New EXP System For Quests!

[Storm Veritas]

A new system has been installed for moderator use that will allow for a simple and effective experience allotment for quests. This new system puts the emphasis of experience reward on score, with character level and and thread size being factored in to a lesser degree.

As a result, lower scores will result in a lower overall reward than before, but higher scoring threads will be richly rewarded, and the general rewards for players will tend to be higher.

Try to write a high scoring thread today, and reap the benefits of the new reward system!

[Jasmine]

so how does it work? We know how the new battle EXP system works...i wanna know how this one works too, please.

[Molotov]

you will not be told how this one works. We don't want it being made public.

[Poison]

then why the heck bother telling us?

[Vampiric Angel]

so we have a reason to work harder for our points. How bad would you feel to half-ass a quest and end up getting a 23 and 150exp?

[Cyrus the virus]

then why the heck bother telling us?

I have a better question.

Why the heck are you being such a bitch?

In all honestly, I'm not trying to be an ass. I'm pissed because after constant complaints about Quest EXP being determined by moderator discretion, some hard work from some very dedicated people is met by this reaction. If you want, dear, I'm sure judges can make an exception for your quests and continue to use discretion as a means of giving out your base EXP, perhaps less EXP than you might deserve.

If you have something constructive to say, please say it. But try to provide a reason for acting the way you did, at the least. Please.

[Jasmine]

I just don't see a point in telling us about something, but deciding that the knowledge that it's there is all we get. I see no point in that whatsoever. If we aren't to be told how it works, I personally see no point in knowing it's there. To me, it's like a business deciding to change how they figure its employees pay, but doesn't tell them how things have changed. If the boss isn't gonna tell the workers how things have changed, then he may as well not bother telling them that it has.

I'm sorry you don't like me, but I really don't give a care anymore. I wasn't trying to sound so bad, I really wasn't. I have not made constant complaints, only making comment when it was asked of me. From now on, I won't make comments on my opinions of any of the systems set up here since it's apparently viewed as constant complaints. I'll just keep my mouth shut and if I don't like it enough, just leave. Will that make you happy? I hope so, cause it's about the only thing left I can do.

[Cyrus the virus]

Relax, you don't need to get so dramatic. Maybe I read your post the wrong way or something, but it sure seemed to me that you looked directly past the fact that Storm and others worked very hard to provide a quest formula, and immediately demanded to know how it worked without even a word of thanks to them.

The constant complaining part isn't only about you, either, and I never implied that it was.

I think the most important thing to keep in mind, though, is that me taking exception to something I percieved you did does not equal me not liking you. Would you have preferred if the way quest EXP was given out changed, but nobody was informed of the change? I don't think so. Keeping the formula private is to help prevent people from exploiting it in any way.

[Jasmine]

Then perhaps you shouldn't have called me a bitch, Cyrus.

To be perfectly honest, it wouldn't have bothered me not to be told it had changed when I wasn't to be allowed how it worked either. Why are we allowed to see how battles EXP is worked out? Why is that any different as far as allowing the public to see it?

[Cyrus the virus]

I said you were being a bitch. I see a difference there, but I suppose I was being too familiar. I'm sorry for insulting you.

Battle EXP is different because one doesn't have control on whether they get loser or winner EXP, so the only way to manipulate it is to have someone you're battling take a dive, which can pretty much be detected based on their other threads.

There are probably other reasons why the quest EXP formula isn't being exposed to the public that I'm not thinking of. But the bottom line of the matter is that the announcement was made simply to inform people that Storm and company had come up with a quest formula. I'm sure there are people who were happy just knowing that EXP would be given out with little difference depending on judges, and I believe those are the people this announcement was intended to cater to.

[Letho]

The quest formula isn't revealed because unlike in battles, the formula for quests only produces a ballpark figure, and the rest is left to judge's discretion. If we were to reveal the formula, then for every quest judged the participants would do their math and then probably complain why they got "n" amount of EXP points.

The announcment was made because recently there were questions about the quest exp and how uneven sometimes the awarded exp was. We wanted everybody to know that we fixed it.

Now cool it, you two.

[grim137]

As a result, lower scores will result in a lower overall reward than before, but higher scoring threads will be richly rewarded, and the general rewards for players will tend to be higher.

Mind if I ask what counts as a high score and what counts as a low score since that is really subjective?

[Nwara]

30 is low
50 is average
70 is high

It's not really that subjective if you think of it as a bell curve.

[Ther]

then why the heck bother telling us?

Let me just reiterate what some other people have said, some less eloquently than may have been wished: there are ways, if you are excellent at math, to abuse the Quest EXP system. We don't want that to happen, so we aren't going to release it. Also, it is a complicated equation, and tough as nails to figure out.

What can be said though, is that writing great and short quests will get you more EXP than winning a great, short battle under both of the new systems.


I'm sorry you don't like me, but I really don't give a care anymore. I wasn't trying to sound so bad, I really wasn't. I have not made constant complaints, only making comment when it was asked of me. From now on, I won't make comments on my opinions of any of the systems set up here since it's apparently viewed as constant complaints. I'll just keep my mouth shut and if I don't like it enough, just leave. Will that make you happy? I hope so, cause it's about the only thing left I can do.

