Currently, you have it set up so that there is a skill learning bonus when there is > X number of players online, and an experience bonus when there is < Y players online. What if you just changed the skill learning bonus to kick in at Y, and scaled to maximum at X... And ditch the experience bonus for when there are fewer players online?

I think the experience bonus is incentivizing against grouping nowadays, and the emphasis on fully playing a character from 1-51 has been diminished or lost.

You get more exp when theres fewer people because theres less people with which to group, and it gives you a little help if you wanna solo rank. You get more skills when theres more people because you're probably grouped, and trying to skill spam when theres lots on is more dangerous.

Risk avoidant players log on at off peak times to get the exp bonus for solo ranking. Something no one would do if you could get skills up fast enough in a group. I've done it. I know what I'm talking about, and I've seen how the mud rarely ever gets above the experience bonus numbers now. Players start logging off near en masse as that bonus hits 10-0%. I've seen it happen repeatedly, and more than once I've had the thought "I could just solo later tonight and it'll be easier and safer."

The bonus that is supposed to smooth that kind of thing out, is now exacerbating it via an unintentional incentivization.

CF thrives as a social game, and I honestly don't remember the last time I needed a group to do anything except take on seriously tough mobiles for gear. Rarely even that.

Make a healer, bard or transmuter. Sit at really low levels, waiting for group invitations. You'll find it rarely happens, until the invitations are coming from someone in the mid to late 20s. "Solo to get your skills up" has become a kind of dogma worse than "axe is the best weapon" ever was.

From the folks over at Extra Credits: http://youtu.be/hQtFo_E_Ea0

The "energy system"/bonuses in CF weren't designed or intended to work the way the example energy systems they discuss do, but I think we're definitely seeing the drawbacks from the system we currently have in place.

The change you're suggesting would concentrate players around peaks, and make the mud emptier during lows.

People who play off-peak because that's the time they have available to play will have an emptier less fun MUD because you will have reversed a mechanism that encourages a more even distribution. As-is, off-peak players benefit from the incentivized whims and preferences of fair weather players.