[crossfire] Proposal to fix experience inflation due to random maps

[Alex Schultz]

Lalo Martins wrote:

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     I thing the *right* solution to this is to have more high-level maps (and
     
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     possibly update the old ones, which fell behind changes in the rules).
     
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     Indeed, this is exactly what inspired me to begin a map I'm working on 
that's made for lvl 95+. <semi-offtopic> It has first part with some 
basic hidden paths and traps and three guardian monsters which are very 
difficult custom ones, and the reward for those is going to the next 
stage and being able to face a large number of difficult custom monsters 
that give a nice amount of experience for that monster density and the 
target level of the map. After that (which has some traps to slow the 
person down a little), theres some nice artifact treasure. </semi-offtopic>



Mark Wedel wrote:

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        My personal thought is changing code to adjust the exp reward for 
     
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      random maps is certainly the wrong approach.  Updating the style maps 
     
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      would be the right thing (don't do something in the code if it can be 
     
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      done in the data files).
     
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       If new styles are added but the exp isn't set right, that really 
     
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      isn't any different than someone putting in a map that gives too much 
     
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      treasure or too much exp.  You don't go and change the code to try and 
     
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      fix such maps, you fix the maps.  Same would hold true with style maps.
     
     
Yeah, fixing the map(style) instead of the code is much cleaner.

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        That said, if this really is considered a problem, another approach 
     
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      would be to change the random map code to reduce the monster density.  
     
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      The problem isn't that the individual monsters are worth too much, the 
     
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      problem is that the random maps tend to have a very high monster 
     
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      density.  And arguably, at some point, higher density doesn't make it 
     
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      any tougher.
     
     
I'm personally thinking that something along the lines a 25% decrease in 
density, and a 25% decrease in the number of levels in the large ones 
(heaven, hell, TCs, but leaving the smaller ones alone in number of 
levels) would be good.

Overall, I'm thinking we both need slightly reduced monster density in 
random maps, in addition to more non-random high level maps that 
actually have a decent number of high exp monsters (unlike evil masters 
which is just puzzles and bosses, which are nice but don't do much for exp)

          Alex Schultz