Drains Experience (Palantir of Westernesse) really doesn't

[fbas]

I had avoided artifacts with Drains Experience for a while, but the Palantir of Westernesse was too good to pass up (activates for enlightenment).

I'm finding that the artifact really hardly drains anything at all. Oddly I'm really disappointed that there's not much of a penalty at all. This can't be right. It takes a point or two now and then, but for a level 50 char with millions of EXP and constantly finding Potions of Experience, it means nothing. Maybe it should take a percentage of your EXP, not a fixed amount.

[bulian]

A better penalty might be to experience gained, but it is currently not noticable even at low levels. If you can kill 3 monsters worth 5k experience each and in that number of turns you lose 50, 100, or even 1000 experience, will you notice? No.

[Derakon]

Yeah, the basic problem here is that the drain is a fixed amount per unit time. As you get more experience per kill, and as your character speeds up, the drain becomes less and less noticeable.

Experience drain is a fairly significant penalty for a level-15 character or thereabouts. Of course nothing they'll find will ever have experience drain (unless they get amazingly lucky). Everything that does have the drain will show up late enough that it's a moot point.

Frankly I don't think experience drain is a very good concept anyway. There are better ways to incentivize the player to play aggressively to avoid losing ground.

[Magnate]

http://trac.rephial.org/ticket/851

[EpicMan]

So if we want the Palantir to have a drawback past level 15, maybe it should cause irresistable confusion on use.

Or change the XP drain into something more interesting, like temporary reduction of max hp, drain 1 from all stats (normally stat drain is just a nusiance, but drain all adds up over time).
Or temporarily drain all stats a lot (maybe by half). When Aragorn used the Palantir he was physically and mentally drained afterwards. Yeah that was because Sauron had one that the palantir was drawn to, but who's to say that isn't the case in Angband?

[Timo Pietilä]

Yeah, the basic problem here is that the drain is a fixed amount per unit time. As you get more experience per kill, and as your character speeds up, the drain becomes less and less noticeable.

Experience drain is a fairly significant penalty for a level-15 character or thereabouts. Of course nothing they'll find will ever have experience drain (unless they get amazingly lucky). Everything that does have the drain will show up late enough that it's a moot point.

I once tried that by giving clvl 1 char The One Ring to see if you can get XP faster than it is drained. You can. It is rather small penalty. Much worse is that aggravation Palantir has.

[LostTemplar]

Maybe drain exp can be changed to absorbing some of aquired exp, like you only gain 50% of exp from monsters if you have exp draining equipment, this will not stop anybody from using the one ring or palantir, but will be some kind of penalty.

[fbas]

Maybe drain exp can be changed to absorbing some of aquired exp, like you only gain 50% of exp from monsters if you have exp draining equipment, this will not stop anybody from using the one ring or palantir, but will be some kind of penalty.

in my case, I picked up the Palantir of Westernesse (light source) after reaching level 50, so decreasing experience gained wouldn't adversely affect me.

I was scared at first because I thought I was risking dropping below level 50 due to losing EXP. This is the context of my top post. I though I would have to constantly unwield it and swap out with my older light source, using up a slot, and complicating my life. I thought that was fair, so was a little bummed that it was such a freebie - basically falsely advertised as something kind of cursed.

[Timo Pietilä]

in my case, I picked up the Palantir of Westernesse (light source) after reaching level 50, so decreasing experience gained wouldn't adversely affect me.

I was scared at first because I thought I was risking dropping below level 50 due to losing EXP. This is the context of my top post. I though I would have to constantly unwield it and swap out with my older light source, using up a slot, and complicating my life. I thought that was fair, so was a little bummed that it was such a freebie - basically falsely advertised as something kind of cursed.

It has aggravation which is a big penalty. XP drain is just a tiny drop of spice in top of that one.

[fbas]

It has aggravation which is a big penalty. XP drain is just a tiny drop of spice in top of that one.

I guess I don't know what aggravation means. I thought they just chase you more. for a level 50 character, not really a big deal, since most are wimps by now. The only guys I hadn't killed when I found it were Sauron and Morgoth.

[Derakon]

Aggravation means that every monster within a radius (20 squares?) of the player is forced to be awake. Basically it makes stealth useless, and is a huge penalty since it prevents you from dictating the pace at which you deal with enemies. However, if you're going to use one aggravating item, you may as well use several, since the effect doesn't stack.