The Fourth Empire - Mercenaries

[I SandRock]

So this idea popped up into my head, due to population imbalance and the fact that I'm always scavenging guns from NC & TR, which is fun to use.

What if there was a fourth empire option, but this empire wasn't it's own faction, but rather they are guns for hire. The way it could work in-game is that outfits/players are given the choice which empire to fight for say, every day, 3 days, week, whatever. OR they would have to get hired by CR5s from that empire

OR

It works as a balance system. If one empire's population is low then it is filled with mercenary numbers on that side to make it even. Not every mercenary would have to go on the same side. Let's say the numbers are:

NC: 38%
TR: 32%
VS: 30%

Then it would give a little more mercenaries to VS, a little less to TR and none to NC so that the numbers would be 33% x3 again!


Obviously being assigned to one of the three empires would go by outfit unless you aren't in any.


What do you think? Would you play as Mercenary? And if you wouldn't, would you still like the idea of mercenaries helping the faction numbers?

[Tikuto]

I dislike though the population-balancing is intruiging. Don't forget about Incentives which supposedly re-balance the scales of unproportionate population ratios.


Honestly, though, I wasn't particularly pleased on how Incentives worked at all in PS:1. Instead, if there are NPCs in the next PlanetSide game I'd have them be "Soldiers" granted to less-populated Empires and lead by player-commanders.

• (Player) Militant
• (Non-player) Soldier

Providing the whole command system is remade in the next game, player-commanders could summon these Soldiers to fight for your underpopulated empire. Once every 40 minutes per continent (not per player). This could be the new Incentive?

[I SandRock]

Ugh NPCs in a PvP game is horrible. I don't want to PvE :P

Incentives aren't really a way to effectively stop imbalance, it's more of a way to make those who play on an imbalanced side shut up a little



How come you don't like a Mecenary empire but wouldn't mind NPCs taking on that role?

[Tikuto]

Nationalism.

[Aractain]

I like (cooperative) PVE... I wish APB had PvE (and was a good game etc - so it didn't fail).


Not Planetside though. To me that is a wargame that is all about straight up PvP warfare.

[I SandRock]

Originally Posted by Aractain

I like (cooperative) PVE... I wish APB had PvE (and was a good game etc - so it didn't fail).


Not Planetside though. To me that is a wargame that is all about straight up PvP warfare.

Wait wait, this isn't about PvE. Mercenaries would be actual players

Originally Posted by Tikuto

Nationalism.

Fair enough. Though you'd still have that amongst your own empire. Just not the mercenaries. They'd have a different look too so you'd recognize them as being such.

[DviddLeff]

If the game has one empire per server, there should be a mechanic made to switch sides.

But you can only change twice, and not back to an empire you have left before.

[Lartnev]

I voted no because I'm uncomfortable with the idea of what is essentially building faction hopping into the game - even for as noble a cause as balancing population.

I'm not against mercenaries in principle: they could help casual gamers get into the game more. It could even be that all players start as mercenaries and then choose an empire by a certain battle rank ("time to choose your loyalties") just to ease them into the game and give them a flavour of each empire. But I think PSN would have to add a lot of depth to PlanetSide before the OP proposal of veteran players for hire becomes something I'd vote yes to.

[I SandRock]

Originally Posted by Lartnev

I voted no because I'm uncomfortable with the idea of what is essentially building faction hopping into the game - even for as noble a cause as balancing population.

I'm not against mercenaries in principle: they could help casual gamers get into the game more. It could even be that all players start as mercenaries and then choose an empire by a certain battle rank ("time to choose your loyalties") just to ease them into the game and give them a flavour of each empire. But I think PSN would have to add a lot of depth to PlanetSide before the OP proposal of veteran players for hire becomes something I'd vote yes to.

I hate empire hopping. If it was up to me you could only be one empire per server. But this isn't the same as empire hopping. With empire hoppers they can just go to the faction that is winning or doing best. But this would mostly mean you go to the faction that is doing worst (the underpopulated one).

With empire hopping it can also mean that people who are in your outfit are actually just alts or keep hopping to the other empire, so you can't keep a regular squad up.
This wouldn't be the case either because mercenaries are their own outfits.

So I don't think this would actually give any of the negative effects associated with empire hopping?

Global Agenda added it in a form and it seemed to work quite well in there.

[Lartnev]

Originally Posted by I SandRock

So I don't think this would actually give any of the negative effects associated with empire hopping?

I just don't know what effect having outfits moving around the empires will have on the social and command aspects of the different empires - which is what makes an MMO special.

On an individual player basis you're right that it's still preferential to empire hopping just to be on the winning team. I'm concerned that it would impact the longevity of the game because you'd lose inter-empire rivaly but that might not matter to mercenary players anyway.

[Sifer2]

Empire hopping should not be encouraged. The game was at its best before they were forced to allow this due to lack of players. Until such a time where Next is failing from lack of people I don't think it should be allowed. You want people to know each other an develop cooperation between outfits to work towards your Empire accomplishing stuff. Not have half or more of the playerbase jumping around willy nilly to whatever faction is offering the best reward at the moment.

[Hamma]

I am not much of a fan of this idea either. Plus how does "Hiring" work does that introduce currency into the game? Also a bad idea. I am not a fan of building hopping into the game either. If people really REALLY feel they need to play on all empires then pay for more accounts, that's how I feel about it.

[Warruz]

Wouldnt a better Population balance system would be the world pass system.

Its a good way of initially balancing if we have multiple servers. Start game up, asks what empire you wish to play as. Based off of that it puts you on the server that needs the help most. If you have a buddy on another server they can snag a world pass for you to switch over so you can play together.

While its not a ideal solution later on when people start taking breaks its a good initial system.

[I SandRock]

Well I didn't expect that many people to be interested in playing a Mercenary, so I wouldn't expect half of the player base to be hopping about. You could limit it to 10% of all players max.

On the other hand (I'm not a fan of hopping either) if that's what the majority of players like to do who am i to deny it.


Wow 15 nos and 1 yes (i wonder who that was ). I'll concede

[Raymac]

Thanks to server merges etc. we already pretty much have a 4th empire that will switch sides depending on how the winds are blowing. I don't like it now, so I don't want them to make an official 4th Empire in Next.