We've been working on a behind-the-scenes revamp of the Experience system for the past while now, and this one is going to be a pretty big (but awesome!) shift. It's been in test for a while and is now LIVE. Without further ado, we'll get into the goals of this new system, and the kind of changes we made to meet these goals:
GOALS of the new system:
1. Reduce the need to grind skills continuously to keep up or stay ahead.
2. Eliminate the need for skills to be at Mind Lock to learn the best. Also, in general make Mind Lock a rarer occurrence.
3. Reduce, to an extent, the disparity between primary and tertiary learning rates.
4. Reduce, to an extent, the impact of the wall cycle on drainage.
5. Not significantly impact learning rate, simply how learning occurs.
6. With that said, make casual training more fun and rewarding without impacting more hardcore training styles.
7. More fun, less tedium with training. This is sort of the same as #1 but it bears repeating. ;)
Don't Panic!!
We ARE NOT trying to seriously change the learning rate or slow down people who take their training seriously. You people will end up about the same or even a little better when the dust settles.
Now, here are the specific changes:
- Pool size of all skills has been dramatically increased.
- Drainage rate is based upon MAXIMUM pool size, not CURRENT pool size. This means that every pulse in a particular rank should be completely identical, assuming you have enough exp in your pool to get the full pulse.
- Drainage rate slowed down to end up roughly equivalent with the increase in pool size. What this means is that you will drain LESS percent of a GREATER pool, which will grant basically EQUAL experience in total per pulse.
- The Intelligence stat has a much greater effect on Pool Size than it currently does. Intelligence will probably be the most important stat for Exp purposes.
- The Wisdom stat has a somewhat greater impact at high stat ranks on Drainage Rate than it currently does. Its impact on Drainage Rate will be identical to Intelligence's impact on Pool Size. However, since increasing Pool Size in this new system is slightly better than increasing Drainage Rate, those looking to maximize learning would be better off keeping Int slightly higher than Wis.
- RPAs are even better than they are before. Only the best trainers will probably even hope to keep up with an active RPA4.
- For the moment, Mind Murk is completely gone. IT WILL RETURN, but we're not sure how yet. But, it will definitely not be the way it is now, where you have to watch which skills are mindlocked or what have you. If a skill becomes mindlocked, you will no longer have to get creative with sleep or fear the frozen mind!
- The impact of the Wall Cycle is greatly diminished. Primaries will ALWAYS pulse higher percentages than Secondaries which will ALWAYS pulse percentages than Tertiaries.
- To go along with the above point, although average learning speed should be the same or better overall over the standard 8 rank cycle with all the changes, the maximum pulse of primary skills has gone down slightly, since there's no 'anti-wall' rank just like there's no 'wall' rank. The maximum pulse of secondary and tert skills have gone up slightly.
- It should take anywhere from 40-60 minutes for a primary skill to pulse from mind lock to clear. Assuming you can get them to mind lock in the first place. Anywhere from 50-80 for secondary skills, and anywhere from 70-100ish for a tert. And during this whole time, you will NOT NEED to put any extra exp in to learn. The goal is to give people time to go just have fun or socialize after a training session without falling behind. If you want to replace the exp, great. If you don't, you don't need to until you're out!
- There are a lot of new 'learning phrases' to replace muddled, concentrated, and all that. Since the pools are 3 times as big, there's about 3 times as many, with each being the same size except clear and mind lock. We won't list them now but we will list them before we release.
- Okay, with that all said, I'd like to repeat again the point. We want training to be more effective for casual players, and for the playerbase to be able to 'lock and forget' and still learn just as efficiently while they go socialize / train other skills / do whatever.
We will probably find with this transition that several skills are in dire need of better learning potential. This will be an extremely high priority for us. HOWEVER, making sure every skill can be mindlocked easily is NOT a high priority, since mindlock is meant to be much harder to reach.
Again: MINDLOCK IS NOT THE BEST STATE FOR TRAINING.
This is probably the sentence I'd like you to take away from this the most for the new exp system, if you only take away one.
New Mindstates List:
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clear
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dabbling
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perusing
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learning
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thoughtful
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thinking
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considering
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pondering
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ruminating 
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concentrating
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attentive
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deliberative
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interested
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examining
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understanding
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absorbing
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intrigued
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scrutinizing
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analyzing
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studious
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focused
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very focused
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engaged
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very engaged
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cogitating
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fascinated
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captivated
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engrossed
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riveted
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very riveted
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rapt
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very rapt
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enthralled
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nearly locked
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mind lock
By now you've seen the new experience system and its scary tendency to produce relatively lower mindstates than you're used too. Do not fret! We are here to help guide you through this new and, I think you will agree, marvelous new addition to the DragonRealms family of systems. CLICK HERE for information.
Want to discuss these changes? Check out the FIRST POST as well as the RELEASE POST.
Most of all, HAVE FUN!!!
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