Leveling up is extremely tedious - Reduce XP requirements

[Kix]

I've put over 400 hours into my solo save by now, and I've only just maxed out most skills that I regularly interact with... and even then I still need more for some of them. In my opinion, leveling up in a game like this should not require dedicated (and usually extremely tedious) farming - things like throwing a net at a wall for hours, or spamming eggs on a dozen stoves.
I'd say a rough and extremely optimistic estimate for the most time the average player would get out of this game is around 50 hours, and that still feels like a lot. If a player is regularly interacting with a skill, they should be able to max it out in at the very most double that time. Not eight times that. I think the experience system needs a serious rebalancing to make leveling up way less tedious and slow, and so players don't feel the need to waste hours doing menial xp farming.

On a similar note, the pacing for perks also feels very off. Crafting bench tiers go from 2 > 5 > 15, order weapons are unlocked way too late for how underpowered they are, and a lot of other late game skills feel out of place. Construction 15, for how long it takes to get, provides a benefit that is largely useless to most players by that point as they'll likely have already made a huge amount of barricades. Reducing XP requirements would certainly help, but I think a lot of these could use revisiting and reordering as well.

[Palo Wagner]

They do need to rework the whole level system

[CombatWombat]

I don't think you are meant to level up every skill. In solo or group play you pick some that fit your style and go with it. Most of them level pretty good during normal gameplay.

There are a few outliers like "throwing" and some exp gains are currently bugged (grinder gives sharp exp for example)

And there are ways to increase your exp gain. Did you use them? For example there is the perk you can choose at the beginning that gives you 20% more exp on everything + a trinket that gives you exp and various other ways to increase your exp gain.

Be aware that the game is not finished yet and they likely built something in place that "works" with the current content.

[Kix]

Yes, I frequently use the experience bonuses from soups and hats and stuff. The issue isn't being able to max out every skill regardless of frequency - its the fact even skills I am constantly engaging with take forever to level up. I frequently build huge mega bases, and wear the hard hat + kylie and drink the balanced soup while doing so... yet I only maxed out construction this week. There is a huge difference between a player not leveling up a skill cause they don't use it, and a player not leveling up a skill that they are constantly engaged with. My complaint is with the latter, which the game seriously struggles with.

Also, this was an issue pre crush depth as well, which is when I spent the majority of my time playing. The experience bugs certainly don't help but most were introduced this update.

[Monokuma]

I think the main problem is that some skills gain less experience than they should in the actions that are most frequently used by players.

Soups give horrible XP, building things gives poor construction xp, etc.

Then you get into the situations where a skill stops getting xp at all due to the specific tool being used, like healing briefcases or energy-based guns. While some situations like the energy guns I understand why the xp wouldn't be applied, skills need more sources of xp gain than are presently available.

[ULTRA]

Some of these skills are in a quite ridiculous place (throwing, fortitude, first aid) but I think I've maxed out more than half of them in about 100 hours of my save and it's definitely not gonna take 300 more to finish that off. Like Monokuma said the rewards just need to be adjusted really (and the actual value of the perks you get is another can of worms).

[CombatWombat]

Originally posted by Kix:

Yes, I frequently use the experience bonuses from soups and hats and stuff. The issue isn't being able to max out every skill regardless of frequency - its the fact even skills I am constantly engaging with take forever to level up. I frequently build huge mega bases, and wear the hard hat + kylie and drink the balanced soup while doing so... yet I only maxed out construction this week. There is a huge difference between a player not leveling up a skill cause they don't use it, and a player not leveling up a skill that they are constantly engaged with. My complaint is with the latter, which the game seriously struggles with.

Also, this was an issue pre crush depth as well, which is when I spent the majority of my time playing. The experience bugs certainly don't help but most were introduced this update.

I see, yes some skills need some rebalancing. I'll use the 20% perk and that should be the new normal imo. Skills I haven't maxed while using them on my normal character are

Throwing, just ridiculous
Accuracy and Reload only needed the last level
Fortitude (never payed attention to this but it should autolevel)
Crafting is almost done
Construction is lagging behind by 6 levels
First aid is 7 levels behind (this probably levels faster in a group)

Fishing was the fastest of all
While sprinting and strength pretty much maxed when I finished the story
cooking and agriculture a bit earlier.

[mr steal ur spell]

+1 the rpg aspect of the game is garbage and demands a rework.

[MechWarden]

Not going to lie, that's why the game is in EA. I would have been shocked if the devs were able to get the xp gains remotely correct across the board on the first go.

I do hope they are collecting data on how much XP we are getting and at what level skills are at specific parts of the game. I could give my story of XP gain but I think it would be more useful if they had some real numbers and statistics they could work with, not anecdotal stories from a few forum goers (as smart and wise as we are )

Next time I fire up the game, I'll see what my levels are at. What I can recall off hand, Hobbyist Chef trait (giving 2x XP) synced up the cooking skill really well with the story progression in my solo run; unlocking the Oven roughly at the time where I was getting access to the last item I needed, which was Carapace.

[Cipher Stormwolf]

The whole class thing is worthless, just do summer intern its the best bang for your buck. The free points from the other classes are easy enough to get and as OP said to max out things you literal hundreds of hours anyway so yeah.

[RaNdOmKiLs666]

Yeah the Project Zomboid type class system doesn't really fit since your character is permanent, not to mention a blank slate is always going to be the best unless the specialists have more unique stuff only they can get.

I guess they can always tweak the system to work a bit better and be better balanced.

[Noodles The Spoopy One]

Despite using only ranged/gun since i unlocked the crossbow i have yet to get the biomimic armwraps

[CombatWombat]

Originally posted by Noodles The Spoopy One:

Despite using only ranged/gun since i unlocked the crossbow i have yet to get the biomimic armwraps

Accuracy exp gain is currently all over the place:

Gives acc exp:

Crossbow
Pipe-pistol
Scrapshot
Security Pistol
Antique shotgun
Mag Bow


Gives no exp:
Electro Thrower
Energy Pistol
Laser Katana
Deatomizer

Gives sharp meele exp:
Grinder

[Fujisawa1]

Playing single player, taking my time, I have 2x exp to make up for no team mates. I am finding that I'm leveling up just about right for the pacing of the game. Consider most players, especially co-op, would want to play through faster then me... I'd say doubling xp would be about right. Maybe not for everything... I find strength, melee, and sharp level very fast.