1h30 Realm Lockout Is Hurting the Game, Not Helping It

[tromat]

DISCLAIMER : i'm an Empire/Bretonnia/Order ultra prider since i was a kid, and i play Destro only when my friends are all logged in this faction, or when i want to play a bit my Goblin Archer. I prefer Realm Pride (if we had more pop) but in this private server situation:

The current 1h30 faction swap timer was meant to protect campaign integrity — but in practice, it’s doing more harm than good to balance and player engagement.

1. It prevents dynamic balance.
When one realm starts dominating, players and guilds who want to help the underdog can’t. Populations can’t stabilize naturally, so one side ends up snowballing for hours. The lockout traps everyone in an imbalanced state.

2. It punishes the underdog.
The weaker realm gets farmed while potential reinforcements are stuck on the other side. Instead of encouraging fights, the timer discourages people from even trying to help.

3. It blocks organized guild support.
Many guilds have players on both factions. With 90-minute locks, they lose the ability to respond to imbalance or join where fights are needed most. This removes one of the community’s strongest tools for restoring balance.

4. It reduces player activity.
When locked out, people don’t wait — they log off. That means fewer players for both sides and emptier RvR.

There are better options:
Shorter timers (30–45 min), dynamic locks based on realm population, or soft penalties for frequent swaps would all discourage abuse without strangling flexibility.

[chovudal]

I think that's complete nonsense, but in my opinion, delete the timer and give people a reward for choosing a side, for example, 1 week gives 100g or 50 crests, and after 4 weeks, the reward could also increase (aegis or more crests).
A reward system is always better than prohibitions.

[tromat]

I think that's complete nonsense, but in my opinion, delete the timer and give people a reward for choosing a side, for example, 1 week gives 100g or 50 crests, and after 4 weeks, the reward could also increase (aegis or more crests).
A reward system is always better than prohibitions.

Isnt it the Daoc Eden server system ? I heard it works well

[vladerethro]

It's always hard to balance realm pop. Reducing lock could helps, although encouraging zone swap can be also good, in EU prime it's a zergy blob in one pairing (Praag mostly) and empty maps elsewhere.

But please, find a way to limit swap in some cases, obvious one I'm thinking of is ppl taking last zone before fort and then xrealming to def the fort on the other side.

[Culexus]

I think that's complete nonsense, but in my opinion, delete the timer and give people a reward for choosing a side, for example, 1 week gives 100g or 50 crests, and after 4 weeks, the reward could also increase (aegis or more crests).
A reward system is always better than prohibitions.

That's a really nice idea. It could put some realm pride back into the game, which was a great part of the experience on live. Made the fights mean something beyond leveling a character.

As with every suggestion, the downside to it is player behavior and the never-ending search for easy mode and ego protection. It could easily turn into a situation where players stack the zerging side that PvDs their way through every zone, and never switch to the opposite realm as it lowers their rewards and/or gets them killed.

[Lucrezia]

In my opinion, the rewards for choosing a side are complete nonsense. We're not on a server with thousands and thousands of players on a daily basis. Everyone who's not blind can see how the population shifts when only 1 Warband (Organized or not) just logs off. It happens nearly daily in the afternoon and we even see it in prime time because not every warband starts and stops at the same hour. There were already a few warband leaders saying they'd log one side only for a week but didn't because most of the nights would have been imbalanced otherwise, at some point people just need to stop to be blind about it.

Reducing the lockout timer would facilitate switching sides in prime time for those that really want it, 1h30 is too restrictive when we count that Prime time is approximately 3 hours, you spend 1h30 hitting doors or farming WC and demoralizing the other side so then you can switch and spend 10 minutes reforming only to find out the side you were farming has now left all the while you ruined your contribution on the other side - granted that you care about rewards, so that's relative -.
45 or 30 minutes of lockout would be better for flexibility and overall quick response forming a solid opposition

[dasparkylad]

I think that's complete nonsense, but in my opinion, delete the timer and give people a reward for choosing a side, for example, 1 week gives 100g or 50 crests, and after 4 weeks, the reward could also increase (aegis or more crests).
A reward system is always better than prohibitions.

That could work, but make sure its based on time played so you don't get people making an alt account where they just leave a character gaining rewards for ages for not even logging on.

[Pinrri]

In my opinion, it’s completely ridiculous that there’s a lockout against a faction that has 100% or more AAO. Honestly, the lockout should apply when one side has too much population, not depending on which faction you’ve been playing for the last hour and a half.

[Martok]

A reward system is always better than prohibitions.

Absolutely true. But good luck with that.

[blakokami]

+1

Realm lockout definitely hurts more than it helps. Pug players don't realize that there are more groups and guilds that want to swap to even out fights than there are people that x-realm to the winning side.