Regarding the 4th Empire

[aceshigh]

Looks like it will be mitigated some...

http://www.gamesradar.com/planetside-2-exclusive-interview-talks-lessons-learned-and-player-politics/

Only one faction per server per account. It doesn't look like they will police multiple accounts though. Hopefully they require a unique Credit Card per account.

[Atheosim]

I highly doubt necessitating a valid credit card to have an account would help the size of their player base much...

[The Kush]

I agree hopefully there will be some option to stop multiple accounts maybe a phone number. But the unique cc won't work because their are familes that might potentially use the same card. For example when planetside 1 first came out I was only 13 and my brother and I both used my fathers credit card. I also have a friend who is married and both him and his wife will have separate accounts but use the same card.

[NCLynx]

They've also stated somewhere that they'd open up the ability to make a character on another faction at some point.

[SKYeXile]

I highly doubt necessitating a valid credit card to have an account would help the size of their player base much...

It could be possible since they want to keep hackers to a minimum.

I have 3, but they become harder to obtain more the more you have :P

[Bags]

If you can make multiple accounts having one empire per server per account is stupid.

[The Kush]

They've also stated somewhere that they'd open up the ability to make a character on another faction at some point.

Obviously this is possible, but it's not needed. If you want to play a different faction go to a different server. And I hope they bring back the PS1 "time penalty" where you can't switch back to an empire for x hours if you decide to change factions. Pain in the ass but it stopped people from only playing that empire if the pop was good on that server, ect

[NCLynx]

If you can make multiple accounts having one empire per server per account is stupid.

Taking the time out to make another account all together IS a deterrent of sorts albeit a very bad one that most of us don't care about taking the time to do lol.

[Sirisian]

If you can make multiple accounts having one empire per server per account is stupid.
I thought so too. Someone in another thread mentioned that they can write it off as a gameplay thing or to stop hackers (?) in order to force people to spend money per faction for the same basic thing. So if you play as TR and want to try out NC you're more willing to just buy things to try them.

Hopefully we can still just pay for extra character slots of whatever even if there is a 1 hour cooldown. I personally hate managing a lot of accounts for each server and empire so any convenience in this would be helpful. Would rather just use one name for each character though. They should remedy this soon since it's been brought up since last year.

Taking the time out to make another account all together IS a deterrent of sorts albeit a very bad one that most of us don't care about taking the time to do lol.
What does it solve? I mean assume you can't be logged into more than one at a time. Think about. Other than it allows SOE to get more money per account by people that want to unlock things.

[The Kush]

Why would you guys want to play a different faction on the same server your main faction is? Apparently you have never played PS1 that is straight retarted.

[NCLynx]

Why would you guys want to play a different faction on the same server your main faction is? Apparently you have never played PS1 that is straight retarted.

YOU'VE never played PS1 if you think there weren't a lot of people who played at least 2 factions on one server.

@Sirisian I never meant it "solved" anything, personally I'd like to at least be able to make one other faction on a server for when myself an outfit mates want to mess around on something that isn't NC or our Mains.

[Sirisian]

Why would you guys want to play a different faction on the same server your main faction is? Apparently you have never played PS1 that is straight retarted.
Personally I switched. My friends played TR and NC. Apparently you don't have friends. :lol: Most of the time I was happy just hunting them down though. Other times we'd play on the same faction in groups which was enjoyable. We're more casual players (except Beachball who took the game more seriously) so the concept of switching for an advantage was beyond us.

[Zulthus]

Good. I hope they require a valid credit card entry at the time of download. Less hackers, plus you can still play a different empire on another server.

[The Kush]

YOU'VE never played PS1 if you think there weren't a lot of people who played at least 2 factions on one server

LOL

Yea there was and those were the exact people who are what we like to call traitors. No one in my outfit would play a different faction on our server. If we played a different faction, we went to a different server. This is exactly what true PS players did. You need to get your information right bud, why the hell would you want to fight the same people you battle alongside everyday. I'm glad they are requiring one faction PER SERVER. It creates a sense of unity on the server.

