In the , WG indicated:
When converting crews, the XP of zero perks will be taken into account.
This was one of the most discussed topics of the previous Sandbox iteration, so we took your feedback into account and came up with the following solution: When converting an old crew to a new one, there will be no difference between the trained and zero skills when calculating XP. As a result, you’ll receive an Instructor and crew that are equal in combat performance to their current counterparts.
For example, my zero-skill-BIA crew is currently at 7.81% skills (0-skill + 6.81%). The equivalent experience for a true 7.81% skill crew is 37,832,634 EXP. My zero-skill-BIA crew has 'only' really earned 18,863,802 EXP (which is equivalent to 6.81% skills).
Upon conversion to crew 2.0 (iteration 2), WG will give my crew an 18,968,832 EXP INCREASE, to get it to the true/correct 37,832,634 EXP for a 7.81% crew (THANKS, WG!), which yields 80 skill points and a vehicle handling increase of +13%.
Plus, assuming that the Crew 2.0 iteration 2 changes make it to production, you now have an opportunity to grind out what will be DOUBLE-EXP on your zero-skill-BIA crews, but only if you do it BEFORE the crew 2.0 conversion.
Using my zero-skill-BIA crew as an example again, and which is currently at 7.81% skills: the next VH% increase for my zero-skill-BIA crew is to 14%, which is at 7.85% (40,122,554 EXP).
That is, I will be moving from 7.81% to 7.85%.
However, if I grind out the EXP now (prior to the conversion), I will be going from 6.81% to 6.85%, which would only require 6.85% (20,008,762 EXP) – 6.81% (18,863,802 EXP) = 1,144,960 EXP.
The difference between the true EXP value of 7.81% (37,832,634 EXP) and 7.85% (40,122,554 EXP) is 2,289,920 EXP.
I save 1,144,960 EXP if I grind it now (2,289,920 EXP – 1,144,960 EXP), vs. waiting to grind it out after the conversion process.
I've created a table to demonstrate the potential EXP savings for attaining a higher vehicle handling bonus. The table is 358 rows long, so it's really too big to paste here. Instead I've created a read-only Google doc that everyone should be able to view:
Note: See row 283 for the example I've used here.
