[crossfire] Player level vs monster level vs experience

[Mark Wedel]

Nicolas Weeger wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> 
> How should the monster level relate to the player level?
> What is the meaning of the monster level?
> 
> 
> What I can think of:
> - monster level is (roughly) the level the player should be to kill it

  That is how I see it - monster level and player level should roughly match. 
But in this context, I'd sort of say a group of monsters and player level should 
roughly match.

  For example, at first level, the character will be fighting typically large 
groups of level 1 monsters, it's not a 1:1 battle.  But that first level 
character might be able to take on a level 4-5 monsters on a 1:1 basis, but 
should die if he takes on a group of them.

  However, in some ways, this gets tricky - some monsters are much more 
dangerous in groups do to overlapping spells, damage output, etc.

> - monster level 1 has some characteristics ; each level can improve a skill / 
> competence / max hp/sp / whatever, so calculate level from that ; something 
> like the advancement level of D&D, maybe?

  Except for the most part, there are not that many things to adjust for 
monsters in crossfire - you do have level, hp, ac, sp, and skill levels.  But if 
all level 15 monsters had the same hp/ac/sp, it would be pretty boring - you 
need to be able to have enemy wizard with a bunch of sp, but maybe not as many 
hp, etc.

  In theory, monsters should have all the same skills as players, and those be 
set at appropriate levels.  Right now, I think a lot of the code just uses 
monster level for skill level, which more or less works.

> - monster level is just there for the sake of it
> 
> 
> Experience given by a monster has the same kind of issue. Is experience given 
> based on the relative levels of the opponents? Is it arbitrary?
> How to take account special things of the monster?

  When I was doing the rebalance, I was basically setting a monsters exp based 
on its level, but there was still a range.

  That said, I think it would be completely reasonable to redo it - exp is based 
solely on level of the monster.  If a monster is too easy for that exp, then it 
needs to be adjusted in some way (which could mean lowering level).

  However, keeping it a monster attribute does allow for maximum flexibility - 
for example, when redoing it, I basically had this as a exp value based on level 
of monsters:
1	<10 exp
2	25
3	50
4	100
5	250

  on so on.  But in this model, there are some big gaps - one could reasonably 
say a tough level 4 is maybe worth 125, and and easy level 5 (but still harder 
than that level 4) is 200