[CutterJohn]

Why is this even a debate? Its such a ridiculous restriction.

New rules:

1. You can switch your character at any time to another empire.
2. You cannot switch your character to an empire with greater than ~36% population.
3. Empires with less than 30% populations are given some sort of benefit. Improved resource collection or something, maybe better XP.
4. Individual players and outfits can toggle on the 4th empire option. Under normal circumstances they are on their home empire. Occasionally, if population imbalances persist, they can be autobalanced to a separate empire. When autobalanced they get a large boost to resource collection and experience gain.


Use the 4th empire. It is an asset, not a liability.

[The Kush]

I am standing by the PS2 devs on this one. One character per server. You want to play a different faction go to a different server, as I already said before. This is not that hard of a concept to understand why they would want to do this.

[Zulthus]

Why is this even a debate? Its such a ridiculous restriction.

New rules:


2. You cannot switch your character to an empire with greater than ~36% population.
3. Empires with less than 30% populations are given some sort of benefit. Improved resource collection or something, maybe better XP.




Fixed. You should absolutely not be able to switch whenever the hell you want, that's just the stupidest thing I've heard. There needs to be a timer, and the one in PS1 worked very well.

Helps to prevent cheating so much if there's a timer...

[Sirisian]

I tweeted Higby with my response (https://twitter.com/#!/Sirisian2/status/197880000211460096). I've mentioned this before to him. This seems like a pretty silly debate that shouldn't even be made, but someone is probably pressuring the team on this one so I doubt we'll see a change.

This is not that hard of a concept to understand why they would want to do this.
Yeah, you don't get it. Seriously switching factions doesn't bother anyone, and if you think it does then explain yourself.

[SKYeXile]

we dont know what limitations are been imposed on F2P accounts, there is always a catch, best to wait until we know the facts.

[CutterJohn]

Helps to prevent cheating so much if there's a timer...


Right. Explain exactly how you'd cheat. Use intel? In this game? By the time you switched sides the information is no longer relevant.


I can think of 100 better methods of cheating by just running another instance of PS2 on my laptop. I can jostle the mouse enough to keep from being booted from inactivity.


Just because PS1 handled it horribly doesn't mean its impossible to do it. People were distraught at the loss of the lattice for PS2 as well, but they've shown they know how to keep things open without allowing the annoyance of constant backhacking.

[The Kush]

I tweeted Higby with my response (https://twitter.com/#!/Sirisian2/status/197880000211460096). I've mentioned this before to him. This seems like a pretty silly debate that shouldn't even be made, but someone is probably pressuring the team on this one so I doubt we'll see a change.


Yeah, you don't get it. Seriously switching factions doesn't bother anyone, and if you think it does then explain yourself.


Have you ever played PS1? You with several other people in this thread seem to be confused about the "loyalty" aspect of the game. Yes your right this is a silly debate, because the PS devs already have it figured out. Only one faction per server. You do know you can play more then one server? Lol.. They don't want you sabatoging another empire on the same server your main empire is. That is just one example and if I wanted to waste my time I would make a whole list for you. Bottom line is when you choose a faction on a server you are fighting for that faction till the end. Im sorry I can't get into more detail with you but this is not that hard of a concept. And your tweet will most likely get ignored because you clearly don't understand what the fundamentals values of PS is. Best of luck, and I hope your not NC because I hate faction switching traitors.

[SKYeXile]

I tweeted Higby with my response (https://twitter.com/#!/Sirisian2/status/197880000211460096). I've mentioned this before to him. This seems like a pretty silly debate that shouldn't even be made, but someone is probably pressuring the team on this one so I doubt we'll see a change.


Yeah, you don't get it. Seriously switching factions doesn't bother anyone, and if you think it does then explain yourself.

wtf?

people jumping ship because you're loosing or coming over because you're winning at the current time does not bother you?

perhaps some players have different mindsets to others, i would never fight against my outfit and I wont have anybody in FC who would jump ship.

