Author Topic: Cap Cooldown  (Read 1578 times)

hot dog

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Cap Cooldown
« on: October 03, 2018, 12:52:04 PM »
Hello!
Could someone give me a bit more insight as to how xp capping is supposed to function?  I haven't logged in for at least a month and a half and my level 6 character is still showing a message of "pushing yourself more than what is needed".  I am still on the same rest message of "this strikes you as dissatisfying since you've just attained new levels of power" as I was prior to my mini break and was just wondering if this was a normal length of time for a cap exist.  Thank you!

DM Cataclysm

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Re: Cap Cooldown
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2018, 01:58:32 PM »
The first part of your rest message is a general indication of how much XP you have received since your last rest. We don’t update character sheets with the specific amount of XP that you have, but this can help you determine what is being considered a good challenge for your character.

The message you noted about being dissatisfied that nothing occurred since your last rest indicates that you have received very little or no XP since your last rest. If you’ve engaged in combat against level appropriate enemies that offer a challenge, you may see a message here saying you are satisfied, quite satisfied, or thriving/proud - the wording can change a bit depending on how far you are in the level and if you have a cap, but those are the general terms. When you accumulate XP in combat, it eventually builds toward a cap - which lowers the amount of XP that you receive on a percentage-type basis. A message indicating you should slow down applies a mild penalty, while one stating you have a ‘blind drive’ applies a heavier penalty.

You can also earn XP through role play and may see messages stating that the time since your last rest was somewhat or very learning and eventful. This type of XP does not contribute toward a cap.

The second part of your XP message indicates how far along you are in your level. You may have ‘just attained’ new powers and abilities, be getting more comfortable, be thriving, or be - ‘far along in mastering your skills, soon to be in complete mastery’. While you can’t see the exact statistics here, it gives you a better idea how to role play your character’s achievements and progress toward new abilities.

If you engage in a lot of combat, specifically after being in blind drive - you can push yourself way into a cap. In my experience, it can take 6-8 weeks with no combat to entirely remove a cap in these cases. You can still go on adventures during this period if you’d like - but it’s also a great time to get involved in some of the RP plots around the server! Some people choose to ignore the caps and do whatever activities their character would normally do - while others prefer to play their character being in need of some down time when caps occur. Ultimately you can choose what works best for you and what makes sense for your character!

Hope that helps! :>

zDark Shadowz

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Re: Cap Cooldown
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2018, 07:07:03 PM »
Any DM can correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like actually playing and participating in roleplay pushes the soft cap higher?* quicker than leaving your character logged out.

I've been in the same spot and took a long break around that level, playing on another server, didn't really put a dent in the near-blind drive state I was in. Fluffing around getting RP XP I didn't really want ended up quickly removing the cap. There were some odd spikes but, consistent playing is what did it for me.

The XP penalty is a soft cap, and that cap increases over time. There's probably some other out-of-game factor to it but it might also be tied to what month of the IG year you were in last. If you logged out on the 3rd month of a year and an IG year or two goes by and you log back in on the 4th month I think it only counts as one IG month. And there's been some odd times the months shifted from 11th back to 5th. I've seen similar bugs on other servers that use date systems, like bank interest rates etc so it wouldn't be implausible if it's tied to date and the increase is applied on a roleplay tick.

Those are my assumptions anyway. Just log in regularly even if you do nothing, if you don't log in I wouldn't expect it to track the time properly.

It's not so much as a cooldown (yes, time passes and the message gets let's aggressive) as a soft limit that increases. This soft cap being what level they expect you to be around after X amount of playing, pushing yourself harder for higher levels requires more reps.

If there's ANY factor at all that increases the soft cap rate in relation to your current XP / level, then that's like interest. You'd be leveling faster overall than someone who wasn't constantly capping, even if you didn't know it, due to the extra effort you were putting in.
« Last Edit: October 03, 2018, 07:48:18 PM by zDark Shadowz »

Always_a_hero

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Re: Cap Cooldown
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2018, 01:54:05 PM »
As far as I've seen in game, the xp cap doesn't decrease (if so, very little) with time. I see the xp cap as a way to motivate players to do more role-playing over dungeon, or at least reduce the amount of non rp-based dungeoning.

Dungeon xp works with killing monsters, while roleplay xp would work by checking how much text you've typed and how many other players were around when you typed that text. And the cap would be based on how much of the two you have in your lvl progression. If there were let's say a ratio of 1:3, then you'd need 25% or your xp to be RP-based and 75% dungeon xp to have a "normal progression".

Based on that, you'd get an xp cap if over 75% of your xp progression is dungeon based, thus reducing the xp gained from killing monsters. On the contrary, it's possible to have a "negative cap", or a boost to dungeon xp. In this case, it would happen if more of 25% of your level progression is Roleplay-based. The scary part of it though is that the xp progression would follow you from all the way back to your character creation.

All of that though is a guess from my own experience. Hope it helps.
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