New Exp model--- BAD IDEA [Archive]

Hamma

2003-05-20, 07:22 PM

Lastly, folks that were in Beta have noticed that experience awards are lower than those to which they were accustomed. This is true, but the experience curves in beta were intentionally overinflated to allow faster progression of rank. This allowed our design team to examine data about the usage of weapons and armor at the various Battle Ranks. Those XP gains are now returned to the gains originally intended. For the record, the experience gains while in a squad are shared evenly among squad members, but with a 20% bonus added onto them. Therefore, if you destroy a target worth 100 raw XP, and you're in a squad of 10 people, your individual gain would be:

(100/10) * 1.2 = 11.2 XP (rounded up to 12).

This may seem like a reduction in experience potential, but when in a squad of 10 you rack up kills at a greater rate and with relative ease compared to doing so as an individual, so it's possible to gain a great deal of experience that way. (Plus, squads allow easier communication and allow the sharing of base capture experience, as well as allowing Command functionality, so they're very worthwhile groups.)

http://planetside.station.sony.com/news_story.jsp?story=56026

Jarlo

2003-05-20, 07:23 PM

The way it is explained in the letter is if you get a kill for 100 xp. You would get 100 xp solo.

In a squad of 10 you would get 12 xp. (100/10 +20% exp bonus)

WAYYY too much like the eq exp model-- PUKE!
:mad:

Valcron

2003-05-20, 07:24 PM

As much as I like your guys website, the both of you sometimes absolutely have tunnel vision. Superficial views on any subject get you no where fast.

Seriously, I bet if they put experience at 1 point per kill you guys would still be enthralled by it.

How about trying to see both sides of the arguement. I thought the experience was out of hand in the beginning, now it's a little bit too much on the low side.

There needs to be an essence of balance, not too far to the right, or left. Right now it's still not balanced.

If you're in love with ardous rigid systems that caters to 15+ hour sessions of levelling I should direct you to www.everquest.com. All your treats are there.

Hamma

2003-05-20, 07:29 PM

I for one dont play the game for XP, so if i get one or twenty per kill I could care less ;)

I know I am not the only one that has that view. If i locked threads I disagree with it would be a quiet place. Just stating my opinon like everyone else :love:

Gwartham

2003-05-20, 07:33 PM

Heh Valcron werent you a Fanboi right before beta ended?

not flaming you for being a fanboi, god knows I was, just its amusing me how many people who loved the game now hate/dislike it.

Jarlo

2003-05-20, 07:34 PM

The game kicks ass, this new exp model blows chunks.

Hamma

2003-05-20, 07:34 PM

I love when people call other people fanboi's on a fan site :lol:

Scarab

2003-05-20, 07:35 PM

Sorry but that's just going too far. Level 3 is going to take me a couple days to get out of.

My outfit of my RL friends which was going to total about 5 just won't work in getting exp anymore. You're now required to be in full squads all the time if you even want to gain exp.

I was looking at needing 8 cert points to kill MAX units reliably. 3 for reinforced, 2 for med assault, 3 for spec or AV. At this rate, it will take me a couple weeks to be competitive vs MAX units unless I myself cert in MAX.

I figured I'd want to achieve BR 12 to be about where I wanted to be certwise, that's where I wanted to be to have real fun in this game without feeling like I need to "treadmill" my way to being competitive. Now that's going to take a long, long time for me to feel like I'm at the right place certwise.

I've never had a real problem with the exp curve until now. It's just too extreme. I'm definitely not certing in any support role now...that's a waste of very limited cert points. I don't get exp for any of it.

My cert build was going to start like this:
Prowler
Engineer
Med assault
Reinforced
Hacking
Reaver

Now it will be like this:
DC MAX
Pounder MAX
Reaver
AA MAX
Mosquito or Bomber if it's out by then

Certed to do nothing but kill, respawn, defend caps, and kill some more. That's the only decent exp and medical, engineering, and hacking can go to hell.

*edit*
And I do feel "bamboozled" as well, hearing nothing about this news until now. If exp was going to take a serious cut and "is intended", why didn't we hear about it long ago? I visited the Beta site multiple times a day and saw nothing of this for the past couple months.

