Here's what's fucked about Exp in PS

[Airlift]

Ok, I definately love planetside, but they borked experience badly by making it divide kill experience instead of sharing it. I'm not complaining that it takes too long to level now, because that isn't true. What is totally fucked is that you can jump on a zerg and get thousands of points for doing nothing more than being present while someone is capping, but if you are in a full squad, and you singlehandedly killk a MAX, you end up with maybe 20 points. WTF? Killing the enemy is doing all the work, yeah?

Why is it that for killing very difficult opponents you get almost nothing, but for marching in parade and sucking up (virtual) air in a zerg, you get the big haul?

Furthermore, why is it that you get squat for killing a MAX who has just spawned? They are full armor and full ammo, and at least as dangerous as a MAX who has been running around for an hour.

[Hijinks]

Stop whining, its not about exp. Its about stroking the fluffy bunny with a suppressor for 3 weeks while trying to build cert points to play how you want.

[IDgaf]

I'm nervous about this game now.

I'm tempted to delay delivery from Amazon.

The worrying thing is that the Sony monkeys are locking threads and essentially saying 'we're bored of talking about this now. let's talk about something else. [hopefully you'll forget about xp] and come back to the topic later.'

[Chanfan]

Originally posted by Airlift

Furthermore, why is it that you get squat for killing a MAX who has just spawned? They are full armor and full ammo, and at least as dangerous as a MAX who has been running around for an hour.

Well, while I agree with some of your complaints, this part seems clear to me. The idea is to have some way to calculate some skill/threat level to players. If a MAX can't make it up the stairs from the spawn tubes, it's not that big of a threat to your empire. If it's been hopping around for an hour, it's probably been out causing havoc, and being a threat.

I'll agree that a timer based system is far from perfect, but at least it does put some weight on an "intelligent enough to survive" player vs. a "zergfest I can only live for the two minutes it takes me to get to combat" player. But some additional weight for the base difficulty fo the opponents load out would be nice, I'll admit.

And (opens can-o-worms) since a MAX is 3 cert points at best, and a Prowler is 3, and a Medic is 3, they should all be worth the same, right..?

[kerosene31]

There are 2 major issues with the XP thing:

1) the amount of total XP is down from the beta
- well to me this is fine and makes sense to me. it isn't like other games where you need to be high level before you can have fun. br5 is all I need to be effective and that is easy ehough to get.

2) the way to get XP is all wrong now
- this to me is the issue. There is no reward for doing things like defending a base or repairing something.

I think that Sony will address #2. I honestly don't know why they changed it from the beta. They could have reduced the overall XP without changing how it is distributed.

[Airlift]

Time alive is a bad metric of skill. Maybe it should be a modifier based on the number of people you have killed today, or since last respawn, or something else, but the current way of measuring experience value is wrong.

My issue still comes down to the fact that the reward for doing all of the work is less than the reward for doing none of the work.

[Airlift]

And (opens can-o-worms) since a MAX is 3 cert points at best, and a Prowler is 3, and a Medic is 3, they should all be worth the same, right..?

Nope, because cert cost is an abstract measure of not only offensive/defensive capabilities, but also general usefulness, which has nothing to do with how hard someone is to kill. I don't think someone with a MAX cert should be worth more for having the cert, he should be worth more (when driving his MAX) because he is comparitively a very challenging kill.

[Pilgrim]

I agree with Airlift about the Zerg thing

Why penalize the Deffenders against a ZERG rush because they are deffending well. That's all the timer does, I'd rather like a set number for all units, that increases based on the number of kills sense last spawn.

ie. Max runs up gets killed, worth 200 xp.
MAX hold CC for 12 minutes kills 20 of your best and closest friends, worth 500 xp...

To me the worst part of the new system is the xp split. I joined a squad of all noobs to show them the ropes, and help out... but after I got 10-15 kills, and they got NONE... well I started to feel a little cheated. I had gotten 100 xp where I shoulda gotten 1000 or more under the old system.

So here's my idea on this one.
Still split the xp but change the math. 50% of xp goes to killer. the remander is divided among the squad. This would dick support classes a bit, but rewarding the people who actually produce is important, besides support classes get their xp primarily from caps now anyway.

So that's my 2 cents..

PAX

[IDgaf]

Oh, great. So the supports would get it in the neck again.

Supports help a team function and can turn the tide of a battle. They should be helped, not hindered.

[Airlift]

Share between squads, don't divide. Reduce cap experience and increase kill experience, because the squads killing are doing the work. The squads who hang around for caps are only benefitting from the work.

[Pilgrim]

So a support guy who kills no one will get 10 xp for a MAX he didn't kill, instead of 15... If your trying to level off kills it ain't gonna happen anyway. Suppor twon't be right untill they give XP for support doing their THANG like fixxing the armor, or healing the wounded guy.

The thing is that pre-release in a squad I went from br3-br6 in 4 hours of intense open field battle, real metal and meat kinda stuff. Now there is no way (and thus no incentive) to get xp in the field, it's only at bases.

Mind you I hit BR6 last night after a reaming and really good fight at Marduk on Ishunder (Emerald, props to the TR who fought there!) So I'll be returning to my primary role of pissing off others LONG before they reach a base. But I'll be doing this knowing the BR7 is a LONG way off.

Let people who can shoot be rewarded for it!

[Elethomiel]

Originally posted by kerosene31
2) the way to get XP is all wrong now
- this to me is the issue. There is no reward for doing things like defending a base or repairing something.

The capture or successful defense of a base should be reward enough. It should provide status to you and your empire. It should have a real reason to defend it and a reason for the enemy to want to capture it. People should want to keep them fully stocked with NTUs etc because they really don't want to lose them. XP should be something that just comes along with it. As it stands, bases are strategically worthless (never mind the fact that they were designed to be captured, not defended). They don't really mean anything beyond something to give people something to fight over and a way to gain xp. It's currently slow, but there is light at the end of the xp tunnel and that's the end of the game. There is no more depth than that. I have seen nothing to indicate that this is actually being worked on though and that is what worries me. The nerfing of the XP rates is just a symptom of the underlieing disease.

[Airlift]

It's currently slow, but there is light at the end of the xp tunnel and that's the end of the game. There is no more depth than that. I have seen nothing to indicate that this is actually being worked on though and that is what worries me. The nerfing of the XP rates is just a symptom of the underlieing disease.

Red Herring? I think so.

You attribute the XP problems to the underlying lack of motivation to play. This is a fallacy because the game is its own reward, whether it will keep you interested or not. What I'm talking about here is how experience is calculated and it has nothing to do with the good old missing carrot theory.

Nerfing the XP rates is not a symptom of anything, it is a calculated design decision. I argued already that it was a bad thing to do because reducing advancement rate serves only to draw additional focus to the levelling game. This only highlights the flaws inherent in the reward system.

Now then, on many threads, people are arguing that you shouldn't play for experience, and that is something I have said too. It's true, but as long as experience is given, people will play for experience. as long as experience is slow, people will focus on experience. As long as people focus on experience, people will gravitate to the high yield activities. Now we are back to my original point: Under the current system, Planetside is rewarding the wrong activities.

[Hamma]

I agree - splitting XP rather than sharing is bad news. Hopefully the dev's are reading all this.

[Jarlo]

??

You disagreed with me yesterday but agree with Airlift today?

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