TR population decaying at alarming rate.

MGP · 2013-04-22, 05:00 AM

I was browsing through population statistics, and noticed this.
Currently, TR is least represented faction, holding 31% of total characters (VS and NC both holding 34%). Source
If you look at the active characters, you'll see VS falling behind (31%), TR following next (32%) and NC got a big advantage at 36%. Source
But what worries me most, is the New characters created.
NC got 35%, VS got 34% and TR only 29%. Source
If the trend stays like this, i'm afraid what TR population will drop below 20% global, quite soon.

Any thought on the situation, and what can be done, to increase TR popularity toward new players?

Canaris · 2013-04-22, 05:07 AM

Originally Posted by MGP

I was browsing through population statistics, and noticed this.
Currently, TR is least represented faction, holding 31% of total characters (VS and NC both holding 34%). Source
If you look at the active characters, you'll see VS falling behind (31%), TR following next (32%) and NC got a big advantage at 36%. Source
But what worries me most, is the New characters created.
NC got 35%, VS got 34% and TR only 29%. Source
If the trend stays like this, i'm afraid what TR population will drop below 20% global, quite soon.

Any thought on the situation, and what can be done, to increase TR popularity toward new players?

Well for 1 the Dev's can stop listening to whiney bitches who have nothing to contribute to balance of the game other than "A TR shot me, OP N3RF" in louder and louder tones and to stop grinding and diluting down our factions strengths while boosting both the other two.

ringring · 2013-04-22, 05:13 AM

I'm not sure that those particular statistics mean anything.

If we could see stats on server/empire/per hour graphed it would be ore telling.

Whenever I look at the server that I am on it seems like TR are the biggest faction, but on the other hand I've also heard that this is atypical of other server because Miller is the server former PS1 established outfits decided to join.

p0intman · 2013-04-22, 05:24 AM

all of 666 should re-roll TR and do the NC a favor in a big way.

Timealude · 2013-04-22, 05:30 AM

I dont understand why the TR seem that unpopular, They do after all have amazing weapons and the highest DPS out of all the empires.

Timealude · 2013-04-22, 05:31 AM

Originally Posted by ringring

I'm not sure that those particular statistics mean anything.

If we could see stats on server/empire/per hour graphed it would be ore telling.

Whenever I look at the server that I am on it seems like TR are the biggest faction, but on the other hand I've also heard that this is atypical of other server because Miller is the server former PS1 established outfits decided to join.

mattherson has alot of the old ps1 outfits from vanu.

Gatekeeper · 2013-04-22, 05:37 AM

I don't have any statistics to back it up, but on Cobalt it always seems as if NC is the big zerg faction, with TR and VS populations more balanced.

I wouldn't say there's a problem with TR population, but there are definitely too many damn NC

Emperor Newt · 2013-04-22, 05:43 AM

You have to be very carefull with those statistics. For one "characters" doesn't mean a thing as those are all characters created ever and not being deleted. This includes all unique players who dropped playing the game after 30 minutes. Also the numbers can be missleading because IF TR players have a higher tendency to run alts then other factions, this would hurt their characters and maybe even active characters numbers.

In this regard active charcters can be missleading as there is no information on how active those characters are. If I play 20 hours a week with my VS primary and only log in with my NC alt each day to get the free certs, that's basically nullifying my VS activity and dropping TR activity.

The only thing that worries me from these stats is that active characters overall have a downwards trend (despite the small bump, which might be GU related), while new characters are about stable. Which means that the game is still bleeding players. And I find that more worrying for a F2P game then any faction having less overall characters then another (which also cannot be told for sure from those stats)

Dougnifico · 2013-04-22, 06:21 AM

Ya, on Connery the TR have a decent population. The NC are just a superzerg and the VS are underrepresented. 666th... I BLAME YOU! lol

MrMak · 2013-04-22, 07:03 AM

Let me gues. Now someone is going to make up reasons why the TR is UP and the worst faction all of a sudden and cite that as a suposed reason for the population drop? Where have I seen this before?

psijaka · 2013-04-22, 07:49 AM

Interesting data, and quite worrying for the TR; especially the new char data.

I agree that we must be careful in how we interpret data like this, but it is a global stat and it is significant.

I don't understand the reasons why; I do have a TR alt and I have to say that most of the guns handle nicely; I especially like the default Medic AR. The only default weapons that are a bit lame are the default sniper rifle (I know it is possible to do well with this, but it's not a 1SK - but neither is the VS default SR), and the utterly useless Pounder (but that is a niche weapon). And the empire specific vehicles are just fine.

So it must be an image thing. Can't be the uniform; TR looks the best. Maybe the authoritarian lore puts some people off, and the militaristic music. I know that these seem trivial, but first impressions do count.

HiroshiChugi · 2013-04-22, 08:02 AM

I agree with psijaka on this one. When choosing my faction for ANY game, I always go with who seems to be the "freedom fighters" of the game, or the most damage-dealing faction. The lore almost ALWAYS has an impact on new players. "Hmmm... Do I want to play as someone fighting for freedom? How about science-infatuated soldiers? Or maybe even as part of a militaristic-dictatorship..." These are all questions that ran through my own head when choosing my faction. Ultimately, I obviously chose the freedom-fighters (the NC).

Edit: Ultimately, I would put the factions in this order for appealing-ness:

1. NC
2. VS
3. TR

I could go on and on about which weapons I like the most across the board, but this isn't the thread for that.

Ruffdog · 2013-04-22, 08:16 AM

Maybe the 4th empire is cancelling its love affair with our gear? Are we not everyone's guilty pleasure?

Assist · 2013-04-22, 08:27 AM

Originally Posted by MGP

I was browsing through population statistics, and noticed this.
Currently, TR is least represented faction, holding 31% of total characters (VS and NC both holding 34%). Source
If you look at the active characters, you'll see VS falling behind (31%), TR following next (32%) and NC got a big advantage at 36%. Source
But what worries me most, is the New characters created.
NC got 35%, VS got 34% and TR only 29%. Source
If the trend stays like this, i'm afraid what TR population will drop below 20% global, quite soon.

Any thought on the situation, and what can be done, to increase TR popularity toward new players?

You really should be looking at active characters, not total characters. Total characters is a very bad misrepresentation of the current state of the servers. TR has no room to complain, VS has every reason to complain. We received the largest buff any faction has been given since release and we still didn't get more new characters created than the NC.
If you delve deeper into the statistics you see that the VS does indeed have more created characters than the TR, but seems to still be dropping in population despite that 5% more created characters on VS than TR.

My prediction: VS hits 30% active characters by June. I was actually excited Saturday night when I logged in and saw the VS had a massive 27% pop. Not bad! Only 10% below the other two factions! Then when I logged off we had 22% and I once again was questioning why I am playing VS.

MGP · 2013-04-22, 08:34 AM

Originally Posted by Assist

You really should be looking at active characters, not total characters. Total characters is a very bad misrepresentation of the current state of the servers. TR has no room to complain, VS has every reason to complain. We received the largest buff any faction has been given since release and we still didn't get more new characters created than the NC.
If you delve deeper into the statistics you see that the VS does indeed have more created characters than the TR, but seems to still be dropping in population despite that 5% more created characters on VS than TR.

My prediction: VS hits 30% active characters by June.

I thought my second link goes to "active characters" chart.