PSA: Bonus XP on Lower Populated Shards Coming to an End

[ivanhedgehog]

3 hours ago, High_Beam said:

Hope all your parked 50s on those low population servers names are still available when you transfer! 🙂

The great name theft happens next week so there will be some of that going around.

[Techwright]

27 minutes ago, ivanhedgehog said:

I am a man of science. I blame witches!

[ivanhedgehog]

9 minutes ago, Techwright said:

They are made of wood?

[lemming]

4 hours ago, High_Beam said:

Hope all your parked 50s on those low population servers names are still available when you transfer! 🙂

Ha! I found some names open on the low pop areas.

 

I also suspect that names that were wanted to be kept, a place holder was put down.

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, High_Beam said:

I blame Bernardo Gui.

A man with that fashion sense is capable of anything 

[lemming]

Or an idea, instead of bonuses for low population servers, a bonus that kicks in if there are less than X players at a time?

 

Of course, none of this really helps my chars much that are running around on Indom, Torch, and Reunion, since they're either at 50 or doing slow leveling thru various arcs.

[Crysis]

21 hours ago, arcane said:

Don’t understand why they refuse to communicate with the forums over their precious discord. Thanks.

 

I must be too old for Discord.  I find it a discombulated mess.  You have to use search to find any older posts, you have to be "in the moment" to really follow any specific discussion...just a freaking ADHD stream of consciousness mess.  It's nice for immediate support issues, which is how I see many other companies/games/whatever utilize it but for active, searchable discussions.....crazy town.

[Skyhawke]

Is it possible to implement nice bonuses for characters created on lower pop shards with the caveat that the characters can't transfer from that shard? That'd kibosh the farming issue and maybe lead to folks staying on those servers at least for those characters. 🤷‍♂️

[lemming]

2 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

Is it possible to implement nice bonuses for characters created on lower pop shards with the caveat that the characters can't transfer from that shard? That'd kibosh the farming issue and maybe lead to folks staying on those servers at least for those characters. 🤷‍♂️

That would be a mess to implement since each char would need a new flag, etc...

 

I think any bonus done on the lower population shard regardless of what it would be, has the chance of then being transferred off to a different server.  Either via a mule character, just being dropped onto the AH, or being emailed.   I think at this point, the XP boost served it's purpose to intro the other servers to some people that wouldn't have tried them out otherwise.

[Crysis]

1 hour ago, lemming said:

That would be a mess to implement since each char would need a new flag, etc...

 

I think any bonus done on the lower population shard regardless of what it would be, has the chance of then being transferred off to a different server.  Either via a mule character, just being dropped onto the AH, or being emailed.   I think at this point, the XP boost served it's purpose to intro the other servers to some people that wouldn't have tried them out otherwise.

 

I’ve moved my “mostly solo” alts to one of the lower pop servers because no reason to leave them on higher pop servers.  And I’m sure I’m not alone (ha, irony of that statement eh?) in doing that as I see activity on the lower pop servers but is a lot of single toons running around from mission to mission and not teams moving together.  

 

But I’m not sure that’s actually healthy behavior for that particular server.  If the only people who play there are solo-ers, then that server will never grow an active population, and you’ll see less diversity of AT’s in general since some classes solo far better than others.  

 

The suggestion of just merging the servers somehow seems to be in the best interest to the longevity of Homecoming and the player base in general.  But I recognize this is a volunteer effort and that kind of work takes time, money and energy for what basically amounts to “infrastructure changes.”  Not that sexy of an effort, and there’s going to be complaints about it from one impacted party or another.

[Heliphyn34u]

19 hours ago, Techwright said:

 

Build a bridge out of her!

 

>_>

 

It was nice to have extra XP on some of the lower-pop servers shards for awhile, but the downside of 2xp and 1.5xp is that inf is reduced.  Not everyone has deep pockets.  😉  People can still get boosters from the START vendors, though.

 

I don't think merging the shards is a good idea.  Who knows how HC's population is going to vary over time.  Let 'em cook.

 

[Troo]

10 hours ago, Heliphyn34u said:

extra XP on some of the lower-pop servers shards for awhile, but the downside of 2xp and 1.5xp is that inf is reduced. 

