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Experience Changes

Major changes to the experience system were announced! Offline absorbtion, no more “wasting” Lumnis/RPAs, and a new Boost. Read all about it:

http://bit.ly/2g61aYc

Category: Game Design Discussions
Topic: General Discussion about Gemstone IV

Date: 11/22/2016 09:48 PM CST
From: GS4-COASE
Subj: Updates to the Experience System!
We have a number of incoming changes to the experience system to help make it a little bit more friendlier and fit your busy schedule! This update has three main components: Offline Experience, Long-Term Experience, and changes to the weekly Gift of Lumnis and RP Award systems.

Offline Experience Absorption

Characters on paid subscription accounts will now continue to absorb field experience at a reduced rate when not logged in. Point-based and global experience modifiers (Gift of Lumnis/RP Awards [see below], Death Sting, F2P, etc) will apply to the offline absorption amounts, time-based experience modifiers (Login Rewards Doubled Experience Boosts) will not. The rate for offline absorption is a flat 15 exp per 10 minutes.

Long-Term Experience

A new BOOST has been released, BOOST LONGTERM. Using this boost immediately deducts 500 experience points from your field experience pool and adds 250 experience points to a new experience pool, your long-term experience pool. Experience in your long-term pool is normally absorbed much more slowly than your field experience pool (250 experience points per day), but has no cap on the number of points that it can hold. Experience absorbed from the long-term pool is not increased by RP awards, the Gift of Lumnis, or other such boosts.

Characters that are at or above level 20 on paid subscription accounts can earn up to two (2) long-term experience boosts per day via random drops upon LOOTing creatures that they are eligible to earn experience from. These drops are weighted to occur within the first 50 LOOT drops per character per day. Even if you cannot login every day to hunt, you can still earn a lesser number of long-term boosts; for every three (3) days that you go without earning a long-term boost (the days need not be consecutive), you will get one (1) free “away” boost upon your next login.

Aside from the daily 250 experience point absorption, you can also absorb long-term experience via continuing to absorb experience after your weekly Gift of Lumnis has expired. For every ten (10) points of field experience absorbed while outside of your Gift of Lumnis period, you also absorb one (1) point of long-term experience.

Gift of Lumnis Changes

Currently, the length of your Gift of Lumnis is based on the number of experience pulses that you are present for. Consequently, an experience pulse that occurs when your field experience pool only has a few points left in it results in less total bonus experience being awarded than if your mind is saturated, which can “waste” parts of your Gift. Therefore, we are changing the mechanics of the Gift of Lumnis from pulse-based to point-based. Instead of having a 3x absorption bonus for the first 3 hours of experience pulses per week and then a 2x absorption bonus for the next 3 hours of pulses, you will instead have a 3x absorption bonus until a fixed amount of bonus Lumnis experience is earned and then a 2x absorption bonus until the next fixed amount is earned. The net effect of this is that there will be no more “wasted” Gift of Lumnis pulses — everyone that completes their Gift of Lumnis will have received exactly the same amount of bonus experience.

The exact size of this Gift of Lumnis point pool will be determined via a recurring contest every 90 days, that runs for a week each time. The top 50 (top 5 in Plat/Shattered) players that absorb the most base exp (measured under the current Gift of Lumnis rules) during the contest period will thus set the size of the weekly Lumnis point pool for everyone until the next contest occurs (their exp returns will be averaged to create the point pool). We will be paying particularly close attention to the players that are contenders for the top 50 during the contest period, so AFK script at your own risk. You can use the LUMNIS verb to see the recurring contest status, those who “won” the contest, and the option to remove yourself from being displayed in the contest list to all players.

Putting this altogether in an example: If the total point pool set by the most recent contest is 18,000 points in total, then your allotted bonus for the 3x multiplier will apply to the first 6,000 points of base field experience that you absorb (netting you 12,000 bonus experience points), followed by a 2x multiplier on the next 6,000 base field experience (netting you a further 6,000 bonus experience points, making 18,000 Gift of Lumnis bonus points in total).

