Quote (Njaguar)
Experience gain/Trap doors hasn't changed. But, I'll tell you what has:
Catacombs prior to 1.20 worked like this: Each mob could spawn from -3 to +1 your level. If you fight a mob lower than you, we all know, you get less experience. If you fight higher mobs, you have never gained more experience. Ask anyone that threw high level items into a well (getting a much higher mob), you never got more experience. Or, ask anyone that actually remembers how catacombs worked before, and they'll tell you that EXP was always capped at about, you got it, 1% per kill, no matter how many trapdoors you hit in succession. (Excepting of course, EPs, but those cap much the same as well mobs)
So, let's go over an example, you're level 10, fighting level 7 to 11 mobs.. Most of them are lower level, so you appear to get little experience. You fall through a trap door, that increases the MOB level by a random amount. Let's say just +1 for arguments sake. Now, you're fighting level 8 to 12 mobs. Since you are fighting more mobs near your level, you are getting "more" experience, but you're still getting the same from the 10, 11, and 12s, because they are at or over your level. Let's say you fall through another trapdoor, and now you're at +4 levels, now you're fighting level 11 to 15 mobs. At this point, you have already surpassed the maximum benefits, because all mobs are at or above your level (until you level up of course). Additional trapdoors will only make the mobs stronger, with better drops, but not more experience. This is why if you join a group at say, level 40, with a level 37 driver, you get such lousy exp. All the mobs are pretty much guaranteed to be lower than your level, thus, much lower experience gain.
Now, fast forward to today:
Day 1 of 1.20: "Solo XP sucks in catacombs! Waaaahh!" (See above, that's "why"). Solution? Make mobs ONLY spawn at or above your level (0 to +1) if you are solo. Now you are always fighting "max level" mobs, whether you have a trapdoor or not, and never suffering experience penalties for fighting lower level mobs.
So, let me ask you a question, because you won't get this any other way. Do you want: (Rhetorical question, don't bother making another topic to answer.)
1) Back the way it was, trapdoors = "more" experience, but solo mobs will be lower than your level most of the time, netting less overall experience, items, and proficiency gains as a result, unless you hit said trapdoor, or
2) As it is now
The mob level greater than your level not giving more experience has been this way since the beginning, and it most assuredly will not be changing, and in fact will likely change the opposite, to where once mobs are a certain amount over you, you actually get less experience for fighting them. But, I'm getting ahead of myself, you'll understand that a lot more, and it'll make a lot more sense in future updates (and won't be anywhere near as bad as it sounds).
Oh, and no, I honestly have no plans to do an auto map fill of a players unexplored territory. You see what you saw. This too will make sense.. in time..
Thanks, have a great day.
Hehe...