Math for Experience Calculations

[StalePopcorn]

Hi folks,

I would like to update the Istaria Wiki entry on General Adventuring Guidelines regarding how experience is calculated for group bonus and multi-mob bonus. Does anyone know how the xp bonus is calculated for the following:

1. Two characters group up, one rating 15 and one rating 25. How is experience split, is it 15/40 and 25/40? How is the group bonus worked out i.e. normal mob experience + group experience?
2. You are fighting two mobs. You defeat both mobs, and therefore get a "group mob" bonus. How is this calculated?

Not sure if anyone can provide "exact" calculations, but any rough ideas would be great!

Yours in Istaria,

Bamf Manfric

[Favoran]

I once wanted to try to figure out how exp worked with crafting. The plan was to write down the exp for everything I made at various levels and see how the exp depreciated over time, and try to see if there was any connection between different tiers of items.

I kinda lost interest in that. XD

Needless to say I don't have any formulas for you to work with. I sure wish I did, I love finding those kinds of things out, believe it or not. But the exp in Horizons is a bit more complex than what I'm used to figuring out, and I don't really have the time to get all the numbers I'd need anyways.

Besides, I'm already 100/100 so I can't figure out any adventure or crafting exp formulas anymore. I sure would like to know them, though!

[Thangorodrim Atanatari]

if you are not optimal at somthing you get a lot of xp but can not craft many of those items from the same amount of basic resources.
if you on optimum, you get maximum amount crafted. and a fair amout of xp.
if you over optimum at somthing you still craft the maximum amount, but you will get less xp for each item made.

its the trick to craft at precisely optimum to optimize xp.
higher levels giving alot more xp though, so you can try with tecs to become optimal at somthing far higher then yourself to really get that xp flowing.

as for hunting, a balanced group and a good place with fast monster spawn and then generating multiple enemy bonusses seems best for hunting purposes. dragons however are able to kill lvl80 mobs at lvl60 witch is also quite efficient.

i can not give you exact formulas or math, just methods i learned after years of playing...

[Vortura]

Crafting XP is determined on the difference between your Base skill and the Optimal skill for making an item.

Your Current skill is used to determine if you can make the item and how much extra resources are required if you are below Optimum.

The greater the difference between Base and Optimal (providing your Current skill equals or is greater than Optimum), the greater the XP.

This is why using teched crafting gear (cargo or normal cloth/scales), teched/socketed jewelry, socketed tools with the best crystals for your level, buffs, potions and using a Jman or Expert crafting station is so important.

My memory is a little hazy on the levels, but I had a Gatherer around lvl 77 able to make Yew Leather Tannin at optimum (Skill 975?). The XP was very good, but... I wasn't able to gather the resources required.
By the time I had levelled to 80 Gatherer, the XP had dropped a little for every level gained because the difference between my Base skill and Optimal for Tannin was less, but at least I was self sufficient. I then switched to Weaver and rocketed through the levels. I still have silos full of Tannin, I just need someone to build T6 pawnbroker nearby.
There's a lesson to be learned here... Get someone else to harvest materials for you to process.

Also, if you level Gatherer or Miner all the way to 100 before switching to another crafting school, you will be earning less XP in your new schools because your Base skill will be much higher than if you left Miner/Gatherer at 80.

Other things you have to factor into your calculations is time and carrying capacity. You might get twice the XP for grinding Marble into dust than you would with Obsidian, but if you can collect and process Obsidian 3-4 times faster, you should stick with that.

I think that's mostly correct.

[Favoran]

Thangorodrim and Vortura, you both make very good (hopefully common-sense) points about crafting in general, but not about the calculations for how much exp you're going to get.

Of course you're going to get less exp to craft something if you're more skilled, that makes perfect sense. But can you tell me exactly what I'm going to get by crafting x resource at y level? That's what this topic is about, not how to get the most exp for your resources.

[Vortura]

No I can't give you exactly what XP you're going to get for crafting items at any particular level.

I believe in my response I have told you what matters the most in the calculation for craft XP. The difference between your Base skill and the Optimal skill for the item. Your Current skill may also come into play if it is below the Optimal for the item.

I will leave it up to you, or someone else, to figure out the numbers and any other variable that modifies the result for every craftable item in the game.

Those variables could be:
1. a tier modifier
2. an individual item modifier (in the changelogs you'll occasionally see a comment like XP for item "Z" adjusted)
3. a shard modifier (I think Blight folks earn XP at double the rate of the live shards)
4. Maybe the quality bar (the one where you can adjust the amount of resources needed to make an item) changes the amount of XP earned
5. A modifier if your Current skill is below optimum
6. some other variable/s
7. ...

