May 27, 2003

** Experience System Change - Grouping **

We've made some improvements to the way experience is rewarded in all 
of EverQuest. At its core, the idea is to positively reinforce 
grouping. There should never be any penalty to adding "that sixth 
person over there," whatever class they may be, into your group. That 
is exactly the type of behavior that should be rewarded.

In a massively multi-player game, any mechanic that penalizes those who 
group is one that we need to take a serious look at. While there are 
definite benefits to forming "well balanced" groups in terms of damage, 
tanking, healing, and support, there shouldn't be an active penalty to 
those who cannot find groups of "optimal" balance.

As it stands in EverQuest, groups gain a 2% to 20% experience bonus, 
which we refer to as the "group bonus", for having two to six members. 
In practice, however, this has never been much of a bonus, even in the 
case of a full group, given that the experience was already being 
divided six ways.

In the past, we had also attempted to reward people for adventuring in 
the more challenging Planes of Power zones by making those zones give a 
better rate of experience.

As of this update, groups now gain 20% to 80% "group bonus" experience 
for having two to five members. 

Full, six-person, groups now see an additional bonus. Their experience 
is only divided five ways, yet they still gain the 80% "group bonus." 
For those who think in terms of pie charts, it amounts to a larger 
piece of a larger pie.

Accordingly, the bonus inherent to Planes of Power zones will be 
decreased slightly. However, as long as person is grouped with at least 
one other, they will see an improvement in experience gain over the old 
system. The one down side to the new system is that there will be a 
slight decrease in experience for those who do not group, and only for 
those who do so in Planes of Power zones.

We realize that we are, essentially, "manufacturing" a new type of 
experience after a kill. As players, we also understand it is the 
people who spend time in full groups who have to deal with the most 
interruptions and setup time caused by organizing the extra people. It 
simply makes sense to reward that extra time, especially if it means 
bringing more people together. After all, that's the whole point.

We look forward to seeing how these changes play out on Test Server.

** Experience System Change - Level 60+ **

In addition to the above changes, we have increased the range of NPC 
levels that give a person experience after they reach level 60. The 
"blue to 65" range has been increased as far as level 50, with the 
"light blue" range extending to level 45. The best benefits, however, 
are still for fighting things around and above your level. 

The world of EverQuest, at this point in its history, is truly immense 
and full of the best and most interesting content and visuals out 
there. Ideally, when a person logs on they should have a wide array of 
places in which to adventure. The addition of new content shouldn't 
entirely obsolete what already exists. Hopefully these changes will 
once again make that the case.