"I think the biggest question here is should all guilds be earning xp at the same rates. This question isn't addressed in the slightest in any of the news posts or replies I've seen, and it seems to be the elephant in the room. If the answer is yes, the way CMS gives out xp should be tweaked to account for that rather than individual guilds being given new skills/spells/gadgets simply to up their earning potential."
I agree. And yes, all guilds should have the same XP earning potential. Since level is the essential factor in resisting spells, not having it that way is quite unbalancing.
Is this the general consensus? It doesn't appear to be true at all in terms of combat, as that is related mostly to whether or not you have haste, so I imagine we'd be looking at specialized and magic levels. In terms of each of these the formula for xp gain would have to be based on the relative number of sources for xp gain in the guild in question of that type earned as well as the level of the player instead of the level of the spell/skill in question.
That would level the playing field, so to speak, but would also punish players who are simply better at maximizing their potential. I am no fan of equalized xp gain: note that what I stated above isn't designed equalize the rate at which one gains xp but the earning potential per unit time. To clarify, in equalizing the rate of gain, each person would gain the same amount of xp for doing any action at all whereas in equalizing earning potential the person with more available actions is gaining less for each completed action and the person with fewer available actions is gaining more for each completed action. This might be splitting hairs, but it seems to be a distinction that will have to be drawn if it is determined that every guild should be capable of earning the same amount rather than every guild actually earning the same amounts.
What this would mean is that pure magic guilds would have to expend more energy (in terms of typing) to earn the same amount of magic experience as semi-casters. This seems completely wrong to me, so how might something like an equalized earning even begin to be approached?
