Grouping and the XP Penalty with higher level Players

[Scarce]

This is something I noticed today.

 

Currently when you team up with someone that is not your exact level everyone gets a penalty to the Xp.

 

As an example:

 

I was 21 and teamed up with a level 18 and 19.

 

When we killed an enemy they got 11 xp and I got 40 for the kill (The later being what I assume is the normal XP). So 3 levels already carries a Penalty of nearly 75% to the XP.

 

 

Now I know why this is done, to prevent powerleveling and high level players pulling weaker ones through the content at top speed while getting them XP.

 

However, what I'd like to suggest is to spread the penalty a bit out.

 

Currently: Penalty starts with 1 level difference.

 

What I propose: The Penalty starts when there is more than 2 levels of difference and from there it increases.

 

So

1 level difference = Full Xp for everyone.

2 level difference = Still full Xp

3 Level difference = Penalty of 10% to the lower level members and 50% for the highest level member.

4 Level difference = Penalty of 25% to the lower level members and 75% for the highest level member.

5 Level difference = Penalty of 50% to the lower level members and 90% for the highest level member.

6 Level difference = Penalty of 75% to the lower level members and 100% for the highest level member.

7 Level Difference = Penalty of 100% for all members. No Xp is gained.

 

This way the levels of the people teaming up will even out and they will come much faster much closer together, while it will keep preventing people from power leveling.

[Appak]

This!

 

It is horrible when you're only 1-2 levels apart and you have such a LARGE penalty.

 

Changing things up so you don't power level is one thing, but penalizing group members who actually want to level together is just bad.

 

I had an alt with a couple friends. Two of us were the same level, the other was 2 levels below. Instead of catching up as he should since he needs less xp per level .. instead he fell further and further behind.

[Mackashi]

Two words that solve this entire Issue...

 

Side kicking!

 

See City of Heroes for details

[thief_of_words]

Perhaps a mentoring system, where, if I group with someone of lower level than myself, I can scale down to their level. It's got to be possible. If they can scale up for pvp, they can scale down. Works in other games.

[Qonor]

1 level difference = Full Xp for everyone.

2 level difference = Still full Xp

3 Level difference = Penalty of 10% to the lower level members and 50% for the highest level member.

4 Level difference = Penalty of 25% to the lower level members and 75% for the highest level member.

5 Level difference = Penalty of 50% to the lower level members and 90% for the highest level member.

6 Level difference = Penalty of 75% to the lower level members and 100% for the highest level member.

7 Level Difference = Penalty of 100% for all members. No Xp is gained.

 

I know this is an old thread, but is this still accurate?

[EvgenijM]

Since I could not find any up-to-date info on XP penalty, I did some measurements.

 

1) Lvl 45 + Lvl 50 players: 251 XP vs 1253 XP (~5 times)

2) Lvl 38 + Lvl 50 players: 192 XP vs 1582 XP (~8.2 times)

 

Also I noticed that XP penalty is applied when higher level player is near you when you kill mobs.

e.g. if you are lvl 40 and lvl 50 player is far away from you when you kill the mob, you don't get XP penalty for a kill (player's portrait becomes more blur when he is far from you).

 

I know it requires much more measurements to work out the XP penalty formula.

For example, need to try it in group of more than two player, and in group with players of more or less same level.

 

But it is certainly clear XP penalty is there and is huge.

[Aries_cz]

Could it be that those two ere F2P? I think there is additional penalty on F2P XP gain after Origin World

[Mowermanx]

Theres been a couple of threads about this.

I tested myself because I couldnt believe the results people were saying, and sure enough, theres a massive penalty for grouping with people higher than you, im not talking 50's helping you, just people on the same planet leveling up the same as you, but are a couple of levels difference which is the case on every planet.

The people just getting there will be around 4 or 5 levels lower that the people that have not long to go there.

 

The real kicker is, the load screens periodically say gather into groups for better XP.... couldn't be further from the truth, unless everyone in the group is the exact same level.

You're much better off going it alone for maximum effect.

[Mowermanx]

Could it be that those two ere F2P? I think there is additional penalty on F2P XP gain after Origin World

 

No, this has always been the case, pre and post F2P.

[Drudenfusz]

Could it be that those two ere F2P? I think there is additional penalty on F2P XP gain after Origin World

This thread is aboout a year old, there was not even the trial to 15 version available. With that much time, has anything changed about the situation?

 

Anyway, I also still hope to see a mentor system one day in the game.

[SentinelDranoel]

Has nothing to do with F2P, it has been here for awhile and it kills grouping with friends unless you are real close in level. I know BW wants this to ba an ALT toons heavy game, but they need to work on incentives to have people go back. Legacy is a good start, but adding difficulty modes and more reasons to group helps too.

[Mowermanx]

Has nothing to do with F2P, it has been here for awhile and it kills grouping with friends unless you are real close in level. I know BW wants this to ba an ALT toons heavy game, but they need to work on incentives to have people go back. Legacy is a good start, but adding difficulty modes and more reasons to group helps too.

 

Exactly.