I played EQ for 3+ years and DAoC for 1.5 years. This game was going to be my savior from those games where you logged in everyday to "gain exp"...to "level up". I saw this game as such a breath of fresh air and enjoyed every minute of Beta. This "10 percent of beta exp" crap that suddenly appeared is like Sony kicking that fresh air right out of my lungs.

Gwartham

2003-05-20, 07:36 PM

Games gotta have FANS before it can have a fansite.

*looks around*

Oh yeah ok

I guess the 10 of ya count:)

*edit*
Just pokin fun FYI, you guys do have the best site when it comes to actual game info.

Pilgrim

2003-05-20, 07:41 PM

It's not TOOO bad

I got to BR5 in about 2 hours.. not bad..

I will tell you though, I'll be forming up in 2 man squads alot for open field hunting, any more then that is a waste. Solo kills for XP rule.

The Base cap xp is nice and juicy didn't get below 1000 today while we tried to break the TR stranglehold on Solsar.

And I can tell you no one was turning people away from squad... just kicking out unproductive wastes... and I gotta admit I like that! (and that is not a good engi, or medic who are really doing their job)

PAX

Scarab

2003-05-20, 07:46 PM

Is it the larger squads that get screwed now then? I killed a MAX in our full squad and we got 28 exp each. The gunner of my prowler killed lots of enemies but we were getting 5, 6, 4 exp numbers.

I guess that must be it if it's divided by 10.

So basically a full squad will only make exp 20 percent faster than someone solo, same exp per kill as the solo person but split across 10 people, with a 20 percent bonus?

Peacemaker

2003-05-20, 08:09 PM

DO none of u pay attention at all? Half a year ago they said that the game was gonna take months to get to BR 20. I personaly love that idea. I do not want to be bored with the game at 2 months because the devs left the EXP system so damn high. The point of it is to keep you playing. Personaly I planed out my entire cert configs for all 4 players with a nice char maker. With what i want all four chars at BR 20 it will take me a year! Thats what I want! IDK about the spliting up of the exp. Id rather see a system where the acctual killer gets like 40 BEP and the squad mates get 10 - 20%. Also i think a support role char should gain BEP by healing ppl.

Personaly i find the influx of Offical Forums people alarming, alot of them flame and I find them imature in most responses (Not that I havnt done crap like that b4 but im just saying a month ago the quality of this forum was 10 times better, ok mabye not that great but it still took a nose dive a while ago)

Scarab

2003-05-20, 08:22 PM

Exp isn't what keeps me playing. I had hoped for a game that was so much fun that getting max level was only the "beginning" of the game and not the end. If you feel like getting max level means you can no longer play that character, that's fine. But for me that was never my vision. I wanted to get enough certs under my belt to have some options then continue to enjoy that character and play with my friends and continue to kill, not caring about exp.

The levels really don't matter to me as long as they come at a decent rate. I don't care if they made me BR 20 right now, it would not stop me from continuing to play that particular character. I had more fun when everyone was BR 20 than any other time. That tells me that this game isn't about keeping you playing by making levels slow...it's about giving you cert options in order to enjoy the real game which is a massive war FPS.

Even the first levels do not come at a decent rate. If they allowed us to get to BR 12 as fast as beta and increased the exp needed from 12-20 by 4 times it would be better than it is right now.

instant

2003-05-20, 09:03 PM

The game became fun once I reached a few BR's.. and it became REAL fun when I hit BR16/CR3.. My end of beta score was BR17/CR4..

It took me lots of playtime to reach that rank..

It will take me many many months to reach that level now that the game has become "Everquest - the FPS"..

You get as almost as much XP camping a Spawn Tube as you will get in a Full Squad 100/10..

Hurray for Support Roles.. as if they were not apperciated enough already, now they wont even get picked because they wont get any XP for the Squad.

PS is going to become another Earth & Beyond.

