Unequaled XP

[TraumaTrain]

On Saturday nights, I'm in a dedicated team of three. We started at level 1, and last night we hit 42. We're in no hurry, and we often turn our XP off to hit certain story arcs and what have you.

 

We run at normal XP. We get the contacts together and we each have the missions. However, for some reason, my character outpaces theirs. Up until last night, we hadn't given it much thought. Last night's run, though, really indicated the weird inequality.

 

Last Saturday, I hit 41 and turned my XP off because they had not leveled yet. Last night, I waited until they both leveled before turning my XP back on. At the end of the night, I hit 42 a full bar before they did! We compared a couple numbers. My XP for defeating a dude was the same as theirs. My end-mission XP was the same as theirs. I'm not out defeating stuff away from them.

 

What is going on? I'm a scrapper and the other two are a brute and a controller. It's all door missions - no street sweeping unless a contact asks for it. Last night we did Tina MacIntyre's two arcs and Levantera's joining Vanguard part 2 arc.

 

Anyone have an explanation for us? Maybe the game just likes my character more? So weird.

[Gerswin]

1 minute ago, TraumaTrain said:

On Saturday nights, I'm in a dedicated team of three. We started at level 1, and last night we hit 42. We're in no hurry, and we often turn our XP off to hit certain story arcs and what have you.

 

We run at normal XP. We get the contacts together and we each have the missions. However, for some reason, my character outpaces theirs. Up until last night, we hadn't given it much thought. Last night's run, though, really indicated the weird inequality.

 

Last Saturday, I hit 41 and turned my XP off because they had not leveled yet. Last night, I waited until they both leveled before turning my XP back on. At the end of the night, I hit 42 a full bar before they did! We compared a couple numbers. My XP for defeating a dude was the same as theirs. My end-mission XP was the same as theirs. I'm not out defeating stuff away from them.

 

What is going on? I'm a scrapper and the other two are a brute and a controller. It's all door missions - no street sweeping unless a contact asks for it. Last night we did Tina MacIntyre's two arcs and Levantera's joining Vanguard part 2 arc.

 

Anyone have an explanation for us? Maybe the game just likes my character more? So weird.

When you finish a story arc the mish holder gets a large xp bonus.  Any chance the other players did not have the same story arc open?

 

[TraumaTrain]

1 minute ago, Gerswin said:

When you finish a story arc the mish holder gets a large xp bonus.  Any chance the other players did not have the same story arc open?

 

 

Nope. We each get the contacts and the missions. It's the controller's player who is team lead, and she usually sets her own missions.

[Coyotedancer]

FCM and I have run into this over the years with pairs we were leveling together. Even being very careful to always have the same missions and contacts, one will sometimes end up ahead of the other... We never have been able to figure out why it happens, but it absolutely does.  

[InvaderStych]

You've probably already done the math, but it bears asking:

 

Any possibility that you had more overflow XP into the first bubble of lvl 41 than they did at the point you turned XP back on?

[TraumaTrain]

5 minutes ago, InvaderStych said:

You've probably already done the math, but it bears asking:

 

Any possibility that you had more overflow XP into the first bubble of lvl 41 than they did at the point you turned XP back on?

 

Patrol XP should be about the same for each of us. These three characters only run together and anything done solo, like gathering exploration badges, is done with XP off. The difference in Patrol XP should be minimal.

[InvaderStych]

12 minutes ago, TraumaTrain said:

Patrol XP should be about the same for each of us. These three characters only run together and anything done solo, like gathering exploration badges, is done with XP off. The difference in Patrol XP should be minimal.

 

Ah, yeah, hadn't considered patrol XP, but that's another variable out of the way.  Was thinking perhaps when you originally hit 41 you had more overflow (progress) into that level before shutting off XP than they had after hitting 41 when you turned XP back on.  Sounds like that isn't the case though. I guess I'm a little confused as to how you got to 41 before they did if everything was in synch. 🙂 But I am also kinda thick and still having my coffee. 😄

 

Sounds like it's the unknown disparity that @Coyotedancer mentioned then. 🤷‍♂️

[TraumaTrain]

Just now, InvaderStych said:

more overflow (progress) into that level

 

Ah, that kind of overflow. Not so much. As soon as I hit 41, I turned the XP off so the others could catch up.

[Snarky]

is it possible there is a variable creating the difference?

[TraumaTrain]

2 hours ago, Snarky said:

is it possible there is a variable creating the difference?

 

If there is, I have no idea what it could be.

 

Maybe one of the devs might know?

[DoctorDitko]

I have seen the same thing duoing with an old friend, we've been themed characters only teaming, alternating missions (both Kheldians, 1 PB and 1 WS) yet our dings are never in sync.

Sometimes as much as half a level disparity

 

I was ascribing it to the overall "Kheldian curse" but maybe there is Something Going On Here?

[Glacier Peak]

Bring back leveling pacts!

[Without_Pause]

Since no one has mentioned the obvious, is there any difference in the amount of deaths? 

[TraumaTrain]

53 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

Since no one has mentioned the obvious, is there any difference in the amount of deaths? 

 

Not a huge amount. We stay alive for the most part, but occasionally we're in over our heads. But even then, there's not a disproportionate amount of being defeated. This past Saturday, the controller character died a couple times.

