Some thoughts: 1) Alert participation gives you a few thousand XP... which honestly is pretty much nothing. You can get 5-7000 xp in a twenty minutes just from daily ribbon awards, or blowing up a couple vehicles. Make it 50-70k XP and we'll talk. Furthermore, alert XP should be rewarded whether you're online or offline or on another continent or whatever when the alert ends. I liked to believe it was never going to happen to me, but sure enough, TWICE I've managed to crash in the last minute of the alert and got nothing. 2) Medic healing is trash for XP. The gun is slow and for some reason frequently fails to award any XP. If you're lucky you can squeeze maybe like 50 XP out of a single player. Compare that value to the amount of XP you get as an engineer repairing a MAX or a vehicle, or as a medic with the shield deployable. The AOE heal rarely is worth the certs it requires to not be garbage, while the shield pays for itself in any Biofarm. 3) Only getting revive XP when they accept the revive kind of sucks. I went through the effort, just give me the damn revive XP when I complete it. 4) Spotting XP duration isn't nearly long enough. If I spot someone, I only have a couple seconds before somebody kills them and I get rewarded. This is completely backwards: if someone is just a couple seconds away from them as I spot them, they probably didn't need my help. On the other hand, if I spot someone sneaking around and someone runs over to kill them, I did help them find the guy. The spot reward duration should actually be inversely increased - if they're killed right after they're spotted, you get very little XP. If they're killed long after they're spotted, you get more. The duration your spot 'counts' towards XP should be much longer than it currently is. 5) Hacking things definitely needs a huge XP increase. 6) Mechanics on how XP is awarded for being around / on / near points needs to be expanded. XP bonuses should be awarded for killing enemies near control points. Points that partially flip should get point defense bonuses. The actual 'area' that counts as flipping the point for XP purposes should be more than twice as large as the point area itself, so people who are outside the building - who obviously are instrumental to defending it - are getting fairly rewarded. 7) The same goes for generators and SCUs. Instead of ONE PLAYER getting a ton of XP from a generator / SCU sabotage or destruction, it should be fairly awarded to everyone in the area. If it takes 9 people to resecure a generator, why does just the guy who ignores the fight and holds 'e' on it get the glory? Why would I defend a generator where potentially nobody could attack and get nothing, when I could just ignore it and mindlessly farm enemies and be rewarded? 8) A MUCH BETTER base XP cap mechanic that encourages people to leave bases. Planetside 1 had this system more or less perfected, and it didn't require us to all stand around inside a base wasting time to get our XP or be cheated out of it if we feel like leaving. This would potentially reduce spawncamping as well by allowing people the freedom to leave a conquered base that's still on its countdown timer. Base XP rewards should be calculated based on players killed in the area, number of enemies killed away from their spawn point, how frequently the enemy managed to resecure their control points, and how disproportionate the fight was. If we attack a base and secure all the control points and push the enemy into their spawn, the base would essentially stop calculating new XP rewards. Since enemies can't leave their spawn and they can't contest the point, there would effectively be no new way to add value to the base XP. When the base flips, everyone who earned a certain proportion of XP* in that fight is given the base reward, no matter where they went. Any value added to the base XP (ie: last-minute MAX crash) isn't added to your value if you aren't in the area. *The 'proportion of XP' is based on the leaderboard concept, and would only effectively rule out people who just showed up to the fight at the last second and did nothing, which would discourage redeploy leapfrogging for easy XP, while fairly rewarding pilots and gal drops. 9) Empire-wide continent lock XP bonus for locking outside of alerts?
