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

[eightohfive]

I admittedly do not have all the information since I am not working for Bioware, but I think server mergers and transfers along with experience and loot incentives to roll the underpopulated faction could help a lot. I would also like if Bioware made the population caps on Ilum were faction-based, so if the population cap right now is about 100 it could instead be made to scale up to 50 Republic and 50 Empire.

 

But, like I said, I don't have all of the information, and I'm not trying to be an armchair developer. I just want to see some sort of information that eases a lot of people's main concern with the game.

 

If you think Bioware doesn't know and isn't working on it, then you are fooling yourself. If you think they can just slap on some server xfers and fix **** in a week then you are again fooling yourself.

 

Even WoW, one of the most succesful mmo's in history, has low population servers and imbalanced factions. My old server Horde was outnumbered 3:1 and my side only had 2 or 3 decent raiding guilds. I'm sure they did stuff to try and fix that crap, but I played 3 years without them doing a damn thing about it. So suck it up, if you are a good player then you should be finding other good players and keep in contact with them.

[Shadowlogic]

My server Darth Bandon has a horrible imbalance. It's like a 3-1 Imps leading so my guild is thinking about just making our alt Imp guild our main. World bosses are a pain since Imps usually camping ( I NEED those magenta schematics!!!!), and if we PVP to see who gets to fight the boss we lose due to being outnumbered, it's pretty stressful but I'm not going to let that ruin the game for me. I'll just go bad guy for a bit. By the waaaaay... would it be a good idea to have a cap on how many imps and reps can be made in a server? When you mouse over the server it says... Imps 2300/2500 - Rep 1654/2500?

 

 

Those numbers are examples, so don't get all crazy on meh!

[GarbonzotheDude]

Do you realize what would have happened if a player tried to join a server with his friend but had his character rejected because BW set some type of 'balance' code to force even a general server balance between emps and pubs? The back lash would be a thousand times worse than a few people who are upset because they can't find a group as fast as they'd like.

 

This is a player created situation, it has nothing to do with BW and there isn't anything they could do to make people play one side or another.

 

Yes, I do. Because for the hundredth time it has already been used in other games. Few people? You have no idea how many it is affecting just like you have no idea how bad the backlash would be.

 

I could say the same thing and say it would be worth it because the backlash would just be a "few people".

 

Not to mention that wasn't even remotely the only thing I was referring to in that post. I said steps beforehand or mechanics afterwards to help those really feeling jilted at this point.

Edited January 25, 2012 by GarbonzotheDude

[Dorin_Kass]

I admittedly do not have all the information since I am not working for Bioware, but I think server mergers and transfers along with experience and loot incentives to roll the underpopulated faction could help a lot. I would also like if Bioware made the population caps on Ilum were faction-based, so if the population cap right now is about 100 it could instead be made to scale up to 50 Republic and 50 Empire.

 

But, like I said, I don't have all of the information, and I'm not trying to be an armchair developer. I just want to see some sort of information that eases a lot of people's main concern with the game.

 

These would do nothing but fuel more QQ on the forums, this isn't a Problem it was a choice, more people choose to play Imperial than Republic.

 

Republic players shouldn't be rewarded because they are less popular.

[Nighthawked]

Yes, I do. Because for the hundredth time it has already been used in other games. Few people? You have no idea how many it is affecting just like you have no idea how bad the backlash would be.

 

I could say the same thing and say it would be worth it because the backlash would just be a "few people".

 

Not to mention that wasn't even remotely the only thing I was referring to in that post. I said steps beforehand or mechanics afterwards to help those really feeling jilted at this point.

 

I, and many others I know, would not be playing if we were forced to create a character we do not want to create. Just because it worked for game X, does not mean it will work with this game. You cannot guarantee that it will work, BW cannot guarantee that it will work. Therefore, just do the best option and not force people into faction X at all.

[drtongue]

I didn't read the whole thread.

 

How about Wookie as a race? It would be pretty funny, when your character doesn't speak 'English', especially when you are grouped in a conversation and you win the roll, the rest of the players would have to read the subtitles.

 

I like it! I would roll a wookie. (maybe limit the class to a few)

[GarbonzotheDude]

I, and many others I know, would not be playing if we were forced to create a character we do not want to create. Just because it worked for game X, does not mean it will work with this game. You cannot guarantee that it will work, BW cannot guarantee that it will work. Therefore, just do the best option and not force people into faction X at all.

