Thread: Stealing XP
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Unread 8 Oct 2014, 14:08   #1
booji
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Join Date: Jul 2003
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Stealing XP

First a disclaimer – this has probably been suggested before, on a quick search I did not find it!

The recent disputes about Mil Centers and whether xp is too strong seem to me to be missing the point. As Mz has pointed out it is clear that xp is not too strong simply by looking at the T100 from last round. Xp simply provides a bit of colour and for a few a different way of playing. This is clearly not something that should be wished away by capping mil centers or changing the formula to nerf xp because it is not something that greatly impacts on the enjoyment of the value players. Instead surely it should be built upon to increase that enjoyment.

So what I propose is that it should be possible to steal xp. This I believe should be done with a ship like this round’s Galleon for stealing resources.* I would probably make it like a SK and have it outside of main attacking classes if only because it encourages interesting teamups and ensures it won’t always be used helping to ensure it is not too powerful. Unlike this round’s Galleon I think it would make sense to have it available to all races rather than just Zik despite it being about stealing.

I don’t have a view on how much xp each ship should be able to steal except that the total amount should probably be capped – probably around 2% of the target’s xp which means early round its only going to mean about 100xp extra and by the end around 500xp for landing on a midranked planet in xp terms – though to Joshua it would mean 3200!

So what are the advantages of this? Well apart from it simply bringing in a new fun element to the game so providing something new to our stagnating game I think it has a few benefits:
1, it means that even top value players can gain xp as they can steal it from the xp players. This would solve concerns of those who think it is too difficult for top value players to gain xp.
2, it would force xp players to consider defence as well as attack. Clearly if they can lose xp as well as gain it they need to think about how to stop themselves losing it.
3, it would mean if anything xp could be made stronger and a more viable gameplay option as there would be an ingame mechanism to counter such a playstyle. This, I think, would make it a much more viable alliance strategy – at the moment with the honourable exception of HUEHUEHUE and HEROES alliances almost never aim to play xp leading to the same old keep value strategy round after round.

So what do you think? Is there a reason why it could not work? How could it be improved?

*I had initially thought of having it as a cov op but I doubt that stealing by cov ops is ever likely to be enough to make much difference, and cov ops already give xp so I am not sure how many people would use it. Besides many players don’t like cov opping to start with so I doubt such a suggestion would meet with a good reception; but if others out there think it is a better option do say!
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