FlakAttack

2003-05-20, 09:52 PM

I never went into Planetside thinking "Battle Ranks, oh yay!" I don't give a damn about my levels. I came for the large scale warfare. And the similarity to Tribes. Now, if we could just get some jetpacks.... :rolleyes:

I play it like the FPS it is, not an RPG. The social aspect is ok, but if you look at the way I play, you'll see I don't really need it. Human players are just more challenging, and unpredictable. I mean, it's a game, so I play it like one. If getting exp is this damn tedious, well I'm not buying the game. (I played a few weeks in beta) I've already played DAoC, Ultima Online, and some of the free RPGs, and I don't want to have to worry about this crap. I just want my large scale battles, with tanks and dropships, air support and the ever needed engineer. I want to see strategy and battle bring people to this game, not leveling up and things you could easily get in other games.

Remember, this is supposed to be revolutionary. I'm just seeing a large scale FPS/RPG. No "Holy Jebus, this game is a totally new idea!" Nah, it's just an FPS based on an RPG system.

TheEvilBlight

2003-05-20, 09:54 PM

The real dark truth is:

"Haha u suk if you cant get xp, I get BR20 in a matter of days"

That is why. If they think that it is possible to get BR20 /that/ fast, then they tweak it even LOWER to prevent anyone from levelling up.

Scarab

2003-05-20, 09:59 PM

And if they think that those few punks that post that crap on boards represents the majority of their customer base, they're going to lose a lot of money by catering to them.

Sprocket

2003-05-20, 10:00 PM

Why does everything I hear about PS scream "Return of the T2 disaster!" Anyway, maybe thats pure speculation.

Anyway the thing I find funny is how everyone yells "BRs DONT MATTER!" when thats pure PS. While BR's have much less significance than in an RPG, they still are crucial to combat effectiveness. A squad of BR 1s vs. a squad of BR10's is a joke competition -- since being BR10 implies that you have some game knowlegde plus the certs to have a vehicle, heavy/special assault, MAXs, or reinforced armor. While all the BR 1's have access to these options, they each do not each have the ability to have multiple certs.

I found PS got IMMENSELY more enjoyable at BR10 during beta. When I was BR 10 I had good weapon options, one vehicle cert for getting to battle fast, and the know-how to stay alive. When they wiped chars I only got back to BR7, and was constantly frustrated by lack of personal transport, inability to switch roles on demand, and other hinderances to combat effectiveness and fun.

Personally I think it should be fairly easy to get to BR 10(say 1-3 days of decent playtime) but 10-20 should be hell (aka the "hell levels" that are supposedly implemented) and that CR's should remain at their current state (currently CR is near impossible to gain with the current exp system)

Sprocket

2003-05-20, 10:01 PM

Ugh these boards confuse me, I'm used to TW's layout. I quoted the wrong message. Anyway, my main question still is:

Scarab from T2?

DarkDragon00

2003-05-20, 10:40 PM

IM playing for the FPS, i love to kill peeps and thats that, having good friends to back me up makes it alot funner cuz then u can talk about how u whiped the floor with the Vanu!

RPG element is a way to balance the way weapons are distrubuted. I love it because the Cycler is the best and if u want to get a ride and u dont have one, get a squad or an outfit!

Scarab

2003-05-20, 10:46 PM

Not the same Scarab.

Anyway tonight while capping and saving bases, I realized that I was getting 1k-3k exp per cap/save. That would take roughly 100 - 300 kills to equal for each 15 minute cap period. Therefore hanging out and killing to gain exp has been rendered worthless while base capping has become the only way to advance.

That also means that CR 5 will be far easier to achieve than BR 20.

Gwartham

2003-05-20, 10:48 PM

Dont get me wrong I love mindless killing just as much as the next guy, I just prefer less rock/paper/scissors in my games.

and PS is all about the rock/paper/scissors game right now.

AcidCat

2003-05-21, 12:04 AM

Personally I think the slower the exp gain, the better. It might make some finally realize that the game is simply much, much more fun if you DON'T WORRY ABOUT EXPERIENCE POINTS!

I'm tired of saying it over and over, but I went through a metamorphosis during beta, I had really burnt out on the game until I realized that to get the most enjoyment out of PS, you need to put BEP on the back burner. Play for the enjoyment of combat, play for the variety of combat roles - the pure fun of it. If BEP is too important to you, that's when you find yourself doing the same things over and over - simply trying to maximize your exp.

