Are we seriously going to get absolutely no word on faction imbalance or low pops?

[Almghty_gir]

discussion thread here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=205981

 

 

this is a selection of ideas that both i and others have come up with that could help with the problems that exist in the game. they are by no means a "one tool fixes everything", and certainly they are just a starting point to go on.

 

so let's start with the current problems, some are fixable, others aren't...

1. this is a two faction game - this cannot be fixed, it's way too late to change it, and it will be there forever... if you don't like that, there are other games that are different. find them.
   
2. there are population imbalances - due to being a two faction game, this will always be apparent, whether the difference is large or small depends largely on the playerbase but there are things Bioware can do to remedy it somewhat.
   
3. faction pride - because you can roll both factions on the same server, the majority of players will feel very little pride in their own faction, there is no ownership or accountability. if you don't like how things are going... just alt on the other faction for a while! rather than actually try to push the rest of your faction to rally together.
   
4. the powerful get more powerful - currently due to game mechanics, the dominant faction has an easier time becoming more powerful, this has the knock on effect of making the underdog side feel even less inclined to compete... why compete when you're almost certain to lose, right?
   
5. pvp stats - a controvertial issue to be sure, many people feel it's necessary, many feel the opposite, we can explore it but it's doubtful that there will ever be a solution that everybody likes. sometimes the minority might have to tip it's head to the majority.
   
6. vertical progression - intrinsically tied into MMO's nowadays, especially ones that heavily involve pve content, is vertical progression... this is due to the mindset of most players that they simply "want bigger numbers". this is something that is quite possibly the biggest problem in PVP in any game, and always will be.
   

 

so let's tackle each issue one at a time, make some sense of it, and see what we can do to potentially solve the issue.

 

1. two faction game.

 

As i stated above, this will not change, it's too late to even think about it, sorry... however it is heavily tied into...

 

2. population imbalance.

 

Because this is a two faction game, one side will invariably outnumber the other. there are a few things that the developer can do to remedy the issue, such as imposing hard-caps on server factions, giving bonuses to the underdog faction, give penalties to the overpopulated faction, imposing instance limits per faction. but ultimately it all comes down to the players choice. regardless of anything the developer does, it's the player who makes the choice to roll on either faction.

 

3. cross faction players.

 

the ability to roll both factions on the same server is the most detrimental thing in any pvp game. it promotes "spying", and it also dissolves any form of "faction pride" that could ever have existed. it results in a fractured community of players who neither trust each other, or even in some cases want to even talk to each other. it makes organising the underdog realm very difficult as any potential gathering could be leaked to the dominating faction with disasterous results.

 

4. the great snowball.

 

this actually ties three things in together, each one is bad on it's own but when combined they make for a snowball that just gets bigger and bigger until it becomes unmanageable. it's sad to say that we're almost at that point already! but what are those three things?

• pvp stats
  
• vertical progression
  
• imbalanced populations
  

 

we've already covered population imbalance to a degree, but in this context it's important to note that due to current game mechanics, the overpopulated realm is just reaping huge rewards with little penalty. they're able to capture and hold all the objectives, whilst simultaniously dominate the underdog faction due to pure numbers, on top of all this, when (for example) 40 people "tag" a single enemy combatant, when that person dies all 40 people get the same reward as if only one person had made the kill... this is unacceptable by ALL standards. combine this with vertical progression, and not only do the dominant faction have an easier time getting higher tiered gear, but when they get there they become more powerful, making them not only harder to kill but also making it easier to kill the underdogs. and to top it all off, there's a pvp stat involved... one of the worst things to grace mmo's everywhere has been addopted here, and what it means now, is that because higher tiered gear has higher base stats, AND a higher allotment of pvp stats, the dominating realm is well and truly on its way to being unbeatable. when "new 50's" come into the fold, there really will be no place for them, and no means for them to challenge the overpopulated side.

 

But what can we do about allof this? nothing, it's in Biowares hands... and god i hope they can fix it. I'm sure they have ideas of their own, but then i'm also sure they thought the ideas they've already tried were good ones. disregarding the fact, of course, that those ideas both tried and failed in other games...

