Yellow experience points? Is it trying to tell me something?

[PeppinoTuna]

I took a screenshot of this. Last time I was on (pre-20) I could have sworn that my experience points were white. I don't understand why they are yellow right now. What changed other than me hitting level R20 Pugilist/Physical 20 to cause this?

I just don't know if there is something I need to do that I haven't done yet and this is it's way of informing me. Reaching level 40 and then finding out that I should have done something really important 20 levels before... I'd be a sad panda.

[Raikki]

When your experience or skill points are displayed in yellow, it indicates that you're in fatigue which reduces the rate at which you gain experience/skill points temporarily. The effect will go away on its own after a while. If you continue to gain skill points the penalty will increase from -10% at first to -50% at worst.

[PeppinoTuna]

When your experience or skill points are displayed in yellow, it indicates that you're in fatigue which reduces the rate at which you gain experience/skill points temporarily. The effect will go away on its own after a while. If you continue to gain skill points the penalty will increase from -10% at first to -50% at worst.

Oh no, that's terrible news! On the positive side, i switched weapons and the yellow went back to white. I guess now would be a good time if any to level up my weaving craft.

Thanks for the help!

[Alicia_WM]

To clarify, it may take several Earth days (no more than a week) for fatigue to reset. On the other hand, 10% reduction is barely noticable.

[Suzaku]

The fatigue that you accumulated, which is what made your XP go yellow, will slowly decrease as you don't play that class. It decreases the same whether you're logged out or on a different class or sitting around on the fatigued class--it doesn't matter as long as you're not gaining SP on the fatigued one. Note that once fatigue fades enough to let you get back to white SP, you will probably have to kill a mob before the color will actually change; it's kind of a bug or something.

One week after gaining the first SP on that class, fatigue resets to 0. Once you start gaining SP on that class again, the counter restarts, and then resets to 0 one week from gaining THAT first SP. It's a bit confusing to describe, but there's not really much to it.

Hope that helped!

[Heartfire]

It's SE telling you that you've played enough, and they want you to do something else.

Joking aside, it is an "innovative feature" that is under some bit of controversial discussion. It's called the "fatigue" or "surplus" system. It is intended to stop players from playing one job too long. SE wants for players to level many jobs at the same time, instead of focusing on just one or two, so that they won't progress too quickly through the game. Ultimately, it's just a big pain in the arse. But hey, they'll probably(hopefully) change it soon.

[Xatsh]

I would think of no surplus as a rested bonus in other games or you will find the time you can play without any surplus since they practically doubled the sp gain is very little.

But as other said you will need to level multiple classes to be truly effective anyways. So why not level multiple classes at once.

Conj to be able to cure yourself and get protect, shell, stoneskin, and shockspikes. (this helps out a ton solo and in a group when you are missing a healer)

Thurm getsmp management abilities, a regen cure ability, a move that converts dmg you take into mp and another that converts dmg you take into dmg the mob takes.

Archer gets attack buffs and hate removing abilities
Lnc gets attack buffs and strong debuffs/buffs (some are LNC only though)
Glad get accuracy buffs, defensive abilities and hate grabbing abilities
Pug get a healing ability and hate grabbing abilities
Mar gets a healing ability, defensive abilities, some abilities that lowers the mobs def and evasion, and some hate grabbing abilities.

So what I would do is figure out what you want to be a tank, Range DD, melee DD, support, healer, magic DD (although they are sorta weak atm), or sorta a hybrid.

At that point level the classess to get the abilities to build your job. To be the best of anything you need some things from everything basically.

This should give you at least 20hrs depending on how many classes you are leveling with no surplus a week. Past that point you will have to deal with surplus stage 1 which is not an issue at all 10% loss, the fact people are complaining about it is sorta ridiculous when losing a rested bonus on other mmos is a 20-50% sp loss yet no one complains about those at all.

The only time surplus is a real negative is if you are a hardcore 40hr a week player and you are only leveling up one class... then you might hit 40%+ sp loss with fatigue

[Rockne]

Tl;dr: Your exp is being gimped for a little while, from 90% to 0% of experience depending on how much you ignore the yellow text.

Moreover, you can negate this by leveling a different skill. However, Physical level yellow text cannot be avoided, enjoy.