Villians how to fix redside

I like Redside more then Blueside. The arcs are way way better then those on Blueside. However, if you want to team you need to go blueside. Adding more arcs might work, but even then. What do people do? It used to be newspaper/radio, now it is tips, SFs and of course MA.

Can red side be saved? I doubt it and F2P is not going to help. All people will do is go to the blue side even faster and farm like crazy. I doubt that you will find a living soul in Praetoria soon as well.

I hold to the hope that the Zone redesigns, when they happen, will fix the few issues I do have with Redside.

While I don't car for the 'thug' mentality prevalent in the older content, I did like the idea of needing to do Mayhem missions to get introduced to mission contacts. (Several of those arcs are disappointing, but that's beside the point.)

Of course, circumstance means that I solo more than I team, so the lack of people Redside hasn't really deterred me. Except when I want to actually run a Strike Force… -_-;;

I play both sides, and I have to say revamped Atlas Park means every blueside zone will have to look prettier now. I want Kings Row to look more like Gotham.

Redside? Bump up the lighting just a tad instead of making every dim. THAT'S what's making it seem despressing. I also think St. Martial should have more of a jump from Babylon to... that destroyed area that no one goes to. Also, Grandville was impressive back in CoV release. Buff up that Recluse statue.

It doesn't need fixing.
With the ability to switch sides, players can come and go as they please without being locked in.

If anything, I'd try adding a 30-35 SF or a 40-45 SF in the mix to make it a but more seamless, but the bad side is tons of fun, less bland than blueside and apart from doing the patron arcs for APPs, much more enjoyable.

The solo content is better redside ill admit that.

But the population and reward imbalance are so great as to nullify it.

The problem isn't as big as it seems. Blueside will always have more players. Now the devs could focus on bringing out new stuff and making changes to the redside while neglecting blue and that would move people around a little.

But really, as long as there's enough people on the server in general, redside will be okay. If there's a population problem redside, then there's likely a population problem on the server itself.

Most players act like the problem doesn't exist, and this ostrich mentality discourages the devs from doing what's necessary (mergers or server structure changes to bring players together). And besides the bump that freedom will bring, failing to acknowledge issues that are important to the silent majority of the mmo genre's playerbase (ghost town servers being one I assure you), will just result in a continued decline.

Perhaps it's impossible to avoid altogether, but acknowledging and reacting to the problem would likely slow this exodus, and at the very least make gameplay more enjoyable for those who are sticking it out.

CoV was the 2nd attempt at writing the game, Praetoria the third. Each took lessons learned from the previous while designing it.

CoV has clean distinct story arcs. CoH has story arcs but they may be buried among a plethora of unrelated missions. CoV has fewer "go kill 10 rats" or "go visit these 5 spots" missions. However in terms of shear number of missions, CoH simply has a ton more. Missions in CoV also are better written. However their was a much longer delay before Level 41-50 missions became available in CoV (7 months Vs 2 months in CoH).

CoV zones remind me more of old European cities, with short narrow streets that don't meet at nice right angles (not fun for superspeeders). CoH is more open, has a less claustrophobic feeling to it. CoV has a more dynamic environment, more trash randomly blowing about, seagulls flying in the skies. CoV's architecture is also more intricate. Less different sized boxes and more unique, complex buildings. The added polygon count make CoV slower when it first came out. You could have an acceptable framerate in CoH but CoV knocks 20% off. It also pushed the realistic minimum hardware requirements up. I would imagine that for some the decrease in performance in CoV was enough to dissuade them from playing there until they got a better rig.

CoV mob critters count fell somewhere between normal and hazard zone densities from CoH. Combine that with the narrow streets and compactness of the zones you could easily turn the corner on the way to a mission and find yourself in a world of hurt.

And all these differences still don't address the basic issue of being your own villain instead of being just another participate in Lord Recluse's Darwinian experiment to find the chosen ones. I'll reiterate what others have said, you feel like a minion or lackey and less like your own (wo)man.