Shattered Kingdoms

When I used to play it was a straight grind, but what is with all the explorative xp, and how does the zone familiarity thing work?

When you first discover an area, if you are of appropriate level you'll gain some XP for finding it.

While it shows as 'Recently discovered' you're getting a 10% XP bonus.

After you gain a certain amount of XP it'll switch to 'You have become familiar' at which point you get no XP bonus or penalty.

After that you'll 'Know it like the back of your hand' which means you are suffering a 10% XP penalty.

Lastly is the 'You need to get out and explore new areas' which means you are suffering a 20% XP penalty. It never goes beyond this.

The idea is to stay in the 'Recently Discovered' as often as possible by using all the leveling areas instead of what were often though of as the 'better' ones.

One thing to keep in mind too, you will go through the familiarity ticks much faster if you're closer to the end of the area's range. For example:



If you were to go there at Novice, you would get 5 levels before red, whereas, if you were to go there at vet, you might be lucky to get just one. You won't notice it as severely in the lower levels, but as you start nearing grandmaster, the farther you are away from an area's low point, the faster you go to red.

sleeper

a few tips.

discovering new areas stops giving (notable) exp after about level 30. some areas will still give ticks beyond that, but there's only a handful of those. try and do as much exploring as you can once you hit journeyman.

you never lose your familiarity with an area, so be careful when you train in areas with a large span of NPC levels, such as Tlaxcala. this can be overcome when in a group with other PCs, as whoever is the least familiar with the area will have their modifier applied to the whole group.

"areas" is a good command to use - it's been enhanced quite a bit over the past few updates.

remember also that your charisma directly affects how much exp you earn per kill. it doesn't cause you to gain familiarity prematurely, as familiarity notches are separated by flat amounts of exp. it's also important to note that CHA mods will not increase exp gains, only native CHA alters exp.

another recent development has been the large proliferation of quests. most people save these for the levels beyond 40, because they usually offer a straight notch, regardless of your level.

Thats great advice, kudos to you, I actually learned a bit.

I'm not really happy with this new xp thing, I keep getting to the "you need to get out and explore new areas." well before I'm ready to actually leave the place. It would be nice if the time allowed, with out the xp loss, was extended by a few hours.

It's not time spent in the area, it's experience gained in the area fridge. It basically forces you to change area every 5 - 6 levels as a lowbie, and every 2-3 levels when you reach the 35'ies.

I been switching areas every 2 levels or less, it's been kinda annoying. Not to mention if I was a true newbie I'd be completely lost on where I should be going.

Try not to waste areas. Take XP from as many areas in your level you can, and don't abandon them until you hit red.

Yeah, some areas are just too good to leave before red (And some too good to leave even afterwards, depending on your race/class/alignment.)