Should the devs nuke the 4th empire?

[nosferatu2323]

I play a NC on Markov and I noticed that the TR and VS greatly suffered in the population area on Saturday and Sunday. While I love winning, I want the other guy to have a fair shot. I believe empire swapping should be totally done away with. So the question is: Should switching empires be more restricted or be totally disabled?

[MrPaul]

I think it should be that when you come off of one Empire, you have a 2 - 3 hour wait before you can play as any other empire. This should stop Empire hopping outright, whislt still giving you a chance to be different Empires if you so wish.

[FearTheAtlas]

You got three servers for a reason, pick one, pick an Empire, stay with it.

Edit: I realize this isn't THE reason (lattency on other servers) but if Empire is big enough issue, you got two other servers.

[Lise]

You got three servers for a reason, pick one, pick an Empire, stay with it.

Quoted for truth. Latency isn't as much of a deal in the era of broadband, either.

[StrangeFellow]

I think it should be that when you come off of one Empire, you have a 2 - 3 hour wait before you can play as any other empire. This should stop Empire hopping outright, whislt still giving you a chance to be different Empires if you so wish.
.

[Indecisive]

Should switching empires be totally disabled?

yes.

[Firefly]

Totally disabled. The way it was the first time around - if you want to hop empires, pay for two accounts.

[Hamma]

I agree - it worked when the game first came out. It just causes to much of an issue when one empire is down and the people who cant handle a loss now and then switch to the winning team.

One empire.

[2Seksy4MyModem]

two empires = t3h suck

[SquishyWaffle]

It's sad that people can't see what they're doing when they hop to the winning faction, but I do agree that something needs to be done. I'm all for having multiple characters, but I do wonder if it'd be better to just limit each account to one empire for all said chars.

Seems like an imperfect and blunt solution to a serious problem, but it's better than the current alternative: vast imbalance. I'm an Emerald Vanu and I really hate seeing all of these faction hoppers blowing our xp/health mods and keeping most of the world claimed.

[Queensidecastle]

I agree 1 empire per server is the way to go, but I feel the devs were forced into it so they could have a solution for the server merge a while back

[Warborn]

The two Empires was because of the server merge. They couldn't abruptly force people to pick and choose like that. But I think, if they give a couple weeks advance notice, or even offer some method to, say, move characters from one Empire off of a given server and onto another server (so that you can preserve them while not creating a conflict of interest on one server) it would be fine. Either way though, there's little reason for two Empires anymore, and I hope they do something about it.

[mechaman]

I personally wouldn't have a problem with one empire per server. I only play TR on Markov and NC on Emerald so it wouldn't affect me. The problem comes from the people with multple high BR/CR characters from different empires on the same server.

[nosferatu2323]

Well I am glad that I am not the only one who sees the problem. Hopefully the light that this event shed on this problem will cause the devs to take another look at it. I wouldn't quit planetside over this issue, but the empire hopping is really starting to suck. Plus, I want more events like this, despite all the other bugs, this event kicked ass.

[Lonehunter]

You got three servers for a reason, pick one,
Used to be 5

[Sentrosi]

It will never happen. SOE is a company. A company likes to make $$. They feel that people will outright quit the game than have the flexibility to play with 2 or even 3 empires per server. The "Fun" factor would be weeded out then.

I asked this question during an Ask the Devs night 3 months ago. That was their answer. No locking the servers down to one empire per server.

[Lartnev]

Might be worth asking again :)

[nosferatu2323]

Ya, this needs to be brought up again to the devs. Not sure how much leverage the players can have in persuading SOE to change this, but it is obvious that most players agree that there needs to be some change. The fun factor in empire swapping only makes the game fun for people who always want to be on the winning side. I love being on the winning side, but not at the expense of the other players. That is just way too selfish.

[nosferatu2323]

Oh, and with the ask the devs session coming up tomorrow, everyone please be sure to bring up the empire swapping problem. Thanks.

[MrPaul]

I seriously don't see why people swap to the winning empire. If I was gonna switch at all it'd be to one of the losing sides! Why? You'd get far more kills (when you and 100 others are aiming at 1 guy, the chance of you killing them are LOW. when you and 10 others are shooting at the same guy, you're drastically more likely to get that kill!) far more xp, and pretty much wherever you go you know you're ognna get action!

[Sentrosi]

Even if it is a BR5 n00b, who wants to have their asses kicked constantly? They zerg over to the winning empire for 'bragging rights'. Though for those who brag that we took such and such continent away from you really needs to have their hands cut off at the brain stem area. You only hold the continent long enough until your empire needs you to come back and defend stuff. It is then that an opportunistic empire comes through and takes back your continent.

[AWOL Joe]

OK, here's my position. First, the empire swapping genie is out of the bottle, and it's unlikely the devs will reverse that. Second, when I first saw PlanetSide after release, one of the things that kept me from buying it then was the fact you had to pick one side and stick with it or lose all your character progress (however, the bigger issues were that I didn't have the money to pay for a subscription and I had a sucky Internet connection at that time). I actually would like to see the option to play all three empires on one server (since playing VS on Markov is different from playing VS on Emerald is different from playing VS on Werner, and same for the other empires), but a longer switch timer would be ok as well.

-AWOL Joe

[Baneblade]

One Empire to RAUL THEM OLL!

[Rbstr]

meh i could care less about more than one empire per server, as i only have my NC on markov, jus tmake the switching punishment worse.

[lapaz]

i think they should be taken out because i noticed when the capitals first came out there was a way to get in with a router (dont know if you can do it) well you would get a friend to go to an empire and get a router and make it to where you can teleport inside then you would hack it and you can get in

[KamiGaijin]

I don't think nixing the empire swap is even an option now that its out of the bag, but instead I think there should be a much better incentives program. I play TR Markov generally from 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. western time, and I always notice that we have only around 20-25% global population, but no incentives.

And when it does recognize the horrible disadvantage, we get a wopping 1 to 16 hp advantage. Woot! That 16hp will really save my arse when I have two JHs pointed at me every time I spawn!

[CassH]

Pls Devs fior Planetsides sake give us 1 empire only i hate empire hoppers and the ones i see i TK but the game does not let me give enough pain in to them so that they know its wrong.

[Kam]

As long as we are on controversal subjects, what is your opinion on weapons dealers? I like to trade weapons with other empires, then one day a few friends asked me to get them some stuff, and before I knew it I was getting weapons for basically my entire outfit. I plan to trade BFRs as soon as I get the expansion. I currently trade for tanks and HE mostly, but I get a lot of requests for Lancers and specific pistols. What is your opinion of my ventures?

[SquishyWaffle]

I'd be against that myself. If you want to obtain large quantities of other-empire weaponry, I'd create another char on another server and use them there.

[Black]

i think the only way we can have a 1 empire per server is by making a petition and getting around 60% of the players on PS to sign it and submit it to SOE which will probably make them switch it.

[Hezzy]

I don't really care what happens. So what if some 12 year olds want to switch empires? More people to shoot at, I say.

EDIT: But I don't really like the empire timer on the Test Server. They should get rid of it there.