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### Topic

#### Remove daily xp caps on crafting and lower xp value for crafting select items

Suggestion:
I don't think that daily xp caps for crafting items are serving the purpose they are intended to. They also have the unfortunate side effect of creating a disincentive to make things and I don't think the game should really have disincentives to do anything that is producing or adding to the content.
If the goal is to prevent people from generating large amount of xp through crafting then a better solution would be to lower the xp value of the most egregious items. The fact that there are items that you can't make a single batch of without hitting the xp cap suggests that the xp reward for those items is the real problem, not the fact that you can make them over and over.
Appendix:
I have to imagine the goal of these xp limits was to limit the people racing up the leaderboards on xp (Please note that despite my high ranking I do not consider myself among people racing to the top - most of my xp comes from my obsession with Humbaba, not with levels, and I have no intentions or illusions about getting to #1). The problem with that is that there will always be a best way to earn xp, and the people who want to get a ton of xp will always find and use that best way. Removing powerful ways to get xp just makes those people further out of reach by exacerbating the lead they had (if someone is 1M xp ahead of you and you can both earn 10k per hour then you need to outplay them by 100 hours to get ahead, if suddenly you can only earn 5k per hour then you need to outplay them by 200 hours to get head).
Levels are of questionable utility past a certain point anyway. More mood to recover after you die, more energy to teleport, and little benefit. If someone feels they have to play the game by trying to maximize their xp gain, they are doing so because that is what they want to do in the game, not to gain an advantage over others. People who are racing up levels are having fun in their own way.
But even if there are negative externalities that make very strong ways of gathering xp a problem, limiting the amount of xp per craft would solve this problem just as well, without creating the feeling that the game is trying to direct or limit your playstyle. I have a friend who used to cook a lot of stuff and doesn't log in very much since the change. It's not that he was cooking for the xp, it's just that getting a message saying he can't get more xp from doing that feels like getting a message telling him not to do it. It's what he wants to do, so this makes him unhappy with the game.
When I make beans I hit the xp cap from making significantly less than one batch. Just before the xp cap was implemented, I marveled at the absurd amounts of xp I was getting from making beans. It struck me as out of scale with what I got for other activities. The problem was how much I was getting per bean, not the total amount that I was able to earn. It is still the case that making a stack of beans makes an out-of-scale amount of xp, it is just also true that the second stack is worth nothing at all (and half the first stack wasn't worth anything either).
I think that this change would be less discouraging to crafters and let everyone continue to play their own style.

Posted 14 months ago by Humbabella | Permalink

### Replies

- I think it depends on how you view things. I craft for the love of crafting, not to gain xp. So I'm really unaffected by this. You are right in that this change was applied to curb the grinder racing up the leaderboards, but if that's not your concern, why should hitting the daily xp cap matter? If you're not crafting to gain xp, then hitting the cap shouldn't discourage you from crafting. You are crafting because you either enjoy it or there's a need/demand for what you're crafting, in which case, you will be rewarded for your efforts in other ways.
  Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo | Permalink