dexvx Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 As for Open World PvP (I'm talking about large FFA zones, not ilum), there's a very simple fix. Like it or not, there is a very small minority of the population that like to PvP for no reason. I'm not going spend 10 minutes to fly to Tatooine and travel to that small FFA zone in the middle of nowhere. If you want to get spontaneous open-world PvP going, you need to have economic incentive, like Eve: 1) Large FFA zone about the same size as Ilum. 2) World boss that's easy to kill, but has a lot of HP (plenty good to allow for interference). Make him drop unique stuff (be it some stupid pet or a special mount) that is otherwise unobtainable. Have him spawn on a set timer, so people will know when to show up. 3) Have dynamically spawning gathering (scavenging, slicing, bio, arch) nodes dependent on the number of hostile players in the area. 4) Have dynamically spawning (but on a longer timer) "rare" resource nodes (the stuff you get from artifact missions) spawn that's also dependent on the number of hostile players in the area. 5) One big reason people hang out in Ilum is the valor buff (+200) when you finish a warzone. Offer a similar type of reward in this FFA zone. Something like +100 base (caps at 200). For every hostile you kill, you get +10 more bonus. If you die, you go back to +100. 6) Make a tech table where you get +5% critical chance on the following conditions: You're there when you send a companion off and you're there when the companion comes back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mekrath Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 There is virtually nothing they can do at this point to balance the factions. Force lightning is just way cooler than throwing pebbles, black is cooler than brown, etc. After the patch tomorrow I probably won't go back to the PvP side of Ilum anytime soon, I have no interest in being farmed for valor points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexvx Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 You don't find more same-faction warzones, to promote the growth of the Empire even more and prevent people from feeling the desire to reroll Republic, is as you say "a55-backwards"? I don't think it's the right direction (clueless). But it's certainly better than the WoW BG solution. They actually made Horde zone in as Alliance (and vice-versa) to fix the imbalanced queue times. That's when I was like... Yea, I'm going to quit. I'm not a huge lore geek, but that was just a little over the top. At least BioWare (for now) cares about the story enough that Empire players don't suddenly zone in as Republic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auxili Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 There is virtually nothing they can do at this point to balance the factions. Force lightning is just way cooler than throwing pebbles, black is cooler than brown, etc. After the patch tomorrow I probably won't go back to the PvP side of Ilum anytime soon, I have no interest in being farmed for valor points. bioware seems to forget what luke was wearing in ROTJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revial Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) bioware seems to forget what luke was wearing in ROTJ More importantly, Bioware seems to forget that having a game set thousands of years prior to the iconic movies and vast literature out there should have given them the artistic license to not feel like they had to make you wear a poop-colored robe. I mean, I thought the entire point of making the setting at this time period was that it would allow for them to take creative liberties without interfering with the existing lore. I guess those creative liberties don't extend to the art department. Am I the only one that finds it amusing that Satele Shan, the head of the Jedi, is like the only Jedi in the entire galaxy who doesn't wear a poop-colored robe? One of the class videos described their game design philosophy behind the Republic by saying they shot for earthy tones and colors, and all I have to say is fire that person and promote someone from your team who understands that MMOs are basically playing adult 'Barbie', and that your average MMO player wants to look good, not look iconic. I mean, it's great when the two intersect, but when they don't, you go with looking good. Every time. That should be in MMO Design 101. Edited January 18, 2012 by revial Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powercow Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I wonder what technology in the future the Jedi develop around the time of the Clone Wars that allows them to use their immense powers of the force to pull down their hoods... hm... My Marauder is 18 and I have a black robe with the hood pulled down -- and he looks amazing. My Sentinel is 34 and I'm still using robes with the hood up because there are no replacements that aren't other robes with the hoods up or a hobo's BDSM outfit (raggy with random straps and harnesses). The aesthetic differences in armor sets are what is helping drive people to the Empire. An Operative can wear a sleek Imperial Officer's uniform and black slacks while he sneaks around stabbing people, but my Scoundrel is relegated to a Superman cape and a silly cowboy hat, none of which really match in terms of color (red chest, white gloves, white boots, red pants, brown and red hat?