Current thread: Mythic forums > Technical > Update 11/25/2011
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Legion
11/25/2011 1:39:34 PM | I'll try to be brief:
Creating an accurate tool for measuring individual combat value (CV) has had far-reaching consequences. The first obvious step was to apply it to monsters (or more accurately, monster type averages). This led to a change in monster XP, and from there the dominoes kept falling until many aspects of the game had been changed. Here is the short version of where things stand:
An interesting tidbit is that, game-wide, average character CV nearly exactly doubles for each experience level gained.
A few working stipulations:
1. Monster CV = xp gained for killing it.
2. A "normal" adventure should contain total monster CV equal to total party CV. Since monster CV is spread over many encounters, the player party has a tremendous advantage.
3. Each experience level should require on average 50 completed adventures to achieve.
4. The clan-day cost of each character should be half the average base loot collected on one adventure.
5. Base monster treasure should be 5 coins per CV (or 5 per XP, if you prefer).
6. End-of-adventure bonus treasure chests average 50% of the base monster loot value.
Conclusions:
1. XP-to-level ("interval") = 50x adventure XP
2. Day-change-cost = 0.05 * interval
3. "normal" adventures = 0.02 * interval XP and 0.15 * interval money (including treasure chests).
4. Therefore, each character completing 1 adventure per 3 clan days should break even IF no equipment (player or monster) broke and treasure recovery was 100%.
5. Random adventures have 7x treasure-chest contents, resulting in average total-adventure hauls of 0.45 * interval in coins per character per completed adventure. Players consistently complete only 2/3 of random adventures, yielding an average of 0.30*interval treasure per attempt, or exactly double that of standard adventures.
That covers the math. Now I'll discuss what this means for you. First, clan-day costs have dropped by approximately 50%. This math is based on the idea of steady positive growth at an average of one adventure-per-character-per-day. Approximately 1/3 of all possible loot is not collected due to broken items, inability to bring all treasure home, and a small portion of uncompleted adventures. Given that the total loot of an "average normal standard" adventure is 3x the daychange cost, the 1/3 loss means that daily adventures generate double the money spent. This is a big change, as previous calculations were based on daychange expenses equaling 2/3 of loot collected and now it is just 1/2.
Monster XP is up, and treasure is down. Many monsters had their XP doubled, and most were increased to some lesser extent (while a few actually decreased). Treasure is only down slightly on average, since it is a function of XP and XP's are generally up.
The adventure levels are different. Because monster XP is up, the level at which they are encountered is also up. This in turn pushes up the adventure level required to collect the requisite income, meaning that the adventure level you are used to seeing for a given party will be much higher. Note that the monsters encountered in the adventures won't change much .. they will simply be worth more XP.
Finally, the amount of XP needed to go up levels has been increased as well, to make this work correctly. The time to gain levels is actually less in a lot of cases since each adventure gives more XP. But finally, thankfully, everything fits together perfectly. From player xp and level to daychange cost to adventure difficulty to monster xp and treasure to combat value, it is all one integrated solution based on the premise of 50 adventures per level and one standard normal adventure per character per daychange.
A final word about averages: I'm talking about the mean and not the median. Nearly every adventure will generate less income than the average (mean) because monsters and treasure chests both have a small chance of holding extraordinary value. Since typical adventures have well below average value, you must find a way to do more than these mean-based assumptions. Either more adventures per clan day, or harder than normal adventures, or random adventures for example are all possibilities, as would be using inferior equipment or completing 100% of adventures attempted. However you choose to excel is your own business and different players will have different philosophies. |