I think a mix of both soft/hard coding is the best. Other options is to somewhat arbitrarily decide for one over the other. Hard coding makes teams matter more. Soft coding lets people play together. If the server is successful i.e. more than 90 on at prime time, hard coding will probably be viable if they just flip a coin.
Soft coding will definitely alienate the current red99 crew. I use to hate soft coding myself. But I think I could deal with it if it was necessary for some valid reason (population, RP, etc)
Not sure if maintaining the integrity of current guilds is a valid enough reason for me. I would say no. Those people can reroll with the support of their friends and guilds. Or just play on the team they wind up on.
I know most of the regulars here already have 3 characters+. So IMO its not unreasonable to expect everyone to have a 50+ or twink on each team on their main account.
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