1 empire per account and F2P

[Shogun]

Originally Posted by IronMole

I don't see how?

by forcing them to make additional accounts to try out other empires.

the spys will do it anyways.
so why force the other players to do so as well? it has no benefit at all

the 24 hours lockdown will be enough to keep normal players from hopping too much.
spys will use seperate accounts anyway, so restricting the account to 1 faction does no good

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by MasterCalaelen

I think he means how it'll make it more inconvenient for the non-spying players.

well having to have 3 accounts to worry about would seem like the answer.....

especially if it ends up on steam like higby has said, you'd have to have 3 steam accounts and fully log out each visit

[CutterJohn]

Umm.. guys.. requiring another account to spy won't reduce the amount of spying, since nobody will spy with the account their main is on.

Spying is absurdly overrated anyway. Practice some opsec.


Hopefully the single empire restriction is lifted. If the game can't handle people picking the side they want to play on, then it is poorly designed.

[Skitrel]

So, the question is "Should empire hopping be made more convenient?".

Simplifying a question before asking it often makes the answer obvious. The answer is unequivocally no.

Tapatalk.

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by Skitrel

Simplifying a question before asking it often makes the answer obvious. The answer is unequivocally no.

What evidence do you base this on?

[IronMole]

Originally Posted by Redshift

especially if it ends up on steam like higby has said, you'd have to have 3 steam accounts and fully log out each visit

No you wouldn't.

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by IronMole

No you wouldn't.

I do with my TF2 accounts, why would this be any different?

but regardless this isn't really the crux of the argument, the more important bit i whether it would punish normal players and not affect spys in the slightest way

[Vancha]

I could've sworn watching a GDC interview/developer comment recently that indicated that there wouldn't be an empire lock due to the F2P system making it irrelevant, but I'm damned if I can find it now.

Edit: Never mind, I misread Higby's comment in the Reddit AMA. If he acknowledges that people can create three accounts to have characters on three empires, surely PS1's system would be more beneficial?

I think it's more likely that if people could create all 3 empires on one account and then playing a character on one empire locked you out of playing on the other two for an hour or so, you'd have less spying than if it was common practice to make one account per empire.

I also think the convenience of having all your characters on one account would cause more people to buy more cash-shop items for their other characters...Plus you don't have the problem of people defecting to another empire for X months and then having forgotten their old account info when they want to return to their old character (that will happen to multiple people, I guarantee it).

[IronMole]

Originally Posted by Redshift

I do with my TF2 accounts, why would this be any different?

but regardless this isn't really the crux of the argument, the more important bit i whether it would punish normal players and not affect spys in the slightest way

Because TF2 is a Valve game - hence the game is tied to the account.

Planetside 2 will be tied to Station/Pro7 accounts. Steam will just be a way to access the media in order to play, just like APB. Your steam account will not be tied to it.

Steam -> Launchpad -> Game.

Also, it wouldn't punish anyone in the slightest. I see it more beneficial with 1 empire per account.

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by IronMole

Because TF2 is a Valve game - hence the game is tied to the account.

Planetside 2 will be tied to Station/Pro7 accounts. Steam will just be a way to access the media in order to play, just like APB. Your steam account will not be tied to it.

Steam -> Launchpad -> Game.

Also, it wouldn't punish anyone in the slightest. I see it more beneficial with 1 empire per account.

fair enough, but it still doesn't change the argument.

[Brusi]

Originally Posted by Redshift

yes but making it slightly more inconvienient for the minority (who will just be running seperate accounts on seperate computers btw so they don't need to log out), will also make it more inconvienit for the majority of non spying players

The aim isn't to make it more difficult for a minority of dedicated spies. It's to make it more idfficult for the majority so they can't be bothered becoming spies in the first place. Keep empire hoppers and spies as a minority, rather than them becoming the majority.

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by Brusi

The aim isn't to make it more difficult for a minority of dedicated spies. It's to make it more idfficult for the majority so they can't be bothered becoming spies in the first place. Keep empire hoppers and spies as a minority, rather than them becoming the majority.

It would have absolutely no effect whatsoever on spies, since they would require another account anyway to benefit from the spy alt while they are playing. Nobody logs into an enemy character on their main account and just sits there spying. They want to make use of that information.

So anyone who wants to spy will have an extra f2p account.


As for empire hopping, someone please explain why thats bad, without using the ultra low population PS1, which also had absolute crap for incentives to stay or discincentives to empire hop, as evidence. There has to be a good reason for wanting to stratify the player base into thirds so people cannot play with their friends.

Did it hurt PS1? Of course. Because PS1 handled empire switching absolutely horribly. You don't need a timer. You don't need to lock. No switching to an empire with >36% or whatever. Problem solved.

[Shogun]

Originally Posted by Brusi

The aim isn't to make it more difficult for a minority of dedicated spies. It's to make it more idfficult for the majority so they can't be bothered becoming spies in the first place. Keep empire hoppers and spies as a minority, rather than them becoming the majority.

open your mind.

you probably are writing from a veteran point of view. you know what empire you will play, and you don´t need to test out the others...

but ps2 needs more than the old playerbase, and the noobs will want to check all empires before they choose one for life!

and forcing them to create extra accounts with extra email adresses or even extra mac adresses or whatever is just idiotic.
as it has been mentioned a lot, this only punishes the normal players and doesn´t affect the problem in any way.

in an interview matt said, that once you create a char, it will be locked to faction. that´s ok. he also said, that you could create additional chars to play on other factions.
he didn´t say if you have to create a new account to do this. i hope not.

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by Brusi

The aim isn't to make it more difficult for a minority of dedicated spies. It's to make it more idfficult for the majority so they can't be bothered becoming spies in the first place. Keep empire hoppers and spies as a minority, rather than them becoming the majority.

You honestly think the majority of the players will spy? the majority of players will zerg to the nearest front line, there are very little chances to spy here any tbh, this games been set up to have essentially 2 front lines for each empire, any back hacks are going to be done by outfit who won't be telling the zerg what they're doing, it's not like PS1 where you could form a raid and all fly to the same base.

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

It would have absolutely no effect whatsoever on spies, since they would require another account anyway to benefit from the spy alt while they are playing. Nobody logs into an enemy character on their main account and just sits there spying

That's exactly the point, if i was going to spy, i'd load up a F2P on my 2nd computer and let it sit there, 1 empire per acc won't stop this.

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by Redshift

That's exactly the point, if i was going to spy, i'd load up a F2P on my 2nd computer and let it sit there, 1 empire per acc won't stop this.

Indeed. I never spied in PS1, little point to it, but I did do that in attempts to drive a tank myself and spot for a flail myself. Works, but not worth the hassle.