Options to Balance Republic vs. Empire Population

[mlbrogueone]

I've read quite a bit on the forums about how there are many more Imperial players than Republic, and how this has greatly unbalanced the PvP situation. I am primarily a PvE player who enjoys the occasional PvP. I don't spend a great deal of time on Illum, and I tend to be on at odd ball times, but I have found the Republic population on Illum to be a bit miniscule. I have a couple of suggestions that I believe could help create a more balanced population, and also make the game even more enjoyable for PvE players.

 

First let me say what not to do. I don't think Republic classes need to be over powered, or Imperial classes nerfed. I've played around a bit with characters on both sides. While the mirroring may not be perfect, I believe it is pretty close and I don't believe any actions should be taken that would upset the actual balance of what 2 equal players can do with mirrored classes.

 

What I would do:

 

1.) More alien species options for the Republic. A huge part of the appeal of Star Wars are all the really cool non-humanoid alien species out there. From Wookiees to Trandoshans to Jawas to Ewoks (yub yub). As a former "old fashioned" West End Games/Wizards of the Coast paper and book roleplaying gamer I can say that the appeal of imagining playing as an exotic alien speices was thrilling. Unfortunately most of playable species are basicallly very humanoid looking. If the Republic was the first faction to get a reallly cool species, maybe even just one like the Wookiees, then I believe more players would go over to the Republic for that alone. While Wookies are traditionally stronger than humanoids, the Wookiee toons could be given identical strength/aim/etc. stats to the humanoid characters so that the game mechanics would still be balanced, the only differences would be asthetic and stylistic.

 

I recognize that an addition like this would require a fair amount of work on the part of Bioware to create new animations, work out armor and gear graphics, and add subtitled Wookiee grunts to the dialogue of the cut scenes. I would not expect such an update soon, but I think it would be an update well worthwhile. In later updates I think it woudl also be great to see even more species, but just adding Wookiees would be a huge plus for me, especially since there are already some Wookiee animations for companion characters.

 

2.) Inact population caps on servers. Lets imagine a server has a capacity of 1000 players just for the sake of creating an example. Limit the number of players from any one faction to say 50-100 more than the other. So if there are 400 Republic players on the server, then there can only be a max of 500 Imperials. Maybe add a message that tells players if they really want to get on right now they can either play as the other faction or wait in a cue. I know there might be issues realting to what happens if a significant number of players from one faction log off, but this option might help a bit.

 

3.) Create a third faction, the underworld/Hutt faction and allow Bounty Hunters and Smugglers to switch to that faction. Then create more literal mirror classes with an Imperial trooper and a Republic agent. Perhaps also provide the Hutt faction with force sensitive classes that mirror the Jedi/Sith. Then create a faction points system where bounty hunters and smugglers start off being able to go to any world, but lose that option if they do too many things for one side or the other. Perhaps also add a bribery system so that if I kill a lot of Republic NPCS I can wipe my slate clean and return to Republic worlds. I believe many players are interested in the characters who started out more neutral, like Han Solo or Boba Fett, and would like to roleplay that way.

 

I would also provide the rare option at the end of story line quests for Jedi to go over to the dark side, or Sith to be redeemed and switch factions. Perhaps give the trooper a chance to become a Bounty Hunter and leave the Republic, give the smuggler a chance to become a spy/agent.

 

I recongize the mechanics of this last option are extremely difficult, and it is also difficult to predict what kind of new balance issues might result to the ever evolvoing community, but I do believe that there is a lot of potential for this last option.