Experience

Trev · #1 September 29th, 2003, 10:29 AM

The way experience is gained in this game is... strange, to say the least.

All experience seems to come from kills of pirates and other "enemies". Surely this game is meant to be open-ended and non-linear, except that it's basically forcing you to be a bounty hunter. Surely you should get experience for completing missions (just like "Quests" in regular fantasy RPG's, isn't this meant to be like an RPG?). I know we get some pitiful, useless amount such as 200 exp, surely you should get as much exp for transporting goods from one system all the way to another system and then to the specific planet or station. The experience could also increase the further you have to travel, for example, transporting to the next system should get you the same sort of exp as destroying a basic pirate destroyer, 2 systems away, the same exp as a pirate cruiser or amonkrie destroyer, 3 systems away, similar exp to an amonkrie cruiser, etc. Also, from checking my exp, it seems I get none from killing "friendlies", is this a bug?

Also, I think it's ridiculous the way exp is "awarded" for killing things, surely the percentage of damage you dealt to the ship determines how much exp you deserve. Surely if you deal 63% of the damage the ship sustains before it dies (not just to the hull, but shields and armour too), you deserve 63% of the exp that ship gives. As it is, you can annihilate a ship, taking out all its shields, armour, systems and hull down to 1kt, then it can crash into something, or get shot by someone else and you get ZERO exp. For example, I have just completed the mission to defend the main Freeport spacestation, but got very little exp due to the fact that the spacestation dealt all the killing blows because it fires multiple torps at once and makes it impossible to assure you deal the killing blow.

DeadZone · #2 September 29th, 2003, 11:40 AM

Agreed

Wydraz · #3 September 29th, 2003, 04:05 PM

I second that!

You could always change these default values in Main_Jobs.txt:

Job Experience Min := 100
Job Experience Max := 200
Job Experience Increase Per System Distance := 50

But it's a shame we would feel need to, just to make being a trader a viable option in the game.

[ September 29, 2003, 15:07: Message edited by: Wydraz ]

Alpha Kodiak · #4 September 29th, 2003, 11:21 PM

You actually do get some experience for completing the cargo hauling missions, not sure about main storyline missions. I do agree that experience should be proportional to the damage you do to an opponent, though.

EDIT, oops, reread your post, saw that you mentioned this. I agree with your point.

[ September 29, 2003, 22:23: Message edited by: Alpha Kodiak ]

Renegade 13 · #5 September 30th, 2003, 12:41 AM

There could be a problem with giving experience for the amount of damage done to the enemy. What if you use toxic injectors? That way, no real damage is done to the ship, but you still get the kill. If what you propose was done, you wouldn't get any experience for kills with TI's. Maybe this could also be altered?? Say a kill with a toxic injector could be worth 75% of a kill with conventional weapons? Just a suggestion.

Alpha Kodiak · #6 September 30th, 2003, 12:46 AM

Perhaps crew deaths could be part of the calculation of ship damage for this purpose. I just know that now, when a fleet is beating up on a pirate ship, I try to hold my shot for the moment at which I can get the kill so that I can get the experience. Then there is the great frustration of single-handedly beating a superior ship into submission in a prolonged running battle, only to have a passing freighter take a single shot and blow it up, thus giving you no experience.

Ed Kolis · #7 September 30th, 2003, 03:33 AM

Of course, if experience were based on damage, people could also "camp the shield regenerators" - find a weak ship that has shield regenerators (or repair bays) and repeatedly shoot at it but not enough to destroy it, then let it regenerate!

But I agree, even this would probably be better than the current system; it would take a LOT of patience to wait for shields to regenerate!

Suicide Junkie · #8 September 30th, 2003, 04:00 AM

In stock, perhaps.
In my mod, if you were to go up against say a battlecruiser in your destroyer, it would take quite a lot of persistence to wear down their shields, if you could even dent them (Some ships have more regen than others).

Alpha Kodiak · #9 September 30th, 2003, 04:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
Of course, if experience were based on damage, people could also "camp the shield regenerators" - find a weak ship that has shield regenerators (or repair bays) and repeatedly shoot at it but not enough to destroy it, then let it regenerate!

But I agree, even this would probably be better than the current system; it would take a LOT of patience to wait for shields to regenerate!

Actually, the ship would only be worth a certain amount of experience. The amount of damage you do would only be used to figure out your percentage of the experience.