[crossfire] combat notes

[Mark Wedel]

  So I made some changes to the tavern test server, just to try things out. 
 From  before, made these changes:

  need 5000 exp for 2nd level (and rest of levels are likewise scaled up)
  reduced exp by monsters less than level 5 by half to 1/3rd old value
  disabled generators

  It is an interesting experiencing - turning off generators (I just disabled 
the code instead of going through and removing them from the maps) changes map 
focus a bit - in newbie tower, I was perfectly happy letting the monsters come 
to me since I didn't have to worry about the generators.  While I'm still 
playing a fighter type character, I can certainly seem to alternative play 
strategies that could open up - if one was playing a thief, luring and killing 
the occasional orc and then sneaking around to the back would be a potential 
strategy if there was some nice treasure there.  With generators always making 
monsters, that strategy doesn't really work.

  The newbie tower, with those adjustments, did not get enough exp to gain a 
level - got about 3000 exp from it.  That also includes the exp for killing 
generators, which I did not adjust so are some nice bonuses.  In the end, it 
took about 20 minutes of actual fighting/adventuring to gain the 5000 exp for 
second level (and more like 30 minutes of actual time, including time to sell 
loot, aborted attempt in dry well after setting off trap releasing earth 
elementals, etc).  That pacing seemed reasonable.  I think I'm also getting 
better/more used to the combat pacing, as it seems like I was able to get 
through the newbie tower a lot faster than I did before

  Disabling generator would require a lot of map rework - after aborting on the 
dry well, I went to the drinking fountain.  With the generator popping out 
monsters, that map was largely empty. Also, because it does effectively reduce 
amount of killing on a map (with generators, I'd probably kill another 10-25% 
more monsters on newbie tower), which may mean more people have to hunt through 
other maps to find monsters to kill.

  As a note, I'm not suggesting that all generators should be removed - certain 
maps rely on them (like training centers), but at some level, I think it may 
make the game more enjoyable without them - often before it would be a case of 
just a slug fest of whittling the monsters down to get to a reasonable number to 
then kill the generators - not particularly interesting in many cases.  I just 
disabled them as a quick way to see how it would change the game.