For number 1, alerts give a 20% exp boost on the corresponding cont. but I do agree a few thousand most of the time isn't much at all. 50-70k is a bit much, 10-20k would be a more reasonable amount imo. Maybe get 20k for actually capping 93% of the territory. Number 8 is a hell yes, this sounds much better then the lack luster system in place now. I also think it should display a scoreboard of who did the most during the battle for the facility, one that actually works not the worthless display when pressing tab. It could show kills, overloads, and defuses (maybe even heals, revives and repairs). I realize its kind of hard to determine autonomously when a fight for a facility has started. It could be tied into the code that makes the "explosions" on the map when there is a big fight going on. Once that starts the scoreboard would kick in and display once the fight has ended either by the facility being capped or the opposing force being booted out. Just some of my random thoughts on the subject. I agree with all the other points.
To your points 1 and 9, and perhaps touching on 8: The main draw from an Alert is not the experience for participation but, rather, the enhanced experience gain from actually taking part in the Alert. In the current incarnation that means experience earned while doing things on the said contested continent is increased. For the prior base-type Alerts, it was increased experience while fighting in the hex of the bases in question. The question regarding what to do when the player accidentally disconnects and then reconnects has been an issue or some time. Assuming the Alerts have an UID that distinguishes them for logging purposes, all that has to be indicated is what the last Alert UID that the player participated in, how long they participated in it, and, if they had not be awarded the final experience for it unless the Alert is ongoing, you recover the fraction of the final experience based on how long you participated as long as it was more than some threshold length of time. Now that continents are actually doing things outside of the Alerts related to the control of continents, and, if the ultimate goal is that continental capture will be fluid and disconnected from Alerts, perhaps particpation XP should be done away with entirely. I also suggest that base capture should no longer award experience either, in that same vein. Bases provide other unique purposes such as reources and the buffs, the most noticeable being Tech Plants allowing for MBTs being pulled in some bases outside of the Warp Gate, so it is still important to possess them, as well as the most obvious progressive hard spawn point. Amp Stations could provide a more noticeable passive enhancement, if anything. Base defense, which is the next logical progression after base capture, will still award experience for being there and doing stuff there. The only points I do disagree with are 2, 3, and 4. I argue against the former two because no player should deserve to be rewarded just for sticking their neck out with nothing really having been accomplished by it. Even as far as MAX repair is concerned, I'd rather like to progress to a system like in PS1 where you actually earned a portion of the other's player's expeience, passively, because you helped them in the said revive/heal/repair manner. This lasts for a set amount of time or until they die again. This would also tie into improved experience for hacking - hacked equipment awards some experience to the original hacker when used by friendlies (until it is destroyed or the base flips to the hacker's allegiance). I argue against the latter one because I believe there are significant excesses in the spotting system that need to be scaled back.
I can't edit the original point, but I forgot one: XP REWARD FOR CONCUSSING, EMPING, FLASHING, SMOKING ENEMIES. I'll admit I have no idea if there's any reward for conc / flash because I don't use them, but for EMP I know for a fact you get nothing. In fact, I don't even think you get an indication that you hit anyone. If I hit someone with an EMP grenade, I should get 'assist' XP just as if I shot off their shields with a gun. Conc and flash grenades should give you an assist for everyone killed while affected by them (and a brief moment after). Smoke should give you a small assist for any enemies killed through the smoke (or at least in it).
If 'playing the game is going to be its own reward', then SOE can increase the daily cert gain by a factor of 15. I'm still many, many certs shy of where I want to be and as long as the game is going to be based on grinding for XP, I expect XP rewards for jumping through their hoops.
Irrelevent. Alerts and the passive cert gain I believe you are referencing are unrelated concerns in as far as your topic is concerned. At least, I hope the purpose of the topic is to balance experience gain for good behavior in the sense that some acknowledged good behavior currently goes unrewarded. Not to hand out free lunch (money). The game is only a grind if you make it into a grind. By making it about at acquisitions before activities, one sets up their own hoop, praying that it does not turn into a noose or believing that strangulation is necessary for enjoyment.
Not really trying to troll you or anything. Just seems like you are misinformed or havn't been part of this recurring discussion. There are reasons we have exp awarded the way it currently is awarded, and it's usually to promote faction loyalty and prevent exploiting exp gain.
