Maybe faction-swapping shouldn't be encouraged

Auxili · 2012-12-14, 11:34 PM

Well made, but you can counter the argument by saying this can work if they simply add a cooldown. But I think that's what he's getting at. There should be a cooldown just like in Planetside 1. Even if people can just make another account, at least they don't get the benefits of having the same SC pool and premium benefits on their anonymous alt character on the same server.

I remember TB spoke about this too in one of his many Planetside videos, or on a livestream, but I can't remember which. If you guys remember, post the link!

bpostal · 2012-12-15, 12:05 AM

Gonna be honest, I didn't watch the video. I just know for a fact that faction swapping should not be encouraged. If you want to play with your friends fine. Make another account or add a 24 hour lock (minimum) on it.

Dragonskin · 2012-12-15, 12:58 AM

Overall it sucks for players that want competition and don't abuse the system, but from a business stand point SOE will probably make more money with this than without it because now station cash is all tied to 1 account and you don't have to switch servers to get a different experience. Meaning you don't have to worry about losing touch with communities you already know and you don't have to split real life money on multiple accounts... at the end of the day.. making money is what SOE is about.. Devs might be nice with the community, but they want to be paid. It's the evils we will have to deal with for the game to be successful. I don't know about you, but for me I want the game to be successful and if this is a requirement for it to get there then so be it.

People that were abusing the system for their own gains were already doing it anyway. This is a move to get more casuals willing to try more factions and possibly spend more money. That is the bottom line.

Sunrock · 2012-12-15, 01:03 AM

I give a fuck how mush money SOE makes. Money should never stand in the way of making the game fun to play. And faction switching is stupid and makes the game allot less fun to play.

Dragonskin · 2012-12-15, 02:23 AM

Originally Posted by Sunrock

I give a fuck how mush money SOE makes. Money should never stand in the way of making the game fun to play. And faction switching is stupid and makes the game allot less fun to play.

Very short sighted response. The more money SOE makes off the game the more development and funding they will pour into it to continue making money off of it. The better the game can potentially be. Think World of Warcraft... yea the game might be terrible to thousands, but it's appealing to millions every single expansion that comes out. That is why it is the juggernaut that it is. People like the game and keep going back to it to spend more money on it.

The flip side.. the less money they make off PS2 the less funding it will receive and the less updates and development we will receive. It will wind up like Vanguard: Saga of Heroes... have you heard of that game? No probably not. Now you know why. It didn't do well and many people never played it. It is also a SOE game.

Which of those options works in your favor? Personally I want SOE to make stupid amounts of money of this game, because I like it and I want to see it live up to the potential that is clearly there. If this change is a stepping stone to that kind of success.. well the hardcore gamer in my doesn't like it, but the gamer side of me that wants the game to succeed can see the reason behind it.

Ruffdog · 2012-12-15, 02:28 AM

Swapping's for losers.

Loyalty until death.

Mordelicius · 2012-12-15, 03:01 AM

It's a bad change. This is why you don't see this in other realm vs. realm games with 3-5 factions.

The biggest reason is logging out/in when your empire is losing. It will simply destroy the aura of competitive pvp if players are switching back and forth.

Imagine a cascade of players disappearing, then you notice your opponents are getting more numerous

I can see players switching to a faction currently farming the Crown.

I think the reason they did this is so players don't delete their heavily-invested-on character if they want to switch. Instead of 'have to' delete this character because they want to reroll on the same server to another faction, they can just log out fast.

If a player doesn't delete it, they have to make a new account. I think that's what they want to avoid, forcing players to make a new account.

If a player switches from an underpowered NC to an overpowered VS, deletes an NC character. Then, the game gets balanced and want to switch back to NC, they probably will regret deleting the 'old' character.

That reason alone can't outweigh the negatives they will bring.

Mathematics · 2012-12-15, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by Sunrock

I give a fuck how mush money SOE makes. Money should never stand in the way of making the game fun to play. And faction switching is stupid and makes the game allot less fun to play.

If SOE doesn't make money from this game, then you can kiss it goodbye, because they won't be able to fund further development without money. I'm guessing you didn't think that through before making your comments, though.

Auxili · 2012-12-15, 02:09 AM

We'll see how it works out, the video says a bunch and gosh i wish i could find the tb video clip too because he said some good stuff to, and i think it was directly to a dev.

Suitepee · 2012-12-15, 06:20 AM

No shit it shouldn't be encouraged. It could potentially ruin the balance of the game.

Sifer2 · 2012-12-15, 06:36 AM

Originally Posted by Suitepee

No shit it shouldn't be encouraged. It could potentially ruin the balance of the game.

No potentially about it. It probably already has since they can't just remove it now. Continent Locking no longer means anything in this game. It just means one Outfit got on an started a good push then all the casual's faction swapped to be on the winning side an zerged until they locked it. I never saw continents reaching as high as 68% of a certain faction before the update but now it's common.

PurpleOtter · 2012-12-15, 12:01 PM

No Fourth Empire, it was part of the downfall of Planetside1.

One Faction, One Server!

FreeSpeech · 2012-12-15, 01:00 PM

If faction swapping was easy, there would be no NC players left - hell on our server we already have barely any NC players due to the fact the faction is so shit everyone has left it to go to OP VS and TR.

Timealude · 2012-12-15, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by FreeSpeech

If faction swapping was easy, there would be no NC players left - hell on our server we already have barely any NC players due to the fact the faction is so shit everyone has left it to go to OP VS and TR.

I never got this, I play on connery on my NC and i have yet to see how they are underpowered.

Anyways back to the topic at hand, I really dont think this was a good idea. It feels a bit rushed but i hope like the tech plant mess this is resolved soon.

Rivenshield · 2012-12-15, 02:35 PM

This is nothing but a sop to the convenience-oriented ADS mid/late teen crowd. It has fuck all to do with 'being able to play with your friends.'

Before you had to run multiple clients, double-box, etc.... you had to go to some effort to spy, to sabotage, to act as a fifth columnist. Now you can do it in-game in ten seconds at the drop of a hat. It encourages the Fourth Empire; it incentivizes it; it anoints it with oil. It makes it THE DECISIVE FORCE ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

What do you think the WoW-kiddies currently capping empty bases for cheap XP are going to do with this? They'll simply jump ship the instant their side begins to 'lose' and gravitate from moment to moment whatever side seems to be 'winning.' There goes any concept of base defense, no matter what Malorn can pull out of his hat. There goes the archaic concept of faction loyalty. The Fourth Empire Zerg will conquer all -- minute to minute, battle to battle.

I pray to God they add a long, LONGASS cooldown timer on it. We had one in PS1. It only seems common sense. But they haven't done it, anymore than they've removed the absurd spectacle of DING! XP FOR EMPTY BASES! We didn't have that in PS1 either. (It doesn't matter if you get somewhat better XP for defense. What the kiddies want is that shiny popup and the triumphant blare of music. It's Pavlovian.) Why they continue to resolutely ignore very simple mechanics like these that we had more than a decade ago is beyond me. All I can think is that somebody lost some kind of political battle at SOE, and now we're seeing what the winners have in mind.

This is an utter disaster. This plus the phenomenon of ghost-zerging, left alone and unamended, may well destroy the game that we waited so long for and greeted with such anticipation. Technical issues can be massaged out. But what they are doing by deliberate purpose of action over the past week whittles away at what they got *right.* It makes me fucking ill.

/slumps