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

[Andreas Kirschbaum]

Mark Wedel wrote:
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      My thought that reducing monster density would help out was this:
     
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      In my limited experience, best way to get that gobs of exp is through
     
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      spells. If monsters are lined up in all directions, you cast that cone
     
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      or bolt spell and hit a lot more monsters. So you quickly kill
     
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      everything in just a few spells, move onto the next map, etc.
     
     
Yes, spells are probably the fastest way. But even with melee it does
not take long (if the rooms are large enough): since most monsters try
to reach you, they crowd around you. The only thing you have to do is to
run forth and back, possibly quaff a healing potion or cast restoration
once in a while.


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      If the density is lower, you don't kill as many, and this reduces exp
     
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      to some degree. Player now has to spend more time moving to the exits,
     
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      and possibly regaining sp/grace
     
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      It may not be a big change, but would perhaps help out.
     
     
After some more thinking about it, I realized that my concern probably
is not (only) the huge amount of exp but more how easy you can gain it.
Therefore monster density could be in fact the problem: for example, the
undead random dungeon north west of Wolfsburg contains the same kind of
monsters as the undead training center. But that dungeon near Wolfsburg
consists mainly of narrow and twisted corridors but only has few large
rooms. That layout both results in a lower monster density and it slows
down players considerably. (If you ignore some other broken (or at least
way too powerful) spells that can clear whole levels at once.)


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      One thing which has been suggested is the idea of exp reward for
     
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      quests. Right now, if we look at the scorn nobility quest, the reward
     
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      is an item and ability to get through the gate. But most commercial
     
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      games I've played give a direct exp reward for the quest (beyond what
     
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      you get killing the things in it itself). This probably makes sense
     
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      for crossfire, especially if target at certain skills (I'll train you
     
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      in alchemy if you do ....) That could also help out rewards for some
     
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      of the tough maps that right now don't give a lot.
     
     
That could be a good idea. Especially since the items you gain there are
not that useful, but a moderate amount of exp would be really nice
because you normally solve it when you are still fairly low-level.

An other example I could imagine is a boss monster at the end of
Heaven/Hell (maybe the Avatar of Valriel/Gorokh). Just like the Avatar
of the Fire God in the Temple of the Fire God: a really hard monster at
the end protecting the treasure room. Maybe that monster could give a
huge amount of exp if you manage to kill it.


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      I do agree the exp gains is a problem. Random maps are probably the
     
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      biggest indicator, but mostly because they have high density and are
     
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      deep.
     
     
Another note: I just checked the random map generation code. It already
limits the maximum exp per tile. But that limit is quite large. For
example, in the last dungeon of the dragon tc it is 18.500 exp/tile. Map
sizes about 33x33 (1000 tiles) are quite common but I've seen sizes up
to 50x50 (2500 tiles). That means the exp per level is limited to 18
million (1000 tiles) or 46 million (2500 tiles).


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      But things like the pupland raffle are similiar - high monster
     
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      density, and if you're the appropriate level, a good place to pick up
     
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      a fair amount of exp on the same basis.
     
     
That is true, but I do not consider it such a big problem because you
cannot possibly reach a very high level there, and I had the impression
there was a todo item (but currently I cannot find it) to make monster
generators stop working after some time. Therefore maps like the raffle
will become toned down automatically as soon as that generator patch is
done.


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      And there are other non random maps that are crammed full of monsters
     
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      (some in brest, like the administration building come to mind).
     
     
I agree. But that should not prevent us from starting to fix the exp
problem in the random maps. After all, we can just fix the remaining
non-random maps as well if they are really (too) problematic.


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      The random maps are probably popular simply because they are so deep.
     
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      I think as long as these high density/easy to get to maps are around,
     
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      the players are going to look for them simply for that reason.
     
     
Sure, players normally take the easiest way that works for them.


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      I don't have a good solution on how to fix those problems.
     
     
I think the only (but not easy) solution is to watch out for (too)
popular maps and fix them (or improve other maps) if necessary.