Sounds like Rika was using a coven? From my testing earlier and the essentially nil xp bonus a 2-man squad got, I'm going to guess that the extra xp for a coven might be set way high, or the squad xp bonus is set too low.

Yeah, coven. I'm going to go with the former.

Could be that squads might be slightly buggy? Has anyone verified an actual xp gain in a straight squad?

Yep, about 100k/10minutes in squad in a six man astral group.

So, what have we actually got from this?

We have got pre-nerf Astral, except it's not even Astral. This works anywhere, now!

Seriously, though, Lusternia does not need more xp boosts. Distribution and Unity as well as SQT were more than enough.

Yes, Lusternia needs more XP boosts. The game is now geared towards forcing you to be a demigod if you hope to be a competitive fighter without blowing tons of cash on artifacts (and really, even if you blow tons of cash on artifacts). What's wrong with making sure people can actually get there when they have work/school/family/!lusternia also?

Might as well make all characters start off as demis, then? Sorry, it doesn't work like that.

Or nerf demigods so they don't both have the regular advantages of levels, AND insane stat boosts, AND special skills for healing and teleporting.

Face it, the game would be more fun if people who don't have unlimited free time were able to gain demigod in less than a real year or two's worth of bashing. The admins obviously agree, because they feel fit to give XP boosts for various things.

Astral wasn't just good because of the fact it was groups but because you could link infinite mobs and kill them faster than they spawned. Here it doesn't work everywhere cause you'll run out of mobs to kill in most zones.

Conversely: Isuka, Estarra has said herself she wants getting demigod to be a challenge. So if this makes EXP gain too easy it's probably a bug and in for a nerf.

It's not pre-nerf astral. At all. Did you miss the part where pre-nerf astral was nearly 8-10x that amount per hour, not to mention nearly impossible to disrupt/die in with 30+ people there getting that exp soaked across all of them...

Demigods already got nerfed big. A couple of stats means very little. We have a level ONE racial regen and divinefire, which we can use once a day. Our teleporting is havens, which is a convenience thing more than anything. That said, I wouldn't mind if demigod lost some of its combat focus and got more RP related things (thought that's a completely different thing).

Why is it that you often find that the demigods are the better fighters (and most other things, see: Seals)? They aren't. It is more correct to say that the better fighters are often demigods. They are the ones who have likely spent more time in Lusternia than anyone else. I'm a demigod, and because of this, does that make me able to kill any mortals? Of course not. I have not tried as hard as I possibly could have to do well in this area of the game.

Also, from what I take of your attitude about the whole demigod bashing thing, you will not ever make demigod, short of the admin starting everyone off at it, anyway.

@Shiri and Desi: Alright, it's not completely like astral, but it follows the more = better thing that pre-nerf astral had.

Except if you have more than six people you die to thupagoats.

Just to give a number base.

Alone with just harmony I make 300k an hour influencing kephera.

On Astral for 50 minutes with Harmony, Harvest, Autumn, and in the 6 man Squad I made 622, 917 essence.

Now that might be good, but I am not positive it is broken.

Keeping in mind that by the end of that time I was highly neurotic and any longer would have been to long for me.

When young newbies ask you to lead a squad to go hunting for some group event, you are really going to be thankfull for the XP boost.

The whole complaint before the squads was that you couldn't hunt in groups because the xp was just pitiful. Stop being so focused on being elite demis. Even with the boosts, most people won't have the time or energy to make demigod. (Nor will they soon have the groups of people to go hunting with who also want to spend hours of their lives bashing for demi)

Most people arn't in the social positions to demand people make squads for them and lead them.

Two things

One, covens are only 13 people but Leadership in influence allows you an unlimited squad limit. Is it confirmed that coven squads will still be limited to 13?

Two

sqt Greetings Squad
For a coven squad, you must leave the coven's aetherwave.

Huh?


Actually a third thing. If anyone from the squad isn't in the room when the kill is made do they still get the experience?

I just skimmed this thread. The experience from squads is pretty low and probably won't be noticeable except in larger squads (like 10-ish). This is to encourage larger squads! Covens do get a greater bonus but it's still small and there's a limit of 13. Mindlinks as well get a greater bonus but there usually aren't that many people around to mindlink. Again, the bonus if small and not crazy to throw things out of kilter as some people seem to fear.

Covens have a hard coded limit of 13. I can always test, but pretty sure that you won't be seeing unlimited member coven squads.

There's no need for sqt and the coven aether, so they just make you use the coven one. Usable with COVEN .

I understand there's no need for sqt and coven, just found it slightly amusing that if you sqt in a coven you get the message that you need to leave the coven aetherwaves., didn't even know that was possible

Not sure if this should go here, but I'm pretty sure it's tangentially related to the new Influence ability. It seems that if you have inept Influence (like me!) you don't have debating and begging anymore, just debating. My guess would be that it got moved around because of Leadership? I only mention this because of the influence collegium quests newbies that haven't invested in influence can't beg anymore. If I remember correctly when this last happened with planar teleport got moved for the poor novices. Otherwise they're going to need to start learning influence for the collegium quest. Just wondering if this is correct or if I'm talking out of my arse.

But Leadership is between Distrust and Mockery... Why would it affect the Inept abilities?