How to help keep empire pops even

[BadAsh]

While inking my other thread on "Why PlanetSide is Whacked" I thought of this idea as well...

I think PS would be better off if you were only allowed one character. However, I'd add the following changes to how your character is played.

1. I'd allow your character to switch empires once every 12 hours.

2. I'd significantly increase the BEP and CEP it takes to attain rank and or raise the upper levels to say 30 and 10 rather than 20 and 5 as currently possible.

3. Every 24 hours you would earn 1 "unlearn cert credit" and you could accumulate up to 10 of these credits. In this way if you saved up your credits you could completely recert your character if you wanted to or just make constant smaller cert adjustments to try out different abilities.

Why make these changes you say?

If you have only one character you would be less likely to make a "joke" or "play" character for the purposes to cause problems like TK that guy you don't like until you get weapons lock. Few would make their only character act like this... the important thing here is your world reputation would always be with you... accountability is key here... act like an ass and get known as an ass... be a capable leader and be recognized as such... which reputation would you choose if you could not escape it as easily as clicking "create new character"?

The improved recerting would allow you to play super grunt for about a week then completely recert into a pilot jock or an uber-cloaker or whatever without haveing to have more than one character...

The increased levels and harder exp requirements would ensure very few actually "max out" their characters even while playing the same one continuously.

Why the empire switching ability?

Empire switching combined with harder longer exp mountains for players to climb would mean there would be incentive to join the empire that needed additional players for the exp bonus. When you log in now you have already chosen an empire when you created your character... the exp bonus or penalty for empire need is a moot point now... is it worth deleting and starting over for?

If given a choice to help the team in need many players would do so. True some people would join the "winning" team, but others at this point might switch to help out the underdog... this happens all the time in other FPS games and is a good characteristic to carry over to PS... remember... your name/reputation follows you everywhere now... so being an ass or spy or lamer will eventually ruin you...

How would this affect outfits?

Outfits would have to be overhauled. I'd keep them empire specific, but allow players that are being good sports and helping out the other team the ability to continue to score outfit points for their outfit.

Imagine the possibility of schedueling squad vs squad battles with members of the same outfit to practice attack and defencive tactics!

Abuse might be a problem here, but simple penalties and the above mentioned accountability would prevent that from becoming a serious problem.

Anyway, these are just some barinstorming ideas I had for the numerical game balance problems I think PS has.

[Vis Armata]

Alternate characters of the same empire are a good way to try other skill sets. I could definitely do away with characters of differnt empires on the same server though.

[Lartnev]

I agree with Vis Armata, I have 3 TR characters all with different skill sets. Sometimes I want to get in the action, sometimes I'm happy driving around in vehicles, and sometimes I just like running around in support gear helping people out.

I'd keep them empire specific, but allow players that are being good sports and helping out the other team the ability to continue to score outfit points for their outfit.

I don't see fictionally why this would be acceptable to any of the empires, even less why fighting against your own outfit should give them outfit points..... could be exploits with that too perhaps.

Increasing standard BRs will turn every grunt into a one man army, hence why the devs are looking for alternatives. Increasing BEP and especially CEP is always a bit dodgy. You don't want them too low as to take people ages to hit BR20, but you don't want them too high that BR20 becomes almost a formality. CEP is worse as the command structure for most empires across the servers is becoming top heavy.

And finally I think the recert credits are an interesting idea. 10 is too much however.

[Firefly]

I have one TR character. Period. I do not have an alt, I do not need an alt. I also do not cross-empire hop nor do I support or permit cross-empires within my outfit. Others can do it, that's fine. I have zero problems with people having a different empire on a different server.

I will never support the idea of a cross-empire, or a 12-hour timer to allow anything of the sort.