Time to merge servers?

[Beerbeer]

Even the packed continents seem barren outside of the primary zerg. I miss the outpost fights on the periphery. People just aren't around as much, unfortunately.

Merge servers?

[boogy]

the result of OP air and sunderer spawn radius

[Beerbeer]

It doesn't matter what the cause is.

I think it would be good and healthy for those that still enjoy the game.

[Sunrock]

Is this yet an other PS1 is the best PS2 sucks thread?

Miller is still have queues to get into so not time to merge that server at least.

[Ritual]

Two weeks into the game and we already need server merges?

Give it at least 3 months to see where the populations are at.

I would like to see them merge servers though when we get more continents, since each server will theoretically be able to hold more people.

[typhaon]

Said it before launch... this is absolutely, positively one of those games where you need to be on the largest server for your region... even if it means some queues.

I don't think this game will ever be larger than 2 servers per region, especially after more continents are added... and there is nothing wrong with that.

For my part - I play on Mattherson and was running into continenet queues tonight during prime hours.

Also - the infamous XFire #'s show the number of play hours this week (on a day by day comparison) greater than last week.. which was greater than the first week...

[Bags]

waterson is kind of deadish.

[Simokon]

Bags it is 5 am on an EST server what are you expecting, there is plenty of action going on in the evenings. :P

[Elgareth]

I don't think that this is a problem of the Server Population.

There simply is no point in defending while there are no attackers. Not even the big Bases like Bio-Labs or Tech Plants are well defended up until a Zerg comes crushing in, this is even worse at smaller outposts, because they are much quicker to capture.

And because noone defends an empty outpost, it gets ghost capped, and before any former defender/now attacker comes to retake it, the attacker is already gone, because Defending isn't worth it Point/XP per Time-wise.

If defending would grant some steady XP-Bonus even without attackers or something, there'd be at least SOME Defenders present, so that a lone attacker wouldn't be able to take the base on his own, a smaller force would have to attack it, while the defenders send a help request, and voila, a small battle happens.

I have no idea how one could balance the Bonus you get for defending an empty base though, because you could basically stand at the base nearest to your Warp-Gate AFK/perma-running into a Wall during the whole night if you got XP JUST for being there... but what could you actively do, when there is noone around?
Maybe just give XP for standing in a base adjacent to enemy territory... maybe add some sort of structure which wants to be "maintained" (For Example... I dunno, a Flag-Pole or Propaganda-Speaker which slowly gets damaged, and once destroyed, eliminates the XP-Defender-Bonus of 10% you already get?...and can be maintained by any class, by pushing/holding E every 2 Minutes?...just as random idea) And maintenance grants some XP?

I never played PS1... what was the incentive for Defenders of empty Bases/Outposts there?

[Timealude]

I don't think that this is a problem of the Server Population.

There simply is no point in defending while there are no attackers. Not even the big Bases like Bio-Labs or Tech Plants are well defended up until a Zerg comes crushing in, this is even worse at smaller outposts, because they are much quicker to capture.

And because noone defends an empty outpost, it gets ghost capped, and before any former defender/now attacker comes to retake it, the attacker is already gone, because Defending isn't worth it Point/XP per Time-wise.

If defending would grant some steady XP-Bonus even without attackers or something, there'd be at least SOME Defenders present, so that a lone attacker wouldn't be able to take the base on his own, a smaller force would have to attack it, while the defenders send a help request, and voila, a small battle happens.

I have no idea how one could balance the Bonus you get for defending an empty base though, because you could basically stand at the base nearest to your Warp-Gate AFK/perma-running into a Wall during the whole night if you got XP JUST for being there... but what could you actively do, when there is noone around?
Maybe just give XP for standing in a base adjacent to enemy territory... maybe add some sort of structure which wants to be "maintained" (For Example... I dunno, a Flag-Pole or Propaganda-Speaker which slowly gets damaged, and once destroyed, eliminates the XP-Defender-Bonus of 10% you already get?...and can be maintained by any class, by pushing/holding E every 2 Minutes?...just as random idea) And maintenance grants some XP?

I never played PS1... what was the incentive for Defenders of empty Bases/Outposts there?

There werent any really, ANT runs were the only thing, but even then they very rarely went down unless they were being attacked.

[RSphil]

miller in the EU seems fairly active most of the day but gets full peak time. not sure how other EU servers are going. they all seem active 24/7 near enough

[Whiteagle]

I don't think that this is a problem of the Server Population.

There simply is no point in defending while there are no attackers. Not even the big Bases like Bio-Labs or Tech Plants are well defended up until a Zerg comes crushing in, this is even worse at smaller outposts, because they are much quicker to capture.

And because noone defends an empty outpost, it gets ghost capped, and before any former defender/now attacker comes to retake it, the attacker is already gone, because Defending isn't worth it Point/XP per Time-wise.

If defending would grant some steady XP-Bonus even without attackers or something, there'd be at least SOME Defenders present, so that a lone attacker wouldn't be able to take the base on his own, a smaller force would have to attack it, while the defenders send a help request, and voila, a small battle happens.

I have no idea how one could balance the Bonus you get for defending an empty base though, because you could basically stand at the base nearest to your Warp-Gate AFK/perma-running into a Wall during the whole night if you got XP JUST for being there... but what could you actively do, when there is noone around?
Maybe just give XP for standing in a base adjacent to enemy territory... maybe add some sort of structure which wants to be "maintained" (For Example... I dunno, a Flag-Pole or Propaganda-Speaker which slowly gets damaged, and once destroyed, eliminates the XP-Defender-Bonus of 10% you already get?...and can be maintained by any class, by pushing/holding E every 2 Minutes?...just as random idea) And maintenance grants some XP?
Well back when we were going to get a "Mission system", I came up with Garrison Duty... (http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=47956)

[Miffy]

They need to merge them all in the same region and just have more conts and actively open and shut conts as the pop rises and falls.


I don't get why they didn't do that, now we're left will peak time play only :\

[Hamma]

Server merges a few weeks after launch? :lol:

Not gonna happen.

[SpottyGekko]

Long before the server merges they'll implement character transfers (at a fee, of course). Once those have run their course, it will be clear what the merge strategy will need to be.

It's waaaay too early to merge servers now.

[Beerbeer]

It just seems the mass of people during the first week, have left.

Not unexpected, I guess, but it was fun having fights everywhere. Now, I spend a lot more time searching than ever before for the types of fights I enjoy.

[VaderShake]

I would doubt Sony has even scratched the surface on promoting PS2.......Christmas is not even here yet.

[MrBloodworth]

Is this yet an other PS1 is the best PS2 sucks thread?

wut..

[Beerbeer]

The time has come.

Take three constantly "low" pop servers and merge them with the whale or whales of the region. Actually, whale might be overstating it, the pudgy kid(s) of the region.

For example: three western servers merged to Connery and three others to genuidine, etc.

I say this only from the perspective of the good ol' U S of A.

[psychobilly]

Whether you think server merge is funny or not, there is an obvious population issue that is on a downward trend. For me, the game is more fun when the servers are full. Less full servers = less fun = I want to log in less perpetuating the process. The major contributing factors I think are:

1. perception of hackers (real or imagined): SOE needs to be more vocal about its proactive detection and not just reaction to /reports.
2. AOE spam, especially tank HE and ESF rocketpods. AOE is not a skill based mechanic in its current form - the blast radii are just too big making aiming unimportant (even post "nerf"). Flak armor improvement was not the right fix.
3. Base design unfavorable to infantry. I'm all for combined arms, but infantry needs more of a role.

Those three things make playing infantry un-fun. Until they are addressed adequately we will continue to see a downward trend in population.

