Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.adom (More info?)
Wherein Shyssiryxius gets killed a lot in the interests of science....
comments refer to v1.1.1
spoiler space
spoiler space
xp
experience
spd
speed
slow
shyssiryxius
greater
water
dragon
spoiler space
spoiler space
In the archives there's a formula (if I recall correctly) for how xp
diminishes with increasing number of kills of the same type of
creature. I think it was divide by 1+[n/20] where [] means round down.
Anyway I wanted to look at how xp varies with the more specific
attributes of a creature. In this case the Great Water Dragon
Shyssiryxius seemed like a good choice because you get a lot of xp for
her. She does not vary wrt PV, DV level and attack but hp and spd do
vary (measured by blessed stethoscope) from game to game. The data
tables have her down as hp=1140 spd=120. I found a variation of
1102-1197 hp and 108-131 spd. I think +/- 10% is typical for spd
variation in monsters. The hp variation seemed slanted - I was
expecting to find some values in the 1080-1100 range but it never
happened in about 100 trials. OTOH there were only 2 in the range
1180-1200.
XP variation by spd has been documented already - the ratio of your
speed to the victim acts as a factor in reducing your xp. Just to add
here that there is a limit to this. You cannot multiply the xp by more
than 3.2 -- so it's pointless slowing yourself below 5/16ths of the
speed of monster. Also note that if the monster is slowed there is an
*additional* 50% cut in xp on top of any effect of reducing it's speed.
ie typically casting slow on a creature will reduce xp to one quater.
The x3.2 cap is applied before the additional 50% penalty for slow. I
used the slow spell itself and if you could slow down a monster some
other way this penalty may not apply.
As for variation by hp the good news is that every time the GWD had the
same amount of hp it would yield the same xp (after taking into account
spd). Unfortunately the formula hp -> xp even for this one creature is
pretty odd. An increase in 1hp would increase the total xp by some
ratio of 104.75 xp (typically 209 xp) but the exact amount varied. The
best rule of thumb might be that the overall xp range (as "normalized"
for a spd 100 character and spd 100 monster) appeared to be 2 million -
1.9 million (assuming that the hp range is 1100 to 1200) or put another
way 1000 xp per hp on average (specific values were off as much as 10k
from that linear model though, and the variation had a sort of pattern
that repeated every 20 hp).
If this is correct it suggests that there's a value in the code
specifically for the GWD's xp value which is modified slightly by the
actual hp, rather than the xp being calculated using a generic formula
(same as with all monsters) based on a set of tables, her abilities,
hps, danger level (30) and so on (which would be the AD&D method). It
seems odd that such a value wouldn't appear in the data table dumps
we've had though...? I had expected to find a linear increase in XP
for each +1hp per the AD&D model but this certainly doesn't happen for
Shyssiryxius.
Not sure how monster experience level effects xp for killing them.
There have been reports of the ACW being spawned with levels greater
than 1. Has anyone seen that? Usually other than entering the SMC at
high levels you don't see high level monsters unless you killed so many
their xp is reduced.
Wherein Shyssiryxius gets killed a lot in the interests of science....
comments refer to v1.1.1
spoiler space
spoiler space
xp
experience
spd
speed
slow
shyssiryxius
greater
water
dragon
spoiler space
spoiler space
In the archives there's a formula (if I recall correctly) for how xp
diminishes with increasing number of kills of the same type of
creature. I think it was divide by 1+[n/20] where [] means round down.
Anyway I wanted to look at how xp varies with the more specific
attributes of a creature. In this case the Great Water Dragon
Shyssiryxius seemed like a good choice because you get a lot of xp for
her. She does not vary wrt PV, DV level and attack but hp and spd do
vary (measured by blessed stethoscope) from game to game. The data
tables have her down as hp=1140 spd=120. I found a variation of
1102-1197 hp and 108-131 spd. I think +/- 10% is typical for spd
variation in monsters. The hp variation seemed slanted - I was
expecting to find some values in the 1080-1100 range but it never
happened in about 100 trials. OTOH there were only 2 in the range
1180-1200.
XP variation by spd has been documented already - the ratio of your
speed to the victim acts as a factor in reducing your xp. Just to add
here that there is a limit to this. You cannot multiply the xp by more
than 3.2 -- so it's pointless slowing yourself below 5/16ths of the
speed of monster. Also note that if the monster is slowed there is an
*additional* 50% cut in xp on top of any effect of reducing it's speed.
ie typically casting slow on a creature will reduce xp to one quater.
The x3.2 cap is applied before the additional 50% penalty for slow. I
used the slow spell itself and if you could slow down a monster some
other way this penalty may not apply.
As for variation by hp the good news is that every time the GWD had the
same amount of hp it would yield the same xp (after taking into account
spd). Unfortunately the formula hp -> xp even for this one creature is
pretty odd. An increase in 1hp would increase the total xp by some
ratio of 104.75 xp (typically 209 xp) but the exact amount varied. The
best rule of thumb might be that the overall xp range (as "normalized"
for a spd 100 character and spd 100 monster) appeared to be 2 million -
1.9 million (assuming that the hp range is 1100 to 1200) or put another
way 1000 xp per hp on average (specific values were off as much as 10k
from that linear model though, and the variation had a sort of pattern
that repeated every 20 hp).
If this is correct it suggests that there's a value in the code
specifically for the GWD's xp value which is modified slightly by the
actual hp, rather than the xp being calculated using a generic formula
(same as with all monsters) based on a set of tables, her abilities,
hps, danger level (30) and so on (which would be the AD&D method). It
seems odd that such a value wouldn't appear in the data table dumps
we've had though...? I had expected to find a linear increase in XP
for each +1hp per the AD&D model but this certainly doesn't happen for
Shyssiryxius.
Not sure how monster experience level effects xp for killing them.
There have been reports of the ACW being spawned with levels greater
than 1. Has anyone seen that? Usually other than entering the SMC at
high levels you don't see high level monsters unless you killed so many
their xp is reduced.
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