random thoughts on xp

[quarague]

I've been playing a bit of Sil lately was wondering if some of its xp allocation could be used in Angband.
In Angband each monster has a fixed base xp, the xp the player gets for a kill is calculated as base xp divided by player level. It does not depend on the current depth (say relative to the native depth of the monster) and it is also not influenced by the amount of this type of monster the character already killed (although Angband keeps track of the number of kills).
I don't think the encounter xp of Sil would work well in Angband but the xp per kill scales with the number of kills instead of player level. So each monster has a base xp, and the xp you get for a kill is the base xp divided by the number of kills of this monster you have. The first kill of each monster type is huge xp-wise, the 100th not so much.
Because playing Angband is so much about choosing what and when to fight and when to run, I believe such a system could create an interesting tension with lots of nontrivial player decisions. Imagine you enter a new level and detect, on your left you see half a dozen happily sleeping trolls, on your right a small pack of inertia hounds. In current Angband you just hope the hounds can't get to you and head straight for the trolls. Your character probably already killed 100th of trolls but may not have defeated a single hound yet. In a Sil-like system the trolls still give better loot and are much less dangerous. But if you want some xp, then taking on the hounds would be a good idea, at least once or twice. In other words you would get a similar situation as when encountering a vault, where you have to balance your greed for all the nice items with the risk of being killed. With this proposal you would have to balance your desire for xp with the risks of fighting a new and potentially dangerous monster.
I know this would require a lot of balancing to work well, so the question is more: do you think it would be interesting?

[AnonymousHero]

I think something like this would definitely be worth a try (for a version or two), at the very least.

[Nick]

It is certainly an interesting idea, and as you say, would change the balance.

It should also be quite easily implemented as a birth option, which is a good way to introduce experimental features.

[Estie]

Playing efficiently means ignoring xp (for the most part). The only thing that matters are items. I kill gravity hounds when they block the way to a promising vault, (almost) never anything for XP and I really like this situation. I dont believe that the tactical gameplay would benefit from forcing the player to pay attention to monster type before letting him advance; otoh, the proposed change might well mean no change in gameplay at all.

Killing monsters is one of many ways to clear a path to the treasure. Chances are that most monster types that are killable eventually get killed in the progress of a game, so ignoring diminishing xp should give you the cream of available xp anyway.