Devs - will our unassigned exp go above the 4.2 bil cap?

[-Vlaid-]

Many people are assuming that the game won't be increased to 64-bit datasystem because of the skill cap staying the same. So my question is will we be able to have infinite unassigned exp? Or only 4.2 bil like the current system?

[Flynn]

I would be VERY surprised if this happened. Speaking as a programmer myself, I can fully believe that changing to 64-bit, or anything higher than 32 bit would be a monumental task. EVERY piece of code anywhere in the server or client that refers to skills, stats, attributes or unassigned xp would need to be changed to reflect the new data type. Given the huge amount of code involved and the lack of margin for error, I'd expect this is just too much work to justify the benefits.

[Mistress]

From what Srand explained (and the way I understood), you will still have a 4.2bil unassigned limit.

[Ibn]

(incorrect info deleted, see below)

[Ibn]

Mistress is correct, srand indicated that the unassigned XP pool would not be changing.

srand just IM'd me to strongly remind me that Mistress and I were not in fact correct, and to strongly suggest that I reread the spec before I accidentally give out any more wrong answers. :)

The pool of available XP is being increased to about 200 billion. Current plans are for this to be true for both ToD and non-ToD characters, but that is not final and may be changed.

I apologize profusefuly for the misinformation and I'll doublecheck my work to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Flynn: Like I've said before, every once in a while our engineers do stuff that we think should be impossible -- or at least highly improbably. This is one of those times.

[MaddyFF]

srand just IM'd me to strongly remind me that Mistress and I were not in fact correct, and to strongly suggest that I reread the spec before I accidentally give out any more wrong answers. :)

Send me the specs and I'll double-check your posts. :D

[Mistress]

Ah! About 200 billion? Nice. I didn't hear that at ACPL. I can live with 200bil unspent xp :p

[-Vlaid-]

Ibn, its no problem, nothing to get worked up over! Just a mistake!

[bradleyforrest]

Y'know, I asked about this at the Q&A session and SRand specically said that the unassigned pool would be increasing. I'm very surprised that nobody else was listeningto the answer about this, not even Ibn :p

[Flynn]

Well, I'd imagine unassigned xp alone is much easier to increase than all attributes/skills/stats, but hey, it's nice to be pleasantly proved wrong for once :)

[XerxesTD]

The 200 billion XP pool that SRand is refering to is the total XP that a toon can accumulate, not the amount of unassigned it can have.

Right now at Level 241 I have 100 billion XP. I can imagine to get to Level 275, I would need another 100 billion.

The larger question is: Where can I use this extra 100 billion XP? If attribute and skill caps will remain the same (4 billion), I won't be able to add XP to those. If we get new skills, that will help, but you can only invest 4 billion in each new skill and I doubt they will be giving us 25 new skills.

Something has got to change here, certainly having 100 billion XP unassigned is not a solution.

[Synnah]

and there it is.

I was waiting for someone to mention this fact above...

extra pack space.... minimizing death item drops... augmentation gems.... this is what you'll spend your extra exp on....

OR you can train the 2 skill credit skills so you have extra skills to spend exp on, instead of the higher cost skills... and gimp yourself out ;)

[-Gol-]

Actually, it's not a hard change (32 longs to 64 bit numbers). Change the type declaration (and database as well, duh) and the compiler should take care of 95% of the rest. If it doesn't, it's time to get a new compiler.

[-Vlaid-]

Xerxes, he is infact talking about your unassigned pool. You will have ample amounts of things to spend your xp on. Augmentation gems will be stuff that make you much stronger. For example, lets say there a level 275 only gem that gives you +30% to all skills. Wouldn't that be nice? Only downfall is it costs 5 bil exp :)

Trust me, as more details of expansion is released, players will understand more and lots of people wont be complaining as much.

[GraceMolloy]

will this 200 billion cap be retroactive?

ie. one of my toons is at like 3.8 bill right now and I plan on discoing my account until the expansion. I have one semi-active vassal but when he hunts he hunts a LOT and I'd prefer not to lose that XP if possible.

otherwise I need to go on a spending spree.

Also I hope that there are no plans for a character wipe before the expansion comes out.

[Deiwos_WE]

Grace, they're going to count up all the xp spent on attributes and skills, plus the xp in your unassigned bucket. So the only way you'd "lose" xp is if you unassigned bucket filled up...meaning that you would stop earned xp right now today, and therefore wouldn't have it post-expansion.

[Zenato]

ie. one of my toons is at like 3.8 bill right now and I plan on discoing my account until the expansion. I have one semi-active vassal but when he hunts he hunts a LOT and I'd prefer not to lose that XP if possible.

Play it safe Grace!

Best to just go spend that unassigned XP on some trained skill which is low enough to take the 3.8 bill. Before you disco the accound go pickup an untrain skill gem, so that when you come back you can recoup the XP and put it where you want to when the unassigned limit is increased. I'm assuming your account will be disco'd for more than 2 weeks. When you get back just go pickup a train skill gem. You'll be set!

This will also open up a 4.2 bill tank for your vassal to fill up until the expansion.

[GraceMolloy]

Very Valid point .....

um .. Jump? I guess? Dang I'm gonna jump high after this