[Malorn]

Originally Posted by Eyeklops

How about a "cap" on how much resources an individual can "hoard." That way there is defined limit to how "rich" you can be resource wise.

While resource caps are certainly needed on a per-individual basis (there was another thread on that topic recently), this is more of a difference in resource-rate issue between two empires on the same continent. Even with a small cap a rich empire can consistently pull the most heavily upgraded loadouts while a poor empire might be struggling just to pull stock tanks / aircraft. When they clash the poor empire is at a disadvantage, either because they lack the resources to even pull a competing vehicle or because the vehicle they pull has fewer upgrades. The disadvantage is by-design and is the purpose of the resource system, however it also perpetuates the dominance.

With enough continents the rich-get-richer problem might not matter as much as you could always go to another continent. But with only 3 continents getting pushed back in one will be limiting to an empire, and getting pushed back in two will really suck. The one continent where you might have enough resources to consistently pull the loadouts you want could be population-locked or just terribly laggy due to the high concentration of players being forced into a small space after getting hammered on the other continents.

If the factions with less territory lose even more territory then the bigger empire begins to really see an increase in back hacking. Which while difficult for the invaders, they would only really need a 100 or so to pull up to double that of the larger empire's people off the front line for the invader's empire to push back out again.

I agree that back-hacking is the way out of a situation where your empire is pushed back to very few territories. However, the way the capture system works it gives a huge benefit to the defender, both in stopping the hack and in re-capturing the territory if it is taken. I had an analysis of that capture system here:
http://www.planetside-universe.com/s...ad.php?t=40416

So there's two systems working against the "poor" empire in this case:
1) few resources to wage war
2) the dominant empire has few vulnerabilities in their territories due to most of them having many other adjacent territories, and as a result the poor empire is at a severe attacking disadvantage

All it would take is a few old fashioned rapid-response squads to stop the back hacks. Even if they escalated the back hacks they're still at a severe disadvantage, and the defenders have access to effectively all the resources they could want to fight them off.

Both of these issues need to be addressed in some fashion, and giving the dominant empire a penalty to their resecure/capture rate seems like a good way to counteract the second problem (prorated of course as they gianed more territory the penalty increases). That would make it easier for the back-hacks to succeed, since back-hacks are unlikely to be successful normally by-design. It would also make it easier for the 3rd empire to enter the scene to help push back the dominant empire.