 

First of all you have no idea if it would effect you.

 

Secondly, I never said it was a guarantee fix or that people would all jump for joy over it.

 

Thirdly, as I have said many times this is all moot now anyways because you certainly can't incorporate it now.

 

Lastly, there are people quitting over how it is now so I wouldn't say what is going now is going real great for some either.

 

Not to mention this imbalance is simply going to become a growing issue and trend. Until something is done.

Edited January 25, 2012 by GarbonzotheDude

[NDiggy]

If you think Bioware doesn't know and isn't working on it, then you are fooling yourself. If you think they can just slap on some server xfers and fix **** in a week then you are again fooling yourself.

 

Even WoW, one of the most succesful mmo's in history, has low population servers and imbalanced factions. My old server Horde was outnumbered 3:1 and my side only had 2 or 3 decent raiding guilds. I'm sure they did stuff to try and fix that crap, but I played 3 years without them doing a damn thing about it. So suck it up, if you are a good player then you should be finding other good players and keep in contact with them.

 

To be fair Blizzard never did anything about faction balance. Their only solution was to give you the option of paying them $20 (per character) for a server transfer. Blizzard seemed to go out of their way to make faction imbalance horrible by allowing server and faction transfers. Add in the incredibly imbalanced racial abilities Blizzard allowed to Horde to have and its no wonder everyone re-rolled or faction changed to Horde. It was frustrating to watch my server go from 3:1 Alliance in Vanilla, to being outnumbered 10:1 by Horde in Cataclysm as Alliance side just became a ghost town.

 

There are measures Bioware should have put in place prior to launch that would have alleviated some of the issues with population imbalance. The cat is out of the bag now as far as that goes, but the game is still new enough that if they're on the ball they can still put in place some passive measures to encourage people to play Republic.

[Nighthawked]

First of all you have no idea if it would effect you.

 

Secondly, I never said it was a guarantee fix or that people would all jump for joy over it.

 

Thirdly, as I have said many times this is all moot now anyways because you certainly can't incorporate it now.

 

Lastly, there are people quitting over how it is now so I wouldn't say what is going now is going real great for some either.

 

Not to mention this imbalance is simply going to become a growing issue and trend. Until something is done.

 

Um YES I DO. The fact that imps have more players, and we are talking about faction locking means I would not be able to make my imp characters. So YES it would have affected me.

[Daroax]

This is the sole reason I finally decided to cancel my sub.

 

ZERO developer-community interaction.

 

ZERO accountability.

 

ZERO acknowledgment of problems with the game.

 

Yeah, I am done with this game for now, not paying for a game that is clearly being managed by airheads.

 

Actually this is quite true. I'm going to give BW some time to fix the bugs, though the list is long...

[GarbonzotheDude]

To be fair Blizzard never did anything about faction balance. Their only solution was to give you the option of paying them $20 (per character) for a server transfer. Blizzard seemed to go out of their way to make faction imbalance horrible by allowing server and faction transfers. Add in the incredibly imbalanced racial abilities Blizzard allowed to Horde to have and its no wonder everyone re-rolled or faction changed to Horde. It was frustrating to watch my server go from 3:1 Alliance in Vanilla, to being outnumbered 10:1 by Horde in Cataclysm as Alliance side just became a ghost town.

 

There are measures Bioware should have put in place prior to launch that would have alleviated some of the issues with population imbalance. The cat is out of the bag now as far as that goes, but the game is still new enough that if they're on the ball they can still put in place some passive measures to encourage people to play Republic.

 

While I heard it did get really bad in all honesty while they were imbalanced in that game it didn't appear to affect gameplay a lot. Least in the beginning.

 

That is really my concern. I mean they're already this bad and this game just launched. If left to its own devices how bad is it going to be in a month or two?

 

You're never going to have them perfectly balanced especially with only two factions and the whole good vs bad schtick. I think most understand that.

 

I've never seen anything like this before though. I mean it is simply ridiculous on some servers.

[MikelGoff]

This is the sole reason I finally decided to cancel my sub.

 

ZERO developer-community interaction.

 

ZERO accountability.

 

ZERO acknowledgment of problems with the game.

 

Yeah, I am done with this game for now, not paying for a game that is clearly being managed by airheads.

