[zenith]

From our past logs, players were actually catching the higher ups faster with the old system. The majority of fights were against opponents who don't even have anything equipped. Free XP. Of the players outside the top 50 levels, these types of attacks consisted of 76% of all fights.

I would like to see more fights where players are trying to take on more than they usually do. The 2nd half of today, 85% of all attacks have been standard XP. The community has obviously figured out what not to do now. Of the non-standard XP fights, when averaged together the XP is actually exactly the same as the average XP from normal fights. So I do believe in the long run this won't actually speed things up or slow things down for the majority.

With that said, I can see that the higher ups need more targets. If this means more NPCs or taking inactive accounts and equipping their unequipped items, it will be done. But other than that, no one is really catching up to them at an accelerated rate. For those who were taking the easy way to leveling and attacking unequipped players, it is indeed slower. But this behavior has diminished since mid-day as everyone got used to the system.

I'll continue to monitor everything and attempt to make the best decision based on the data. Feedback is always taken into account. Now to figure a fair way to punish those who unequip intentionally.