 

So, here are a few suggestions that might make BioWares life easier. a couple of things they could do to make things more enjoyable for players and make the game a better place all round.

 

1. Heavily incentivise the underdog faction by doing the following:

• when the serverwide population is imbalanced by 1.5:1 or greater, grant a +100% valor bonus SERVER WIDE to the underdog faction.
  
• when the instance population is imbalanced by 1.25:1 or greater, grant a 25% valor bonus which scales up to 400% when the population imbalance reaches 4:1.
  
• make valor per kill, and the bonus attached to it, become divided by the amount of players involved in the kill. so rather than 40 players gaining (20 valor + 180 valor bonus) for killing a single player, they would instead recieve (1 valor + 5 valor bonus) each. this will round UP to the nearest whole number.
  

 

this will grant a NON stat oriented incentive for the underdogs to get out there and fight. it will mean that in the absolute worst case scenario of being outnumbered by 4:1 or greater, the underdog will recieve the same valor per kill than the dominating faction will, even if the dominating faction controls all the objectives. it will also promote the idea that you are better off roaming in small groups looking for good even fights, than you are blobbing up in an almighty zerg, since you will gian less valor per kill as a zerg.

 

2. remove pvp stats from the game immediately, and do the following for a patch in the near future:

• tag Tionese, Columi, and Rakata gear, so that as soon as they enter a warzone, or initiate pvp, they recieve a 5% debuff to all stats. this would work similarly to how a player gets tagged with a trauma debuff when fighting, and the debuff vanishes when combat ends.
  

 

i realise many people see pvp stats as a way for pvp players to compete with pve players who have better stats on their gear due to the progression of pve gear. i get that, it's a reasonable argument. but it's been dealt with in completely the wrong way. what it's ended up doing is alienating any and all players who don't have the gear now, or in future, who are going to be faced up against high level players, probably on a dominant side, and it just all mounts up to having too much work to do, for too little gain.

 

there is still "progression" for all of those who wish to have it. the pvp gear still has tiers of stats, so you still get more numbers. but you will still struggle to complete high end pve content due to having lower stats than the pve sets. while at the same time, the pve gear will be great for pve, but will be on-par with the pvp sets, so there is no unfair advantage in that regard.

 

due to the way the bolster system works in warzones, this would also allow them to remove the 50 bracket, decreasing queue times to a globally accepted level, with minimal problems (after all, without expertise, there's little difference between fighting a 49 or a 50 with the bolster system as it averages out stats, moving high stats down where needed).

 

thanks for reading, i hope someone somewhere takes some notice.

cheers.

[TGreasy]

Quoted from MY SERVER (Tott Doneeta)

 

 

Yesterday evening primetime.

 

12 People at Rep Fleet.

I was alone at Ilum.

No lvl 50 Wz´s popping all evening.

No pugs going to any lvl 50 flashpoints. (I play a healer)

 

So what are you suppose to do when you hit 50?

I can´t really join the small group of 8-10 people doing Ops HM since I´m not geared for it

and I can´t gear through fp hm´s or pvp since there are no groups going.

Catch 22 (yes I believe I´m using the phrase correctly).

 

Tried out Empire side on a heavy server. 200+ people in the starting areas. Hundreds of people at fleet.

 

QQ

 

No you can´t have my stuff, it´s all going to burn with me in my Viking boat burial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TLDR::: Not enough people to do ANYTHING on my server

[Goreson]

Quoted from MY SERVER (Tott Doneeta)

 

 

Yesterday evening primetime.

 

12 People at Rep Fleet.

I was alone at Ilum.

No lvl 50 Wz´s popping all evening.

No pugs going to any lvl 50 flashpoints. (I play a healer)

 

So what are you suppose to do when you hit 50?

I can´t really join the small group of 8-10 people doing Ops HM since I´m not geared for it

and I can´t gear through fp hm´s or pvp since there are no groups going.

