Unit Experience/Promotions...

[LordGek]

Hey Betas and Owners,

Here's my question of the day.

Is experience gained from battles some flat rate, equal for each unit defeated OR is it scaled in some way to signify a spearman taking out a tank would mean a near instant promotion whereas a spearman just taking out a warrior or lion is worth much less?

[asleepathewheel]

scaled. you get more xp for an underdog victory. I've seen 3xp in one battle, not sure if i've seen more gained.

and the promotion levels are 2, 5, 10, 17 so the first promotions come fairly quickly, especially with civic modifiers.

[Bogdanovist]

I noticed in Sulla's walkthrough http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...hreadid=140494 that a warrir unit that successfully defended and attack from some lions (!?) didn't seem to gain any XP, so it seems you don't always get XP from a battle. I don't have a copy of my own yet (sigh) so I'm not certain.

[asleepathewheel]

you get xp from every battle. however...

animals only give up xp up to 5. so if you have a barracks, animals will only give you a 1 xp boost.

[Bogdanovist]

Ah so barracks give to starting xp of 4 then? Does this mean units made in a barracks city all come out glowing blue indicating they can be promoted (since the first promotion kicks in at 2xp)? If so can you automate it so that you automatically give a certain promotion to new units in a certain city?

Man so many questions, I wish I had my own copy.. damn Australian release date isn't till next month....

[asleepathewheel]

yes, you start out with the first promotion and are 1 xp away from the second. I'm not sure if you can automate the promotion or not, at one point there was that option but I never tried it, so I'm not sure what it does/did.

What's really nice is when you get either theocracy or feudalism civic and can then pump out 6xp units, giving them their first 2 promotions. much more effective units that way.

[alva]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
you get xp from every battle. however...

animals only give up xp up to 5. so if you have a barracks, animals will only give you a 1 xp boost.

Note that with barbs, XP points only go up to 10, so no milking them for uber experienced units.

[UnOrthOdOx]

So 1 Q on the "aggressive" trait then. Where is says 'one free promotion'.

Is that mean your unit starts at 2 xp then, or it gets an extra promotion at 0 xp?

(Yeah, yeah, I'll know the answer in a few hours most likely anyway...)

[DeepO]

Originally posted by alva


Note that with barbs, XP points only go up to 10, so no milking them for uber experienced units.

Hi, alva, also climbing out of the closet?

As to XP: if you upgrade a unit, it will lose all XP above 10. It won't lose promotions, but if it was at e.g. 18/26 it has normally 4 promotions. Upgrade that unit, and he will have 10/26, meaning he needs an extra 16 XP to get the fith promotion.

Always a nice choice: do I upgrade my elite warriors, or do I let them fight 2 more battles to reach the 5th promotion?

Something else regarding promotions that I absolutely love is that even if you upgrade to a unit which can't get a certain promotion, if it already had it from a previous unit it will keep it. For instance, all horse units can get to medic (after Combat 1, IIRC), which upgrade to cavalry. Upgrade a cavalry medic to a gunship, and you get a medic gunship. Normally, though, gunships can't get the medic promotion...

DeepO

[sophist]

Originally posted by DeepO

Something else regarding promotions that I absolutely love is that even if you upgrade to a unit which can't get a certain promotion, if it already had it from a previous unit it will keep it. For instance, all horse units can get to medic (after Combat 1, IIRC), which upgrade to cavalry. Upgrade a cavalry medic to a gunship, and you get a medic gunship. Normally, though, gunships can't get the medic promotion...

That sounds like an exploit, or, at the least, a design bug.

[DeepO]

Originally posted by sophist


That sounds like an exploit, or, at the least, a design bug.

Believe me, it's very deliberate. It's one of those little mini-games you stumble across...

DeepO

[alva]

Is that mean your unit starts at 2 xp then, or it gets an extra promotion at 0 xp?

The latter IIRC. (quite certain).

Hi, alva, also climbing out of the closet?

As to XP: if you upgrade a unit, it will lose all XP above 10.

hehe, I thought about telling about this but decided against it. Don't give away eveything right away.

[DeepO]

Originally posted by alva

hehe, I thought about telling about this but decided against it. Don't give away eveything right away.

Nah, I'm still fearful of the NDA. But this has already been mentioned multiple times in media previews, and also by Solver IIRC. It's just that people have not picked up on it yet... I thought to mention it in the right place again

DeepO

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by alva


Note that with barbs, XP points only go up to 10, so no milking them for uber experienced units.

c'mon alva, I was leaving something out for the noobs