First, a bit of classic “chicken farming”, as @May-L04 has dubbed it.
I’ll be testing against gleam as it’s got the highest XP per block, and thus the most interest for this. I went to a large gleam farm and cleaned it out with no regen at all.
Starting XP: 167816
Harvested: 11080 Gleam
Finishing XP: 56456
200000 - 167816 = 32184 + 56456 = 88640 xp / 11080 blocks = 8 XP per block
Numbers check out, as expected. I dropped a couple of regen bombs and went to find a smaller farm.
I picked a good sized gleam ball (2+plots diameter) and burrowed in from the top, then ran around taking it about half down, then regenerating and continuing. I did this for 4 cycles.
Starting XP: 56578
Harvested: 12153 gleam
Finishing XP: 153802
153802 - 56578 = 97224 xp / 12153 blocks = 8 XP per block
No problem. So far so good. I went to a gleam ball that’s got a platform at mid-level and offers a flat face. For this one I did some slow stationary farming. I lowered my control stat so I wouldn’t lose any blocks. I let my mega speed expire, and switched to a slow hammer.
The method was to hammer out a tunnel, change tools, regen, change back to the hammer, and do it again after waiting for regen. I figured if the reduction is triggered strictly by a number of blocks harvested without moving, this should trigger it. I hoped to be slow enough that if it’s a speed protection it wouldn’t trigger.
Starting XP: 169034
Harvested: 1512 gleam
Finished XP: 181130
181130 - 169034 = 12096 XP / 1512 blocks = 8 XP per block.
After 1500 blocks no reduction. I stayed with the diamond, and started to regen as fast as I could.
Starting XP: 181154
Harvested: 2430 gleam
Finishing XP: 199522
199522 - 181154 = 18368 XP diovided by 2430 blocks = 7.55 XP per block.
So my pace was sort of random, but at this point I’m seeing a reduction. I took a mega fast and went again.
Starting XP: 199522
Harvested: 2741 gleam
Finished XP: 17194
200000 - 199522 = 478 + 17194 = 17672 xp / 2741 blocks = 6.44 XP per block.
There is definitely some sort of reduction in place for speed, likely related to regen.
I had been getting blocks much faster using mega speed and sapphire at T1 with no penalty. However that was also running around. I’m not sure how to separate these tests. While I still had the speed buff on, I went back to a slower pace for a larger sample.
This was done by taking some blocks, dropping the bomb, waiting for regen to complete, then cycling again.
Starting XP: 17770
Harvested: 3393 gleam
Finished XP: 44914
44914 - 17770 = 27144 XP / 3393 blocks = 8 XP per block.
Standing completely still but waiting for regen to completely finish (5 second pause) incurs no penalty.
Now I’m headed to the farm @Samski has set up. A solid top-down farm will have the avatar “moving” while allowing for very fast regen. I arrived with a mega fast still on so I ducked under the gleamball for a quick spot check of what we’ve already seen.
Starting XP: 77290
Harvested: 3937 gleam
Finished XP: 106170
106170 - 77290 = 28880 xp / 3937 blocks = 7.33 XP per block
At this point, I’ll do a slow test in the bottom-up configuration. By now I expect that allowing 5 seconds for regen will overcome any reduction, showing that it’s related to some “cool-down” on the regeneration. But tested to confirm. I had mega speed on but allowed the 5 seconds for regen to completely finish at each pass.
Starting XP: 108898
Harvested: 6039 gleam
Finished XP: 157210
157210 - 108898 = 48312 xp / 6039 blocks = 8 XP per block
Standing still but allowing regen to complete and “cool off” incurs no penalty.
Now for 2 top-down tests. In the first test, I’m going to make a few passes at the entire depth of the gleam ball. He has this set up on a 3-plot diameter gleam ball, it takes a moment to burrow all the way down. This first run was relatively short, I started by dropping the bomb before I harvested. It takes roughly 3 seconds to hit the bottom and this will allow my passes to overlap with the regen a tiny bit. But it also causes some fall damage so I cut it short.
Starting XP: 168370
Harvested: 3700 gleam
Finished XP: 197970
197970 - 168370 = 29600 xp / 3700 blocks = 8 XP per block
No reduction. I’m going to shorten up the pass for more overlap. In the next round I’ll be digging a somewhat random distance dow, using a pace more like the one encountered in bottom-up farming. I did this by simply dropping a bomb every one second or so while continuously hammering. It caused me to get kicked out of the ball a couple of times but the slide is set up nicely. I just walked back in, continuing to drop bombs.
Starting XP: 9250
Harvested: 4207 gleam
Finished XP: 41674
41674 - 9250 = 32424 xp / 4207 blocks = 7.7 XP per block
Even with the extra pauses from getting kicked out of the ball, this is showing me a reduction.
This is enough to show that the reduction is tied to a regeneration cooldown, not strictly avatar motion.
For now, this is enough. Preliminary testing yesterday seems to show there’s some sort of curve in effect. I did a run in a gleamball I plotted yesterday for short horizontal passes, but the farm performed oddly, sometimes seeming to miss a regeneration cycle completely. This is the first time I tried to set up a gleam ball like this, however the reduction seems related to regeneration and these results were awful. I may explore that further later, but I’m leaving those numbers out. It appeared to be over 25% loss of XP.
I decided instead to grab a shovel and head to a compact soil farm. A pass at soil farming:
Starting XP: 68464
Harvested: 6677 clay
Finished XP: 80188
80188 - 68464 = 11724 xp / 6677 blocks = 1.75 XP per block.
This does indicate that whatever system is at play, it’s not just for gleam. I wouldn’t expect them to implement something for one block type but it was worth a check. Of course for these low XP blocks, the loss isn’t nearly as significant. They’re rarely farmed for XP anyways.
Nothing super scientific, but this shows that there is a penalty, that it’s associated with harvesting blocks too soon after (or during) the regeneration process, and that if you are working at a slow enough pace, standing still is not a trigger.
Enough of that!