ZEM changes

[larper99]

Originally Posted by Fammaden [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Where are you all getting the idea that the baseline has changed? Or that the bonus changes a zone's baseline?

This is the explanation we had from Rogean in the patch notes thread:



Everyone's trying to pass these percentages through whatever the wiki numbers have told us for years, but we have confirmation from Rogean that the wiki's way of describing it is irrelevant and causing confusion.

So let's say we have one zone with a shitty .4 modifier like the example. That zone got a 50% boost to make it a .6 modifier. Now we have another zone that had amazing ZEM of 1.5, but got a 25% nerf, that brings it down to 1.125....which is still WAY better ZEM than the zone that got the 50% boost.

We don't know either the baseline or the individual modifiers of the zones in actuality. So seeing that Perma got an 88% boost to its mod, does not mean that Perma is suddenly the hotness and Highkeep is total trash, if Perma's mod was miniscule compared to Highkeep's in the first place.

Its still worth exploring and experimenting based on the announced numbers, and it will be interesting to see what plays out. But most of the playerbase is just looking at those announced percentages and assuming that it means flat XP gain for the zone increased by that much like its double xp weekend, but its only an increase to the zone's mod.

No one is saying a ZONE'S baseline has changed. We are saying THE baseline has changed.

Percentages are percentages. They work no matter what the units are, or what the order of magnitude is. Let's pretend that there are 3 zones. A, B, and C. During player experimentation, they discover that it takes 5 kills of Amobs to level from 1 to 2, 8 kills of Bmobs, and 10 kills of Cmobs.

Now, given that as the only data, no baseline can be calculated. But, you can chose and arbitrary baseline!

I chose C. So, I will declare C as having a ZEM of 100. B, will thus have a ZEM of 10/8*100 or 125, and A will have a ZEM of 200.

C as baseline:

• A = 200
• B = 125
• C = 100

Or, you could choose A. In this case A will have a ZEM of 100, B will have a ZEM of 62.5, and C will have a ZEM of 50.

A as baseline:

• A = 100
• B = 62.5
• C = 50

Now, the devs come along and say that they have determined what the baseline should be and have altered the ZEMs accordingly. A's ZEM is reduced by 20%, B is left unchanged, and C's ZEM is increased by 20%

ZEM changes as a percent change:

• A change by -20%
• B unchanged
• C change by +20%

Now under the my choice of C as the baseline, A's ZEM is now 200*.8 = 160. B's ZEM is still 125, and C's ZEM is now 100*1.2= 120.

C as baseline new ZEMS:

• A = 160
• B = 125
• C = 120

Under your choise of A as the baseline, A's ZEM is now 100*.8 = 80, B's ZEM is still 62.5, and C's ZEM is 50* 1.2 = 60.

A as baseline new ZEMs:

• A = 80
• B = 62.5
• C = 60

Now, assuming there are no other changes, let's look at the number of kills needed now.

With C as the baseline, we first compare Cznew to Czold. What used to take 10 Cmobs now takes 10 * Czold/Cznew = 10 * (100/120) = 8.333mobs. Doing the same for the others: Akills = 5*Azold/Aznew = 5 * (200/160) = 6.25, Bkills = 8*Bzold/Bznew = 8 (unchanged).

Kills needed, C as baseline, new ZEMs:

• A = 6.25
• B = 8
• C = 8.33

Doing the same using A as baseline, Akills = 5*100/80 = 6.25, Bkills = 8(unchanged), and Ckills = 10*50/60 = 8.33.

Kills needed, A as baseline, new ZEMs:

• A = 6.25
• B = 8
• C = 8.33

Now, the whole "baseline" concept gets muddied when you don't give the baseline the value of 100, as the "old ZEMs" did in the outdoor zones, giving them the ZEM=75(100) nomenclature. But the result is the same. The number of kills changes in all zones, no matter what you chose as the baseline.

Now, we have one additional piece of information that the exercise above did not use: rogean explicitly said:

Starting with outdoor zones, we aimed for a baseline that all of these zones should be at. We then addressed dungeons and special zones, taking into consideration their risk vs reward and typical population numbers. This has resulted in the following changes.

He is TELLING us what zone to use as the base line. It turns out we should have used B. But it doesn't matter. All that does is make the ZEMs we list in the wiki have a relatable base: "HighKeep compared to Karana", etc.

So, we know to set B as the baseline.

B as baseline, old ZEMs

• A = 160
• B = 100
• C = 80

B as baseline, new ZEMs

• A = 160 * 0.8 = 128
• B = 100 * 1.0 = 100
• C = 80 * 1.2 = 96

Kills needed:

• A = 5*160/128 = 6.25
• B = 8* 100/100 = 8
• C = 10*80/96 = 8.33

Or, if you prefer using only the new ZEMs, you have to use the numkills from the baseline only:

Kills needed:

• A = 8*100/128 = 6.25
• B = 8* 100/100 = 8
• C = 8*100/96 = 8.33

Amazing how math works.