Stop being a slave to exp and you'll enjoy the game more, I believe that 100%.

vawlk

2003-05-21, 01:47 AM

Originally posted by Jarlo
Ok the exp model at release SUCKS BAD!!

I don't mind slow or low exp at all-- that is fine and dandy. However they changed the SHARING exp to SPLITTING exp in a squad. What this means is any support person who doesnt do some sort of killing basically sucks down exp in the group. Also this means the lone sniper or revear pilot or ANT driver is going to get FAT exp. STUPID IDEA!!!

Fine keep the exp low that is peachy-- but SHARE IT do NOT SPLIT IT arrrgh!!

ya cuz we all know that the person who is healing you, repairing your base, refilling the stations that you equip at, and toting your ass around doesn't deserve any XP.

So I guess all the supply line runners in Iraq shouldn't get paid.

What you said just proves that the system is ok and you had too much to drink.

vawlk

2003-05-21, 01:50 AM

Originally posted by Hamma
I for one dont play the game for XP, so if i get one or twenty per kill I could care less ;)

I know I am not the only one that has that view. If i locked threads I disagree with it would be a quiet place. Just stating my opinon like everyone else :love:

seems to be Tribes vs other people :P

I still think that playing this game for XP will lead to quick and utter boredom.

Scarab

2003-05-21, 02:21 AM

The funny thing is, I worry more about exp now than I ever did, because I"m no longer earning it. I didn't care before because it was flowing at a decent pace no matter what. I also didn't really care once I reached BR 12. That's really all I needed. I don't want that to take 2-3 months though.

Cyber

2003-05-21, 03:14 AM

It's not that bad. I started playing today around 1pm. By 2am (I admit it, I have no life ;) ) I'm already BR8. Didn't have any problems getting there and didn't stress over getting BEPs at all, just played the game and you will eventually get them.

But, you have to fight, hotly contested base caps are worth more BEPs, recapturing bases are worth a good amount of BEPs even if it is a single hacker guy. Tower fights aren't quite as good of XP as they once were and ANT runs have lost some of thier mega XP boost (at least in squads...)

But, if your in a squad that at least *tries* to work together getting BR shouldn't be any trouble. Ya, I'm sure it's gonna slow down at >12 or so. But so what, by then you've got enough certs to really have plenty of options.

instant

2003-05-21, 02:58 PM

Just saw PS in the store today.. passed it, thanks to their new "XP FOR CAPS ONLY" model.

I'm looking forward to seeing their subscriber numbers in 2 months time.

Hijinks

2003-05-21, 03:09 PM

I dont give a f about br20.

What I do care about is br10, which at this pace will take me two months.

SilentRaider

2003-05-21, 03:13 PM

Doesnt splitting the exp in a squad defeat the purpose of having a squad and therefore defeat a large part of the Planetside game playing experience? I just thought I would mention that.

Airlift

2003-05-21, 03:22 PM

The problem for me isn't about the rate of exp, it's about how the rate of exp matches up to what you do (and more specifically, about what you don't do).

TurboJesus

2003-05-21, 03:43 PM

Yea, the exp should be SHARED as in if i get 20 xp, so does everyone else. Now its going to take a long time to get to where i wanted to be. I wanted to be a Reinforced/Hvy/MediumAssault w/ either Eng or a vehicle cert of some kind. Now i think i can get Reinforced and the Hvy and medium assault after awhile, but i only play and hour and a half a day usually, so im totally screwed here. I thought the emphasis was on fighting in large battles with and against hundreds of players. Soon it'll turn into PlanetQuest where the point of the game is to find clever ways to level faster.

