xp and level difference
 

does a level difference in a group effect how much xp each person gets? an example is if i was level 30 and duo with a level 40 would the xp suck for me?

or if i am the lowest person in the group with ppl several levels higher than me.... how does group xp work please give me a crash course.

Yes it is effected, there is a nice website someone created when I get home, will share link. But generally the higher lvl player needs more XP to lvl. So the higher lvl gets a bigger pool of said XP.

Also for XP pentaliies, Racial xp penalty is self only. Class is shared with the group.

So how xp generally works. (random made up numbers fyi)
a lvl 30 mob is worth say 25000 xp. (Every mobs xp is the same its based on its Lvl and then ZEM)
Group of 3 players would divide that xp normally by 3 if their all same class/lvl.
But say group is lvl 35 SK, and 2 lvl 30 druids.
The SK would take 50% of the xp, and the two druids would split the remainder
Ie SK gets the 12500, each druid 6000 ish.

Experience mechanics are fully explained on the wiki page: http://wiki.project1999.com/Experience

I don't think it matters, though. If you're a level 30 grouping with a level 40, they are carrying you (hopefully), so they get a larger share of the exp.

As for exp "penalties," they are better described as "appetites." And both racial and class exp penalties are distributed across the group. That does NOT mean you get a 68% penalty if a Troll SK joins your group. That just means the Troll eats more. Just read the wiki article and come back with any questions you may have.

If everyone is not halflings no one gets exp

group xp works like this: for every person you add after the first one, you level slower.
that's because the optimal group size is two.

That don't sound right AFAIK they both increase your total per level calculation which is averaged with party

https://www.cs.mun.ca/~dchurchill/html5/p99exp/
The xp calc that shows all this:)

When you kill a mob in a group, the xp from the mob goes into a pot, and it's then divvied up to each player according to how much raw experience they have accrued thus far on their character.

If your char has more total xp, ie is higher level and/or you have a massive xp penalty (ether class or racial), you get more xp from the pot, leaving less for others.

This is why hybrid xp penalties hurt the group (though hybrids may increase the kill rate so much that it more than makes up for this).

Those xp calcs are good resources. I don't think they are an exact match to p99's code but they're reasonably close.

Got a source on racial penalty not being shared, and reference to which time periods of classic era that does and doesn't apply?

I've always assumed that the exp distribution was normalized by level, such that all else being equal (class, race, level, etc.), if characters A and B are grouped, and A is 1 bub into their level, while B is 4 bubs into their level, they'd get the same amount. In this scenario are you saying B would get more EXP than A?