2 replies to this topic

[stratagos]

So, right now PGI changes factional Loyalty point rewards on a semi-regular basis in order to balance the population numbers.

This works at a gross level, but requires manual intervention, and can 'overpopulate' a faction as a consequence.

I'm wondering if something more dynamic might be useful not only to balance the numbers but also to reduce the influence of the large shifts in population.

If the c-bill or loyalty rewards are inversely proportional to the current player population - ie: a faction with 5% of the active population would have significantly greater rewards than a faction with 15% - then those chasing rewards would tend to gravitate to lower population factions.

This would also reduce the incentive to move en masse to any one faction to swamp someone by sheer weight of numbers - they could still *do* so, but their rewards for those turrent drops would be far less than the defending faction - a faction that might be destined to lose, but would be handsomely rewarded for putting up a fight anyway.

Balancing this will be tricky, as it's not simply the number of players but the number of engaged *borders*l that can determine who swamps who. Obviously people are going to be incentivized to game the system to their benefit, so the rewards will probably need additional balancing.

The 'loyalists' units who stick with underpowered powers get more cash; the overpopulated ones get some cannon fodder, which can help achieve victory more often.

The biggest losers here, of course, are those units who's sheer size massively changes the balance of power. While that's a bug and not a deliberate feature, I think everyone - including the members of those units - can admit that as currently structured the ability of a handful of uber units to set the fate of the Inner Sphere will likely need to be balanced in some way.

[ApolloKaras]

They should look at doing an algorithm that does this and update it daily. That will make these adjustments quicker. I mean look @ FRR, how in the world isn't there a larger Bonus of aligning with them.

[HARDKOR]

Yes, some sort of self balancing mechanism would be ideal. Making the actual match awards be affected by the faction modifier would be more effective as well. The contract money is nothing compared to the part you get on the rewards screen.