[CutterJohn]

That is just one example and if I wanted to waste my time I would make a whole list for you.

All of your arguments became worthless when it became F2P.

wtf?

people jumping ship because you're loosing or coming over because you're winning at the current time does not bother you?

perhaps some players have different mindsets to others, i would never fight against my outfit and I wont have anybody in FC who would jump ship.

My outfit organized Defection Nights where we'd go to another empire to play around. Its a game with zero emphasis on story. We felt no more loyalty than one does to the red or blue sides in TF2. They may have fancier names than red, purple, and blue, but they're still just red, purple, and blue to most people.

The only thing I'm loyal to is my friends and my character, since i've spent so much time on it.

[The Kush]

wtf?

people jumping ship because you're loosing or coming over because you're winning at the current time does not bother you?

perhaps some players have different mindsets to others, i would never fight against my outfit and I wont have anybody in FC who would jump ship.

Thank you Sky. I am glad their are still some old school true planetside players out there. Unlike these newbies who want to fight their MAIN EMPIRE ON THE SAME SERVER. Notice the capitalized part, that's because as I have said before their is no problem with switching servers and playing a different faction (as the devs have already stated we can do) but fighting your main empire on the same server your outfit/fellow soldiers/squad mates ect is ridiculous.

[Zulthus]

Right. Explain exactly how you'd cheat. Use intel? In this game? By the time you switched sides the information is no longer relevant.


Where's their spawn point? Where's their router pad? Where is their AA coming from? How many galaxies are they loading up? I can ask so many of these kinds of questions, and the one answer would be

"Hang on man, let me cheat and switch sides and just /tell you every detail about the enemy"

How boring and lame is that? You should have specialized people gathering intel on your own empire, not being lazy and relying on an empire switch to figure out the enemy's tactics.

If you want to play on a different empire, fine. You have to wait eight hours before switching again to prevent lazy 'intel gathering'. But since whenever you switch sides, it's your outfit night, so there really isn't any reason to be switching again after that, is there?

[Bromaxulon]

= You do know you can play more then one server? Lol.. They don't want you sabatoging another empire on the same server your main empire is. That is just one example and if I wanted to waste my time I would make a ...

While you are correct about how you can easily switch to another server to play another empire, that's often not a solution that works perfectly.

Most would choose a server based on proximity to insure latency is kept to a minimum. Assuming this it would stand to reason that changing servers would cause lag issues and might even make the game unplayable.

Its understandable that the Devs want to keep you to one character per server to prevent someone from griefing, but to be honest its a bit heavy handed. I personally would want a chance to switch between empires to try each ones unique style, without having to changes servers and endure the inevitable latency issues that would almost assuredly result.

tl;dr neither the timer or the 1char per server will be a decent solution to empire jumping, as anyone who would want to grief or cause issues would simply open a new account and log on with that which basically circumvents both the 12 hr wait timer and the one character per server.

[NCLynx]

Have you ever played PS1? You with several other people in this thread seem to be confused about the "loyalty" aspect of the game. Yes your right this is a silly debate, because the PS devs already have it figured out. Only one faction per server. You do know you can play more then one server? Lol.. They don't want you sabatoging another empire on the same server your main empire is. That is just one example and if I wanted to waste my time I would make a whole list for you. Bottom line is when you choose a faction on a server you are fighting for that faction till the end. Im sorry I can't get into more detail with you but this is not that hard of a concept. And your tweet will most likely get ignored because you clearly don't understand what the fundamentals values of PS is. Best of luck, and I hope your not NC because I hate faction switching traitors.

I said this in my post before, if you honestly think that a majority of the people in the original PS didn't have an alt on the other faction that they could play from time to time when they were bored than you didn't play Planetside.

wtf?

people jumping ship because you're loosing or coming over because you're winning at the current time does not bother you?

perhaps some players have different mindsets to others, i would never fight against my outfit and I wont have anybody in FC who would jump ship.