The first Gift of Lumnis contest will commence early Monday morning, November 28 at 00:00 and finish exactly 7 days later. Once the contest has finished and the first point pool established, the Gift of Lumnis will migrate from being pulse-based to point-based.

Role Playing Award Changes (RPAs)

Similar to the Gift of Lumnis changes, RPAs will be changing from a time-based to point-based system. The size of the point pools awarded will continue to be determined entirely by GM decision rather than through the contest, but the end goal of removing the pressure to remain saturated to not “waste” an RPA remains the same.

Coase


Date: 11/22/2016 09:57 PM CST
From: KRAKII
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Since making it “point based” to avoid ‘wastage’ was a long-term complaint, I think this is a good thing. Well done!

.

.

Meanwhile, there are six (6) new lines in the ‘boost info’ display cluttering up my screen. I understand about the 7th new one, the “Long-Term Experience Boost”, from your post. 🙂

What’s up with all these kinds of ‘passes’?


Date: 11/22/2016 10:06 PM CST
From: HJELTE
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
“Lets break it down” -Lucio

First and foremost… You can absorb XP while offline. Yay
Second, you get a separate XP pool for offline XP absorption potential
You can move XP from your normal mind into your long-term mind using a boost that drops off critters. You’ll likely get 2 if you kill 50 critters.

Lumnis:
Instead of a straight XP/pulse for duration, it’s now a bonus XP pool at a 3x/2x rate for * XP
Bonus pool is determined every 90 days. Bonus pool is determined by top XP earners over the course of 7 days. They set the bar for total XP pool size for everyone. They earn more? You Earn more. Try to earn lots, but don’t AFK script, they’re watching you!

~Whirlin


Date: 11/22/2016 10:07 PM CST
From: PFLATS
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Okay, so just to help me understand:

* All field (“normal”) experience will now absorb while a character is offline, at a rate of 15 exp/10 minutes. That’s 90 exp/hour, 11 hours, 10 minutes to absorb 1000 experience, and 2160 in a day, more than enough to absorb down almost any saturated bounty.

* There’s a new experience pool, the “Long-term Experience Pool” that only fills up by the use of BOOST LONGTERM. This trades 500 unabsorbed field experience for 250 unabsorbed Long-Term Experience. These are essentially lesser and far more common BOOST ABSORBs, letting you free up some headspace for more hunting or whatnot.

* Don’t stress about “wasting” an RPA or Lumnis any more, unless you’re one of the top 50 powerhunters in the game, in which case if you start to get complacent you’ll let the rest of us down. Chop chop!

Is there any reward for placing in the top 50/top 5 of the “contest”?


Date: 11/22/2016 10:09 PM CST
From: PFLATS
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
I should note, these changes are a nice boost for Premium accounts. Makes those extra character slots much more desirable, since you can hunt a character and then let them absorb offline.


Date: 11/22/2016 10:17 PM CST
From: LADYFLEUR
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Really great news. Thanks for the quality of life updates!


Date: 11/22/2016 10:17 PM CST
From: BRANDTJRT
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
How will this work with existing Lumnis and RPAs on characters?


Date: 11/22/2016 10:27 PM CST
From: KRAKII
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
And having found my LongTerm boosts already, I had to:

report the info in ‘news 2 6’ about the new Experience system says that it will deduct 500 and put 250 into the LTE pool, but my ‘exp’ command reveals (after 2 uses) 1000 in the LTE pool. Should that not be only 500? Or did the announcement incorrectly halve (should be 500/500, not 500/250) the figure?

.

Bsically, the implementation does not match the info stated.


Date: 11/22/2016 10:34 PM CST
From: GS4-COASE
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
>eport the info in ‘news 2 6’ about the new Experience system says that it will deduct 500 and put 250 into the LTE pool, but my ‘exp’ command reveals (after 2 uses) 1000 in the LTE pool. Should that not be only 500? Or did the announcement incorrectly halve (should be 500/500, not 500/250) the figure?

