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View Full Version : Were the factions as balanced pop-wise in PS1 as the polls show?


super pretendo
2012-01-12, 12:01 PM
The "which faction will you play?" poll on the main page has the factions at 34%, 33% and 33%, which is absurdly close. Was this how it was in PS1?

basti
2012-01-12, 12:04 PM
Actually, yes. Ofc you had some days where one faction reached 40%, or one was 25%. But usually, when the pops were still high, they were pretty close together.

Especialy before it was possible to simply create a new toon on a different empire.

SuperMorto
2012-01-12, 12:18 PM
There are 4 kind of people:

TR
NC
VS

And hoppers who do them all, I think these are more the folks who swayed the balance out from time to time, and no so much the people who stick to one empire. They seem to always be at 33,33,33 :)

DviddLeff
2012-01-12, 12:44 PM
How the hell did it balance itself so well?

Surely one faction would have been more or less appealing in general?

Odd odd odd.

Coreldan
2012-01-12, 12:47 PM
Well, the poll doesnt really have so much new people in it. I'd say if we had an influx of couple of thousand people who had never played PS1 and were just asked to vote based on what we know about PS2 atm, I'd say the VS or TR would have quite a lead over NC :D

Crazyduckling
2012-01-12, 12:47 PM
How the hell did it balance itself so well?

Surely one faction would have been more or less appealing in general?

Odd odd odd.

Yeah. It does seem odd that 66% percent of people would rather be a part of a cult or totalitarian regime over fighting for freedom.

:ncrocks:

TheRagingGerbil
2012-01-12, 12:51 PM
During Planetside's prime the empires were very balanced during prime time gaming. There was a ebb and tide for the empires depending on the time of day though. Would have been interesting to see a demographic study of which country preferred which empire. It always seemed that VS would be the late night crew, TR would do the morning/daytime, and NC would sweep the evening.

Once the servers merges began and everyone was allowed to have multi-empire characters on the same account gameplay went to shit because people would just start hopping onto the winning team.

Metalsheep
2012-01-12, 12:53 PM
How the hell did it balance itself so well?

Surely one faction would have been more or less appealing in general?

Odd odd odd.

Population Incentives.

Lets say TR has 38% pop, NC has 35% and VS has 27%

TR get nothing, NC may get a small global bonus to all XP earned, and VS will get a substantial XP bonus, and even Spawn time Bonuses, Aquire time Bonuses and a long time ago, HART and NTU bonuses to their bases. I do believe, if TR pop climbed high enough, they would even get Negatives to their XP/Spawn/Aquire times. This gave players incentives to go play lower popped empires and keep them even. It was an excellent system IMO.

Of course, when the game started to fall apart or when One empire got a buff that was clearly superior to both enemy empires, that empire would be grossly overpopulated. All three empires had this phase if i recall. Currenly this seems to be the NC cause the Jackhammer is super easy to use. While the VS Lasher takes the most learning and is slightly gimped, they usually have the lowest atm.

basti
2012-01-12, 01:02 PM
Nothing odd there, and no fancy game mechanic.

Its simply math. You get 3 people, and 3 choices. Chances are that they all choose a different choice.

Obviously, this fails drasticly in real life. But if you got 3000 people, and 3 choices, chances are quite high that 1000 chooce option 1, 1000 B and 1000 C.

Game mechanics like pop incentives just helped to make sure nothing goes wrong.


On top of that, for games 3 factions are actually easier to balance than 2. With 2, you always have a winning side that is likley to keep winning. With 3, you have a winning side that has no chance of keeping their position for very long.

SniperSteve
2012-01-12, 01:03 PM
There were incentives in PS1 that made the loosing team have a slight XP advantage. I think those would often be enough to get the empire hopping 'killwhores' to go to the side needing the most manpower.

I do think that PS2 could easily launch and sit at 40%,40%,20% for a while. And it would not be too big of a deal. The underdog often captures a lot of attention, and the gameplay just becomes that much more intense and you get the feeling that your empire 'needs' you and you get more reward from winning. Those are fantastic gameplay elements, even if you can only control a fraction of the world map.

Furthermore, since it is a three-way. Having the biggest empire leads to capturing the most territory which means having to fight a two-fronted war at some point. Just ask the German army in WWII how that turned out... Not so good... haha

basti
2012-01-12, 01:08 PM
Turned out bad just because those damn allys wanted their beach back.

