Favourite/Least Favourite ways a game distributes Experience Points?

THIS.

edited 6th May '11 7:04:53 AM by Neo_Crimson

Yeah. Divides EXP by six/whatever your team size is, and given that it didn't have Black and White's perfected EXP system...

I like Bioware's style where the other party member's level is tied directly to the PC's. No matter what happens, no matter when they show up, they are exactly the same level as the PC. Everyone levels up together and you are free to take the party members that are most beneficial and they're never a drag on the party because of their level.

Kinda EX Pish is the Perk system in The Saboteur, where you gain benefits by doing challenges.
I liked this as it feels right in the game, as it'd be out of place gaining exp for blowing up loud speakers and other stuff.

There's something similar to that in Okami, where you earn praise by helping people instead of through battles, and Praise can be used to get more health and some other boosts.

edited 6th May '11 12:04:08 PM by Beorc

I like how Knights Of The Old Republic 2 gives a reason for why it distributes Experience Points. You're drawing strength from the hundreds of people you kill!

So, so awesome. Points for Chris Avellone.

While that sounds good in theory, in practice, this makes it hard for scenarios such as "a hardened veteran hero far stronger than you joining your team", or the complete opposite, "your party accepts a 10 year old novice who decides to tag along to cast Heal or something"

In both cases, it would be detrimental for them to be the same level as your characters.

True, but that just means not all stories should be applied with the standard Bioware XP model. And really, in practice, having notably stronger or notably weaker characters in the party needs to be handled with extra care, anyway.

Well in those cases, the notably stronger/weaker characters only join you for a brief time, especially the stronger character. The notably weaker 10 year old will more often than not be a backrow support character hence much easier to handle.

You could still maybe do it if you made the character have stronger or weaker stats/skill/etc at around the level they're expected to join, and then have them grow to more "average" at later levels. Then it's only problem if you level grind a lot before they join (of course, the same could be said for character who joins at a higher lever (than expected) anyway).

Of course, that would take a bit more work than just sticking them at a higher or lower level.

edited 6th May '11 7:06:32 PM by KuroBaraHime

Oh, I'm not saying its *impossible*. I'm saying, in retrospect, that the complications associated with the Bioware model are not as big a deal, specifically because those types of characters have complications in execution, anyway.