We’ve had a lot of questions about how XP works in ETQW. What sort of actions earns you XP? What do you get rewarded with, and when? Does XP reward players or the whole team? We wanted to design a system that recognized and rewarded every kind of constructive team play. However you want to play ETQW, whichever class, whatever you do - as long as it helps your team, you’ll get XP for it. Rather than just tell you how we think we did, we asked Ifurita, author of the mind-bogglingly good ETQW4Newbies to look at ETQW’s XP system and report back on what he found. Here’s what he had to say...

My name is Michael 'Ifurita' Kan and I’ve been playing on-line first person shooters since Quake II. I wrote the 4 Newbies sites for, Quake III, Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RTCW), and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (W:ET), which all initially started out as a list of FAQ questions that I kept answering over and over, like, 'Are all the Beta keys really gone?' I’ve now started writing the latest installment, ETQW 4 Newbies, and will keep updating it as the game is updated. In addition to years playing on public servers, I’ve played competitively (Wolfjaeger) and done extensive mapping for W:ET.

Experience System and Rewards

ETQW rewards players for effective team play through a non-persistent experience system (XP) which provides incremental bonuses and weapon unlocks during the course of the mission or campaign. You obtain points based on performing in your class’ role(s) and generally engaging in combat. Splash Damage’s goal was to enable a reasonably skilled player, focusing on one class, to reach Level 4 in that class by the start of the 3rd map. In my opinion, this provides a nice balance of allowing progression over a campaign without having a bunch of super-buffed players running amok.

XP and XP rewards are semi-persistent, which means that they last throughout the course of a single campaign, then reset at the end of the campaign. This levelsets the playing field at the beginning of each new campaign so that new players start out with the same capabilities as people who have been playing for hours. Naturally, better players will tend to accumulate XP and XP rewards at a faster pace.

There is a lot of information here, so you might have to take it slow and just digest a little bit of it at time.

How Do I Earn Experience?

What actions earn XP? XP awards are based on activities that help the team, not just doing stuff

As an example, if you’re playing GDF Medic, you don’t just get XP for throwing down a Med Pack. You only earn XP if that Med Pack is used by a friendly player. That way you can’t farm XP by just strolling to a quiet corner of a map and simply throwing Med Packs on the ground like candy – that would only benefit you, not your team, so you don’t get rewarded to it.

Let’s look at a more detailed example of the XP system in operation. Let’s say you’re a GDF Covert Ops playing on Sewer. You spawn as a GDF Covert Ops and deploy radar to help your teammates detect Strogg defenders. You then join a Fire Team, which executes a group attack on the Hill-Top Spawn Point and captures it. From there, your Fire Team then attacks the EMP Generator. Still as a Covert Ops, you sneak in over the wall undetected and successfully hack an APT defending the build box and throw an EMP Grenade, successfully disabling the second APT for 30 seconds, which allows the two GDF Engineers to rush in a build the EMP Generator before the Strogg defenders can recover.

At the EMP Generator, you use the GDF Covert Ops’ ability to steal an enemy uniform and then infiltrate the Spillway Spawn Point via the run off channel. You find two Strogg defenders, quickly backstab both of them while disguised, and then capture the Spillway Spawn Point. Now, your Fire Team presses the attack on the South Grate. While the Fire Team's GDF Soldiers and GDF Medics push up to the Grate, you take up an overwatch position in the doorway, from where you successfully snipe several Strogg reinforcements coming to defuse the H.E. Charge. The H.E. Charge explodes and the team rushes into the Inner Sewer area. You reach the Sewer Controls and plant a Third Eye Camera to warn of approaching Strogg defenders and begin to Hack the Sewer Controls. Before you can get anywhere with your hacking, you spot a clump of Strogg defenders on your command map, thanks to the short-range radar coverage your Third Eye Camera is giving you, so you rush to the door to fight them. Unfortunately, you’re killed (but not gibbed) by a Strogg Constructor who then rushes to the controls to begin planting defensive GravMines. Luckily, one of your Fire Team's GDF Medics survives this counter-attack and rushes over to you. You snap back to life and detonate your Third Eye Camera, killing the defending Strogg Constructor, clearing out the GravMines, and then rush back to finish hacking the controls, thus winning the game for the GDF.

So, which of your actions earned you XP? Just about all of them ... well, except for getting killed and revived, and that helped you towards your BattleSense XP. If you just went off in a corner, planted a Third Eye Camera and detonated it, that wouldn’t help your team, so you don’t get any XP for doing only that. You get rewarded when you use your weapons and tools and abilities to help your team.

Also, you earn bonus XP for completing any mission in your Mission HUD, even missions you create for yourself via the Context Menu, like spotting an enemy turret, accepting the generated Task, and then destroying it.

Just remember, that while XP is a nice yardstick, completing Objectives is what wins games.

How about Stat Padders?

So I don’t get XP for tossing Med Packs down for myself. What if I sneak off with a GDF Field Ops team mate, shoot him, then heal him repeatedly?

As a quick rule of thumb, XP is earned only for damage to enemy players or repairing damage done by the enemy. Ploys like damaging your own team mates or vehicles, then repairing the damage won’t work like you could in W:ET

In fact, the game tracks how much damage is caused by friendly vs. enemy fire, and when you repair a vehicle or heal a player, friendly damage is addressed first, then enemy damage. This can also result in a frustrating situation where you are a medic running around like crazy healing and reviving people, but getting almost no XP because all of the damage you are repairing is the result of friendly fire. In those cases, you might want to look for another server where the players shoot more discriminately.

The same concept applies to vehicles. You cannot damage friendly vehicles then repair them for the XP. But you do get XP for repairing friendly vehicles that have been damaged by the enemy, even if there’s no teammate inside them.

