Universal Characters

[QuantumMechanic]

Originally I was against this idea. But seeing the server populations as they are now, I'm all for it.

I don't think it should be a premium service though; players and outfits would use this feature simply to find a populated server so they can get into big battles. Isn't that the point of this game?

Basically if SOE did what GuildWars2 has done with their new "guesting" system, I think it would be fine.

[EVILPIG]

Originally Posted by Roy Awesome

It would be nice if they had one regional server (West, East, EU), and have multiple instances of continents. We could have 9 continents (2 instances of each) and logical continent locking without having more continents in the game.

http://www.planetside-universe.com/s...ad.php?t=42399

[Kail]

I'm torn on the idea myself.

As I see it:

Pros:

• Can have many servers; the number actively in-use just fluctuates with population
• No need for server transfers
• Community you play with isn't determined just by what name you happened to click when you first made a character
• Allows a player to tailor the level of fighting they want (some may prefer a "slower" or low-pop server)

Cons:

• No community identity
• Still can get stuck playing somewhere different than your friends
• Polarizes population (full/empty vs pretty full/sorta empty, etc)
• A person who doesn't want to play the currently-winning faction has little incentive to not just switch to a shard where their side is doing better (different than 4th faction in that the person still has a strong empire loyalty, but why play on a server where their faction is getting hammered when you can instantly switch to one that isn't?)

The first FPS I ever really got into was Counter-Strike; so firing up the game and picking a server to play on feels very natural to me. But at the same time having seen games like WoW and PS1, its easy to find examples of the strong community built up when you're "stuck" on a server (just look back before release at how players would introduce themselves with Werner, or Emerald, etc).

So I don't know. I think in the long run, the current method is the way to go even though it sucks for the first year or so as populations stabilize to the point mergers can be done, if needed.

[psijaka]

Like this a lot. Changing server would have to be on a cooldown though, otherwise people would be able to flit between servers too easily if things are going badly.

[Sledgecrushr]

If you are familiar with everquest then you would know that a guild could only raid the plane of time once a week. A system like this i think sould be perfect. And soe could monetize this fairly easy. It happens to some people all the time. You go and visit somewhere Nd you just fall in love and want to move there. You would Soe would still have to pay for permanent server transfers.

[Rothnang]

As far as I'm concerned community identity goes up if you can move between servers, not down. Right now you only ever hear about some of the high profile outfits and players in the game, but if they aren't on your server they might as well not exist. If they can move around there is a real possibility of running into them. Server transfers make the whole PS2 community relevant to you, as opposed to just a tiny fraction of it.

[Dougnifico]

I would be very concerned with the flow of people to a server where their faction is winning. At any one time you might have 3 really active servers, 1 for each faction to dominate. You could instead merge servers (use expansion with continents as excuse) and when population gets to high, you can create temporary satellite, or overflow, servers that will open and close as needed and allow a player to queue while playing. When the pop drops to a certain point, overflow servers are merged back with the main.

[Soothsayer]

If you made incentives to joining a faction on a server that was hurting for members the term "fourth empire" could come to mean something that isn't negative.

[Sledgecrushr]

Duplicate shards for overflow people just seems too instanced for me. In a persistant world I would like to travel with the Devil Dogs to another outfits home server and shoot them in the face in their own front yard. And if it were set up correctly this wouldnt take the devil dogs off of their home server but a few hours a week. Another plus is their would be visitors to my home server looking to tea bag me and my brothers and sisters. I cant see anything but more meta game in this.

[capiqu]

What if a set population number is in place to help low populated servers. So if a certain servers population falls below that number or if a particular faction falls below a certain number, those servers would then open up for the players of other servers to log in to if they wish.

[Sledgecrushr]

Originally Posted by capiqu

What if a set population number is in place to help low populated servers. So if a certain servers population falls below that number or if a particular faction falls below a certain number, those servers would then open up for the players of other servers to log in to if they wish.

This might look good for a free permanent transfer. What Im getting at is a
system when you achieve a cerrtain BR you would be allowed to travel either
alone or with a group of other high BR characters and go raid a server of your choice. In other MMOs you would be faced with a spectacular monster that you would have to beat to win the raid. These raids are normally limited to characters that have achieved a certain rank. Instead in ps2 these great and small outfits would fill the role of dungeon boss. This would be end game content that would be available to everyone with a high enough BR.

[capiqu]

I prefer universal characters too. But in the event that Soe decides not to go with universal characters then maybe giving new players a bonus so that they may create their characters on lesser populated servers and or allowing those servers to open up, once their population falls below a certain number, to players of other servers may help. The server would become an open server only during the time that it is under populated. Once the population becomes normal the server will close up again and any migrant character will return to their original server once they log off.

[Sirisian]

In the discussion before tech test I suggested choosing a character name then selecting your faction and server but separating BR and certs for each faction character. It got flamed pretty hard for destroying server communities. I prefer having one name when I play, not "SirisianNC" and "SirisianTR" which is my current names for my other faction characters.

That said I'd probably play on the same server, but it would give me the option to play on the US west server with some friends without making a character from scratch.

[Pella]

Originally Posted by basti

This again?

DIdnt i tell you folks ages ago what this would do to the game? Loosing right now on server A? LETS HOP TO SERVER B LOL!

This would be the same effect as Faction hopping had in PS1. Dont bloddy do it!

You cant "Lose" in PS2. What are you talking about?

And in PS1 Empire hopping wasnt such a problem. Only when good outfits switched and resulted in no good fights to be had with the opposite empire.

[Mutant]

Originally Posted by Tatwi

Please tell me you don't mean "members only". I'd pay X SC to use it each time, but I still would not feel the need to have a subscription.

If this is supposed to be a subscription based game, then just make it one.

Surely both "payment" methods would be beneficial. For those who like to hop around it provides extra incentive to sub, and for those who might want to make an occasional switch a 1 off SC payment does the trick.

I do think there would need to be such a restriction, to discourage mass migrations at the slightest whim.