GU 100: Experience Vial System

The launch of GU 100 is just around the corner! So far, we’ve unveiled The Island of Zek Scourge Wastes, the new Fabled Zones, and the raids in Scourge Keep. Today, to get you ready for the anticipated Thursday, April 28th launch, we’re going to introduce you to the new Experience Vial system!

By: Robert “Caith” Fouts

Ever wish you could bottle up your hard-earned experience and share it with your friend or guildmate? Wait no longer, and allow me to introduce the new Experience Vial system!

Experience Vials will allow players to purchase empty vials off of the EverQuest 2 Marketplace for Daybreak Cash; these vials can be used to “bottle” experience points as you earn them. Once you fill up an empty vial, you will be able to claim a full vial which you can give to a friend or alt, sell on the broker, or even save for yourself for later.

Here is how the system works:

You will notice that there is a new icon attached to the left side of your experience bar. This is the nerve center for the Experience Vial system, and it is where you can control everything about your experience vials. In the screenshot below you will see that we currently do not have any active experience vials, but that the XP Siphon and Auto-Consume functions are active. Both the siphon and auto-consume functions are dependent on having an active vial, so in this case, we would not see any change to our normal play experience.

Note the three experience vials which you can see in the backpack above, however, as we are now going to examine them. When you examine a vial, this is what you’ll see:

XP Capacity: This is the amount of experience required to fill the vial.
XP Conversion Rate: This is the efficiency of the vial. In this case, 60% of the experience siphoned by the system will count towards filling the vial.

Once you consume an Experience Vial, the system has been activated. Right-clicking on the Experience Vial bubble will allow you to control the system. You may also examine the Experience Vial you are currently using, which will bring up the item examine window, or provide you a quick link to the Marketplace to purchase empty vials.

From this menu you can also disable the XP Siphon, allowing you to earn experience as normal instead of having it siphon into your vial. Disabling Auto-Consume will force the system to stop siphoning experience after you have filled a single vial. To re-enable the system, you will need to consume another vial from your inventory.

While experience is being siphoned, it may not be used for any other purposes. Thus, you will not be earning tithe or AA experience.

Mousing over the Experience Vial bubble while the system is active will grant you a detailed look at what is going on “under the hood.” The amount of experience currently stored by the system, the conversion rate, what type of experience is being stored, and more can all be seen on this popup.

While the system is active, your experience point earnings will be explained in detail in the chat window. In the example below I have earned 10,000 adventure XP, which is then converted into 6,000 XP and stored in the currently-active vial.

Mousing over the window vial bubble will display the current totals in the vial.

If you want to remove an active vial to return it to your inventory before it’s done filling (so you can pass the vial off to another character on your account, for example), you can do that, but know this first! Any experience currently stored on the vial will be lost, so be absolutely sure you want to return an active vial to your inventory before removing it.

Once you have filled up your Experience Vial, the counter on the vial will go up, indicating you have a filled vial to claim. In the case below you will note that the system auto-consumed one of my remaining empty vials and is continuing to siphon experience points.

You may now right click and claim your filled experience vials, which may be traded or consumed at your leisure. Experience granted from a vial works in all ways as if you earned it from a quest or defeating a creature, and thus will grant tithe, or can be converted into AA experience depending on how you have your experience slider set.

While the content for GU 100 will be released only to All Access Members, this new Experience Vial system is accessible in the Marketplace and usable by all players on regular servers*! Who will you share your experience with first?

Want to get your hands on everything GU 100? Then become a member! Find out more at www.everquest2.com/membership.

*XP Vials will not be available on the TLE server Stormhold.

WIll this be for ALL servers? I'm thinking this is only goin to be for the Reg Servers, but thought i'd ask anyways.

For anyone who doesnt play EVE Online, they did the same thing with Skill Injectors. Someone made a brand new pilot, bought loads of these and literally trained all of the skills in the game to level 5. Basically what DBG is doing here is copying them and pretty much giving us a legit way to jump to level 100. You know, instead of just letting us buy level 100 toons.

A quick question: if I'm at level 1 and consume a 200,000 XP vial, will it keep increasing my level until the 200,000 XP is used up, or will stop at the end of level 2, the way collection turn ins do at low levels?

Sounds more like an easy way to power level without having drag someone around for hours in a zone you don't want to be in except for the money (or because you like the person). Instead you can fill these up and sell a bottled power level . Or catch a guildie/friend who has been away up quicker etc.

How many would be required to get your tithe up to 100 points for each of the 3 permanent stats?

If a level 100 who is maxed out on AA uses one of these, would it siphon any or all of the exp that the character can no longer gain? Or, because there's no actual gain on the character, is there nothing to siphon?