 

Except for all of the times when they have acknowledged it, and said they're working on it. As for accountability? What do you want? Want them to get kicked in the face for their failure?

[RedEnsign]

Let the weak roll with the sheep who cares. Winning when you are the underdog is very fun.

 

My guild of 20 did the same. Some irrelevant forum jockey calling it weak isn't going to make it so but nice try Princess. It's about having a full GTN and actually having players other than your guild to play with. PvP is PvP. Winning in a meaningless video game is for children. Keep it up though Princess. You and Charlie ARE winning.

Edited January 25, 2012 by RedEnsign

[GarbonzotheDude]

Um YES I DO. The fact that imps have more players, and we are talking about faction locking means I would not be able to make my imp characters. So YES it would have affected me.

 

No...you don't. Because it would have only affected you if your server and faction was severely imbalanced.

 

Unless you agree that your server is already that bad.

[Nighthawked]

No...you don't. Because it would have only affected you if your server and faction was severely imbalanced.

 

Unless you agree that your server is already that bad.

 

You cannot guarantee that it would not have affected me either. I said IF that happened to me, I would not come back to this game. If it did not happen to me, of course I would be happy.

 

But you cannot deny it would cause issues. People like red lightsabers and the dark side. if somebody bought the game wanting to play a sith warrior, what do you think will happen if they were not able to create one?

[GarbonzotheDude]

You cannot guarantee that it would not have affected me either. I said IF that happened to me, I would not come back to this game. If it did not happen to me, of course I would be happy.

 

But you cannot deny it would cause issues. People like red lightsabers and the dark side. if somebody bought the game wanting to play a sith warrior, what do you think will happen if they were not able to create one?

 

I never made any such guarantee.

 

Of course it would cause issues. Never said that either.

 

I think the reaction would be the same as those having to reroll now. Only difference is far as I'm concerned would have been better to iron this out in the beginning rather than what we have now. By the way we're simply talking about specific servers here not the entire game as a whole.

 

I doubt every server is impacted by this. So therefore even if it would have been done it doesn't mean you would be locked out completely. Still would cause problems so I'm not saying otherwise. Just that I somehow doubt it would have locked you out completely.

 

Anyways, this is all moot at this point. Regardless the "should haves" and "could haves" it doesn't matter now. It is simply too late.

[Nighthawked]

I never made any such guarantee.

 

Of course it would cause issues. Never said that either.

 

I think the reaction would be the same as those having to reroll now. Only difference is far as I'm concerned would have been better to iron this out in the beginning rather than what we have now. By the way we're simply talking about specific servers here not the entire game as a whole.

 

I doubt every server is impacted by this. So therefore even if it would have been done it doesn't mean you would be locked out completely. Still would cause problems so I'm not saying otherwise. Just that I somehow doubt it would have locked you out completely.

 

Anyways, this is all moot at this point. Regardless the "should haves" and "could haves" it doesn't matter now. It is simply too late.

 

I know for a fact that my server has this issue. I was on my Jedi up until level 35 before I created my Sith guy. I noticed more than double imp players on my server.

[GarbonzotheDude]

I know for a fact that my server has this issue. I was on my Jedi up until level 35 before I created my Sith guy. I noticed more than double imp players on my server.

 

You don't see that as being a problem?

 

I rerolled myself and also play Imperial for pretty much the same reason. I'm not saying my solution would have been the best or the only option. But to simply do nothing just seems very shortsighted to me. Hell, if there were better mechanics in place I might still be playing Republic. As it was though trying to group was a joke.

 

Now? It's like heaven. Most times I don't even have to say anything because there are so many players around I can basically do a heroic whenever I want. I'm even able to get the Area 4 quests done. It is like playing a different game at this point just about.

 

Everyone knew this was coming. Honestly though, I just think BW like many others misjudged how bad it would be.

[GeLopez]

I keep checking the dev tracker every day to see if any news is going to come up. Nothing.

[Jswizzle]

Wait so people are complaining about population imbalance, and instead of toughing it out you are just joining the imperial side?

 

/smacks forehead

[Finious]

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?

 

Honestly cant say it bothers me.

 

As with almost every MMO that releases theres an obvious pop-faction and underdog faction.

In time it will actually swing back the other way and then in more time it will start to level out.

