Aeywyn Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 A lot of people will choose whatever side gives them the best chance of being on the winning zerg. The only way you fix an imbalance like this is to buff the pvp combat strength of the underpopulated side. As was previously suggested if there were automatic dps / healing / tanking buffs dependant on the number of players in a pvp area, you would quickly find that the population difference would even out in pvp areas. This would fix the problem very quickly too, probably within one week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avenloc Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Well I will tell you what is not balance. 10 to 1 ratio of Imperials to Rebels on the Fatman server. AT LEAST 10 to 1....maybe more. Not sure if this is entirely accurate, but it certainly feels like it sometimes. I was trying to do the Czerka Dig Site quest on Tatooine last night, and I'll be damned if I could run more than ten steps without bumping into an Imperial party. Got camped for a good hour or so by some guy that brought his level 45 guildie with him. Tried to rally a counterattack, but unfortunately, this just resulted in four other Republic players getting camped along with me. It was still fun, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mannic Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 A lot of people will choose whatever side gives them the best chance of being on the winning zerg. The only way you fix an imbalance like this is to buff the pvp combat strength of the underpopulated side. Problem is that's a gamey mechanic with no basis in anything. Based on what logic do you theorize that "an under populated faction must be individually more powerful, yet as the populations balance they suddenly, dynamically get individually weaker? Ilum is open PvP. As soon as the developer starts tinkering with open PvP, it's no longer open. Start messing with bolsters or population balance, and suddenly you have people standing on the sidelines waiting for certain conditions to be met before they play. This would fix the problem very quickly too, probably within one week. Band-aid solution that is a perfect example of the cure being as bad or worse than the disease. Now throw a premade operation together on the Republic side, assume they're already pretty good PvP'ers, playing on vent or mumble, on the outnumbered side... and now not only do they have the advantage of being in a highly organized group, but your system also bolsters them so that they can dominate a zone. If Imp side doesn't have a premade able to counter them, what will they do? Zerg more, which will then compound the problem. The solution to the problem is to find ways to encourage players to play the Republic side without in any way touching balance of individual classes... maybe with some kind of "underdog" valor bonus. Bioware can also do things with the Republic side to make Republic a little cooler and more desireable to play than it is now. As of right now, Republic is just bland and Jedi, especially, have no personality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mannic Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) The Voss are neutral. They also look really cool! I think a lot of players would want the ability to play a Voss! But... you can use that to encourage faction balance! Make it so that you can only create a Voss character for the faction that is currently under-populated on a given server. Make sure you measure population by activity, and not idle characters. Remember though, ultimately, the question is; what will encourage PvPers to play Republic. I've been in a lot of PvP-oriented games and generally, in my experience, PvP'ers don't choose a race for their looks, but rather for their functionality in PvP. Give Republic a Jawa race option, a tiny race, and you'll see some PvP'ers roll Republic because being small in stature is an advantage in PvP. That's one example. No, that wouldn't by itself fix the imbalance, but it would be one of a handful of solutions that could be implemented. Edited January 20, 2012 by Mannic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phinion Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 So a buff to the under-populated side is what BW needs to do to intice more people to play republic side? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrFailSauce Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 (edited) Give empire players a one time option of switching active characters to the republic mirror class. I'd be willing to switch sides if I didn't have to start my character over. It isn't like Republic is *that* boring. Since it would only be one way (Empire to Alliance) it could only help improve balance. I think a lot of people started expecting that things would be like WoW and wanting to join the underdog. (Especially people who want to do a lot of PvP.) If those people could switch with no cost, it would make a big difference. I'd assume that an option to team switch would necessarily require you to select a new race/ appearance which would sweeten the deal for people that wanted to mod their characters. p.s. If the legacy system only works for chars of one faction, it is only going to make the problem worse. Cause people are going to get locked into their faction. p.p.s Cash bonus(non-transferable) or custom speeder to Republic would prolly help too. Edited January 23, 2012 by MrFailSauce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grania Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 It seems so simple to me, it would be the easiest thing in the world to get me to want to play my republic alts. Less brown armor, that's it. I hate brown, tan, beige, umber, etc. Color is important to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMBender Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 (edited) As I recall, the rebels were a small, organized group making skirmish attacks against the Empire until they got the plans to the Death Star and found a weakness. The ratios seem to tell the story of the Star Wars Universe accurately. wrong timeline there buddy unique races would help to a degree for sure. An aribtrary stat/xp increase would be a pain to implement to avoid exploitation me thinks. Edited January 23, 2012 by BMBender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancaglon Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 It seems so simple to me, it would be the easiest thing in the world to get me to want to play my republic alts. Less brown armor, that's it. I hate brown, tan, beige, umber, etc. Color is important to me. Please read Neal Stephens's "Reamde" (not a typo) -- and see if "Forces of Brightness" and "The Earthtone Coalition" don't match up pretty neatly with the Empire (particularly the Sith) and the Republic (particularly the Jedi). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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