[MUD-Dev] Exponential experience points and levels

[David Kennerly]

Adam M wrote:

> I fancy playing a game where you get exponentially more exp per
> situation the more you are (statistically) outgunned. Is anyone
> running one? :).

Have you played Final Fantasy XI?

...

> If you beat someone of lesser ability, again you get nothing

...

> If you beat someone of significantly greater ability, you get
> experience.

In FFXI if you fight an easy opponent you get drastically less XP.
This is obvious when you level up.  A lot of MMPs have offered an XP
dropoff like this for a while.  In Dark Ages it's been standard
since 1998.  DA also offers multiplied XP for tougher monsters and
various group bonus modifiers, including class diversity.

But FFXI's chain XP is novel (for MMPs, not for Final Fantasy).
FFXI offers a chain bonus for defeating a tough foe within a minute
or so after defeating a previous tough foe.  This is only realistic
in a group, at low levels at least, since a group can take on foes
that are too tough to solo.  The bonus is significant enough to make
it a consideration for many groups, again, at low levels at least.

FFXI bases toughness on the toughest (well, highest level) party
member, so people don't usually like to group with low-levels.  The
level distribution curve means bad XP for the foes that the few
tough people in the party can beat.  It's much closer to optimal to
get all party members at the same level, because then the max level
in party is also the average.  A lot of MMPs do this, too, but when
combined with chaining, the overal XP system makes FFXI stand out
... a little.  Every bit helps.  :)

I like FFXI chain XP, because it pushes risk-neutral players to
behave a little more as if they were risk-loving (in terms of a
utility function of XP), because of the exponential XP curve that
results from expected value of XP chains for a group.  In addition,
it puts time-pressure on the group to get the next target.  They
don't have to get a kill in a minute or so, just start the battle in
a minute, and then finish.  And finally, because it's elegant.  It
provides the exponential XP you mentioned with a simple rule, along
the lines of:

    While chain not broken, do:
        Set timer for chain XP expiration.
        If enter battle, reset timer and pause.
        After battle:
            If the monster was tough,
                Increment XP chain multiplier.
            Else break chain and award multiplied XP.

They add other nuances to this basic outline.  Again, not novel to
Final Fantasy.  As Adam said, is anyone else using an exponential XP
reward?

I'm reminded of the St. Petersburg paradox, which is, in a way, like
the Coliseum mission battle in SoulCalibur I.  In SC coliseum you
get double money for each battle you win.  That's exponential: 2^i.
But if you don't stop, and you lose the next battle (each gets
tougher) you lose all.  That's anothe way to model an exponential XP
system.  It plays with risk in a very different way.  It also adds a
new element of skill: self-appraisal.  But then again, SC is a
skill-based game, not a time-sink based game as at least 95% of all
MM players (in the US at least) are paying for.

There's a number of other potential exponential reward systems.  I'd
love to hear a few clever ideas that go beyond a formula for yet
another time-sink battle of stats--accrued, by induction, from a
recursive history of time-sink battles, and proceeding ad nauseum,
to further macro-worthy, meaningless, skill-less, waste of human
attention.  :)

David
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