You are going to lose subs if u don't incentivise republic.

wish more people on jung ma would roll republic 150 people on fleet at peak hours, 300 on imperial -_- rest of the zones are 40ish till belsavis / voss, drops down to 20 or less

The reason why people play Imp is simple, the majority always chooses the evil side!

Im afraid it doesnt balance out. Go and ask the alliance on thaurissan. As soon as you make one of the key aspects of the game an open pvp objective whihc depends on brute numbers, it wont ever balance out.

In wow at least they had the battleground queue incentive (it didnt work, all pvp oceanics were heavy horde and continued to be so despite the disincentive of queue times). In this game, rather ironically, if you roll republic you actually have WORSE queue times (at level 50).

You see empire players can fight each other in huttball (hence the endless huttball) but very few republic players are even queueing on low/medium pop servers. So eventually when they do pop they also pop with less players and so get creamed causing of course players to stop wasting their time sat in queues waiting for a mere 7 other players, just to be farmed.

And part of the future plan, to alleviate the misery of empire players constantly playing huttball, is to add a second non faction specific warzone. Thus empire players have even less cause to reroll (and republic players have even more reason).

This as you know is just the tip of the iceberg. Throw in fewer tanks and healers because people end up rolling "PVP" classes (DPS), or classes with stealth so they can quest in peace. Compound this with a lack of depth in raid rosters leading to guild poaching and the destruction of smaller more casual guilds. Might as well spice it up with an economy with few resources and higher prices, and less means to make money outside of rolling pure money making gathering skills to sell to the fewer and fewer crafters that are dropping out because it costs a fortune to level and yet only pays off at the higher tiers because questing gear is usually fine.

Man, theres just so many reasons why it wont balance out. The incentives just arent there. People may reroll, they may switch to republiuc to be part of the solution, but after an hour spamming in teh fleet for an esseles run (or worse ANY OTHER FP AFTER ESSELES), theyll realise theyre just wasting their time.

And then theyll go into a warzone and get steamrollered because they have so many more lower levels queueing as people try and work out if they like teh taste of republic.

They might stick with it to see the story, but by the time they start running those planets outside the starter zone, (not even mentioning coruscant fatigue), the initial surge will wear off.

On the other hand, your republic dude who switches to empire will be amazed by the number of people looking for groups and an economy that has all the nice gear youll need to progress and build your character around. You might get sick of huttball, but well, at least youre probably winning. Its a wonderfully warm and cuddly welcome. Things will annoy you of course, and maybe youll feel icky that you switched because you couldnt hack the hardship on republic side... but in 2 years when everyone but the most hardcore solo players are playing empire, youll be too busy shouting "for the empire!" or some other crap with your 6 or 7 single faction warzones and guild based world pvp objectives (once they realise that the only solution to no opposite factions coming to get farmed are open world/open faction pvp rather than solving the problem at the source - why are the few people who rolled republic leaving in droves?)

Its way past the point of no return. If left to its own devices, the republic will go the way of the dodo. We may actually see the last remaining Jedi just like in the movies!!! We're already mirroring the power difference between the two at the start of a new hope, so why not?

And what is the point of typing all that? The whole point of this thread is the fact Empire in general is better made and Bioware needs to do something about it. Which means change the current state which you are trying to describe. In PvE it will not matter but faction imbalance will hurt Bioware. Some people just dont want to play Empire same as some people do not want to play the Republic. If those who can only accept Republic will find their side broken, they will leave (at least some of them).

The current state of Republic is a good enough incentive for me becouse I for one like to play a side/class which is rare. You would not force me now for example to roll a Sith Sorc. Sorcs must be now like 50% of ENTIRE PvP community lol. I started to level a Mercenary in December but once I realized how many Mercs there are in PvP (2nd most popular class after Sorcs) I suddenly felt repelled from them and didnt logged on my Merc since few weeks.

But many people like to play FotM. Instead of rolling smth more unique and help the overall game balance they rather become Sith Sorc #345789. For them Bioware needs to add some sort of incentive. Not gamebraking but something that will scream "you only get this goodie if you roll the Republic".

Only in management-speak land. Which means anyone using it automatically fails to make whatever point they were trying to make.

so you say... so do thousands say... but no one actually does it beyond teh starting worlds... hence the issue.

Please do be a part of teh solution. But until you start partaking in operations on republic and helping coordinate multiple guild zergs of ilum, ill wait with baited breath.

The point was to amuse those of us who haven't had our senses of humor surgically removed (i.e. non-biodrones).

Humorous post, some levity in an otherwise unfortunatle situation that will deteriorate unless BW makes changes. My guess is that they will take baby steps at first, maybe rolling some incentives into the Legacy package, just hope it happens sooner rather than later as faction imbalance could cause sub loss (which noone wants).

My main is 50 Gunslinger. My class choice was also based on fact that nobody in my guild wanted to roll that. I do FP, OPs and Warzones since few weeks. I am part of the solution. If I would not I would keep my mouth shut. I just wish there were more. I dont want everyone to roll Republic. No way, that would be horrible. But there are many people who do not care and they can play both Empire and Republic. And they can go/reroll Republic if some fat loot or whatever will be standing behind it.

Well therein lies the issue that both you and i face. We are staunchly determined to stick with republic. Ive never played on the majority faction. I am Thaurissan alliance since year dot.
But i know first hand what happens to the economy, and i know from this exact experience what happens when the trumpets of whinging start blaring.

Its not just the actual disincentives from numbers (and everything that comes from them), its the prognosis of the future as well. Not only IS the republic losing numbers, but every day a thread is started about faction imbalance more republic will be jumping ship to not become the rare spawn for empire dudes to farm (ever been bounced from group to group getting farmed when youre just trying to complete a few quests? Youre beiong camped in a way, but its completely different people/groups - i used to get that a lot on thaurissan on my poor shammy).

I dont want to be a prophet of doom, but the clarion call is deafening, theres no way around it now. Either bioware do something, or the vicious cycle is going to do what a vicious cycle always does. Soon itll be me, you, and a few scattered idiots with minimal access to end game progression determined to gank empire while leveling up yet another alt in a pointless act of revenge and (misplaced) pride...

Stay on your own side of the universe imperial pig dogs.

The Republic doesn't need to bribe it's members and Jedi are above any sort of material or emotional needs that can be remedied by incentives.

Just leave us be while we wear our goofy looking Shadow hats that look like mushrooms and transvestite wigs and are quickly becoming all the rage in an evermore fashion conscious galaxy.