Hello there wonderful people that bother to read this. Having a good day? I hope you are. I write to you this day to give my insight on the problem with PVP on uneven population ratio servers and in the game in general. As you may know currently have as high as a 3-1 Empire to Republic ratio or vice versa**. It may be higher actually in some servers. This obviously is very bad for Warzones and Ilum alike. So here I propose a fix to the Warzone issue and the server population imbalances.

 

1. Cluster your servers into "battlegroups". Yes, this is what WoW does and it works great. You allow these battlegroups to compete with each other in Warzones. This makes for a larger pull of players and if servers are chosen so that you try and rig it so you get an even ratio of Empire to Republic it will solve a lot of player gripes; the instant queue into a losing Huttball game for example or the long wait time for an actual Warzone against the opposing faction.

 

a. Addenddum: A lot of people like Hutbull. Doing this would mean less of it. Allow players to queue separately for Hutbull or just allow us to pick what Warzone or Huttball we wish to queue for. This should not cause any issues if the above system is used. You can make an incentive for queuing for all or random Warzone this way no Warzone is left out in the cold.

 

2. I really like Ilum and actually like its current setup and I am sure it is a lot of fun on even ratio servers. But servers with uneven faction ratios suffer greatly when it comes to open world PVP on Ilum. Believe it or not the majority of complaints come from the faction with the most people. They complain about their side camping the enemy factions’ base to get valor/kills for daily and weekly, claiming it would be faster if we let them out. The reality of the matter is nothing is keeping the enemy in the base. They can take a speeder out.

 

The sad reality is they don’t want to leave, they like getting camped, as it’s far easier for them if the enemy comes to them. And with the death wall in place it’s an easy valor farm. I have spoken with the enemy faction while we camp them via /say and they confirm this for me. Why would they take a 20-30 man pvp ops out into the wilds of Ilum when the opposing faction has 2-3 full ops groups waiting?

 

So how do we resolve this issue? Well obviously an even population would solve the issue entirely for the most part. You may still have issues at non-peak times. Perhaps it is time Ilum became an instance which controls the flow of players but doing that would not be enough. I think focus needs to be put back on the objective rather than on the kills as it is now. You need to make players want to go out there and cap the locations and defend them. I don’t know I have not given the Ilum fix much thought, perhaps an even population is all that is needed.

 

Thanks for reading my ranting for a bit. Hope you all have a wonderful day. =D

 

**I honestly do not know if vice-versa is true. I have heard it said that SWTOR is an Empire heavy game and many servers have more Empire than Republic. Is there any truth to this? Or are there just as many servers with more Republic than Empire out there? If so this would mean a server transfer/faction change would certainly be in order and encouraged!

There aren't any more Battlegroups in WoW. It's all merged.

I approve of this post.

No battlegroups please rather they shut down servers and move people to other servers, i dont want the crap that is BGs in WoW its such a bad design.

Yay for an even larger population pull? WoW's current issue is pre-mades. I am sometimes glad we don't have them and sometimes I long for them lol Depends how the pvp is going.

 

 

Edit: Pre-mades raids/ops are not inherently bad. The issue is WoW does not filter them. By that I mean they don't make it so pre-mades face each other. You can have a full pre-made vs a a bunch of randoms. That is very bad. You eith er have to make sure pre-mades face eahc other or no pre-mades.

 

I am all for no battlegroups if all servers and WZ together.

Edited February 8, 2012 by LocoCubano

input? thoughts?

If you want warcraft, go play warcraft.

 

I prefer server based PvP.

I've never played WoW so I don't know what it's like there. The only solution I can come up with is to force new players to play on certain servers, in an attempt to even out the fractions. It would of course require that we picked fraction prior to picking server. It's either that or merging servers.

I've never played WoW so I don't know what it's like there. The only solution I can come up with is to force new players to play on certain servers, in an attempt to even out the fractions. It would of course require that we picked fraction prior to picking server. It's either that or merging servers.

 

How do you pick fractions?

I really don't like the idea of playing against players I'll never see on my server. I couldn't care less about fighting people I wont ever know, might as well pve. However if it must it must I suppose but that is when pvp got to be a drag in wow for me. I like the sense of community from playing vs people on your own server.

I would prefer more meaningful open-world PvP, you know with objectives, lands/planets/sectors of space to claim & fortify for your faction.

