It turned out to be a bit more complicated, than hoped and the answer isn't entirely precise, but I guess good enough to get an idea, as in the end it's practical, applicable help we need, and not highly precise numbers.
So, long story short, these are the points summarised from the thread:
1st three tracks give the most XP for skill rise
2nd ID-ed track gives ~1.5x more skill rise than 1st ID-ed track
3rd ID-ed track gives ~2x more skill rise than 1st ID-ed track
4th ID-ed track still seems to give some skill rise, but 5th+ only very little
If skill rise is your goal, it is only worth to ID the first 3-4 tracks of an animal
It could be that different type of clues (calls, blood cues) give different, maybe higher XP than tracks
And here is how I got to it:
I noted down how many times I needed to ID a certain number of tracks to reach level 2 from the start (level 1 - 0%)
Results
- 37x ID-ed only the 1st track of an individual animal = lvl2 0%
- 15x ID-ed 1st & 2nd track of an individual animal = lvl2 1%
- 8x ID-ed 1st, 2nd & 3rd track + 1x 1st = lvl2 0%
- 8x ID-ed 1st, 2nd & 3rd track + 1x 4th = lvl2 0%
- 6x ID-ed first 6 tracks + 1x first 3 = lvl2 1%
plus that in the first case--ID-ing only the 1st track--I cannot fully exclude a counting error.
Assumptions
To solve the ratio, I needed to take a few assumptions:
- skill levels rise the same for all animal species
- hoof prints, droppings and calls give the same experience gain
- from the fourth ID-ed clue on, the experience gain is identical for every single clue
To solve the ratios, I calculated using the following calculations (mathematical expressions of the counting results)
I) 37A = L
II) 15(A+B) = L
III) 8(A+B+C) + 1(A) = L
IV) 8(A+B+C) + 1(Z) = L
V) 6(A+B+C+3Z) + 1(A+B+C) = L
with the following variable meaning
A = 1st track ID-ed
B = 2nd track ID-ed
C = 3rd track ID-ed
Z = 4th, 5th & 6th track ID-ed
L = level2 gained (be aware that L might be not a precise variable)
using I) & II) the result is that B = 1.46666666666A -which I considered to be likely 1.5, as L is in I) Lvl2 0% and in II) Lvl2 1%
Comments
I am not at all sure that I concluded right or even calculated right, so I'd be happy if someone tries to re-calculate according to my raw measurement data or even reproduces the "experiment" with own tracking countings
Another data point I'd like to see as a control is to track only one single animal until lvl2 is reached and count how many track clues were needed
Open questions
The following two points remain unclear for me
- how many animals/clues need to be tracked to reach all the different levels?
- do blood clues give a different skill raise?