Do not envy that decision making process at all, thought I had a tough next quarter . Sure we can keep the ideas and counters coming. Thanks as always Michael
Thank you Michael for information on were the developers stand and what sort of measure's your all looking into this helps shed some light on the subject thank you.
Well I do know that a pretty good idea that Planet Side 1 had in place due to in balanced pop not including there 24 hour timed faction lock was rewarding more experience gain and other features due to having the lowest population so that even when lets say the Vanu soveranty was outnumbered the extra experience and faster gain of other recourses kind of balanced it.
Voted yes and no, I see both sides of the issue at hand having first-hand experience with PS2, GW2, and also being someone who has limited playtime. With respect to faction hopping on the fly when one battle or another isn't going your way... someone else here suggested a timer that starts at log-out. Given how fast paced battles are likely to be then a 10-15 min lock should be sufficient since by the time you get back in on another faction the fight may be over. Further this addresses the issue that for most typical full-time employed/child raising/ full-time school attending (or all three if they really hate sleep) individuals have with only 1-3 hours of game time a day (or less). 10-15 minutes is enough time to take a short break if you have been playing long already, and short enough to be a mild inconvenience without being game breaking to an individual who is short on time already. So it's not a massive deterrent like a lock measured in hours would be, but it is significant enough to do the job in I would think most cases. Further, in the case of someone who has a little more time than their usual group of friends, it leaves the option of going off to play the pilot of a grot "smart" bomb (I hope they implement this) for a little while, and still be able to log-off with time to spare to hop on later with their friends. Now, from the other side, alert style missions. I would say that faction lock on alert should apply for the duration of the alert if you participate in the alert. Meaning the timer should only go active if you leave your factions stronghold or engage an enemy from it. This will help reduce (not eliminate, I don't think there is a perfect way to eliminate) faction swapping to winning sides. Lastly, I saw one other post where someone in this thread mentioned account level experience points. I could only support this if the total possible pool was kept extremely limited, and even then I'm not sure how it would be implemented. Maybe as a bonus pool any character on your account could draw from when unlocking specific types of things? Anyway there's a few more thoughts for the discussion.
The two main concerns that warrant faction locking are: 1. Griefers, spies, ect. Players who hop on the "bad guys team" in a certain area, with their guildies/friends on Ventrilo, TeamSpeak playing for the "good guys". They feed their squaddies constant information on enemy locations and movements. They also "grief" by spawning/destroying or misusing valuable equipment for that faction. 2. Fair weathered players. Hopping off the losing team and joining the winning side. Pretty self explanatory. For those firmly against faction locking, I'd say you've either not experienced an MMO that's realm versus realm, or you want to be able to easily spy or grief the opposing side. Faction locking is warranted, look at any online game that's ever existed that has faction versus faction based gameplay. If you give griefers and cheaters 1 millimeter of room to cheat, grief, spy, they'll take 100 miles and laugh all the way to a cheap victory. Of course the hardcore cheaters will just use a second account and still carry out their jackassery. That's another topic and would require IP or credit card linked to account type of monitoring, which I doubt the devs care to monitor.
This I like.(there is hope) This I like. (but needs more explanation) This I like . (muahahah) Psychopski said: Exactly brother.
I would prefer grey's reward for loyalty over a faction lock, I plan on playing multiple factions depending on which friends are online and getting locked out for hours is a deal breaker. If the sides were mostly copies like ps2 I wouldn't have as much of a problem but each faction is suppose to offer different styles of play. I'm not paying full price for a game that I can only enjoy a fourth of the content then have to wait hours to try something else. Also I tend to play other factions until my guild gets on and i run with them for a few hours, again having to log out for an hour to join them would suck. I've never had much trouble with spies in any faction based game, griefers can be a nuisance but a simple reporting system can fix them pretty quick. Unlike ps2 you can't simple make a new account each time you get banned for griefing. edit: Longest lockout timer im ok with is 15 minutes.
Any lockout timer needs to have enough growl to dissuade the abuse in the first place or it won't be worth having. It's not there as an arbitrary punishment, which no one wants, it stops people jumping to wherever the trouble is rather than making trouble for someone else. It may be better to just penalize that mercenary playstyle to the point that xp and rp starts to suffer rather than enforcing a lock. Cross-faction resource and xp pools should die in a fire. Why is this ? I've read that sentiment before and I genuinely don't understand it. Why would you not stay with one faction while your friends are offline and just run with the active players ?
An opinion CAN be invalid, as a matter of fact, if it is based upon a falsehood or improperly founded. Not that this matters, but I won't be told I'm wrong when I am right. Everything I said in my post is correct and logically sound. Your argument is poor and not worth a breakdown.
