Suggestion to fix EXP congestion

[Tomiko]

I'd post this in the Suggestion Forum/Thread, but it's closed at the moment. On to the idea:

Since one of the main attractions of ToAU areas is the exp bonus, that keeps many people from going to the old areas. In a recent update, an exp bonus was added in Conquest areas based on the number of people in your party. In order to get people back in the old areas and actually care about Conquest, I propose the following:

Grant an exp bonus to players who are within a Region under their nation's control. It could also be based on their rank & nation's weekly standing to motivate people to participate more in both missions and Conquest.

Before I submit this to SE, I'd like to hear what people think about it. I know it's not that great if you're not in a region you control, but if the bonus was good enough, it could motivate some to work on getting the prime areas under their nation's control.

It's just a rough idea currently, but it's a start.

[Apelila]

Thats one idea. Here's the main problem i think though:

Current repop time: 16 minutes +
Current time for a melee burn to kill everything in sight: 6 minutes =
10 minutes of LOL.

If the dungeon mobs where made a shorter repop timer the exp bonus wouldn't matter nearly as much. Its nice for when your in a mid level party thats doing good to get chain 5 because its so crowded, but the main limitation for most good partys at most camps is lack of things to punch/stab/explode/burninate.

[Gilanth]

Indeed all they need to do is change pop times and problem solved really

[Kaylia]

But they can't! They said so in an interview iirc.


I wonder what kind of "limitation" there is..it cant be that complicated to modify server monster spawn script

[Palom]

Pop times are just about the same everywhere? Outdoors=5 mins (Uleg, Bibiki, Lufaise), dungeons=16 mins (KRT, Ru'avitau). ToAU just has more outdoor EXP areas than indoor, plus areas with a lot of mobs in small areas (short pulls). I know when I end up going with a PT inside Mamook, I definitely notice the difference in repop timers. Also, before Nyzul was added and all the camps were full, a friend and I would go to Lufaise instead and were still able to get long chains there (think my record in Lufaise was Chain #76).

The main deal is the 15% Sanction bonus. Take a 4-hour party to Lufaise for 12k/hour = 48k EXP. Simply adding the sanction bonus to that turns it into about 14k/hour for 55k EXP. Then, in ToAU areas you have mobs with lower HP and higher base EXP when compared with conquest areas, so the gap becomes greater.

[Kabbalah]

I might be wrong about this, but don't you get double merit points in level-capped zones?

That being the case, why not just level in those areas? Enough merits in the right spots should pretty much break some zones.

[Kyreth]

I'd post this in the Suggestion Forum/Thread, but it's closed at the moment. On to the idea:

Grant an exp bonus to players who are within a Region under their nation's control. It could also be based on their rank & nation's weekly standing to motivate people to participate more in both missions and Conquest.

Rank and weekly standing. And start putting in Assault-style missions for the three nations.

[Thistle]

I might be wrong about this, but don't you get double merit points in level-capped zones?

That being the case, why not just level in those areas? Enough merits in the right spots should pretty much break some zones.

Something like that? I'm not sure if it's exactly double or not. I know that a 75 in limit point mode will get a heck of a lot more than someone in XP mode.

That being said, level cap = blech. Having to mule (or buy) all the stuff you need for that cap? Though maybe having a LS static who went weekly might take some of the sting out of it...

[Mifaco]

-Make Colibri and Wivre aggro
-Give Colibri two new TP moves: Pecking Fury, hi-damage AoE stun move and Smorgasboard, AoE food steal.
I just fixed merit camp overcrowding!

[Auspice]

-Make Colibri and Wivre aggro
-Give Colibri two new TP moves: Pecking Fury, hi-damage AoE stun move and Smorgasboard, AoE food steal.
I just fixed merit camp overcrowding!

No, you killed it. :/

[Bakthi]

I might be wrong about this, but don't you get double merit points in level-capped zones?

That's not quite it.

If you're on merit mode in a level-capped zone, you get the amount of limit points killing the monster would "normally" provide in exp. Note that there are some monsters, such as hippogriffs, that have an innate exp bonus.

