There is a downside to this that people are failing to consider and why I was the sole no vote. I'll use an extreme example to illustrate: imagine if the bonus at 4+ were 10 times the exp rate of a soloer. It would make soloing a complete waste of time and nobody would bother to do anything without a group and it would make cheating the box limit extraordinarily tempting. Furthermore the already very generous Ykesha era group bonus was implemented at the very end of May 2003, which is 7 months after PoP's launch, and the bugged implementation is DOUBLE the correct Ykesha bonus, resulting in an exp rate that is about 2.5 times that of PoP's actual rate prior to summer of 2003. Leveling in WoW was slower than leveling on AK quite literally.
What were the group bonuses before this rule was turned on? Haynar speculated that they were 1 member - 100% / 1 = 100% 2 members - 120% / 2 = 60% 3 members - 140% / 3 = 46.7% 4 members - 160% / 4 = 40% 5 members - 180% / 5 = 36% 6 members - 216% / 6 = 36% Is that correct?
I'm not entirely certain, but we had previously agreed to 'correct' Ykesha era rules. I'd have checked the server rules myself since this issue is important to me, but I lack the access. I would make one minor correction to that however: correct Ykesha era rules had the 6th man bonus and divisor the same as the 5 man: 180% / 5. We did have rules to accommodate that; whether they were toggled correctly, Rob or Speedz would have to say.
Might be an increase in IP exemption requests due to this. Not saying the new formula is bad on its own, just that if one has access to 6 boxes due to an exemption, why wouldn't they park #4 and say spouse is afk, making coffee, what have you?
So what about those of us younger then lvl 50? Any chance your going to include us in the fun? I am starting to wonder if us new to the server are being neglected. =( Going to the Bazaar on our lvl 20's is like going to Rodeo Drive with a 20 in your pocket. Maybe if everyone started to care more about us more would come? Just a thought.
Because hopefully most of us aren't blatant cheaters. The hardest camps for the second anniversary event are like mid-40's.
Including level 10-20 toons in GM event quests isn't a magical formula for increasing server population, I'm afraid. I'm not saying it's a bad idea to include everyone. I understand where you're coming from, but I'm just a little confused as to why you think no one cares about you (or other new-comers)... People on this server are very generous when it comes to handing out items, and plat to lower level players. With that said, if you ever need assistance (rez, buffs, tracking, killing, etc) feel free to send me a tell. If I'm not in the middle of a dungeon, I'd be happy to help. I definitely don't want anyone to feel neglected!
Then treat it like P99. I've been in a group on P99 with a husband and wife where husband went afk for 30 min to go pick up a pizza. Dev came while he was gone and ultimately banned both of them for a week. It sucks and seems unfair, but the rules are the rules. If you're going to be afk for more than 10-15 min on an IP exemption, then you probably shouldn't be in the group soaking xp. An IP exemption is a privilege. But these are fairly extreme hypotheticals. The vast majority of people on this server aren't going to go through the effort and risk of doing that to gain a marginal xp bonus.
