[Low Population Bonus] How is it determined?

Dusk_Coven · June 2020

Example:
Savirien-Chorak campaign, PC-NA, ~1730hrs.
AD has 3 bars. EP has 3 bars. DC has 1 bar. But AD has the Low Population bonus. How come?
I watched it for a while, even left and re-entered in case it was just the UI not yet updating.

Same campaign, ~1735 hrs. AD has Lock icon but no queue to get in (which admittedly isn't always the case when there is a Lock icon). EP still 3 bars, DC still 1 bar. I did some wall repairs and confirmed AD did in fact have the Low Population bonus.

How is an alliance "low population" when it has the highest population in the campaign?

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO · June 2020

iirc population is polled over regularly and then the bonus is given until the next polling or longer if the population doesn't change.

So you might find that the bonus is given, players mass join then until the next time it is polled the low pop remains.

Firstmep · June 2020

On EU Blackreach DC had low pop bonus this morning, so a lot of em flocked to the campaign to take advantage of that.
8k ap for a single kill is pretty juicy.
Made like 500k ap in the hour an a half just solo killing ppl and helping taking some keeps.
Its pretty crazy that the bonus gets multiplied by MYM scroll bonus.

Dusk_Coven · June 2020

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO wrote: »

iirc population is polled over regularly and then the bonus is given until the next polling or longer if the population doesn't change.

So you might find that the bonus is given, players mass join then until the next time it is polled the low pop remains.

Of course the system could be one where they poll the counts at intervals.
But in the example I gave, the relative populations were steady over a fair period of time, probably even longer since when I first looked at the campaign, there's no telling how long that relative population and Low Population Bonus had held steady.

In the best case we could say the polling interval is too long.
However, the population is 100% known all the time since people have to basically queue to enter. When someone successfully enters, they know that it happens so the tally would have to be updated to make sure no Alliance goes over population cap before they allow more people to enter.