If you're on exp mode in a level-capped zone, then it depends. You will either get the amount of exp that you'd get at your "real level" for killing a monster of that level, or you will get 50% of the exp that killing said monster with you at the "capped level" would normally provide, whichever is greater.

For example, you're in a 40 cap area with a level 45 monster. A level 39 or 40 person is going to get "normal" experience points. A level 60 person is going to get 50% of what the level 40 person is getting. A level 75 person on exp mode is also going to get 50% of what the level 40 person is getting. A level 75 person on merit mode is going to get 100% of what the level 40 person is getting, which is what provides the illusion that you get "double merit points".

What it basically works out to is that exp is good in a 40 cap area for people around 38-42ish, or people who are 75 in merit mode, and rather sucky for anyone else. Note that as far as calculating party exp goes, the game only cares about people's levels up to level 40 in such an area; the level 60 person is only gimping his own exp.

Exping in capped zones can be interesting; you can do manaburns or regular parties on stuff like hippogriffs, and it works pretty well. It doesn't really compare to a good merit party in a non-horribly-overcrowded ToAU area, or even to a good merit party on decos. But it's a change of pace, and you can be 99% certain nobody will be there. A01 is also a better place than KRT to do a banishburn, if that excites you (although I bet the BLU imp solo camps would be great for that too; banish does pretty hot damage to them.)

The moral of the story, of course, is to always set yourself on merit mode before Swift Belt runs >.>

(edited for clarity, I hope)

[Fallso]

Ban all people with names beginning with "x" "xXx" or containing various adaptations of "Squall" "Cloud" and "Sephiroth".

I just fixed overcrowding camps

[RKenshin]

At this point in the game the only way to really fix it IMO is to add some sort of way you could do instanced exp PTs. I'm not sure if this is a viable idea or if it would be too difficult to impliment, but I don't think anything will help more than that (other than adding like, 5+ different and viable level 75 camps that all are equally balanced in difficulty/max exp per hour with a lot of mobs, which seems even more difficult).

It could be some small cheesy fee or a quest to gain access, and then you and your PT are sent off to a camp about the size of an assault area where there are plenty of mobs close together with fast repops. Then there are a lot of ways to make this more interesting as well. Like by having options to choose which area you want to go to, which could determine which mobs will be there (some mobs being better suited for some exp PTs; like pudding for manaburns, flying mobs for PTs heavy on piercing, etc).

Otherwise though, there will just about always be crowded exp camps.

[Sagacious Sundi]

Perhaps they can do that with the 5-6 basic Assault areas? Maybe pay gil, IS, Imperial currency, or maybe AP/tokens (for Nyzul) proportionate to how long you want to stay there (with a min/max, obviously). The different maps could determine which mobs spawn for each instance.

[Beckwin]

1. Adjust mob placement of Trolls in Mt. Z. As it stands the back camp can be pretty good if you have a good puller and some powerhouse DDs, but even then it doesn't stack up to Nyzul Bhaflau. So add more mobs to Back and Cerb camps, especially on ground level.

2. Repops in RuAvitau down to 5/6 minutes. Simple.

3. Add some Spongilla flies at the Olden Treant/Imp camp in Caedarva. That camp has potential and I found it nice in the early 70s; just needs more mobs to support a merit pt.

[aurik]

Seriously they could add an assault that gives you 1000 AP that you "win" by getting at least 5000 xp in 30 minutes.

[Kaylia]

You would xp on Treant? I tried once, and it ended up being horrible xp..didnt have perfect setup but I cant see it being good if they added flies

[ronin sparthos]

Treant arent too bad, it encourages blms if anything to exp in merit parties much like qutrub do as well.

[LD]

I think they should just loosen the grip PTs have on exp in general.
The Signet patch did a lot to help small PT/solo play in conquest areas, but across the board solo exp adjustments would spread people out more. This would have the dual effect of easing camp congestion and adding content by greatly reducing downtime.

[Khamsin]

What would really help congestion is if they added an expansion with new zones to merit in that are good enough to draw people from ToAU, with bonuses and such. Maybe they'll add some really nice merit camps in WoG.