Live Feedback: Issue 13 : Leveling Pact
By
Aggelakis,
Posted on: 2008-12-11 19:18 in Developers' Corner
If the root problem is "too much data flowing around" would it then not be possible to reward the XP say every 5 minutes? Or how about every time the XP becomes greater than 1 bar?
Not having a clue where the XP is at really throws off the perception that one is making progress, and how fast or slow the progress happens to be... It really does take a Lot of enjoyment out the game. So much so, I've already quit playing my pact toon in mid teens because it's just too frustrating.
What are we supposed to do, find a 3rd party program to parse logs to tell us where we're at?
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If the root problem is "too much data flowing around" would it then not be possible to reward the XP say every 5 minutes? Or how about every time the XP becomes greater than 1 bar?
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5 minutes may not be practical, but I think you can find a non-timed solution. Locally the game knows how much XP fills a bar, and how much XP you've gotten since the last time it hit the server. It could know to hit the server every half a bar or so. It could even know to hit the server more often if you're currently filling the last bar of a level - so yes that would be more traffic, but it would be confined to the people who need it the most.
A friend of mine quit a pact at level 7 because he thought it was broken and he was getting no XP at all. He didn't realize there was a delay.
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<ul type="square">[*] A pact can only be created between characters who are Level 5 and under.[/list]
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I feel this needs to be at least 10. I don't normally bother even teaming before lvl 5.
My SG recently decided to make a team of Shield characters to level together but I'd got above 5 before any of the others had logged on. So my feedback is that I tried to use this facility but had already out leveled it. 
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level 5 is also a bit early to tell if you actually like a character you built.
I speak from personal experience: a group of us made new lowbies and paired up into pacts at level 1. A little while later - level 8 or so - one realized he wasn't having fun with the character he built and wanted to reroll for a different primary set. That meant his pactmate was too high to replace the pact and ended up rerolling, too.
Madscientist has a good point about the level bar . . . I made a character last night to try out and nobody was on to make a pact with . . . so I had the choice of either trying out the power set and being too high a level to pact. I generally don't know if I "like" a character until at least level twelve. That's my personal bar. Sometimes (if I do a sewer run) it takes longer than that because the run levels you a lot faster than solo missions/grinding. Generally if a toon hits level 19 without me deleting it, then it's golden.
I would like a command to sync xp.
I would also like the ability to level pact at the same level with another player. For example, most of my family had characters stopped in the low/mid 30s. We could get enough xp to be the same level, then pact.
I also think that if you could do same level pacting, that you could also permit 35+ (or whatever level is the first coop) Hero/Villain pacting. Kind of like they draw off each other or are different aspects of each other, even when not teamed (like Dark Crystal or other references).
I think to curb abuse of same level pacting, you could put a timer on how long before you could pact again after breaking it, say 1 week, 2 weeks.
There seems to be a problem and I bugged it. I Leveling pacted (Is this how you make a verb of it?) a level 2 out of Outbreak with a level 4 on my second account. And I used Power tracking to see the Experience to Next Level. And logged off my level 4. My level 2 ran around doing missions made it to 3 and ran Azuria out of missions. When the General Tab said I gained XP to be split with my leveling pact, my experience to next level either increased by half that or increased by none, until I killed a second mob. and increased by the full amount of the second guy.
As I understand it, since they are not the same level, all XP should go to the lower level guy until they are the same level. Not a 50/50 split. (I havent logged on to my level 4 to see if he got his half or zero and the XP just dissappeared.)
I love the concept of the level pacts but the implementation needs a bit of work IMHO.
1) Since you don't see your exps before zoning you cannot 'level-rez' if you die within sight of the next level. This was one of my fave features of the leveling bonus and if you're pacted you can't use it.
2) Restricting the level pacts to lvl 5 and under is a bit Draconian IMHO. I can see abuses if PLers were to dip into it but as long as you can EITHER level pact at level 5 or under OR level pact with someone of the same level then I see few problems.
3) Not sure how long it would take to code but I'd be willing to give up 1% of my exp for every person over two in the level pact. This way 3 or more friends can play and if one has to bow out for RL reasons then he will level with the rest of his team. The small percentage of exps lost will deter the speedfreaks from abusing the system and those that are mostly concerned about staying with friends won't care anyway.
"Comics, you're not a Mastermind...you're an Overlord!"
