Population Balance in Darkfall?

Gyrus

Okay... so what have we all overlooked?

Population balance.

I don't think it takes a Brain Surgeon to figure out that the Orks,  Mahirim and the Alfar (the 'baddies' basically) will be the most popular.

So, what (if any) mechanisms are in place to balance populations?

 

And:

If the populations are not balanced - will it be a game-breaker?

ImperiumRule

Question - were you in beta?  Nothing sinister meant by that, im just curious.

 

The orks btw...very underplayed.  Unless they give em some racial benefits, they will be terribly underpopulated.

Mahirim are fun and populated, as are the alfar.

But the human, mirdian, dwarf faction are just as popular.  During beta I really didnt notice a bad population balance in terms of factions, and certainly nothing to suggest that the human, mirdain, dwarf faction would be significantly less populated, if at all, to the point where it would be gamebreaking.

But then again that was beta, but I feel it is a good enough sample size to see what people enjoy playing.

We'll see soon enoguh, but in a game like this, the faction warfare will become less of a factor as guilds matures and move to the islands, war declarations etc...and you can always go red.  Its not like WAR for example where a population imbalance ruins the server.

Gyrus

Originally posted by ImperiumRule


Question - were you in beta?  Nothing sinister meant by that, im just curious.
 No - I was not.  Fair question.  That is why I am asking. :-)
The orks btw...very underplayed.  Unless they give em some racial benefits, they will be terribly underpopulated.
Mahirim are fun and populated, as are the alfar.
But the human, mirdian, dwarf faction are just as popular.  During beta I really didnt notice a bad population balance in terms of factions, and certainly nothing to suggest that the human, mirdain, dwarf faction would be significantly less populated, if at all, to the point where it would be gamebreaking.
But then again that was beta, but I feel it is a good enough sample size to see what people enjoy playing.
IIRC WAR was very balance in Beta too?
We'll see soon enoguh, but in a game like this, the faction warfare will become less of a factor as guilds matures and move to the islands, war declarations etc...and you can always go red.  Its not like WAR for example where a population imbalance ruins the server.
That is my concern.  IIRC the WAR Beta populations were balanced too.  Look what happened there.

 
Just FYI:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/2615486#2615486

(Actually READ the thread - it was not a troll)



http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/197681/page/1

(posts #87 and #91 - on WAR pop balance.  Check the dates.)

 

 

 

jezvin

Over crowding of the noob zones might be an issue but there should be plently of all race guilds and such in the clan war scene that w/e race exsist the most will not really matter.

Also the only having one chacater will affect alot of the naked noob ganking at the start.

I don't really see any issue with the populations be out of balence mainly because once people really get into it the race that you are dosn't matter as much as the clan your in.

Most single race clans I saw also had multiple people flaged red because there was no real need to go back to the protected cities.

jezvin

Originally posted by Gyrus

Originally posted by ImperiumRule


Question - were you in beta?  Nothing sinister meant by that, im just curious.
 No - I was not.  Fair question.  That is why I am asking. :-)
The orks btw...very underplayed.  Unless they give em some racial benefits, they will be terribly underpopulated.
Mahirim are fun and populated, as are the alfar.
But the human, mirdian, dwarf faction are just as popular.  During beta I really didnt notice a bad population balance in terms of factions, and certainly nothing to suggest that the human, mirdain, dwarf faction would be significantly less populated, if at all, to the point where it would be gamebreaking.
But then again that was beta, but I feel it is a good enough sample size to see what people enjoy playing.
IIRC WAR was very balance in Beta too?
We'll see soon enoguh, but in a game like this, the faction warfare will become less of a factor as guilds matures and move to the islands, war declarations etc...and you can always go red.  Its not like WAR for example where a population imbalance ruins the server.
That is my concern.  IIRC the WAR Beta populations were balanced too.  Look what happened there.

 
Just FYI:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/2615486#2615486

(Actually READ the thread - it was not a troll)



http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/197681/page/1

(posts #87 and #91 - on WAR pop balance.  Check the dates.)

 

 

 

I read a little of the FYI post you linked and unlike the WAR beta forums the darkfall ones have quite the e-peen pissing matches and complaints about people exploiting their systems are rampant. so the testers arn't being all that nice in the game.

The beta testers and devs have done a really nice job with the game so far. Ganking noobs will be an issue as it always is but that is why they added a bunch of guard towers around particular areas in the world. In most starting areas guard towers are close enough to the noob mob camps that you will survive a run to a tower. also if massive zergs zerg a tower they will all be hit by it and then looting after will be nearly impossible if they manage to kill anyone at all.

So again population of the diffrent sides will affect very little , if it affects anything at all the lower pops will be BETTER off because they woun't have to deal with more people around the noob spawns trying to level up and get starting gear.

harmonica

I don't think it really matters if one race is more popular than an other.

Although, I did notice that the Humans and the Alfars tended to have the most annoying players.

I didn't realyl ever like the "furry" wolf race, but the people who pick them seemed to be more helpful than any of the other races.

Altairs

Paragus1 has posted some non official census from beta which are quite interesting

http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/Paragus1/012009/3141_Darkfall-Survey-Predicts-Playstyles

Census might change dramatically though. Ie it apears that not many ppl have chosen orks .. considering orks are strength wise overpowered (starting strength 25)  that just might not be the picture at live...

gringemore

Originally posted by harmonica


I don't think it really matters if one race is more popular than an other.
Although, I did notice that the Humans and the Alfars tended to have the most annoying players.
I didn't realyl ever like the "furry" wolf race, but the people who pick them seemed to be more helpful than any of the other races.

 

Alfar known to be the pk race so makes sense not that everyone isnt a pk in that game, just alfar are the rpk's.