ProfessorWalsh Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 This is a thread requesting an official response and dialogue regarding the population imbalance that seems to be found on every server. At the current time there is a widespread belief that almost every server has a higher Imperial population than a Republic population. Some people report as high as a 5:1 Imperial:Republic ratio. So question 1: Is that claim accurate? How many Republic characters exist (Say level 30+) versus Sith characters (also 30+)? Question 2: There are many fan theories as to why this has occurred. These range from things such as an unintentional bias in the pre-game marketing to issues with gameplay (there do seem to be more bugs on the Republic side than the Sith side, especially with regards to companion quests) to issues with the Republic having longer animations than the Empire Mirrors. What does BioWare attribute to the imbalance (providing one exists)? Question 3: What plans does BioWare have to treat the imbalance within the short term, and then the log term? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandanglockta Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 First, they are going to wait longer than one month to do anything about anything, because one month is not a trend. Next, they will wait to see how many of the initial dropped subs over the next few days affects the faction balance. (has nothing to do with the game, people come and go... especially the first month) Finally, they will make Republic female characters hotter than Republic female characters. The teen male crowd will start rolling Republic in droves. Solved... I accept Visa, Mastercard and Paypal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Crueak Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 in any mmo that has factions, there is always one that is the most populated. Usually the one that has the most is what would be considered "evil" because alot of players consider being "evil" a cool thing. Then add PVP on to the mix, then people choose "evil" because they want to use that as an excuse as to why they gank and grief others saying they are playing an outlaw and such. Of course i'm generalizing but you get the gist. BW could have marketed the hell out of the repbulic and i still believe the imps would get the most rolls! just the nature of faction based mmo's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syrellaris Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I love it how everyone screems bioware has to do anything about the faction population, while in fact they have 100% no control over it. Its on you the players to roll republic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Napalmbrain Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 You do realize they have like 2 people browsing these forums..and they don't even reply unless it is to moderate you and give you a warning. One of the many reasons this game will be short lived unfortunately. ZERO community interaction is without a doubt the largest reason. I haven't even heard any acknowledgment that this is a problem to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Napalmbrain Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I love it how everyone screems bioware has to do anything about the faction population, while in fact they have 100% no control over it. Its on you the players to roll republic. Really? You really think they couldn't have capped the amount per server until things got smoothed over? Well you have really low standards then. BTW it is too late to even do this now, it should have been done before as a precaution until things got quiet. Now look...everyone is gonna quit because of the ENORMOUS imbalance. This isn't a small imbalance here, this is out of control imbalanced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Umbral Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 No steps need to b taken to balance populations. They will either balance themselves over time, or players will get used to the imbalances. Balanced is boring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volok Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Empire has more players cause bad guys are cooler. It's as simple as that. It's not Bioware's fault and they can't do much to fix this problem. What do you want them to do? Force people to play a certain faction? Cause somehow I don't see that working out too well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alkiii Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Really? You really think they couldn't have capped the amount per server until things got smoothed over? Well you have really low standards then. BTW it is too late to even do this now, it should have been done before as a precaution until things got quiet. Now look...everyone is gonna quit because of the ENORMOUS imbalance. This isn't a small imbalance here, this is out of control imbalanced. Capping servers? Seriously? So if me and my friends buy the game and want to play together, on a high pop server with our OTHER friends who are established, we cannot because of some stupid cap? Probably the dumbest idea I have ever read on these forums ... Blaming Bioware for people making a 'choice' at the faction selection screen is a farce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noth Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Really? You really think they couldn't have capped the amount per server until things got smoothed over? Well you have really low standards then. BTW it is too late to even do this now, it should have been done before as a precaution until things got quiet. Now look...everyone is gonna quit because of the ENORMOUS imbalance. This isn't a small imbalance here, this is out of control imbalanced. That idea would just piss off more people. Capping sides can end up splitting up guilds and groups of players. It is in no way Bioware's fault that people chose Sith over Jedi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rinkitink Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Empire has more players cause bad guys are cooler. It's as simple as that. It's not Bioware's fault and they can't do much to fix this problem. What do you want them to do? Force people to play a certain faction? Cause somehow I don't see that working out too well. They get paid to think up solutions to these problems. It's pretty obvious the instant you create a game with good vs evil, the evil side is always more populated. They should've anticipated and prepared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Napalmbrain Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 No steps need to b taken to balance populations. They will either balance themselves over time, or players will get used to the imbalances. Balanced is boring. I'd like to see where you got your hard data proving this, because I would argue you pulled that out of your *** and it is in fact the complete opposite. MMO factions don't balance over time, this is complete BS that you pulled from nowhere. In fact there is more evidence that this NEVER happens. Players getting used to the imbalancing? Have you even been to Ilum yet? You would really get used fighting 20 versus 3 every day? I call BS on that too. Balanced is boring? Must be an imperial because if you were getting base camped 20 versus 2 as a rebel, I wonder how long you would embrace the imbalance. Dumbest post I have read in awhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skitlz Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 in any mmo that has factions, there is always one that is the most populated. Usually the one that has the most is what would be considered "evil" because alot of players consider being "evil" a cool thing. Then add PVP on to the mix, then people choose "evil" because they want to use that as an excuse as to why they gank and grief others saying they are playing an outlaw and such. Of course i'm generalizing but you get the gist. BW could have marketed the hell out of the repbulic and i still believe the imps would get the most rolls! just the nature of faction based mmo's. Not true, and god knows i hate to bring up WoW as