You be the dev: XP for Kill Formulae omgthissucks

[mining]

How bad would upping cr on all the planar mobs to 40 mess things up?
Just seems easier to up the high end mobs then to mess with the xp curve.

A lot.

Maybe Cel/Abyss/Illithids/Posi/Negi etc. but with the current XP formula, a 35 imploding 40 CR mobs would get in excess of 1k XP, if I'm doing my maths right.

[mining]

Ok, newer model with saner low levels + saner jumps + saner everything, I think.



I did a pretty crappy job on highlighting the levelvsCR spread where the XP bonus applies for BIG GAME HUNTING!

[Bargeld]

That looks nice

[mining]

That looks nice

Onoes, nerf it now!

[Monkey]

The formula has a big impact on player behavior.

Giving large amounts of XP for a level 1 toon killing a level 9 monster rewards power leveling, which I consider cheating. So I like how the final formula caps level 1 xp at 51.

I also think we should be encouraging people to party together more and solo less, and that we should be encouraging people to challenge themselves against difficult mobs instead of grinding away on easier mobs. Play well and play together and you should level fast. The curve should be steeper for the first few CR levels above the party level.

Huge, 10+ person parties are pretty mindless, however, and my understanding is that they cause lag. If the formula started deducting XP per kill for each player added to a party beyond the first 4 then it would do a better job of rewarding good play.

The penalty for being in a party a few levels higher than you has been too steep, IMO. Most people will end up choosing to go solo than join a party that's 3 or 4 levels higher than they are. It would be better for the server to encourage more partying by reducing the penalty the lower level characters get on party kills.

[Bargeld]

You need those huge 10+ ppl parties to venture into a couple areas and be successful. Drops there are thin as it is, and often, there are lvl 40s in the party killing xp anyway. You want 4 player, go load up diablo... or wait for the NEW Neverwinter

Historically, good party ranges are 3 lvl spreads. 1-3 or 11-13 or 25-28 etc. Anything beyond that was acceptable if it was fast enough, or depending on what lvl and class you are, where you can solo.

[Rufio]

I don't see any reason not to have really big parties. It is optional, just like soloing is optional. You can always hit up tougher areas if you think the party has gotten too big. Go to celestia with a huge party and you'll wipe really fast if the party is moving along mindlessly.

[Monkey]

True, you need the big parties for the level 40 gear runs, but xp is meaningless on those. People join those parties to try and score high level gear. Tweaking the formula to reduce xp a little on large parties wouldn't discourage anyone from doing those runs. It would just better reflect the challenge of leveling in such a large party.

I think most players like easy xp. They don't like to challenge themselves. They'd prefer DM spawned balor events, power leveling, huge parties swarming through Dragon Eyrie in the high 30s, wailing or imploding mobs in the same areas over and over, whatever it takes to get their builds to 40 as quickly as possible. And what the build looks like all the way up to 40 is unimportant. They want something that will be tough to kill in PvP at 40 and able to solo farm difficult areas. The game for many is about their own inflated egos and proving their level 40 builds are superior to other people's level 40 builds.

I know I'm weird and probably alone in thinking leveling is the funnest and most strategic part of the game. I have dozens of active toons and build my toons to be good in parties and good at leveling because I like the strategic side of forming a good party and choosing a good place to level. I like the social and cooperative side of the game and I like being able to help newbies at any level, anytime. That's just good for the server and for the community. 99% of the time people spend on this server is spent leveling, so that is the focus behind my builds.

I don't think getting toons to 40 should be easy. 40s should be earned, and if you level smarter it should be easier. If you try to grind in easy areas, level solo or want to build something that's lame until it hits 40, leveling should be difficult.

[mining]

True, you need the big parties for the level 40 gear runs, but xp is meaningless on those. People join those parties to try and score high level gear. Tweaking the formula to reduce xp a little on large parties wouldn't discourage anyone from doing those runs. It would just better reflect the challenge of leveling in such a large party.