Catch 22 (yes I believe I´m using the phrase correctly).

 

Tried out Empire side on a heavy server. 200+ people in the starting areas. Hundreds of people at fleet.

 

QQ

 

No you can´t have my stuff, it´s all going to burn with me in my Viking boat burial.

 

TLDR::: Not enough people to do ANYTHING on my server

 

Man (or maybe woman? Sorry, not really obvious), have you actually read what you wrote?

 

'Okay, so at primetime I was on my low pop server - I'm lvl 50 Rep healer - and there was nobody there on my side to do lvl50 fun stuff with.

 

I can't be arsed to team up with lower ranking Rep characters for something because, err, yeah, because of gear.

 

I went to play at stronger pop server and took Imp. Boy, that was sooooooo kewl!'

 

Have you checked on YOUR REP server how many people you got there in Imp?

 

I assume not... otherwise that would have been the correct experience to bring up/counter your Rep experience.

 

In short, all your post tells us is:

 

'errr, there are servers with low population and high population...'

 

Jeeez, wait, that wasn't to be expected with a couple of dozen servers after the initial 30 days are up?

 

Please try again...

 

or alternatively go to that very same heavy population server and check Rep there!

 

Who knows, you may not have hundreds of people there, but hey, maybe enough to have fun at every level.

 

And if you actually find a reason to play with hundreds of people on your side, at the same time in SWTOR, please feel free to post.

 

Thank you.

[DarthKhaos]

BioWare can't FORCE people to roll Republic. So what you want them to say? "Sorry bra dems da breaks?"

[ChicksDigHarleys]

Low pops: IMO #1 mistake BioWare made with this game was too many servers with too small pop caps. Even very heavy servers feel empty.

 

Faction balance: They did make a huge mistake in marketing the game in making the Empire look way stronger, and the Republic look like a bunch of impotent fools.

 

The most common suggestions I see to fix faction imbalance and why IMO they won't work:

 

XP bonus - Don't you already outlevel planets if you do anything but normal PvE? If there's one complaint about this game I *don't* hear, it's that you level too slow. Do a few space missions, FPs, or WZs and you way outlevel planets unless you skip them.

 

Valor bonus - PvE players won't care, and I'm still not going to suffer through getting steamrolled by 3:1 odds for a 10% valor bonus.

 

Credit bonus - Game already throws money at you past lvl 20.

 

Generic "make the Republic cooler" suggestions - Not something that's going to happen soon enough to matter. They're not going to redesign all the ugly Republic gear, give the Republic cooler companions, or rewrite/revoice all their inferior stories overnight if ever.

 

IMO the fastest thing they could do to get more Republic players is adding some popular races to that side only. Most of the racial models are already in game...I can't see it being all that hard to make them PC races.

[Goreson]

The prerelease hype focused more around Empire.

The classes may be mirrored but there are minor issues (differences) and the overwhelming majority favor Empire.

Empire class quests and areas are generally considered to be better and more enjoyable.

 

Ah... okay... remember those pre-release X vs Y videos? Who'd win was always left rather open (of course with some BW guys stating that the Imp character would win while the other BW guys would say the Rep character would win).

 

Class progression movies, yeah, also rather balanced...

 

And if you look at the opening cinematics (which obviously was also part of the pre-release hype) you'll see that it shows all 4 Rep classes but only 2 Imp classes.

 

Of course each side also saw their own cinematic released, d'oh...

 

Hm... wait, let me guess: because the Rep one focused on the Trooper for most part and the Imp actually showed all 3 Imp classes, that one hypes Imp more? (no, I don't see any SIs in there, and the Twi'lek 'IA' is actually using the wrong weapons, so who knows if that is actually supposed to be an IA and not some corrupted Smuggler?)

 

Now, I'm not going to look thru every article that BW has posted prior to release.

 

Guess why: Because of course BW had to say a bit more about the Sith Empire than about the Galactic Republic.

 

We had 6 blockbuster movies to make us understand what the Galactic Empire is/was... but frankly, how much did you learn about the Sith Empire thru those movies?

