Stored Adventuring XP: Overloaded

[PhaerimmBane]

Adventuring XP is a wonderful mechanic. As someone who easily gets distracted by RP, and doesn't always get around to doing 3 writs a day, I absolutely love it, because it's still a very steady trickle of experience. I've even gotten entire levels, just from that stockpile.

HOWEVER, I think the system could do with some tweaks, namely in how fast it can be turned into tangible experience. I understand there's a fine line in there, because you obviously don't want the person who hangs around doing nothing BUT RP to feel like they're levelling faster than people going out and grinding out those levels, however, after one particular writ (Sacking the City of the Formians) delivered a healthy 20k adventuring xp to my pool, I took a step back and realized, that between steady potion crafting, the occasional big writ with friends, and numerous additional sources, I'd accumulated almost 80k adventuring xp, and I don't even have adventure mode turned on, meaning normal mob kills aren't contributing to that number.

As it stands, that pool is going down at a steady rate of 110 xp per Game Tick for me, which means 182 game ticks at this rate will cash in the adventuring exp from a singular writ. That is 1092 minutes, or EIGHTEEN HOURS of playtime, to go through a single writ's experience reward (18 hours and 12 minutes if you want specifics).

It reaches a point where I often find myself destroying my writ charter and flip-flopping between the two writ types, due to how easy it is to hit that 100k cap.

I would recommend a means to "cash in" that adventure pool through other means, even if not directly into experience.
Potential examples might include an NPC who takes from that pool, to give you a (temporary) token that reduces your ECL, meaning more immediate experience from killing enemies for a period.

[ltlukoziuz]

I do agree with overall sentiment that Adventure XP could have another use, but one thing that far as I know is not right:

due to how easy it is to hit that 100k cap.

What cap?

One of the very first things I did when I made the current char - a commoner - was to rapidly build up a pool of about 150k by just doing completely random crafts just so I would not need to think about it for a long while.

[AskRyze]

It reaches a point where I often find myself destroying my writ charter and flip-flopping between the two writ types, due to how easy it is to hit that 100k cap.

I would recommend a means to "cash in" that adventure pool through other means, even if not directly into experience.
Potential examples might include an NPC who takes from that pool, to give you a (temporary) token that reduces your ECL, meaning more immediate experience from killing enemies for a period.

It's really a mixed bag on that one - and, IMO, depends more on what you're doing between writ runs. I find that between levels 10 and 20, I have almost zero adventure XP banked away - but before and after that, I can't find a way to spend it faster than I get it. That might just be the pace of the game for me, as I tend to lean heavily into crafts and helping my comrades work on their writs and gather resources, so my play sessions on any given character get longer, giving more chances for the XP ticks to burn away. That said, I rarely find that I'm desperately needing a cash-out until I'm basically at the end of my progression and sitting on 50K Adv when I only have 40k XP to level 30.

That said, you're probably going to find pushback from the developers if you're asking for any mechanism that lets the game level you faster. They already get flooded by complaints by people who leveled to 30 in 2008 about how fast other people level these days. I reserve the right to disagree, but to each their own.

[PhaerimmBane]

What cap?

I was going off the wiki, which (apparently incorrectly) states a cap of 100k adventuring XP

[KeldonDonovans]

It reaches a point where I often find myself destroying my writ charter and flip-flopping between the two writ types

First things first, what does this mean? My characters (other than pirates) always have a MASSIVE amount of adventuring XP by epic levels, but struggle to find viable writ work, does this charter destruction you speak of grant access to more writs?

Now then, as for a use of the adventuring XP... Way back in the early years, before writs existed to be messed up by having a high level character with you, drow would often take their new drow on little RP raiding parties. Some level 20+ weapons master leading a group of level 7 and 8s through troglodytes. The level 7 and 8s would only get 1 xp per kill, but it wasn't about leveling faster, it was about the roleplay of the event.

What if that adventuring XP could be used to encourage that type of cooperation outside of level. Like -Adventure allows you to toggle whether you receive extra bonus XP or not, something like -Mentor could be used to toggle whether or not you are draining that adventuring XP.

Those being mentored would gain a little bonus XP (Still less than they would have got if they killed it alone, as the idea is not to powerlevel the level 3s), and that bonus XP would come from your adventuring XP. Teaching is also one of the greatest ways to learn, so the mentor gets that adventuring XP as well.

As an example with made up numbers that would need tweaked for balance: Joe is a level 25 Sorcerer, mentoring two level 10 sorcerers. Normally, he kills a goblin by himself and gets 3 xp, those two level 10s would have gotten 12 xp for the same goblin. When they travel together, the way things work now, Joe gets 4 xp, those two level 10s get 1 xp. Now, Joe has 100k adventuring Xp and enters mentor mode. He kills a goblin with his two mentees in tow, and his 3xp becomes 5 (+1 for each mentee). That bonus 2 XP is multiplied by the number of mentees in the party (in this case, 2), and they each end up with a bonus 4 xp, in addition to their 1. Now they each get 5 xp for killing one of those goblins, and it pulls that 5 xp from Joe's adventure pool.

This could also be adjusted to fit stealthers, something like -stalk. A mode that enters stealth mode (and automatically ends if they exit stealth mode), and allows their level to be disregarded in XP calculation of kills they witness. I know I always feel like a jerk when one of my higher level stealthers ruins the XP gain someone worked so hard for, because I happened to stealth by at the wrong moment. By doing this, they would get the same normal XP as if I were not stalking them, and since stealth is what I am training in, I'd get the same amount of XP-simply deducted from my adventuring pool instead of taken from the creature.

Anywho, just a thought. I highly agree with the hope that adventuring XP will serve a greater purpose some day. The idea of cashing in a pile of it for a reduced ECL seems a little gamey, but since this is a game, I could see it working, even as just a purchase you make from the rest menu. Cash in 100k adventuring XP for -1 to your ECL.

[In Sorrow We Trust]

meanwhile me with 0 adventure exp all the time

[MrHishprung]

Why not just let to transfer that unused adventuring xp into <-xpredeem> pool? with some high exchange rate?
1: 10, 1:100?
So that when you finally hit 30 lvl and still had a lot of the xp in the pool you could speed up your next character a little?