The discussion regarding our exp tuning system gets brought up every few
years. Perhaps it is time to re-iterate why our exptuner works as it does.

The exptuner of BatMUD consists of two main components: Global Exp Tuner, and
Personal Exp Tuner. I will now loosely elaborate on how these two intervowen
systems work, and why we have settled upon the combination of these systems.

Global Exp Tuner:
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Whenever a monster is killed, the time of the monster's death is logged into
our databases. The experience value of a monster is dependent on how often it
has died in a certain time period. The reason for this system, is that we
wish to encourage, and reward players for exploring new realms, and to master
more difficult and rare areas so that they can reap the benefits of using
their mastery of the area by acquiring considerably higher exp ratios from the
monsters they kill in these areas.

Our game also supports many different combinations of classes and parties,
which excel in different settings and areas. Having a global exp tuner in
place, makes it so that a single party type might not be optimal for exp
making all around, as when the 'meta' of the game settles upon something, the
global exp tuner reacts and provides a lucracive avenue for other party types
to excel in areas that are now in very high tune. This rewards players who
are able to adapt to the ebb and flow of the game.

An added benefit of this system, is that it reduces the player load of
popular, easier areas.

Personal Exp Tuner:
-------------------
Whenever a monster is killed, the time of the monster's death is logged into
our databases, and the killers of the monster are also logged. The experience
value of a monster is dependant upon how often you have killed the monster in
a certain time period. The reason for this system is that we wish to dissuade
players from only learning few, easy areas, and spend all their 'exp making
career' grinding the same areas.

If it would be optimal for a player to grind only a few areas, it would lead
to a very boring experience and the player would lose a lot of the realms that
the game has to offer, as it would not be necessary to learn new things.


Conclusions:
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As you can notice, there is considerable overlap between the systems, which
leads to the question why are both of the systems necessary, and not only one
of them.

The usual argument -- for having only personal exp tuner -- is that why should
how others play the game have an effect on your own tunes? And in a
single-player game, it would be a valid one. However, in a multiplayer game,
we wish the realm to be dynamic, while at the same time offering you a chance
to play it as you wish. We do not wish to reduce the gameplay-experience of
our game to the grind of just few areas that you are familiar with, however,
we still wish to keep the option available for you if you insist. If you,
personally, have not killed certain monsters, the exp value of them will be
higher for you than they would be to others who have. This makes it fair, so
you are not totally on the whim on the habits of others.

A rarer argument -- for having only global exp tuner -- is that why can't I
play the game as I wish, what does it matter if I wish to grind away in a
familiar area? Well, you can, and many have. However, we do not wish to
reduce our gameplay to the grinding of the same area over and over again, so
we have made incentives for you to explore and master other areas in the game,
in the preconceived notion that it will ultimately make the gameplay
experience better in the long run.

During our 30 or so years of development, we have exhaustively experimented
with possibilities, ranging from no tunes at all, to only personal tune and
only global exp tuner. In time, we have arrived into the form which takes the
best of all systems -- we encourage people to explore, and by master of the
realm and knowledge of the ebb and flow of the metagame, make best possible
choices for their parties, while at the same time making it possible for the
casual player to have a slight edge when it comes to playing in the commonly
lucrative realms.

And, as with all other avenues in the game, even the exp tune mechanic is
under periodic tweaking and tuning, however the above should provide some
clarity on why and how we have settled upon the current system.

-j