 

The problem is most disturbed white male teens with daddy issues and confusion of sexuality tend to be attracted to the Evil/Dark factions. Then in time with enough hate and QQs theres a backlash and it swings the other direction. Finally 2 years later it starts to level off..

 

Give it time. Until then, queue up for pvp warzones and enjoy stomping imps knowing there are crying teens on the other end of that body hating their parents even more.

[Dodgeballer]

I'm not going to read any of this thread,

 

Low Pop - switch to a high pop server if you care that much.

 

Faction imbalance - give bonuses to the underpopulated faction. (ie bonus exp, valor, quest rewards etc) will change things in a heartbeat.

[Rodanth_The_Wise]

I admittedly do not have all the information since I am not working for Bioware, but I think server mergers and transfers along with experience and loot incentives to roll the underpopulated faction could help a lot. I would also like if Bioware made the population caps on Ilum were faction-based, so if the population cap right now is about 100 it could instead be made to scale up to 50 Republic and 50 Empire.

 

But, like I said, I don't have all of the information, and I'm not trying to be an armchair developer. I just want to see some sort of information that eases a lot of people's main concern with the game.

 

Honestly, this "loot and incentive for rolling the underpop faction" BS is exactly that, BS. People want to play the faction THEY CHOOSE TO PLAY. If they don't like the republic's story, and are more in line with the Empire, than guess what faction they are going to play? The empire. So now you're going to punish people who chose Empire by giving the opposing faction the opportunity to get items you cannot acquire? Makes zero sense. THINK about what you're proposing before spouting off this non-sense. I even play republic, and in most cases, empire outnumbers the republic. Do I care? No, I honestly don't. Because I'm not going to sit here and claim that bioware should take ANYTHING away from the players who chose to play the faction that has a higher popularity. The amount of whining and incessant ranting going on is absolutely sickening. I honestly hate to bring World of Warcraft up into this discussion but that game has been out for how long now, 7 years? Guess what...it's had population imbalances since day one. Have they implemented a system to correct this yet? No. And don't say server transfers made a difference, because while they did help to a slight degree, it did not CORRECT the problem. And in order for it to make an impact, entire guilds had to transfer at once. And if people wanted to play Horde, or Alliance, nothing would change that.

 

I mean, just like at how many servers Blizzard came out with trying to fix the problem. Do you know what happened to all those new servers? Go look at them now. They are DEAD. With people begging for server mergers or being forced to transfer off to a higher pop realm. Look at the 50 realms or so blizzard offers for NA servers alone. Almost half of them are either imbalanced by at least 2:1 or DEAD.

 

That's really not the point though. The point of my argument is simply that you absolutely, CANNOT, offer extra incentive to players for rolling a specific faction. It creates even more imbalances without fixing the original problem.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Rodanth_The_Wise

[Dharst]

Low pop solution - Roll on a busier server - or - server merges

 

Faction balance solution - Tell players they MUST roll republic or they cant play.

 

1st one might work, the second.... i doubt it.

 

Should have done that in the beginning- Close out Imperial option on all servers until enough folks had signed with Republic.

 

Once you were choosing your character- you had already bought the game. Do you really think folks would turn and walk away without ever rolling at that point.

 

It'd be an epic fail today... missed opportunity.

 

In reality there's no solution nor do I see server mergers- what are going to do make the Imperial population imbalance even worse? Rewards, buffs, or nerfs... will only piss off someone... quite likely the majority player block (who has the most subs).

 

Just change the name to Star Wars The Imperial Order... and have done. Offer all Republic players a faction transfer to the Imperium and let Illum be an everyone for themselves world. A one faction game... that is essentially what we have already. There won't be any more speculation or angst because Devs show love for one over the other... if there's only one left.

[Motivationman]

Simple solution to faction imbalance: exp bonuses.

 

Say the split is 55-45 empire, then republic quests, mob kills, and pvp yield 5% more exp than normal

 

60-40 split make it 10% more

 

70-30 split 20% more

 

I play empire but I'd like to roll some republic alts at some point for the story. If leveling was faster I'd totally do it.

 

Merge a few of the low pop servers (not all are low pop, my server mind trick has well over 200 in Imperial fleet at peak hours which I consider to be a lot) and give exp bonuses to incentivize faction balance. Those who want to see more class stories do and the grind is much less. I'm sure there are also at least some heavy republic servers where this can work in reverse. Everybody wins.