Divide XP like it should

[Calebro]

When things like SP vs. slots, or the extra HP and extra attacks are taken into account, your effective ECL is going to raise.
This is going to lower the xp you'd get from any given encounter.
You *are* getting what you're supposed to get, you're just not forced to split it if you play with a group.

[Eelpout]

Sigh.. yeah more XP meaning more than you currently do.

I never said anything about getting extra rewards for soloing

You should get rewarded the XP you deserve. Everyone seems to jump to the assumption that I'm talking about 200% XP boosts per hour for soloing.

I don't see what the problems is, but still I had to make a bunch of posts to clarify a simple thing.

Whether you agree with it or not, Dungeon Scaling has already done a form of what you are asking. If a dungeon is made easier with less players and still offers the same XP, the XP to effort quotiant seems to be just fine. Right or wrong you are more than likely not going to get any sympathy from people who have been here for 3+ years and were getting the same XP you are with no dungeon scaling while soloing or short manning.

Any extra xp/time boost given to players for short manning dungeons does take away from grouping and will continue to expand the issue of finding groups.

[Aiwendel]

Whether you agree with it or not, Dungeon Scaling has already done a form of what you are asking. If a dungeon is made easier with less players and still offers the same XP, the XP to effort quotiant seems to be just fine. Right or wrong you are more than likely not going to get any sympathy from people who have been here for 3+ years and were getting the same XP you are with no dungeon scaling while soloing or short manning.

Any extra xp/time boost given to players for short manning dungeons does take away from grouping and will continue to expand the issue of finding groups.

The XP to effort quotient probably gets better after years of gaming, but I still doubt it will get much higher than say 75%. If it does then the game already has a balancing problem (seeing as some of the players here claim they finish quests faster by soloing).

What would be the big deal with soloing for 75% of the XP/hour you could have got from grouping? You really think that would lower the amount of LFGs overall?

Like I said, I haven't done the numbers but I estimate I get about 25% of the XP per hour from soloing. Maybe 50% in quests I already know or have done with alts.
It could just be because I suck or am a newb, but I don't think it's just that.

I guess I'm the only one that has a problem with this. Oh well, if I play the game for 3 more years and know every single dungeon I'll probably figure out how to get faster exp from soloing than grouping, like some of you guys claim.

[BLAKROC]

I'm a casual player and I think these new ideas and changes are disgusting! What turbine is doing is making this game too easy! I've been playing for 3 years now and had to grind my way for every achievement I've earned. Now you f2p noobs get everything handed to you on a silver platter with an easy button.

Please stop this insane dumbing down of this game!

/applause

[Emili]

I get no xp now the way it is.

[Aiwendel]

This is kinda off topic but what silver platter are you talking about?
When I returned to the game as f2p I had to start with a 28 pt build and find sigils to level up.

Also there are less LFGs because I don't have all the quests in the game.
Also very little bank slots, limited auctions and a bunch of other stuff I have to grind for before I can even pay the gold for it.

What do I have that you had to grind for?

I should get epic rewards for soloing as a 28pt build with no turbine points (relax, I'm kidding).

[SheaHalley]

Well you do realize even if you move at a casual pace eventually you can get more bank space, 32 point build, and free mods just by playing and accruing Turbine points and favor? This garbage of its not fair I have to spend the FREE points Turbine gives me for new content is the most moronic thing I have ever heard. This is a grouping game you are running a quest SOLO its the easiest setting the game has to offer why should you get more for it? It is your choice to run alone, I am on Khyber there are LFMs of every level at all times of the day, I am looking at 31, yes 31, right now. You are level 17 things should understandably get harder as the game progresses, so if you go at it alone then you suffer the consequences, it is your choice. Either expand your friends list or join a guild that suits your playstyle. But this crying that the game needs to be more solo friendly needs to stop they have done more than enough to cater to a play style that is the exact opposite of the Dungeons and Dragons spirit of grouping.

[Steampunkie]

Well you do realize even if you move at a casual pace eventually you can get more bank space, 32 point build, and free mods just by playing and accruing Turbine points and favor? This garbage of its not fair I have to spend the FREE points Turbine gives me for new content is the most moronic thing I have ever heard. This is a grouping game you are running a quest SOLO its the easiest setting the game has to offer why should you get more for it? It is your choice to run alone, I am on Khyber there are LFMs of every level at all times of the day, I am looking at 31, yes 31, right now. You are level 17 things should understandably get harder as the game progresses, so if you go at it alone then you suffer the consequences, it is your choice. Either expand your friends list or join a guild that suits your playstyle. But this crying that the game needs to be more solo friendly needs to stop they have done more than enough to cater to a play style that is the exact opposite of the Dungeons and Dragons spirit of grouping.

