As the owner of a rank 46 barb, and someone who has gotten a large portion of that soloing (20%+ today for example) I like the idea of ranks going back to player-based instead of mudwide time based, but with certain details included.
I would like to see a player-specific system that has the following included:
(1) Adding a modifer for rank xp based on the number of people fighting or flagged against a mob (not just group size).
This would reward soloers and those who decide to do hard stuff on low group sizes while also preventing abuse of group size mechanics.
(2)Diminishing return system on repeatedly doing the same mobs.
I don't like the idea of one and done, but I do think that % of normal rank xp should drop sharply if your killing the same stuff every day.
This is something that could be done by giving a fixed number of times you can kill a mob (more than 1!) before xp becomes almost nul, and percentage of xp drops according to that number of times you've killed the mob.
Another option which I like better, is to make % of rank xp time based per individual, not mud wide. In one sense, it would be similar to what we have now with the time-based xp regen, but if you don't repeat a zone for a while, when you come back to it you would know the ranks would be there regardless of how many times you've killed the mob before or who got there earlier in the day.
The second option would be great for people who end up having to take a significant break in playtyime. When they get back the mobs are refreshed for them and they can get right back into the swing of things.
(3) Rank xp values that have a discernable connection to the difficulty in finding and killing the mob.
I've been able to reach rank 46 not because I've gone across the mud killing the worst monsters it has to offer (never even faced cyan), I've done a lot of it by repeatedly killing easy to find, easy to kill mobs that most people just aren't aware are rank mobs so they leave them alone. While I'm glad i've reached this rank, it's more than a bit messed up the way I've had to go about doing it.
The harder the fights, the harder the location to find (as evidenced by zone traffic, # of mob kills etc), the higher the xp table should be. There's some of this already on the mud, but it's just not constant throughout the game.
Adding this consideration to the rank xp tables would better reward players for game knowledge, skill, their ability to arrange more powerful groups etc. I think it's the way it should be, even though I rank myself as not much more than highly skilled fodder in terms of game knowledge.
Conclusion:
The positive and negative modifers to a base xp amount would dissuade the type of zombified rank circuit I've been forecd to run due to it's time efficiency, encourage exploration and reward people with a variety of playstyles. I have no idea how reasonable this is create (I don't even code bro), but it would solve a lot of the issues facing the current system imo.
