Hello all,

We have taken an extensive look at the feedback on XP to date and made two very important changes. Namely, the rank thresholds have been adjusted and expanded to the Elder ranks, and we have removed diminishing returns from Cluster XP. As a result, we have had to make some adjustments to existing XP values.

Table of Contents

• Cluster Value Changes
• New XP Thresholds
• XP Adjustments
• Important Links

Cluster Value Changes

I'll be quoting Dacien's thoughts here, with some minor editing:

One of the most controversial features of the XP system has been its application of a diminishing return curve to all clusters, such that the XP value of each additional cluster was less than the one earned before it. This was originally intended to mitigate the impact of members grinding huge numbers of gaming clusters, but it was also applied (less aggressively) to CIs and CGs largely for consistency.

Having a year of the XP system behind us, and after looking at the potential impact of a change, I've decided to end diminishing returns on all clusters, retroactively. Going forward, all CFs will be worth 1 XP and all CIs and CGs will be worth 5 XP. The result of this change will be a small to modest boost in lifetime XP for most members, and a massive boost for a handful of our most active gamers. CIs have a mostly small impact, but I expect that to change over time as RP drives more CI earning. CGs have been awarded in such small numbers that they don't have much of an impact, which is something we'll look to address in other ways.

Along with this change, CEs will be rolled into CFs. I was HM when Valhavoc proposed CEs as a PvE alternative to the traditional CF, which at the time was a revolutionary change for DB gaming. But between the recent implementation of casual gaming and changes to the GMRG that equalized the point impact of the two clusters, the CE's time has come to an end.

New XP Thresholds

The new rank thresholds are as follows:

NV4: 200 -> 350
JM1: 500 -> 800
JM2: 850 -> 1300
JM3: 1450 -> 2150
JM4: 2500 -> 3600
EQ1: 5000 -> 6800
EQ2: 10000 -> 12500
EQ3: 20000 -> 23000
EQ4: 40000 -> 44000
EL1: 85000
EL2: 167500
EL3: 330000 (coupled with additional requirements)
EL4: 655000 (coupled with additional requirements)

This change covers a couple intentions, namely decoupling a member's first Dark Cross from their NV4 promotion so they aren't happening simultaneously. Secondly, we aimed to slightly reduce the promotion speed so that the JM ranks don't fly by in an instant, letting members acclimate a bit. With the cluster change, outlined above, XP gain has increased so we had to adjust for that as well. For the Elder ranks, we have been looking at XP as a sort of guideline when reviewing promotions since the release of XP to get a sense of where the threshold would end up. It's been successful from our estimation and as such we are now formalizing it.

XP Adjustments

With the change to rank thresholds, we have to perform some XP adjustments (which were discussed at length with multiple approaches and SO MANY SPREADSHEETS) as follows, again, I will be quoting Dacien with minor adjustments and this will look familiar to the Consuls that heard about this ahead of time.

Step 1: For all pre-XP elders, we will look back at the amount of XP they had at the time of their last promotion before the launch of the XP system and give them bonus XP sufficient to put them at the threshold of that rank at that point in time, if they weren't already. Note that post-XP elders do not receive this same treatment; many of them were already given bonus XP as EQ4s when the system launched, which our older elders didn't receive.

Step 2: For EVERYONE, we make adjustments based on the new XP thresholds. Everyone will get a bonus equal to the difference between the original and new thresholds for their current rank. For our elders, for example, that means all EL1s will get a second bonus of 5k XP (85k new threshold - 80k old).

Step 3: Diminishing returns are removed from clusters and CEs are merged into CFs.

As a result of these adjustments, you may see a deluge of awards and potentially promotions akin to the XP launch. This is a good thing. There is never going to be a perfectly fair approach due to a myriad of past reasons, the best we can hope to do is mitigate this impact as fairly and effectively as we can. We feel we have accomplished that to the best of our capabilities. James can address any of the more technical questions concerning this implementation, but we are happy with it and the Consuls didn't let slip the dogs of war when we discussed it. Which is a good sign, as they stand on the the side of the membership more than any other.

Important Links

• Dark Brotherhood Chat Policies
• Policies Category

Thank you for reading and remember: any questions relating to Brotherhood policies or if you just want to chat about any concerns, feel free to reach out by email ([Log in to view e-mail addresses]) or hit me up on Discord..