The Progression and Learning Points of the Albion Online
In the Albion Online Alpha, the system worked in a way that for unlocking a new tier in the destiny board, players lost some of their accumulated learning points. So far, so clear cut. The problem with that was that if somebody progressed really fast through the game, they could run out of learning points altogether and effectively run into a roadblock where they couldn't unlock new tiers or levels for some time.
With the Summer Alpha, we introduced the concept of learnings points to players‘ destiny boards. The intention was to create more of a level playing field that would allow players who are not able to invest many hours every day to Albion Online to still somewhat keep up with those of you (great heroes!) who manage to dedicate a lot more time to the game.
Many users weren't happy with the way Albion Online's learning point system was working during the Alpha in summer. We agree with your valuable feedback as it was never the idea to create an artificial roadblock to player progression and decided to change the concept for the Closed Beta.
The main goal was to remove the risk that learning points act as a roadblock and that you can keep progressing, even if you run out of them. For that to be possible, we reworked the idea behind the system. Instead of being a mandatory requirement, learning points now work as a bonus to acquire skills faster.
Since learning points are not mandatory to unlock a new skill anymore, this change, on its own, would have sped up progression through the skills by an unhealthy degree. To counter this, we have decided to increase the fame needed to unlock a new tier. This will allow the hardcore players to keep progressing – but not at a pace that they extremely outlevel an average player.
So, if you are for example leveling swords and have earned a certain amount of fame needed to reach the next level, you can decide to spend x learning points to instantly unlock the next level. This should help close the gap between regular and hardcore players, as they receive the same amount of learning points. At the same time, hardcore players will still be able to progress even if they ran out of learning points.