[Fade]

And is there any chance that you're logging off in an area that gives a day job bonus to XP gained, such as police stations (and your friends are not)?

[TraumaTrain]

6 hours ago, Fade said:

And is there any chance that you're logging off in an area that gives a day job bonus to XP gained, such as police stations (and your friends are not)?

 

That's a solid question, but no. The police station is one of the early day job badges I get on my characters. Any benefit I got from that played out several weeks ago. 

[Marine X]

Thinking it must be related to Patrol XP. Perhaps they are staying on Badge Hunting or on the Market more than you, so not earning as much Patrol XP. You could check the pips around the level wheel to see if you all have the same amount.

 

From the WIKI:

 

 

While logged out in any location, characters gain credit toward the Patroller or Criminal Day Jobs (versus other Day Job Badges requiring specific log out locations), and are considered to be On Patrol. While on patrol, characters accumulate credit toward Patrol Experience. Characters can gain credit toward Patrol XP and a true Day Job at the same time by logging out in another Day Job's specific location.

Credit toward Patrol XP is displayed in the Status Window as a light blue extension off the end of the experience bar. For every 24 hours a character spends logged out, they accumulate 1 bar of Patrol XP, with a maximum of 10 bars. If a character has a number of Patrol XP bars that exceeds the number they need to level up, this extra experience carries over to their next Security/Threat Level.

Patrol Experience is not consumed during Double XP Weekends except by debt, meaning a character cannot get Patrol + Double Experience. It still accumulates, though.

Note: Colorblind players may have difficulty differentiating the XP, Patrol XP, and/or debt bar colors, as the hues are similar.

Calculations

Patrol XP is a bonus 50% experience for any critter defeats. While credit remains, any XP earned by a character due to defeating critters is multiplied by 150%, the extra 50% of which is deducted from Patrol XP accumulation. When all Patrol XP has been worked off, the character's rate of earning XP will return to normal. Patrol XP is not applied to the bonus XP gained from other sources such as mission completion, Story Arc/Task Force completion or Exploration Badges.

[Ukase]

I see this a good bit, but I always attributed the difference to defeats. As mentioned, patrol XP could also be a factor. Never thought about day jobs, tho. Good thought. 

One thought that was referenced about patrol XP - "maybe they're getting explorations and not getting as much patrol XP". Conversely, exploration badges give XP. If one of you is getting them, and the other two are not, that's another reason to have more XP. 

[Grouchybeast]

This is a bug that I noticed while duoing story arcs last year.

 

The team leader always gets a different amount of XP in the end-of-mission bonus to the non-leader, even if every other factor is the same (both have the mission arc and the missions complete just fine for both players, both have the same amount of patrol XP, day jobs, etc).  You can see the difference very clearly in the game logs.  All other XP drops were normal.  The way we got round it was simply by switching who led the missions when the difference got big enough to be annoying, until the player who was behind caught up,  That was fine for duoing but would be much more tedious on larger teams.

 

I could've sworn that I saw this reported in the Bugs forum, but now I can't find it.

[Hedgefund]

I'm dittoing everything Grouchy said.  I can say with certainty on some teams I was leading and completing my missions that teammates of the same level that were completing the same missions cooperatively were getting more xp for mission completion bonus.  Same diff setting too.

 

I too remember this being brought up before and I thought it was in the bug forums, but I couldn't find it in 2 minutes and didn't want to dedicate more time to it.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Hedgefund

[Grouchybeast]

3 hours ago, Hedgefund said:

I too remember this being brought up before and I thought it was in the bug forums, but I couldn't find it in 2 minutes and didn't want to dedicate more time to it.

 

I finally wrestled the search system into submission and found the couple of threads I remembered from spring last year.  I can't speak to the alleged drop inequality (I've never noticed that) but there are screenshots to demonstrate the XP bug.

 

Very bad bug. Leader of group gets less exp and item drops. (uploaded pics for proof)

Varying XP?

[Hardship]

1 hour ago, Grouchybeast said:

 

I finally wrestled the search system into submission and found the couple of threads I remembered from spring last year.  I can't speak to the alleged drop inequality (I've never noticed that) but there are screenshots to demonstrate the XP bug.

 

Very bad bug. Leader of group gets less exp and item drops. (uploaded pics for proof)

Varying XP?

 

I was about to search for this thread as well. Glad you found it.

 

I have a static team of 4 that we play and noticed this. Some of it is due to debt, the tank tends to not die as often as the defender, so the defender gets a little more debt, etc...  What we started to do was give the star the person that levels first. They keep it until someone else levels before them.  It isn't a perfect system, but it seems to keep everyone pretty close.

 

[Shred Monkey]

On 10/4/2021 at 1:42 PM, Hardship said:

What we started to do was give the star the person that levels first. They keep it until someone else levels before them. 

I like this option better than turning off XP.  

[Coyotedancer]

On 10/3/2021 at 7:52 PM, Without_Pause said:

Since no one has mentioned the obvious, is there any difference in the amount of deaths? 

 

For us, no... It's happened even if neither of the characters ever got flattened.

[Echo Night]

Any chance that you enter a mission and start killing before they do? Sometimes there is a delay in earned kill rewards if this occurs. Not a real significant amount unless this happens every mission.