Hacking can give more EXP after they make it something that actually warrants a reward. Running around a base and holding down E for a few seconds to the enemies assets is about as low as effort goes in this game.
I agree with point 8. Ghost capping should get zero xp for the capture and scale up depending on the fighting that took place and your involvement or at least your presence in the locality. XP for killing gens should be zero to small. There needs to be no additional incentive to do that than there already is, ie a need to get through the shields. XP for killing terminals should be removed. If it's sensible to do it in the circumstance you are in then go ahead but sometimes it is not sensible and you want to keep a hacked terminal for your own use. In any case the XP reward encourages mindless destruction as opposed to reasoned destruction. XP for killing turrets should be removed. There is already enough incentive to do it and if you don't and get caught out - your fault. Repair XP is fair enough - a good way for new players to XP up.
The xp cap on doing certain things needs increasing greatly. Hacking I think takes only a few base turrets till you are on xp cool down which is bizarre because it rewards such a small amount anyway Ammo resupply also caps out pretty quickly a well. If I am the only engineer bothering to keep my allies topped up I shouldn't be penalized for team play Alert XP is terrible, based on my overall SPM I can get the max alert XP reward in 37 minutes just by playing the game. Based on my SPM during July so far which is currently 592 I can get as much as that in just 16 minutes. During the entire alert I can therefore gain about 8x the amount. There is no incentive to play the alert directly
Base capture XP definitely needs making better, so that (i) participating in a big fight (particularly outnumbered) gives more than a ghost cap, and (ii) turning up at the last second gives nothing while winning the fight and then moving to precap the next base gives close to 100% of the capture reward. Currently capture XP rewards bad gameplay (zerging, staying in a won base too long, ghostcapping and overpopping). The heal vs revive thing is broken, it's quicker to revive someone than heal them. Heal XP is about right, but it should be speeded up to be like revives, or revives slowed down to be like healing from 0 health. Revives shouldn't give XP unless you actually get it accepted though, that's (i) farmable and (ii) not like anything else in the game (throwing a grenade into an empty room gives you nothing either). I've definitely got attack/defence bonuses for fighting around a control point, perhaps the area needs to be larger but the basic idea is already there.
Everyone keeps bringing up exploiting the system. I would rather have an enjoyable experience than to be cheated out because a tiny minority of players MIGHT abuse the system. Punish everyone because of a few? Who the hell cares if they do? Set up a system that detects and flags suspicious behavior. You could abuse the XP system in Battlefield too, the response wasn't to get rid of rewards for things, it was to ban the exploiters.
1a. No, this is bonus XP that is earned on top of the XP you gain during the alert. You will still earn that 5-7000 xp for 20 mins while playing the alert. Then the alert XP is just a bonus on top of that if you did well. Making the alert XP any higher will just be feeding certain factions on certain servers. Besides, alerts are a temp solution (SOE definition of temp; couple of years) to get players to play the objective instead of farming. 1b. Agreed, but only for the time they participated in the alert. This should cover CTD etc. but not feed players free XP while they are off at work/school/sleeping. 2. The gun is slower at healing than reviving due to medic trains. If it healed faster than it can revive, you could essentially have a pocket medic and be able to tank the damage and be healed faster than you can take it. 3. Maybe a two stage system. You get 50% of the XP for administering the revive, then the rest if it is accepted. Same system as overloading gens. 4. Spot XP exists for as long as the person appears on the minimap. I think that is far enough. Base it on time (inverted) can't always allow for all situations. 5. Why? The only thing I have an issue with is that the XP cap is to low. 6. Completely agree, XP needs to be geared towards maintaining objectives. Problem is, that adds another layer of calculations to the XP system. Since most people are CPU bound, this would make it worse. 7. Agreed. Don't know the best way to manage this though. 8. See item 6 9. Why? You already get benefits for locking a continent.