This.

What you're suggesting (Division of XP/Solo XP alterations) is a Bad Idea. A "Standard" D&D team is Warrior, Thief, Priest, and Mage. That could be Paladin, Rogue, Druid, and Sorceror or some combination of the other classes. This Quartet is the basis of a D&D Group ("Five guys and a bag of dice it's Friday Night's game.") Suggesting that XP scale based on group size (I.E. Division) would either reward Solo players immensely (as they take on challenges built for 4-man groups which would inevitably become the "Baseline" XP) and Punish 5 or 6 man team by short-changing them XP.

I don't want to be punished for having several guildies online at once, or being a popular player. Heck! I play with my Boyfriend all the time in a DPS Fighter/Tank Paladin duo with pocket Cleric hirelings. Whenever guildies log in we immediately try to recruit a full team of 6 for the fun of it. Should we get LESS XP for being outgoing and interactive with our friends? It's counter-intuitive to the spirit of the game.

What about Hirelings? In standard D&D they get a cut of the XP (depending on DM anything from a full share to 1/2 share each) Would they count against the XP rewards of a team or not?

By requesting this change you either marginalize the big-teams or over-reward the small teams or both. And if a 4-man group is the "Baseline" XP total for quest completion... Well think of all the bards you just put out on the sidewalk to play with their instrument cases open, hoping for a few copper.

-Rachel-

[Aiwendel]

Well you do realize even if you move at a casual pace eventually you can get more bank space, 32 point build, and free mods just by playing and accruing Turbine points and favor? This garbage of its not fair I have to spend the FREE points Turbine gives me for new content is the most moronic thing I have ever heard.

Well I was just responding to someone who said f2p players get things on a silver platter.
I didn't mention anything about fairness. Wow you people love to find something to argue about, don't you?

This is a grouping game you are running a quest SOLO its the easiest setting the game has to offer why should you get more for it?

I wasn't talking about the solo setting that is available on only a few quests.
That's a whole other subject I'm not interested in.

It is your choice to run alone, I am on Khyber there are LFMs of every level at all times of the day, I am looking at 31, yes 31, right now.

Last time I was on there were maybe 20 something LFMs, but still no groups eligible for my Paladin, even when I looked at content I don't own.
I only have 4 character slots and logged in on my FvS (that I had to pay for, let's start an argument about that now...) And it took about 15 minutes before there was a group available for her without repeating a quest.

It's not always like that, but often enough to suggest that the servers don't have enough people? For an instanced based game?
Maybe if some servers merged there would be more players and groups available? But I'm sure you would find an argument against why more players would be a bad idea.

You are level 17 things should understandably get harder as the game progresses, so if you go at it alone then you suffer the consequences, it is your choice.

Well, I die less than I did at lower levels, raid groups in particular are way too easy.

Either expand your friends list or join a guild that suits your playstyle. But this crying that the game needs to be more solo friendly needs to stop they have done more than enough to cater to a play style that is the exact opposite of the Dungeons and Dragons spirit of grouping

Having more people on each server would probably fix everything, but if that's impossible then it needs to be slightly more solo friendly. Just slightly.
I can look at the who list and pretend every single player is my friend, and sometimes still find out that there aren't enough people who need the same quest I don't get 0XP for repeating.
Well that's a bit exaggerated, but someone will often get lower XP for repeating and is not happy about it.

Since this is a topic about XP, besides just grouping for the fun of it; out of 20 people on my friends list, an average of 3 might be on at any given moment and in rare cases maybe 1 of them can join for full XP in a quest we're not repeating.

The WHO list isn't really that big, so I CAN pretend the list is my friend list and spend 10-30 minutes to get a group together for full XP, or maybe 5-10 minutes if two or more servers would merge?

Dungeons and Dragons spirit of grouping.

In the Dungeons and Dragons spirit, if a player runs off from the group for some reason, the DM can't say "no you can't do that".
As a DM I can try to punish him in the form of ambushes etc. but if he kills them all he will get the XP he deserves.

[SheaHalley]

Don't complain if there are no groups for high level free content because that does not really exist sorry. If you don't want to spend money that is your decision but ALL the content can not be free and at the same time can be earned for free with a little work. And it makes common business sense for the higher level content to be acquired either by money or points accrued thru favor. the whole game cant be free and yes most high level content that is run by people are paid packs.
And no server merges will not make a big difference because there are still NO HIGH LEVEL FREE quests for you to run. I hate to tell you but we all have to repeat quest in order to level there simply is not enough xp to hit cap without repition so that arguement is invalid. As far as the silver platter you brought up the bank space and 28 point build which can now be bought rather than grinded out like it used to be, so yes it was a huge pain.

