X-Poinz Updates! Grading Bonuses & Thresholds!
Sept 19, 2022 8:00:33 GMT -5
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Post by Vio on Sept 19, 2022 8:00:33 GMT -5
Hey, folks!
That’s right: Another announcement! This time, it’s all good things coming to those who’ve waited—a few system changes to how X-Poinz are earned and some streamlining of our Class and Soft Reset systems! These changes are aimed at speeding up progression for players and helping to neutralise a few situational discrepancies. So, what’s being changed?
Blues X-Poinz Increase
When the system was originally designed, the plan was that players would typically follow the logical progression of starting in one of the Four Blues, moving to the Grand Line, and eventually hitting the New World. The One Piece world is a natural power funnel, so it made sense to offer more ‘experience points’ for sections of the world that were more dangerous and advanced than others.
However, because we’ve always allowed people to start in Paradise, there’s an obvious disparity between those who take the traditional route and those who sail as their story takes them. A fresh character hits “D” from 20 posts in Paradise, compared to the 30 required in the Blues, so we’re neutralising this difference. Blues posts will now reward a base value of 15 X-Poinz per post.
Don’t worry about missing out, either! Because of the database we use to keep track of XPz, we can apply this change retroactively! That means everyone who’s done at least one graded thread in the Blues can expect a bit of a windfall coming their way, which we’ll confirm on next grading (or in other relevant circumstances)!
Per Player Bonus
This one took a bit of math to figure out, but here we go! Currently, all participating characters in a thread gain the same amounts of XPz, regardless of the thread’s size and number of participating players. That doesn’t seem like an issue at first glance, everyone getting exactly the same seems fair, but it actually does have a tangible impact on progression and isn’t as fair as you may think. So, get ready for some math and an example (and me being bold):
A hefty thread has 45 posts. Between two players, that’s an approximate 22 posts each, so both participants are earning about 330 XPz (base value). Now, if you divide the same size of thread between three players, that’s 15 posts each and a base total of 225 XPz per character. That’s already a significant difference. Now, divide that by four participants—putting each member at around 11 posts—and everyone’s down to 165 XPz per character.
The characteristics about threads involving more than just two players are as such: (1) the actual plot of the thread will be pushed further per round of posts than it normally would, and (2); the time between each player getting to post again tends to be longer. While there absolutely are exceptions to these cases, they are the most commonly observed trend, so it only makes sense that we reconsider our stance to accommodate for what we have been witnessing.
For each player above the second, an additional grading bonus of +15% will be applied, capping at +30% if you have four members in a single thread. This, coupled with the standard grading criteria, means you can earn up to an additional 45% of the thread’s base value for a good, multiplayer thread. For those interested in the numbers, here’s the same example with this change applied (ignoring the grading criteria bonuses as before):
A 45 post thread between three players (+15%), and so 15 posts each, would net each character nearly 259 XPz. With four players and 11 posts each, the bonus is increased (+30%), and so each character would be earning almost 215 XPz. This is substantially better than before, helping to mitigate the gaps that emerge between characters that like to ‘duo run’ versus larger crews without risking blowing the earnings out of the water.
On an unfortunate note, we will not be applying this change retroactively. On discussion, it would be a lot more complicated for us to do so, as we would have to comb through every single graded thread in the database, rather than simply changing a formula. This would take a lot of time for us to accomplish, so the effects of this change to the system will only be applicable from its implementation.
Streamlined Class Thresholds
The current Class thresholds for characters were based on the original introduction of the system, equalling three times the cost of the appropriate Fighting Style upgrade, which is why we have numbers like 1,650 for the Class “C” threshold and 5,100 for “A”. We’ve long since changed those, so we decided to review the numbers and clean them up, rounding off those strange numbers. This means that some of the Class Thresholds in the middle range will actually be lowered slightly, but will create a cleaner and more streamlined curve. These changes are as follows:
Class X-Poinz Difference “D” 600 No Change “C” 1,500 −150 “B” 3,000 −150 “A” 5,000 −100 “S” 7,500 No Change
Soft Reset Boundaries
Though we’ve only had one Soft Reset (and are aware of another coming through), we’ve decided to review our stance on the overspill thresholds. For the most part we followed the rule of increasing the requirement incrementally, but we’re switching that to make it a universal requirement of the respective Class Threshold (as changed above) plus an additional 200 X-Poinz. This makes Soft Reset a more accessible option across the board.
I know we’ve been dropping these announcements like they’re hot and, I won’t lie, there’s more changes to come in the near future (hopefully), but that’s all for this one! These changes will be going live from this point! Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment!
