There has been some confusion lately in regard to how OCS experience and reputation points are gained and lost. While this information is available in the OCS HUD manual, I just wanted to go over it here with some examples. A few people have no idea what they're talking about and unfortunately have used their ignorance to ignite a conflagration of confusion. Consider this your lifesaving water bomber.

For these examples, we're going to use two theoretical players, Jack and Jill. Jack is level 10 with 1900 reputation points. Jill is level 2 with 900 reputation points.

Experience points are awarded by taking hit points from other players. As you gain experience points, you will ascend in levels. The difference in levels between two combatants is taken into account for scoring experience points, such that to a lower-level player, a higher-level player is worth more experience, and vice-versa. Thus:

Jill shoots Jack, causing Jack to lose 50 hit points.

From this exchange, Jill gains 58 experience points (XP). Why does Jill gain 58 XP? Because Jill is 8 levels below Jack, she gets a bonus of about 17%. Had Jack taken 50 hit points from Jill, he would have only gained 42 XP, because of this level difference.

Reputation points (i.e. Rep Points) are won in much the same way as experience points, with several important differences. When you take damage, you will lose a number of them and the player who dealt that damage will be rewarded that same number. The amount transferred is calculated by the amount of damage dealt. Zero is the minimum number of Rep Points you may have, and if you have zero points, an attacking player will receive exactly zero Rep Points from you.

Reputation points (Rep) are different from XP in that they are transacted between players and there is a finite number. The amount transacted depends on which side of the damage you're on (i.e. shooter or target) and how many hit points are lost by the target.

In the Jill shoots Jack exchange, Jack would lose 50 Rep, and Jill would gain 50 Rep, causing Jack to end up with 1850 Rep, and Jill to have 950 Rep. If Jack had no reputation points at all, Jill would not receive any at all, but she would still gain the experience points.

The drones of Fulda Gap work the exact same way. The OCS system considers the drones to be a single player, named "FG Drone Pool." It is from this pool that reputation points are won and lost. If the pool runs out of rep points (which happens) nobody will gain reputation points from shooting drones. Experience points will continue to be won, however.

Another point about the drones is that there is a delay of five (5) minutes between destroying a drone and getting the Rep and XP for it. During this time, if you leave the region, you will not get Rep or XP for that drone. Now, you wonder why that is. It's to address a specific problem, which falls into the category of "formula play" or "gaming the system."

Why should we care about gaming the system? Because we care about players' entertainment derived from OCS, and know that if someone finds a way to leverage some attribute to their advantage, they can't resist doing so. Unfortunately, this also quickly leads to all the fun going out of it. Ever use cheat codes on a game? It's the death knell for that game's entertainment value for you, almost 100% of the time.

So, curse us when we move things around or change how things behave a little and suddenly your ritual doesn't work anymore. But we do so with good intentions.

Hopefully, this clears things up. If you have further questions, feel free to ask a GM or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your questions.