XP production

XP production is the process in which experience used for enchanting is made. A staple of the Civ genre is that experience orbs cannot be gathered in the traditional Minecraft way, and instead must be made in a factory in the form of physical items. The materials used to run an XP factory recipe are usually plants/fungi of some kind along with other more misc items. XP comes in the form of bottles of enchanting, emeralds, and emerald blocks, with bottles of enchanting always giving a set amount of experience unlike vanilla. Most servers allow emeralds to be consumed in the same manner as the bottles for quicker leveling, with the blocks being the most compact form of storage, with XP usually sold in blocks because of this. However, XP exchanges may trade experience in the smaller denominators.

The plants needed for production are often spread across multiple biomes to try to encourage trade and competition between different nations, although how much trade and competition this has caused are different to the unique environments of each server.

XP Exchanges
Not all nations have all the biomes necessary in their borders to produce XP, so a popular method of getting around this problem is an XP Exchange. XP Exchanges are built according to the needs and whims of the owners of the exchange. There are two main schools of thought on XP exchanges: Flat Rate Exchanges and Varied Rate Exchanges.

Flat Rate Exchanges
In this method, players exchange XP materials in for some pre-determined amount of XP at only one possible price point, effectively making a flat rate for that exchange. While it may not give as much XP as directly buying emerald blocks, Flat Rate Exchanges prove an effective alternative way to buy XP. This method was commonly used by nation leaders in older Civ iterations in order to fill in gaps in their material production. Exchanges in other nations may offer more favorable exchange rates in an effort to entice traders to come to them for XP, creating a competitive exchange market.

Varied Rate Exchanges
Unlike the previous method, players can exchange materials for XP at different possible price points with the ability to both buy and sell XP. Due to the varying price points, this effectively creates a crop stock market, with many XP Exchanges adding in other items like iron or diamonds to better simulate a more realistic economy. Because of this enhanced economic simulation, Varied Rate Exchanges have proven very popular in more modern civ servers, almost completely replacing Flat Rate Exchanges. This method also requires more upfront investment to get started. however, and may be considered the more complex method of the two.