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdmiralOnasi Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 OP is absolutely right. Coming from a 50 Scoundrel, we're going to have no chance on Ilum come tomorrow. The joke on Reddit it that they pushed the patch back a day so Republics could complete one last Ilum weekly. Here's what's going to happen on Ilum: The brave few Republics that venture into that Imperial infested piece of hell are going to sit in the base and defend while demanding Imperial sacrifices in order to complete dailies. Some more patient Imperials will camp the center node where the ordinance spawns, choosing to complete their daily that way while the less patient ones will ride around in packs looking for stray Republics to kill to finish their daily. Ever seen Mad Max? It'll look a lot like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revial Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) OP is absolutely right. Coming from a 50 Scoundrel, we're going to have no chance on Ilum come tomorrow. The joke on Reddit it that they pushed the patch back a day so Republics could complete one last Ilum weekly. Here's what's going to happen on Ilum: The brave few Republics that venture into that Imperial infested piece of hell are going to sit in the base and defend while demanding Imperial sacrifices in order to complete dailies. Some more patient Imperials will camp the center node where the ordinance spawns, choosing to complete their daily that way while the less patient ones will ride around in packs looking for stray Republics to kill to finish their daily. Ever seen Mad Max? It'll look a lot like that. I'm curious about the new respawn locations, because we've actually raided the Republic base, and the current system has them respawn right in the middle of our pvp raid, so they just die in an endless loop. Get yourself 2 or more healers, and the defensive turrets that are there to discourage us from camping you all in your base become trivial. Though the damn things instantly respawn when you destroy them, so your healers will have to be ok with never taking a break. Anyways, while I agree that Imperials on my server will likely win more often than not, I'm fairly confident there will be enough times that the Republic puts together enough players to get their dailies done. They already tend to travel in packs more than the Imperials on my server, probably due to being outnumbered. Most people will still want to have nothing to do with Ilum beyond the dailies/weeklies, so there's ample opportunities for the Republic gank squad to win a few fights in the middle during lulls after a big group of Imperials has finished and left the planet. Yes, I totally agree with the big picture faction imbalance, but I think it's being a bit overdramatic to pretend Republic will NEVER get their dailies done. Edited January 18, 2012 by revial Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyghoma Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 BW need to allow us faction change with our current lvl 50 toons soon before players start quitting the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lumocolor Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I don't even know what the point of Ilum is anyway. All i ever see are the 2 factions standing there next to each other, /dancing and letting the other side take control of something back and forth till the daily is done and then everyone leaves...lol. If you ever try to attack someone everyone from your own faction calls you and idiot for delaying the transfer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auxili Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) BW need to allow us faction change with our current lvl 50 toons soon before players start quitting the game. Empire -> Republic faction changes only, please. Edited January 18, 2012 by Auxili Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auxili Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Yes, I totally agree with the big picture faction imbalance, but I think it's being a bit overdramatic to pretend Republic will NEVER get their dailies done. I dunno, when you've played other mmos with imbalanced factions, it's hard to see it any other way. Especially since the 'overdramatic' reality of a depressed Republic economy and difficulty finding heroic and flashpoint groups during off-peak hours are all true. No reason to believe world pvp won't be affected by 2-3:1 faction imbalance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revial Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) I dunno, when you've played other mmos with imbalanced factions, it's hard to see it any other way. Especially since the 'overdramatic' reality of a depressed Republic economy and difficulty finding heroic and flashpoint groups during off-peak hours are all true. No reason to believe world pvp won't be affected by 2-3:1 faction imbalance My point being, even with our huge population advantage, I'm still killed here and there on Ilum when 10 Republic randomly run into me. If I do have a group going, it's usually just 3-4 of us. Yes, I've sometimes been in/gotten together a massive OPs raid, but that's not the norm for the Imperials on my server. Maybe that changes tomorrow, but I suspect it'll just be periods of a bunch of random Imperials in the mid getting their daily done, and occaisionaly being overrun by a Republic gank squad, after which it takes twenty minutes to try to get the 20-50 Imps, at any given time on Ilum, to attack back, with most just going afk while waiting for the Republic gank squad to finish their daily. I don't know how your server is, but on mine, the vast majority of players were just trading nodes to begin with, so as long as there's an option out there to get your daily done without killing anyone, I'm not seeing this vast majority of the playerbase suddenly changing their attitude and actually fighting back after being overrun by a gank squad. And, I'm on a pvp server. I can't imagine how lily-white it is on a pve server. Yes, obviously the Republic-in general-are going to have a harder time and lose a lot and yes, faction imbalance needs to be addressed. My point was that it's exaggeration to believe they will NEVER get their dailies done. Absolutes are rarely that. And, we have a huge population advantage on Ajunta Pall, based on how empty the Republic Fleet is vs the Imperial Fleet, so it's not like my experience is based on some mythical server where the populations are remotely close to each other. Edited January 18, 2012 by revial Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockstar Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 copy/pasted from the other pop threads: Hi, Just a couple of ideas I had to help fix this issue: 1. SHOW the individual faction population of each server. The same way the servers show the population now, but instead split IMP/REP populations. For example Black Vulkars Imperial: Heavy Republic: medium. Call me optimistic but I tend to think players like to go with the underdog. This would have been a lot more effective if this was done at launch though. 