posted 01-10-06 01:45 PM EDT (US)
So you want more XP too? Getting a few more levels for that home city and pulling in shipments faster would be a great thing. So, it’s time to figure out how xp generation works.
Off into single player skirmish I go, garrisoning my villagers before they can gather crates and pull my explorer back to my town center as to not explore the map and check how much xp is needed for the first shipment. Its 300, but wait, what’s this? The number needed is going down, the green bar is moving, and I’m not doing anything! Turns out xp is passively generated at a rate of 2xp per second. After a few more tests I think I’ve figured everything out. It’s remarkably simple.
You get xp for;
Remember that the amount of xp needed for the next shipment is always larger than that for the previous one. Roughly speaking its somewhere in the range of 15% more. Spain has a requirement about 73% of other civilizations (220 vs 300 for first shipment). That settled, it seems time to investigate trading posts. First problem is that they give different amounts of xp on different maps; this seems to be based on the length of the trade route. In fact it is, as best as my testing can show. The trade post system is set up so that the xp generation rate for trading posts on any map is the same at a stately 1.2 xp per second. With the lvl 2 (stage coach) trade route upgrade this goes to 1.7 xp per second. Note that if you set this to gold it’s the same as having 3 settlers on a plantation with one upgrade (.55 coin per second). And finally at lvl 3 (train) the rate is roughly 2.15 xp per second. Interesting note; 250 wood gathered with one upgrade (.55 w/s) takes 455 vs to gather. A lvl 2 trade post can gather 255 wood in 147 seconds. Or in the same time it takes 3 villagers. On maps like great lakes there is a long time between each pass of the trade unit. Without gather sites we’ve gotten used to nice smother gathering returns while trade can be very staggered. Getting the trading post up just before the trade unit passes is a whole lot nicer than right afterwards. I didn't do truly extensive testing on all the maps/upgrades but this is as much info on the subject as I really need to compare my options.
You do not get xp for;
As the xp trickle is the main source of xp early in the game it’s quite hard to get shipments faster. For example, a house at 20 xp will send a shipment 10 seconds faster. Maybe I’ll start building my seconds house right after the first when I have 200 wood. That 3 villager shipment 10 seconds faster can gather me about 15 more wood, still rather insignificant. The lesson to take away is that you get xp for spending what you have or breaking what others have. You can see how much xp is generated for creation/kill by hovering over the small unit icon in game or for anything in the proto file.