Late to the party (as usual) but add me to the list of people for whom the delayed XP gain is a deal-breaker. I thought level pacting would be good for my dynamic-duo toons (with my wife) but after testing with a new pair, you can color us unimpressed.
We won't be using this feature again as it is currently implemented.
Statesmonkey Sez: Lighten up! It's a game, for Lincoln's sake!
Also: Six years of casual play begins to look an awful lot like one year of hardcore play.
I love the levelling pact - there are some times I get playtime when my spouse is busy (and visa versa), so this keeps us in sync.
Is there any ETA when the levelling pacts will be extended to handle more than just two characters ? I'd like to buy a 3rd account, then create a levelling pact with my spouse and son.... my son wants in on the action, too !
-Quicken
Right now we have a group of 6 that have all made toons ( a few of them veats) and have all pacted together. We have been leveling through strike forces and its been a blast.
However there have been a few times when people have had to play catch up. It would be nice to see this feature expanded to more members of a pact. Providing people are not abusing it.
I also would like the ability to pact characters that have progressed past level 5. A limitation of the pacted toons having to be within 5 levels of each other would be reasonable.
*readies fire extinguisher*
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Right now we have a group of 6 that have all made toons ( a few of them veats) and have all pacted together. We have been leveling through strike forces and its been a blast.
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Could someone clarify - "Is it possible, at present, to have more than two in a leveling pact ?"
So in the quoted reply, is that 6 characters in a single pact, or is it three pacts of two characters each ?
(6 characters in the same leveling pact would be more of a "leveling pack" 
. I'd like to get a 3 way pact going so my family can play in sync. If it's possible now, I'll buy another copy of CoH/CoV and set up my son's character..... that would be fantastic !!)
-Quicken
So far, I've been enjoying the level pact - I have a couple of characters set that way.
It'd just be nice if the pact server updated more frequently. Sometimes it happens during a misison, other times it happens on zoning. Even a /slash command, in the meantime, would be useful. But that's the only beef (or tofu, for the vegepacters) I have with it.
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Right now we have a group of 6 that have all made toons ( a few of them veats) and have all pacted together. We have been leveling through strike forces and its been a blast.
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Could someone clarify - "Is it possible, at present, to have more than two in a leveling pact ?"
So in the quoted reply, is that 6 characters in a single pact, or is it three pacts of two characters each ?
(6 characters in the same leveling pact would be more of a "leveling pack" . I'd like to get a 3 way pact going so my family can play in sync. If it's possible now, I'll buy another copy of CoH/CoV and set up my son's character..... that would be fantastic !!)
-Quicken
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Currently a level pact is limited to 2 people. The person above is talking about 3 sets of pacts.
Sorry for being unclear there.
Yep it is 3 sets of pacts what i was saying is it would be nice if we could have all been pacted together instead of three sets of two.
Still its a really nice system. Ya the delayed xp is a bit of a drag but if thats the price i have to pay to have the feature i will happily accept it.
*readies fire extinguisher*
Having delayed xp for a bit is a minor pain - I remember when they first implemented prestige for SuperGroups... took them a bit of time to iron out the bugs (there was a delay for "applying prestige", and sometimes it would vanish for awhile) - but they *DID* iron out the bugs.
I'm patient, I can wait for the fix against delayed pact xp. I'd rather see them increase the pact limit first, that way I can get my son into the game .
-Q
I tried the pact with my wife and we made fresh brand new characters and started together. We did everything till lvl 3 then she logged out to play the sims. I continued and went on a sewers team and everyone else hit lvl 6 and I was still lvl 3. I asked around and they said it was broke so I undid the pact and later found out that you get the xp when you zone. So far that is the only thing that I heard about whats wrong with it.
Objectice
-XP doesn't update quickly. Sometimes, while in a mission I find I receive around 1/2 a level in xp without zoning.
-The chat will sometimes tell me I won't receive xp until my pactmate catches up even when we are the same level.
Subjective
-I'd like XP to arrive in a more timely (not necessarily immediate) manner
-lvl 5 is too low for me to figure out if I will stay with a character, please raise the level cap to accommodate this.
-I'd like to add more than just 2 people to a pact.
this is a great feature full of possibilities. There are still bugs to work out, and I understand that. It would be nice to have someone state what the end goals are for this feature once it's fully implemented, technical hurdles and what concerns for exploits are. The more people who look at the problem the more solutions you get.
i love this levling pact stuff thank you for it.
now add a super team regrester that is a small sg with that hold 8 members that all enter in to a lvling pact
TSW
Krovus - Templar - Arcadia
Infinity & Virtue
@WAR HAWK
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-XP doesn't update quickly. Sometimes, while in a mission I find I receive around 1/2 a level in xp without zoning.
