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Currently the xp gained for defeating 1 mob decreases as you add people to the team. This is supposed to be offset by the added team members allowing the team to fight tougher mobs and more of them. Great theory, but it doesn't work.
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You've hit the nail on the head! The more people who gang up on a SINGLE mob are obviously decrease their risk against that mob.
In City of Heroes, it's the sheer size of the spawn that counts...If you've got a bigger group, then go find a bigger spawn. Simple as that. But if a group of 4 heroes defeats 3 minions (which are designed for only a single hero), then they aren't getting much XP. Those 4 heroes should take their act to a Hazard zone, where the spawn sizes are appropriate for their team.
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What exactly do you fight "on the way" when you have a contact in IP at level 28 that sends you to Kings Row or Skyway?
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LOL, exactly! That's why contacts should rarely send heroes to lower-level zones. Occasionally, I can understand, for nostalgia, promoting some "mixing" of higher and lower level players, etc. But, it should really be the exception. Once I passed 15th level I would have been happy never to see Perez Park again. But just when I got out, "they keep pulling me back in." (my apologies to Al Pacino 
)
Dwimble
I'd like to take Statesman for all his comments and all of Cryptic for there continued hard work. I agree with everything he said.
-Level 27 Stone/Energy Tanker
It doesn't even stop there. I have a contact in Founders Falls who loves to send me to Kings Row. The travel powers are nice and all, but what a gigantic waste of time.
Stateman,
Thanks for keeping the game alive and clearing up issues even with the idiots who keep up the trolling on the boards. 
When I'm playing my tank, you're right, group xp is better, and missions are better.
All that goes out the window when i play my blaster and can handle 12 mobs with now outside help. It's called Inferno. With hasten it is up often enough to be a regualr attack. With build up and AIM I can do +4 mobs. I'm soloing spawns meant for full teams, solo. Yes there is greater risk because I'm solo and a blaster which means i am easily killed. But I progress much faster solo and not doing missions.
In city of heroes there are 2 classes: Blasters, and everyone else.
You missed the last part of what you quoted. In theory, it is great. In practice, it doesn't work. You have placed a hard cap on what mobs a team can fight.
Couple that with the enormous penalty for grouping beyond the 4rth person and you just don't see large teams anymore. Start with your blaster for damage and add a controller and you can kill +4 mobs. Add a scrapper or tank or defender and there isn't anything that trio can't kill that the purple patch lets them fight.
The only times I have seen an 8 person team were on farm missions and when those 8 people split up into four 2 man teams and spread out in a zone fighting different spawns.
Like I said, your theory is sound. Your game mechanics and xp system simply destroy that theory though.
there is a door mission that a player for (hera's treasure or something) we have a group of 8 going in... there are plenty of mobs... so bad (fighting not so organize) we got wiped 
but it was fun while it lasted hehe. so I know that the code is working.. at least that aspect.. cause when I solo that same mission... it is not that many mobs.
Obviously things in IP on your way to KR. Unless your contact is right by the Entrance to Steel or KR. I think the suggestion is in general.
However, I agree about Perez Park and other low level zones: I was hoping never to see Perez park again when I got out of my late teens. Boy, was I wrong. 
CatMan - some form on every server
Always here, there, and there again.
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Currently the xp gained for defeating 1 mob decreases as you add people to the team. This is supposed to be offset by the added team members allowing the team to fight tougher mobs and more of them. Great theory, but it doesn't work.
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You've hit the nail on the head! The more people who gang up on a SINGLE mob are obviously decrease their risk against that mob.
In City of Heroes, it's the sheer size of the spawn that counts...If you've got a bigger group, then go find a bigger spawn. Simple as that. But if a group of 4 heroes defeats 3 minions (which are designed for only a single hero), then they aren't getting much XP. Those 4 heroes should take their act to a Hazard zone, where the spawn sizes are appropriate for their team.
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This will get flamed I bet.....but here goes anway.
We did just that Statesmen...we call it herding....we do that because of the "purple patch".....
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Couple that with the enormous penalty for grouping beyond the 4rth person and you just don't see large teams anymore.
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Penalty for more than 4 people? Certainly not XP wise; players get an XP bonus for having larger and larger groups. What are you referring to?
I believe EQPS2 gave a bonus for grouping. This is what CoH should do. Or at least give the same for grouping as for solo. I play a blaster, my wife plays a defender and my son plays a tank. Why should we invite others if it is going to decrease our xp. The missions are so easy that we never need a controller or scrapper. So they should either up the difficulty of the mission (which I believe they should do no matter what) and/or take away the xp penalty for grouping.
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When I'm playing my tank, you're right, group xp is better, and missions are better.
