Weekends are Better with Friends (and Bonuses!)

Why do some people complain when we get something extra offered to us. Yes there will be plat farmers, they will be taking advantage of the experience offer just like so many other people logging in this weekend.

Ok, my gods I'm not believing I'm doing this. While I appreciate the double xp, I'm not one of the folks that care about rushing to cap. I know that makes me a minority. Your shop discounts are great but I have the mercs I want. I'm a decorator...what I would have loved to have seen is more items added to the shop for our decorators and may hap double SC or a sale. I've been waiting for ages for the awesome asian stuff like the katana sword rack with the two swords....and nothing...I would spend a ton on the asian items...seriously...doubt me look up my purchases. Others would also. I would have loved to have seen maybe double station cash and a release of the awesome items our PS artists have worked so hard on. Release the asian line....PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP!!

But in the end thanks for all you do. I just don't have a need for the xp.

You're not alone, Moon! I don't usually strive to power level either, except nowadays maybe in tradeskilling (and Status! I need a Status boost event! :-/). ;->

And a big +1 for the release request, though it's been like eons since the last double SC, and I don't think they'll do them any more. They made a mistake with the practice (way back when) of allowing expansions, account time, and other such things to be purchased using Station Cash, which people acquired during double- and triple-SC events, then waited until such things went on sale to buy them. Needless to say, SOE lost a lot of money that way, and while they did change that policy, which I don't find fault with at all, I don't blame them there, they also seem to have done away with double- or triple-events altogether.

Uwk
who got a great many new character slots the same way... ;->

I'm the same way. When double xp is going on I usually use it to level my crafters. Sometimes I just turn my xp slider down to like 90% aa's and manage it that way. ;P

This times 1,000! I'm going crazy over here waiting on the gnomeworks stuff that was submitted to show up on the marketplace, especially since tinkerfest is right around the corner. ;P

I am not complaining about the double xp at all, and actually did find the merc crate sale useful. Thanks for everything team, I just think there might be more people out there like Moon, Uwk and myself than you might realize.

It's hardly misleading. Baseline XP is and always has been and always will be 100%, and this weekend that baseline xp (which everyone gets as bare minimum) is doubled to 200%. So imho it's not unreasonable at all to call it a Double XP weekend. All the other bonuses, vet bonus, potions, are bonuses to that baseline xp. To have all those bonuses doubled as well is a bit 'out there', it's not like xp is particularly hard to come by, plenty of places to go and plenty of stuff to do to rack it up quickly.

Really happy for those that have been wanting a double XP weekend, I used to love them in years gone by, its great to be able to blast through 30 or 40 levels in a weekend when you want to. However, I tend not to make use of them any more as my 2 or 3 main toons are pretty much maxxed out, and I like to take it slowly and enjoy the ride on my fleet of alts these days.

Hoping we can have a status weekend some point in the near future to help me save up for those nice status statue thingies added last year.

OMG when are they going to allow guild XP bonus???

Five years ago, XP multiplied in a crazy geometric way that was totally overpowered. Through refer-a-friend, veteran bonus, XP potions, etc. it was possible to get over 1,500% XP. This was adjusted so that double XP weekends didn't massively multiply your XP, they just doubled them. On a Double XP weekend, it's reasonable and expected that your final XP amount gets doubled.

Alas, a couple years ago this was still considered too generous and so double XP weekends were changed to be a flat +100%. Let's say I start with $100 and then I earn $400 along the way and then I get another $100... It's nice and certainly appreciated, but it's a basic failure in the math to try to call going from $500 to $600 "doubling my money".

Considering many of us can already get to 400-500% XP from vitality, XP potions, veteran bonuses, etc, another 100% is barely noticeable. This is a Bonus XP weekend. I probably won't even login. If they have a true Double XP weekend again, believe me I'll be yodeling from the rooftops with joy.

If I pay you $100k a year, then tell you I'm going to double it, that means I'm going to pay you $200k a year. If you invest your money during that year, I don't also have to double the return you earn on it just for the privilege of being able to say I'm doubling your income.

I personnaly would love to take advantave of the extra experience bonus on Test server this week, But alas ...Not happening simce Test server is down since the last update late July 2nd. <<Sigh>

Dye

Well, it's up, sort of...I can't zone anywhere within it, not even from, say, city zone to city zone via the World Bell; if you logged your character out in a guild hall or house (and possibly an instance or dungeon; haven't had anyone in that circumstance, me), then you're not getting back in again. If you logged out in a city, you're okay there, but you won't be able to leave it.

Uwk
who reassures all on Test that yep, there are threads about that there on that forum...we'll get someone to notice it, hopefully before they leave work today (and hopefully, they didn't get the day off today... :-/)

I miss the good ole days

Well now, for some of us the extra experience won't matter one bit, because we will never get it. Here is why:

There is a CAP on the amount of progress one can make from doing one writ, at least in crafting!

