Why not just show the XP gained per mob.

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Candystore, Apr 22, 2018.

  1. Candystore Augur

    Most MMO display the amount of XP you gain per mob. Either on-screen, or in the UI chatbox.

    People always have questions about XP, Zone ZEM, mob con affecting XP, XP bonuses, XP with and without pets, solo vs group, etc.

    Showing the XP gained per mob would solve all those questions overnight.

    "You gain experience!!"
    would now be
    "You gain 23 points of experience!!"

    It's a small change that would make a world of difference in terms of solving questions people bring up every other week.

    Developers have now added more (meaningful) information about AC in the UI, which greatly aleviated questions about AC.

    Why not do this for XP gain.

    The only argument not to show this (that I can see) is that there should be a sort of mystery surrounding it. This is an argument I would have agreed with 10 years ago, but today, with all the tools and parsing people do, you just end up with one group of players who know the ZEM of the zone and XP gained per mob through parsing, and others who do not.

    Why not show the XP gained per mob.
    tankNspank likes this.
  2. jeskola pheerie

    this is Everquest. This is not "Most MMO". take it or leave it.
    Xanadas likes this.
  3. jeskola pheerie

    If that is truly the case, then parse it yourself, or talk to those who parse it, or go to a forum when parses are posted. Otherwise, just enjoy the (very slight) mystery behind it.

    Another argument is that Everquest has 20 years and hundreds of zones, and they dont want everyone in one zone.
  4. Oakenblade Former ForumQuest Champion


    It does show the xp you gain. Just look at your xp bar.

    Problem solved.
  5. Candystore Augur

    It shows a percentage of your total XP, not the XP point(s) gained per mob.

    Most MMO clearly show the XP points gained per mob in integer numbers.

    The percentage alone does not allow you to, for example:
    -understand the difference in XP per con
    -understand how much pets affect XP
    -understand how adding another person to the group affects XP
    -how ZEM is different per zone

    Kill enough mobs and log all your kills, and eventually you might solve all these questions, but this just creates a gap between people who parse and casual players who do not.

    Developers have now added more (meaningful) information about AC in the UI, which greatly aleviated questions about AC.

    Why not do this for XP gain.
  6. Candystore Augur

    I have never seen this happen in the many MMO I play(ed) where they clearly display the XP gained per mob.

    People tend to go to zone based on many factors, how easy one can pull mobs, how many mobs there are, how many camps there are, the loot available in the zone.

    All of those factors are known, and still people spread out to group, because each zone is limited in its own way.

    If anything, showing the XP gain per mob, would help aleviate all the questions people have about XP, and make the input from players regarding XP more meaningful.
  7. Dythan Ban Lev in Plane of Fire guy

    There are good reasons. Devs have previously commented that the xp value on the live side are huge, like 100 million per+. Those numbers are to big to report in the chat window, and are just useless clutter.
  8. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    I imagine if the devs gave you an answer for this it would be in the same vein as why they don't tell us exactly what the adjusted/current ZEMs are. They want some stuff to be hidden from us and for people to go out and explore for themselves.

    As someone that really likes compiling data and putting it on ZAM I would love to be able to see exactly how much xp you get from stuff, but I can understand why from a design standpoint they want some stuff to remain a "mystery".
    Critt likes this.
  9. Aurastrider Augur

    Krezzy likes this.
  10. Risiko Augur

    I'm not sure that the experience per mob is a worthwhile mystery to keep. Seeing as we can (and do) look at the experience bar percentage change to figure it out anyway, the mystery is pretty limited. I would rather they just go ahead and make the experience values shown already.

    While they're at it, I wish they would put the experience bar on the screen somewhere instead of just in the inventory window.
  11. Brunnt ForceTrauma Lorekeeper

    Queue the outrage when 125,781,654 turns into 126M.
  12. RLarson New Member

    Yeah, if only they had some sort of filtering system in place where folks could turn off options they think are clutter. Put me in the 'that's not an excuse' camp.
  13. Brumans Augur

    "I want to see the exact number"

    "I want to see it abbreviated"

    "I want it abbreviated but to a different decimal point"

    Given how coughing near the EQ codebase causes 500 other unintended side-effects...lol, yeah, who cares. See how many AA per kill it gives you and make your decisions.

    It'd be nice, but it also seems really unnecessary and would likely just lead to even more "everyone goes to one zone".
  14. Critt Augur

    Have you ever heard the expression "a watched pot never boils" Some of you are so concerned with the xp rate I don't see how you can enjoy any game...When I'm in a good group with decent pulls and interesting people (not zombies who don't chat) I don't notice the xp at all and that is when the game is at it's most fun for me. Sure I get it some of you like to watch and know this stuff but then perhaps you should play a faster paced leveling server/game if that's the fun for you. EQ has always been about the group and the socialization and cooperative play. XP gain is what it is but all of us who managed to hit max level in less than 2 weeks prove that the rate is not too slow for everyone only too slow for people who watch the xp bar move.
  15. doah Augur

    Adding this will ruin my immersion.
  16. Prathun Developer

    When class and race penalties were removed early in EverQuest's life, this was handled by increasing how much experience those classes and races received. For example, an iksar shadowknight receives 60% more XP than a barbarian rogue, because it takes the iksar shadowknight 60% more XP to level.

    In addition, experience gain values per kill for the top end are in the hundreds of millions to billions range. It's difficult for the human brain to recognize values with that many digits without modifying the formatting.

    So to sum up, if we wanted to show experience gains, which is a separate discussion, we would first need to address how different races and classes earn different amounts of experience and also improve the presentation of very large numbers.
  17. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    This is really neat to hear. If you feel like giving us another peek behind the curtain something I have always wondered is how the halfling racial bonus works or is applied in this sort of case.

    I have more recently started operating under the assumption that the halfling bonus reduces the total amount of exp you need for each level, rather than as a bonus to the experience gained from sources.
    snailish and Fanra like this.
  18. Ryak Augur


    I thought i heard that halfings who race change end up being slightly short (tee hee) on experience, which would imply this is correct.

    Although, that would imply that race changing to/from iksar could result in even more significant experience swings, which i haven't heard of. So now i'm not sure what to think.

    EDIT: I think i figured it out! They probably normalize your experience with respect to your races experience bonus. So iksars would be fine since their exp bonus is proportional to their current exp value, but halflings get shorted because they are technically earning experience at the standard rate (against a smaller amount required to level).
  19. tankNspank Elder

    So basically your saying we cant do math? Shouldnt all the exp per mob be the same? From what your saying, just the total exp on the race / class matter.
    Brelic likes this.
  20. Bobbybick Only Banned Twice

    No he's saying that it would be confusing when Iksar Shadowknights tell their group "Wow this xp must be good I'm getting 11,200 for each of these spiders". And the Wood Elf Rogue responds "this is BS I only get 7000 each, they must have nerfed something".
    Niskin likes this.