 

um.. just fyi: the server experience bonus did not reduce infamy ($$).

[Ukase]

20 hours ago, Skyhawke said:

Is it possible to implement nice bonuses for characters created on lower pop shards with the caveat that the characters can't transfer from that shard? That'd kibosh the farming issue and maybe lead to folks staying on those servers at least for those characters. 🤷‍♂️

Possible? Sure. At least the nice bonuses part. But preventing transfers...well, that might be possible. No idea. 

I'm curious what you mean by "farming issue". What farming issue? 

 

[Skyhawke]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

Possible? Sure. At least the nice bonuses part. But preventing transfers...well, that might be possible. No idea. 

I'm curious what you mean by "farming issue". What farming issue? 

 

 

Where everyone says people pop over to say, Indom, farm up with 4x XP then transfer back to Excel. If a "special rewards" character was shard locked, nobody would do this. The point of more xp was to incentivize folks to play on lower pop servers, even if only part time. My thought is if you could have some alts on a lower pop server that get some nice rewards for being there, you'd play them at least some of the time. This would have shards see more traffic at times and possibly hook some into staying full time. 

[Ukase]

1 hour ago, Skyhawke said:

 

Where everyone says people pop over to say, Indom, farm up with 4x XP then transfer back to Excel. If a "special rewards" character was shard locked, nobody would do this. The point of more xp was to incentivize folks to play on lower pop servers, even if only part time. My thought is if you could have some alts on a lower pop server that get some nice rewards for being there, you'd play them at least some of the time. This would have shards see more traffic at times and possibly hook some into staying full time. 

I thought that was the reason behind the XP boost, wasn't it? To take load off of Excelsior and put it on the other servers? 

 

 

22 hours ago, Crysis said:

 

I’ve moved my “mostly solo” alts to one of the lower pop servers because no reason to leave them on higher pop servers.  And I’m sure I’m not alone (ha, irony of that statement eh?) in doing that as I see activity on the lower pop servers but is a lot of single toons running around from mission to mission and not teams moving together.  

 

But I’m not sure that’s actually healthy behavior for that particular server.  If the only people who play there are solo-ers, then that server will never grow an active population, and you’ll see less diversity of AT’s in general since some classes solo far better than others.  

I did the same thing initially. This is what I found: 
Because nobody would help with GMs when I found them, I had to either do without them, or wait until once a day, instead of multiple times a day. Sorry, but that's just not smart play if you're after the loot. Now, I have plenty of loot, and I don't need any more. But without reward merits, prismatics and such, I don't really have a reason to play anything more than once. Sorry, I don't. Now, that's just me, but playing on Indom while I did was an opportunity cost of about 300-400 reward merits a day. 
 

Spoiler

MSRs - 2x a day
Hami Raids - 2x a day (sometimes 3x a day, and at least 3 runs each time)
Adamastor - up to 8x a day with different characters

Normal TFs and such are about the same, maybe a little more because one doesn't have to wait forever for the team to form. 
iTrials - just about at any time of day, not just once in the evening. (they give 20 reward merits, generally) 
Other named GMs, particularly the Croatoa GMs. - 3-4x a day

Indom has some smart, good people. Helpful people. But they can't make up for the lack of opportunity to pursue merits and team play. Unfortunately, I don't see a solution aside from folks on Indom moving to another shard - which I know many will despise that, and probably quit. And I wouldn't blame them. 

Another potential fix would be for new accounts to only see Indom, Torch or Reunion as an option. Just hide Excelsior and Everlasting from new players. That's not a great fix, or even a good one, sadly. And I'm not sure we are getting enough good players for that to even work. 

Another option might be for the rewards on Indom and Torch to be a percentage greater than on Excelsior and Everlasting. How much? No idea. 

Another possible solution is for the HC GMs to encourage SGs to branch out to Indom for certain nights. 

Imagine about 5-10 of the larger SGs from other shards recruiting for various things throughout the day, but only needing 2-4 players to fill their group. Plenty of players are already "nice" enough to do something like that, they just need a reason, and they need it to be easy. A transfer is easy, but I'm not sure an SG would want to transfer over and lose their SG affiliation - and their base. If a solution to that dilemma were possible (other than these SGs making another base) then I could see it happening. 