I think most players like easy xp. They don't like to challenge themselves. They'd prefer DM spawned balor events, power leveling, huge parties swarming through Dragon Eyrie in the high 30s, wailing or imploding mobs in the same areas over and over, whatever it takes to get their builds to 40 as quickly as possible. And what the build looks like all the way up to 40 is unimportant. They want something that will be tough to kill in PvP at 40 and able to solo farm difficult areas. The game for many is about their own inflated egos and proving their level 40 builds are superior to other people's level 40 builds.

I know I'm weird and probably alone in thinking leveling is the funnest and most strategic part of the game. I have dozens of active toons and build my toons to be good in parties and good at leveling because I like the strategic side of forming a good party and choosing a good place to level. I like the social and cooperative side of the game and I like being able to help newbies at any level, anytime. That's just good for the server and for the community. 99% of the time people spend on this server is spent leveling, so that is the focus behind my builds.

I don't think getting toons to 40 should be easy. 40s should be earned, and if you level smarter it should be easier. If you try to grind in easy areas, level solo or want to build something that's lame until it hits 40, leveling should be difficult.

omg when did you start making sense?

[frogofpeace]

Plenty of room for different play styles. Some like the leveling and the social interaction, some like the 40 end game. It's a playground, have fun.

[DeputyDog]

Plenty of room for different play styles. Some like the leveling and the social interaction, some like the 40 end game. It's a playground, have fun.

Yup.

And the areas that require 5-10 people should probably be done at 40 anyway and arnt about xp as was stated above. The end game areas are about gear. xp is a bonus.

[Shadowalker]

Plenty of room for different play styles. Some like the leveling and the social interaction, some like the 40 end game. It's a playground, have fun.

My style of plays varies with my mood. And current mood of the server. Sometimes its like surfing.. and riding the crests, so I got to go where the wave flows. Sometimes I prefer a lvl 1-5 alone with a sand pail and trowel.

[Elagneros]

Never been a fan of big parties. I like smaller raids with maybe 2-4 people who know what they're doing and do things efficiently more than large groups that just hack away at mobs aimlessly. There's less coordination in the big groups, and it's also harder to see what I'm doing or if my character is working effectively.

Also never been a fan of the "get to the level cap ASAP" approach a lot of online gamers have. While slow levleoing is boring, I like to actually take advantage of things lower level characters get to do.

[Delisha Zrazorian]

True, you need the big parties for the level 40 gear runs, but xp is meaningless on those. People join those parties to try and score high level gear. Tweaking the formula to reduce xp a little on large parties wouldn't discourage anyone from doing those runs. It would just better reflect the challenge of leveling in such a large party.

I think most players like easy xp. They don't like to challenge themselves. They'd prefer DM spawned balor events, power leveling, huge parties swarming through Dragon Eyrie in the high 30s, wailing or imploding mobs in the same areas over and over, whatever it takes to get their builds to 40 as quickly as possible. And what the build looks like all the way up to 40 is unimportant. They want something that will be tough to kill in PvP at 40 and able to solo farm difficult areas. The game for many is about their own inflated egos and proving their level 40 builds are superior to other people's level 40 builds.

I know I'm weird and probably alone in thinking leveling is the funnest and most strategic part of the game. I have dozens of active toons and build my toons to be good in parties and good at leveling because I like the strategic side of forming a good party and choosing a good place to level. I like the social and cooperative side of the game and I like being able to help newbies at any level, anytime. That's just good for the server and for the community. 99% of the time people spend on this server is spent leveling, so that is the focus behind my builds.

I don't think getting toons to 40 should be easy. 40s should be earned, and if you level smarter it should be easier. If you try to grind in easy areas, level solo or want to build something that's lame until it hits 40, leveling should be difficult.

*stands and applauds* Bravo! You are not alone!