I hope that isn't the case. We highly value the opinion of our players and really do need you guys to comment on what the staff does in order for this site to survive. If we don't have great player feedback, this site will, one day soon, cease to exist.

[Meow]

Well since the system is being held a secret, which I don't mind, I'll just give my opinion on what I do know. I don't like the added emphasis on score in the least bit. Scores while they do have their place and they keep people from coming in and pulling one liners, which are really annoying to RP with on a forum; they also tend to cause a bit of elitism on Althanas. While Althanas has been better about elitism, it still has it and this only threatens to make things worse. The system does support people writing better but then it also supports leaving people out because they might lower the score and it’s hard enough to get a good score on Althanas, the judges seem to be tilted towards the lower end of the spectrum and requires a lot of luck and skill to get even a decent score let alone a good or great score, which only a few elites seem to be capable of. While rewarding the great few players for being great is fine but making everyone else who’s not a naturally good writer and has trouble growing by themselves or slowly is not really good for the site.

Now I don’t know the system so I might be wrong because I don’t know the system but I know what I can since I can no longer see it. But I don’t want to worry that I’m writing with someone I don’t know how good s/he is or if s/he had a bad quest at the start of their coming here and I surely don’t want other people doing it as well. Also there is the fact that it can be hard to feel appreciated here if you’re not a superb writer and I don’t think it should be harder thanks to a new formula.

[Taliel Escabre]

I sorta like the idea of the lower scores resulting in marginally lower exp than before and the higher giving marginally higher rewards. I mean, Meow, if I may address the point you made, I think it's to put emphasis on trying to get people to improve their writing as opposed to continuing to make the same mistakes, assuming they wish to improve in the first place. If you score low and it's quite a small experience bonus, while Mr. Soandso scores a 77 and gets a lot, wouldn't you want to take the initiative to improve your own writing style?

In reality though, the rewards mean little. Sure it levels up your character and stuff, but the advancement doesn't take place at each one of those "checkpoints" so to speak. It takes place in between the levels, through the stories are told.

So I might've just sort have rambled for a bit, but y'know...I think that the experience is really just a number given and in the long run all that's happening is you're having your writing critiqued. Character progression and such is seen much more in every thread we participate in, not simply every time we level up.

[Chiroptera]

I agree with Taliel. While this site is - I hope - meant to be for fun, there are people who come here to improve their writing skills and to gain some idea as to how good their writing actually is. My first score kinda shocked me, because I'd always thought that I was at least an average writer, but my disappointment is making me work a heck of a lot harder on my current quest.

What I did like about the old system was that each person involved in the quest was given a separate score, so that even if your fellow questers were practically illiterate, you would still get the points you deserved for your own work.

[Storm Veritas]

Meow -

If you want to be considered "elite", you need only write well. There is no secret club, handshake, or password. You are not elected "elite" formally, but rather are considered very good by the peers that read your posts. Perhaps instead of blindly attacking the system, continuing to work at improving your writing and consistently writing with good new authors will help spread your reputation as a good writer.

Then again, perhaps I don't know of the elite handshake because they haven't let me into the clubhouse. I'll post an announcement if I crack the code.



What I did like about the old system was that each person involved in the quest was given a separate score, so that even if your fellow questers were practically illiterate, you would still get the points you deserved for your own work.

Judging members individually is a judge's choice, and not a mandate of the system. If a judge still wants to score things individually, he or she can still do so as it remains their prerogative.

[Letho]

I personally refuse to think of anyone here as "elite". There are good writers on Althanas and there are those that are a little less good and there are those that think they are elite. They are not. But while I believe that the score has to be connected with the EXP awarded (since it's one of the incentives for writing here and as such should reflect the score to an extent), I wouldn't be so harsh with Meow, Storm. It's easy to say "write well" when you're writing well already. Some people need more time to develop, to improve, and even if they can't, they shouldn't be looked down on. I'm not saying that anybody is doing that or that the EXP formula is doing that either. I'm just saying it.

However, I don't think this will be as much of an issue as you might feel, Meow. The formula gives the judges a ballpark figure, and it's up to judge's discretion to add/substract from it as he/she sees fit. I know that if I judge a quest written from somebody who isn't "elite" and the quest gets a low score but the writer really put all he got and tried real hard, I'd reward it regardless of the score.

[Emblem]

I want to know how much the level goes into this, since it was said to be much less. Say, me and Letho do a quest and we score a 70. Would we get almost the same exp or would it be scaled to level? Such as I might get 1000 exp (50% of needed) and he gets 1000 (12.5% needed to level), or would I get more like 500 and him more like 2000, 25% needed to level respectively?

The reason for me asking this is it seems extremely advantagous for low levels and increasingly difficult and tedius for higher levels. Please forgive my spelling.

[Lavinian Pride]

Level has its own place in the amount of exp, being its own variable. It does make a little bit of a difference, I think the difference between to levels was somethign like 500 or so exp, but thats a ball park and not based on hard fact.

[Letho]

Yes, the exp is calculated for each participant individually, taking into account all the variables, level included.