Experience

For the game command, see EXPERIENCE.

Experience, often abbreviated exp, is the general term for all of the skill learning your character has attained.

In DragonRealms, your ranks in a skill are increased by using it. This is called training. The amount of experience gained from any action is scaled to the difficulty of that action for your character at that time, and how successful your character is in performing it. It is common for a task that has become very simple or unchallenging to grant zero experience.

Experience can potentially be lost as a consequence of character death, although this can be easily avoided through favors.

Ranks

Gained experience is measured as whole-number increments called "ranks." As your experience drains from your experience pool for a particular skill, your learning is converted into ranks. Your ability in a skill is measured by the number of ranks you have attained in that skill. Additionally, there are skill requirements for advancing in circle (or character level) within a guild. Finally, gaining ranks in skills grants TDPs, which can be used to raise your stats.

Note: It is generally considered OOC to engage in explicit discussions of numerical stats or skills. (Role-players may also object to the term "ranks.") When discussing skill via IC channels, the most conservative approach is to use the RP messaging, reserving numerical discussions for whispers and private messages. See Out of Character for additional information.

The amount of effort required to move up one rank in a skill can be measured in bits. Through analysis of the output of the CONVERT command it was possible to reverse engineer this relationship between ranks. Your next rank in a skill will be reached after you have gained 200 + n bits, where n is the current rank. This means to go from rank 0 to rank 1 in a skill you will need 200 bits, to go from rank 1 to rank 2, you will need 201 bits, and so on. By summing up the number of ranks you can determine how many bits it will take to reach a current level.

The graph and table below show the total number of bits needed to reach a specific rank from 0. This graphic demonstrates the relative difficulty to climb ranks. For example, to go from 300 to 400 ranks takes roughly the same number of bits as going from 0 to 200 ranks. Going from rank 1,000 to 1,500 requires approximately twice the number of bits as going from 0 to 1,000.

Rank	Total bits needed
1	200
25	5,300
50	11,225
75	18,050
100	24,950
150	41,175
200	59,900
250	81,125
300	104,850
400	159,800
500	224,750
750	430,875
1,000	699,500
1,250	1,030,625
1,500	1,424,250
1,750	1,880,375

Maximum rank

Ranks are capped at 1750. Once you hit 1750 ranks, you no longer gain experience into your experience pool for that skill and draining experience has no effect. It is possible to have effective ranks higher than 1750 through buffs such as abilities or spells. Skill buffs are capped at 20% for most skills, and 10% for crafting skills. You can see your current buffs using EXPERIENCE MODS.

Calculations for Ranks and Bits

The relationship between bits and ranks can be defined algebraically. In the formulas below r refers to ranks and b refers to bits.

yields the bits needed to reach a specific rank.

yields the rank a number of bits would reach.

Experience pools and pulses

Experience pools

Every skill has its own individual pool, which fills with field experience as you obtain it. The current amount of field experience in your pool ranges from clear (empty) to mind lock (full).

Factors that determine maximum pool size (in descending order of importance):

1. whether the skill is in your primary, secondary, or tertiary skillset
2. the number of ranks you have in the skill
3. Intelligence
4. Discipline (Note: It was planned for 3.0 to remove discipline from the experience pool effects, but as posted by Socharis on 1/18/13, "...So I looked into this, and Discipline was never taken out - It's not as significant as intelligence, but it definitely increases your [experience] pool size."

Amount Learning	Mindstate Fraction	Amount Learning	Mindstate Fraction
clear	0/34	analyzing	18/34
dabbling	1/34	studious	19/34
perusing	2/34	focused	20/34
learning	3/34	very focused	21/34
thoughtful	4/34	engaged	22/34
thinking	5/34	very engaged	23/34
considering	6/34	cogitating	24/34
pondering	7/34	fascinated	25/34
ruminating	8/34	captivated	26/34
concentrating	9/34	engrossed	27/34
attentive	10/34	riveted	28/34
deliberative	11/34	very riveted	29/34
interested	12/34	rapt	30/34
examining	13/34	very rapt	31/34
understanding	14/34	enthralled	32/34
absorbing	15/34	nearly locked	33/34
intrigued	16/34	mind lock	34/34
scrutinizing	17/34

Experience pulses

This field experience is gradually converted into actual ranks. When field experience is converted to ranks, it is called a pulse. The size of the pulse is calculated as a fraction of your total pool size. The primary factor affecting this fraction is whether the skill is primary, secondary, or tertiary; higher Wisdom also increases this fraction. However, secondary skills under 50 ranks will drain like primary skills, and tertiary skills under 25 ranks will drain like secondary skills.