At your service,
DZ

[Bargeld]

The server is a PvP server (or so we continue to believe). There is fun to be had for the folks that like to level constantly and help people etc. But the core PvP crowd gets their fun out of building a toon. And when I say building, i don't mean leveling. Many of us have our toons created and have a level progression sheet which tells us, down to which skills per level, exactly what to do at each level. Getting to that finished toon is the goal at lvl 1, 11, 21, 31 and 39... and every level in between. Getting the gear to equip them best is another goal. This can only be done by lvl 38+, in large groups usually. For those with similar views as me, it's all about the endgame.

Like Monkey, I could create a new toon every week and have a toon at every single level all the time. This makes me feel like I never reach my above-stated goals. Many toons with different end-builds are similar as they level up, and so, even when you level different toons, the experience/adventure is often repetitive (even as a lowbie). I'm not looking to expand that! I want the 4 month grind from 35-40 to be quicker. Not easier, just quicker. This used to be sped up by large parties, but given the population over the past year, those are more and more difficult to come by.

Most often, we end up with a 3-5 man group 36-39 or something in there, and would go to a few areas known to be good xp. When i say 'good', what I mean is 'not bad'. At level 18-20 you can go to IoD and get 300-450 xp a kill. At 22-24 you can go to skara and get the same. At level 28-30, you needed to move on and thus begins the grind. Gobos used to be the place to go, but they have been 'tweaked' recently, moving them down the list in potential xp areas for those levels. Then there's molemen and the elemental planes. You can solo there till about 32 (most toons cant get into molmen alone tho). What to do solo after that?

The honest truth comes down to this... as far as leveling and cr areas, there are only a few that are 35+, meaning decent xp. And about 3 toons in 100 can solo those places, and in most cases those are built for it, they are PvM toons, not PvP toons. Even as a small group of 38-39, your choices are limited. He's what we figured last night:

Lvl39 ECL3 toon, effectively lvl 42 for xp figures:
DE is cr 35 and can't really be solo'd
HoK, FH, Gobs, dorfs, are cr 29-32 roughly
Elysium is 35 and cant really be solo'd
Celestia and Abyss are 37-39 if i remember.. I know a couple people with very specific toons that solo Abyss. For gear with a lvl 40, not for xp.
DWP is 35+ and solo'd only by a few builds (most SD's that pick their fights) or by dual loggers.

So our group of 3-4 last night was in FH for about 5 hours and I got a total of 7-8k xp @ 39 ecl3. The kills were 14-30 xp each (most were 14-20).
The night before that, gobos were cr 34 when we started (both shaman and warriors) and they were cr 31 by the time they were done (there was tweaking going on in the background ). That equated to 80 xp @ cr34, and 29xp @ cr31. Overall score: 1500 xp in 4 hours with 2 or 3 of us.

To put that in perspective... IoD/Skara gets you that in less than 5 kills, roughly 10-15 minutes.
Killing nexus mobs and other cr21s gets you 10xp. Why would you fight 2 broodlings, a spirit of the woods caster, SD lions and snakes, etc in order to get 1.5-3x the xp per kill. Especially solo. I keep hearing more and more stories about the old days of killing rats for 1xp to get to 40, or grinding the Unknown Evil over and over.

And just a side note that can't truly be determined just yet, but those of us who have been playing these areas for years and making these choices of where to go... yeah all that knowledge is flying out the window. When this is all said and done, the dust settled, we are going to have to recalculate all these areas and set new priorities. No longer can we help with advice about all this until we re-learn it all again. Not a huge deal, but from a player's perspective, last week everything was good and we knew what to do. This week we have no idea, simply because the confidence in knowledge has been broken.

I don't think getting toons to 40 should be easy. 40s should be earned, and if you level smarter it should be easier. If you try to grind in easy areas, level solo or want to build something that's lame until it hits 40, leveling should be difficult.

Difficult yes. Long-winded because there is no alternative... no.