Group Dynamics and EXP.

[SurfD]

Anyone here know, or have seen any posts that describe, anything about how group dynamics and EXP work?

For example, If a group of 8 is all level 25, hunting level 25 mobs, they all get level 25 exp, correct?

What if you have a group of 8, and there is 7 level 25 people, and 1 level 35 person in the group, and they are hunting level 25 mobs.  What does that do to the exp distro?  The level 35 person is going to get 0 exp, but what about the level 25 people?

Does it work off average levels?  Total level spread? Any ideas?

[geldonyetich]

I'm pretty sure that the way the group experience works is via standard split with a group experience bonus.   There is a higher distribution of experience going to higher level players, but it's geared in such a way that lower level players are likely to level before the highers do.    

So, you've a group of 8 players taking on mobs the exact same level, you're going to get crap experience per kill/capture because the experience (multiplied by a bonus) is split 8 ways.  

However, the rate in which you can take down equal level mobs is much higher in a group.   In City of Heroes that really means something, especially in a Hazard Zone or an instanced Mission, because there's no lack of a high number of mobs at your disposal to take down.     As opposed to a game like Planetside or Everquest where the number of targets of oppertunity are the same regardless of if you're solo or in a group.

Still, it's generally a good idea to hunt a level or two higher than your group when your grouping just because it's not at all challenging to take on same level mobs.    Geko realized he goofed when he scaled the difficulty really high for +3 or higher level mobs, and will partially roll it back to remain challenging but at the same time relatively rewarding to a good group.   (Previously you could take mobs +6 levels higher (sometimes even +10 levels) with a good solid group of good players with the bases covered.   Now, probably about +4 is the limit.)

An important thing to realize is just how diverse your group is.  City of Heroes won't punish you for having a higher level hero grouped up with a bunch of heroes a level or two under him, but that higher level hero is going to look at yellow con mobs and think they're pushovers for a group of 8 when the rest of the group is seeing orange or red.    Because a base level of a mission is determined by the group member that holds it, that higher level player would likely get his group killed if he tried to do one of his missions without at least half the group at his level.

[Murgos]

The message I read said he wanted to comprimise and put it at a +7 spread.

I.e. a group of 20 - 25 killing 27's would be a reasonable encounter in his thinking.  The 20's aren't going to contribute lots but they will be able to contribute.  Attack a 28 and your 20's become pointless.

Seems reasonable to me.

[Cuular]

From my experience,the split of exp in a group is done entirely on a distribution of your level versus the mobs level.

For instance in my group I'm level 22, with the other 3 people at level 16.

When I kill a blue con mob to me I get 47 exp, the other 3 get around 67 or so.  Because to them the mob is purple.  So they get a much higher amount of experieince because theirlevel delta from the mob is bigger.

On one hand that makes sense, but on another it totally means that the lower level characters are getting power leveled like crazy.  Bcause not only are they getting more exp per a kill, but since they require less to level it really throws things off.

If the experience was equally divided then they would just get a slight advantage due to the difference of exp required for their level.  But by giving the lower level person more than the highest levelerson it really powers them up.

But I can say that my friends are defintiely catching up fast to me.  In a regular 4 hour time frame, they each level twice and I get about half a level.

And along the same lines they get more enhancements out of it since the mobs are higher con to them.  On an avergae team night I get about 6 enhancements all night.  While they all take multiple trips to vendors to empty the overflow of them.

On an average solo mission I get 12 enhancements for about an hours worth of arresting.

As the friends have leveled up I have been getting more enhancements.  When they first joined I was getting 1 for a 4 hour night.

So in conclusion, the exp and enhancements are based on their well published formula of your level against the mobs.  The bigger that spread is,the bigger the exp and enhancemnt drops.

It is in no way divided equally based on group number.

[SurfD]

Actually, I asked because I was recently in a Pickup Group (setpped out of a store and had a random dude invite me to a group. I was level 27, one was 23, and everyone else was level 22 or less.

we were doing one of the level 22 peoples missions, and everything conned gray to me (i got no exp for anything).  The level 23 person commented that he was getting absolute crap for exp (like 1 or 3 or something from a minion.) I bailed out of the instance, quit the group, and sent a tell to the leader asking if the exp changed.  According to him, the exp they were getting nearly trippled for most of them.

This leads me to believe that there IS a calculation going on somewhere.  I would imagine this to be instituted to prevent a high level (30) blaster from grouping with a bunch of lowbies (15) and speed leveling them at insane rates by killing all their mobs for them while they still get level 15 exp.

[geldonyetich]

An important thing to remember in that example is that the experience a mob is worth is based on your level.   Take down a level 5 mob when you're level 5, and you will make more experience than if you take down that same mob when you're level 6.   I think the experience halves every level.

However, when you've a group, you need to determine what the base experience to split between the group is.   For this, I think it takes the highest level player in the group.    You were making zero experience because you were completely outside the rewardable level range for that mob.  The others were making crap experience because they were not outside of the rewardable level range, but the experience was based off what the highest level player would have made if he was allowed to make experience at all from that mob.    Throw in the group xp bonus and that's why they made more than 1 xp per kill.

To repeat something I said before, an ideal group in City of Heroes has at least half of the heroes in the group at the highest level.   Having just one guy higher can cause a dip of the experience.  Having more than half of the guys lower will cause your group to be unable to overcome certain challenges that instanced missions are throwing at you.

[Xilren's Twin]

For instance in my group I'm level 22, with the other 3 people at level 16.

When I kill a blue con mob to me I get 47 exp, the other 3 get around 67 or so.  Because to them the mob is purple.  So they get a much higher amount of experieince because theirlevel delta from the mob is bigger.

On one hand that makes sense, but on another it totally means that the lower level characters are getting power leveled like crazy.  Bcause not only are they getting more exp per a kill, but since they require less to level it really throws things off.

Your personal exp and drop rates were less b/c you were underhunting (blue mobs).  If you tried to take that group through an instanced mission of yours where mobs would be lvl 22-24 not only would there be a larger number of mobs based on a group of 4, your teamates wouldn't be able to do much with them being 6-8 levels lower.  So yes, you were powerleveling them slightly but only by sacrificing your own play and probably doing most of the work for them.  In the same way had you tried one of their missions against lvl 16-17 mobs, you would have gotten no exp and they would have gotten very low exp.  So it really only works if the team would narrowly hunt things that fit that range of green-white to you, which probably means outdoor hunting.

It would have been interesting to have been to have your 3 lvl 16 friends team without you and hunt yellows/oranges to see how much they would get per kill compared to all grouping up and hunting 21's.  Or sidekicking one of them and seeing how much that person would get as an effective 21.

In short, it sounds like a minor hole but powerleveling has always been possible no matter the game setup, grouped or non.

Xilren