Skillset	Time to Pulse From Mind Lock to Clear
Primary	40-60 minutes
Secondary	50-80 minutes
Tertiary	70-100 minutes

Skills pulse in groups every 200 seconds, with each group being offset from the previous one by 20 seconds. These skill groupings are arranged by skillset in the order they appear in the experience list in game, with the exception of certain guild-only skills which are located with their historical group. The order and timing of the pulses is fixed, meaning the pulses happen at the exact same time for the same skills for every single player in the game.

Relative Time Offset	Skill Group
0 sec.	Shield Usage, Light Armor, Chain Armor, Brigandine, Plate Armor, Defending
20 sec.	Parry Ability, Small Edged, Large Edged, Twohanded Edged
40 sec.	Small Blunt, Large Blunt, Twohanded Blunt, Slings, Bow, Crossbow
60 sec.	Staves, Polearms, Light Thrown, Heavy Thrown, Brawling, Offhand Weapon, Melee Mastery
80 sec.	Missile Mastery, Primary Magic, Attunement, Arcana, Targeted Magic, Augmentation
100 sec.	Debilitation, Utility, Warding, Sorcery, Evasion, Athletics, Perception, Scouting
120 sec.	Stealth, Locksmithing, Thievery, First Aid, Outdoorsmanship
140 sec.	Skinning, Backstab
160 sec.	Forging, Engineering, Outfitting, Alchemy, Enchanting, Scholarship, Mechanical Lore, Appraisal, Bardic Lore, Trading
180 sec.	Performance, Tactics, Astrology, Empathy, Thanatology, Expertise, Summoning, Theurgy, Conviction

Stats and learning

Mental statistics now have a greater effect on the experience system. Intelligence and Wisdom affect all skills equally and have diminishing returns that are not logarithmically diminishing. (Every TDP spent on these stats provides a benefit.)

• Intelligence: Maximum size of experience pools
• Wisdom: Pulse size
• Discipline: Experience pool size (10% efficiency)

The effect of Intelligence and Wisdom is a percentage and not dependent on how many ranks you have in the skill. The effects of these stats can't be "tested" in an hour. This is something that assists you over the course of your entire career.

On 12/10/2015, GM Armifer shared some hard numbers on how intelligence and wisdom affect learning. Using 10 as the baseline (100%), here is the magnitude of the effect of training those stats:

Stat	Value	Effect (Compared to 10)
Intelligence/Wisdom	30	112%
Intelligence/Wisdom	60	121%
Intelligence/Wisdom	90	125%
Intelligence/Wisdom	120	130%

"Discipline also increases pool size, at 10% efficacy, thus continuing its trend of doing just a little bit of everything." --GM Armifer

Rested Experience System

Regular Subscribers, Premium Subscribers, and F2P accounts with a unlock purchased with Simucoins can utilize the Rested Experience System (REXP). When active, this system provides a bonus when field experience is converted to ranks. The actual EXP pools are unchanged, but when you drain experience from the pools it will simply be worth more actual ranks by a factor of 3.

There are three mechanical components to the system: pool cap, usage cap and cycle. Information about these features is available in the EXP command.

• The pool cap is how much rested exp you can have banked on your character at any time. Simple enough. At this time, the pool cap depends upon your subscription type. Standard accounts will be able to bank up to 4 hours of REXP. Premium accounts will store up to 6 hours, and in the Platinum instance the pool can hold 8 hours. This time will accumulate after 5 consecutive minutes of not draining experience. This is whether offline, online without any EXP in your pools, or with the help of deep sleep.

• The usage cap is how much rested exp you can use. For now, regardless of how frequently you fill the storage cap, you can only use up to 4/6/8 rested experience during one cycle (dependent upon account type).