[RobUK]

2. AOE spam, especially tank HE and ESF rocketpods. AOE is not a skill based mechanic in its current form - the blast radii are just too big making aiming unimportant (even post "nerf"). Flak armor improvement was not the right fix.
3. Base design unfavorable to infantry. I'm all for combined arms, but infantry needs more of a role.


I don't think any of the changes in the last patch made the slightest bit of difference.

Air is still the most dominant vehicle in terms of numbers and killing power. It's as if the last patch never happened.

The dev's have still never come out and said why air is the only vehicle in the game that is extremely good at killing everything else in the game, including itself.

Everything else has to specialise :rolleyes:

[Beerbeer]

Yeah, they need to do this pretty quick, unless they have some magical miracle to bring people back fast.

The best thing is to salvage what they have and provide a good population to those that still play by merging the servers.

[Hamma]

You guys realize what kind of statement it would make if they merged servers a month after launch :lol:

[RobUK]

You guys realize what kind of statement it would make if they merged servers a month after launch :lol:

I think they'll hang on until at least after the Xmas break. A lot of people finish work/school soon and I expect the populations will creep back up again for 2-3 weeks at least.

I am a bit perturbed at how much less populated Miller is on this Friday night. I hope it's a temporary thing. I can understand low-medium pops on a mid-week night, but not on a Friday night :confused:

[Thunderhawk]

Miller had queues tonight and was an awesome fight all night up until now (00:50 GMT) where I have logged to watch some movies then back on again :)

If anyone wants big fights, continuously, every night, come to Miller !!

[Beerbeer]

You guys realize what kind of statement it would make if they merged servers a month after launch :lol:

These low pops aren't doing any good keeping the players they already have.

It's self-defeating; as the population drops, more and more people will feel less inclined to play, it's a vicious cycle.

[Bocheezu]

I just finished playing for an hour on Mattherson; couldn't find a single battle worth a shit. The tech plant change has really taken away my ability to get cert points and population overall is just plain low.

[Beerbeer]

Sony should hedge their bets/merge servers and do whatever they can to keep those still around, then regroup, figure out what's wrong and go from there IMO.

New players joining a packed server would be more inclined to stay IMO, even if they get steamrolled.

[Miffy]

I've uninstalled, no one on my Steam is playing any more either. SOE released too soon, simple as that and the current server situation means you can only play during peak time. They need to make more conts and only have one server per region and lock, and open conts as the population rises and falls.

No one to blame but themselves though, we all told them in beta.

[AThreatToYou]

Server merges a few weeks after launch? :lol:

Not gonna happen.

Regardless, I think the server-system should be revamped.
Why have dedicated servers where you can't change your character position? Just have a button that automatically logs you into the most populated server available. If you don't want to do that, you can select which server you log into, and in all cases you don't lose your character.

[Lonehunter]

NO company would do that this soon just for PR reasons even if they did need it, but THEY DON'T.

Even when they add new continents we'll be fine. It's nice to have some continents a huge war and some empty or small battles, you hold it longer and it's just more persistent territory control

[Mathematics]

You guys realize what kind of statement it would make if they merged servers a month after launch :lol:

There comes a certain point when the statement made is less important than keeping activity high for new customers. If a new player joins a server without much action, they're going to spend an hour running around a massive continent alone and then quit out of boredom. This isn't a game that is conducive to low populations. If there is no action, people won't play, and that's likely to lose more customers than a server merge.

[Hamma]

It's extremely unlikely to happen in the near term. It would make a horrible PR statement. server merges have long been the final nail for many games.. never gonna happen.

[Sardus]

Server merges a few weeks after launch? :lol:

Not gonna happen.

Yah pretty much what I thought. It would be terrible for PR.

[AThreatToYou]

It's extremely unlikely to happen in the near term. It would make a horrible PR statement. server merges have long been the final nail for many games.. never gonna happen.

I think it's desperately needed, though. The only times where PlanetSide 2 becomes PlanetSide 2 are at prime-time. As it is, everyone pools on the continent their empire owns and never leaves, resulting in a huge population disparity. It's unfun, until primetime comes and enough people bother to fight on another conts.

[EVILoHOMER]

Yeah my server never has any big fair fights any more, it used to when the game launched but now the population is too spread out and all the zergs stick to staying on the winning side because losing is no fun in the game. I mean if you try to fight back you don't get rewarded for defending, and they'll just send more of the zerg at you anyways while your empire is somewhere else as they've all bailed. Plus you lose resources and vehicle timers stop you from doing much.

[Rivenshield]

As it is, everyone pools on the continent their empire owns and never leaves, resulting in a huge population disparity. It's unfun, until primetime comes and enough people bother to fight on another conts.

They need to unfuck both defensive and strategic gameplay in order for that to happen, bro. More advertising AFTER the unfuckery would help a lot, too.

Pursuant to that last: I continue to maintain that the beginning of next summer is going to be make or break for PS2. At that point it will be polished and ready to go, hopefully. And we'll have tens of millions of teens and college kids with lots of time on their hands.

[Mathematics]

They need to unfuck both defensive and strategic gameplay in order for that to happen, bro. More advertising AFTER the unfuckery would help a lot, too.

Pursuant to that last: I continue to maintain that the beginning of next summer is going to be make or break for PS2. At that point it will be polished and ready to go, hopefully. And we'll have tens of millions of teens and college kids with lots of time on their hands.

Many are going to have plenty of time on their hands over winter break and will probably give it a whirl since it's free. Could potentially disuade a lot of them from playing next summer if first impressions aren't good.

[Rasgriz]

Desperately needed, populations dwindling.

I would love to see a server with 3 continents with battles on a Saturday night but apparently the definition of "High" population is about 55% at cap.

Discuss.

[p0intman]

There is no way SOE can defend from the growing exodus!

See what I did there?

[Rasgriz]

They might do the thing they did with SWG and keep lowering the amount of players that triggers a "Medium" and "High" server pop displaying.

Frankly one US West and one or two US East servers would be plenty.

Atleast knock out one of the US East servers, they just sit there at low.

[Sledgecrushr]

So folks got on, died a couple of times, didnt understand what was going on and went back to their favorite arena shooter. If SOE can not provide the new singleplayer a cohesive experience then this game isnt going to grow very fast at all. Being from a mmo background I understand and love ps2 for what it is. But someone who has casually played cod or bf3 might not get it. And the millions of cod and bf3 fans are the people that are going to drive this game.

So we need a background story so new people understand auraxis and why its at war. We need a tutorial explaining classes and how certs work. We need a place to practice driving the different vehicles and using the various guns and other tools available in the game. And we need the mission system so that new and old players will be able to contribute to the war effort and see these endeavors rewarded.

Neglecting the new solo player is biting soe in the ass and they need to fix it immediately.

[Qwan]

Well I think that they need to look at PS Lore its all over you tube and stuff,
I think thats a pretty good story.

I mean when I play BF and CoD there really isnt a story or purpose on Multiplayer. Its just take the points and make the enemy run out of points before you do. In PS2 there are no points to run out of, but certain bases take on significance, you feel it when you loose that tech plant. I think the bio dome cature benefit should be more obviouse its so suddle no one really notices. I think that players would feel more of a urgency to capture certain bases if they could see and feel the difference in the fight if they lost certain large bases.

[Juryrig]

Well I think that they need to look at PS Lore its all over you tube and stuff,


There is a lot of good information on Youtube, BUT - expecting (in fact, requiring) your customers ('cos that's what the players are) to look 'elsewhere' for an explanation of how your product works, and what makes it different, and better than the competition....that's just bad business practice.

Many people will be quickly turned off by their initial experience, and won't bother going to Youtube or anywhere else to look for information or guidance - they'll just log off and try a different game.

