Experience system is one of the core game factors. It's most important role is telling the person that he is doing it right. If one is getting high XP rewards - then he is performing good and he is useful for his team. So, let's look at what the experience system tells us now. Part 1. Multicrew vehicles The system of XP rewards on multicrew vehicles is probably the most screwed part of the game. Driver gets only a small part of gunner's XP, gunner get no XP from driver's kill. So, it says that gunner has no part at driver's kills and driver has only a very small part in gunner's kills. However, both of them are working for one goal and both are essential to the vehicle's survival. The best example is the Liberator. Tail gunner is essential for survival as it kills or scares away enemy ESF. However, most of the time he gets nothing to shoot at. From score per minute perspective, he looks like the least useful person in the world, but that is wrong. At the same time, driver gets only a small part of gunner's XP (when gunner gets +200 XP for a Sunderer kill, driver gets +50 XP), yet it is the driver (pilot, in this case) who keeps the Liberator alive, spends his time and certs to upgrade it. TLDR: XP rewards for driver (pilot) and gunners do not reflect their real contribution for their team. Solution: Driver and all gunners should get the same amount of XP. Gunner should get full XP rewards for driver's kills, driver should get full XP rewards for gunner's kills. Part 2. Infantry support activity. Most of this looks more or less fine. Rewards are reasonable. However, some parts are broken too. Infiltrator's Recon Detect Device. This thing shows enemies on radar for all allies and can prevent sudden attacks from behind just as well as provide intel to perform such attacks. Yet infiltrator get nothing for using it. I repeat, NOTHING. He can spend a lot of certs upgrading it to be more useful for the team, but he will NOT be rewarded for it in any way! Solution: reward +5 XP for every enemy killed, who was shown on the minimap by Recon Detect Device. Point capture. For converting the control point, we get +25 XP. +25 XP for risking yourself to conquer the base. You need to perform 4 conversions in order to get same XP as for 1 kill. Does not sound very good. Solution: reward for point conversion should be +50 XP, so a full capture of a point (two conversions) will give the same reward as a kill. Point defence. This is the reward given for fighting on the control point's zone. Currently it is like +10 XP per kill. Currently it is not worth the risk caching grenade or bullet there as enemy will know you are there. Solution: Should go up to +25 XP per kill, at the very least. This will stimulate people to stay on point. Capture speed: reward for staying on point. Right now not much people prefer to stay on a control point on order to speed up the capture. Most of them do not even know that it is good for the team, since there is no reward for being on the control point. Solution: Reward people, who stay at the control point, with at least a small reward. Something like +5 XP every 5 seconds will suit fine. Only those actually influencing the cap should be rewarded.Part 3. Vehicle support activity. Vehicles generally get not so much ways of getting support XP. I also haven't got enough experience in this part myself. As far as I can say, only one thing is really flawed: Galaxy/Sunderer drop XP. Currently, Galaxie's pilot (or Sunderer's driver) get's + 5 XP per every kill made by people whom he was transporting. So, in average situation, a hell lot of time to get people in, travelling time, a lot of risk being shot down (Gal/Sunder with 12 persons on board is a jackpot for anyone), all of that will reward the owner with XP hardly justifying one single kill, that could be done in less then a second. +5 XP is plainly ridiculous. No surprise Galaxy in nearly never used. Solution: Rewards, called as "Deploy kill" should be upped to the range from +10 to +25 XP.Conclusion Current XP reward system is flawed in some of it's parts. That is killing a number of professions like Galaxy pilot and Liberator pilot, as well as advising people to farm kills instead of capturing points. XP system teaches players, how to play and what to do. If we want a good game, we need proper rewards. TLDR for the whole post Driver and all gunners should get the same amount of XP. Gunner should get full XP rewards for driver's kills, driver should get full XP rewards for gunner's kills. Recon Detect Device: reward +5 XP for every enemy killed, who was shown on the minimap by Recon Detect Device. Reward for point conversion should be +50 XP (instead of +25 XP) "Attack" or "Defend" reward for killing in Control Point sphere of influence should go up to +25 XP per kill, at the very least. This will stimulate people to stay on point. Reward people, who stay at the control point with something like +5 XP every 5 seconds. Only those actually influencing the cap should be rewarded. Rewards, called as "Deploy kill" should be upped to the range from +10 to +25 XP (currently: +5 XP).
