TL;DR: make XP scaleable INTRODUCTION Currently, the general trend seems to be that players are focusing on easy kills, instead of strategically important objectives. A prime example is vehicles camping camping sunderers to kill players spawning from it instead of destroying the sunderer. This results in what is now known as lemming farming, and spawn camping is a derivative thereof. Similarly, in the supporting role medics are only reviving without topping the player up, even at times they know the player will most certainly be shot again. Likewise, why would I bother with AA and AV if scaring the enemy doesn't give me any reward. I hypothesize this is primarily due to the way XP is rewarded. Why bother hitting on a sunderer if farming lemmings gives me way more XP, never mind the fact that I don't know whether I will get the kill anyway? Why would I try to hunt that pro player that is causing a rampage down when I can just as well kill multiple unaware freshlings for a higher reward. In a game with a measle strategic metagame, the only thing that seems important is farming XP. Even though I agree that an improved metagame will change a lot, that doesn't mean the XP system should be ill-designed and rewarding lame gameplay. I hereby propose a total revamp of the XP reward system to address the previously described issues. ======================================= OFFENSIVE XP Potential XP of an enemy is adjusted based on time alive (low ceiling), cumulative XP earned (high ceiling), resource cost (higher ceiling, multiplier). XP is collected based on damage done, a kill is not a necessity. XP earned is dependent on the health pool: XP earned is very low when damaging a healthy enemy and scaling to very high when damaging a severely injured enemy (linear or log?). XP per enemy is capped to the potential XP (timer, killing shots will always be rewarded). SUPPORT XP XP earned on a revive scales with your medical applicator rank A proportion of the XP is rewarded on the first reviver to complete the cast, the latter proportion when the revived recharged his shield (MAX when accepting revive) GROUPING Squad / platoon multiplier A proportion of the XP is split within the squad XP is split with the players in a vehicle ======================================= DISCUSSION With the proposed XP reward system, This will reduce lemming farming, spawn camping, and reward strategic play. I assume that this system is theoretically possible because the game already calculates who did the most damage on you, as shown on the death screen. Not to mention that a similar system was active in the original Planetside. From a business point-of-view, this system also gives more possibilities to (indirectly) favor premium members. For example, premium members can specify what proportion is split within the squad and can split a higher proportion. In addition, premium players might be able to see which enemies offer a high potential XP to enhance effective focus fire. Limitations of this system are the higher calculation load and a higher XP spam on screen. To reduce the latter, the total XP is awarded when no interaction has occurred after a set amount of time. The first might be a significant problem due to the already high load, but I'm not the one to say anything significant on this. With this system, attacking or defending a base has not been appreciated yet. TL;DR: make XP scaleable
same basic idea as a post i just made.... i fully agree.. this game makes people focus more on xp, than on playing the actual game.. and the best solution, is to only reward the kind of gameplay, that actually makes people do assaults and defenses... one way would be to make xp for defending or taking places, alot higher, and take away kill xp. or at least lower kill xp, and when in vehicles, lower it even more. So that a normal infantry kill nets you 100xp, but a kill from inside a vehicle, nets you 25xp only. That way, one thing, would not outperform other things. And seeing as vehicles get's more than 4 times the kills of infantry anyways, it should not make it imbalanced...