It's not to jump ship (or at least it wasn't before 2005, anytime after that when the population declined a lot then yes it happened for that reason a lot more) for a lot of people if was a "Hey guys were not going to do anything super serious tonight so instead of an ops outfit night were going to change up the scenery and mess around on our alts (**Which were usually a different faction**).

Everytime I played a different faction with friends it wasn't because we were losing on our mains, it was because we simply wanted to change it up for a night or two.

[SKYeXile]

No I agree, after planetside died in like 2005, who cares what faction people play and when, nobody cares any more, prior to joining FC i played TR abit, you may remember some blondes running around with XXX at the start of their names :)

But when PS2 hits, you're either with us, or you're against us.

[The Kush]

While you are correct about how you can easily switch to another server to play another empire, that's often not a solution that works perfectly.

Most would choose a server based on proximity to insure latency is kept to a minimum. Assuming this it would stand to reason that changing servers would cause lag issues and might even make the game unplayable.

Its understandable that the Devs want to keep you to one character per server to prevent someone from griefing, but to be honest its a bit heavy handed. I personally would want a chance to switch between empires to try each ones unique style, without having to changes servers and endure the inevitable latency issues that would almost assuredly result.

tl;dr neither the timer or the 1char per server will be a decent solution to empire jumping, as anyone who would want to grief or cause issues would simply open a new account and log on with that which basically circumvents both the 12 hr wait timer and the one character per server.

I definitely see where your coming from and you make some valid points. However you have to understand this game will be a lot larger then the original and this most likely means more then a few servers per region. So you will have multiple servers to choose from without issues.

[aceshigh]

I said this in my post before, if you honestly think that a majority of the people in the original PS didn't have an alt on the other faction that they could play from time to time when they were bored than you didn't play Planetside.



It's not to jump ship (or at least it wasn't before 2005, anytime after that when the population declined a lot then yes it happened for that reason a lot more) for a lot of people if was a "Hey guys were not going to do anything super serious tonight so instead of an ops outfit night were going to change up the scenery and mess around on our alts (**Which were usually a different faction**).

Everytime I played a different faction with friends it wasn't because we were losing on our mains, it was because we simply wanted to change it up for a night or two.


For the first year of PS1, if you wanted to play another faction, it was on a different server or a different account. As mentioned prior, since connections to the other servers typically sucked, people mostly just stayed put. This is what lead to people having such a strong connection to "their" faction.

[NCLynx]

No I agree, after planetside died in like 2005, who cares what faction people play and when, nobody cares any more, prior to joining FC i played TR abit, you may remember some blondes running around with XXX at the start of their names :)

But when PS2 hits, you're either with us, or you're against us.

Yea, I'd be willing to bet that said different faction alts *on the same server* wouldn't happen immediately. However with how they have it setup it can't happen period.

Another point that I missed in my post is lots of us have rivalries or are friends with people from the other faction. Along with my outfit mates when we'd want to mess around with things that our mains couldn't always use, we would also play with people that we couldn't always play with. I have a bunch of friends in the TR Outfit Unleashed, do I like killing them? Yes, my main is NC and they know that. Did I occasionally hop on my TR and play with them as well? Yes, while it didn't happen often because my main is NC (yes I'm going to repeat that) it did still happen.

For the first year of PS1, if you wanted to play another faction, it was on a different server or a different account. As mentioned prior, since connections to the other servers typically sucked, people mostly just stayed put. This is what lead to people having such a strong connection to "their" faction.

I played within the first year, you were limited to 2 factions.

[NCLynx]

double post

[Sirisian]

I tweeted Higby with my response (https://twitter.com/#!/Sirisian2/status/197880000211460096). I've mentioned this before to him. This seems like a pretty silly debate that shouldn't even be made, but someone is probably pressuring the team on this one so I doubt we'll see a change.