comparrison but their were numerous servers that were Alliance heavy. Some very successful guilds and pvp teams were on alliance heavy servers. so as for being "evil" that has no true comparrison it would have to be more like people prefer Imperial over Republic not just good over evil. because i know republic player that are going dark. and imperial going light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzar Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Who cares if there's an imbalance? The more Sith to kill the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monimoni Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Read this. http://taugrim.com/2011/12/14/population-skewing-heavily-towards-empire-on-pvp-servers/ It's 2:1 or worse on PVP servers, it's mostly balanced on PVE servers, and Republic actually outnumbers Empire on RP-PVE servers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muanthuun Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I love it how everyone screems bioware has to do anything about the faction population, while in fact they have 100% no control over it. Its on you the players to roll republic. Says the Imp. But really you are correct. It is 100% on the population. Sadly, a lot of the population always going the popular route as it makes some of the most minor things (like finding flashpoint groups) easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightblaster Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Capping servers is a bad idea -- just pisses people off more. The issue is that Empire looks cooler, plays cooler and is "new" (the "good side" in SW has been done to death in many previous games, while playing as the Imps is pretty uncommon). There isn't really a way to fix it easily at this stage, as the game is pretty clearly Imp-leaning. One possibility would be to provide bonuses to the outnumbered side (XP, etc.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mungadai Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Really? You really think they couldn't have capped the amount per server until things got smoothed over? Well you have really low standards then. BTW it is too late to even do this now, it should have been done before as a precaution until things got quiet. Now look...everyone is gonna quit because of the ENORMOUS imbalance. This isn't a small imbalance here, this is out of control imbalanced. And server capping would just inflame the player base. Capping has the potential to prevent people from playing together on a chosen faction. If they only allow 1000 Sith/Republic per side until the caps are met and Republic has 1000 while sith has 875 and my friend wants to play with me, he couldnt until the sith reached the cap. The friend could just decide he wasnt going to play the game then if he couldnt play with who he wanted to. Capping would be the worst thing they could do. Balance will work itself out eventually. On one of my Rift servers I play on there are more Guardians then Defiants by about 4:1, yet on another the population is 2:1 in favor of Defiant but still balanced more or less. Same with WoW, i play on a server with 12:1 horde vs alliance and another that swings the other way with 10: 1 in favor of the alliance, and on yet a 3rd server that its almost perfectly even, and neither Trion or Blizzard has taken steps to "balance the servers". Faction balance is 100% determined by players. Artifical caps or forced balancing will just lead to mediocre servers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSwamper Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 everyone is gonna quit because of the ENORMOUS imbalance. What you did there is called hyperbole. And your conclusion is ludicrous. I, like many other players, do not care about PvP. It wouldn't make the slightest difference if the imbalance was 20 to 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightblaster Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 They get paid to think up solutions to these problems. It's pretty obvious the instant you create a game with good vs evil, the evil side is always more populated. They should've anticipated and prepared. Looks have a lot to do with it. When WoW was first released, the Alliance had more players than the Horde on most non-PvP servers. That flipped when the "pretty race" was added to the Horde. How characters *look* influences a lot of faction choice, really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acento Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 No steps need to b taken to balance populations. They will either balance themselves over time, or players will get used to the imbalances. Balanced is boring. QFT. Guaranteed that if everything was perfectly balanced and right in line with what people expected, many would be QQ'ing over some other absurdity related to population balance. Forgive me for not being extremely well-versed in MMO's, but has a developer ever capped a faction population to funnel new rolls into the underpopulated faction? Or at least has it ever been done and achieved the desired results? This seems like it would have very little benefit...if I really wanted to roll a certain faction but couldn't, all I would do is just go to another server... I don't know how this can be anybody's responsibility but the players...if you want to cure the faction imbalance, roll the other faction. Contribute to the solution, rather than expect others to fix your problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syrellaris Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Really? You really think they couldn't have capped the amount per server until things got smoothed over? Well you have really low standards then. BTW it is too late to even do this now, it should have been done before as a precaution until things got quiet. Now look...everyone is gonna quit because of the ENORMOUS imbalance. This isn't a small imbalance here, this is out of control imbalanced. Players have a choice and will always have a choice. Bioware cannot chance that. Introducing a cap to player amounts on a faction is stupid as well. The reason there is a imbalance is due to everyone wanting to play the "bad guy" since they were always much cooler in the movies and comics, books etc then the republic was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muanthuun Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Who cares if there's an imbalance? The more Sith to kill the better. For the most part, even on a PVE server that is the way I look at it. Between Warzones and Illum more chances to beat on Sith. Plus WZ pops are quicker and more varied. Better chance to find terrible PVP enemies. For example a mostly premade group barely beat us in Voidstar. We were complete pug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squeets Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Really? You really think they couldn't have capped the amount per server until things got smoothed over? Well you have really low standards then. BTW it is too late to even do this now, it should have been done before as a precaution until things got quiet. Now look...everyone is gonna quit because of the ENORMOUS imbalance. This isn't a small imbalance here, this is out of control imbalanced. Yeah that's a good idea to keep players around: "Yay I got the game time to make my inquisitor!" *click server with normal population* "Imperial Population Capped" *repeat* *repeat* *repeat* FOR ALL SERVERS... So they are left with the choice of either playing something they don't want to or not playing at all... I see your point, they will probably buy lifetime subscriptions they are so happy about it... Do people even think about what they say here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iplayvideogames Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Cross-faction BGs helped fix this problem in WoW, at least in terms of instanced PVP. People complained about playing with people outside of their server, but it's either that or play Huttball all night. So you'll have to decide which you'd prefer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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