Mold

2003-05-21, 03:45 PM

i didnt read all of the posts but they looked mostly the same, but heres my opinion of the topic.

i agree to the point your making. I dont have a problem with getting experience a lot slower then before, i actually realy like that as most of us do. But i just dont understand why they are giving 10 times more exp to a person who is getting kills on his own. I thought they were promoting squad play, but spitting up doesnt make sense... In my opinion i think if a solo guy gets 10bep's from a kill, then someone in a squad with someone who made a kill should get 10beps as well. Currently they would get 1bep unless they made the kill themselves. Thats how they had it in the beta, and thats how i think it should have stayed. Basically im saying a 20% bonus to exp when in a full squad doesnt seem to be a good enough bonus compared to going solo. Also before i didnt care if i was killing or helping someone getting kills....now it makes me think when the pounder max i am repairing is getting all the kills, i could be getting more points doing the killing myself.

and ya, i hate to admit i kinda like getting exp, its not the reason i play this game...but its there, so it does matter.

vawlk

2003-05-21, 04:14 PM

urgh yer all making my head spin.

XP is not that slow
you still get more XP in a squad than if you weren't (or you are in the wrong squad)
WHAT HAPPENED IN BETA DOESN'T MATTER

If nothing else, the beta XP whores have themselves to blame. By zerging bases and never defending just to get massive amounts of XP, you proved to them the rate at which XP could be earned was higher than they thought so they had to limit it.

Ever hear of the term sandbagging?

Hell if people keep base hopping for xp, i bet you'll see a cap nerf coming too. They are trying to get people to play the game like it was meant to be played, which IMO would be more fun than hopping base to base to base to base to base...

Hopefully all you XP whores will cancel at the end of the first month.

LesserShade

2003-05-21, 04:24 PM

this is why we should all start at br20 and be done with it :)

The br20 test in beta was the best. Only people interested in xp were commanders and the rest were just out to lock continents.

Regardless, I like the fact that the xp bonus for rehacking a base is as much as you get for capping a base, so that at least motivates those inclined to horde XP to turn around and keep the bases behind them.

TurboJesus

2003-05-21, 04:24 PM

Originally posted by vawlk

If nothing else, the beta XP whores have themselves to blame. By zerging bases and never defending just to get massive amounts of XP, you proved to them the rate at which XP could be earned was higher than they thought so they had to limit it.

Goddamnit!! Pay attention, I'll space it out so you can under stand.
EXP
IN SQUADS
SHOULD NOT
BE DIVIDED
BY THE NUMBER
OF PEOPLE IN IT

There, thats what the post is about. I'm not gonna be in a fucking squad if i can get 10 times the kill xp of what i get in a squad, then, once i reach say, br5-6-7 then i would join a squad, but not in any of the XP hole supporting roles.

Hijinks

2003-05-21, 04:38 PM

Originally posted by vawlk
urgh yer all making my head spin.

XP is not that slow

Right, it is actually faster if you are willing to play follow the cap.

Hell if people keep base hopping for xp, i bet you'll see a cap nerf coming too. They are trying to get people to play the game like it was meant to be played, which IMO would be more fun than hopping base to base to base to base to base...

You are wrong, thats exactly what they are promoting.

We started out last night playing how we wanted. We realized quickly that it isn't rewarding to try to hold off defenders, especally if you do it well because they never get a cap so you never get any resecure xp.

Hell, one time we let the enemy get the hack just so we could get the resecure xp.

So what did we do? We jumped on the cap rodeo. Round and round we went getting good exp but not really doing much.

THAT is what they are rewarding, so that is what we did.

EVILPIG

2003-05-21, 05:06 PM

THE WORST PART OF THE NEW XP SYSTEM...

I do not care if they slowdown xp, fine better. I do feel that dividing squad xp is totally lame and hurts the foundation of squadding.

But the WORST PART of the new xp system is that the CAPs are worth far more than anything else you may do. All this does is cause folks to horde up in bases waiting for CAPs to go off. This is strategically lame and they are creating incentive for it to be done. It's better to start a CAP and move on to keeping towers secure or CAPing other available targets. It doesn't take alot to hold a CAP down if you are actively stopping the enemy from having nearby spawn points. While your forces are sitting around waiting for 15 minutes, the enemy is busy CAPing your other bases or towers. Without the huge CAP rewards, you'd see more large froces meeting on middle ground trying to push each other back. NEW CAP xp IS LAME. Make it less too.

instant

2003-05-21, 05:27 PM

Originally posted by vawlk

They are trying to get people to play the game like it was meant to be played, which IMO would be more fun than hopping base to base to base to base to base...

