Why is one faction's population tanking?

[Assist]

Anyone have a good reason? I have my theories, I've posted them here and people disagree with me to the point that I won't bother stating my opinion on it until maybe later in the thread.

I don't think anyone can deny that one faction has significantly changed in population numbers(ON MOST SERVERS) since game update 2, but if you wish to you can discuss that as well. I want to know why you guys think it has happened and do you think it should be addressed somehow or should it just continue to be ignored and let the community sort it out?

edit: Tanking was probably a poor choice of words, seriously unintended pun ;P

[Thunderhawk]

I know the VS have been less populated on Miller in recent weeks and ever since a few days after GU2, and has stayed down. I have noticed a surge in TR and NC populations though, and have come across loads of BR1-20 characters so am assuming they're new players coming in.

Whether this is a Magrider related population lull, I don't know but I certainly dont get in my Magrider anymore and a lot of the people I know in game that used to just play magrider exclusively have now quit.

Yes it needed "adjusting" but A lot of people (maybe not on these forums) have found the adjustment too much, coupled with a simultaneous buff to the Prowler, and it swung it too far in one direction.

I'd love to see the ration of Tank vs Tank kills now, taken from GU2 -> current day, I am positive they'd look totally different.

Sadly those people that quit I doubt will be coming back as it was one buff/nerf change too far for them, and they quit out of principle, not making a fuss on the forums, nor trying to scream about it, they just left.

Not sure if this is the trend being seen but there sure is less VS about I can tell you

[Assist]

Originally Posted by Thunderhawk

I know the VS have been less populated on Miller in recent weeks and ever since a few days after GU2, and has stayed down. I have noticed a surge in TR and NC populations though, and have come across loads of BR1-20 characters so am assuming they're new players coming in.

Sadly those people that quit I doubt will be coming back as it was one buff/nerf change too far for them, and they quit out of principle, not making a fuss on the forums, nor trying to scream about it, they just left.

Not sure if this is the trend being seen but there sure is less VS about I can tell you

I agree. I have had the few friends I played with stop playing as well, though some of us have been messing around off and on across other characters/servers. So we would fit into that realm of new BR1-20 characters on NC/TR. I know the ones who quit probably won't be back, but the truth is they were not tank players. They quit generally because the ones who were tank players were upset with the changes, and that the changes were more heavily one-sided. No reason to login to a game and play when you know you're going to be disgruntled due to nerfs. My frame of mind has always been to not nerf because it makes people disgruntled, but to buff(or re-vamp) because people are always happy with new shinies.
So as much as I would love to blame it solely on the Magrider changes, I don't think that's all that has done it. There has to be other reasons and I'm curious as to everyone's theory on why.

As I see it the people who have stopped playing lately must be lurking here. These are not the same people who /raged all over the forums the first month and a half who never really played the game, these are people who really did enjoy the game and even though quite a bit was added in GU02, it apparently wasn't interesting enough to keep them around.

[Ghoest9]

Its one of two related reasons.


1 VS were spoiled by there easy mode starting points and are quitting now that they dont have easy mode.

or

2 VS players were only playing VS because it had easy mode map locations and now they have switched sides.



'
I think its largly number 2. NC numbers have increased.

[Assist]

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

Its one of two related reasons.


1 VS were spoiled by there easy mode starting points and are quitting now that they dont have easy mode.

or

2 VS players were only playing VS because it had easy mode map locations and now they have switched sides.



'
I think its largly number 2. NC numbers have increased.

So you're contributing the population drop to the Indar warpgate being changed?

[Kiten]

I honestly don't understand how the Magrider can be seen as something you wouldn't play animore now. I play in it just as much as I did before GU02, and I'm not noticing any differences.

So, I'd like to grab this first in-forums post of mine to ask. Why do so many current and ex Vanu players perceive the Magrider so differently than before?

[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.

[psijaka]

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

Its one of two related reasons.


1 VS were spoiled by there easy mode starting points and are quitting now that they dont have easy mode.

or

2 VS players were only playing VS because it had easy mode map locations and now they have switched sides.



'
I think its largly number 2. NC numbers have increased.

Interesting take on things Ghoest. I'm NC and I much preferred the SE canyons to the dreary northern wastes that we have now.

And I've not really noticed much of a VS pop drop on Ceres; still plenty of them around to kill

[bpostal]

Flavor of the Month.
Which is what happens when you don't have the solidarity and empire loyalty that existed in the previous game.

[Satanam]

There's always a huge zerg and lots of NC platoons on Helios since GU2, NC were probably the weaker faction on this server. It was always TR against VS on big battles and sometimes there was some NC around, but now seems like TR and VS lost players to NC. Indar is always blue, our EXE platoons always do caps to grab some resources but then NC appear with a troup to outnumber us while they also take control from the other bases.
That's weird. It would be funny to get increase and decrease on factions' populations, but not like always the same thing.

[Ghodere]

Originally Posted by psijaka

Interesting take on things Ghoest. I'm NC and I much preferred the SE canyons to the dreary northern wastes that we have now.

And I've not really noticed much of a VS pop drop on Ceres; still plenty of them around to kill

Funny thing is, Vanguards are the best in the canyons after the mag climbing nerf/bug due to few flanking options negating their speed weakness, and are just behind Mags on the salt flats since it's so open that flanking is impossible. Prowlers are definitely the best in the SW rolling hills because of the abundant cover, and current Mags are totally screwed in the canyons since LOS prevents long-range engagements and strafing space is so limited. So you could say it's a combination of mag nerfs/bugs and warpgate rotation working together to make the Mag useless.

[Bunk]

Now you know how it feels to be the underdog, Vanu.

[Thunderhawk]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Now you know how it feels to be the underdog, Vanu.

I wouldnt say Underdog, Just the way things have developed with F2P being a factor, people login to shoot stuff, of course the majority want an easier time of it rather than struggling out of some faction loyalty.

That means the better perceived faction will always be the most highly populated.

At the moment VS are in 3rd place on the flavor side, so tend to bleed players or not attract new players as they used to.

I prefer the Amerish cont WG location now.
I am indifferent about Indar, but for Mags its a pain in the ass as all our Faction spacific charactaristics are nullified by the location.
Esamir is hardly play on, so dont care either way.

-----------------

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

[Calisai]

Originally Posted by Canaris

4th empire suck, that is all.

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

1 4th Empire were spoiled by there easy mode starting points and are quitting now that they dont have easy mode.

or

2 4th Empire players were only playing VS because it had easy mode map locations and now they have switched sides.

There... Fixed your statement there Ghoest. Personally, I've played VS since tech test... and only VS.

I think it was a huge hit perception wise. Both the Mag nerf, Prowler buff, and Indar WG rotation (lets face it... 90% of the players play Indar exclusively... at least it seems that way) all contributed to the GU2 pop decline. Whether the nerf/buff/rotation really is bad is debatable... but it SEEMED bad to those 4th empire guys with no faction loyalty... so they switched.

Mattherson went from 30-33 for all factions prior to the update, to more like 40(NC)-35(TR)-25(VS) pretty consistantly.

Now don't get me wrong... I love farming those BR 1-10 NC/TR boys as much as the next guy... but really... having 24% pop is pretty tough to fight against when everything seems like a zerg (3-4 to 1 odds)

[Ironside]

it should be 1 faction per server, said it all along, none of this jumping to flavour of the month