Experience potions -> based on player's level

[Angdrim]

If you want to avoid the problem of giving a players only 10 exp if they're right by the next level, you could make it so that if they're X points away from level Y it pushes them up to X points away from level (Y + 1).


"They were probably balanced in a Angband where you still had potions of explosions and winning was more gambling than tactics."

Well, back then you didn't drink un-ID'd potions.

[Sky]

everyone here is posting solutions which are totally viable both in gameplay and in coding - but nobody is approaching the question from a holistic point of view:

what is the problem with XP potions?


i'm not implying that "there's no problem" - but i see that different people view !xp differently.


As i already stated, i think !xp give too much xp when you are at their native depth. And at DL98 there is rarely a level that doesn't have at least 1 !xp on it. When you gotta do 600k xp to go from 49 to 50, most of it will come from !xp rather than from mobs.
At CL49 a greater wyrm is generally around 20k xp. And they are less common than !xp potions!! Your typical dungeon level will have maybe 5/6 wyrms and 1-2 potions.

Obviously you got your balrog pits and wyrm cities, but those are not farmable *as easily* and will likely get ignored, destroyed or banished.

[mrfy]

I would argue that there is no problem with how they are currently. Sure, finding one early can overbalance your character by advancing it in levels, but You still need to find the gear to survive. And finding them later on it has little effect.

Finding one early is like finding the One Ring, imo. Amazing and rare, and makes the game fun. But there's no guarantee you're going to win. Keep it like it is, please.

[archolewa]

When you gotta do 600k xp to go from 49 to 50, most of it will come from !xp rather than from mobs.
At CL49 a greater wyrm is generally around 20k xp. And they are less common than !xp potions!! Your typical dungeon level will have maybe 5/6 wyrms and 1-2 potions.

Why is this a problem? By the time you're going from level 49 to 50, experience is no longer important. Maybe if you're a pure caster and that level gets you a few more spells at 0% failure,but even then its not *that* important. Gear and consumables are much more important at that point, something that Wyrms drop a lot of (how many experience potions have you found that dropped half a dozen items?)

[Thraalbee]

I vote for keep them as they are. Only very rarely is my game much impacted by these and it is fun when you find one early. And they are still less useful than equally rare early BoS or RoS or PDSM or ...

[wobbly]

I vote for changing them to 1d100000 to maximize the delicious anguish of people feeling like they are getting jipped.

[Voovus]

As i already stated, i think !xp give too much xp when you are at their native depth. And at DL98 there is rarely a level that doesn't have at least 1 !xp on it. When you gotta do 600k xp to go from 49 to 50, most of it will come from !xp rather than from mobs.
At CL49 a greater wyrm is generally around 20k xp. And they are less common than !xp potions!! Your typical dungeon level will have maybe 5/6 wyrms and 1-2 potions.

Obviously you got your balrog pits and wyrm cities, but those are not farmable *as easily* and will likely get ignored, destroyed or banished.

Mayhap the problem lies in insufficient monster exp, rather than an overflow of potion exp.

[whartung]

Mayhap the problem lies in insufficient monster exp, rather than an overflow of potion exp.

It's part and parcel to the idiom that the game deep down is a game of avoiding monsters and not confronting them.

I recently teleported away, like, a dozen Beholder kin. Effective, but not very satisfying to be honest. May as well use the TO charges than have them suck 'em out.

[debo]

It sounds like early !exp are very fun, but in the lategame it seems a bit sad for some people to get the bulk of their xp from them.

Perhaps they could be rare but possible to find in the early game, and extremely rare in the later game? If there are genuinely 1-2 !xp showing up per floor past, say, DL80, I could see a situation where finding one every 5-10 floors might be fun, but not excessive.

(Did this potion increase in availability lately? I haven't played V in a long time, but I certainly don't remember finding very many of them when I was grinding up to player level 50.)

[drquicksilver]

I feel like it is not really that much. In my last game I did level 46-50 in several rapid passes of 4900’ and 4850’. That’s a few million xp and I think it was six or seven potions of experience. A nice boost but a long way under “most”. It seemed fine to me.

[Pete Mack]

What drquick said. You just don't find enough !EXP for it to help you advance much after CL35. Yes, it's a nice boost. No, it isn't any better than a group of chaos hounds for a player with the Oakenshield.*

* and why this is made of metal in the game is...a mystery.

[Werbaer]

the Oakenshield.*

* and why this is made of metal in the game is...a mystery.

From the LotR wiki:
At some point in the fighting, his shield broke, and using an oaken tree branch found on the floor as a shield, he gained the epithet "Oakenshield"

I assume Angband includes his shield before it was broken, not the wooden branch.

[Huqhox]

What drquick said. You just don't find enough !EXP for it to help you advance much after CL35. Yes, it's a nice boost. No, it isn't any better than a group of chaos hounds for a player with the Oakenshield.*

* and why this is made of metal in the game is...a mystery.

1. I find their rarity spot on - still rare enough to be a nice find even deep in the dungeon. I certainly get the vast majority of my experience from killing monsters

2. The Thorin Oakenshield thing has been brought up before. According to the Appendices to LOTR, he got his name when he lost his shield in battle and picked up an oak branch and used that instead. So it's just just name, rather than a description of his equipment

Edit: You beat me to it Werbaer. And with the exact quote too. Hat well and truly doffed
Edited again for spelling. Typing is not my forte today

[Sky]

From the LotR wiki:
At some point in the fighting, his shield broke, and using an oaken tree branch found on the floor as a shield, he gained the epithet "Oakenshield"

I assume Angband includes his shield before it was broken, not the wooden branch.

.. did you reply to the wrong thread?

by the way, the shield of Thorin Oakenshield .. is Thorin's shield. NOT Thorin's oak branch. i.e the shield that the guy who once used a oak branch as a shield, uses as shield.