Were the factions as balanced pop-wise in PS1 as the polls show?

[Graywolves]

TR ARE IN FACT THE BEST! I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED BY THE POSTS OF PRIDE!

[Hamma]

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

How the hell did it balance itself so well?

Surely one faction would have been more or less appealing in general?

Odd odd odd.

I always find it amazing how close the polls are.

[Tikuto]

Originally Posted by Graywolves

TR ARE IN FACT THE BEST! I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED BY THE POSTS OF PRIDE!

True dat.

[Graywolves]

Originally Posted by Hamma

I always find it amazing how close the polls are.

I think overall the numbers are even, but it's a matter of WHEN they all play. Over the course of a day different empires fluctuate in who has more. Sometimes by alot.

[Coreldan]

Originally Posted by Graywolves

I think overall the numbers are even, but it's a matter of WHEN they all play. Over the course of a day different empires fluctuate in who has more. Sometimes by alot.

Yeah, when I made a poll about what faction should WASP go, the american members were voting VS while european members were voting NC.

Intredasting!

[Shogun]

pah, lot of tr propaganda here ;-)

don´t believe them red devils if you like your freedom!

but you see, every side attracts some people for different reasons.

and the background of the faction is only one aspect that may draw somebody in. there are far more. some choose the faction just because of the look! like "wow red and black looks mean, i´m terran." others love special weapons or vehicles like the magrider or now the scythe. and i guess a lot of people compared the gamestyle possibilitys of the factions and went with the faction that fitted their playstyle or capabilitys best.

i chose nc because i like to shoot slow but with heavy impact. if i aim good, i want good reward for it. if i would prefer to pump out bullets in hyperspeed to do damage to every enemy remotely near my crosshair at once, i would xhange to tr. and if i had problems with ballistic tankshell arcs, i would go for the laser weapon guys.
... ok, i lied, i would never change to the crossdressing rainbow pony faction of noobs, but there are a lot of kids out there that think purple, jersey shore or bling bling gangsta rappers are cool, so even vs gets their population ;-)

[TheBladeRoden]

From what I've seen lately it's either TR or NC in the 40's, the other one in the 30's, and the poor VS in the low 20's.

[SKYeXile]

Provided all the factions are rather balanced, the pops will stay balanced...and there is some incentive for balance, like +XP rate,+ resources, +offline leveling speed. etc. but if one faction is easier to play than the others you will get all the "pro" players bailing from VS to NC...again.

[Metalsheep]

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

Provided all the factions are rather balanced, the pops will stay balanced...and there is some incentive for balance, like +XP rate,+ resources, +offline leveling speed. etc. but if one faction is easier to play than the others you will get all the "pro" players bailing from VS to NC...again.

Well once they nerfed the lasher so that it wasnt a point and click "Kill everything in the room." machine that you actually had to aim a little bit, the fourth empire didnt like that and just went back to NCs point and click kill anything weapon.

Though i admit the lasher needed a CoF tightening post nerf.

I think the incentive system does a good job of balacing out the empires. Even with VS currently sticking around 20%ish pop, they get so many XP bonuses i think the majority of the games BR40's currently exist on the VS. Giving the VS a decent edge when they're outpopped.

[DOUBLEXBAUGH]

VS were always low pop on Emerald. Initially TR had highest pop, then NC started owning most of the world and gained the "fourth empire" for most of 04 and 05. Then a lot of people quit playing and pops were generally even.

[Captain1nsaneo]

The lasher oscillates between over powered and piece of crap. It's currently one of the worst weapons you can have in a close range fight. Reason being is that you can't miss a single orb and expect to win. The JH and MCG both can miss a lot and still be effective due to the spread and rate of fire respectively.

We control your spawn tubes, dance puppets dance.

[Ailos]

I don't care that much about the philosophies of the different empires as much as I care about what weapons I get to use. I'm a one-and-done kind of person (I do it right the first time, every time), so hard-hitting weapons are right up my alley (even if the drawback is a slow fire rate). And the philosophers can go do their own thing and think about what the next step of human evolution should be, or how to best organize the masses. But I guess that's another reason why NC are my empire.

I think the one character per server policy is going to help with the 4th empire, but it won't get rid of it, there'll always be people with multiple accounts. But hopefully, SOE will do a good job of monitoring that (like the Travian team does), and if there are enough servers in each region, hopefully the 4th empire will move from server to server instead of side to side.

[SKYeXile]

Originally Posted by Captain1nsaneo

The lasher oscillates between over powered and piece of crap. It's currently one of the worst weapons you can have in a close range fight. Reason being is that you can't miss a single orb and expect to win. The JH and MCG both can miss a lot and still be effective due to the spread and rate of fire respectively.

We control your spawn tubes, dance puppets dance.

Patch notes:
today: Lasher buffed.
tomorrow: Lasher nerfed.

VS on Markov early days used to be 12-15% though, you had to run with an AI max, spawn in from a tower on all the fucking tube camping homos, fight homos with more homo.