And as a supplier, SOE shouldn't expect them to do anything else. They need to entice new customers in, not require them to go to third party sources to work out how their product works. Granted the basic controls are the same as many other shooters, but the overall experience and mechanics are different. Which is what should make the game great (eventually), but for now it's just a barrier to understanding, and IF SOE want to attract and retain customers then they need to address this.

[CaptainTenneal]

I really wish characters were not bound to servers. If everyone could pick there server at the start of each game, we'd always have at least one packed server. The game looks dead if anyone tries for the first time during the day. Very bad for keeping them interested!

[Qwan]

There is a lot of good information on Youtube, BUT - expecting (in fact, requiring) your customers ('cos that's what the players are) to look 'elsewhere' for an explanation of how your product works, and what makes it different, and better than the competition....that's just bad business practice.

Many people will be quickly turned off by their initial experience, and won't bother going to Youtube or anywhere else to look for information or guidance - they'll just log off and try a different game.

And as a supplier, SOE shouldn't expect them to do anything else. They need to entice new customers in, not require them to go to third party sources to work out how their product works. Granted the basic controls are the same as many other shooters, but the overall experience and mechanics are different. Which is what should make the game great (eventually), but for now it's just a barrier to understanding, and IF SOE want to attract and retain customers then they need to address this.

True I guess by putting it directly on the web page a link or somthing. But even without lore or a story I myself find it a good game (Im a vet though). I think that players should read a little more as well, I know in today's video culture we want movies or a audio book. But as far as consolidation of servers I think it should happen because of the size of each server. As they add more continents the servers will grow larger and as that happens the population of each server will seem smaller, so its coming probably within the first added continent. I just hope they dont frack it up.

[Rivenshield]

They might do the thing they did with SWG and keep lowering the amount of players that triggers a "Medium" and "High" server pop displaying.

/groans, puts head in hands

[sylphaen]

I really wish characters were not bound to servers. If everyone could pick there server at the start of each game, we'd always have at least one packed server. The game looks dead if anyone tries for the first time during the day. Very bad for keeping them interested!

I felt I should highlight this comment.

[capiqu]

Maybe experience given should be local rather then continent wide (rolling XP). So if you have all the players in one base/outpost such as The Crown, experience there then goes down and experience is then raised at another outpost or base. Hopefully this will encourage people to move on to lightly populated areas.

[AThreatToYou]

Maybe experience given should be local rather then continent wide (rolling XP). So if you have all the players in one base/outpost such as The Crown, experience there then goes down and experience is then raised at another outpost or base. Hopefully this will encourage people to move on to lightly populated areas.

What? No, no! That's a terrible idea!

[Plunkies]

Edit: Nevermind. It seems that the server list also includes servers that aren't even available to play on.

[Ritual]

When they add more continents they have an excuse to merge servers because the population the server can support goes up with each continent added.

Right now we are lucky to have one continent population locked during primetime.

With six continents the ideal population will be three continents full. There is no way the current server populations are supporting population locking three continents.

Server merges down the road would be healthy, just for the best playing experience. Not as a sign the game is dying.

[EVILoHOMER]

So Planetside had the problem of static servers where the population didn't all get forced together as it declined and naturally spread out as it risen. SOE have made no attempt to fix this in Planetside 2, it wouldn't surprise me if they thought because it was F2P they didn't need to. They had way more backup servers that were never turned on, I think either they were just trying to be prepared or they thought F2P couldn't fail. Though I have my doubts about the second option as they've had F2P games before and they've all failed.

The problem is with any normal FP2 you have lots of servers of 64 players and as the population declines people naturally seek to join the server with the most people. However in Planetside you cannot switch and you cannot see the player count in character selection so you cannot do this. As you have 3 characters MAX and are locked to them as what your purchase is character bound and not account, why would a delete a character or b make a new one?

For 83.4% of the day the population is low on every server with only really a small window when people are online and playing. However even the big battles are becoming much smaller, when the game first launched it was every cont is packed, you couldn't even switch conts it was so packed and there was a 700 person queue to get in. Now there is no queue, each cont is nowhere near busy, in fact the population seems low enough the majority of each faction can stick to a single cont and dominate it.

We can see a general trend each weekend of the population becoming smaller and smaller, it is just sad. SOE have really double the servers they need, really during off peak times they could have a single server just to create big battles. The problem is there is no dynamic server system, they cannot open and shut new servers as the population grows and falls. What is clear though is they cannot have static servers, all that ends up happening is every server is a ghost town for 83.4% of the day and then a select number of servers are population during the peak.

SOE need more Conts and less servers and then they need a way to control people going to too many conts during the off peak times.



People will hate on this thread, however I'm on Miller which is the most populated EU server and I've noticed a big drop off. My other 2 characters on alternative EU servers aren't even playable any more due to how dead those servers are.

SOE really need to do something to consolidated the population during both highs and lows of the day or Planetside suffers the same sorry fate of Planetside. The strength of Planetside 2 is the big battles, just like Planetside, there are much better shooters out there and so if Planetside 2 reduces in size then it suffers and people quit and play other FPS games.

Just like a thread here once said, SOE need to be active and not reactive, it'll be too late to merge servers when people have already quit for good, you need to do it now before more people quit because it is harder and harder to find big battles.

I mean during any other time that peak, I can cap a base with like 3 other people :\

[Saintlycow]

TBH, i'd rather have a queue to get some good fights, then have no fights at all.

If they rebalance servers, they need to check for pop imbalances. For example, Waterson has a huge TR population. Don't merge it with another server overpopulated with TR.

[Rivenshield]

We all know that to do so would sound the beginning of the end. The PERCEPTION is that server merges are the death knell for any game. They are associated with shrinking content and layoffs and pathetic free giveaways and all manner of fail.

However... you are both right.

/ponders

They don't need to merge them all at once, you know. Merge two one month, two the next....

[CaptainTenneal]

The problem is with any normal FP2 you have lots of servers of 64 players and as the population declines people naturally seek to join the server with the most people. However in Planetside you cannot switch and you cannot see the player count in character selection so you cannot do this. As you have 3 characters MAX and are locked to them as what your purchase is character bound and not account, why would a delete a character or b make a new one?


Agreed.

I really feel people need to stop the 'merger' talk, and ask why we can't unbind players from servers. This doesn't have to be a negative topic to bring up to SOE, picking servers is what other games do, and for good reason. Call it an enhancement.

[Saintlycow]

Agreed.

I really feel people need to stop the 'merger' talk, and ask why we can't unbind players from servers. This doesn't have to be a negative topic to bring up to SOE, picking servers is what other games do, and for good reason. Call it an enhancement.

I totally see from where you're coming, but there is one large problem.


Continent and world populations would be skewed beyond belief.
A player would log on, find a server with a high population of their faction, and play there. Large imbalances would occur. Of course, there are possible solutions, but this is a problem that would arise. Much like the continent imbalances we currently have.

[Wahooo]

We all know that to do so would sound the beginning of the end. The PERCEPTION is that server merges are the death knell for any game. They are associated with shrinking content and layoffs and pathetic free giveaways and all manner of fail.

However... you are both right.

/ponders


100% The game is new and i'm sure there is an expectation it should still be growing. You don't shoot yourself in the foot and merge servers, especially one month in from release, that would go down as one of the worst game launches in history. Reality? pshaw who cares about reality when you have perception.

I think unbinding toons from the server and introducing a ~12 hour empire hopper timer for THAT server. You can flop empires to your hearts content just not to the same server you played a different faction - for some time period.

Imbalances through population XP bonuses. Make them sever side, then bigger bonuses for continent side where you are out numbered.