Yes, I kid you not! For example, if one rush order gives enough experience to raise you up by one and a half levels (very possible at lower levels with 200% vitality and 100-200% vet bonus, even before any potions). Now let's say you are at level 25.8 when you turn-in the rush order. The turn-in should put you at 27.3 right? But it will not. You will stop at 26.99, and the additional experience you earned will be wasted.

You are only allowed to DING two levels per turn-in, even if it only took 5 points of experience to gain one of those dings! So even if you earned enough experience to fill your experience bar twice, you only go up 1.001 levels, and the rest of the experience you gained just goes POOF!

SO, during this experience boost weekend, I can watch another 100% of base experience go POOF every time I turn-in a writ! Use experience pots? Good God, what for? Just so I can watch them go POOF too!

This CAP just makes it feel like someone is giving with one hand, while taking away with the other hand. Like gaining that 200% vet experience boost on my main account was really just a waste of time.

I really do appreciate and always looked forward to bonus experience weekends, and I thank you all for it, but if I am honest (and I always try very hard to be so) I must also add that I resent the hell out of this CAP.

/em is still waiting for the bonus half-xp weekend; as one big effect of 'bonus' xp weekends is to keep friends constantly toonswitching to maximise them numbers (quite often so fast that they barely have time to stop to say 'hello'.)

I'd be happy just to stay in the game..... regular XP would be GREAT! 11 crashes with my first (of 6) toons this morning really ruined my day. Lost track of how many times I went to (Trying Log in Server#X) with the second ..... by the 3rd crash on the 3rd toon I gave up and went to read a book.

No it isn't. Doubling is an operation, not a value. That is the key difference between an additive and a multiplicative bonuses. For example:

A mob grants 1000 base XP.

Double XP, assuming vitality and a 110 pot:

1000 x 2 = 2000
x 310% = 6200
Result: 2000 + 6200 = 8200

Versus "Double" XP (i.e. just adding 100%):

1000 x 1 = 1000
x 410% = 4100
Result: 1000 + 4100 = 5100

The only time the term "double" is technically true, is if you have no bonuses to begin with.

But again, I don't care specifically about XP bonuses. But thinking that 100% means double leads me to believe this is probably the reason so many people suck at speccing and reforging .

Edit: Miscalculated vitality on the first example cuz alcohol.

@Belenos - you haven't got that experience limit system quite right.

There is only one limit - that being for any turn in- a writ in crafting or a collection in adventure for example - you can only ding one level

therefore if you cash in a writ worth 150% and you are on 25%, you will ding and reach 75% of the next. If you are at 80% when you hand it in, you will ding and reach 00.0% - do anything else and ding the next level, so you lost 30%. Usually easy to remedy - just craft a few items to just ding a level and hand in - you then have almost 200% of "room", and even with 10 level 100 crafters, an xp portion and full vitality you will NEVER get that much (I have that scenario - about 150% is maximum)

Warning to those cashing in a heap of collections - you will get more mileage cashing them in one by one, and using lower level ones to just get over a level, then cash in a big one. The game will not budget them out for you, and you can lose a lot of xp.

Tetrol, I am unsure exactly what you mean here about collections. I have turned in piles of collections and instantly gained as much as 8-12 levels at one pop. I made a new channeler a few days ago, and after raiding my collection depot, went from level 12 to 22 at one time.

Yes, I know you can try to use "workarounds" to try to keep from having your gained experience wasted, but having to craft unwanted items just to try to get around an OBVIOUS FLAW in game design is bull hockey. (And when you have two systems that are designed so as to be inherently incompatible, that is a FLAW in game design.)

I've never been able to gain multiple levels at once with collections, it takes to to like 99.99% just under the next level.

Edit: Of course I haven't made a new toon in more than a month. Maybe they changed it.

Nice one! TY.
A sale is a sale, and bonuses are bonuses ~ Daybreak can't hit the sweet spot for everyone 100% of the time, and let's be real here they didn't even need to do this much.
And for all the nay sayers,,,,

+1

Tooo manyyy numbers!!!! With all of these multiples making it hard to track experience bonuses. I have but one wish which I really hope the devs read and listen to........ on the new TLE servers, I hope there never are bonuses for veteran status or potions. The vitality bonus makes sense, and should be included, but only within certain limits. Otherwise run away inflation will destroy the new servers the same as the old ones..... (and any sane economy) ....... Well while I am dreaming in my little fantasy world ..... I would think the game would be infinitely more enjoyable if there were real actual differences in the classes. As it is they all play exactly the same. Ok a wiz throws a spell, a ranger shoots an arrow...... not much different. wouldn't it be cool if healers actually had some great healing abilities .... and no real offense. conversely fighters have no business using spells... etc. There is so much balancing going on in EQ2 that it doesn't matter what race, sex, or class char you are... your chance of handling any situation at a certain level is virtually the same. It would be soooooo cool if paladins, dark knights. beastmasters and wiz were for solo only..... and the other classes would have limited abilities, but used only in groups. That simple change would make the game so much more enjoyable

Ok I guess that was more than 1 wish lol sorry.