XP and Leveling

[Pillager]

Oops...

sorry some bad math there.

100 +50/level seems pretty reasonable.

[LPhillips]

I think I'm just seeing the hero's value as higher than you see it. I'm also operating on the assumption that heroes will not be so populous in the future.

A 10th level hero takes a long time to build up to. If you take one down, it should probably count for more than 1/2 the xp required for a low level increase. An auto-gain for comparable heroes is actually very reasonable, as the xp from anything that happens to be with the hero is then no longer a factor. When you gain the level, extra xp is not going to spill over. If a low-level hero is cruising with dragons, however, you may still level up.

Turning it into a solid number (or per-level number as suggested) for anything below your own hero's level would prevent people from super-leveling off low-level heroes. Perhaps it's an auto-gain for

(any hero level) >= (your hero's level) - 2

So your level 9 isn't going to be leveling off of 6's or below, only getting 350 xp as suggested before. But if he knocks off a level 8, 9, or 10, he'll jump to 10. Of course the exact numbers would need to be adjusted for balance.

[Pillager]

Yes...this 'auto level' from killing a hero has some appeal...and adds some incentive to hero vs hero fights (which I like).

The only issues I have with this idea are.....

The stack a hero is accompanied by becomes irrelevant, so killing a solitary hero yields the same reward as killing one with a super stack. This means I will be softening up enemy hero stacks before my cowardly 'hero' moves in for an easy kill....not that I don't do that already.

It might complicate quest rewards for killing a named hero. You would kill the hero (gaining a level) and then receive XP from the quest? A hero may end up getting a couple of levels and gold/item/allies out of this.

[LPhillips]

That's certainly an issue, but it's one you are already facing no matter how hero kills are rewarded. Quest rewards will be in addition to what you earn from killing a hero anyway.

I don't see it becoming a balance issue on its own, though. It will depend heavily on how quests are implemented.

For instance:
How do you get a quest? Are they easy to get? Can you accept or decline at will?
What is the quest reward? If you are level 8 and the reward is 2000 xp, it's not going to help you excessively. If you are level 1 and the reward is the same, gaining 3 levels instead of 2 isn't going to unbalance the game. You've already balanced the rewards for xp gain by level scaling.

There was discussion of xp never spilling over the amount needed for the next level. If that is implemented, then you'll need some way to balance quest rewards. Either award battle experience first, level gain, then award quest experience, or offer the player a choice between gold and xp.

In short: the problem is obvious, but you're facing the same problem no matter how you reward xp for hero kills.

[Pillager]

So...

Capturing a city would net 200 +100 per wall level, and field battles would be worth 100....

What about defending a city? I vote for having no experience bonus for a successfully city defense. So, the defending hero would only get points for units and heroes killed.

[KGB]

Pillager,

Agreed 100%. A hero defending city should get nothing beyond the XP from the units/heroes killed.

KGB

[LPhillips]

Absolutely. By the by, do we know what the next hero xp gain system will be yet? Or if we'll have quests in Beta4?