I have been playing for a little while now and I noticed some things that confuse me a little. Mainly, I'm confused as to why and how the xp is given out for combat missions.

When I kill a bot (whether or not I'm in a mission) I get a certain amount of XP based on whether or not I was using small or large weapons. When I kill a certain number of bots in a mission, I'm given certain combat, small weapons, and large weapons xp. But frequently, I'm not using large weapons. And I've done a lot more combat that what it seems I have credit for.

So... What I would suggest is that when I kill a bot, I should get combat XP and XP for whatever weapon type I was using. The bonuses after killing a certain number of bots in a mission is fine.

Basically, it seems that the combat XP should be a close to a sum of my small and large weapons XP because that would reflect the amount of combat I have actually completed.

Just a thought...

I think that this should be in part based off of this:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/10374

However, the formula would have to be changed around a little bit for getting XP for botting.

i think most people wish combat xp were easier to get. the problem is we don't want to enrage those who worked their arses off to get to comabat 8+. any real increase in combat xp efficency would have that effect. additionaly we want xp to be somwhat of a grinde otherwize everyone will be level 10/10/10/10/10 just beacuse they can.

I'm not really having a problem getting combat XP. It's just that it doesn't seem quite right the way it is now.

Its too damn hard to get XP as it is now. I have to kill almost 100 bots to get lvl 1.

If combat xp for pks were boosted that would be a good thing.

Well since the bots are harder to kill I think we should get more combat xp for killing them. Or cobat XP for killing all bots not just at the bonus level.

I don't really agree that bots are harder to kill, but I think the tougher bots should give much more Combat XP at bonus time than they currently do.

Also, when VO gets out of the insta-bot-respawn theme, I'd like to see a successful sector-clearing award Combat XP to all who participated and distributed according to level of participation. Like, if I single handedly clear out a sector of Orun collectors, I'll get a miniscule 300XP for combat, but if I clear out a sector of Arklan Guardians, I should pull in much much more (5000XP).

And make it a mission... might as well get some standing for being the hero who single handedly wiped out a bot-infested sector (maybe I can finally get that UIT Pillar of Society) *wrings hands* :)

Well since the bots are harder to kill I think we should get more combat xp for killing them. Or cobat XP for killing all bots not just at the bonus level.

I'm totally with Jestatis on this. Ever since I made level 8, I haven't done any active botting, except for killing queens (for my megaposi) because I don't get any combat Xp for the bots I kill.

In the meantime, I had gone from level 9 to 10 in Heavy weapons, and made significant progress on level 10 in Light. Something is wrong with that.

Okay...

I've thought this all through again and I have to agree with everything said so far. The XP system needs tweaking for sure. But what to tweak? What not to tweak? Let's see...

Someone brought up the point that many have reached high combat levels already and we don't want to tick them off too bad. I agree almost totally except that it's still a little tough to get the proper combat XP recognition. So... I have put together an alternate solution.

Perhaps we don't give combat XP every time you kill a bot. I believe now that this makes more sense than what I first suggested because you might end up killing a bot without being in a mission. That situation probably doesn't deserve the same combat XP that you should get from participating in a mission.

But there's still the issue of not getting enough combat XP. Perhaps when you kill 4 bots in the missions, you get more combat XP for that then you currently do. Perhaps 500 or 600 XP?

FYI: My in-game handle is DigitalTerrorist. I just thought I'd identify myself to those who know me there.

Well, I ought to put in a little more about myself here. I used to cheat at games a ton. And not cheat codes. I'd engineer my own little toys... That doesn't work here and I'm really enjoying playing this game straight. I like the difficulty level and appreciate the challenge involved in learning new combat techniques, but I don't feel my efforts are reflected in what I've done now. That wasn't the case a week ago, but at this point I'm starting to see a difference.

I hope that helps with my reasoning.

Naw, you should get combat XP for killing bots, even if you aren't in a mission. You just get *significantly more* if you have a combat mission. You should also get a lot for killing Queens.

Cue Queen killing missions?

The thing that drives the desire for easy XP right now is that it's near impossible to kill older/more advanced players with weaker ships and weaponry. If we were to have more access to ships, or be able to join the military as suggested here: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/10469 , then we would be more easily satisfied. Currently, there is no satisfaction, no "reward" where cool activities (such as CtC, Queen hunting, and PvP) become realistic goals/activities until high levels are acheived.