 

If you consider that hyping Empire, well... every lecture on Theology is probably also hyping the Bible as is every documentary on serial killers hyping murder...

 

And many games have noticed a trend towards players preferring the "bad guys" lately.

 

Seriously? Only 'lately'? Let me guess, yhaven't played much, have you?

 

You know this company called Games Workshop? Yeah, their Warhammer game was the basis for WAR.

 

If the 'bad boys' in Warhammer hadn't been so popular, do you think they had been included in WAR?

 

Liking to play a 'bad boy' in games goes back to even before the first Windows PC games!

 

So... lately?

 

And let's not forget that the most iconic guys in the SW movies are Darth Vader (as bad as you get!) and Han Solo (he may be on the 'right' side but ask any girl and she'll still say he is a 'bad boy').

 

They also could've done things to make it harder to create characters if one side gets too much of a population advantage (split the server cap in half. So if the cap is 2000, you can only have 1000 reps and 1000 imps. That way if there are 3000 imps and 1000 reps logging in, reps would have little or no queue while imps would have a long one. Sucks but it would have encouraged people to reroll).

 

Oi brainfart!

 

O-kay... so you'll have people queuing for a good while because they chose a heavily populated server... and then you'll have them wait again because some guy just made a lvl 1 Imp and thereby hit 1000 on Imp, and now he can't team with his lvl 50 guildies?

 

Wait, what is that I'm hearing? Complaints? Because of exceptionally long queuing times?

 

Nope... what you'll hear is even worse Rep whine because now those Imps that are on fairly balanced servers create their backup alts as Imps on low pop servers: rather unlikely that the 'native' Imp population will ever get even close to 1000 so pretty much always will you be able to log in as an Imp is logging in on another server fails...

 

In short: yes, it would encourage creating a new character... with the same faction on a different server!

 

Way to go! Bravo!

 

The best bet is a free side switch and a small incentive to use it (maybe first xxx number of players gets a little extra valor or xp or 1 or 2 days added to their subscription).

 

Please! Zip it! Please! Pretty please?

 

Right, okay... let's assume you are not a player that actually prefers to play Empire because he likes the concept of Empire better than the concept of Republic (so nothing in regards to better story, better looking armor, etc., s/he just likes to Empire guys wear that cool uniform...) and who would never stoop so low as to play Rep, instead you are capable to making a smart business calculation:

 

Step 1: I create an Imp character on Server A.

 

Step 2: I wait for BW to contact me offering both a free transfer as well as (sadly as my character is not 'high levelled' only) 1 bonus day on my account.

 

Step 3: I accept, the character gets transfered (and then I forget about him) and I get 1 extra day of gaming time added to account.

 

Step 4: select new server, go back to Step 1 and repeat.

 

Hey, look ma, no need to pay for this subscription MMO, I just need to make a few characters every once in a while!

[Putok]

Games like Warhammer and Rift gave bonuses to the lagging faction, I think that's a good idea.

 

Give Republic a bonus to xp earned, valor earned, legacy xp earned, and credits earned on servers where they're far behind.

[iainmckenna]

divide the valour gained between the amount of ppl who contributed to the kill...who wud 200 v 1 if u only get 1 valour per kill..as the meerkat said..simples

[nicosand]

The only reason why there are more imps then reps is simple....

 

Since the movies first came out, the focus as only been on the good side, the Jedi's... And this has been the de facto way for for every single movie thats about the battle between good and evil, the good always wins...

 

People now have the chance to play for the "evil" side, so ofc they want to do it, the only thing that wil counter this is time. The game is still fairly new, so to complain about faction imbalance now gets you no where fast, there's nothing the devs can do to make ppl roll a rep character, and if they did, it would be unfair for the players that did chose imps...

 

Regarding server mergers, that would help in a small way as it would boos population, giving economy a boost as more players would trade on GTN and so on, but the faction imbalance would still be there... the only thing that can change this is time, and maybe with added classes on later expansions...

