Request for devs

[Plaqueis]

since you obviously don't give a fuck about faction balance on your servers, please make the accounts serverwide, regardless the faction you started on. No offence to my outfit Trident and the VS friends i've gained, but i'm sick and tired of watching the maps of 3 continents trying to find a remotely even fight worth spawning in. We've won quite a load of alerts with -10% population by just going there as coordinated outfit (hat off to amazing platoon leaders like Slightjunky, Toddlong and others), but losing them often to just sheer numbers gets old very fast.

So, with heavy heart, i don't see any other options than creating either TR or NC character, preferrably TR since they seem to have deeper bench sort of speak. I'd settle having everything i've ever certed/bought except the stuff i can't get with certs on my TR account. Is that really too much to ask? I mean if i had known how the game will turn out to be, i'd never even tried playing anything but TR.

I'm BR85 Vanu atm on Cobalt, i've spent almost 57000 certpoints on various things (the ~500$ i've spent on bling, membership and other stuff you can keep). I'd like to be able to enjoy the game again without having to start over again.

Thank you.

EDIT: Long post short, i (and everyone else) should have everything that can be 'bought' on cert points on every character we decide to make, atleast on same server. No matter if we got it with money or certs. If the stuff is faction specific, the 'opposite thing' on other factions list should be granted.

EDIT2: Here you go:

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n171/Sirkkeli/this_zps8fe8844e.png

I've been checking the maps for almost 3 hours now, without any urge of actually playing... think that makes a good game?

[Escroteitor]

Kinda funny picture. In peak hours the server population is normal 35-35-35 with a 2% difference, sometimes vanu sometimes TR, rarely NC.

In fact that pic looks like 10 AM GMT+0 on those hours TR population tends to be larger. And in the past few days the Vanu won nearly every alert in pic hours.

Actually only the NC of Cobalt can really complain, but even if they do they're in one of the most balanced servers out there.

[Plaqueis]

Kinda funny picture. In peak hours the server population is normal 35-35-35 with a 2% difference, sometimes vanu sometimes TR, rarely NC.

In fact that pic looks like 10 AM GMT+0 on those hours TR population tends to be larger. And in the past few days the Vanu won nearly every alert in pic hours.

Actually only the NC of Cobalt can really complain, but even if they do they're in one of the most balanced servers out there.

Try again.

http://www.therebelscum.net/world-population/?world_id=13&zoom=5

Stretch the timeline all you want, the graph hardly changes. Apart from some NC peaks, it's all TR.

Atleast i'm basing my posts on something.

Next.

EDIT: Only thing that caused a minor differences in population were the GTA5 and BF4 going public, that made the TR overpopulation slightly smaller.

[capiqu]

We need universal accounts that allow you log into any server.

[Isokon]

We need universal accounts that allow you log into any server.
Because allowing the underpopulated faction to leave for a server where they have a population advantage is totally not going to make things worse...:rolleyes:

[Phrygen]

Because allowing the underpopulated faction to leave for a server where they have a population advantage is totally not going to make things worse...:rolleyes:

No. They could do what guild wards 2 did or something similar. Granted its not always good for outfits in theory.

[Rolfski]

Universal accounts and server transfers have been high on the wish list for ages. These won't solve any population issues though. If anything, it will make them worse.

You're better off for now sticking to your Vanu character and wait for the upcoming changes that should help balancing issues and are expected to be there with the start of the new WDS season, oct 20th.

[raumfahrer]

If you look here (http://sirisian.com/planetside2/population.php?world=13&timezone=0&allfactions=false), this started around the 6th of August. Before that date, the faction balance was kind of even for a month or so. And even further back in time, the TR was more or less the overall least populated faction for ages(though close to the VS).

Anyone knows what happened there? Some hotfix? In GU13 there were some changes to pistols... GU14 was nothing.

[Dodgy Commando]

Funny that. I've recently taken to my Vanu alt on Cobalt and enjoy playing a lot more.

I was tired of losing every alert as NC (often to Vanu) but, without going into faction imbalance or anything, its actually the player mentality that's made things fun for me. Some really good outfits it seems, great organisation and teamplay, all this as a pubbie. The guys literally pick up others and away we go (and win!).

[maradine]

10x current underpop XP bonus. Problem solves self. Wish more people would lobby for it - it's quite the elegant fix.

[Emperor Newt]

10x current underpop XP bonus. Problem solves self. Wish more people would lobby for it - it's quite the elegant fix.
This has been suggested soooo many times since beta. At least they increased it at one pooint by.. was it two times? Something along the lines and completely not what people were asking for. I lobbied for that for quiet some time. I have given up. It looks like the devs either don't care or don't see this as a viable option. Most likely the later. Better give the overpoped farming faction more certs then the underpoped one(s). They are more players/customers in the first place...

[Locke]

The more free exp they give away the more they eat into their overall profits by making weapons and boosts less desirable.

[Qwan]

I really dont see any cure for population balance, I mean even if they had server transfer, It would be a desaster. One because if your on a server with low pop for your faction constantly your going to transfer (for a small fee). Then the faction that was over populated will dominate, then they will be the only faction on the server. Now that faction that had the high pop count will have no one to fight. Then they will bitch and complain and tranfer (for a small fee). I believe that its going to come down to this, more servers are going to shut down....... wash... rinse.... repeat. Until were down to on or two servers, then the real battles begin LOL.

[Dodgy Commando]

Is there any good solution to balance faction populations?

I can't remember how this was tackled in PS1 for the sake of comparison (beyond XP incentives for underpop).

On the one hand you could lock a player's faction choice on a particular server, but that wouldn't stop him from creating a character from a different faction on another server. This could possibly exarcerbate population differences even more IMO (players no longer playing on a particular server at all, less global population on that server), not to mention the argument that you miss 2/3 if the game's content if you like to enjoy your game that way (without being a 4th factioner or what-have-you).

On the other hand, you have the current system which offers total freedom of choice. This allows players to benefit from extra XP if playing the underpopped faction, but we still suffer from 4th factioners and general population imbalance.

I think this is the better choice, even if it isn't working. I reckon a drastic increase in XP will provide the encouragement needed to shift faction populations to a more balanced state (adjusted proportionally as faction numbers change of course). It will be big enough to attract those who have no particular faction preference and those who play for XP/Certs (possibly quite a few 4th factioners here). Should it not encourage more players, at least the underpopped faction won't get discouraged too fast due to the XP bonus.

You could possibly add in a temporary faction lock (i.e. 24 hours) ONCE faction balance is reached by +/- a few percent. I am not keen on this though, as it looks good in theory but doesn't prevent people from logging and switching servers (not to mention the 'natural' logging which will affect global populations anyway and that will not be uniform across factions).

Furthermore, I wonder whether it would be worthwhile finding out the proportion of players who prefer to stick to one faction or switch regularly for various reasons. It seems to me that the different systems fit one or the other playstyles exclusively, hence my initial question.

[basti]

Is there any good solution to balance faction populations?


No. Its that simple.

There is NO way to force players to play a certain faction / not play a certain faction, without completly screwing over your game.

There is also no way to have worldwide characters that can play on every server, without completly screwing your game.

At least if you try to solve the problem with some game mechanic.



There is however a solution to solve the pop difference problems. And hey, ITS ALREADY IN THE GAME! WOOT! HOW DOES IT WORK!?!?!?

Its the pop cap. Plain and simple, the pop cap. Continent full means 33vs33vs33. Server full means 33vs33vs33 on all continents.

But the servers are empty? Yea, thats why they completly focus on optimization right now, to allow more players to actually play the game with more than 3 FPS. ;)