There was an error in how the system was transferring exp for about 30 minutes after release. It should now be transferring the appropriate amount of exp.

Coase


Date: 11/22/2016 10:36 PM CST
From: PFLATS
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Coase, is my little summary post accurate for the most part?


Date: 11/22/2016 10:44 PM CST
From: KRAKII
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Coase, if you need to reclaim 2×250 from the improper method uses I made, feel free.


Date: 11/22/2016 10:49 PM CST
From: KRAKII
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Also, (already ‘report’ed), I believe the “absorption outside Gift of Lumnis” (in ‘news 2 6’, the paragraph immediately above the GoL Changes header) is inaccurate. None of my LTE has been absorbed–as that paragraph seems to imply–but my regular pulse has increased by 2-3 points (where it used to be 29-31, I’m not seeing 33). I am definitely outside Gift of Lumnis. Should the extra points be correctly drawing from LTE pool, not the field pool?

Source: “Aside from the daily 250 experience point absorption, you can also absorb long-term experience via continuing to absorb experience after your weekly Gift of Lumnis has expired. For every ten (10) points of field experience absorbed while outside of your Gift of Lumnis period, you also absorb one (1) point of long-term experience.” — in-game “news 2 6”


Date: 11/22/2016 10:53 PM CST
From: KANDOR
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
This is a very, very clever change. Kudos.


Date: 11/22/2016 10:55 PM CST
From: VANKRASN39
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!

how will existing RPA orbs work?


Date: 11/22/2016 10:55 PM CST
From: GS4-COASE
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
>Is there any reward for placing in the top 50/top 5 of the “contest”?

The acclaim of your peers. 🙂

>Coase, is my little summary post accurate for the most part?

Essentially, yes.

>Should the extra points be correctly drawing from LTE pool, not the field pool?

Also now fixed.

Coase


Date: 11/22/2016 10:59 PM CST
From: PFLATS
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
>Essentially, yes.

Thanks! I’ve been trying to explain details to a few folks and wanted to make sure I wasn’t getting it wrong.


Date: 11/22/2016 11:01 PM CST
From: OM1E5GA
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Wait, this is live? I though the announcement said this starting next week?

Do we really have to be taking everything that’s straight forward and making it convoluted? This feels like change just for the sake of change….

Starchitin

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.


Date: 11/22/2016 11:01 PM CST
From: LADYFLEUR
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Nice bug, but the login reward timer, which I assume is linked to the daily long-term experience absorption, absorbed the entire 500 long-term exp in my pool instead of just 250 per day.


Date: 11/22/2016 11:04 PM CST
From: RUBIPHYR
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
LTE is not absorbed offline, correct?

Also, I’m a little confused about the 250 per day cap. This is roughly 10 exp per hour, and while your head is empty? You day “aside” from that, when you absorb it with field exp, that means there’s no cap on this? So as long as you keep ezp in your head, you will always drain LTE?


Date: 11/22/2016 11:08 PM CST
From: HJELTE
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
I read it as you absorb 250 LTE a day, regardless of activity.
Additionally, if you hunted while off Lumnis, you can absorb additional 1 LTE per 10 field XP.

~Whirlin


Date: 11/22/2016 11:11 PM CST
From: KRAKII
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Coase, I did one check before midnight and saw 995 in the Long-Term Exp pool. So it looks like “the fix was in”, you should pardon the expression. 🙂

However, then the midnight messaging hit with my new Boost reward, and now my LTE pool is empty. 0 points.

Even assuming you reclaimed the 500, and the 250 for the (yester)day was absorbed at midnight, that still leaves ~245 (because 5 got absorbed, as above) outstanding. I don’t think there were 120-ish pulses happening, for that to have been squared away.

.

TL,DR: either more got absorbed than should have, or more got removed from my pool (in the 2×250 overage issue cleanup), or… yeah, not sure what.

