Why is one faction's population tanking?

[MrBloodworth]

Why is one faction's population tanking?

Because one faction keeps making threads about how the population is tanking.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Thunderhawk

NC have certainly enjoyed their new WG in North Indar thats for sure. They've never had it so good with Land percentage

I am inclined to agree. That North Warpgate is the best Warpgate.

[Loban]

Originally Posted by Bunk

I am inclined to agree. That North Warpgate is the best Warpgate.

Holy crap is it ever. I was convinced the NC on my server were just awful until they rotated warp gates. Now we own the entire upper region of the map most nights.

[igster]

Magrider is still the best tank by a long way. The nerf is more annoying than a real decrease in tank power.

The problem is that our warpgate positions don't suit the VS style of Tank based play.

When the NC had 2/3 of the same positions (Indar / Esamir) their population went to crap also - they are the two worst positions in the game. We have a good WG on Amerish, however, since this continent suits infantry and air combat it doesnt really match the vanu style of tank heavy play.

SE Indar is a horrible position because of the canyons and doesnt suit the VS's predominantly tank heavy play. A tank in the canyon is basically rocket and air fodder from above.

Esamir is by far the most tank friendly continent with lots of wide open gently undulating terrain. However, the top two positions suffer in terms of proximity to each other. The top left of esamir suffers the most since it is on the same side as the TR warpgate and therefore this side is attacked by the TR more than the further Eastern Side. NC are much more likely to attack the piggy in the middle too.

It's quite repetitive permanently defending the warpgate on Esamir, however, it is the best tank play in the game. As a dedicated tank crew, we normally go there for a good tank fight over Amerish which is very unfriendly to tanks and also Indar where the canyons really don't provide for good tank battles. The Indar three way is very very stale for most people.

People I know are stopping because of the persistent stalemate on Indar or the 1 sided Zergs that happen every night on Amerish and Esamir. This pattern is happening every night on Miller which I think is the most heavily populated EU Server.

This is the core of the gameplay issue.

Scenario pretty much every night after GU1
Indar : Equal pops
Esamir or Amerish would be controlled by either TR or NC 50/60% and there would be 10-20% VS pop.

The zergz away from Indar basically avoiding each other

Its not a faction problem : the NC had the same issue before GU2.

Solution : Make the population bonus meaninful. A 16% xp bonus for being outpopped and warpgated by both opposing factions and camped with a 5:1 enemy : friendly ratio is not enough. Make it more like the PS1 xp bonuses where a heavily outpopped faction had 40-60% xp bonuses which made it worthwhile to try to fight when heavily outgunned.

One other aspect is the 'rich get richer and poor get poorer' problem with resources. It's just a bad resource system. You can't continue to fight from a warpgate since you are gaining no or few resources. You have no choice but to leave after a while if you are camped.

IMO the resource system is just bad in every way. It rewards the zerg and camping warpgates.

[Thunderhawk]

Totally agree with the resource issue being raised here. My only understanding behind this is that its the Dev team's way of unofficially implementing continent locks by making the factions close to no resources leave, so making it possible to lock a cont even though there are footholds for every faction.

I don't like it, and would rather the resources were scrapped, but that's the way things are now, unfortunately it's making for a situation where populations drift towards continents where the faction has enough resources.

Basically This is what's causing Indar to have continuous population, with others being more like day trips for people, even for the factions that own them.

I have to admit, i still enjoy Planetside 2, but my enthusiasm is slowly whaning now, and am hardly in game for longer than an hour per time.

Ahh well

[EVILoHOMER]

1 negative thing is enough for the average person to quit, they'd rather divide their time elsewhere that put up with something bothering them.

[Hamma]

Every time there is any balance change on one empire people flood to another. It's human nature.

[Obstruction]

1. your new wg sucks

2. your max is weak

3. they nerfed your tank

4. you shoot flashlights

5. you have crown less often now

6. purple spandex

7. your voice over guy calls you a failure

8. ancient aliens meme

9. infiltrator vagina helmet

10. population xp incentive is insignificant

[Larington]

I'm struggling to understand what's going on here myself. I'd guess that, probably, about 25% of each empires players are loyal, either because of time invested in the character or adherence to an outfit or empire theme. That leaves an additional 25% who only care about having the best k/d ratio (seriously just remove that fucking metric) or most powerful equipment. I've got a BR 20-something NC character in addition to my main VS that's broken 40 now, but I mostly did that because I was suffering from "OMG I died that weapon is overpowered fever" and the only way to break that fever was to play another empire a fair bit. That said, with the populations as they are I've now returned to VS because (On Miller at least) jumping ship to spend time with NC almost seems treasonous until this period passes (That is unless I'm really bored and need a change for an hour or three).