[Vashyo]

I haven't had to sit in a queue since few first launch days, and I havent seen population count go above medium at all on Woodman. There's only one decent sized battle and it's at crown at all times. :D


Feels just like PS1 when I last played it, so little people and so many empty bases. And then outfit people thin the ranks even more by going around capping some bases that we do not need. Like going to all the way north to cap mao and surrounding bases then just to lose everything in 30 minutes anyway. :/

[CaptainTenneal]

I totally see from where you're coming, but there is one large problem.


Continent and world populations would be skewed beyond belief.
A player would log on, find a server with a high population of their faction, and play there. Large imbalances would occur. Of course, there are possible solutions, but this is a problem that would arise. Much like the continent imbalances we currently have.

This is just me personally, not sure how other people feel. But if I see two servers, one is 33/33/33 [High] with a queue, and the other is TR60/20/20 [Medium], I still want to go to the first one if possible. And if the empire balance was hidden in this screen, new players would still easily find a battle. I don't think they start out from the gate trying to XP farm (they don't know how yet).

That's my biggest concern, I want this game to survive, and I want new players coming and staying. I feel bad when I explain to people that "it gets better at night, trust me".

[EVILoHOMER]

I don't see how merging servers is claiming defeat, every game starts off with massive sales but I bet only a third actually like the game enough to get 25% of the way through it and only 1 in 10 complete it. The same goes for MMOs the game with launch and 2/3 of people wont like it and quit, however you need the server capacity while they are there and then need to merge when they quit. This isn't like Dayz or Minecraft where the start off small and grow bigger so they give the illusion of growing. No these games like Planetside 2 or any other MMO start off massive and then decline to their normal population.

SOE need to merge the servers to the size of the population now so we have the battles we had at launch, this is simple. Otherwise all that will happen is more people quit because the game isn't fun without the huge battles. I'm not playing currently and part of that reason is big battles don't happen often any more.

Along with this SOE need to fix the game, I stated that, it is massively broken right now, they knew that in beta but decided to launch anyways.... I don't get why but it could be the death of the game if they don't merge.

I mean EVE Online hasn't been a huge success story, CCP have spent 10 years nearly building that game up slowly to where it is now. It is proof that the right management can make your game succeed. What did CCP do after the horrible launch they had? They never gave up, they never forgot what their game was all about and rushed some shitty expansion for a quick money grab and they never left their game to die, they always tried. I mean CCP even did a complete engine change of their game, who else can say that?

[Beerbeer]

This double experience event coming up will be telling. Hopefully people come back en masse.

If they don't, I really think Sony should act, salvage what they have by merging servers and just start building up again. This will help Sony keep what they already have while they try to build back up. Sometimes you just have to take a step back to start moving forward again.

It's pretty much just one zerg per server (not per continent) and nothing else worth mentioning on two of the "medium" servers I play on. I would hate to imagine what the low pop servers look like.

[kijuro]

I honestly find this merge servers / low-pop scare funny. We should know that opening week in any MMO is always crazy, then the population will fall off into something uncertain, until the plateau or bleeding becomes apparent.
For me and most of my friends and family, the timing for this game could not have been worse for population, but best for spending Christmas/Holiday money on Station Cash for Planetside 2.
For my self and some friends, after the first two weeks the time I was playing dropped off the radar.
Silly things like final projects being due that week, then final exams the next week (just finished, feeling great!).
In between all that crazy BS this whole holiday season was starting up, I have barely regained a little more time to play since finals week ended.
I wont be playing as much until after new years party time, because my friends deserve to see my face after finals and family holiday.

In my honest opinion I don't expect the population to increase much until January. It's at that point that I hope SOE will bring in a new player experience, and give the game exposure/advertising to bring new people and some that tried it but left because due to optimization, new player experience, or the server restarts.
Don't get me wrong here, I don't expect a miracle.
I just expect a little jump in population as the game finds it's stable point in January before (my hope) the game continues to grow (even if slowly) over 2013.
Then again, I may just be some hopeless roma.. game addict.

[Beerbeer]

This isn't a normal mmo. There are no monsters to slay or NPCs to keep us busy. This game needs players to survive as it is completely player-driven.

The less population, the less fun it is for those that still play. If it's not fun, even these players may stop. It's death by slow bleeding. You can face the facts and accept it or bury your head in the sand hoping that cut artery on your arm stops bleeding and just goes away.

[Miffy]

I had two friends come round last night and they're console gamers and usually find it fun to play on my PCs as I've built 3 of them. We played Planetside 2 as I haven't seen them since it launched and this was at 8pm and I couldn't find them a single big battle for them. The whole point of Planetside is the big battles, I went to each cont, Indar is where most of our people were and there wasn't a single big battles. There was several tiny battles going on but you could even see in the warp gate where there used to be like 100 people standing in, there was like 10 maximum.

The population is in decline, I don't care what people say, you cannot find the battles you die in the first two weeks of launch. All the servers top out at medium now, most are on low and the population just keeps declining. I mean the only fun thing for me are the big battles, I haven't personally logged in for a week because of it and I was shocked to see how much it dropped off and this was on a weekend.

The more annoying thing is, throughout the day there is no one on, I men you can cap bases with like 2 or 3 people. You really have to play Planetside 2 during the late afternoon or evening and this is a problem Planetside suffered from.


A. Servers need to be merged to like one or two per region.
B. You need to find a way to put players together during non peak times.


It is currently a sad game to play because of the lack of people.

[Harrod]

/signed

[basti]

Would you fools look at the date?

IT
IS
CHRISTMAS!

People are out, busy buying shit for the people they pretend to like.
Or they just fled te whole crappy season and went on holiday.

Thats why you got less players.

[PredatorFour]

People are out, busy buying shit for the people they pretend to like.


Ho Ho Ho !

[p0intman]

Yes. merge the servers SOE, do it nao so that we have the bestest pops EVAR for the new year.


People are out, busy buying shit for the people they pretend to like.


except me, because I don't buy shit for anyone. I also don't like anyone (according to common rumor, apparently?). Its much more simple this way.

[Mordelicius]

I had two friends come round last night and they're console gamers and usually find it fun to play on my PCs as I've built 3 of them. We played Planetside 2 as I haven't seen them since it launched and this was at 8pm and I couldn't find them a single big battle for them. The whole point of Planetside is the big battles, I went to each cont, Indar is where most of our people were and there wasn't a single big battles. There was several tiny battles going on but you could even see in the warp gate where there used to be like 100 people standing in, there was like 10 maximum.

The population is in decline, I don't care what people say, you cannot find the battles you die in the first two weeks of launch. All the servers top out at medium now, most are on low and the population just keeps declining. I mean the only fun thing for me are the big battles, I haven't personally logged in for a week because of it and I was shocked to see how much it dropped off and this was on a weekend.

The more annoying thing is, throughout the day there is no one on, I men you can cap bases with like 2 or 3 people. You really have to play Planetside 2 during the late afternoon or evening and this is a problem Planetside suffered from.


A. Servers need to be merged to like one or two per region.
B. You need to find a way to put players together during non peak times.


It is currently a sad game to play because of the lack of people.

I haven't logged since Patch #1 was lauched either (since it didn't fix anything substantial). The faction imbalance is basically amplifying throughout every aspect of the game and slowly killing the servers. How you say?

An overpowered faction like Vanu camps a continent (mostly Esamir) where they can spam Magriders easy mode. TR and NC can't do anything. Winner of Indar between the two goes to Amerish.