[tomhjen]

On the server i play on you are lucky to have 50 people in fleet during a weekend on primetime. The imp's side has 100+ most of the day from what i have seen people in guild says who took the time to level a toon to 10, and from forum posts with screens a couple of weeks back.

 

Also, after the "sub" hit it has become worse, the leak seems bigger on the rep side on my server, and less for the imps. I think most people got bored being outnumbered in Ilum, and being farm animals for imps in WZ's. The number of valor 50+ on imps side is waste compared to the reps. So that creates alot of issues right there. And the first day of the 1.1 patch i saw rank 20 imps becoming 50+ in a matter of hours, while it takes any rep days if not weeks.

 

If you look at game promotion back and year and a half, too two years. Most of the hype has been for the imps, and this was very well documented on a game review site a month before the game hit the stores, and the prediction was spot on that the imps would outnumber reps greatly.

[Goreson]

On the server i play on you are lucky to have 50 people in fleet during a weekend on primetime. The imp's side has 100+ most of the day from what i have seen people in guild says who took the time to level a toon to 10, and from forum posts with screens a couple of weeks back.

 

Also, after the "sub" hit it has become worse, the leak seems bigger on the rep side on my server, and less for the imps. I think most people got bored being outnumbered in Ilum, and being farm animals for imps in WZ's. The number of valor 50+ on imps side is waste compared to the reps. So that creates alot of issues right there. And the first day of the 1.1 patch i saw rank 20 imps becoming 50+ in a matter of hours, while it takes any rep days if not weeks.

 

If you look at game promotion back and year and a half, too two years. Most of the hype has been for the imps, and this was very well documented on a game review site a month before the game hit the stores, and the prediction was spot on that the imps would outnumber reps greatly.

 

well, I'm sort of sorry to hear what you are saying... but what is BW to do about it?

 

Make SWTOR F2P for all Rep players? (don't laugh, was suggested!)

 

Merge servers? (Makes sense... except for facts like guilds potentially being ripped apart, server that are now somewhat balanced losing that balance, leftover Imp server being merged into uber-Imp server, etc.)

 

Throw Rep a bone so that being Rep makes so much more 'fun' than being Imp? (frankly, most options wouldn't, they would just appeal to the greed factor: 'I get more XP so I level up faster', 'I get valor quicker so I end up BM quicker', etc.)

 

Unless you are asking BW for a complete re-design of Rep I'm afraid you are on your own...

 

unless... as you claim you are in a guild? Where are your guild mates? On a different server? On schedules different from yours? Or did they just pack up and went Imp because their guild of X peeps is outmatched by Imps?

 

Sorry, BW will not promote your guild for you! That is for your guild to do by itself!

 

And guess what: if you take some of these 50 ppl on Rep fleet under your wing as a guild, woohoo! 20, 30, 50 extra gamers to face up to the Empire with!

 

And even if they are not strong enough yet, you help out, because that's what you do in a guild!

 

It's not about 'look at me I'm kewl because I got a guild name'.

[Atsurak]

Low pops: IMO #1 mistake BioWare made with this game was too many servers with too small pop caps. Even very heavy servers feel empty.

 

i think this is the main problem, tbh.

even a heavy server feels empty, so it must be *********** awful on a low-pop server (and even worse on the under-represented side on a lowpop...)

i play on Red Eclipse, which all through prelaunch was one of the top 3 busiest servers, frequently with 1-2hr queues to logon (i didnt change because that was the server my guild had been assigned to so we were all there), and yet when you finally got on after your 2hr queue... where were the people? after hutta, i was never on a planet with more than about 50 other people. Fleet still only had 1-200 people on it. fast-forward to today, and fleet still only has about 1-200 people on it, i'll guess the planets are even emptier (hell, i know they are, from levelling my alts). and yet the server still shows as being very busy. "ah!" you might say "they must be all on republic side!" - except that they're not. i've not played rep side myself much, but the starting planets look no busier than the imp ones, and if the WZ pvp is anything to go by, then Rep side is very underpopulated (given how rarely we get civil war or voidstar pop, compared to doing huttball vs other imps).

