The way to get rid of both X-realming AND Faction Imbalance in RvR

[JackLope]

Underdog are already struggling.
Don't need another faction to fight?
unless PvE skavens.

If you put skavens on a scale to an objective that it causes at least a delay for a zerg, these skavens would be there for the underdog too. Thats why I don't think it's a good idea.

As I understand it they will be hostile toward overpopulated side but friendly to underpopulated

Pretty much that, yes.
Of course what I suggested is a rough implementation, I am neither a developer nor do I possess any knowledge of what is capable of being achieved within the bounds of the engine they got to work with.
But I do find the attitude (and I believe that is a consistent issue with this particular community) of "nothing could ever work" to be of little service to anyone.
Surely further suggestion and weeding out of kinks within the suggestion I made could serve better than just nay-saying.
Some suggested that instead of Skaven it could just be faction guards, that's not a bad suggestion: I simply suggested Skaven for flavor purposes and as a way to introduce a pathway to acquiring the cosmetics already in the game, perhaps as a reward of engaging with the neutral "creeps" in such maps.
At any rate, defeatist attitude will only get you that far, I believe that implementing ideas that are "out there" is good for keeping things fresh, and in the context of specifically this one, I believe (limited as I am by my lack of knowledge of the engine, always) it would take minimal time to implement and could breathe some fresh air to our stale RvR lakes.

[JackLope]

@OP

So the purpose of LoTD is to have the highest score.

The purpose of the campaign is to flip the zones.

If you "equalize" things with NPCs it would, by definition, make zone flips harder and stall the campaign even more than it does right now. How would your proposal deal with this?

That is an excellent question: I believe the creeps should be limited in their ability to hinder a faction, perhaps they are only capable of capturing BOs (which would give a chance to the defending faction to reset a keep or captured keep) or perhaps their spawning timer could be as limited as to not create a vast chasm of power between the overwhleming faction and the overwhelmed.
On the issue of campaign stalling, I believe that people find the small duration and lack of fighting in the lakes more offending than it just taking more time.
Surely the element of surprise and randomness of the involvement of a 3rd npc faction could help alleviate some of the boredom.
Of course, kinks would have to be ironed out and tested: I am not suggesting a "panacea" rather a notion that should be cross-examined by others as well.

[tazdingo]

i've always liked the idea of NPCs in the lakes. balances things out, adds a new objective, gives new players something that they can reliably do. bring back ordnance too

[Phantasm]

I like idea having NPC as 3rd faction roaming or guarding unprotected objectives for lower population faction.
The hate against NPCs in lakes was understood when we had population 2k + or NA 500+, but when NA comes closer to 100, its worth to reconsider idea.

[mekal]

so make the game even more pve? lol no thanks

would rather have kills contribute to a zone score tied to aao

first faction to 1000 points flips zone
taking a keep grants 500 points scaled with aao 300 points for overpopulated realm 700 points for underdog
1 kill grants 1 point
1 kill with with 50% aao grants 1.5 and so on
holding a bo grants slow trickle of .5 per minute again scaled with aao
basically just make each zone a giant pq
ofc every number can be changed

[JackLope]

so make the game even more pve? lol no thanks

would rather have kills contribute to a zone score tied to aao

first faction to 1000 points flips zone
taking a keep grants 500 points scaled with aao 300 points for overpopulated realm 700 points for underdog
1 kill grants 1 point
1 kill with with 50% aao grants 1.5 and so on
holding a bo grants slow trickle of .5 per minute again scaled with aao
basically just make each zone a giant pq
ofc every number can be changed

A point system is an interesting idea but there are 2 pitfalls to consider:
Implement that, and then there's even less incentive for anyone to actually siege anything:
And the 2nd point, it wouldn't really change anything regarding either overwhelming numbers or x-realming, would it now?
It would just allow the roadrolling faction to engage with mechanics even less, seeing as kills would be much more easily achieved with higher numbers. Come to think of it, that suggestion would probably exacerbate the issue rather than soothe it.

[mekal]

A point system is an interesting idea but there are 2 pitfalls to consider:
Implement that, and then there's even less incentive for anyone to actually siege anything:
And the 2nd point, it wouldn't really change anything regarding either overwhelming numbers or x-realming, would it now?
It would just allow the roadrolling faction to engage with mechanics even less, seeing as kills would be much more easily achieved with higher numbers. Come to think of it, that suggestion would probably exacerbate the issue rather than soothe it.

tying things to aao is the big thing here
there are lots of small skirmishes/ganks in zones for the lower populated realm that contribute to nothing already give those players a meaningful way to push things in favor of their realm youll see less of a defeatist attitude
if the zerg decides to siege underdog can spread out hold BOs, gank or even try to defend since aao will grant higher rewards

its not perfect by any means but it better than what we have while further incentivizing actual pvp and much better than adding in even more pve nonsense

side bonus youll really give realm prider underdogs something to feel good about beating back the zerg while outnumbered

[gyps]

Lots of ideas, lots of things that can be done or tried but we need devs to take this on their hands and I believe they are currently busy with some other stuff.

Patience is the only thing we can practice right now

[rejndjer]

so make the game even more pve? lol no thanks

would rather have kills contribute to a zone score tied to aao

first faction to 1000 points flips zone
taking a keep grants 500 points scaled with aao 300 points for overpopulated realm 700 points for underdog
1 kill grants 1 point
1 kill with with 50% aao grants 1.5 and so on
holding a bo grants slow trickle of .5 per minute again scaled with aao
basically just make each zone a giant pq
ofc every number can be changed

i agree with this suggestion. half of people playing this game dont give a crap about campaign/sieges anyway. so let's stop acting like campaign and sieges are part of game and formalize that.

[RuffRyder]

The campaign has lost its purpose since the introduction of the scheduled city.
While I believe that the scheduled city was the right way to go,
the current campaign is missing the war vibe.

While I agree that this in one of the core issues we should remember that along with currency rework the situation became even worse.

Apart from a few guilds playing city instances for the sake of competition (not even being sarcastic here) for many primarily casual players it has been a bane having cities happening during off-hours while city being the only way to reliably stack currency for endgame gear.
So we went from solo/PuG city to solo/PuG RvR without any purpose of advancing the campaign, especially since many players want to avoid having to play a fortress afterwards.

I believe that going away from scheduled cities will at least balance out the situation a bit between those that are looking for competition and advancing the campaign up to city and those spontaneously jumping into the game to acquire some currency for their gear.