Why is NC so Popular?

[Luieburger]

http://www.dumpt.com/img/links.php?f...y6ymul2ft0.png

[MrKWalmsley]

Originally Posted by Trafalgar

I would not be surprised to find a sizable number of NC players and potential NC players who were unwilling to use Facebook. Obviously, there is no proof, but neither is the facebook app in any way a realistic representative sample of prospective Planetside 2 players.

I sure as hell am one of them.

[Diddy Mao]

From my Experience with the Original Planetside I figured Popularity of the Factions varried on who was winning at the time. The first Month Terran Republic was completely overpopulated it was a sea of red continents. Things normalized somewhat but the theme I saw for the most part originally on Emerald was

TR > NC > Vanu

Vanu always had the lowest pop durring prime time in the Hay day of PS. From a Command standpoint if the TR was pop locked on 1 Continent we had to watch out for the rest of them. Vanu if they were pop locked we knew where they were there was no second surge.

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by cBselfmonkey

Eh. I remember checking population polls for SWTOR prior to launch and things were usually pretty even with a slight advantage to the Empire faction. Come launch the Empire vastly outnumbered the Republic on just about every server. To the point where server PvP, battleground and world-pvp, were utterly broken.

If you looked at the all-up population across all server types the factions were still very close, but it differed heavily by server type.

On PvE servers Republic was slightly ahead in pop. PvP servers were heavily empire skewed. RP servers were heavily Republic skewed. RP-PvP servers were very close.

Pre-launch there was one faction/server-type poll, and some people did analysis on the guild list to see what empire/faction/server type they chose and they saw what was going on. That's why I picked a RP-PvP server which had pretty good balance.

In every pre-game poll I've seen with a good sample size the poll has been fairly accurate. Needs to be a good sample size (at least 1000 respondants) and a representative sample though.

PS only has one server type, so you won't see that strange swtor behavior.

If they put up a faction polls around open beta timeframe on the official forums I think you'll see some accurate results. PSU's poll is probably accurate also, though I think all 3 empires are within the margin of error of the poll.

And lastly, PS experience showed that the empires were quite close. The only significant population swings I saw was after the server merges and people had multiple characters on different empires and the whole '4th empire' thing happened where a lot of people would switch empires if the empire they were playing was in a bad spot, losing on all fronts, etc.

[Lumberchuk]

Personally I'm choosing my faction based on the way their tanks feel. Depending on exactly how slow NC is vs. how mobile the VS is I'll choose one of them. I played a lot of world of tanks and I prefer the medium tanks for their mobility, however I also prefer a stronger slower firing gun to a fast firing one as it allows for more tactics IMO. It also wasn't clear how much you can customize your tanks, for instance if I could lower the armour and increase the speed on my vanguard, I would definitely do that. So i'm waiting till beta to make my decision. As for TR, though they may be fast I really don't like the idea of low accuracy. Especially in infantry weapons. My favourite weapons in BF3 for example are the G3A3 and the AN94, which rely on good aim and high damage to make up for the low fire rates. So right now NC is my first choice, however if their tanks prove to be to slow VS it is. Also if the is a major surplus of NC players, I may also have to go VS because I'm hipster like that.

[Mechzz]

Originally Posted by Lumberchuk

Personally I'm choosing my faction based on the way their tanks feel. Depending on exactly how slow NC is vs. how mobile the VS is I'll choose one of them. I played a lot of world of tanks and I prefer the medium tanks for their mobility, however I also prefer a stronger slower firing gun to a fast firing one as it allows for more tactics IMO. It also wasn't clear how much you can customize your tanks, for instance if I could lower the armour and increase the speed on my vanguard, I would definitely do that. So i'm waiting till beta to make my decision. As for TR, though they may be fast I really don't like the idea of low accuracy. Especially in infantry weapons. My favourite weapons in BF3 for example are the G3A3 and the AN94, which rely on good aim and high damage to make up for the low fire rates. So right now NC is my first choice, however if their tanks prove to be to slow VS it is. Also if the is a major surplus of NC players, I may also have to go VS because I'm hipster like that.

Vanu? Hipster? Do not take the name of Vanu in vain. We Vanu are far more serious than that.
(even if our music is quite hip, lol)

[Meriv]

After seing the Weapon video from febbruary where they say "we are working a shoutgun for the infiltrator" the NC gets terrible nice, not only is the nicest one , if it gets his hand over a shoutgun ........ idk what will happen

[Juturna]

noobhammer. nuff said

[Meriv]

Originally Posted by Juturna

noobhammer. nuff said

I just don't want my TR medic with his AR to get a cloaked Infiltrator in range of his dam shoutgun.....

[Veraxes]

The NC are popular because there is no reason for the TR to exist anymore when the wormhole collapsed! Why be ruled by a 'republic' that has no means to send you back to Earth? The Vanu are a buncha weirdos that only wanna harness power they do not fully understand. Independence through Force!!

[Lumberchuk]

Vanu? Hipster? Do not take the name of Vanu in vain. We Vanu are far more serious than that.
(even if our music is quite hip, lol)

Lol hipster as in I hate joining the team with the most people in persistent faction games

[Otleaz]

Originally Posted by Lumberchuk

Also if the is a major surplus of NC players, I may also have to go VS because I'm hipster like that.

Call it hipster if you like, but I prefer it when the enemy can't scream "ZERG!" every time they lose.

[Troscus]

Everyone saying it's just because of high damage, I thought they said you could side-grade to make EVERY empire specific weapon perform like the others?

[Landtank]

Originally Posted by Troscus

Everyone saying it's just because of high damage, I thought they said you could side-grade to make EVERY empire specific weapon perform like the others?

They can be modded to perform in a similar manner, but not quite the same.

You can't make a cycler shoot as slow as a gauss rifle or vice versa.

[Troscus]

Originally Posted by Landtank

They can be modded to perform in a similar manner, but not quite the same.

You can't make a cycler shoot as slow as a gauss rifle or vice versa.

It seems, in that case, that all it would take is an ounce of adaptability and suddenly the game play differences aren't THAT big a deal. Meaning it's all about looks/story, both of which I, personally, find the NC lacking in comparison to the other two empires. Still, objectively, they look sweet.