 

so if even the busy side of a heavy server feels empty... :/

[rzrknight]

This is something that has been highlighted on major media outlets like IGN, Massively and Game Breaker TV. It is an enormous issue that is probably bleeding subscribers every single day. Why are not getting any word whatsoever on what is going to happen?

 

They can at best make republic get nice fluff like cool races and other stuff , but dont think it will work so well anymore , will take months to balance this if EVER.

 

Games like WoW for an example never managed to get faction balance.

[byteresistor]

Why would they merge servers when most are standard to heavy or worse during prime time? The problem is the game is new and not a lot of people are at the level cap. There is no need for any server merges. Not everyone rushes to lvl 50 in a month. I still dont have a lvl 50 because I dont have tons of time to dedicate to the game.

Would you people please stop throwing around this "there's lots of standard servers so there's no problem" crap all the time? Have you played on some of these so called "standard" servers? Don't let the term fool you, in other games such servers would be called low pop. My server 'Goluud Corridor EU" is classified as standard yet there's like only 200 players in total accros all level ranges online at peak hours, on the empire side. This isn't an issue which only affects lvl 50 "rushers", it affect everyone on the server, regardless of level. After some of the early planets you are lucky to see 15 people on a given planet at peak hours. On fleet there's about 35 people, again at peak hours. That's a standard server for you. I can only imagine what a light pop server is like.

Edited January 30, 2012 by byteresistor

[grandmthethird]

This is something that has been highlighted on major media outlets like IGN, Massively and Game Breaker TV. It is an enormous issue that is probably bleeding subscribers every single day. Why are not getting any word whatsoever on what is going to happen?

 

BW has accurate numbers for ppl that are currently subbed, and for the amount of subs to leave. what your doing is scare mongering you have no idea how many ppl leave a day and you have no idea why they leave. also pop imbalance,,, let me guess your a PvP player?? news flash! over 2 million paid for voice acting should tell you this is a more PvE friendly game. the fact is the imbalance will sort its self out in time, this game is very alt friendly so in time many will have toons on both factions

[Fohox]

I know a lot of people don't want to hear this but it's better to re-roll than wait for BW to fix the problem.

 

I was on a dead server and my main was 32. At first I refused to re-roll because I didn't want to redo the same quests over again so soon. I started making characters on random servers so I could use /who to compare the population on those servers to mine. The difference in numbers was so staggering I just re-rolled on a healthy server. I chose a different class so at least that part of the game would be different. I can honestly say it feels like a entirely new game when there's life to your server.

 

If they ever offer transfers or merge servers I'll go back to playing my sage again but right now I'm just happy to be on a server with lots of people and a healthy economy.

[fluffydelusions]

I just beat my class story line and hit lvl 50 last night and I agree about low pop. On some planets it's not bad but others later in the game it is. I couldn't complete at least 10 heroics because I couldn't find enough people to do them.

[tomhjen]

well, I'm sort of sorry to hear what you are saying... but what is BW to do about it?

 

Make SWTOR F2P for all Rep players? (don't laugh, was suggested!)

 

Merge servers? (Makes sense... except for facts like guilds potentially being ripped apart, server that are now somewhat balanced losing that balance, leftover Imp server being merged into uber-Imp server, etc.)

 

Throw Rep a bone so that being Rep makes so much more 'fun' than being Imp? (frankly, most options wouldn't, they would just appeal to the greed factor: 'I get more XP so I level up faster', 'I get valor quicker so I end up BM quicker', etc.)

 

Unless you are asking BW for a complete re-design of Rep I'm afraid you are on your own...

 

unless... as you claim you are in a guild? Where are your guild mates? On a different server? On schedules different from yours? Or did they just pack up and went Imp because their guild of X peeps is outmatched by Imps?

 

Sorry, BW will not promote your guild for you! That is for your guild to do by itself!

 

And guess what: if you take some of these 50 ppl on Rep fleet under your wing as a guild, woohoo! 20, 30, 50 extra gamers to face up to the Empire with!

