What EPA means

Fallen London
1

So I know that EPA means &quotechoes per action&quot, but since these actions don’t directly give you echoes, it’s an equivalency. But one thing that’s been bothering me is, items have both a value and a sell price [typically both are in echoes and the latter being half the former], so which is the value used to determine EPA.

Let me give an example so I’m sure we’re on the same page. I’m currently hovering around 75 Dangerous, so I spend time at Wolfstack pummeling spiders for fun and profit. One specific task rewards me with 66 Silk Scraps on success. If I needed Silk Scraps and had to buy them, this would cost me 1.32€; but if I wanted something else, I’d have to sell the Silk Scraps, and get 0.66€. Which is the basis for EPA?

Next, of similar importance, is your chance of success calculated into EPA? This same action currently has a 66% chance of success. Is my EPA 1.32€ [100% of 1.32€], 0.87€ [66% of 1.32€], 0.66€ [100% of 0.66€] or 0.44€ [66% of 0.66€]?

I’m probably overthinking this and I’m sorry if anyone is confused, but when I see mention of EPA I genuinely don’t know what it means.

2

It’s the sell value of the resources, and the chance of success does need to be calculated into the estimated EPA when it isn’t 100% certain.

3

The most accurate label would be “mean EPA”: the value in echoes you would get if you sold all the goods received divided by the number of actions spent, taking into account the differing outcomes for possible failures, rare successes, etc. and the probabilities of each.

4

Thank you both, that’s very helpful; now I have a proper frame of reference when people are talking about EPA.

5

I’ve used some points in this thread to expand the definition in the Glossary.