The perk system does not punish new people for being new, that's a straw man and you know it as well as I. They can EARN perk points, no one can EARN their way around the ENY system. New players don't have perks taken away, they never had them to begin with. But they ARE given the opportunity to EARN them.
The first problem we have here is the multitude of likely false assumptions about the reasons why Rooks don't want to switch.
First we have the assumption that Rooks are Rooks because they get more and easier resets and more perk points. So, what IS the average reset rate among counties, and IS there a great disparity? Also, you get 75 lousy perks for a reset, and if you get a reset with hordes, you earn very few perk points along the way.
Second, we have the assumption that Rooks are Rooks because hordes make kills easy. Really? If the odds are 2:1 or greater in favor of Rooks, then most of the Rooks aren't getting most of the kills. Just like the real war, a relativelysmall percentage get a relatively large percentage of the kills.
Third, we have the assumption that as a rule, Rooks generally suck, and are no talent gang bangers. So the only way they get ANY kills is by vastly superior odds. But there are really good pilots on all three sides, and once again, refer to assumption 2 above, and note that a relatively small percentage of of players get a relatively large percentage of the kills.
These three assupmtions cover the general multitude of assumptions about the Rooks and their supposed massive overwhelming numerical superiority.
These three assumptions may be and probably are true in some cases for some people who are Rooks. Such people are transients, and will wander about seeking such things from side to side, and from game to game. They are NOT part of the CORE player group nor are they part of the CORE customer base.
Now, lets look at why those assumptions make Rooks reluctant to go anywhere else.
Just read the assumptions. If you were a Rook, would you want to fly with people who assumed this about you, and stated it loudly, plainly, and constantly?
This is not just a set of assumptions that are heard and felt here on the BBS, but also in the game as well.
All over this board, and I can very easily quote posts, name posters, and link to threads, but I won't, you can read _____:"3 or 4 of my ____ (insert name of country, Bishops or Knights) can easily thrash any 10 or 12 Rooks at any time, they all suck". Heard constantly in the MA as well.
No matter how good the guy (and his buddies) is (are), he goes to the top of two lists for me:
1. People I ignore completely.
2. People I REFUSE to fly with.
Now, perhaps the above situation leads Rooks to make a possibly false assumption about the Knights and Bishops.
So, there is a possibility, and indeed an actual likelyhood of false assumptions on all sides.
Interestingly enough, since we know there was a time when Knights AND Bishops easily outnumbered and overpowered Rooks on a VERY regular basis, there has been a time of transition. There is an assumption here that is also likely false. That assumption is that the MAJOR factor behind the ascension of the Rooks is the fact that squads from Knights and Bishops switched to Rooks.
However, if that were actually true, then there would be no reason why they would not switch back and that would be enough to even the odds considerably. This has NOT happened. WHY? Is the assumption that those squads now have it easy, and do not want to switch back? That does not work, because they had it easy when the Bishops and Knights had numerical superiority, but they switched to Rooks anyway. So, we have another false assumption, OR, we have a serious decline in the so called "quality of the players". Which is it?
The next problem is why this has happened and what can or should be done about it.
This is a difficult problem, and cannot be resolved by any mechanism like the ENY limiter alone. It is a problem with PEOPLE. It is a problem with the COMMUNITY.
That means the first thing that must be done is to throw out ALL of the assumptions about the people and the community which cannot be proven true, and those which can be proven false.
Now, as a mechanism to drive players to switch sides, I don't see where the ENY limit system has been any sort of success. It has somewhat levelled the numbers in SOME cases.
The SOLUTION?
Well, there is the MAIN problem, we have people looking to HTC (or anywhere else but within their own ranks) to provide a solution, rather than people within the community working to create their own solution. The problem is that if the Knights and Bishops are short of players actively playing, or even actually subscribed, ONLY the Knights and Bishops can actually provide effective permanent solutions to that problem. The deep rift that apparently exists between the Rooks and the other two countries prevents any real hope of any large side switching. The only things that can be done is recruiting new players agressively, and encouraging inactive players to become active. That has to be done from within the Knights and Bishops. "We're from HTC and we're here to help" ain't gonna create a long term effective solution. Change comes from within.