OK … I get it … except for BattleSense

Battlesense reflects general combat experience and “time in battle”. It’s hard to accurately measure a player’s overall, general contribution, but the BattleSense system does a fair job of spotting when you’re doing useful sorts of things.

In ETQW there are 5 ways of getting BattleSense XP. They're sort of in ascending order of difficulty:

Category	Earned by (within a 45 second period)	Which earns you
Category 1	Taking damage only	0.25 points
Category 2	Dealing damage only	0.5 points
Category 3	Killing something but not taking damage	1 point
Category 4	Taking AND dealing damage	1.25 points
Category 5	Killing something AND taking damage	2.0 points

Every 45 seconds, the game checks your status to see whether you are alive and what you’ve been doing. If you're not alive, then you don't get any BattleSense points. If you are alive and active, the game awards BattleSense points based on the table above. When you have enough points, you get a BattleSense XP reward. If you're dead, your points carry over to the next 45 second check, so the points hang around until you're given some BattleSense XP.

The Level 1 BattleSense XP reward is conceptually easy … just take damage …, but in practice is very difficult to get, because it's earned in categories 1 and 2. In practice you tend not to find yourself in too many situations where you only take damage without inflicting any in return. It's unusual for players to just let themselves be shot at, or to shoot back and not kill anything, and also you don't get much XP for either activity.

However, you can imagine that a well-supported Covert Ops/Infiltrator or Engineer/Constructor who is focused on the mission objective and supported by a Medic/Technician for health, could fall into this category. Medics and Technicians, who are focused on reviving team mates and dispensing Med Packs/Stroyent Cells, could also fall into this category.

The Level 2 BattleSense XP reward is earned from points earned in categories 3 and 4.

The Level 3 BattleSense XP reward is earned from points earned in category 5 only.

But wait, there’s more: players can also get BattleSense from capturing/liberating Forward Spawns, by returning Objectives, and even get a little if they wait for a Medic/Technician revive past a spawn wave. Capturing/recapturing Forward Spawns is a major part of ETQW’s gameplay: it really assists your team, and can generate some very handy XP for you. You are similarly rewarded if you’re aggressively killing Objective runners and returning Objectives.

Is it true that Fire Teams share in the XP Goodness?

Are people awarded XP if they are in Fire Team and a team member completes an objective? Yes, but it depends. Some missions, such as constructing Guard Towers, get a Progress bonus, which is spread out through the members of the Fire Team as it's being done. Other missions, such as the Aggressor destroying a Guard Tower, get a Completion bonus, only when it's complete, which is then spread out through the members of the Fire Team.

XP Levels and Rewards

OK, so now I understand how I earn XP … what do I actually earn at each XP level? Click here for a description of what each XP reward does.

Where can I see my awards?

Open the Limbo menu (L) and you will see two tabs listed under the class count. The right-most tab is called Player Stats. Click on this and you will see your XP stats for the current campaign or map (see image to the right). The stats tab is divided into four areas. The top left box corresponds to whatever class you're currently playing. Going clockwise, you will see the XP summaries for BattleSense, Vehicles, and Small Arms. The bar shows your XP progress towards the next level and the icons show you what awards you've earned.

What’s the Difference between XP, Persistent Awards and Stats?

I keep hearing about XP, Persistent Awards, Award Tasks, Ranks, and Global Stats. What are these and how are they related or different? XP and more importantly, the XP-earning activities, are linked to your completion of Award Tasks, Awards, and Ranks, all of which feed into your Global Stats. Keep in mind that while progress against Tasks, Awards, and Ranks are persistent over your career, XP and XP rewards reset at the conclusion of every Campaign.

XP

This is everything we just talked about above.

Persistent Awards, Award Tasks, and Ranks

Each Award (e.g., Engineer Shield) is earned when all of the associated Award Tasks (hereafter referred to as Tasks because my fingers are beginning to hurt) are completed (e.g., Earn 600 Engineer XP and Construct 2 Objectives). You’ll notice that some of these Tasks are based on XP accumulation, some are not. For a list of Awards and associated Tasks, click here.

For every Task you complete, you will be promoted a rank. Math junkies may quickly realize that while there are 54 Tasks, there are only 37 possible promotions. What!!?? Simply put, you don’t have to complete all Tasks in order to attain the coveted rank of Supreme Commander, but you will have to excel at 3-4 classes.

This was structured deliberately to avoid instances where your next rank is contingent or game-detracting activities like 2000 XP with Knife or Spikes – can’t imagine that would be fun for very many people.

To see your awards and stats, you can look in two spots. In the main loading screen, you'll see a menu item named Persistent Stats. When you're in-game, you can also drop the Limbo Menu (L) and click on the tab named, surprisingly enough, Persistent Stats. Once there, you should see something like the graphic below (hopefully you'll have more XP than me). It's divided into two sections. The top section shows persistent awards and your rank, what you need to achieve to earn the award, and your progress (the green progress bar). If you keep scrolling down, you'll see the rest of the awards. The section below shows your ranks achieved overview and then detailed stats by Class, Weapon, Tools, Vehicles, and Deployables.

Global Stats

Global Stats are a completely different animal. Ever wonder who has the most total XP or what your career accuracy looks like? The Official Stats Site has all of this and more.

In addition to providing deep player information such as career Win:Loss and Kill:Death ratios, accuracy, and total Primary Objectives completed, the site also allows you to search for specific players, look at Clan statistics and compare buddies. Take a look!

Thanks to Ifurita for taking the time and trouble to analyse and report on ETQW's XP system. More Blogs on the way soon.