How close do PCs need to be to be "involved" in an

AcadiusLost · Post by **AcadiusLost** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:46 pm

I'm looking over the combat XP calculation function, and it's currently taking into account all PCs/party members in the same Area to decide who gets XP from a kill, and what effective party strength is. This was pretty reasonable given 16x16 areas or interiors in NWN1.

It strikes me from playing on Indio's Beta, that we may well have three completely independent combats going on at the same time in one "Exterior Area"- the areas have a much larger feel, and terrain essentially makes the various valleys and trails functionally separate. Just making sure a partied member is in the same area in order to get XP isn't enough, when that means they can be lounging in a chair outside the inn at rivermoot, while their allies are battling young wyverns up in the nearby mountains (all the same area, really well done). So, I will probably do a distance check to the killed mob- which means we'll have to set an arbitrary range in which a PC factors in.

Other point- do we want to try to secondguess and account for partied/unpartied PCs? There are potential games one could play in terms of manipulating XP gain, by leaving the highlevel PC unpartied for example, to artificially elevate the "challenge" calculation. I can try to account for other PCs in the immediate area, but I also worry this may cause other undesirable behaviour (highlevel PC rogue is stealth-following the party to loot their bodies when they're killed by spawns, would have the side effect of dropping their XP gain from the mobs they fight!) Should we just trust PCs to use the party mechanic, and ignore any nonpartied PCs in range, in terms of these calculations?

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 3:18 pm

If we use the table top model, everyone in the party, whether they actively involve themselves in the fight or not, receives XP. So at a minimum, we should calculate by party with distance limits using highest level to determine base XP reward. I'm not sure if we can or should get more elaborate with it.

Souvarine · Post by **Souvarine** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:21 pm

Other point- do we want to try to secondguess and account for partied/unpartied PCs? There are potential games one could play in terms of manipulating XP gain, by leaving the highlevel PC unpartied for example, to artificially elevate the "challenge" calculation. I can try to account for other PCs in the immediate area, but I also worry this may cause other undesirable behaviour (highlevel PC rogue is stealth-following the party to loot their bodies when they're killed by spawns, would have the side effect of dropping their XP gain from the mobs they fight!) Should we just trust PCs to use the party mechanic, and ignore any nonpartied PCs in range, in terms of these calculations?

When a dm is around he can always judge stuff as he sees fit, but when there are none, i guess the party system is the only one we have. Any change to that might actually lead to unwanted results as you mentioned.

As for the lazy sitting adventurer...well, really...you should gain experience for having a good time

, but i highly doubt people in alfa would abuse such thing...we spend enough time chit chatting around campfires, so who would want to stay behind when there is actually action, and who would want to leave an ally at the "base" so he gets xp...alfa is risky, you need all allies you can get: safety in numbers. There are no witches to burn around, imo.