Incentivising the underdogs

[Ilnezhara]

I play on a PvP server, Kinrath Spider to be precise. The pop imbalance is absolutely atrocious and I mean baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. There is barely ANY Republic to fight, ever and I can barely get my daily for Ilum done some days. I was complaining about it (like I do, I'll admit) to my RL friend and he goes:

"Solution's simple, reroll republic."

Truth is, I would love to. There's a fantastic PvP guild over there and most of them are really great players. But that get's me thinking:

"No, I could never go Republic. I'd end up dying to the guys that are helping me gang kill people now and... well I know from first hand experience that 60%+ of them are moronic paint huffers. I think it would frustrate me too much to lose because of their numbers to absolutely horrendous players."

That got me to thinking:

"But what if there were incentives to being the underdog faction? What is I would get more valor / kill than them (regardless of level of control of Ilum, since the whole problem is unfairness in numbers), what if my alt leveled faster? What if they added a "bolster" mechanic to the underdog in Ilum? (Think a Tenacity from Wintergrasp that actually increases the two stats that matter (HP and Expertise)."

What do you guys think? Do the underdog factions on imbalanced servers deserve some kind of incentive? Getting farmed isn't fun for anyone and it certainly isn't good for server dynamics. Lose too much and they'll just quit the game or quit PvP, then where are we?

[Deleted]

I kinda wish BW never implemented PvP....It just feels like too much hassle for MMORPGs

[Larynx]

I kinda wish BW never implemented PvP....It just feels like too much hassle for MMORPGs

Unless the PvP is affecting the PvE, why would you not want it implemented?

[Art3x]

Sounds like you're scared to me. You only want to be on the side that gets easy wins. I could be wrong but it's what it sounds like.

[ZeroWashu]

I kinda wish BW never implemented PvP....It just feels like too much hassle for MMORPGs

I wish the only PvP was restricted to PvP servers and/or Warzones

[Deleted]

Sounds like you're scared to me. You only want to be on the side that gets easy wins. I could be wrong but it's what it sounds like.

It doesn't sound [*read] anything like that.

The OP's implying that he's quite happy to play the underdog. But would like reward that is commensurate with the amount of extra time / effort / skill he'll need to employ to have any chance of winning. Because he'll be regularly outnumbered.

Moreover, his justification isn't about winning. It's about actually being able to PvP at all. If the outnumbered side quits in sheer frustration then there will be no PvP, i.e. it takes two to Tango.

[Deleted]

Unless the PvP is affecting the PvE, why would you not want it implemented?

Because it affects PvE

[Vongimi]

Can't really have a star wars game with no PvP if you have an imperial and republic side...

[Art3x]

If you say so.

Sounds like pvping as alliance in WoW.

[Deleted]

Can't really have a star wars game with no PvP if you have an imperial and republic side...

Can have Empire v Republic without PvP...Personally I feel factions are an ougdated feature

[Art3x]

Can have Empire v Republic without PvP...Personally I feel factions are an ougdated feature

Then you obviously only focus on PvE, which is cool. However, lots of people play MMO's specifically for the PvP aspect of it and it would stupid for a company to miss out customers by excluding one aspect or the other. It's all about the bottom line.

[SoCal]

I switched and am glad.. I like the imp storys and GTN far better; however I like playing the underdog side.

[Deleted]

Then you obviously only focus on PvE, which is cool. However, lots of people play MMO's specifically for the PvP aspect of it and it would stupid for a company to miss out customers by excluding one aspect or the other. It's all about the bottom line.

MMOs yes but in MMORPGs it just gets muddled due to the impossible task of balancing PvP without affecting PvE

[Deleted]

MMOs yes but in MMORPGs it just gets muddled due to the impossible task of balancing PvP without affecting PvE

With all due respect mate, you're taking this thread off topic. The OP posted a discussion about incentivising the underdogs in PvP. Not whether there should, in fact, be any PvP at all. That discussion really belongs in another thread. Plus PvP will only ever really have a serious impact on PvE if there was an Arena (2 vs 2, 3 vs 3 etc). Which there is not.

P.S. I'm no great PvP fan, and understand your misgivings. But if there was ever a situation that perfectly lent itself to faction PvP, it's this one. Star Wars has always been about Sith v Jedi.

[Deleted]

I don't like the idea of getting more HP/expertise being the "underdog". PvP should be about skill, not who choose the right faction. It's already pretty bad with gear right now, adding something like that will just make it worse.

I think a small amount of more Valor-per-Wpvp-kill and an exp bonus will help the faction imbalance, if just a bit.

[Koalachan]

The problem is if they reward people for rolling republic, then everyone will feel they need to roll republic to get that reward. Then everyone rolls pubs, now Empire is the underdog. Now Empire either needs a reward, or they need to take the reward away from Republic, well they won't want to take it away, cause they know people will complain, so they give empire a better reward to encourage people to move back. Now people are mad cause Empire already was the better faction before the reward system, but now it ALSO has the better reward, so everyone goes Empire. Back and forth and back and forth.

[Hellfury]

You incentivate underdogs with better "faction" or "race" bonus, Horde racials were OP in vanilla for a reason. Blizzard doesnt admit it but only a fool dont see that. Now the racials are more balanced.

Swtor dont have racial bonus and rightfully so Bioware have to find other ways, they could had made some mirror classes more badass but infact it seems they thought everyone was gona roll Republic so they made the Imperial ones better and it backfired heavly.

It can be seen on this interview of a the Lead Designer Emanuel Lusinchi and this is from August 2011, the guy even said they thought everyone would roll Jedi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ4-14VgkeY

[Deleted]

I have no idea why people are suggesting stat bolstering.

It didn't worked in WoW.
It even doesn't work in SWTOR warzones (I always got owned as low level Marauder and Powertech and now getting owned as a low level Operative, but after reaching 40 - lo and behold, I'm a God in warzones).

[xeonix]

I like your thinking. There is alot of potential although i wouldnt enjoy a side having benefits the other does not. What CAN Happen tho is when a planet is say 70/30 the 30% faction can get a +hp boost buff while they are outnumbered OR , get alot more Valor when killing the others. Another solution is to offer FREE migration now to switch sides. That will surely balance things out as the hesitation comes atm from people who invested on a char and cba to level another without being able to eg send money to their original char or get free boosts from h

[Kouki]

Aion incentivized players to play asmodian, there was an exp buff and others, it still exists and has not solved the problem.