Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Hoihe wrote:A wizard spending an hour in a library discussing magical mechanics learns about as much about magic if not more than a wizard casting buffs on a bunch of fighters then afking at Xvarts, yet the wizard at xvarts gets 5k XP/hour, the one who actively plays gets a measly 1k if that.

It is very hard from a script to recognize that your wizard is discussing magical mechanics. He might as well be talking about cat food, or the weather, or a thousand other topics that make no sense to get XP for talking about. If you want to be rewarded for doing something specific like this you need a DM present.

dedude wrote:

Hoihe wrote:A wizard spending an hour in a library discussing magical mechanics learns about as much about magic if not more than a wizard casting buffs on a bunch of fighters then afking at Xvarts, yet the wizard at xvarts gets 5k XP/hour, the one who actively plays gets a measly 1k if that.

It is very hard from a script to recognize that your wizard is discussing magical mechanics. He might as well be talking about cat food, or the weather, or a thousand other topics that make no sense to get XP for talking about. If you want to be rewarded for doing something specific like this you need a DM present.

Or what about a swordsman who seeks out a character who has WeaponMaster levels in his desired sword, and they sit down to discuss techniques and even spar? That's easily worth 3k XP. I got 500 XP MAYBE for the hours it took.

Hoihe wrote:Or what about a swordsman who seeks out a character who has WeaponMaster levels in his desired sword, and they sit down to discuss techniques and even spar? That's easily worth 3k XP. I got 500 XP MAYBE for the hours it took.

What exactly is it that you want us to do about that? And how is that worth 3k XP?

dedude wrote:

Hoihe wrote:Or what about a swordsman who seeks out a character who has WeaponMaster levels in his desired sword, and they sit down to discuss techniques and even spar? That's easily worth 3k XP. I got 500 XP MAYBE for the hours it took.

What exactly is it that you want us to do about that? And how is that worth 3k XP?

DnD xp and MMO xp are two different things. I grew up with a rp that rewarded you at the end of a session (campaign) or adventure. There was no individual xp for killing mobs. Sometimes somebody got a bit more for favouritism or good rping.

Anyways translating this into a module like nwn2 is impossible. For such a system to work every char would have to be monitored. Either by DMs (impossible) or by logarithms (and these could take up a lot of computing and process power [don't know for sure but I assume it is]).

The compromise in BGtSCC is flawed but still better than nothing.

I think I'm going to have to learn to break down my dialogue a bit.

It's probably good practice anyway - spending ages typing a whole paragraph of dialogue isn't fun for the other people RPing with you, I guess.

Nemni wrote:I had several ticks of RP xp between 2-4 ( with -20% xp penalty). That's really low. There might have been a few more ticks than usual, but nowhere close enough to compensate. I hope this change gets reverted or adjusted.

is this fixed?

The only thing this update does is encourage people to spam chat with inane chatter and emotes.

Yesterday another player and I were in an RP session for more than an hour. It was a difficult session with thought put into each word and phrase, a slow verbal duel that was satisfying for the story it brought.

At the end of it all, he got a whopping 67 experience. If I could provide a chat log I would.

Is this what we want to encourage?

Hoihe wrote: I dare say, if anything. RP XP still needs heavy buffs.

A wizard spending an hour in a library discussing magical mechanics learns about as much about magic if not more than a wizard casting buffs on a bunch of fighters then afking at Xvarts, yet the wizard at xvarts gets 5k XP/hour, the one who actively plays gets a measly 1k if that.

I do not grind on my character. I'm not some purist. It's just really boring and after an hour I'd rather do almost anything else. Grinding doesn't advance story.

At most I fish and go write something. So on Perle, I fish and I talk. She is level 24. Now do I have to grind because RP experience is so much lower?

(Should I break up my talk and emotes into multiple entries? How does the other player know when to talk? This is going to break immersion as well and cause frustration.)

This is a true story. People were spamming chat before this change. My husband came upon a group talking once about a rock. One person emoted "admire rock." Do you want people to emote "admire rock" a bunch and get their exp ticks? I think that's what this change will do.

Seriously , something went awry during this change , rp exp is NOT the same as before , at all.
Please consider reworking that.
Thanks in advance.

What problem was this intending to fix? I understand what was changed, but what was the root cause?

Did staff believe that RP XP was too generous?

The previous script seemed, to me, to be one of the few things that encouraged RP from a mechanical point of view. The new script, in comparison, seems to say that the focus should instead be elsewhere.

This reminds me of that ranged system that got put in - one of those things that wasn't broken to start with, and now needs fixing.

But on a serious note, yes, it seems the 'less is more' system is tailored to more responses, and penalizes those who are less verbose/don't emote as much.

So if the math of a severely reduced ticks actually equals more or too much exp, it would only for those that talk frequently.

It is being looked in to. The goal was not to decrease XP gain during RP, but to normalize it a bit. At times one could RP for hours and not get RP ticks. The goal was to reduce the XP per tick, but increase the frequency and chance of an RP tick. We are aware of the negative outcome and discussions are ongoing to address.

Note that spamming dialogue is not going to increase XP much if at all as there is a timer that prevents XP awards from occurring too closely together. This has always been the case and the current iteration reduced the timer, as well as increasing the chance at each tick. There are some very good things about the updated system, the numbers just need to be worked out.

chad878262 wrote:There are some very good things about the updated system, the numbers just need to be worked out.

Thank you for the clarification, Chad. Is there anything players can do to help you with this process? I for one am happy to try.

I don't think so as I'm fairly certain the developers know where it is at vs. the general place we'd like it to be. I think it is more a matter of just hashing out the nitty-gritty to update and get it there.

Thanks for the clarification, Chad.