TT Group Bonus

[GotterbaltsJr]

Does grouping work as described here?:

http://www.earthandbeyond.ca/game_info/grouping.html

Or has it been changed?

I tried grouping today with some TT's in a couple different configurations, and none of it seemed to work like described there. I am a TT, so I got my bonus for being in a group (different from what it says in that document), but never for another TT. As of yet I have tried grouping with 1 and 2 other TT's at once (2 and 3 TT's total) to no effect. I kept tabs on the effect by checking sell prices on a particular good while grouping, ungrouping, and regrouping in a few different setups, and each had the same result. At least for me, I had the same exact bonus as I got for simply being in a group. Can someone please explain how grouping bonuses work. Puh-leeeeaaaaase?!

[Lot]

It would be great if it worked. But yah know what certain people would do? Plant five TT alts at each destination, arrive at the destination, group up with alts, exploit buffed up trade XP and sell prices. Be silly not to actually. It worked originally because subscription fees were being paid and more profit for being grouped with TTs = more real life profit from the game.

[GotterbaltsJr]

I hate multi-boxing, and thus am unaware of how effective such a technique would or wouldn't be. I know it's not difficult resource wise for the computer, since it's such an old game, but running 6 toons around? Or logging them on/off all the time... grouping them all the time. I dunno, for me that's just not fun. In any case, you may be right and someone would do that. So that's good enough reason for a change.

But this still leaves the spirit of my post unanswered, which is basically, how do group bonuses work? All I know right now, as a TT, is that if I am in a group I get some percentage increase in sales, period. This benefits anyone also in the station, in my group. But is it a fixed increase? Does it change with level? With Trade Level? Is it based at all on the Negotiate skill?

Since it is obvious that at least part of the way it works is different from live, it does suggest the possibility that it has been changed in other ways. And this suggests the possibility that group bonuses as a whole have been altered as well.

As far as I can tell, there's nothing on the forums describing how they work in practice now.

[GenghisBob]

For the emu they could make TT trading bonuses not stack if more than one TT in the group. A group could then have the bonus for at least one TT.

[GotterbaltsJr]

[quote name='GenghisBob' timestamp='1355112345' post='68573']
For the emu they could make TT trading bonuses not stack if more than one TT in the group. A group could then have the bonus for at least one TT.
[/quote]

So far as I can tell, this is how it works right now. But I'm not much of a dedicated tester to find out for sure, not to mention i can't get cooperation from other TT's to find out lol.

[Rezwalker]

As far as group bonus and profit is conserned I did an experiment.

6 TT selling trade goods from somer to fenris.

# price
6 2265
5 2265
4 2245
3 2206
2 2147
1 2147

Looks like you need 3 in group to get bonus and stops at 5.............. Edited December 10, 2012 by Rezwalker

[GotterbaltsJr]

Excellent, now we have something to work with at least. ... Though I tried with 3 TT's once and I didn't get any change in price beyond the initial bonus. It may have something to do with OL or TL then? Perhaps the TT's in your larger groups were more experienced or had a better neg. skill?

It does seem strange that the bonuses would increase at initial grouping, 3 TT's, 4 TT's, and 5 TT's. Worth looking into more.

[Neuk]

Hello EnB,

 

I just thought I would put down my thoughts on this subject, seeing as how my last post on this topic didn't seem to make it to the forum.

 

As an update to the OP, based on several hours of observation, the TT group bonus is still observable for Trade Goods. But it currently works a little differently than the previous posts suggest.

 

The following information was obtained using a group of up to 6 toons, 1-4 TTs (all with max negotiate) with varied TL, plus 1-5 non-TTs with varied TL.

 

Results:

1. The TTs in the group do not get any additional TL xp bonus beyond having 2 TTs in the group.
2. It doesn't have to be a full group, the bonus is only dependent on the number of TTs in the group.
3. The more TTs in the group, the more TL xp bonus for the non-TTs in the group. (I stopped at 4 TTs due to the TL xp cap described in result #4, while other players have observed additional TL xp by adding a 5th TT to the group)
4. The caveat to result #3 is that there appears to be a TL xp cap regardless of class. I am assuming it is based on the item or item level (need more experimentation to find out)
5. The TL xp bonus can be as little as about 5% to 20%.
6. It could matter whether you are grouped with the TTs before the non-TT docks at the station, only because the group bonus has a verification cycle.
7. These observations only apply to TL xp from Trade Goods.

 

Conclusion:

Depending on the TL of the toon, your rig, your internet connection and any number of other factors such as which side of the bed you woke up, it may or may not be worth the extra TL xp to go through the hassle of grouping additional TTs.  It's your universe, you decide.

 

NeukTT

Edited February 11, 2014 by Neuk