Perhaps instead of doing the work yourself, you could start another thread somewhere and ask folks to post details of the items they are crafting, and get them to give you any figure that you feel is relevant to this exercise. ie Item crafted, item tier, Base skill, current skill, optimal skill for item, XP given for 1 unit crafted etc etc.

Failing that, you could ask a Dev, you never know, they just might tell you (or more than likely.. not)

I hope this helps you further in your quest for the magic formula for XP calculation.

[Takora Drakan]

3. a shard modifier (I think Blight folks earn XP at double the rate of the live shards)

I wonder why people say that over and over again. You get equal EXP on Blight as like on life shards.

[Vortura]

I wonder why people say that over and over again. You get equal EXP on Blight as like on life shards.

http://community.istaria.com/news/?id=146
The following additions, changes and fixes were applied to Blight on Monday, June 12, 2006

Blight-Only Changes:
<snip>
* All Pawn Brokers on Blight will charge half the normal amount when selling items and will pay double the normal amount when buying items from players. This includes specialized NPCs such as Trainers, Trophy Hunters, and Vielo.
* All experience gains on the Blight server are doubled.
<snip>

[Favoran]

Maybe they took it off? *shrug* I've never noticed any difference in exp while I've been on Blight.

Those variables could be:
1. a tier modifier
2. an individual item modifier (in the changelogs you'll occasionally see a comment like XP for item "Z" adjusted)
3. a shard modifier (I think Blight folks earn XP at double the rate of the live shards)
4. Maybe the quality bar (the one where you can adjust the amount of resources needed to make an item) changes the amount of XP earned
5. A modifier if your Current skill is below optimum
6. some other variable/s
7. ...

1. Yes.
2. Of course.
3. Doubtful.
4. Nope.
5. Nope.
6. Possibly.
7. ...

I believe that the exp gained by crafting is a matter of your current level, the base value of the item, and the tier you're working at. Of course, since you made that comment about making it to 100 in a biped school and then earning less for making something else in a level 1 school, it makes me believe you that the base skill is actually the modifier. However, since I'm a dragon player it really doesn't matter to me, so I'll just say it's level.

Your current skill or how optimum you are makes no difference whatsoever in the exp you gain.

I think that the base value of the items is dependent on how much skill it takes to scribe the form. That's why crafting an item that is 10 skill higher to scribe is worth a little more exp. However, I'm not sure how well this carries over between different types of items, such as Improved Prime Bolt and a Strength Wing Scale, both of which require 100/300/500/700/900 exp, depending on the tier.

[Takora Drakan]

http://community.istaria.com/news/?id=146
The following additions, changes and fixes were applied to Blight on Monday, June 12, 2006

Blight-Only Changes:
<snip>
* All Pawn Brokers on Blight will charge half the normal amount when selling items and will pay double the normal amount when buying items from players. This includes specialized NPCs such as Trainers, Trophy Hunters, and Vielo.
* All experience gains on the Blight server are doubled.
<snip>

That is wierd, as I lately hunted ice beetles to test the changed drops, I got the same exp as on life shard. *shrugs*

[StalePopcorn]

Thanks to everyone that has responded - I was initially interested in Adventure experience calculations, but crafting is interesting too!

I created a new character "WearTheFoxHat" (search youtube for "wear the fox hat") and recorded the vast majority of mob information I fought and levelled on. I have published the results on a Google spreadsheet here:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...0MYeWu-0wDf2Zg

I am still struggling to find a correlation between the variables I am capturing but have observed the following:

1. Experience is some function of the difference in your Adventure rating to the mob Adventure rating (I know everyone knows that, but its good to state the "rules" up-front)
2. "Named" mobs give bonus xp (more obvious stuff)
3. Health of mobs doesn't seem to matter - only rating
4. The multi-mob bonus increases as you fight more mobs at the same time, but once you subtract the multi-mob bonus the base xp is the still the same per mob

I'm not sure if I have enough data yet to be able to validate some of my other theories, but I'll keep recording data and see what happens. If anyone has any theories they want to add, feel free!

Regards,

Bamf Manfric (and, WearTheFoxHat)

[Vortura]

I remember (from a long time ago) the bonus XP for killing multiple mobs levelled off after 6 or more mobs. Meaning that you might be able to wipe out 15 mobs in one go, but the multiple mob bonus was the same as if you'd killed just 6.

It might have been 6.. or 7 or 8, I can't be sure, but that's another theory for you to test out.