Shogun
2012-01-12, 01:11 PM
the incentives helped to keep the hoppers under control.

the loyal 1faction only players were kind of balanced! and as long as ps1 was well populated, even an imbalance would not have been a real problem because the continents had a poplock that equalized the factions.

i think it was 133 players per faction on one cont. if one faction had too many players, hey were doomed to go to another continent and the mainbattle was balanced. this way there was only one unbalanced battle going on, and the rest of the battles were always balanced. and the unbalanced battle would almost everytime turn into a threeway of the two underdogs fighting the overpopulated empire from 2 sides.

it worked out very good!

Metalsheep
2012-01-12, 01:15 PM
Yeah. It does seem odd that 66% percent of people would rather be a part of a cult or totalitarian regime over fighting for freedom.

:ncrocks:

In Planetside 1, NC were not "Freedom Fighters". They just went under the guise of freedom. In truth, the NC believed in NO government at all. Each man is his own man, and should not be ruled or controlled by any other man or government entity. Everyone ruled themselves, and there was no need for government, and that Vanu technology is just another way to enslave and control people. In PS 1, NC were anarchists only brought togather to fight for "freedom". They would soon enough turn on eachother.

The VS were scientists who believed in advancing humanity through Vanu technology, however they would go so far as to compleatly remove humans with technology and machines. To "ascend" to the next state of "evolution" by eliminating flesh entirely.

The TR were simply the long standing, successful government that humanity had for thousands of years. However they go so far as to rule through fear, tradition and military might. And shun anything that could usurp their rule, such as the Vanu technology and NCs anarchy.

If you look deeper into the stories of all three empires you find they all have "Virtuous" goals, but they go about them in twisted and compleatly immoral manners. No side is good, or right. Another way of keeping players from all choosing one side that is deamed the Moral side, or Good. I've noticed in games with a clearly moral side, the "Good" side tends to draw many more players and upsets balance.

CplVars
2012-01-12, 01:48 PM
In Planetside 1, NC were not "Freedom Fighters". They just went under the guise of freedom. In truth, the NC believed in NO government at all. Each man is his own man, and should not be ruled or controlled by any other man or government entity. Everyone ruled themselves, and there was no need for government, and that Vanu technology is just another way to enslave and control people. In PS 1, NC were anarchists only brought togather to fight for "freedom". They would soon enough turn on eachother.

The VS were scientists who believed in advancing humanity through Vanu technology, however they would go so far as to compleatly remove humans with technology and machines. To "ascend" to the next state of "evolution" by eliminating flesh entirely.

The TR were simply the long standing, successful government that humanity had for thousands of years. However they go so far as to rule through fear, tradition and military might. And shun anything that could usurp their rule, such as the Vanu technology and NCs anarchy.

If you look deeper into the stories of all three empires you find they all have "Virtuous" goals, but they go about them in twisted and compleatly immoral manners. No side is good, or right. Another way of keeping players from all choosing one side that is deamed the Moral side, or Good. I've noticed in games with a clearly moral side, the "Good" side tends to draw many more players and upsets balance.

Psh, Horde is the only way to go.

Back in the PS world...TR will forever and always be the "right" side because we're the best. If you're not with us...then you're a corpse! ;D

Metalsheep
2012-01-12, 01:56 PM
Psh, Horde is the only way to go.

Horde arent really evil. Except maybe the Forsaken, but they have their motives. Horde are simply trying to survive in a world that does not want them after they were controlled by Medihv and The Burning Legion. If anything, the Alliance are the real jerks who wont accept the Horde Races into the fold.

(I agree TR are the best :3 Loyalty Until Death!)

Graywolves
2012-01-12, 02:02 PM
TR ARE IN FACT THE BEST! I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED BY THE POSTS OF PRIDE!

Hamma
2012-01-12, 02:18 PM
How the hell did it balance itself so well?

Surely one faction would have been more or less appealing in general?

Odd odd odd.

I always find it amazing how close the polls are. :lol:

Tikuto
2012-01-12, 02:20 PM
TR ARE IN FACT THE BEST! I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED BY THE POSTS OF PRIDE!
True dat. :rock:

Graywolves
2012-01-12, 02:30 PM
I always find it amazing how close the polls are. :lol:

I think overall the numbers are even, but it's a matter of WHEN they all play. Over the course of a day different empires fluctuate in who has more. Sometimes by alot.