 

Right now Ilum is not much more than king of the hill, who has the biggest zerg takes it. Yes, at the occasion there is the good strategized fight but those are too few between. Why are we all fighting over this ice cube of a planet? To earn valor, get better PvP gear so we can continue to do it some more?

Allow me to change factions, its a mirrored class, gear etc is identical - lets do it BIOWARE!

Allow me to change factions, its a mirrored class, gear etc is identical - lets do it BIOWARE!

 

Agreed. And a one-time free faction change from Empire to Republic on unbalanced servers would probably help the WZ queues and keep Empire players from having to play 80% Huttball matches.

 

But NO to cross-server anything. It will destroy the rivalries and alliances we've created on our servers so queue times are shorter.

while i agree i prefer pvp vs people on server.. if its not balanced its pointless. Wanna liven up Ilum?

 

FIX ILUM

 

1.Remove the kill quest change to armaments only.

2.Make them respawn add and add more spawns.

3.Make it so only the controlling team can loot armaments.

 

All of the sudden.. the objective matters

What you guys think of that?

Non-Server based pvp = Lifeless pvp.

 

I like my sh*t talk and rivals, its half the fun.

Everyone should just come to Ven Zallow!

Only people PvPing in WoW now are MLGers and bored Progression Raiders.

 

Not exactly a glowing recommendation for going that route.

I like being able to face a lot of the same people all the time, it builds up rivalries and helps me identify at the start who is going to be helpful and who is going to be a handicap.

 

Your proposals assume there are republic heavy servers similar to wow where they have servers that lean very heavily to one side for both factions. That is not the case here. Every server is heavy Empire, some more than others but still heavier for Empire.

Well current problem is also empire outnumbering republic or vice versa has allowed that faction to basically gear up faster, I think solution would be giving eveyrthing based off expertise. Something like your damage done is recorded as

 

(Target Expertise/Your Expertise)* Constant

 

Same for valor and commendations. Medals will auto adjust. Even record a kill as not one but Target Expertise/Your EXpertise.

 

 

So if you were fighting a equally geared person you get more, if you kill a lower geared person you get less returns. less medals less commendation less valor. Thsi will slow down gearing upwards of geared people and will fasten up gearing of lower geared characters. The higher you go up the gear chain the more difficult it gets to go up the lower you are the faster you go.

 

 

Kind of like going uphill, you go faster at start because you are fresh and slow is less, as you go up it becomes steeper and you get more tired every step.

 

And allow the faction difference of only +2-3 in ilum to join, as many but with that difference, so there can be 100 repubs but only 102 imps max, That will force server balance. When people wont get into ilum due to their side being over represented they would be either forced to reroll or do something else. Ilum gets balanced and Servers get balanced.

my solution is that I'm going to forget PvP for this game and play DOMINUS when it comes out for real PvP...

-you want to balance PvP?

 

change the team # from 10-man to 12 man.

 

Write some code into the cue that ONLY allows a maximum of 3 of any single class.

 

don't allow the match to start until you have a minimum of 9 on each side.

 

 

At least this way, in the grand scheme of rock-paper-scissors which is supposed to be the class-makeup, if every warzone had 3 of each class (12 total) no one side is overrun with a single class that happens to have the class-abilities most beneficial to taking advantage of some warzone terrain layouts.

 

-and keep regular stats on win/losses based on faction v. faction... if any single faction starts overwhelmingly dominating, perhaps a temporary handicap on damage, or slower res-timer, or increased crit multipliers for the side getting pwned...

 

...i mean c'mon... pvp is supposed to be fun, right? it's the spirit of competion! If one side is continually kicking the crap out of the other side, then for crit sake, spot 'em a few points... keep it interesting!!!

 

-and when it comes to bragging rights... the team who is playing WITH a handicap, if they pull off a win, then THEY get a bigger bonus than usual as well for defeating a sleightly more buffed opponent...

 

the more difficult the opponent, the greater the rewards!!!!

 

 

-remember, the objective here is for EVERYONE to have fun...

 

if a larger number of good players are drawn to one particular faction, then those good players deserve a challenge more fitting to their more refined skill level... and those fewer good players left on the faction with fewer good players can have a better chance of carrying the lame ducks and actually making a GAME out of it!

Edited February 9, 2012 by Krivoklat

The problem with the above is the fact that majority of good players are not drawn to oen faction or another it just so happens that Empire has so many more people that have that many more bad players.

 

The other side has a higher likelihood of having a good group of players in a WZ