All that goes out the window when i play my blaster and can handle 12 mobs with now outside help. It's called Inferno. With hasten it is up often enough to be a regualr attack. With build up and AIM I can do +4 mobs. I'm soloing spawns meant for full teams, solo. Yes there is greater risk because I'm solo and a blaster which means i am easily killed. But I progress much faster solo and not doing missions.
In city of heroes there are 2 classes: Blasters, and everyone else.
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Stateman has mentioned a few time that he's aware of the AoE "problem". Don't look now, but I think one of the devs will be shopping for a fix very soon at Toys R Us (probably in the "plush toys" section).
Of course, all I can say about that is "Huzzah!" (and I actually LIKE blasters).
Dwimble
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I believe EQPS2 gave a bonus for grouping. This is what CoH should do. Or at least give the same for grouping as for solo. I play a blaster, my wife plays a defender and my son plays a tank. Why should we invite others if it is going to decrease our xp. The missions are so easy that we never need a controller or scrapper. So they should either up the difficulty of the mission (which I believe they should do no matter what) and/or take away the xp penalty for grouping.
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There IS a bonus for grouping.
CatMan - some form on every server
Always here, there, and there again.
The attitude of gaming that requires you address this kind of question sorta chafes my butt a bit. You know, the whole powergaming concept of how many dps can you pump out or how fast can you down groups to give enough XP to power level your character(s) thing.
Ug...If the game were reduced to nothing but street sweeping, I'd be out of here in a heartbeat. I like what you said at the end, that by and large people are doing missions. Why, because they're FUN! Missions (story arcs especially) give you a REASON to do what you're doing (i.e. being a hero). And with every update you folks are making missions better and more interesting.
So by and large, THANK YOU for making this game worth playing. THANK YOU for making it unique enough to keep our attention span for more than five minutes instead of reducing it to a dumb shooter game with statistics. And, finally, THANK YOU for taking the time to read the forums and address our concerns. It's very much appreciated!
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So, in street sweeping, we've noticed that large groups (say 5 or more) going around city zones - and then complaining that group XP isn't good. When, quite frankly, these groups are street sweeping in areas that don't have anything to challenge a group that size. Risk = reward. And because there's less risk, they don't get as much XP. But if the same group were to go into a Hazard Zone, they'd find larger spawns, and reap the benefit of the group XP bonus.
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the issue with grouping xp as i see isn't so much that it's lower/less efficent than a soloist's gain... but it's APPARENT gain is less!
it's called morale, if a player thinks he's gaining, he'll keep doing it, even if he's not. ever see lowbies hunting hydras? they THINK they're gaining, unless they're really smart, they're not doing as well as they think. on the flip side, if a player is not seeing a distinct gain like he would soloing, then he'll quit, thinking any gain from grouping is marginal and go back to soloing.
if it were up to me, i'd have group xp increased several times what it is now, but that's me.
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Couple that with the enormous penalty for grouping beyond the 4rth person and you just don't see large teams anymore.
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Penalty for more than 4 people? Certainly not XP wise; players get an XP bonus for having larger and larger groups. What are you referring to?
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Perhaps he's a powergamer refering to the infamous "Purple Patch". It seems that certain larger groups don't think they're getting worthwhile XPs unless they're able to defeat +10 level mobs. I don't know, that's just a guess.
Dwimble
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Zones are different than missions because they are broken down into 3 categories: city, hazard & trial. City zones spawn mobs designed for 1 to 3 heroes, hazard zones spawn things for 3 to 5 heroes, and trial zones spawns mobs designed for 5 to 8 heroes.
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So you should rarely, if ever, get more than 4 people in a group for zone hunting. Trial zones aren't accessible most of the time, at least in the game up to L34 (my highest toon).
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Note - missions scale to the team size. There is sometimes a delay in when the mob sizes scale up to a new size team....
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Even with 8 people, I've never seen mission spawns that are tougher than what I can find in hazard zones. Usually an 8 person spawn is 2 bosses, 2-3 Lts, and 6-8 minions. That's a standard spawn in (for example) Terra Volta. This implies to me that mission spawns aren't balanced for 8 person groups. I'm basing my experience on Live servers - I haven't tried an 8 person group on Test lately, so its possible that things have changed there. I'll have to check it out.
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I believe EQPS2 gave a bonus for grouping. This is what CoH should do. Or at least give the same for grouping as for solo. I play a blaster, my wife plays a defender and my son plays a tank. Why should we invite others if it is going to decrease our xp. The missions are so easy that we never need a controller or scrapper. So they should either up the difficulty of the mission (which I believe they should do no matter what) and/or take away the xp penalty for grouping.
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There IS a bonus for grouping.
