the side balancing sucks

[Shuffler]

   As a long time Rook  I remember the knits were the team that was always outnumbered but put up the best fights. 
    Rooks are on the ropes now but we are still: 1 Rook = 3 Bish , 1 Rook = 2 Knits      

That's the spirit. That will change the future as that attitude will catch on to others and the Rook numbers will grow.

It's all ebb and flow.

[VuduVee]

VuduVee - I hear you and feel your pain. The Bish are constantly under Rook / Nit gang bang on a regular basis and when you guys have numbers we get into the same boat.

I do agree though the Rooks have been on a down slide it seems for some time. Probably as already mentioned the hardware upgrades hit everyone at first and some upgraded more quickly than others to get back online. Some others didn't like the new game play and choose to just move on. Different reasons.

So - I guess the question to you is - how would YOU fix the problem? What change would you make to fix or improve the problem?

A wise man once said "Don't bring me a problem without a solution". It's easy for all of us to complain about something that we feel is broken but more difficult to implement a solution that everyone feels will work and will support.


Cheers,
Elec1

good question. i dont have THE answer but maybe suggestions instead. the very first thing for me is on the player base. when i see a dead horse i dont go kick it. i go for the live one that has fight in it. i dont find any satisfaction in beating down a team thats already beat down. but on that same plane, its hard to ask people not to attack any of the other 2 teams. so its a tough one there. for me i go for the main threat everytime.
the next pondering is, i think dandy Randy hit on something worth thinking about. in WW2 you didnt roll a base and use the ords and everything else that was there. you brought your own. you needed a supply line to do that. you would need some sort of automatic supply convoys or human/player resupplliers and people to cover them while they do it. we already do that for towns. the downside of that is that wrangling cats is not an easy task and we know how that usually goes.

EDIT* i had to come back and edit bc i just thought of something. in my opinion the best way to solve this is to have more players. if i owned HTC i may think about offering free subs to youtube gamers like devildoggamer and others who do quite a bit of aviation and ww2 gaming. those guys get 1000s of views in just a few hours. our own Vudu15( not me) is someone who already is established as the go to gamer on YT for AH content. i would offer him free a sub to make a video every week or two. i would promote those videos. next i would buy a YT banner that comes up on aviation videos. your watching a cockpit landing in portugal and there is an AH banner. your watching ww2 aviation gun cam videos and there is an AH banner again. War Thunder has 60k people everyday bc of that.

[whiteman]

Doubt it. Back when we had the different MA's people were dedicated to a colored arena and then dedicated to a specific side.

Late War Orange for life!  Side balancing is up to the players, if you're on the low side you just have to accept and adapt.

[Bruv119]

where is racdogg and the claim jumpers when you need em? 

Every country goes through some number issues eventually, especially if the key horde / landgrab squads leave.   

[Zimme83]

Just assign people to a country when they log on (the one with lowest number) 

[hitech]

Just assign people to a country when they log on (the one with lowest number) 

Evil thought, if you have not changed country in X number of days/weeks, when you log in you are moved to the least populated country and must remain there for the min change country time.

HiTech

[Bruv119]

maybe with the caveat that if you are in a squadron you are tied to the last chess piece the C.O was flying on? 

Hell will break loose if some of the Bish get forced to the other team.     

Not against the idea purely for the giggles. 

[Wiley]

maybe with the caveat that if you are in a squadron you are tied to the last chess piece the C.O was flying on? 

Hell will break loose if some of the Bish get forced to the other team.     

Not against the idea purely for the giggles.

First guy to log in in the squad gets auto allocated.  Squaddies logging in subsequently follow him.  If you've been logged in for more than the minimum side switch time and the numbers aren't within say 10% of each other, you are notified you will be switched to the low number team the next time you land.

Wiley.

[popeye]

If you switch to the low-number side, and fly some minimum number of sorties/hours, you get a "ENY Free Card" that exempts you from ENY for 6 (?) hours the next time you log in.

[Electroman]

Evil thought, if you have not changed country in X number of days/weeks, when you log in you are moved to the least populated country and must remain there for the min change country time.

HiTech

An interesting concept!

One challenge might be if you are in a squad though. Does that mean you as an individual get moved but not the rest of your squad? Do you force all squad members to move at once? If you only move the player how does that affect points (i.e. - I go shooting down my squaddie and vice versa to gain points / perks, etc). How do you control how many people / squads move at any one time?

For a number of people (and you can tell from the comments on this thread and others) some people / squads are very attached to their specific country and loyalists. I'll use myself as an example. While I have been in a few squads over the years I have always remained Bish.

I'm not opposed to the idea and think that is interesting with some parameters put around it making sure everyone at some point has to rotate.

Cheers!
Elec1

[Lazerr]

1 hour side switch....I aint going rook for 6 hours just to have them be the ones with numbers in 2....The players willing to change sides to take on the harder fight are locked to a side and don't want to change because it takes too long to switch back and who knows what's going to happen in a few hours.

sorry but stubbornness is making this harder then it needs to be

Bingo.

[awrabbit]

I dont mind flying Rooks.

I dont mind flying for the underdog.

What I dont really like is ENY but with the side imbalance it is a necessary evil.
 

my whole squad in another sim would always fly on the side with the lowest numbers.
makes for a target rich environment.

maybe someone should start a squad that flys for the country that has the lowest numbers when they log on..... I dont know.

I know that we all tend to get country loyal.  perhaps we should all think about changing our way of thinking as a group and not be as county loyal?

jump on the side with the lowest numbers. fly with the people that you have been flying against and grow some new friendships and maybe even some new squads.

just a thought. ( so dont flame me too much )   

[caldera]

One thing that doesn't help country balance is the 2 vs 1 that typically happens, because it's easier to dogpile the low numbered side than fight the second or highest numbered country.

If there was a loose base capture order, in that you could never have 10% more of one country than another, that would prevent what I just saw:
 
Nits 44% of Rook bases, 4% of Bish bases.
Bish 16% of Rook bases, 0% of Nit bases.

So once the Nits had 10% of Rook and 0% of Bish, they would have to get one Bish base before another Rook base.  This would give a reprieve to the country getting steamrolled from both sides at once.

[whiteman]

One thing that doesn't help country balance is the 2 vs 1 that typically happens, because it's easier to dogpile the low numbered side than fight the second or highest numbered country.

If there was a loose base capture order, in that you could never have 10% more of one country than another, that would prevent what I just saw:
 
Nits 44% of Rook bases, 4% of Bish bases.
Bish 16% of Rook bases, 0% of Nit bases.

So once the Nits had 10% of Rook and 0% of Bish, they would have to get one Bish base before another Rook base.  This would give a reprieve to the country getting steamrolled from both sides at once.

First option I like.

[Randy1]

1 hour side switch...

An absolute disaster.