The system is incredibly flawed. Kills give so much XP, engie/medic farming gives a ton of XP and drivers get very little XP. To give an example, it is better to kill farm an enemy Sunderer with a Liberator, than it is to actually destroy the enemy Sunderer. Because of the high density of players in single areas it makes it better to kill farm with Liberators than to actually destroy the equipment that is spawning those soldiers. Ultimately, the XP system is at odds to the system that should actually be rewarding and, that is defending and capturing bases. Players will always take the path of least resistance to get the upgrades they want and that is why it should never have been implemented. The game is worse off as a result of it and players will cert farm rather than play in the way they enjoy or what helps their faction the most.
I personally like these ideas but also think players should be rewarded for successfully defending their bases. Say there is a 'total exp' possible and the % of this you get depends on how far the enemy pulled the base to their side during the tug.
I agree with the post and disagree with everyone who wants XP for defending a base. I HATE the fact that I could potentially sit at a base for hours defending, only to have the zerg come and finally win the day. I would get NOTHING for my hours of good work, even if I'm killing 10x more enemies than getting killed. All because we didn't "win" the defense. And the opposite situation also sucks: I spend hours defending a base, and then some guy comes along in the last 60 seconds and gets full base defense XP because he stumbled through the area. The XP amounts may be off, but the reward model for defense is well made.
I have never earned as many points in one area as I have playing medic while defending a tech plant. How this plays out now is that everytime I find a good defense farm there are like 3 medics for every 1 infantry player because it's so much easier to get points as a medic than it is as infantry. I wish I could say something constructive, but all I can say is that I agree with the OP in the sense that XP is just totally broken for this entire game and I had really hoped they learned their lesson from PS1, but they didn't.
The biggest issue I have with the experience system is revive exp as a medic. It's very high. And I've seen more than a few base assaults basically deadlock because both sides had so many medics just sitting with their rez tool waiting on one of the people actually fighting to die that neither side could get anywhere.
XP is seriously screwed up. Why do I have to play a good hour trying to be a valuable member and getting the equivalent of two or three minor attachments for my work, when I could farm kills and shred to gain way more certs? I want the xp system to lead me to want to help the team in a broader variety of ways. I think part of the reason xp gain is so low is that SoE has to compensate for the lack of things you can buy and the lack of customization and content. Essentially, if xp rates were higher, players would finish upgrading their soldiers and vehicles too fast for SoE to give them more to keep them interested. Players need to play for a whole hour to get two or three upgrades. It's a system based on addiction, not genuine interest.
The experience system doesn't reward group play at all. Honestly SOE has been subpar in most MMO's (swg/ps1/eq2 and more). They can't do raid frames right (platoon system/outfit is horrible) for starters. UI seems like the same meh one from ps1/swg. Chat system never works (region) reliably. The only thing that sort of works is the voice over IP which props up this otherwise lame duck. I'm not sure why they're so focused on cheaters. The game doesn't even meet basic requirements for games like this. Client closes with a crash report every single time without fail. I subbed for one month and glad I didn't do the six month at this point.
Well, somewhat true, but what about the gen repair? consoles? etc etc.. and if you heal and repair a guy and he go and die again w/o killing anyone = 0 xp
Its not XP for teamplay cause they want all the kill wh0res from other FPS games in PS1 its all around team xp, currently the killer get full xp and squad get half xp, for any kilsl made in the squad so, player1 kill and get 100xp, player 2-10 get 50 each, if they are within range If you are to far away you get nothing
This could be a rendering issue, but if I see infantry or a vehicle with my naked eye or scope it should register as a Spot, with XP if the target is destroyed. Flying in a Lib or Galaxy the gunners should be able to Spot targets and it register on the Mini-Map as a spot. This helps me tremendously as apposed to both my gunners trying to direct me for their lines of fire. Finding Squad Mates/Platoon. I can't tell you how often Squad/Platoon mates ask "where is the Sunderer"? The ability to locate your teams vehicles could use a little more work, perhaps even additional markers such as Sunderer Waypoint. At this time we're using our personal waypoints to mark particular vehicles.We also designate someone to Nav for us, a waypoint Nav system would be nice, but its understandable if it would just add clutter to our maps. Another issue and something we hear often is "Do we have a squad up"? Is the Squad system bugged? Sometimes we see the Squad and sometimes we don't. We've found a bit of a workaround, but when we form a Platoon it disappears (intermittently). Toggle Primary, ugggh, why is this not in the game? One keybind to go from Primary to Secondary, back to Primary? Next Weapon and Previous weapon are far to cumbersome. One button Toggle Primary would be fantastic. Preview Scopes or items prior to purchase. I've wasted quire a few certs on scopes that I simply don't like. Thankfully the TSR's were fantastic in helping with a Single Camo issue I was having. I didn't realize that a Single Camo was One Class, One Loadout "only". Thankfully I was refunded my Station Cash for what was in all intensive purpose my fault, but I had no idea how it worked.
