+1 if you want an XP+Valor+Commendation Bonus for the underpopulated side proportional to the imbalance.

Mythic did something similar in DAOC, why not here?

I honestlly think some incentive need's to be given to the reps. Free levels / bonus xp etc would be a good way to encourage that. I've done the grind once and can't bring myself to do it again.

Also, they could do with a % rating on the server select screen to show the imbalance to give an indicator of the server balance.

If I had seen that Imps were 3/1 Reps on my server, I would have rolled a rep. I didn't really have a prefernce to where I played.....

+1 if you want an XP+Valor+Commendation Bonus for the underpopulated side proportional to the imbalance.

 

Mythic did something similar in DAOC, why not here?

It would make sense if there was real open world pvp going on. But there isn't.

As it is, your warzone queues are shorter, so in a way you do get bonus xp, valor, and commendations.

I like the idea of incentives too to even out populations. Incentives don't work quite as fast to balance out problems (it takes time for people to level and such), but over time it should even out populations, without doing things like setting hard population caps which limit what people can do.

In PlanetSide, at the login screen it told you the relative populations of each side and the percentage experience gain that side was receiving globally.

I think a more developed system, that gives incentives to experience, valor, and commendations would be great.

Remember too that people will eventually have alts on both sides (I myself am working on a republic character now, with my main being on empire) so people could easily be swayed to log in whichever side is receiving the benefits, helping even the odds.

I'm sure there are other solutions too, but incentives seem viable from what I have seen in other games.

It would make sense if there was real open world pvp going on. But there isn't.

 

As it is, your warzone queues are shorter, so in a way you do get bonus xp, valor, and commendations.

And yet its imperial pugs that wear champions at least...

+1

But it should have been in the game from the start. Implementing it now that everyone has levelled their toons would have close to no effect.

I'd rather they just balance the PvP areas with better defensible positions, population cap per side, or more NPC's for the lower pop side.

I don't really want people coming to my side for freebies.

Definately bonus to XP but not valour or comms. The number of comms you get has nothing to do with population balance because Wz's are always 8v8 (minus bugged games) and there are just as many Pub premades as there are Imp premades. So even solo Qing your chances for a win are decent. If not, spam region till you have a premade with dedicated heals at least.

Valour is more complicated. At the moment the farming Ops on Illum reap massive gains of valour and the out numbered side simply can't compete. Perhaps Valour bonuses upto Valour 50 would be a good idea, that way the high end Pubs don't suddenly start powering ahead, face rolling in every WZ.

The real problem is the lack luster design of design and the lack of design thought. There is no where for the underdog side to hold up and get some kills, there is nothing to really stop base camping (yes they can use the speeder to get out). I think adding a useable turret at each base would make the zerg think twice about just sitting there pulling people. Alternatively, NPC guards that get pulled and will wipe your zerg if you get too close, like in WAR.

Illum is a problem because of how Valour is rewarded. There is no deminishing returns for the number of people involved in the kill and the Valour rank of the player has no effect on the gains. You should be rewarded more for a 1v1 than a 20v1 but you aren't. WAR did this well, introducing bonuses for the outnumbered side granting bonus Valour (Renown) and WOW did it with stats I was told. If you ran around in small groups hacking at the zerg you would gain MUCH more than running mindlessly with the zerg killing people that are hugely outnumbered.

That said, Illum now is a vast improvement on what Illum was and continued development will make it alot better.

It's already to late for balance.

Imps on my server have been fed so much gear, and with Ilum a larger then normal percentage all have battlemaster gear already now.

The real problem is the lack luster design of design and the lack of design thought. There is no where for the underdog side to hold up and get some kills, there is nothing to really stop base camping (yes they can use the speeder to get out). I think adding a useable turret at each base would make the zerg think twice about just sitting there pulling people. Alternatively, NPC guards that get pulled and will wipe your zerg if you get too close, like in WAR.

This ^

I'd rather they just balance the PvP areas with better defensible positions, population cap per side, or more NPC's for the lower pop side.

 

I don't really want people coming to my side for freebies.

Well, if that makes them come in the first place, then have some freebies!

As soon as they start tampering with players choices they loose all credibility.

The best they can do is make it so there is never a reason to have as many imps and rebs as want to show up at the same place at the same time to fight, but instead to limit conflicts to an 8v8 or 16v16 situation so the pop imbalance is never an issue.

the long term issue - and it's only been 6 weeks since release - is the fact that fresh 50's are going to face the same problem fresh 50's were facing two months after rift released:

you are cat food.

the blue level 50 pvp gear needs to be put back on the vendors. why was this removed? it can be bought before 50 and then worn at 50 so that you can have at least a chance at survival. if it had too much expertise, adjust it so it maxes out at 300 expertise total. this gear should not be moddable and it should be level 48-49 in effectiveness - not 51 like tier 1 pve gear nor what your moddable gear ends up being after you run dailies to get those babies.

300 expertise sound too high? i have champion in every slot except one relic, gloves and belt and i'm at 510 expertise. the next two pieces will put me at 600. re-evaluate your thinking

just buy champion bags before 50? you can only own one, they are unique. then you can have 1k merc and 1k warzone commendations. that' 6 bags when you hit 50. rng could be you get 2-3 items. rng could be you get 18 centurion commendations which isnt even enough to buy a single centurion piece.

add in that on most servers the queue time for the 50 bracket is quite long even for the underpopulated repub side (repubs so fed up with being stomped by premades and the ridiculousness of the new dailies and this combination making it unfeasible for many to get any daily pvp quests done has them not queue'ng at all anymore) means you are going to get commendations in at a MUCH slower rate than you did before the change, and certainly slower than in the 10-49 bracket

the other solution is to let people spend their commendations 10-49 on as many champion bags as they want. now you say 'hey but then when they hit 50 they open a full cargo bay full of bags and are in full champion' and i say as somenoe who's doing this right now - if you only pvp your way to 50 you will 1) be 50 long before you have enough commendations to do that and b) have to run around to all of the planets to finish your class quests because you cant do ANY of the pvp or other dailies until you've finished your class quests through act 3. it's a tradeoff. you also arent out working on gathering professions and you dont make enough money from warzone wins alone to fully fund leveling up 3 crew skils through missions alone. basically, people who already have geared out mains would be the only ones abusing this for alts and quite frankly - let them.

lastly, the ilum pvp area needs to have a bolstering effect for the under populated side as soon as they start to be drastically outnumbered like wintergrasp in wow.

It would make sense if there was real open world pvp going on. But there isn't.

 

As it is, your warzone queues are shorter, so in a way you do get bonus xp, valor, and commendations.

Hah, a good portion of the time it starts, but then shuts down due to lack of players on our side.

As far as world PvP goes, Illum and any other similar content they may develop is likely to be the only real endgame for PvP. It simply will not work unless there are adequate numbers on both sides. This solution is the easiest way to encourage both new players to go Republic and old players to reroll a toon on Republic.