Thanks, Vardaman! Your report is consistent with other reports I had received and confirms them. Of course, all enemies in v4.3 have about 10-20% less xp value than v4.2 (for example killing an elemental golem will grant 75k xp (rather than 96k), but it won't change things very much.
An example of the new xp/level chart I have so far thought of is as follows:
Level up table for rangers:
QUOTE
Level ------Vanilla game------New
8 ---------- 150,000----------150,000
9 ---------- 300,000 --------- 300,000
10 --------- 600,000 --------- 600,000
11 --------- 900,000 --------- 950,000 1
12 --------- 1,200,000 ------- 1,300,000
13 --------- 1,500,000 ------- 1,650,000
14 --------- 1,800,000 ------- 2,000,000
15 --------- 2,100,000 ------- 2,350,000
16 --------- 2,400,000 ------- 2,700,000 2
17 --------- 2,700,000 ------- 3,050,000
18 --------- 3,000,000 ------- 3,400,000 3
19 --------- 3,300,000 ------- 3,800,000 4
20 --------- 3,600,000 ------- 4,200,000
21 --------- 3,900,000 ------- 4,600,000
22 --------- 4,200,000 ------- 5,000,000
23 --------- 4,500,000 ------- 5,400,000
24 --------- 4,800,000 ------- 5,800,000
25 --------- 5,100,000 ------- 6,200,000
26 --------- 5,400,000 ------- 6,600,000
27 --------- 5,700,000 ------- 7,000,000
28 --------- 6,000,000 ------- 7,400,000 5
29 --------- 6,300,000 ------- 7,800,000
30 --------- 6,600,000 ------- 8,200,000
and so on
(1) (+350k xp per lvl rather than 300k)
(2) (R/Cs begin to gain HLAs)
(3) (Single class rangers begin to gain HLAs)
(4) (From here on, +400k xp per lvl)
(5) (Approximately End of SOA)
An alternate table which is now being tested is not to shift to +400k at all and keep the difference between levels at +350k (see below). The important thing I kept in mind was not to touch the table for low levels to let the party gain some power to be able to cope with the difficulty of the early game battles.
The alternate table is this:
QUOTE
Level ------Vanilla game------New
8 ---------- 150,000----------150,000
9 ---------- 300,000 --------- 300,000
10 --------- 600,000 --------- 600,000
11 --------- 900,000 --------- 950,000 1
12 --------- 1,200,000 ------- 1,300,000
13 --------- 1,500,000 ------- 1,650,000
14 --------- 1,800,000 ------- 2,000,000
15 --------- 2,100,000 ------- 2,350,000
16 --------- 2,400,000 ------- 2,700,000 2
17 --------- 2,700,000 ------- 3,050,000
18 --------- 3,000,000 ------- 3,400,000 3
19 --------- 3,300,000 ------- 3,750,000
20 --------- 3,600,000 ------- 4,100,000
21 --------- 3,900,000 ------- 4,450,000
22 --------- 4,200,000 ------- 4,800,000
23 --------- 4,500,000 ------- 5,150,000
24 --------- 4,800,000 ------- 5,500,000
25 --------- 5,100,000 ------- 5,850,000
26 --------- 5,400,000 ------- 6,200,000
27 --------- 5,700,000 ------- 6,550,000
28 --------- 6,000,000 ------- 6,900,000
29 --------- 6,300,000 ------- 7,250,000
30 --------- 6,600,000 ------- 7,600,000 (End of SOA)
and so on
I will probably choose one of the two tables above based on the results of the tests. Currently, I lean towards the first table.