Just asking because it would actually be useful to get one of these for a maxed out character. I tend to stop playing characters once they've maxed out because of, well... boredom. If I could siphon off my exp, and use it later (either if AA or level increases, or to give it to another character), then I would be more inclined to play my maxed out characters.

Will this work for tradeskill experience?

Part of me loves t his idea. The other part of my hates it. I like the idea because ya I would be one of the people filling the vials and selling them or even using them for alts guilty. I don't like the idea because part of what is supposed to make the game fun is having to work at your character to get him to be good. Seeing others just have it handed to them kind of ruins it, although that aspect has been slowly ruined already over the years anyway. Also The biggest issue here and in the game in general is what to do when you finally have your good character at level 100. Everquest 2 has literally over a decade worth of conent that would be fun to play if everyone was still playing it. But instead the game has evolved into funneling and rushing all players to level 100. The problem is once they are at level 100 which is pretty easy to do these days there is only one small expansion worth of content to play. Why is it being designed to speed everyone to lv 100 when most the fun and content lies in the ten years of content everyone now skips with collections heroic character or now these vials. I am not bashing the idea again part of me loves this idea. But there needs to be a much much bigger end game content niche. I remember when Echoes of Faydwer was the latest expansion. To me those were the golden days of eq2. I remember how much I enjoyed trying to collect all of my class gear for each toon, also I hate some of the mechanics in the newer instances like having to drag a boss here or there or silly things like that. What ever happened to just making the bosses tough like having them hit hard and having lots of hps... Anyway My point is the game needs a much larger and bigger end game for max level because that's where everyone is spending there time. Expansions like tot just aren't enough to keep everyone entertained. Give me an expansion bigger than EOF and a level increase please. Some more aa points. Lets us equip mercenaries and collect mercenary gear. Come on give us something to do please.

The part they dont tell you is they will probably be milking you for $25 per bottle, like every other over priced item in that store.

My immedate feeling is the game is complex enough as it is without something new like this to consider. My other thoughts:

1. Yay, something else for the exploiters to inevitibly break, abuse, then force a change from DBG in 6 months or so;
2. Good question above, does this apply to tradeskill?
3. How much are the vials? This perhaps, is the critical question .
4. It does encourage maxed out players to stick with it.

The nature of MMOs, i guess, is to ever-change (see what I did there ) thereby promoting prolonged engagement from the player base. However it does seem a shame that a D&D based game built on the concept of role playing to grow in skill, is being subverted by the apparent new abilty of buying the experience. As an old school content/quest over PL type, I mourn the imminent death of the games original ideals. Well ideals maybe too strong a word...

How much will these veils cost from the Marketplace?

So, I can't pause and later continue filling the vial I just paid cash for? That's a crappy move I think, and one which will keep me from purchasing said vials. Unless I misunderstand this...if I am wrong, correct me, but that's not the way I am reading it.

You CAN pause it. After you fill a vial, if you don't have it set to auto-consume, you'll have to manually use a new one.

What is the level requirement to siphon off XP?

I assume there is no way to share this with toons you have on other servers?

If a vial has a 60% conversion rate then is the other 40% lost?

Will some sort of chart be provided that shows how much XP is required to move from level X to level Y? This would allow us to know how many vials would be required to move a particular toon from level A to level B.

And for clarity, non-subscribers can buy, siphon, trade, and level with these vials?

Here's a google docs spreadsheet I barfed up for my own edification. It's rough as guts but should be accurate, assuming that the vials are 200k XP, full, and that you can gain more than one level at a go. I assume that further down the track someone will throw together a vial calculator.

Some highlights:
- 1 vial will get you from level 1 to level 31
- 9 vials to get from level 99 to level 100
- 88 vials to get from level 1 to level 100

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bfltZncMstz64ns94Q-qqgQDKK85OEITr8fcT7gRa2g/pubhtml

Good calculation, But what happens to Vitality/Effect/Veteran/Server Bonus.. Maybe this are applied after storing.
btw: 200k is not very much XP, so hopefully there will be bigger Vial bottles

Will work for the aa to? the last 10 point are pretty boring.

this rocks. love this

Umm... interesting.... Questions Questions....

1. My understanding is tithe points are earnt based on xp earnt; so will siphoning xp off slow tithe progression?
2. When these xp vials are consumed will they boost tithe progression, leveling and aa or all three exactly as current xp?
3. What level do you have to be to be able to use these pots? Level 20 or above? Level 95 or above?
4. Will current advancing restrictions (max of just under 2 levels) apply to these vials thus wasting a good portion of the vial xp in some cases?
5. Will Vitality effect these vials?
6. Will any veteran bonus, double xp, server bonus, xp gain potions effect consumption of these vials giving you even more?
7. Will you also bring out crafting experience versions because those are the ones that would sell!
8. Will the vials come in small, medium, or large?

last one..

9. Will the price be in keeping with the cost of purchasing a level 95 character?


Have a nice day