Scout Archive

I had the idea recently, that I should test the many assumptions that are at work in the scouting world about camping and how various variables effect your accrual of experience. so I did three seperate tests (I could've done more, but man was it hard to do just three!).

Test #1: Visitors

I first made two basic camps from the same materials, killed fresh before starting. The materials were not very good because I wanted to make sure I was not harmed at all before camping. So, the bones used were from Capper Spineflaps from Rori, and the hides were from a chance encounter with a baby leviasquall that had the audacity to chase me. Both camps were "good" successes, and the tests were for 15 minutes +/- 10 seconds due to latency or other forms of human error.

Results: Camp #1 with 1 visitor (me) received 440 points of wilderness survival experience after 15 minutes.

Camp #2 with 20 visitors (me X 20) received 500 points of wilderness survival experience after 15 minutes.

Test #2: Camp Quality

I made two camps out of the same material, the first being one of "only marginal success" and the second rating "ok". Both were made from Capper Spineflap skins and bones of the same quality. After 15 minutes +/- 10 seconds, these were the results:

Results: Camp #1 of "only marginal success" quality received 400 points of wilderness survival experience after 15 minutes.

Camp #2 of "ok" quality received 440 points of wilderness survival experience after 15 minutes.

Test #3: Damage/Buffs

In this test I was attempting to see two things: 1) If healing damage rather than wounds made a difference, and 2) Do buffs count as damage healing. My hypothesis being that if any difference (in the positive direction, hopefully) then both were beneficial for accruing experience. Both camps were of the same quality (marginal successes) made from the same fresh kills (Spineflaps again). The buffs selected were a commonly foragable item known as foraged grubs and another less common but not rare one known as Etost'Ew Zann.

Results: Camp #1 without any buffs, no damage or wounds, received 360 points of wilderness survival experience after 15 minutes.

Camp #2 with buffs ingested, no wounds, received 480 points of wilderness survival experience after 15 minutes.

Conclusions:

The first two tests have obvious conclusions that have been reached before empirically, but it was nice to know that this is in fact the case. I think a common mistake may be to overlook the quality of the campkit being used. A corollary to these tests was that campkits made from different materials may have had some slight differences in their experience accrual as well. The most remarkable discovery was that ingesting buffs can dramatically cut down on the time needed to maximize experience while camping. While running in and out of your campsite dozens of times to speed up the process is indeed, an exploit, it is still good to know that visitors do make a difference.

I chose 15 minutes for its quantitative qualities, and not for optimal effect. Obviously since 600 points is the maximum for basic campkits, and this was never reached, time is still the largest factor of them all, excepting that perhaps more healing would have sped the process more. I don't think I'll be doing anymore tests, however, though others may wish to follow suit. Another consideration might be that the rate at which experience is accrued might not be at all constant. But, the lesson remains, if you want to gain wilderness survival experience most effectively, you should choose only high quality successes, eat a few grubs while you're waiting, and invite some friends over to chat.

I would appreciate any further information, as this was, at best, only a small discovery mission.

I find that I can get the 600 in 12 minutes if I have healing taking place on both action and health. If not, then I don't get the full benefit in 12 minutes. I find 18 minutes to work for larger camps (800 xp) if I have another person in camp with me, even with no damage to heal. Usually I am sampling, as is the other person.

Well, from what I noticed with the buffs, even sampling would help, because regenerating the "damage" would speed up the process. The buffs I took were not very overwhelming, either, but they increased the points remarkably.

Sorry no data to contribute, just want to say that this was very nice post. Good data. You must be an engineer like me .

Padan Fain
Flurry

If you want to power level your camping do the following:

Find a big bad red monster. Get killed 5 times (or until your bars are completely blacked out). Set up a camp and sit in it (possibly surveying, you can make a macro for it). Set a timer and change the camp every 10-15 minutes, until you start to not get full exp and then go for 20 minutes.

I received 820 points of Wilderness Survival Experience from a Multiperson Camp last night, when I thought the hard cap was 800. Has anyone else experienced this? It was an extremely long camping session, but I was still very surprised.

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Mule wrote:
I received 820 points of Wilderness Survival Experience from a Multiperson Camp last night, when I thought the hard cap was 800. Has anyone else experienced this? It was an extremely long camping session, but I was still very surprised.

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yeah... i've gotten the 820 on a few occasions

I have had 820 and 840 in a multi-person camp before. I believe, right now, that 800 is themaximum you recieve fromthe mp camp itself. There must be a bonus XP for something else, such as other characters healing in the camp. I had never recieved 820 or 840 in solo play. Only with a group.

Also, I was wondering in Test #1 when you ran in and out of your camp 20 times in 15 minutes. Did you keep track of the amount of time you spentout of your camp? Your notes are very detailed and very interesting, but that is the only missinginformation that I would like to know,a percentage of that 15 minutes that your camp had no one there.

Stanislaus Carboni

Hunter, Trapper, Survivalist

Inetresting notes, very well thought out data. A good step for us wanting to get lots of exp from our camps

It's not quick, but what I do is set up camp and watch a movie. Every 20 minutes, I change out camps - since I have a dvd player on my rig, its not difficult to do, and time flies. I did this to get to survival 3... only took 2 movies

Theo

I have to reply to this previous post. Do you really get enjoyment out of watching movies for the objective of getting more experience?! As a role-playing game, I think such tactics work against the very fabric of the game. At least for me, I want a sense of having earned my experience. Spending time in my camps, I usually try to keep busy, such as building traps and future camps, talking to other characters, foraging, reviewing my stats, etc. I would feel as if I was cheating doing anything else. But, I understand that everyone has a different way of looking at character development.

I'd imagine he enjoyed it more than he would have if he simply sat there and stared at the screen not doing anything at all.

As a human scout, usings a multi-person camp, and sampling for minerals it took:

35 minutes solo sampling in camp to get the max 800xp

15 minutes with one other person sampling with mein camp to get 800xp

10 minutes with two other people sampling with me in camp to get 800xp

Those were my observations and it helped me get to Suvival IV in1/3 to 1/2 the time it would have taken on my own.

Korann, Naboo, Starsider