Already did “report LTE pool is now completely empty; it should have absorbed, at most, only 250 at the change of day. Even less the 2×250 reclaimed for using the Boosts while they were buggy, there should be ~250 still there. I don’t think there have been 120-ish pulses (at 2 experience apiece) to have emptied it.”


Date: 11/22/2016 11:16 PM CST
From: GS4-COASE
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
> either more got absorbed than should have, or more got removed from my pool (in the 2×250 overage issue cleanup)

This should also be fixed. Consider the exp as a freebie. 😉

Coase


Date: 11/22/2016 11:22 PM CST
From: RUBIPHYR
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
>I read it as you absorb 250 LTE a day, regardless of activity.
>Additionally, if you hunted while off Lumnis, you can absorb additional 1 LTE per 10 field XP.

So as I said, there’s essentially no cap on how much you absorb per day, as the first line would imply. As long as you have exp in your head and you’re absorbing, you’ll always absorb from LTE, albeit at a faster rate if you’re already absorbing.


Date: 11/22/2016 11:35 PM CST
From: GS4-COASE
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
>Also, something Krakii’s post sparked in my mind, if midnight hits and you have LTE left in your pool, will it auto-absorb to clear it out?

There was a bug that caused a bunch of long-term exp pulses to go off all at once, basically absorbing everything that players had stored away before midnight. That’s been fixed for future days, though. The way long-term exp works is that every night at midnight you get one 250 exp pulse (you don’t have to be online to get it). In addition to that, if you absorb exp while off your Lumnis boost, you immediately absorb 1 point of long-term exp for every 10 points of base exp. That exp is deducted immediately.

Coase


Date: 11/22/2016 11:45 PM CST
From: RUBIPHYR
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Ah, okay, that’s much clearer. A flat 250 exp at midnight (assuming you have LTE stored), and for the rest of the day it effectively adds to your regular exp pulses as you’re resting, so long as you aren’t on Lumnis?

I’m normally not this slow. RL craziness is scrambling my brain.


Date: 11/23/2016 12:04 AM CST
From: JBODARY1
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
The contest part, is that top 50 going by account or individual character? Do we need to just pick one character to play during the contest?


Date: 11/23/2016 12:09 AM CST
From: ROBERTSM8
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Quick question/point of clarification Coase…

I know you said before you didn’t have to be logged in at midnight to get the 250exp boost from long term experience, but will you still get it if you ARE logged in at midnight like the login rewards? I assume the answer is yes, but it never hurts to get confirmation.


Date: 11/23/2016 12:21 AM CST
From: SLHUBB
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
I have killed over 100 critters so far and haven’t found a LTE Boost. I was originally a F2P account but upgraded. Is there a chance that this is affecting my ability to find the LTE Boosts?

Thanks

Rinthius/SEAN


Date: 11/23/2016 12:25 AM CST
From: GS4-TAMUZ
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
>>Characters that are at or above level 20 on paid subscription accounts can earn up to two (2) long-term experience boosts per day via random drops upon LOOTing creatures that they are eligible to earn experience from.

I believe your specific problem is that you are not yet level 20!

___
ASGM


Date: 11/23/2016 12:44 AM CST
From: VICIMER
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
It deducts 500 and adds 250 to the LTE… is the other 250 insta-absorbed?


Date: 11/23/2016 01:09 AM CST
From: LADYFLEUR
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
>There was a bug that caused a bunch of long-term exp pulses to go off all at once, basically absorbing everything that players had stored away before midnight. That’s been fixed for future days, though. The way long-term exp works is that every night at midnight you get one 250 exp pulse (you don’t have to be online to get it). In addition to that, if you absorb exp while off your Lumnis boost, you immediately absorb 1 point of long-term exp for every 10 points of base exp. That exp is deducted immediately.