I've enjoyed the defending I have to do in the SE of Indar, but at the same time I've grown very weary of the way I (and my outfit) often seem to end up bouncing constantly between Rashnu and Tawrich to respond to TR & NC alternating pushes. This is the thing that sticks in my head, Planetside 1 had a lot of continents and with the help of instant action (hah, when it worked) you could be sure that players would cluster at the big fight and outfits could heavily influence which continent that happened to be, so we regularly got to visit different places. And the links between continents meant that you wouldn't always be approaching the continent the same direction or you could actually push an empire out without them just pulling new vehicles at the warpgate en masse. (Surprising what a loading screen can do to continent control isn't it)

But in PS2 we've only got 3 continents, so it's harder to herd people in a particular direction with the promise they'll get a fight. Why do they need to ask an outfit where the fight is if they can be reasonably certain they'll get a fight at the crown? They don't. Then again, that was the problem with Cyssor wasn't it, it too, was the obvious choice.

I don't think it's helped that for the past few weeks the launcher has been endlessly bigging up the TR with talk of their victory in the UES, but that's probably a much smaller factor than I suspect.

I think it's interesting that if you look at the graph for tanks pulled that higby posted, the magrider is the lowest used of them all, I think it's the lack of a driver turret, most people in my outfit (aside from one or two exceptions) have started pulling the magrider only because their lightning is on timer and I'm exactly the same. The lightning is just plain more fun to drive and it's far easier to use it to sneak in close behind enemy prowlers to drop 2 anti-tank rounds in the back then dash off before a mosquito spots you than to try and use the magrider that *feels* really sluggish even though on paper its stats aren't bad at all.

As an aside, anecdotally, I really felt the downside to the low slung driver cannon on the magrider today. The curve on some of the roads leading out of the SE warpgate are sufficient that you can't actually fire over them but a lightning/vanguard/prowler can get plenty of free and easy hits... Unless sheer weight of numbers pours over them like a tidal wave. (I'm not trying to say I think the MagRider is underpowered, but I know which I enjoy running more and it's not the MagRider)

[Chewy]

Originally Posted by Obstruction

10. population xp incentive is insignificant

What if XP was linked to the land you don"t have instead of pop numbers?

Say if your faction is under it's 33% of hexes defaulted to their WG then that faction gets up to 15% XP boost (no land at all). And up to an additional 2% XP for each 10% of hexes above the default 33% for the highest hex owning faction. Examples

Amerish -
TR own it all and have 0% XP. NC and VS get 30% extra XP (15% for being warpgated and another 15% for fighting back against the TRs massive forces).

Esamir -
NC holds 50% of hexes, 0% XP.
TR has it's 33%, 4% XP (for the NCs 20% above its default 33%).
VS has 10% hexes, 14% XP (10% XP for being under the default 33% and 4% XP from the NC)

Indar-
An even 33% all round. 0% XP to all for no one having under the default number of hexes and none over the default number of hexes. BUT they don't have to be the default bases. (think of a spiral of NC going south east, VS going west, and TR going north)


With this setup even an under popped faction can get extra XP. If an underdog kicks enough ass then people might just flock to them for being badasses. OR say if a large outfit locks one cont they can still go to another cont for a fight (next in the chain once more maps are out or just not wanting to sit doing nothing waiting for people to retake) without ruining the now pop based % XP .

Also think of a last stand with this system. Your platoon is the only thing keeping this last base from turning to the enemy and giving them a lock. Not only are those fights tales to be told in the halls of our grandchildren but with an added XP for defending AND the owning no other hexes. My god would that be a farm. Defenders would get massive XP while giving the biggest "Fuck You!" they can to the enemy with the attackers fighting like MAD to lock the cont for the nice FAT bonus that (BEST) comes with the lock (maybe 5K XP on top of that bases cap XP).

Seems like an idea to me.

[Rasui]

Originally Posted by Canaris

4th empire suck, that is all.

even on the offical forums there were so many whine threads from people who were VS and stated outright they were only in that faction because they thought it was OP, a slight nerf to the Mag and a couple of buffs to the Vanguard & Prowler and they jumped ship like it was on fire.

You can't do much about the suckers, I hope most went to the NC cos I don't want them in the TR even if it swells our ranks, I much prefer to shoot them in the face.

This

It's 4th empire scum fleeing like rats on a sinking ship. The funny part is the "sinking" is mostly a psychological phenomenon.