I think if incarnate reward tables for various trials were buffed to give a 40%-50% chance of rare/very rare - that alone might see more folks doing the higher level stuff more often. 

I can brainstorm until the cows come home. Some folks will hate the ideas, and some ideas would be impractical. The best solution is probably to do nothing. 
 

[Troo]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

Now, I have plenty of loot, and I don't need any more. But without reward merits, prismatics and such, I don't really have a reason to play anything more than once. Sorry, I don't.

 

That's okay. No need to be sorry. Folks get to go where ever they want.

 

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

Now, that's just me, but playing on Indom while I did was an opportunity cost of about 300-400 reward merits a day. 

 

 

This topic is not as complicated as some are making it.

 

The server bonus experience is only that, XP.

 

There is nothing to solve in this topic other than the level of communication regarding a significant change.

If reward merits, infamy, or other rewards suddenly got cut in half on all servers with no notice or explanation that would be significant, wouldn't it?

 

 

 

 

[lemming]

Should note that the +100% XP when combined with the START vendor's 2 * XP makes for 3 * XP.   3.5 * XP while you have patrol.

 

I did spin up a few new characters that hit 50 moderately faster, but since I've never gone for a speed run of that, I only timed one that I did a duo farm team to get a third farmer up.  Took a couple hours, but last time I did something like that, it took, a couple hours...

 

I think if we want more people on the lower population servers, it's just basically mentioning that they're great places for slower less busy experiences.

[shortguy on indom]

• IS EXCELSIOR THE NEW 2XP SERVER THEN?

[Glacier Peak]

11 minutes ago, lemming said:

Should note that the +100% XP when combined with the START vendor's 2 * XP makes for 3 * XP.   3.5 * XP while you have patrol.

And add the Windfall temp and added Experienced temps from booster packs, then for good measure at Level 45+ head to the Labyrinth for even more xp. Good times!

[lemming]

47 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

And add the Windfall temp and added Experienced temps from booster packs, then for good measure at Level 45+ head to the Labyrinth for even more xp. Good times!

Oh yea.   Though I didn't think Windfall increased XP, but increased drop rates and influence.

 

So, up to 3.75 multiple XP while in the the Lab.  (it's +25%?)

[Glacier Peak]

3 minutes ago, lemming said:

Oh yea.   Though I didn't think Windfall increased XP, but increased drop rates and influence.

 

So, up to 3.75 multiple XP while in the the Lab.  (it's +25%?)

Yeah, Windfall doesn't boost XP - I use it to even out the difference between inf and XP, since most of the boosts players can get in game only go only to XP.

 

Edit: Oh, and yes that looks right for the Lab increase.

 

Experience & Influence earned in the zone increased by 25%

Edited November 1 by Glacier Peak

[Hedgefund]

Windfall doesn't boost inf.  I believe the description used to claim that it did, but I looked at the current description and there's no mention of inf.

 

 

I have, here on HC, tested inf both with and without windfall, both within AE and outside of AE and never saw an increase of inf.

[Glacier Peak]

36 minutes ago, Hedgefund said:

Windfall doesn't boost inf.  I believe the description used to claim that it did, but I looked at the current description and there's no mention of inf.

 

 

I have, here on HC, tested inf both with and without windfall, both within AE and outside of AE and never saw an increase of inf.

Hey you're right!

 

The post from the patch notes about the Labyrinth said that Windfall stacks with the increased xp and inf rewards from the zone, so it looks like even the dev team thought Windfall boosts inf.

 

Fight For Rewards & Gain Level Shifts!

•  Experience & Influence earned in the zone increased by 25%
  • This stacks with other power such as Experience Boosters or Windfall.

There were a few bug reports a while back about this, based on my search. Looks like it made the description change!

 

 

 

Edited November 1 by Glacier Peak
To do list

[lemming]

Well then.   Will have to compare the popup to what is on the wiki then.  I'm putting a note on there now, but won't check until I get home tonight.

[Sanguinesun]

4 hours ago, shortguy on indom said:

• IS EXCELSIOR THE NEW 2XP SERVER THEN?

 

No. Its just Freedom in costume. 😛