2. Again this goes with my underdog theory, but more so than giving incentive to roll republic, let 50s (and only 50s) get the choice to switch sides. I myself would never want to switch sides purely based on the amount of time invested on my main character. Now, look at that how ever you want it, my thought would be that if you switched sides, you switched to said mirror class but, like I said, just thinking out loud here.... Just trying to help Bioware with Ideas here as they don't seem to have any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piriste Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Yep, the 1.1 patch will make republic even more weak. Sure, Ilum had only occasional pvp, but atleast both sides were able to do it. I dont have much reasons to continue paying bioware as i cant do HM dungeons (without shouting and whispering people for 5 hours straight) nor i can do warzones and ilum soon if i dont roll another Alt. And no, faction reroll is out of the question, already have 2 lvl 50 republic characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smartasalizard Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 the way to fix server imbalance is to stop players being able to dual faction on the same server. Then add caps on factions and perks like xp bonus for the low populated side.. free migration aswell would be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocoma Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Every game that has given an underpopulated side some form of xp buff, to fix the balance, failed miserably at fixing the balance. Balance issues are not in the hands of bioware, they are in the hands of the playerbase, and well it seems most of the player base wants to be empire. Not much bioware can do about it. Dude. The developer creates faction imbalance by ridiculously overpowering the empire in almost every aspect. U look ****** instead of whimpy. You are ****** instead of whiny. Lightnings vs pebbles. mirrored imbalances to the empires favor atm. Cool story vs lame story. so bioware isnt responsible for this? Think again. They should have brought limitations to faction sizes and now ridiculously op the republics with loot bonus, xp bonus, whatnot bonus. It doesnt matter how ridiculous it gets because it is already over anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zthen Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) Go daoc route and offer bonuses to entire server based on objectives held and give xp/credit bonuses to underdog faction. Edit: oh and the way getting a free lvl on underdog realms was nice also. Edited January 18, 2012 by zthen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Nox Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) Dude. The developer creates faction imbalance by ridiculously overpowering the empire in almost every aspect. U look ****** instead of whimpy. You are ****** instead of whiny. Lightnings vs pebbles. mirrored imbalances to the empires favor atm. Cool story vs lame story. so bioware isnt responsible for this? Think again. They should have brought limitations to faction sizes and now ridiculously op the republics with loot bonus, xp bonus, whatnot bonus. It doesnt matter how ridiculous it gets because it is already over anyway. Well, all other things aside - maybe it's just because I am evil but the jedi story is like eating wow-colored chalk to me. "Go kill 20 pig men" I literally was falling asleep playing jedi, and I LIKE jedi. Conversely, each and every sith story I've played makes me smile, or laugh and even sometimes makes me look forward to revenge. Great stories, great moments. Edited January 18, 2012 by Darth_Nox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andaman Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Give incentives to ppl on the underpopulated side by making champion/battlemaster bag more likely to give items. It'll help out gear imbalance too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auxili Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) bump! great discussion edit: weird, I bumped right after someone posted xD Edited January 18, 2012 by Auxili Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huaracocha Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I'm suprised nobody has mentioned 1 simple suggestion which is to remove same faction warzones altogether. Once Imperials start having to queue 20 minutes to 1 hour for a warzone, particularly in the 50 bracket I would guess, whilst Republic are getting in every 5-10 minutes or less a lot of PvPers will start to reroll. It certainly worked that way in WoW on a lot of imbalanced servers. Instead they are planning another same faction warzone which will only compound the problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dharst Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Perhaps multi-server action. If it takes 5 server's worth a Republic fighters to equal one Imperial... then that's the way it should go. Hell, I'd think queue times for imperials would be a better motivator than any reward. Play for the Republic... no queue... Play for Imperials... 60 min queue. That's a no brainer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auxili Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I'm suprised nobody has mentioned 1 simple suggestion which is to remove same faction warzones altogether. Once Imperials start having to queue 20 minutes to 1 hour for a warzone, particularly in the 50 bracket I would guess, whilst Republic are getting in every 5-10 minutes or less a lot of PvPers will start to reroll. It certainly worked that way in WoW on a lot of imbalanced servers. Instead they are planning another same faction warzone which will only compound the problem 100% agreed! But bioware is dead-set on adding MORE same-faction warzones, so they seem to be adamantly against the republic faction tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kricys Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 You have joined the queue for the battle of ilum Place in queue 158, estimated wait time 3 hours Great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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