 

And even if they are not strong enough yet, you help out, because that's what you do in a guild!

 

It's not about 'look at me I'm kewl because I got a guild name'.

 

What have my guild to do with anything of what i did say? We clear all the hardmodes and started the nightmare grind this week, but that dont change any of what i said does it? I was not saying i did have nothing to do, i just told you that my server is struggling do to the fact that there is very little people on the rep side. Why you did start dragging me being in a guild or not in to this is puzzling me.

 

And i did not ask, or come with any sugestions on how to fix it. I have no idea how they can, and probobly wont and that will be the downfall for a few servers like the one i play on.

Edited January 30, 2012 by tomhjen

[Grapenut]

2012.

 

You think we have a better MMO system design than to limit a person to a specific server/shard. Specifically if you have a 2 faction system..

 

 

It would be nice you picked your character first then select a server to play on with a nice list of servers/population breakdowns.

 

Why we tie characters to specific server confuses me. You could select a favorite server and get logged into that one. It should be up to the person to pick a server and move about as they please.

 

So sick of this retro MMO designs.

[-Fenix]

Not an issue.

[Foreverfury]

Merges mean someone loses their unique name. Not gonna happen.

[rarax]

How about for faction imbalance, if you want to start a character on the most populated side you have to get an invite from a friend to do so. If they have no friends they should hopefully be able to find a server that will allow them to create a character on their preferred faction. Having them listed in server selection which servers allow a certain faction without an invite would be needed. Then if this does not work have it where they can petition to be on a certain server/faction as a fail safe.

 

This may not help a whole lot but it will let new players be aware of the imbalance on character creation.

 

Then there is also the problem of if it is clearly listed which is the dominate faction on a server. People probably will not want to join it anyway, but at least the new player would know what they were getting into and not be complaining about it.

[Derbefrier]

its only been a month these things dont happen instantly. theres a lot to consider when merging servers or offering free tranfers. Its better they take the time to do it right rather than just have a knee jerk reaction to try and do it as quick as possible and end up making it worse. have some patience.

[Goreson]

How about for faction imbalance, if you want to start a character on the most populated side you have to get an invite from a friend to do so. If they have no friends they should hopefully be able to find a server that will allow them to create a character on their preferred faction. Having them listed in server selection which servers allow a certain faction without an invite would be needed. Then if this does not work have it where they can petition to be on a certain server/faction as a fail safe.

 

This may not help a whole lot but it will let new players be aware of the imbalance on character creation.

 

Then there is also the problem of if it is clearly listed which is the dominate faction on a server. People probably will not want to join it anyway, but at least the new player would know what they were getting into and not be complaining about it.

 

Nice one...

 

alas, completely BS (sorry!)

 

Think about it: who would be allowed to invite you? Guildmasters? Player lvl 50? Anybody who has played a character up to the level of Advanced Class? Anybody who actually as a character on that server?

 

Look at the 'issue' correctly: it's not that there are too many Imps, it's that there are too little Reps!

 

So, working with an invite system won't do anything as any player who wants to play Imp on a specific server will find a way to get an invite. Unless you really limit that 'right' to an elite few...

 

I said it before and I'll say it again: it is the Reps, the Rep gamers, who need to attract people. Whether by showing Imp gamers that Rep is cool as well or by bringing in outside friends, I don't care!

 

Which means: if you can't find enough good things about being Rep to sell that faction, well, than you are better of on Imp. *shrug*

[denpic]

It will balance out...

in wow there are more horde than alliance In overall population but you still have faction imbalance server to server

 

What they need to do is give ilum (because thats where faction balance is felt the most) the tenacity buff like what was used to address faction imbalance in wow servers

 

Faction with the less players present gets tenacity buff

And buff disappears when equal or close to equal factions are present

 

For those who don't know wow the tenacity buff enabled for example 10 players compete against 40 ad still have a fighting chance

 

Also I'm rep because im a good guy irl

Edited February 1, 2012 by denpic