Carbine held the first Double XP weekend for WildStar this past weekend… well.. on the PTR anyway.

Because real life hates when I make plans to play WildStar.. I only got a couple hours of playtime in this weekend.  However, I think it was enough to provide some basic feedback (there’s also a youtube video of the stream I did…complete with WAY too quiet mic!).

First.. Love the idea of Double XP weekends.. they make leveling an alt in any game WAY less grindy.. every MMO should have them, regularly (or, take it even further, and go to 12x XP like SWTOR currently is for their subscribers).

The Bad:

Once you’re out of the Daily Login Rewards screen.. there is no UI elements to let you know there is a bonus weekend.

The XP bar needs to be another color, or have a tooltip that explains how much XP you’re currently getting (x% buff from flasks, two-factor authenticator, guild bonus, double XP weekends, etc..).  If I was a new player who was just starting WildStar during a Double XP weekend.. I’d have no idea (based on the current UI), that the quick leveling speed wasn’t normal.

The Event UI, needs to be a bit more specific that path, and crafting XP isn’t included in the Double XP weekend (though, at some point, I’d love to see those items get their own Double XP weekend).

It does a good job telling me that the event is on.. it just needs a little bit more detail.

The Good:

Fast leveling.  I went from Zero to 8, through the novice starting tutorials (shhh! don’t tell.. I tried playing as Dominion!), through the starting zones, and into the first ‘major’ quest Hub Lightreach Mission (The Dominion equivilant to Gallows), all in about 1 hour, and 20 minutes.  For comparison, the last time I went through the full Arkship tutorial, it took me 1 hour, and 40 minutes to get to the equivilent  zone.. and I was two levels lower when I got there.

I stop and read every quest, journal, data cube, etc.. so, if someone was really trying to crank out the levels and skipped reading those items.. they could probably shave even more time off that.

The boosts in the store would allow you to stack that multiplier even further.. I’d imagine you could easily go from 1-50 in a single Double XP weekend…if you were willing to pick up a few flasks too.

Since Path/Crafting XP isn’t doubled – it is easier to outlevel your path/tradeskills (I bet you’re wondering why I’m putting this under ‘good’, aren’t you?)  But, the good news is, since you hit 50 so quickly.. you can cruise back through the low level zones leveling your path/gathering crafting mats.. and help all the low level players with any group quests they might be stuck on!

Summary:

Overall, this weekend’s Double XP event went off without a hitch (well.. on Carbine’s side..I had that whole ‘low level mic thing’).  With a few tweaks to the UI, it’d be easier to inform people about the event, and what their leveling bonuses are.

I’d like to see Carbine branch out, and do Bonus weekends for Path XP, Reputation gain, Crafting XP, maybe a bonus weekend for the bonus chance to gather rarer materials when mining (and other gathering profs)… maybe even a bonus weekend for OmniBit drop rates.  There are a lot of different things Carbine could provide a bonus too, without completely killing the economy (heck, throw a bonus Glory weekend, and watch those PvP queues POP!).   It’ll be interesting to see what bonus events make it to live.