Losing xp when killed by mobs: the new "negative leveling"

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Chrisax
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Losing xp when killed by mobs: the new "negative leveling"

Post by Chrisax »

Edit: It seems that this interesting project didn't live past April 1st....
... yes, I'm bad! :lol:


So you likely saw that information too, but we need to explain a bit more.

From next patch, when a mob kills you in AO, you will lose some xp. In other words, you need to be play smartly and make sure you keep your gear upgraded correctly. Especially as dying to the same mob repetitively increases the xp loss each time.

Actually, you will lose more xp when killed by a mob than you would earn by killing it: this is logical you you win more often than you lose!

The equation seems to be something close to:

XP loss = (xp you would normally earn) x [((level of the mob) x (mob coefficient))/your level)]

The mob coefficient is always >1 but the way it is determined is not known, probably arbitrary, but far from small.

The XP loss is never zero, and there is a minimum that seems to be 2x to the xp you would earn by killing the mob. In end-game instances, the loss can be more than ten times what the xp gain would be for a level 200 IF a level 200 could kill the mob.

The devs introduced this feature to make the game somewhat more exciting and also to offer something new in MMOs; ending the "WoW-like" model (even if AO was way older than WoW), and encourage hardcore end-game players.

Logically, if you lose "enough" xp/sk, you will also start losing levels (the fact this applies also to alien levels is unclear at the moment, but it would seem it's the case). Perks point would be decreased as well in the porcess, and reseach too (meaiing you have to re-allocate them if you drop down by a level.)

But it also comes with a big reward: the possibility to restart your character from scratch while keeping all your equipment and a part of your xp!

If you get killed "enough", you will reach level 1 (there is a huge acceleration factor when you start stacking XP loss).

But at this point, you didn't have to spend any reset point and you will be allowed to "reboot" your character: gender, breed, profession, and faction ! All for free!

Even more, when you hit level 1, you'll get HALF the points you lost back, and you can re-allocate them, becoming instantly a brand new level 200/201ish!

Source: http://tinyurl.com/AO-negative-leveling
bitnykk
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Re: Losing xp when killed by mobs: the new "negative leveling"

Post by bitnykk »

I only started getting sceptical with level loss mention. There my brain turned from "hmm, new & nice concept" to "wtf, way too leetable, can't be" !

Nice one :)
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Ustarlen
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Re: Losing xp when killed by mobs: the new "negative leveling"

Post by Ustarlen »

So, once capped at 220 we can now lose xp. Interesting.. Will need to do some sums as I don't see the coefficient referred to in the formula, but it would be interesting to calc how many consecutive deaths (from the same high level inf mob) it would take to drop one level from 220. We need a spreadsheet :)
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Chrisax
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Re: Losing xp when killed by mobs: the new "negative leveling"

Post by Chrisax »

It seems that this interesting project didn't live past April 1st....


... yes, I'm bad! :lol:
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