Change: Make Lotus Earn XP When Hacking Vehicles

[commy2]

Reference:

• China Black Lotus does not get XP for attacking vehicles #416

This change rewards China Black Lotus Vehicle Hack with 5 XP per hack.

A Building Hack gives 20 XP as per original.

The rewarded XP gives General XP, just like building captures and unit kills do.

In theory it can be abused to grind XP when an enemy unit has been trapped. Find below hack XP time estimations based on the proposed XP value of 5. A vehicle hack takes around 5 seconds to complete.

Black Lotus vehicle hack XP times

Veterancy	ExperienceRequired	req. Vehicle Hack count	req. Vehicle Hack time
1	100	20	100 seconds (01:40)
2	200	40	200 seconds (03:20)
3	400	80	400 seconds (06:40)

General Rank	SkillPointsNeeded	req. Vehicle Hack count	req. Vehicle Hack time
2	800	160	0800 seconds (13:20)
3	1500	300	1500 seconds (25:00)
4	2500	500	2500 seconds (41:40)
5	5000	1000	5000 seconds (83:20)

Farming XP with Black Lotus is unpractical. Even just reaching Rank 2 would take over 13 minutes of non stop Lotus hacking. It is simply not worth the time. We can conclude, that a Vehicle Hack XP reward around 5 is low and safe to use.

lotus_vehicle_hack.mp4

Super Hacker

For Super Hacker the XP farming becomes a different story. Since a player can build unlimited amounts of Hackers and all of them can attack the same target vehicle at the same time over and over again, the rewards multiply depending on the number of Hackers. Therefore it is not safe to grant XP rewards on Super Hacker Vehicle Hack and Building Hack.

hacker_vehicle_hack.mp4

[commy2]

I couldn't figure out a way to make Jarmen Kell Snipe Pilot grant XP, sadly.

[xezon]

I certainly would like to see China Lotus have a chance to Vet up, but given the fact this XP is added to the General Promotion Rank, this might be too much.

[commy2]

the fact

I think Jundiyy said so, but someone should make sure it applies to this ability as well.

[MTKing4]

Ok, can test, but need to know how many vehicle hacks needed to get to vet 1? That's the only way to know if she's benefitting from it or not, global xp should be observed easily with the the bottom right xp bar

[commy2]

@MTKing4
8, 23 and 45 hacks to vet up

[MTKing4]

here it is
Lotus XP Farm

[commy2]

Makes sense where you landed at. Lotus needs 900 XP to reach vet 3. Player Rank 2 is 800 XP, and Rank 2 to Rank 3 is 700 XP.

[xezon]

I am ok with this change, but the XP Reward needs to be much lower.
5 XP per Vehicle could be acceptable I think.
Lotus [XP steps: 0 100 200 400] would then need

• 20 Vehicle hacks for Level 1
• 40 Vehicle hacks for Level 2
• 80 Vehicle hacks for Level 3

Lotus gives 20 XP per Building Capture

• 5 Building captures for Level 1
• 10 Building captures for Level 2
• 20 Building captures for Level 3

Lotus could trap vehicle in home base after GLA Sneak Attack for example and then farm XP off of remaining vehicles. However, I doubt this is practical, as it requires attention that will be taken away as soon as the opponent player(s) launches new attacks.

[xezon]

Changed XP reward from 20 to 5.

[commy2]

I actually don't like it. EMP-Patriots, Hackers etc. don't get EXP for shutting down stuff either.

[xezon]

Good point about Hackers. Could add the same there. As for EMP Patriots, they don't need veterancy, so that is ok.

[xezon]

I tested this change and made some relevant calculations. All relevant information has been added to the opening post. From my side this change is ok and safe to go.

[commy2]

Could this be abused? Example, chain disabling an enemy unit that got inside the base, but is now kept for xp farming?

[xezon]

I am confused by this question. Did you look over the tables above?

[commy2]

Don't underestimate my determination.

[xezon]

Ok I am still confused. I tested XP farm times as outlined above and concluded that it is not worth exploiting, because the reward is so small. Do you have a different perspective on this?

[commy2]

No.
Edit: count this as approve. Can't approve your own PR's apparently:
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