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I noticed the random updates of my XP bar today.
I was SK'd to a friend, and the other half of the leveling pact was not online.
I couldn't see any trigger in when the XP updated or not - it sometimes happened while neither of us were near combat. We tried to force an update by breaking and resetting the sidekicking, it didn't change things.
Something odd is definitely going on here.
Has it been stated whether or not the current delayed xp delivery is intended behavior or a bug? Not to put too fine a point on it but I hate the current situation.
Example, I have a level 44, now 45, tank who is not in a pact. I was doing a carnie mission today and was killing minions looking for defense inspirations to use when i faced the boss down the street. Suddenly, I hit level 45... I'd forgotten how close I was. With all those wonderful tier 3 buffs I no longer needed to look for inspirations so I hopped over and pummeled the boss into the pavement.
The reason I tell this tale is because my new shield tank will NEVER experience this joyous surprise because the way it works now he won't level until he zones. In fact, his bonus buffs for leveling will ALWAYS go to waste because he won't get them until he leaves a mission. What good are those buffs standing outside a mission door in a zone that is likely to be far below your level?
Anyway, I did a few searches on the boards here and can't seem to figure out if this is working as designed or if it's a bug. Can anyone answer that and maybe point me towards an official post on the matter?
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Has it been stated whether or not the current delayed xp delivery is intended behavior or a bug? Not to put too fine a point on it but I hate the current situation.
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Current patch notes on test refer to it as a bug.
Woulda been nice if someone stated that a few pages ago to save us all some complaining.
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now add a super team regrester that is a small sg with that hold 8 members that all enter in to a lvling pact
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That would be nice, sg-wide level pact, you could make it seperate from sg mode so the player has a chance to choose rocket xp or prestige... but what about the sg with 87 level 50's playing at the same time when a new level 1 joins...that person would be level 50 before they could type "thankyou for the invite to the supergroup" (oh well, but the choice of it...?)
Also the xp bar not moving during missions is a annoying problem especially if you are gaining at least one level per mission; you cant tell when you level up never mind the bonus.
Also one question when you are in a level pact with someone and you are being pl'd by a different toon on the same acount(person switches toons) and your pact mate is offline wouldn't you get half xp from the pl(everything else when the pact mate is offline too)?
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level 5 is also a bit early to tell if you actually like a character you built.
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Agreed. I created a pact with a friend, and now he wants to re-roll, so we won't be able to pact again once he catches up to me. That's very unfortunate.
That being said, I think the leveling pact concept is great.
I wanted to mention a bug with the leveling pact. Not sure if this has been brought up elsewhere.
My pact buddy and I both hit 50 on the ITF last night in the middle of mission #2. After a few minutes, we realized that the chat box was still reporting xp gain. This went on for maybe 20 min, with every mob still reporting xp gain for both of us, well past 50. Our xp bars didn't move, but I'm not sure whether anything else was happening internally.
Not knowing what else to do, we broke the pact. The xp gain stopped immediately. Perhaps someone needs to tell the pact xp server that 50 is as far as you go?
As far as feedback, I don't know whether the process is really worth it when only two pactees can be added. If it was a whole group I could see it, but level-locking only two people wasn't all that helpful.
We had a large group made up of two-person pacts, but some kept falling behind others. When both members of the pact ran regularly together they would shoot ahead, leaving those with absent partners dragging.
I feel like this should be implemented: 1) so that you can form or break a pact at any level as long as you are the same level to start with, 2) with multiple members able to be added or subtracted.
Also there is still a substantial "hiccup" delay before xp is awarded even when both pactees are playing and even after the zoning-xp fix. This delay leads to bolus jumps in your bar, and keeps you from being able to predict leveling boosts. It needs to be made more "real time".
Unless these changes are made, I don't think I'll be using pacting again. Not enough benefits to make it worthwhile IMO.
68 Level 50s, all made the old-fashioned way.
Original: Quasar Lad - Fire/Kin troller. Latest: Asp Kicker - Grav/Poison troller.
Completed the "Full Alty Challenge" - level 50 in every archetype, and "Alty's Ultimate Power Challenge" - level 50 in every available powerset in the game.
Member of the Repeat Offenders
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Its like I have a career counciler who calls my employer and gets me fired.
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LMAO
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