Vanilla-Era XP on Nighthaven

[Fulzamoth 5]

Our January 14, 2018 Development Update went relatively unnoticed at the time it was released but contained a major change that made Nighthaven unique in the vanilla server community. This update reduced the quest experience rewards on all quests over level 31 to the amounts given during the original Vanilla World of Warcraft days.

The change was the result of extensive work by Navak and Egregious, two of the Elysium Project QA staff. They are researching the experience point system in Vanilla WoW, and discovered that experience awards listed on online databases for level 31—60 quests was higher than what archived information from 2004–2006 showed. Testing in game showed quests were granting these higher amounts of XP. They looked at hundreds of quests to ensure the problem was system and then opened bug report #276. A week later Elysium updated the XP awards, and Nighthaven became the first server running with true vanilla-era XP.

This work is an example of the ongoing attention to detail that is required to make a Blizz-like server. The source of the error is likely The Burning Crusade Patch 2.3 (released 2007-11-13), which contained a couple of changes to the experience point system:

The amount of experience needed to gain a level has been decreased between levels 11 and 60. In addition, the amount of experience granted by quests has been increased between levels 30 and 60.

No single source of data online is completely accurate, so researchers like Navak and Egregious must comb through old forum posts and other places to find corroborating evidence. As an example of how muddy the waters are, for The Active Agent (quest 5213):

• Thottbot reports 6850 XP pre-2.3 and 14300 XP post-2.3.
• WoWWiki agrees with the post-2.3 award of 14300 XP.
• Allakhazam says 6500 pre-2.3 and 14500 post-2.3.
• ClassicDB says 1450, and appears to list 1/10 the post-2.3 experience for all quests.
• Servers were awarding 14500.

Examples of other quests affected:

Quest 629 — The Vile Reef (Level 37)

• Pre-2.3 — 2850 XP
• Post-2.3 — 3700 XP, a ~30% increase

Quest 1136 — Frostmaw (Level 37)

• Pre-2.3 — 4250 XP
• Post-2.3 — 5550 XP, a ~30% increase

Quest 2903 — The Battle Plans (Level 43)

• Pre-2.3 — 3600 XP
• Post-2.3 — 5050 XP, a ~40% increase

Quest 1691 — More Wastewander Justice (Level 44)

• Pre-2.3: — 3750 XP
• Post-2.3 — 5300 XP, a ~40% increase

Quest 6041 — When Smokey Sings, I Get Violent (Level 58)

• Pre-2.3 — 6200 XP
• Post-2.3 — 9000 XP, a ~45% increase

We expect other servers in the Blizz-like Vanilla community will be adjusting their quest XP rewards on existing or future fresh realms. While the projects do compete, we also all seek to give players the most accurate Vanilla WoW experience possible. Well researched and documented bug reports, whether from staff or players, are one common source of information that the entire community benefits from. Thanks to Navak and Egregious, players can now look forward to a slower, but more true-to-vanilla, journey to level 60.

 

[Mario Aguilar 0]

Goddamn cursed grind. Thanks?

[Shenna 1135]

[Corrupted 15]

[Egregious 1]

You want Blizzlike? We give you Blizzlike!

[StainedWolf 0]

I think it's nice. Would love to see it for the whole range of levels. I'm new on the server (lvl 14) and already see that I will have to skip some quests in the barrens because doing RFC with its 5 quests will throw me way beyond the needed level for the barrens quests.

[Mario Aguilar 0]

What would tbc be like without restructured XP ranges?

[Egregious 1]

1 hour ago, Mario Aguilar said:

What would tbc be like without restructured XP ranges?

The 2.3 XP change only hit Vanilla era zones and quests. Additionally, several quests were added to zones such as Dustwallow Marsh and Tanaris to increase the leveling efficiency and viability of those zones. TBC leveling, insofar as leveling from 60 to 70, remained unchanged and should hold to how it was leveling upon the release of the expansion.