy win, so if they leave only because they can't play in the outnumbering faction then even better.

continent queues don't exist for factions under capacity.

If VS is at capacity, and they've got a 20 minute queue, and show as 40% continent pop.... then the TR and NC are both underpopped, and have no queue at all until they also reach capacity.

if 2 factions have a queue, then those 2 factions have exactly the same number of players at all times on that continent.


Also, lets say TR just give up and don't want to fight an alert, as such they only have 10% cont pop on the alert contient (theres a few stubborn soldiers)... but VS and NC aren't at max capacity yet for whatever reason... they shouldn't be locked from filling out their max capacity because TR don't even show up for the fight...

Generally, I'm against limiting player choice, and instead always in favor of promoting good player behavior.

As soon as you tell someone "You can't play, because not enough of your enemies want to fight" you're creating a bad experience.

However encouraging people to play alts for big bonus XP is good... furthermore this would be VERY helpful with "Black Ops" as you could then take your leveled NC character, and when NC is overpopped, join black ops and use NS gear on one of the other factions and receive that fat bonus XP on your main.

ModsFreeAreForTV, so think now how daunting must it be for the underpop faction player if he has to wait in the queue while his faction is losing an alert outnumbered by 30% and he can't join in while the overpop players hop in and screw this alert even more making it a one-sided feast. 100% people log off for good.

you didn't get the point
if there is no TR waiting in queue then VS and NC join in the order of the least popped omg.

guys, look it's pure math

TIME <-> QUEUE (statistical random of 1bln):

1s <-> NC1 VS1 TR1 NC2 VS2 TR2 NC3 VS3 TR3 (NC 40%)
2s <-> VS1 TR1 NC2 VS2 TR2 NC3 VS3 TR3 (NC 41$)
3s <-> TR1 NC2 VS2 TR2 NC3 VS3 TR3 (NC 40%)

the proposal:

1s <-> NC1 TR1 VS2 TR2 VS3 TR3 NC1 NC2 NC3 (NC 40%)
2s <->
option 1: NC>10% the VS or TR
NC1 VS2 TR2 VS3 TR3 NC1 NC2 NC3 (NC 39%) <- TR came in, NC skipped the round (NC1 WILL enter in 3s unless NC again >10% the rest)
option 2: NC<10% the VS or TR
TR1 VS2 TR2 VS3 TR3 NC1 NC2 NC3 (NC 41%) <- NC came in

or even better:
it's best if you imagine 3 queues and one bouncer
he lets people in in turns NC1 VS1 TR1 ... next round ... NC2 VS2 TR2 ... next round... unless any of these factions is over 10% overpop then NC2 VS2 (no ovewrpop TR2) ... enxt round... NC3 VS3 TR2

now Ronin...
if there are no TR's in queue:

1s <-> NC1 VS1 NC2 VS2 NC3 VS3 (NC 50%)
2s <-> VS1 NC2 VS2 NC3 VS3 (NC 50%)
3s <-> NC2 VS2 NC3 VS3 (NC 50%)

TR4 pressed redeploy (TR at 0%)

4s TR4 comes in (because both NC and VS>10% TR), NC and VS wait
5s <-> VS2 NC3 VS3 (NC 50%) <- NC2 came in

IF you guys care so much of the people who won't get in on alerts, think of those angry underpop faction players fighting ALONE on NO-ALERT continent and waiting for the end of the queue for all the winning-side-joiners? Don' you think they're DOUBLE PISSED OFF because 1. not getting into the queue (Ronin you'r argument) 2. not having any chance of changing the alert? You piss off 2x less people favoring the queue for the underpop nation.

**** it's fun as hell. I love an easy win, with easy certs, and easy leveling. An MMO where you have it easy is relaxed and allows you to just enjoy the demise of enemy players. Don't like it? Don't play or join Vanu. Balancing in theory sounds great but it just won't be happening.

You didn't get the point.

If all 3 factions have a queue, the alert continent has an even 33% for all 3 factions.

if 2 have a queue and the 3rd doesn't, the 2 are at capacity and the 3rd is not.

The system is already set to allow underpop factions to catch up by limiting max population on a continent.

are you trolling right now? didn't I sayof 10% margin? all have queue, it's blocked for one faction only in >10% underpop (it can delay max 1 entry) OMG

1s <-> NC1 VS1 NC2 VS2 NC3 VS3 (NC 50%)
2s <-> VS1 NC2 VS2 NC3 VS3 (NC 50%)
3s <-> NC2 VS2 NC3 VS3 (NC 50%)

TR4 pressed redeploy (TR at 0%)

4s TR4 comes in (because both NC and VS>10% TR), NC and VS wait
5s <-> VS2 NC3 VS3 (NC 50%) <- NC2 came in

NC VS wait for 1 Higby TR for a one Higby second........ omg


the scenario with TR
1s <-> NC1 VS1 TR1 NC2 VS2 TR2 NC3 VS3 TR3 (NC 40%)
2s <-> VS1 TR1 NC2 VS2 TR2 NC3 VS3 TR3 (NC 41$)
3s <-> TR1 NC2 VS2 TR2 NC3 VS3 TR3 (NC 40%)

the proposal:

1s <-> NC1 TR1 VS2 TR2 VS3 TR3 NC1 NC2 NC3 (NC 40%)
2s <->
option 1: NC>10% the VS or TR
NC1 VS2 TR2 VS3 TR3 NC1 NC2 NC3 (NC 39%) <- TR came in, NC skipped the round (NC1 WILL enter in 3s unless NC again >10% the rest)
option 2: NC<10% the VS or TR
TR1 VS2 TR2 VS3 TR3 NC1 NC2 NC3 (NC 41%) <- NC came in

_ONE ENTRY DELAY_

If all have a queue, then all 3 factions on the continent are equal.

Period.

If 1 faction is underpopped, then that faction does not have a queue.

This is a simple basic fact.

Are you looking at WORLD populations?? Because that's irrelevant.

Queues are not timed equally between the 3 factions. WHen a VS player leaves, a VS player enters. When a TR leaves, a new TR takes his place.

Do you not understand what the queue system is?

NC continent pop > 10% than any other

QUEUE:
4x VS
4x TR
4x NC

QUEUE: NC NC TR NC VS NC VS TR TR TR VS VS

TR enters
4x VS
3x TR
4x NC

QUEUE: NC NC NC VS NC VS TR TR TR VS VS

VS enters
3x VS
3x TR
4x NC

QUEUE: NC NC NC NC VS TR TR TR VS VS

........................... suddenly.............................. for some reason the difference between NC and any other < 10%

NC enters
3x VS
3x TR
3x NC

QUEUE: NC NC NC VS TR TR TR VS VS

I hope now you get the point