Scoring

[Berendol]

[s]Hey, how does the game figure your score? Since it doesn't tell you when you gain points, it seems kind of arbitrary - higher experience levels and lower depths seem to grant high scores but there must be other factors.[/s]

[edit]

Found out the answer to my own question after much grepping... it's in src/server/files.c in the function total_points:

p_ptr->max_exp + (100 * p_ptr->max_dlv)

Basically, (maximum EXP gained) plus (two times the maximum level in feet)

So now I have a new question:

Is Ironman MAngband's scoring any different?

And I pose this to ya: Perhaps it should be since it's a totally different style of game? Maybe grant bonus points for artifacts found, uniques slain, etc? You could add a field to the player savefile for this. Of course current characters wouldn't have much to show for themselves, but new characters would - I notice that nobody's really going to have the high score at this point anyway, so it might be good to do this before the contest really gets going.

[Jug]

The online high score chart does indeed use the same formula as in the game.

It's an interesting suggestion you make about having the score calculated differently.  Anyone else have any comments on it ?

- Jug

[Warrior]

I think we could add an "Ironman Factor".

It could be: Dungeon Level/Character level

So a level 15 character at 1000 feet would have an Ironman Factor of  20/15=  1,33.

This could then be multiplied with his experience, say 5000 for a total Ironman score of 5000*1,33=6666

Also, since getting a rogue down to 1000 feet as level 15 is a greater achievement than getting a warrior to the same depth it could be multiplied by the experience penalty of each class, for a rogue 25% IIRC.

This would give the level 15 rogue an ironman factor of 1.33*1,25= 1,66 and a score of 1,66*5000= 8333

I don't think the race exp penatly should be considered though, since being a high elf warrior is considerably easier than being a hobbit warrior.

On the Ironman ladder there could be a new row, "Ironman Factor" and "Score" could be the Ironman score instead of just experience + a fixed depth bonus.

- Warrior

[new thoughts below]

Low level characters, like lvl 1 and 2 will be able to get an extremely high ironman factor if they're able to dive to say 500ft witout gaining levels, so maybe low level characters should be filtered out of this, but then again, maybe it'd be fun, if the ladder was sortable by "IF" maybe people would try to make #1 there instead of sorted by score or depth.

[Berendol]

I still think you should get bonus points for killing uniques and finding artifacts :)

[Warrior]

If there was any skill involved or anything else than just pure luck involved in finding artifacts I think it'd be ok to give a bonus for it, however finding an artifact will usually be pure luck or linked up to some situation in the dungeon (vault or unique) that already gave you more experience. Also, since most artifacts will help your character survive longer I don't think you should get bonus points for finding artifacts.

If anything you should get a score penalty, since you've had an easier route than some poor guy with a broken sword and a ring of aggravate monster.  ;D


As for unique kills, they already give good exp and some of them have great drops, but... I don't think we should increase the experience they give, that'd just make the game easier, but maybe there should be given bonus points for killing a unique thats much stronger than you, say - a lvl 9 paladin spending 90 minutes trying to kill Wormtongue and finally, YEAH!

This could be based on the monster/player level thing, the same way protection from evil does it, resulting in a number that again could be multiplied to the Ironman score. I don't have access to the protection from evil calculations here or the monster levels so I'm not sure if the result of monster/player would be a figure that's comparable to the Ironman Factor. However I suspect this is would be harder to balance than the IF in my post above.

Two examples, with random incorrect values.

Player 12 character kills Brodda.
Say Brodda's level is 15, so 15/12= 1,25.
This would give a number that could be used, I guess.

However if a lvl 15 character kills Uldor, a rather deep but not very hard unique he could end up with 35/15 = 2,33 which would seem too high.

Maybe if the game kept track of all unique kills for each player and their monster/player score and combined the results into a value that would make sense to multiply to the total score or ironman factor.

I don't know how others feel but to me it seems wrong to reward a player twice for killing something once.

Maybe there should just be a "Uniques killed" highscore instead, possibly connected to the character dumps.

Or maybe the "~" (unique monster page) should display not only who has currently killed each unique but also the top 3 killers of each. I don't really like that idea though. It'd just tell everyone who's been playing the most and you can see that already by hitting "@" or "#" or checking out the Ironman Ladder.

It's still early here and I haven't slept much tonight, so, forgive me if nothing of this makes sense.
:)

- Warrior

[Ashi]

I think a simpler plan would be to make the depth bonus increase each time you stair down. For example: if you were to go to 50 ft, you get 50 points; go to 100 ft and get 100 more points for a total of 150; stair down again and your total becomes 300; and so on.

This way, a player who chooses to dive as fast as possible will score the same as a player who chooses to kill everything.

[Warrior]

Hm, and I still think someone who's brave/stupid enough to dive way beyond his level should be rewarded for that, he risks a lot and he gives up on a lot, he'll never have much gold if he makes it to the dwarven hall and he'll most likely die shortly after leaving it (most often because his equipment is very poor) (Maybe he doesn't have FA or SI, maybe he couldn't afford more than 3 cure crits...).

Allthough playing it slow at shallow depths can be really boring it still gives your character a much better chance at survival once you leave the first Dwarven Hall, so I don't think it's fair to reward him the same that someone who puts his life on the line every second that he plays.

- Warrior