Now eventually, players migrate where their faction can fight (like NC going to Connery ). What you really see is the migration of players towards their more faction-favored server. This would not have happened if the factions are balanced. This is not to mention the players who can smell OP from a mile away and have been switching to Vanu

In short, they need to balance the factions asap. The longer they keep it imbalanced, the more damage it does to the servers. Last time I checked the faction balance is like this, Vanu>>>TR>NC. Hopefully, they fix this root of the problem. Once the factions are balanced then they can balance Vehicles vs Infantry.

One last thing. Awhile ago I mentioned how OP Magriders are: http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=50615. Who's laughing now? :rofl:

[Miffy]

Would you fools look at the date?

IT
IS
CHRISTMAS!

People are out, busy buying shit for the people they pretend to like.
Or they just fled te whole crappy season and went on holiday.

Thats why you got less players.


Nope.

Look at Steam, just as many people as before.

What about when SWTOR released last year? It was massively packed over Christmas.

[Miffy]

One last thing. Awhile ago I mentioned how OP Magriders are: http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=50615. Who's laughing now? :rofl:


I never had a problem with Mags in my Prowler, however you cannot go up hills any more since that patch and you have to stick to the main paths so now I get owned all the time because you're forced to just go down choke points. I'm not sure if Mags can still go up hills or if they slide down them like the Prowler but that is how I used to own Mags because they never seemed to do that.

So basically SOE made MBTs unfun to use and I haven't driven one since, just get in a Mosq all the time now, basically the only useful solo vehicle in the game, which MBTs shouldn't even be but well done SOE again for making the Lightning useless.

[Beerbeer]

People blamed finals. They are over.

People blaming Christmas? Give me a break. This is the time most gamers have time to play.

What's the next excuse?

Merge them.

[p0intman]

People blamed finals. They are over.

People blaming Christmas? Give me a break. This is the time most gamers have time to play.

What's the next excuse?

Merge them.

i blame arma2, its more entertaining. i stayed up until freaking 4 am with some random arma2 clan and built a fucking epic base with a pro sniper nest last night. Then went and ran around, laid traps for idiots to fall into, which they did. too bad it isnt fucking persistant, it would be epic if it were. if only there were an MMOFPS where being infantry were viable and had fun non zergy gameplay.

wait, there was one, I recall... it was PS1.

[SeraphC]

I mean EVE Online hasn't been a huge success story, CCP have spent 10 years nearly building that game up slowly to where it is now. It is proof that the right management can make your game succeed. What did CCP do after the horrible launch they had? They never gave up, they never forgot what their game was all about and rushed some shitty expansion for a quick money grab and they never left their game to die, they always tried. I mean CCP even did a complete engine change of their game, who else can say that?

It's true that CCP's management style and their way of listening to their player base and even including them in the development process should serve as an example to every MMO out there. I also still think PLEX is the single best invention in the history of MMOs to this day.
But this isn't a regular MMO. It's first and foremost a FPS. It doesn't have the content or the open ending that is required to keep people playing. It also means 6 months from now at most a new game will come out that will cover the same niche (for lack of a better word). It will look extra shiny and everyone will go and play that.
EVE Online on the other hand is still pretty much unique and as long as CCP can keep renewing their game, expanding it and keep it interesting it won't die.
You can't expect a long term vision for a game like this. I was going to say you can't expect a long term vision from a company like this until I saw they run Everquest. They definitely have been found wanting standards of quality wise with this game.

[Sledgecrushr]

I dont think we need to merge servers so much as we need to allow server transfers. With server transfers you would allow for some different gameplay. If my computer sucks I might want to go to a low pop server and play with a better frame rate. Maybe my outfit would like to go raid another high profile outfit on their home turf. Locking people onto a server is kind of a turn off. We need to be free to travel.

Edit*. I just had a great idea, how about we give a population bonus to maps that have an equal amount of players. The closer the percentage then the bigger the bonus. Lets reward players for wanting to fight each other instead of just capping bases on an empty continent.

[Hamma]

I'm sure all of SOE is going to come back from their well deserved vacations just to merge the servers.

[basti]

Nope.

Look at Steam, just as many people as before.

What about when SWTOR released last year? It was massively packed over Christmas.

Unlike you, i dont base my points on random stuff i saw, but actually look at raw numbers.

TOR took a big hit during christmas, just like every other MMO out there, and also every other game out there. After the new year, stuff went up again.

This is completly common in December. Loads of people do other stuff.

There is something important to note tho: Subscription based MMOs are affected less than games without a subscription. Now, PS2 as a F2P has a large number of players playing without a Subscription. They dont miss anything right now, so they just tend to do other stuff.


Trust me, numbers will pick up again after the new year.

[Miffy]

Unlike you, i dont base my points on random stuff i saw, but actually look at raw numbers.

TOR took a big hit during christmas, just like every other MMO out there, and also every other game out there. After the new year, stuff went up again.

This is completly common in December. Loads of people do other stuff.

There is something important to note tho: Subscription based MMOs are affected less than games without a subscription. Now, PS2 as a F2P has a large number of players playing without a Subscription. They dont miss anything right now, so they just tend to do other stuff.


Trust me, numbers will pick up again after the new year.


Nope.

They'll continue to decline until SOE fixes the game. Subscription doesn't have anything to do with keeping players, it normally results in far fewer because people don't want to subscribe.

You cannot ignore the fact that right now every other game has just as many people as it did before. Most people are off work and are playing still in their spare time, people don't suddenly drop everything and focus on their family 100% of the day... that just doesn't happen, people still need alone time.

Also the population has been in decline for the whole of December, this isn't a sudden trend, this is something that has been happening because people are unhappy with the game.

I know looking at my Steam friends list that most have been playing games this past weekend and not one of them was Planetside 2, they all hated the game. They all had the same complaints that most people here have and that most new players have.

Fact is SOE released too early, people are leaving and more people like me don't want to play because my server is dead and I don't want to start a new character because I've invested money and time into this one.

So SOE can merge servers or the game will die faster, seriously looking at the server stats and judging the population compared to mine, they probably only need 2 servers per region and one for the Aussies.

[Electrofreak]

Merging servers is premature. The game released a month ago FFS and the servers were bulging at the seams at the time.

Nobody will dispute that there are problems with the game right now, and casual player interest is slipping. The current game mechanics reward anti-competitive game play such as capping undefended bases and camping infantry spawn points, and a large portion of the playerbase is exploiting it to the detriment of the game itself.

However, some of the problems are NOT terribly hard to fix (plugging my signature here for XP changes). Some of them are moreso (improving defensibility of bases and outposts for example), but implementing some of the quicker should buy time for the other changes to made before the playerbase walks out the door.

The real issue here is that the entertaining gunplay of the game has covered most of the rest of the flaws, but now we're seeing a significant number of players quit as the problems come to the surface. What makes this a perfect storm is that the holiday season is here, the developers are on vacation, and people are getting a lot of new games to play. SOE will need to move quickly in their early January patch to pull players back in after they've burned themselves out on the games they started playing over the holidays.

If the timing isn't right, those players will look at PS2, see the same issues that were there before they started playing Halo 4, and will move onto the next thing.

POINT-

Merging servers isn't something you do when the population of a game dips, it's something you do when it stays consistently low. That's because once you merge, there's not really much of a way of going back if the playerbase starts to return.

If SOE manages to keep the train on the tracks, suddenly they'll be plagued with server capacity issues, and they can't rip people out of their outfits and such that were created on the merged server to put them back on their old server without making a lot of people very angry.

So the simple answer is no, a server merge AT THIS POINT is a terrible idea. The solution is to fix the problem quickly and population levels will return to normal, and may even continue to climb.

EVE Online has been through a few population roller coaster rides and only by listening to the community and acting quickly has CCP avoided disaster and watched their MMO continue to grow after a decade.

http://eve-offline.net/?server=tranquility

[Beerbeer]

These low pops aren't very helpful keeping those that are still around.