Well, this bug is really nice, but it now seems to be the case that if you log out, 250 LTE is instantly absorbed. I had gotten two LTE boosts and redeemed them after the login time tonight, and after logging in twice to check on tasks I noticed that the bucket is down to zero. I’m still on Lumnis.


Date: 11/23/2016 01:39 AM CST
From: LADYFLEUR
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Does the offline absorption occur every X pulses or only if you’re logged out for a full 10 minutes?


Date: 11/23/2016 07:45 AM CST
From: HJELTE
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
@Vicimer

Other 250 is lost in the translation. The use case is when you’re fried, but have like, 5 kills left on a bounty, you can pop an transfer thingy, it drops your mind a bit, and you can finish the bounty. It lets you extend your hunt by a little bit.

Alternatively, if you’re doing a Warcamp or Reim, it’s also a great opportunity to pop those things. Very similarly to how instant-mind-clearers are.

~Whirlin


Date: 11/23/2016 07:59 AM CST
From: KITHUS
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Coase,

When I first read this I thought it was an April Fools joke. Seriously this is probably the biggest change to GS since the GS4 conversion. Bravo man! I’m stoked that this is a half day and I can test this out when I get home early!

Keith/Brinret/Shiun

Keith is correct

Wyrom, APM

http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Help%20for%20Players/Policy%20Discussions/view/246


Date: 11/23/2016 08:36 AM CST
From: GSLOVER
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Bravo! This is an amazing change. As I noticed DragonRealms had offline absorption when I tried out their F2P system a while back, I had wondered why GS didn’t have a similar thing.

I’m extra excited because it no longer is so much of a choice as to which of my characters to focus on for Lumnis as a Premium subscriber. Sure, I can still focus on my main character, though I can take a break and send out another character for a hunt without feeling like I’m ‘waisting’ Lumnis time (bonus points that the original main character will be absorbing a bit while hunting the other character.)

Not sure how to leverage the Long Term Experience boosts yet – I already use my Instant Mind Clearers for a similar effect. However, due to usually always being on Lumnis when hunting a character, I was loathe to use them very often as I’d preferred to get the most out of sitting on a node while saturated. Perhaps with the Lumnis change away from pulse bsed this will change.

I’m also not sure how the Lumnis contest will work out – will have to see how that turns out.

Is it anticipated that there will be 50 heavy exp contributors in Prime? I’d be worried about some lower numbers near the bottom skewing the average, though this remains to be seen.

Overall – great changes! I am super happy!


Date: 11/23/2016 08:42 AM CST
From: KRAKII
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
‘loath’ is something you are; ‘loathe’ is something you do to something else.

.

I was excited about this too… but got (very mildly) less-so, when I realized that I will have actually fetch in <these other dozen characters> and hunt them for a while, in order to get some experience to put INTO the LTE pool.
(As well as the vouchers to actually do that step.)

Also, this system leaves the service-oriented characters (forgers, in-town-only pickers, healers, raisers, and so on) out in the cold, because it’s not like they’re hunting to pick up a couple of vouchers.

<pause to re-read>

Okay, they get one every three days/10 per month. That’s cool.


Date: 11/23/2016 08:43 AM CST
From: KAYB8
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
I personally don’t like the changes. Too convoluted and unnecessary. Wasn’t there something more important that could have been done?


Date: 11/23/2016 08:52 AM CST
From: LADYFLEUR
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
This is one of the single best updates to the game in GS4. It’s a huge boost to Premium subscription mechanics that had for far too long, fallen far behind multiple basic accounts in mechanical advantages. Kudos for this implementation.


Date: 11/23/2016 09:03 AM CST
From: ALLENM20
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Definitely a welcome change for the offline experience absorption alone.

As I gaze over the horizon, the wind tugs at my cloak and whispers, “Adventure” in my ear.

AIM: Kaight (Matt) GS4


Date: 11/23/2016 09:21 AM CST
From: VERSIN
Subj: Re: Updates to the Experience System!
Offline XP absorbing is wonderful.

 

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