[pink grapefruit]

Originally Posted by stormlord [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Given what you show below...

Players : XP Value : Gained XP
1 : 600 : 600 * 1.5 = 900
2 : 300 : 300 * 2 = 600
3 : 200 : 200 * 2.5 = 500
4 : 150 : 150 * 3 = 450
5 : 120 : 120 * 3.5 = 420
6 : 100 : 100 * 4 = 400

....the 6th member provides 6x the killing power, resulting 400 * 6x = 2400. That's a 266% bonus over soloing, meaning the system is cutting experience when you invite new members. If it weren't cutting experience then it'd be 900 * 6x = 5400.

But what I was stating in my post still stands. The required contribution from each additional member is lessened versus the older system. With a 2nd member, for example, experience is cut from 900 to 600, meaning the additional member has to contribute at least 50% of your killing power to make themselves worthwhile. This means if your killing power is 10 then they must provide at least 5. This is 600 x 1.5 = 900. This will make you break even versus if you were just soloing. If they contribute the same killing power as yourself then you'll make 33% more experience.

Note that a full group has a 266% bonus over soloing, meaning soloing becomes a much less attractive form of progression, since I doubt soloers kill things 266% faster by themselves. This reduces the value of rolling a solo-capable class like a necromancer or ranger.

Again, note that the cut in experience is exactly what caused players to heavily discriminate when they invited new members. Is the new member gimp? Are they low level (assuming the group exp gain formulas do not account for the level makeup of the group)? Does the new member afk a lot? Are they reliable? Because if that new member even so much as sneezed more than once, you'd lose experience by adding them.

But if what you say is true it's not as dire as I was suggesting. The probems are still there though. The situation on the progression server on live had another concern too but I'm not recalling at the moment. It was a thread on the live forums started by a necromancer I believe. He/she didn't like the huge group exp gain versus soloing.

EDIT: One potential way to resolve some of this is to allow group members to get experience from each other even if they're not in the same zone or not playing with each other. This means you can group and get the experience bonus while still soloing. I imagine a group of necromancers might do it, to not use their dots ineffectively, since so much of their dots are wasted in gropus when the monster dies long before the dot wears off. This only works if the cut isn't too big because afking is a very common thing when soloing. The advantage to soloing is yo ucan afk whenever you want and play at your own pace.

What exactly are you saying with these posts? That something important is lost when groups don't divide xp? I feel that min/maxing is a silly way to approach the game and am quite glad for the fun social interaction that takes place with the bonus in place. There is absolutely no reason that soloing should be as efficient as grouping on red.