Just to think on the time and money spent on a contorted system like it is, the mind boggles.

If you're in the level range(the enemy tag is green, which is 5 lvls?) then that should be the end of it.

[-Sirus-]

Keep in mind that XP gained is also relative to the level difference between you and the content. A fair amount of what you're making out to the be the xp penalty is just that the other people are overleveled and receiving reduced xp to begin with and not related the level difference in the party.

[Heezdedjim]

Keep in mind that XP gained is also relative to the level difference between you and the content. A fair amount of what you're making out to the be the xp penalty is just that the other people are overleveled and receiving reduced xp to begin with and not related the level difference in the party.

This cannot explain it, because the lower level members of the group are (allegedly) the ones getting the lower XP from each kill. What you're suggesting would mean the higher levels should see lower XP.

 

I could see this making some sense if it was meant to compensate for a large "group XP buff," which is apparently the reason behind the loading screen advice to group up. In other words, if being in a group doubled your XP, it might make some sense to slightly reduce the bonus for lower leveled members of the group, since they would already, in theory, be getting a buff both from grouping and from being lower level relative to whatever content you're doing.

 

But it sounds like only the penalty for grouping and none of the benefits are being applied.

 

To test this completely, you would have to get two characters a couple levels apart, have each one kill the same mob solo, then group up and kill the same mob again while grouped.

[asbalana]

This is a very old old necroed thread, but it finally explained something that I could not figure out.

 

My wife and I leveled two characters together. She had a SM and I had a SI. For some reason (another topic probably) the SM seems to get XPs early on much faster than the SI and after the first ten or eleven levels she was amost a full level ahead of me. By the time we got to 50, I was almost a level and three quarters behind her. Yet we did all of the content, including class quests, together. as a party. I could never understand why she continually gained on me, but now it makes sense. If the SM starts out faster for some reason, part of the time she will be a level ahead of me and I ended up getting marginally less XPs for what we did and couldl never catch up.

 

This is kind of crazy for people who level together, but I guess what is, is..

[-Sirus-]

This cannot explain it, because the lower level members of the group are (allegedly) the ones getting the lower XP from each kill. What you're suggesting would mean the higher levels should see lower XP.

 

I could see this making some sense if it was meant to compensate for a large "group XP buff," which is apparently the reason behind the loading screen advice to group up. In other words, if being in a group doubled your XP, it might make some sense to slightly reduce the bonus for lower leveled members of the group, since they would already, in theory, be getting a buff both from grouping and from being lower level relative to whatever content you're doing.

 

But it sounds like only the penalty for grouping and none of the benefits are being applied.

 

To test this completely, you would have to get two characters a couple levels apart, have each one kill the same mob solo, then group up and kill the same mob again while grouped.

 

Reread the OP and you're right. I misread that at first thinking he said the high level got significantly less xp. But yeah, would really have to test group of same level against group with a higher level to see whats going on.

[Urael]

This is something I noticed today.

 

Currently when you team up with someone that is not your exact level everyone gets a penalty to the Xp.

 

As an example:

 

I was 21 and teamed up with a level 18 and 19.

 

When we killed an enemy they got 11 xp and I got 40 for the kill (The later being what I assume is the normal XP). So 3 levels already carries a Penalty of nearly 75% to the XP.

 

 

Now I know why this is done, to prevent powerleveling and high level players pulling weaker ones through the content at top speed while getting them XP.

 

However, what I'd like to suggest is to spread the penalty a bit out.

 

Currently: Penalty starts with 1 level difference.

 

What I propose: The Penalty starts when there is more than 2 levels of difference and from there it increases.

 

So

1 level difference = Full Xp for everyone.

2 level difference = Still full Xp

3 Level difference = Penalty of 10% to the lower level members and 50% for the highest level member.

4 Level difference = Penalty of 25% to the lower level members and 75% for the highest level member.

5 Level difference = Penalty of 50% to the lower level members and 90% for the highest level member.

6 Level difference = Penalty of 75% to the lower level members and 100% for the highest level member.

7 Level Difference = Penalty of 100% for all members. No Xp is gained.

 

This way the levels of the people teaming up will even out and they will come much faster much closer together, while it will keep preventing people from power leveling.

 

Good suggestion for revision to this poor design choice.

 

I haven't notices this because I next to never group while leveling. The game is so easy to level up a charcter that it's trivial.

 

BW continues to show that they just don't have a handle on MMORPGs with choices like this. Multiplayer games are supposed to encouage people to group. This game goes out of it's way to do the opposite (other than aquiring "social points which aren't really needed and yet another "bolt on feature") and even penalize people for grouping (as illustrated above).

 

/Double Piccard Face Palm with a head shake.

Edited February 7, 2013 by Urael

[Brewski]

I never really noticed this penalty before. Probably because I rarely group while leveling outside of flashpoints unless I am specifically leveling with a friend, in which case we are almost always the same level.

 

Does this also apply when in Flashpoints? If so, it would seem unfair since if you use group finder you could easily be paired with someone 5-6 levels different from yours without any say in the matter.