The issues are systemic. I understand their desire not to do it, but they're making a lot of big assumptions in regards to populations. And while they ponder the next step to bring people back, these low pops will continue to bleed the game of existing players.

This isn't eve. There are no spaceships to build (I assume you do that) or lands to explore. This is a game that requires other people to function at all; it is a pure PVP game. Well, it's supposed to be (cough empty base capping).

Neither you nor I know whether this is a dip or more permanent, but if I had to bet, Sony has an uphill battle. However, in the meantime, they can provide those that still play a lively environment while they build back up. The rush is over, anything left in terms if population changes will probably be trickles, and remember, it trickles both ways.

[Electrofreak]

These low pops aren't very helpful keeping those that are still around.

The issues are systemic. I understand their desire not to do it, but they're making a lot of big assumptions in regards to populations. And while they ponder the next step to bring people back, these low pops will continue to bleed the game of existing players.

This isn't eve. There are no spaceships to build (I assume you do that) or lands to explore. This is a game that requires other people to function at all; it is a pure PVP game. Well, it's supposed to be (cough empty base capping).

Neither you nor I know whether this is a dip or more permanent, but if I had to bet, Sony has an uphill battle. However, in the meantime, they can provide those that still play a lively environment while they build back up. The rush is over, anything left in terms if population changes will probably be trickles, and remember, it trickles both ways.

beer, I think we can both agree, SOE will need to handle the issue quickly or low populations will compound the problem. If this does turn into a long term population drop, I'd agree with a server merger to keep the population levels from making things worse.

[Beerbeer]

Well, in my opinion, the sooner they do it the better.

I watched a br1 drop into a "hot zone" yesterday and it was just me against a few others there, no enemy at all. He ran off into the desert, in the wrong direction from the zerg at the amp station, to completely empty bases that I just left. I can only imagine his thoughts, "where the hell is everyone?" as he trekked across open deserted landscape on foot.

They need to give whatever newbies trying this game now, a good impression, as they may not get a second chance.

[Electrofreak]

Well, in my opinion, the sooner they do it the better.

I watched a br1 drop into a "hot zone" yesterday and it was just me against a few others there, no enemy at all. He ran off into the desert, in the wrong direction from the zerg at the amp station, to completely empty bases that I just left. I can only imagine his thoughts, "where the hell is everyone?" as he trekked across open deserted landscape on foot.

They need to give whatever newbies trying this game now, a good impression, as they may not get a second chance.

Well, lol, to be honest I've had a few BR1s drop pod directly in front of me and I gunned them down. Too bad it doesn't tell you until after you killed them that they're BR1. I'd pretend to miss them and let them fill me with bullets if it made them grin and keep playing. :)

That whole new player experience needs work, regardless.

[Miffy]

About 01:53:40 into the Bombcast on their GOTY talks Planetside 2 gets brushed under the rug very fast.

The rest said they don't care, only Jeff seemed to give a damn about playing it but Jeff said he prefers the first one better, he says he doesn't like the F2P stuff and they haven't evolved the concepts from Planetside 1.

[Miffy]

I just don't see why they couldn't make characters non server bound, see where the population goes and then shut down the dead ones. A soon as server queues start happening then open another server and when the population is declining again, shut down a server.

They need to keep the population together.

[rhilir]

They need vr training like the first one. And have a the new player experience in there so they can learn the veh or classes before he gets tossed into the grinder.

[yadda]

On top of the shrinking player base, another problem making the world feel dead is everyone left has basically gravitated towards very specific areas for combat. The ones that aren't already there are moving in herds to get to those spots.

People know what certs do, they know why they want certs and they know where to get them so that's what they do. They go to techplants/biolabs/crown/crossroads and fight there. I don't even know what Amerish or Esamir holds because they are both barren wastelands and not worth the time and are even more unattractive during a double exp weekend. There's absolutely no incentive at all to hold land so why would people even be there?

Some people may disagree but go into game and turn your map to enemy activity and look where the red is. I'm 7th on my servers leaderboards so it's pretty safe to say that I know where to get the exp at which means I know where to find the people but while I am driving to those spots there's literally no one around. During launch phase there were fights every where and it was fantastic. Now....I'm not even sure why I play. It's like Karkand/de_dust/facing worlds all over again. The notorious maps that ruined my favorite games because it's all people played and it eventually became more of a hassle to find a populated server playing a different map than it was worth.

What do I want to play today? Oh, there's karkand, and there's karkand oh and look another karkand map. Or I can play Wake Island all by myself.

[Mordelicius]

I don't think they should merge the servers at all, but again, they need to fix the faction imbalance first.

They can merge all the servers they want, it won't change the problem. The same pattern will emerge and 3 factions will camp 3 different continents.

- Vanu is overwhelmingly OP.
- NC and TR mainly avoid them and move to other continents, leaving two factions to fight over 2 continents
- Alas, you got 3 factions 3 continents.
- Players get frustrated: switch faction, server or quit.
- As a result you see faction-stacked servers.

It's imperative they balance the 3 factions. Three balanced factions mean a healthy fight throughout the 3 continents. As it is, it won't happen even if they merge the servers especially with the population cap.

1) Balance Faction (currently VS>>>TR>NC)
2) Balance Gameplay (currently Air>>Vehicle>Infantry)
3) Add continents, meta gameplay, tweak the bases and capture mechanics.
4) TBA brand new features (?)

[humpmasterflex]

When none of your north american servers go above MEDIUM population even during PEAK hours of the day, thats when you know you need to merge some servers.

Server populations are shown as: LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, VERY HIGH

theres 6000 max capacity per server (2000 per continent) so its safe to assume that

LOW = 0-1500
MEDIUM = 1501-3000
High = 3001-4500
Very High = 4501-6000

So not having more than 1000 players per continent kills the game. Sometime you have full capacity on 1 continent, and other two are completely empty. Server merges are necessary at this point if they want to stop the population from bleeding.

Steam Stats first 2 weeks of release: Peak time players about 25,000

Now, we are lucky to have 10,000 peak time players, which is only enough to fill 1 and a half servers.

[Miffy]

I don't think they should merge the servers at all, but again, they need to fix the faction imbalance first.

They can merge all the servers they want, it won't change the problem. The same pattern will emerge and 3 factions will camp 3 different continents.

- Vanu is overwhelmingly OP.
- NC and TR mainly avoid them and move to other continents, leaving two factions to fight over 2 continents
- Alas, you got 3 factions 3 continents.
- Players get frustrated: switch faction, server or quit.
- As a result you see faction-stacked servers.

It's imperative they balance the 3 factions. Three balanced factions mean a healthy fight throughout the 3 continents. As it is, it won't happen even if they merge the servers especially with the population cap.

1) Balance Faction (currently VS>>>TR>NC)
2) Balance Gameplay (currently Air>>Vehicle>Infantry)
3) Add continents, meta gameplay, tweak the bases and capture mechanics.
4) TBA brand new features (?)


Thing is you could half the servers now and everyone would be more tightly compacted so that is better for everyone. Every server only ever hits medium now.

The other problem is the low population throughout the day meaning you can only play through a small window of the day. Planetside had the same issue, I wish they fixed it.

[NoXousX]

With a lattice system populations wouldn't be as spread out, and small units could be effective!

[StumpyTheOzzie]

Briggs is usually Medium when I log in. I guess I'm one of the most average players in terms of time allotment.

I've encountered a queue twice to go to Indar from Amerish. Both times I was 1st in queue for less than 1 minute. So, given that state of affairs, it'd be perfect to triple the population on Briggs so that all 3 continents are maxed out (with a handful of people waiting for a minute or 2 to get in)

However, Briggs is the only AUS server. So where are we going to get or extra people from? No server to merge with...