How do you know how the game is "meant to be played".

The way the game is now they reward base caps and base defence, nothing else, no support roles, tower fights, controlling strategic areas (bridges etc), nothing, just the base and the damn CC. If you are in a squad your XP will be hurt, if you're not your CEP will be hurt.

This game is about having fun, and you have more fun when you have a wider range of options available to you as a player. The way it is now, only the powergamer 24/7s get these options and the others are doing the level threadmill famous in Everquest.

They might as well have made Planetside into "planes of planetside" an EQ expansion the way it is now..

WTS AA-MAX 1000PP!

Stregone

2003-05-21, 05:32 PM

Base defense is not rewarded at all. Right now only capping is rewarded, so you get people zerging bases, standing around for 15 minutes, and then evacuating the base and zerging the next one down the line. If you ask me, this sucks.

Airlift

2003-05-21, 05:42 PM

Actually, counterhacking has superior yields to the actual cap on an exp-per-time basis. If you really want to get to maximum BR quickly under the system, you need two teams from opposing empires to cooperate and trade a base back and forth.

As an often cynnical bastard, I suspect that we won't see real experience changes until people start really exploiting this (if they aren't already).

instant

2003-05-21, 05:45 PM

Originally posted by Stregone
Base defense is not rewarded at all. Right now only capping is rewarded, so you get people zerging bases, standing around for 15 minutes, and then evacuating the base and zerging the next one down the line. If you ask me, this sucks.

I meant base-unhack :-)

Scarab

2003-05-21, 05:45 PM

Rewarding rehacks doesn't reward good defense though, it rewards bad defense. You actually want the enemy to come in and hack your base so you can get the exp rehacking it. Hense it doesn't reward true defense...which is keeping the enemy away from the command console altogether. That currently has no reward.

instant

2003-05-21, 05:46 PM

Originally posted by Airlift
Actually, counterhacking has superior yields to the actual cap on an exp-per-time basis. If you really want to get to maximum BR quickly under the system, you need two teams from opposing empires to cooperate and trade a base back and forth.

As an often cynnical bastard, I suspect that we won't see real experience changes until people start really exploiting this (if they aren't already).

Hmm,, maybe I should pick up two copies of PlanetSide.. BR20 in a day ;-)

Stregone

2003-05-21, 05:47 PM

Oh, okay :) I still stand by my "This sucks" comment though!

Destroyeron

2003-05-21, 05:49 PM

Airlift

2003-05-21, 05:53 PM

Yesterday I let a cloaker finish his hack before I put a bullet in his soft head. Instead of the 12 points I got for the kill, I was richly rewarded with over 2000 just for being a bad empire citizen.

vawlk

2003-05-21, 05:56 PM

Originally posted by TurboJesus
Goddamnit!! Pay attention, I'll space it out so you can under stand.
EXP
IN SQUADS
SHOULD NOT
BE DIVIDED
BY THE NUMBER
OF PEOPLE IN IT

There, thats what the post is about. I'm not gonna be in a fucking squad if i can get 10 times the kill xp of what i get in a squad, then, once i reach say, br5-6-7 then i would join a squad, but not in any of the XP hole supporting roles.

1/10 * 10 = 1 :)

Simply put, if you are in a squad of 10 and everyone is killing people, you get the same XP as going solo since your squad will be killing at 10x the rate at 1/10 the exp. Do the math...

So unless you are superuber and get most the kills in your squad then there's nothing to complain about.

But then there are support players in squads that don't kill...well the also give an extra 20% in squads to make up for them lackeys. Plus you get the benefit of people covering your back, healing you, not having to wait for someone to bring an ant after yer hack fails due to power, fast transport to next base...etc.

A well formed squad can easilly out XP any solo player.

vawlk

2003-05-21, 06:06 PM

Originally posted by Hijinks
Right, it is actually faster if you are willing to play follow the cap.

You are wrong, thats exactly what they are promoting.