Yeah, you don't get it. Seriously switching factions doesn't bother anyone, and if you think it does then explain yourself.
people jumping ship because you're loosing or coming over because you're winning at the current time does not bother you?
Read my tweet. I'm all for having a small timer between faction switching, but no it doesn't bother me in the slightest if people switch sides. Also defending in PS1 was more enjoyable than the offense for me so switching to the "winning" side wouldn't make sense to me. Did you want to switch to the winning side a lot? :confused:

They don't want you sabatoging another empire on the same server your main empire is. That is just one example and if I wanted to waste my time I would make a whole list for you.
This is your only argument? That in a F2P game where I can make unlimited accounts that somehow allowing me to manage them within one account will fix empire hopping? This just hurts honest players.

Regarding the "loyalty" comment, it's a game. If you want to go roleplay jump into an RPG game and have a blast. :p

[SKYeXile]

Read my tweet. I'm all for having a small timer between faction switching, but no it doesn't bother me in the slightest if people switch sides. Also defending in PS1 was more enjoyable than the offense for me so switching to the "winning" side wouldn't make sense to me. Why did you want to switch to the winning side a lot? :confused:


This is your only argument? That in a F2P game where I can make unlimited accounts that somehow allowing me to manage them within one account will fix empire hopping? This just hurts honest players.

Regarding the "loyalty" comment, it's a game. If you want to go roleplay jump into an RPG game and have a blast. :p

Sorry I meant to say "winning" side, FC never loose, not when our goal is killing people.

[CutterJohn]

Where's their spawn point? Where's their router pad? Where is their AA coming from? How many galaxies are they loading up? I can ask so many of these kinds of questions, and the one answer would be

"Hang on man, let me cheat and switch sides and just /tell you every detail about the enemy"

How boring and lame is that? You should have specialized people gathering intel on your own empire, not being lazy and relying on an empire switch to figure out the enemy's tactics.

If you want to play on a different empire, fine. You have to wait eight hours before switching again to prevent lazy 'intel gathering'. But since whenever you switch sides, it's your outfit night, so there really isn't any reason to be switching again after that, is there?


Free. To. Play. It exists. It will happen. Such being the case, any arguments about switching to the other team to perform nefarious actions are moot, since people who want to do such things will simply have another account to log in to, or even another account open on the same computer, or another one sitting nearby. Restrictions stop absolutely nothing.

That there may possibly be valid reasons to restrict people from switching is meaningless in the face of the fact that people can switch at any time they want, or even run multiple instances at once, with no restrictions at all.

The idea no longer has any value. All they've done is guarantee I make an alt account or two. I may even buy stuff for them. I'm not hurting for money. I would prefer not to do that, since I like my character and won't want to give up its progression, so I'd accept reasonable restrictions to let me switch my character between empires when I wish. I'd even pay for the privilege, tbh. But anything beyond that is pointless, since I will.. go to my alt. At which point all your restrictions have become 100% worthless.

[Zulthus]

Free. To. Play. It exists. It will happen. Such being the case, any arguments about switching to the other team to perform nefarious actions are moot, since people who want to do such things will simply have another account to log in to, or even another account open on the same computer, or another one sitting nearby.

That won't be the case if they require a valid credit card to play the game.

[NCLynx]

That won't be the case if they require a valid credit card to play the game.

Which they very likely won't. They're priding themselves on being a F2P game in which you're not required to pay anything to have fun. As for using it as an anti-spy/cheater measure? They have answered several times what their anti-cheating tactics consist of and it's never included making sure that someone uses a credit card upon account creation. (I understand that while it hasn't been said, it still could very well be done I just think it's way more unlikely)

[SKYeXile]

That won't be the case if they require a valid credit card to play the game.

you would be able to have multiple account all tied to the one credit card, they would never limit accounts to having an individual credit card, they could certainly ban by credit card and require one to play though.

[CutterJohn]

That won't be the case if they require a valid credit card to play the game.