Coreldan
2012-01-12, 02:31 PM
I think overall the numbers are even, but it's a matter of WHEN they all play. Over the course of a day different empires fluctuate in who has more. Sometimes by alot.

Yeah, when I made a poll about what faction should WASP go, the american members were voting VS while european members were voting NC.

Intredasting! :D

Shogun
2012-01-12, 02:53 PM
pah, lot of tr propaganda here ;-)

don´t believe them red devils if you like your freedom!

but you see, every side attracts some people for different reasons.

and the background of the faction is only one aspect that may draw somebody in. there are far more. some choose the faction just because of the look! like "wow red and black looks mean, i´m terran." others love special weapons or vehicles like the magrider or now the scythe. and i guess a lot of people compared the gamestyle possibilitys of the factions and went with the faction that fitted their playstyle or capabilitys best.

i chose nc because i like to shoot slow but with heavy impact. if i aim good, i want good reward for it. if i would prefer to pump out bullets in hyperspeed to do damage to every enemy remotely near my crosshair at once, i would xhange to tr. and if i had problems with ballistic tankshell arcs, i would go for the laser weapon guys.
... ok, i lied, i would never change to the crossdressing rainbow pony faction of noobs, but there are a lot of kids out there that think purple, jersey shore or bling bling gangsta rappers are cool, so even vs gets their population ;-)

TheBladeRoden
2012-01-12, 03:39 PM
From what I've seen lately it's either TR or NC in the 40's, the other one in the 30's, and the poor VS in the low 20's.:cry:

SKYeXile
2012-01-12, 04:24 PM
Provided all the factions are rather balanced, the pops will stay balanced...and there is some incentive for balance, like +XP rate,+ resources, +offline leveling speed. etc. but if one faction is easier to play than the others you will get all the "pro" players bailing from VS to NC...again.

Metalsheep
2012-01-12, 05:18 PM
Provided all the factions are rather balanced, the pops will stay balanced...and there is some incentive for balance, like +XP rate,+ resources, +offline leveling speed. etc. but if one faction is easier to play than the others you will get all the "pro" players bailing from VS to NC...again.

Well once they nerfed the lasher so that it wasnt a point and click "Kill everything in the room." machine that you actually had to aim a little bit, the fourth empire didnt like that and just went back to NCs point and click kill anything weapon.

Though i admit the lasher needed a CoF tightening post nerf.

I think the incentive system does a good job of balacing out the empires. Even with VS currently sticking around 20%ish pop, they get so many XP bonuses i think the majority of the games BR40's currently exist on the VS. Giving the VS a decent edge when they're outpopped.

DOUBLEXBAUGH
2012-01-12, 08:19 PM
VS were always low pop on Emerald. Initially TR had highest pop, then NC started owning most of the world and gained the "fourth empire" for most of 04 and 05. Then a lot of people quit playing and pops were generally even.

Captain1nsaneo
2012-01-12, 08:30 PM
The lasher oscillates between over powered and piece of crap. It's currently one of the worst weapons you can have in a close range fight. Reason being is that you can't miss a single orb and expect to win. The JH and MCG both can miss a lot and still be effective due to the spread and rate of fire respectively.

We control your spawn tubes, dance puppets dance.

Ailos
2012-01-12, 08:43 PM
I don't care that much about the philosophies of the different empires as much as I care about what weapons I get to use. I'm a one-and-done kind of person (I do it right the first time, every time), so hard-hitting weapons are right up my alley (even if the drawback is a slow fire rate). And the philosophers can go do their own thing and think about what the next step of human evolution should be, or how to best organize the masses. But I guess that's another reason why NC are my empire.

I think the one character per server policy is going to help with the 4th empire, but it won't get rid of it, there'll always be people with multiple accounts. But hopefully, SOE will do a good job of monitoring that (like the Travian team does), and if there are enough servers in each region, hopefully the 4th empire will move from server to server instead of side to side.

SKYeXile
2012-01-12, 08:45 PM
The lasher oscillates between over powered and piece of crap. It's currently one of the worst weapons you can have in a close range fight. Reason being is that you can't miss a single orb and expect to win. The JH and MCG both can miss a lot and still be effective due to the spread and rate of fire respectively.

We control your spawn tubes, dance puppets dance.

Patch notes:
today: Lasher buffed.
tomorrow: Lasher nerfed.

VS on Markov early days used to be 12-15% though, you had to run with an AI max, spawn in from a tower on all the fucking tube camping homos, fight homos with more homo.