I run a fairly large SG on Virtue. It has been my goal from the start to create a SG thats focused on grouping. Currently we run two 8 person teams a night. I've yet to hear anyone complain about "Lack" of exp. mostly I hear exp. is awsome and "Ding" alot. We do both missions and street sweeping.
On missions we prefer to portal corp or tram missions. With 8 person teams we get a fair amount of bosses. We try and stick to highest persons missions for best exp. The only problem we've encountered is SK options. I prefer missions because your not fighting for spawns.
Street sweeping has always been a good sourse for steady fast exp. The biggest problem here is spawns. If there's a duo or single hunting then the spawns seem reduced. On the upside with a team of 8 you roll through stuff giving you more exp over time.
As you get higher in SL you devolope a sixth sense on when ambushes may occure. For us the group leader will warn people to hold for an ambush. This really comes from working with the same teams constently. You won't find this pick-up groups.
The dreaded "Exp Debate" will carry on through WoW, Eq2 and future games alike. I always laugh when someone joins a team hunting even cons and says "we should hunt harder stuff" Here is group getting mass exp with lil to now downtime and they move to harder. Yes, the exp per kill is more but over time it ends up less due to downtime or death. So, purple isn't always better.