Yes, but they would never do that. People have kids. Kids play games. Somewhere around here is a guy who played PS1 with his daughter. He's not going to want to have 2 credit cards just so they can play together. People live in the same house, share phones, play on the same computer. You will never see a game limit accounts based on those things.

And if they did do that, I take ten minutes and go get a prepaid debit card from wal mart.

[Zulthus]

Which they very likely won't. They're priding themselves on being a F2P game in which you're not required to pay anything to have fun. As for using it as an anti-spy/cheater measure? They have answered several times what their anti-cheating tactics consist of and it's never included making sure that someone uses a credit card upon account creation. (I understand that while it hasn't been said, it still could very well be done I just think it's way more unlikely)

Entering a valid credit card number doesn't mean you have to buy anything. It can simply be an extra measure to deter hackers.

you would be able to have multiple account all tied to the one credit card, they would never limit accounts to having an individual credit card, they could certainly ban by credit card and require one to play though.

It wouldn't be a bad idea... and as Cutter said below, if you do happen to have more than one person in your home playing PS2, you can just go buy a prepaid card.


Yes, but they would never do that. People have kids. Kids play games. Somewhere around here is a guy who played PS1 with his daughter. He's not going to want to have 2 credit cards just so they can play together. People live in the same house, share phones, play on the same computer. You will never see a game limit accounts based on those things.

And if they did do that, I take ten minutes and go get a prepaid debit card from wal mart.

Well there's your solution right there.

[SKYeXile]

Iv never herd of prepaid cards, but if you crazy Americans say so, then it probably wouldn't work.

[Sirisian]

Entering a valid credit card number doesn't mean you have to buy anything. It can simply be an extra measure to deter hackers.

So then you'd be fine with allowing a character per faction on a server? I mean if your intent is to stop hackers you're not stopping anyone from legitimately using a faction at a time on the same account on the same server.

Iv never herd of prepaid cards, but if you crazy Americans say so, then it probably wouldn't work.
Most people have access to virtual credit card numbers. It allows you to make each transaction with a unique credit card number. If your plan of securing accounts to one person involves credit cards or phone numbers, you're gonna have a bad time.

[Malorn]

Free to play sort of makes the one account thing irrelevant.

[Kran De Loy]

Free to play sort of makes the one account thing irrelevant.

True, but I like it. It means that at a minimum people with multiple accounts will not be able to get any of benefit from having multiple factions on the same account.

This thread makes me want to make a poll.

Anon poll with single choice answers.

-I would switch factions whenever I want
-I would switch factions when my faction is losing
-I would switch factions when my faction is winning
-I would only switch factions to join all of my friends
-I would only switch factions if my entire outfit did as well
-I would not switch factions

[Sirisian]

This thread makes me want to make a poll.
Sound pointless. You have people assuming the worst in the average user. Your question would be polling basically 95% Planetside 1 players.

[SKYeXile]

True, but I like it. It means that at a minimum people with multiple accounts will not be able to get any of benefit from having multiple factions on the same account.

This thread makes me want to make a poll.

Anon poll with single choice answers.

-I would switch factions whenever I want
-I would switch factions when my faction is losing
-I would switch factions when my faction is winning
-I would only switch factions to join all of my friends
-I would only switch factions if my entire outfit did as well
-I would not switch factions

dont forget "i would switch factions because NC has easier weapons to use"

[Kran De Loy]

Sound pointless. You have people assuming the worst in the average user. Your question would be polling basically 95% Planetside 1 players.

True, but the poll would be a personal choice, not one where they are choosing what they think other people will do.
Maybe make it a little later once the PS2 official forums go up where the poll would reach 36k people instead of only 1.6 (figured based off Facebook Likes [Not accurate, I know but at least a general indication]).

dont forget "i would switch factions because NC has easier weapons to use"

lols, but seriously i would figure that would be a choice that is made before a person really decided to settle down into any one faction rather than settling down in a faction then moving to another one for one of the listed reasons.