[Steampunkie]

In the Dungeons and Dragons spirit, if a player runs off from the group for some reason, the DM can't say "no you can't do that".
As a DM I can try to punish him in the form of ambushes etc. but if he kills them all he will get the XP he deserves.

Gonna respond to this really quickly....

That's -your- DMing method. In mine if a character decides he's going to be anti-social and run off? He's in for a world of hurt. Whether it be from Ambushes (Very rarely "Add" anything just to mess up my players) or he's going to get in -other- trouble. Like collapsing floors, triggered alarms, cave-ins. Lots of different things. If he's lucky enough to survive -without- the aid of his allies I won't give him any XP. Why? Because he was incredibly lucky, not good. He left the group for anti-social reasons.

Now if he had a good and solid In-character reason for leaving the group which overrode his need for a party and self-preservation; THEN He'd get XP for defeating the challenges.

However you're also referring to a wholly different situation. Not a character leaves the group to fight some monsters and get treasure on his own, but entire quests centered around him and him alone. As a DM I would wind up creating custom encounters for such a side-quest. Scaled to a challenge a solo character could handle. Thus the XP would be about 1/4 of the XP his normal 4 man team would get. Not full XP for a full team granted to one character.

-Rachel-

[Memnir]

No.

[Aiwendel]

That's a weird way to divide it.
If 4 players encounters a CR 1 mob they get 300xp divided by 4, if one player encounters it he gets 300xp divided by one.

I look at experience as "what the character experienced".
You're saying if one player encounters a CR 1 mob you'd give him 75 XP?
That makes no sense to me.

I've never seen a player who separates from the group for the rest of the campaign, but they sometimes have to split up to do several things at once. And it doesn't make it antisocial since I have no problem running two tables and two encounters at once.
Each player is still in the room and has to wait for the same amount of rounds before it's his PC's turn.

They might be punished for splitting from the group but it would not be in the form of gimping the game mechanics that much.

[Steampunkie]

No.

Where four players would encounter a CR 1 Monster at level 1 the solo player instead encounters a CR 1/4.

Basically something easier and worth less XP. He doesn't get to kill a Dragon Solo. He gets a Wyrmling.

-Rachel-

[Linenoise2]

Then I look in my DM Guide to see what I "should" have got from those encounters.
I know it doesn't work the same in a videogame but there HAS to be a way to divide it better

When you look in the PHb how much XP does it say I need for 5th level? I got a 4th level character with 50k XP.

Let's put the PnP books away. They are only good as sources of inspiration for DDO. The numbers are entirely different fruits.

[Aiwendel]

Well that's how I would do it too, and the single player would spend about the same amount of time killing the 1/4 CR mob as the group would on the CR 1 mob. And in the end they get about the same amount of XP, the solo might get slightly less for that encounter for experiencing less.

But not 4 times less XP. If when they meet up again he's more than 25% behind (or ahead) it means I wasn't able to keep up enough balanced encounters while running two stories at once.
Maybe because I'm not a computer. It would be easier if I was.

I don't see what the problem is by giving him just slightly less XP. Or what the point is in penalizing him with one CR1/4 encounter and then telling him to "hold on, nothing more happens", or "no you can't go there" so he can't get more XP.

[GeneralDiomedes]

I guess I'm the only one that has a problem with this. Oh well, if I play the game for 3 more years and know every single dungeon I'll probably figure out how to get faster exp from soloing than grouping, like some of you guys claim.

Its not about a solo player being able to do the dungeon faster, it's the effort putting a group together and dealing with AFKs. Often it's just faster to just run the **** thing yourself. Also, the more people who join, the greater the odds of there being a time drag like a newb who doesn't want spoilers, somebody who wants to do the optionals, etc.

The rest of your idea is a waste of your typing and our reading - it will never happen. Turbine does not make design decisions which increase the rewards for soloing.

[Steampunkie]

Either you're being intentionally obtuse or you simply can't see a point beyond your own nose...

A) Spend money on the game. Expand your options. Have fun.

B) Limit yourself and complain at the limitations.

C) Limit yourself, complain about the limitations, demand global change which hinders other players and rewards anti-social behavior due to your inability to lift your own limitations while claiming it's for some "Greater Good" or to be closer to the source material.

You've chosen C. C is a poor choice.

-Rachel-

[Calebro]

Turbine does not made design decisions which discourage grouping.

They already have. It's called Dungeon Scaling.
But that's just my 2cp

[GeneralDiomedes]

They already have. It's called Dungeon Scaling.
But that's just my 2cp

Sorry, I worded it wrong (post edited) - they don't encourage soloing.