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There is? I honestly thought it was the exact opposite. I thought you gained less xp in a group then solo. I thought I even tested this out once a long time ago. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time I was wrong. Thanks for correcting me.
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I just completed the Envoy of Shadows story arc (level 35 - 40) last night.
There is NO WAY any AT can solo the Envoy (ArchVillian).
We had 2 Fire blasters, an energy blaster, a fire/kinetics controller and an empath defender and we still had a major battle to take this thing down. Fire imps were useless as they were slaughtered as fast as they could be put out (and this is pre-nerf). This COT Behemoth has 11,000 hit points + dark shroud + regeneration. If anyone thinks they can solo this, I'd love to hear how.
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I solo'd the envoy. It took a long, LONG time, but I did it, and it wasn't hard. It was, however, 2 levels below me. I fought it when it was even and couldn't do it, but using the tactics I did the 2nd time I'm fairly sure I could have. The only thing that was stopping me was not being able to do enough damage to get past his healing flames when he was near the end.
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Well, hell, by that measure I soloed the Envoy too. I was level 40 to its 37, but I managed to solo him. I also managed to solo Terra, at even level. That took a good 45 minutes, but I managed it. No other archvillains though. I've tried soloing every one I've come across, and have failed with all the others.
So much for the vaunted uberness of the Invuln scrapper.
Infinity:
Ellen, 50 MA/Inv Scr
February Night, 14 Ice/Ice Blstr
Guardian:
SilverSwordmaid, 29 Kat/Rgn Scr
Vicious Killer, 33 Emp/Enrgy Def
Electromagness, 40 Rad/Rad Def
Sense of Humor, 50 Fire/En Tank
Virtue:
Kickfest, 50 MA/SR Scr
Freedom:
Glorious Ending, 29 EM/DA Bru
I hate to play devil's advocate to Statesman, but there is one fundamental flaw with his logic. One word.
Runners
What do us soloists do when one of our 3 mobs run? We either chase or wait, thus increasing the difficulty and time involved in leveling.
I've grown accustomed to just forgetting about the 1 that runs, and moving on to the next group. However, it would be nice if the mobs stayed together or we got some small % of xp for having chased them away. I know this would be incredibly difficult to code, but it is a pain.
The second thing I noticed from Statesman's numbers is that there appears to be a point of diminishing returns. It will take some time in-game to figure it out, but I don't think it will be too terribly difficult.
1 Blaster - 24 minions...
Scorus
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the issue with grouping xp as i see isn't so much that it's lower/less efficent than a soloist's gain... but it's APPARENT gain is less!
it's called morale, if a player thinks he's gaining, he'll keep doing it, even if he's not. ever see lowbies hunting hydras? they THINK they're gaining, unless they're really smart, they're not doing as well as they think. on the flip side, if a player is not seeing a distinct gain like he would soloing, then he'll quit, thinking any gain from grouping is marginal and go back to soloing.
if it were up to me, i'd have group xp increased several times what it is now, but that's me.
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Maybe it would help if the XP message you get had a breakdown when grouped. When you're solo it would just say "You defeated Big Ugly Villain and gained 20 XP" but when in a group it would say "Master Blaster defeated Big Ugly Villain and you gained 10 XP and 7.5 group bonus XP."
I think something like that would help perceptions a lot, and perhaps increase group morale.
Dwimble
Ok, here goes.
A while back a patch was introduced (the purple patch) that made killing a mob +4 your level impossible. A month later, this patch was rolled back to make killing a mob +5 your level impossible.
It is this purple patch that places a hard cap on the difficulty of the mobs that a team can fight.
While the actual math shows a bonus to grouping, in practice it is a penalty. An 8 person team cannot fight harder mobs, or more mobs, then a 4 person team. They can't fight harder mobs because the purple patch won't let them damage +5 mobs enough and they can't fight more mobs because a 4 person team is already fighting the maximum number of mobs they can find. You will even see small teams with a tank herding many groups of mobs.
That is why adding to a team only subtracts from the xp each individual player earns, while not adding to the level or number of mobs the team can fight.
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This is closer to the spirit of my statement - but the crux here is "decent rate of speed." Some Archetypes do it faster than others. Controllers, and to a degree Defenders & Tankers, solo slowly. That's totally acceptable.
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Totally acceptable? To whom? Not the players.
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To his customers it will be. If its not acceptable to you, then you don't have to be a customer. Its perfectly acceptable for you to find a system you like better.
This isn't a flame, just a fact.
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You haven't been reading the boards much, I take it. The fact that the different ATs advance at different rates is THE most talked about concern amongst the players who frequent the boards.
I challenge your assumption that this will be okay with "his customers". It isn't. It won't be.