• The cycle is how long it takes for the usage cap to reset. After 23:30 hours your usage cap will refresh and you can spend additional rested exp. The timing of the cycle is personal rather than universal: it starts when you, personally, do something with the rested exp system and then runs its course.

In addition to changes to how experience is converted under REXP, a modification to the sleep verb was provided. In "Light Sleep" you will stop gaining new experience but continue to drain experience from your pools. You will use REXP in this state. In "Deep Sleep" you will not gain experience NOR will you drain experience. Your REXP is not used, and you will start to accumulate time in your rested experience pool again.

Experience drain at login

Experience drain at login is based on when you last logged out of the game. Starting at 30 minutes, you will drain a percentage of your experience equal to the number of minutes that you have been logged out divided by 360 (or 480 if you received a warning within the last six months).

When you're logged out, experience drains at a static rate, regardless of skillset placement, ranks, or stats. Technically, the experience doesn't actually pulse until you log back in. It's important when you log on to wait for the experience drain before logging off, as quickly logging in multiple times may cause the system to not apply your log on drain correctly.

Time Logged Out	%Pulsed (Clean)	%Pulsed (Warning)
30 minutes	8.33%	6.25%
1 hour	16.67%	12.5%
2 hours	33.33%	25%
3 hours	50%	37.5%
4 hours	66.67%	50%
5 hours	83.33%	62.5%
6 hours	100%	75%
7 hours	100%	87.5%
8 hours	100%	100%

• Note: Free to play players do not receive offline drain without a pass from the Simucoin store. See Idle experience drain for more details.
• As of 03/12/2015, players who have received a warning within the last six months drain over eight hours instead of not being able to drain experience at login.

RP messaging

Ranks in each skill are numerical. However, there is also a role-playing system of nomenclature set up for skills, to make it easier to integrate into game-play.

Ranks 1-49 / Novice

Within the above range:

• + 0-09 = Lowly
• + 10-19 = Promising
• + 20-29 = Able
• + 30-39 = Trained
• + 40-49 = Full

Ranks 50-99 / Practitioner

Ranks 100-149 / Dilettante

Ranks 150-199 / Aficionado

Within the above ranges:

• + 0-09 = Beginning
• + 10-19 = Competent
• + 20-29 = Proficient
• + 30-39 = Experienced
• + 40-49 = Skilled

Ranks 200-299 / Adept

Ranks 300-399 / Expert

Within the above ranges:

• Rated by degrees 0-99

Ranks 400-499 / Professional

Ranks 500-599 / Authority

Ranks 600-699 / Genius

Within the above ranges:

• + 20-39 = Exceptional
• + 40-59 = Outstanding
• + 60-79 = Renowned
• + 80-99 = True

Ranks 700-799 / Savant

Ranks 800-899 / Master

Ranks 900-999 / Grand Master

Within the above ranges:

• + 20-39 = Distinguished
• + 40-59 = Venerated
• + 60-79 = Exalted
• + 80-99 = Transcendent

Ranks 1000-1249 / Guru

Ranks 1250+ / Legend

Bonus experience pools

During experience 3.0, when skills were combined, the "lost" experience bits were moved into the bonus pools, one for each skillset. When experience is absorbed through the normal method, an equal amount is removed from the appropriate bonus pool and added to permanent experience. This effectively doubles learning rates in the skillset so long as experience remains in the bonus pools.

The metric used is an arbitrary unit, a multiple of the amount of bits that it takes to move a skill from 0 to 200 (60,300 bits) plus the number of ranks any remaining bits would teach. As an example:

Your Lore pool could fill 14 empty skills to 200 ranks and one empty skill to 57 ranks.

Syntax

To view how much experience is left use EXPERIENCE BONUS. When there is no longer any experience left, you will receive the message "You do not have any experience in your bonus pools."

To toggle absorption, use EXPERIENCE BONUS TOGGLE <skillset>.

Related Forum Posts

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Additional Information

• Demystifying the Experience System: Isharon's explanation of the experience system (a good link to share with new players)
• Experience (obsolete) has information on the obsolete experience system prior to the 3.0 release.
• Category:Skills has a listing of all skills in game.
• Skillsets for how skills are grouped in game.
• Time Development Points are calculated based on earned ranks in a skill.