[StumpyTheOzzie]

I honestly find this merge servers / low-pop scare funny. We should know that opening week in any MMO is always crazy, then the population will fall off into something uncertain, until the plateau or bleeding becomes apparent.
For me and most of my friends and family, the timing for this game could not have been worse for population, but best for spending Christmas/Holiday money on Station Cash for Planetside 2.
For my self and some friends, after the first two weeks the time I was playing dropped off the radar.
Silly things like final projects being due that week, then final exams the next week (just finished, feeling great!).
In between all that crazy BS this whole holiday season was starting up, I have barely regained a little more time to play since finals week ended.
I wont be playing as much until after new years party time, because my friends deserve to see my face after finals and family holiday.

In my honest opinion I don't expect the population to increase much until January. It's at that point that I hope SOE will bring in a new player experience, and give the game exposure/advertising to bring new people and some that tried it but left because due to optimization, new player experience, or the server restarts.
Don't get me wrong here, I don't expect a miracle.
I just expect a little jump in population as the game finds it's stable point in January before (my hope) the game continues to grow (even if slowly) over 2013.
Then again, I may just be some hopeless roma.. game addict.


This too. There are a lot of people not playing at the moment. I think one more big balance patch, then a tweak patch a month later to correct the big balance mistakes and THEN we can start worrying about it.

[Maidere]

This is an open world ONLY PvP ONLY game. There is nothing to do but fight ppl in the open world. It means exodus can be "snowball"-like if they wont merge the servers (or will allow character transfer).
Honestly, since PS2 doesnt have meta and actualy has a lot of technical problems I feel like they will have to re-launch it in less then 2 years in order to have big enough live developement team.

[Vashyo]

So...I've been following steam statistics since launch and the population keeps on dropping like a stone.


At launch weeks we had a static +20,000 people playing at a peak time. Then following that it barely reached 17,000 and now it's hanging around 12,000 at peak since the holidays EVEN WITH THE DOUBLE XP. Seriously, half of people decided the game is boring and unlocking stuff is work and too expensive and quit.


Seriously the game was competing with borderlands 2 for 10th place day after day, while that game stays strong. PS2 just keeps losing players.


Woodman hasn't seen high population for a month soon, I so regret not going to miller which actually had high population yesterday, but I've played so long on woodman that I don't want to start all over again with lvl 0 nooblet with nothing unlocked.

[Sturmhardt]

Yup, it's dropping:
http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&appid=42690q218230q202990&from=1354066466

I guess vehicleside is not very rewarding for many players and especially new players. Merge the servers or let this game die SOE. Thank god I am on Miller.

[Beerbeer]

Same thing happened to ps1. They merged the servers after it was way too late to have any positive impact. They probably thought they could fix it...

There was no miracle patch that brought people back to ps1, in fact those patches hastened the exit imo. So if you're delaying merging under the premise that upcoming patches will bolster the population, I highly doubt it based on past experience.

The only question to ask is: how low can it go before it stabilizes?

[Snrub]

Have been unable to find a decent fight on Jaeger for some time. Very disappointing. I want to like this game but the fights are smaller than what you can get in BF3 right now.

[Sturmhardt]

The only question to ask is: how low can it go before it stabilizes?

Or: Will people who quit playing ever come back? If I had a normal PC gaming rig and not the OC i5 @4,2 Ghz I would have quit PS2 months ago - and many probably already have, just because of the shitty performance. Will those people ever come back, even if the game was optimized for them? I doubt it. Smed released too early and now he pays for it.

[CrazEpharmacist]

I remember back during beta I was talking to someone in Guild Wars 2 map chat about PlanetSide 2 and I was defending it, saying SOE knows what they're doing, they've already made tons of changes based on player feedback, etc. but the person just said "it's SOE, look at their track record, they're going to mess it up." That person was right. I have literally lost all my faith in SOE as developers.

[Beerbeer]

I remember ps1, how even back then people complained about the over-emphasis of vehicles. People complained, populations shrunk. Sony's reaction: core combat (lol). Then they release even more vehicles that can one-shot infantry (lol). By then, it was too late anyways.

Ps2 is 10x worse since all vehicles are spammable, can one-shot infantry and requires just one person to operate. Throw in base designs that feeds this machine and lol. I think they got it completely wrong from the start (again), only this time it's even worse and no amount of fixing will change it.

[Hamma]

Core Combat was not the answer to those issue's it was simply mismanagement of the game trying to run it like EQ and push expansions. They realized that wouldn't work shortly thereafter.

PS1 at launch had more metagame than PS2 does. But let's not compare a ten year old game to PS2. The issue this time around while similar are vastly more complex.

[p0intman]

The issue this time around while similar are vastly more complex.
about as complex as an old school gen hold. that is to say, not very fucking complex at all. much better, we're not agreeing anymore.

[Vashyo]

I don't see the problem being complex, it's just a mountain of issues, created by the style of the gameplay and player mentality of self-interest first and there's no optimal way to fix it.


- They have to make the bases meaningful so people want to capture them.

- They need to add more focus on how the battles form, instead of the crazy whack-a-mole hide 'n' seek.

- They need to alter the way XP works so that it encourages teamwork over personal K/D.

- They need to make vehicle gameplay less spammy by limiting the accessibility and amount, all vehicles really are power tools and you're plain stupid atm if u don't use em. Screw you if you want to play infantry.

- They need to get people back in the game, less there are people the less enjoyable it is for the playing people. Introduce cert weapon sales or release cheaper guns instead of all being 1000 certs would go a long way in keeping people interested just because they get more toys more often. The average casual players (like the 80% of the crowd) do not want to play 30 hours just to get a new gun, and some don't pay at all or finds the current prices way too high (like me)

[Cheecho]

It's pretty obvious that to get points for defending simply add a small bonus exp to kills when killing enemies within a certain distance of an outpost?

[Whiteagle]

It's pretty obvious that to get points for defending simply add a small bonus exp to kills when killing enemies within a certain distance of an outpost?

...They already DO that... it's very unnoticeable...

[Beerbeer]

Meta game. Like that helped ps1.

It's not that...

[Beerbeer]

One of Sony's biggest problem is that they listen to a select amount of fans, most of whom are blind, appeasing followers, and they did no due diligence.

The questions Sony should have been asking is, what would appeal to the TYPE of FPS player I'm trying attract. How many of these players are there? Will they spend money?

Based on this game, they listened to nothing but zerging outfit leaders who thinks everything is balanced so long as the battle is big enough to cover the micro-inequalities and vehicle whores. It's no wonder the mass appeal isn't there.

[Beerbeer]

Okay, this needs to happen now, and I say this for the benefit of Sony and us. Swallow your pride and do what is inevitable, but while it can still actually provide a benefit.

Because obviously, there's not many people who enjoy your vehicle, spawn camping game.

[kijuro]

We won't even see server pop stabilization until after January 2nd. I played for a few days after launch. Then thanksgiving, then finals, then Christmas, tomorrow new years all taking time away from what I may have used to play. I would think the holiday season is a good reason to ignore the demand to merge servers.
At least until they have 2 weeks of real play time statistics.
They chose the worst time to release an MMO when most casuals would be too busy to play.

Sent from my POS using Tapatalk 2

[Beerbeer]

Can Sony provide a good reason as to why this hasn't happened yet?

Do they believe people will come back, like they came back to all of their games in the past? Has something changed between then and now to magically change past precedence?

While I don't share their optimism (and for logical reasons), you're not doing those players who are still playing any favors? Don't you think you at least owe these loyalists something better in regards to heavily populated servers? People have already forgotten what it was like to have full servers and raging battles across all three continents. That memory has surely waned, but I can still remember.