I agree with most of what you've said OP. But I think another big issue is the amount of exp rewarded for spotting + assisting with kills. Currently this is in favour of the TR + VS. NC don't really notice it as much. With a faster firing, highly accurate, low recoil gun (all the VS and TR weapons) you get more dmg off faster and have a higher chance to hit the target. That being said you get a BUTTLOAD of exp for just spraying at mobs of infantry. NC can't get this because their guns are poop. You can level a TR or VS character super fast by just ignoring objectives and killing infantry. I'd like to see this nerfed and bring the focus of the game more towards the objectives as you say. Granted, I think a well placed tank mine should give you a tonne of exp for killing a fully loaded sunderer. After all, you took the time to be strategic. But alas, I do not have the magic answer for making infantry exp work well. Even if we award them with damage based exp, NC will still lose out and fall behind VS and TR players in battle rank. More bullets hitting fast and accurate still = more dmg. So I don't know what would work. Perhaps nerfing the flat kills/assists exp and making it ramp up the better you are. So if you're a noob just full auto-ing with TR/VS guns, then ya, you get just "meh" exp. However if you're an expert 1 shot 1 kill NC player and you survive and go for objectives, then ya, dish out the exp to that bro; he's doing a damn fine job. Also, I think adding experience for killing infantry/vehicles around objectives would be nice, but I don't want to deter away from the battles that occur in the open spontaneously (as they should be). The game already has huge issues trying to form a "front line" when assaulting a base. So while it would be nice to reward people for staying on the objective, I don't want to see this game be PURELY objective based.
Yes the mindless lust for XP is what ruins all and every strategy in the game. But the metagame as it is now is very lite too, it's not something people care to focus on cause nothing matters. Every lost facility is easily recaptured quick when the zerg happens to pass there. Atm, you need to really love going around capping empty bases of boredom to enjoy the strategic aspect of the game earning meagre amount of XP doing it.
Yea I didn't want to bring that up because this thread would get hijacked into a discussion about how this isn't PS1.
There were a lot of perfectly good systems in PS1 that were thrown out for no other reason than a desire to not be PS1 again. Remember the merit system? How pretty much every thing you could possibly do in the game was tracked as a stat, and at certain milestones you got a little merit badge (a strip of flat-colored bars), and you could apply up to three on your character's pauldron? And how they were often themed, like how getting a number of the healing/reviving merits would give you badges that you could arrange to make a red cross symbol on your shoulder? Why didn't that ship with PS2? It's an easy and effective way to get people to do supportive things or play your game in new, interesting ways (Tiny Robotics Support, anyone?)
You do not need this.. The point of the game is not to win the war because you cannot.. The point of the game is to get certs.. If one way people recieve certs is wrong for you then I would hardly say it should be stopped..
To be honest I am a firm believer that Battle Rank should of been tied directly to certs spent. You see a high Battle Rank it simply means they unlocked allot. But I agree that a problem exists. You seldom see folks playing smart or tactically, because patience yields slower results than charging from battle to battle or Ghost Cap to Ghost Cap. As a dedicated defender, I find it frustrating to take a facility only to lose it within minutes because the attacking force charges off to the next cap without taking a few minutes to identify that an enemy force is a hex away about to come in retake the place. I like the XP for damage but only when applied to Vehicles. You should get XP for damaging vehicles based on the damage you do. To get folks to play more strategically experience earned in Battles should be dependent on time and resistance. If assaulting an empty base you should get next to nothing. If Assaulting a base with heavy resistance you should be given a large sum. Defending should be similar except the longer you hold the facility the bonus XP should increase. The increase would also tied to the number of attackers. So sitting around an empty base for 2 hours won't do much, but holding a base under siege by the hordes for 2 hours should be immense. Another change is to award a small amount of XP for everything done in a squad. If your squad kills an enemy, allies within a radius should gain a small XP bonus. If your squad engineer is repairing and you stay close enough to support him you should get XP as well. If you get XP from your squad, more people are likely to join and support squad. I would even say a squad objective bonus for repairing gens, turrets, and capping points. Other than what I mentioned the final thing should be Vehicle Crews. Pilots and Gunners should all get XP for each Assist and Kill earned by a crew-mate. This would make it beneficial to man all weapons in Gals, Libs, Sunders, Tanks...ect.
Thanks for the suggestions, I haven't figured out the best way how defending/attacking should be moulded into the XP system so I'd like to hear more suggestions on this. The XP sharing between vehicle members and squad members is already in my suggestion. It could potentially be interesting to favor premium members, allowing members to share a higher percentage between squad members.
SOE wated to make team-based game.But they made people farm xp but not help team.This xp system must by changed.
