131563-lets-talk-about-population-exiles-vs-dominions-page-3

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Can you stop it with your passive aggressiveness already.

I like the Dominion how they are as well, and don't want to see something like an Aurin on our side. They have like 0 appeal to me and don't fit in with the whole Dominion picture (putting Lore aside). And I agree, adding a "cute" race will probably only be a temporary fix to the population problem.


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No. At least in my opinion ;) And the reasons why this is not a good solution and the 15 pages in this thread about fluffy aurins, lore and breaking down faction walls are wrong, are the following: 1) Creating a new race or faction wall changes requires time and resources unavailable which are most likely very scarce at this time 2) Carbino has stated that fluffy Aurins are very close in numbers to humans (and others?) 3) Any fluffy races or lore changes, while it may make more new players join the Dominion, are not a long-term solution. Currently more new players join Exiles over Dominion, on average. If with these changes more new players join Dominion over Exiles on average. The factions would be balanced temporary, untill the Dominion starts to outnumber Exiles... Then what? Introduce a new fluffy race into Exiles to compensate for that? What I think we need (obviously after re-evaluating F2P release), is a cheap, long-term solution. (See my earlier posts in this thread)

Edited September 23, 2015 by Plexieglas


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You need to think a little further than 1 gorgeous/fluffy race on each faction = balanced factions. I created a silly graph to show what I mean, it illustrates the following: Blue line: Active players on Exile Red line: Active players on Dominion First black circle: "Wildstar launch" Second black circle: Today's situation, and hypothetical release of new fluffy race for dominion, in order to "balance" factions as 15 pages of this thread suggest. Third black circle: Break point where Dominion takes over Exile population, the problem resurfaces.

So what's the big deal? It is extremely difficult (read: impossible) to perfectly balance a subjective matter as "race/faction attractiveness", on average, there will always be more players joining one faction over the other. Even if this was possible, the blue and red lines in the graph would stay the same distance from each other forever, meaning the population gap would never be closed. Introducing a new race is not a scale-able solution, if it succeeds at making the dominion more attractive, this will eventually (could be in 1 month, could be in 3 years) lead to the Dominion active population overtaking the Exile population, then the problem starts again. The 15 pages in this thread, in my opinion, do not provide a long-term solution. What we need, is a scale-able incentive for new players, to start their adventure on the faction with the lowest active population.

Most people in this thread, including myself, are not new players launching wildstar for the first time and deciding which faction to pick. In essence we are all biased. XP buffs are just a suggestion, the incentive would need to be good enough to convince enough new players, so the average new joiners DO join the lowest active faction. Let me ask you this: As a new player, would you create your first character on a faction with a lower population for 1% XP bonus during leveling? What about 10%? What about 50% and 10% extra reputation gain? I exaggerate because I want to illustrate the point that an incentive CAN be enough to tip the balance, it just needs to be carefully chosen and scale-able depending on how far the factions are out of balance.

PVP is indeed an important aspect but you have to realize a larger population (even if those are for a large part RP'ers) attract more new players, creating a vicious circle which will eventually lead to a PVP queue inbalance (and this is already the case today). Equal populations are in the best interest of everyone in this type of game, going to equal guild recruitment pools and active in-game communities. The F2P release will hopefully ease the pain, perhaps even bring the factions in close balance of eachother. If not, the above points still stand.

Edited September 23, 2015 by Plexieglas


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Guilty! Those Dominion Warrior and Spellslinger sets, am I right?


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Haha yes. While we sit here arguing the nuance of Artemis Vin's nose hairs, Carbine could instantly solve the problem by giving Dominion something like blood elves.


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Do you really think many Exile players would then commit to playing actively on Dominion? How do you prevent too many players switching over (or not enough)? In my opinion, we need to balance factions using the new players joining Wildstar, by making the majority of those new players join the faction with the lowest active player base.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Plexieglas


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I like your distinction between factions and faction walls. I completely agree to some degree. I'd like to chip in your last paragraph about Exiles not having enough incentive to go Dominion below.

I also said it  before, I don't think we need to balance factions by transferring existing Exile players to Dominion. This means that anyone here, suggesting to have cross-faction banks or mailboxes and making the game more cross-faction and alt-friendly in general, is not part of the target audience. Instead, I suggest to only target brand new players joining Wildstar who haven't decided on their first character yet, give them enough of a carrot-on-a-stick in the form of large enough incentive to roll on faction with the lowest active player base.


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This is highly possible! The main heroic narrative for the Dominion is one that involves a Crisis of Faith. The empire has just recovered from a dark period. The events on Arboria have damaged the public perception of the Dominion and made the Exiles stronger than ever. Forces within and without the Dominion seek to destabilize it. The Emperor has, for mysterious reasons, been unable to show his face in public for 50 years. If you really think about it, the Dominion is not in a good place at the start of the game... it just presents the public image that it is. Nexus is meant to be the thing that saves the Dominion. The second coming. The promise of an Eldan Legacy. A chance for the Dominion to claim its destiny. A Holy Grail. A Rallying Cry. ...But... it isn't. I hate to spoil the world story for people who are just starting, but I will say that Nexus turns out to be nothing like anyone in the Dominion expected. There are revelations hidden on that planet that shake the very foundations of the Dominion's belief systems, and could rip the empire to shreds if left unchecked. Complicating things further, the game presents the Dominion as being very flawed. You see first hand how the old policies are failing in Ellevar and Deradune, and you're often forced to clean up after the messes of DRED. You're made uncomfortable. You're very rarely asked to directly be the bad guy, but the signs of the Dominion's twisted world view are all over the place. They should make you uncomfortable. What the game currently doesn't have you do is do anything about that. The Dominion's story should be a direct confrontation with the Eldan's mistakes. Seeing their flaws, observing how they're reflected in the empire, and finding ways to move beyond them. It should be about the concept of Destiny, and what that actually means. It should be about digging your way out of decadence. It should examine what a massive governing body should be. The Hero of the Dominion shouldn't just be a propaganda figure, or a person who happens to kill a lot of Exiles... the Hero of the Dominion should be the person who saves the Dominion, from the Exiles, the horrors of Nexus, and itself. There's an ideal behind the Dominion, somewhere. Maybe even a genuinely admirable one. If we want to make the Dominion narratively viable, we should find it, bring it to the surface, and fight for it.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Doctor Galex


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I mean, I can see the appeal... I've just never really gotten all that devoted to one side or the other. Sure in WoW and Rift I'd be all "Grrr Alliance/Guardians!" but then I happily played alts on those factions and I welcomed with open arms Rift's tearing down of the faction barriers. Guess I just value being able to play with friends far more than a faction loyalty I really don't get into. :S


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Didn't the Exiles find Nexus first, and started to settle as a means to escape the Dominion, not realizing it was sacred to them?


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