[Thunderhawk]

Don't know why you're worried, they are introducing a server transfer token in the next patch aren't they?

You get to move but also get to decide for yourself where to go :)


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[james]

Don't know why you're worried, they are introducing a server transfer token in the next patch aren't they?

You get to move but also get to decide for yourself where to go :)


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Problem is the average joe isn't going to move

[Baneblade]

The majority of my outfit doesn't even play more than once a week now. And population is not the reason why. The issues range from rampant bugs and client instability to sheer monotony in the order of war.

I'm working to get them active again, but honestly, they should be wanting to play, not convinced to play.

[Beerbeer]

Pride. Pride before destruction.

They think people will come back and stay back, but we know better.

Merge them, Sony isn't helping its cause by thinking they can fix something so fundamentally broken.

What's funny is that they don't even know what's broken; they can't figure it out.

[MyOdessa]

Server merge will solve nothing. Any time you see anyone defending, Liberators come in, dump on everyone and defense is over.

Offense is a long line of tanks and sundies moving from outpost to outpost, just to waste 10 minutes to get couple of certificates. The whole column looks like mass migration scene from Ice Age, only without any humor to it.

Most of the time no one even try to defend outposts or bases. Any small action by a squad or less, gets wiped out by OP air. I still play it, but mostly because I am too lazy to find another FPS and because I hope that there is going to be a news that SOE about to fix it. Past January patch, if game stays the same, I am gone.

The biggest problem for SOE is that most of those that tried it in the first two weeks and left will not return, will not read or post on the forums. The game itself has no point to it i.e. no meta game.

[Beerbeer]

Well, you're right, but it will buy them time.

[Vashyo]

Population keeps on dropping, this week we made a new record low in steam. I really think they should start merging servers. :/

More and more people are giving up the XP farming and shallow gameplay. Since there isn't population on the servers for the big fights soon, it's just gonna snowball into the worse direction.

http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&jstime=1&appid=218230&from=1353362400000&to=1360965600000

the spike at the end was made by the new patch...didn't keep people too interested enough to continue playing I suppose...

[almalino]

Population keeps on dropping, this week we made a new record low in steam. I really think they should start merging servers. :/

More and more people are giving up the XP farming and shallow gameplay. Since there isn't population on the servers for the big fights soon, it's just gonna snowball into the worse direction.

http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&jstime=1&appid=218230&from=1353362400000&to=1360965600000

the spike at the end was made by the new patch...didn't keep people too interested enough to continue playing I suppose...

And I just invested another 20 Eruos into the game. All together is aproaching 100 probably:) Game is fun but it would be bad if it dies :(

[Silent Thunder]

Definatly need some mergers, they completly jumped the gun during launch week and brought too many servers online because the servers were filling too fast. Current max capacity, assuming the 2000 players per cont is accurate, is 84k concurrent players, which is a lot more than many established games can pull if you take away the monoliths such as WOW, CoD, BF3, etc.

[Koadster]

The majority of my outfit doesn't even play more than once a week now. And population is not the reason why. The issues range from rampant bugs and client instability to sheer monotony in the order of war.

I'm working to get them active again, but honestly, they should be wanting to play, not convinced to play.

This is happening with my outfit too. We have a very steady amount of players who play minecraft more then PS2 now, we are starting to get others playing firefall. I can only play PS2 for 2 hours max a day, Cap one base then move and cap next then recap the base you just lost then to another base... It gets boring fast. We used to get 50-70 during friday/saturday OPs, Now its 35 if we are lucky. Yet there is still about 50+ on TS at that time others mostly playing minecraft together.

[Pella]

Peoples own fault for not doing some research on there server selection.

[Mietz]

Peoples own fault for not doing some research on there server selection.

Yes, obviously. fucking pussies.

[psijaka]

SoE should allow people to transfer between servers and allow natural selection to concentrate the action on popular servers, and to kill off the less popular.
Would have to be on a cooldown timer, say 24 hours, to stop people flitting all over the place, but I think that this would work.

[Assist]

Peoples own fault for not doing some research on there server selection.

I don't think the people are to blame for the current state of the servers. I'd venture to guess there's not a single server running above 50% capacity, unlike the first three weeks of the game.

[Pella]

I don't think the people are to blame for the current state of the servers. I'd venture to guess there's not a single server running above 50% capacity, unlike the first three weeks of the game.

Prime time, Miller is almost full. We still get continent queuing.

[Sledgecrushr]

We had continent queing all night last night on connery.

[Babyfark McGeez]

In these days with overhyped releases and the resulting server inflation (i think this has happened with the last three or four releases i witnessed), free server transfers (with a cooldown ofc) would be a fair and adequate business move.

And that's coming from someone who has three chars on miller.

Unfortunately "fair" and "adequate" are still not the first words that come up my mind when dealing with video game companies.

[Koadster]

We had continent queing all night last night on connery.


ONLY Indar.. Esamir and Amerish were still fairly big ghost towns. with indar at 2000 people. I doubt the server was even at 40% full.

[Assist]

We had continent queing all night last night on connery.

I actually was playing on Connery, only Indar is queueing, same with Miller server is my guess. That's not close to capacity on the server with 1/3 continents have queueing and there's not a single zone with 'Enemy Squads' on one continent.

[Neutral Calypso]

I can't wait for continent locking! Then maybe we will get off Indar and take over the other dang continents!

[EVILoHOMER]

I'm over Dayz now as I'm waiting for the SA release, I should want to play Planetside 2, yet I have no desire to install it again. I know what will happen if I do, I'll get in and there will be no epic battles until like 6pm, then after peak time has come and gone I'll be waiting another day to play. It just becomes annoying...

[Hawgg]

Is server-merging actually something on the table? Has SOE addressed it?

Personally I think it is absolutely necessary. Having two dead continents (Amerish and Esamir) on Connery kind of ruins the game. And they're adding another continent soon? Yeah, people are still only going to play on one. That will just make the problem bigger.

Continent locking may help a bit, but server merging is still necessary.

[Riekopo]

Genudine is dead most of the time and it sucks.

[Mox]

Prime time, Miller is almost full. We still get continent queuing.

No it isnt. At the best one continent is locked. The other conts are not near locking at at the same time.

[Hamma]

SOE has not addressed server merging at all no.

The word "Merge" is a scary proposition for any MMO :P

[james]

SOE has not addressed server merging at all no.

The word "Merge" is a scary proposition for any MMO :P

Of course not, that means they have to admit they screwed up big time

[Hamma]

Riight.. It's more like bad press. Server Merges are always indicative of a dying MMO. If they do merges they will probably call it something else.

They needed tons of servers up for launch like any MMO.

[Hawgg]

Server merging does not mean an MMO is dying. It could be one symptom, but the reality of the situation is that server merging is a common and natural step in the progression of an MMO.

How many MMO's maintained even 75% of their population 6 months after launch? 60% population? 50%? Less?

The truth is, there is no shame in losing population. That's how these games go.

Refusing to address this because they think it will make the game "seem" worse or dying is totally reverse. If they don't, it WILL be worse or dying.

[GTGD]

I'll laugh when they are still too stubborn to budge on this issue even after they release Hossin and it is empty after the first week because everyone is back on Indar, and the devs decide there is no point in creating more new continents.

[Hamma]

I honestly don't see them ignoring it.

[ChipMHazard]

Unless the majority of the mostly empty servers suddenly fill up again I don't see how they can ignore it either, given enough time. But as Hamma pointed out the term is mostly seen in a negative light in the industry, perhaps unjustly so. IMO.

[Hamma]

Killing this thread with fire per:
http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=53055