[edit] Sinking Ships

The following is a list of the experience granted per sunk ship. The left number refers to the sum of the relative level of the ship compared to your ship and the relative level of the ship's captain compared to your level, the middle number is the experience granted, and the right number is the experience for a mission kill (half). NPC captains are the same level as their ship. For instance, a level 20 captain in a level 20 ship sinking a level 22 NPC would receive 210 experience (22 - 20 = 2, 22 - 20 = 2, 2 + 2 = 4), but a level 20 captain in a level 17 ship sinking a level 22 NPC would receive 230 experience (22 - 17 = 5, 22 - 20 = 2, 5 + 2 = 7). Within missions, the above kills would result in 105 and 115 xp, respectively.

Level Diff       XP   Mission XP
-30 or -31        20      10
-28 or -29        30      15
-26 or -27        40      20
-24 or -25        50      25
-22 or -23        60      30
-20 or -21        70      35
-18 or -19        80      40
-16 or -17        90      45
-14 or -15       100      50
-12 or -13       110      55
-10 or -11       120      60
  -8 or -9       130      65
  -6 or -7       140      70
  -4 or -5       150      75
  -2 or -3       160      80
   -1 or 0       180      90
    1 or 2       200     100
    3 or 4       210     105
    5 or 6       220     110
    7 or 8       230     115
   9 or 10       240     120
  11 or 12       250     125
  13 or 14       260     130
  15 or 16       270     135
  17 or 18       280     140
  19 or 20       290     145
  21 or 22       300     150
  23 or 24       310     155
  25 or 26       320     160
  27 or 28       330     165
  29 or 30       340     170
       31+       350     175

[edit] Group XP Rate

All members of a group present in battle when a ship is sunk gain xp for that kill. This xp is based on a fraction of the xp they would get from a solo kill, with the specific fraction based solely on the number of people in the group. This fraction is calculated from an idea "bonus rate" of xp gain... the multiplier to individual xp gained over time if each member of the group performs equally well. For example, the multiplier of 3x for groups of 5 means that if a single captain could sink one ship per minute while soloing, and five of them together sank five ships per minute, each of these five captains would recieve three times the experience they would have recieved if they were working on their own.

(Fractions in the table below are rounded)

 Group Size      Per-kill Fraction    Group Multiplier
 1                   100%                     1x
 2                    75%                   1.5x     
 3                  66.6%                     2x
 4                  62.5%                   2.5x
 5                    60%                     3x
 6                  58.3%                   3.5x 

[edit] Killing NPC Avatars

Killing NPCs in Swashbuckling missions grants 1/10 of the xp the same kill would have given if it were a ship. For example if you are level 20 and kill a level 25 npc avatar you get 25 xp, 25-20 = 5, 5 from the list above means 250 xp, 250/10 = 25. Note that killing npc crew or captains in boarding combat grants no xp.

[edit] XP Per Level

The following is the experience needed per level. The first number refers to the captain's level, the second number is the experience to get to that level from the previous one, and the third number is the cumulative experience required to get to that level.

Level      XP      Cumulative XP
 1          0             0
 2        300           300
 3        350           650
 4        550          1200
 5        700          1900
 6        900          2800
 7       1050          3850
 8       1200          5050
 9       1350          6400
10       1500          7900
11       1650          9550
12       1800         11350
13       2000         13350
14       2150         15500
15       2300         17800
16       2500         20300
17       2700         23000
18       2900         25900
19       3100         29000
20       3300         32300
21       3700         36000
22       4100         40100
23       4500         44600
24       4900         49500
25       5300         54800
26       5700         60500
27       6100         66600
28       6500         73100
29       6900         80000
30       7300         87300
31       7700         95000
32       8100        103100
33       8500        111600
34       8900        120500
35       9300        129800
36       9700        139500
37      10100        149600
38      10500        160100
39      10900        171000
40      11300        182300
41      11900        194200
42      12500        206700
43      13100        219800
44      13700        233500
45      14500        248000
46      15300        263300
47      16100        279400
48      16900        296300
49      17700        314000
50      18500        332500