I believe one of the devs did say that once the new hive behavior and mission systems are in place they are going to look at XP rewards.

Making PvP XP rewards higher opens up all kinds of opportunities to exploit and powergame. When the XP levels were first added PvP XP was quite high as I recall, and some players would allow themselves to be killed repeatedly by another player in order to level that player up quickly.

For this reason PvP XP needs to take approximately the same amount of time as PvE Xp gain, and since it is MUCH faster to undock, hit 1500 meters and let someone kill you than it is to kill a list of bots, that means that PvP XP is almost required to be extremely low.

Why do we have a list anyways? nix the list, and let people kill whichever hive bots they want. However, there ought to be a "suggested bots" list which tells people what kinds of bots they can reasonably expect to kill at their levels.

Harry, I'm not so sure I agree with that last post there. I like the freedom idea, but the Collectors are MUCH easier than the guardians and therefore do not justify the same XP.

Of course not. The game would calculate how much XP to give per bot killed per bot type (yes, I meant to say "per bot killed per bot type"...it makes sense, just think about it for a sec), and give XP accordingly.

However, killing bots that are much more difficult than the ones on "the list" and not recieving XP while on the combat mission is lame. I didn't mean to suggest that XP should be given out at a flat rate, nor did I say that. :D

Why do we have a list anyways? nix the list, and let people kill whichever hive bots they want.

/rant

I'd have to strongly disagree with this statement, for the following reasons:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/8604

While I think that it's good to let players choose how they want to play and not to limit them, when it comes to missions they need to be *focused*. You should be going to a *specific* place for a *specific* purpose to perform a *specific* and *completable* task with well defined goals in mind. That is what I think of when I think "I'm on a mission." Not well let's see I'll go kill whatever bot I want wherever the hell I feel like and get rewarded for it.

I think this is one of Vendetta's flaws at the moment: super-convenience. Repairs are free and automatic, license levels are free and automatic, there's never any real danger in traveling once you have infiniboost, you can get every ammo type at every single station...

Bot missions practically spoon-feed you rewards, and yet are mind-numbingly boring because they lack focus and goals. Consequently there is no sense of purpose when taking the combat mission, which is really what missions should be all about in the first place.

There. I'm getting off my soapbox now.

While you are right on with this, there is one little problem. What we need are better missions that allow higher level players to actually level up without killing the same bots over and over. This becomes mind-numbing, so, while better missions that are more interesting may be good, and might be coming as soon as next patch, I'm thinking in terms of making the system workable until lots of coding can be done.

You are entirely correct about super-convenience. However, there are some very hard bots that are many times harder than the bots on "the list", but I never can get any combat XP for them.

OH - I finally see what Harry is getting at. Certain bots might be too easy for the advanced combat mission, but others that are more difficult should also be allowed even if they aren't listed in the mission details.

Here's his idea for those who are still confused by it like I was: You can go above and beyond, but never below expectations.

I dont Agree with Spellcast. It would be much more fun if the game had Powerleveling. And PVP XP with high rewards for killng high level players is basicly powerleveling. Because if i was a Vet and i was mentoring a n00b id wanna power level em and get my good mentor rating. THEN teach them about things they should know for REAL PvP combat.

And this style of behavior is one of the main reasons I QUIT several other MMO's Guild.

I have no serious difficulty with helping newer players with advice, and STRONGLY feel that there need to be missions that a high level player can take along with a lower level player to watch his/her back and help him/her along.

HOWEVER It really pisses me off when people are given a free ride. If a free ride is possible what you end up with is a lot of whiny irritating players who cant do anything for themselves and feel that they are entitled to have everything they have ever wanted with no effort on thier part.(and this happened in alpha before levels even existed and the only limit on what you could buy was cash, and again to a lesser extent before the PvP XP was reduced)
Those type of players are the ones most likely to spam chat, flood the boards with whining, engage in griefing and harrassment ingame, etc.

If the game makes it clear from the very beginning that you have to actually DO something to GET something, that type of player tends to not stick around, and IMO the community benefits greatly.

BACK on topic.
The missions need focus and interest to make leveling more entertaining, and the rewards do need to be looked at.