THAT is what they are rewarding, so that is what we did.

I'm not denying that...I just don't think that is their plan for the long run. We can all see the problems, yet everyone must exploit the XP issues as fast as possible to be that first BR20. I just wish more people would just play the damn game the way it was meant to be played. You can still complain about the lack of XP for certain things.

but I was sorta in the same boat as you. I have no problem sitting around defending a base. I don't care about the caps. If I am at a base within 1 hop from an enemy base, I try to hang around, but in most cases everyone leaves to go get the XP of the next hack....in those situations I'd rather just fight at the next base...as a sniper I often find myself outside the SOI so I'm just getting kill xp anyway....

It also might be because the servers haven't filled up yet. Once there is enough people to form full fleged battle lines across continents, the "follow the hack" game may go away...hopefully.

I have a serious pipe-dream problem

Banditman

2003-05-22, 09:06 AM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by vawlk
1/10 * 10 = 1 :)

Simply put, if you are in a squad of 10 and everyone is killing people, you get the same XP as going solo since your squad will be killing at 10x the rate at 1/10 the exp. Do the math...
[QUOTE]
You are assuming that because there are 10 players in your squad there are 10x as many enemies available to be killed. If there are, for instance, only 5 enemies available to be killed you are better off on your own.

Certainly, your squad can seek out those circumstances where the enemy greatly outnumber you so as to maximize your kill numbers and make that experience math work. However, by doing so, you typically take yourself out of situations where you will be able to accomplish a base cap.

You also similarly assume that each player in the squad is contributing equally to the kill numbers. This is also a faulty assumption since, at least in beta, squads were typically composed of a number of "support" players - players who killed less but helped in other ways (Engy, CE, stealther/hacker, trans pilot).

Zarparchior

2003-05-22, 01:46 PM

A few things...

So BEP in groups is now split EQ style? One of the reasons I wanted to play this game so badly is that there was no penalty for grouping AND the power difference between powergamers and casual players wasn't nearly as large as other games... but... it seems that's not the case now. High ranking people don't want to play with lower ranking people. Yesterday (Day after everyone should own the game?) there was someone recruiting people BR5 and up... Okay, BR5 isn't that hard to get, right? I mean I got it in Beta really quickly so... oh that's right! Exp is really hard to get killing people now. Well, at least it's shared equally though, eh? ... It's not anymore? So you're telling me that I'll never get to play with half of my empire because I'm too low and if I manage to scrounge together a group of incompetent newbs/n00bs then all of my kills will be split 1/10?

Haha... I can see how people didn't buy the game now. :(

To toot my pipe and/or horn, I'm a good player. I was surprised that yesterday my play session was fairly fun despite the current conditions. The players were mostly new (that's okay though - THEY WERE WILLING to LEARN! :eek: ), and we tried to explain things to them as best we could. It turned out that me and a MAX got most of the kills during that time. We were both saddened that the exp was much lower (neither of us were aware of the exp penalties for groups now) but thought it was an okay change. People shouldn't level mad-like I guess... until we capped a base. Woo boy. We got 4k for our first one, which was enough to ding me luckily (had enough of those 12 exp kills I guess... :mad: ). Anyway, the squad eventually left because most of them were east coasters for some odd reason and it was past their bedtime. :p I then joined another group and was yet again one of the leading players in kills for my squad (having a Lancer as opposed to a craptacular Pulsar helps, though). Despite the lack of BEP, I was having fun with these guys, despite our having to RUN to every single target we chose due to no one having any kind of vehicle cert...

The funny thing I noticed was that I got most of my kills without the help of my squad. They were either KIA, MIA, or JIA (Jacking-off In Action). Why, oh why, will I want to be in a squad now? I can get the EXP caps without being in a squad, and that IS where most of the squad exp is coming from anyway... So what is my incentive to group for the time being? What kind of reward do I get for helping the newer players become accustomed to the game? That's right. Nothing. Nothing but an empty experience bar.

So I'll test this out today, see where I go. I'll just solo kill and run around where the other people are making base caps. With any kind of luck I should make BR8. Who knows though? I won't limit myself just to that. :cool: