Level advancement question.

[Grey]

What happened is that Grey (or whoever) checked it for the first couple levels and told people he wasn't sure if it kept. All I was asking is if it has been checked now.

I emphasised that I wasn't sure if it kept because as far as I could tell there was no difference in the total xp gains over a whole game between my Good Learner and regular chars. This is very difficult to compare directly, of course, but I would have thought a 40% difference would be way more noticeable. I don't think anyone's gone to the effort to check.

I must agree with those that say the difference in actual levels is very small. Only over the first 10 levels will you notice a big difference in all these xp bonus factors. After that the xp differences between levels are so big that they don't make much difference, and it's only the slow troll levelling that's particularly noticeable. Later in the game it's mostly bosses that provide the vast wealth of xp, and as gut says using abuses on them factors in a lot more than certain character builds.

[Sadface]

Regarding the "You don't need levels, you just need items" thing...
I'm beginning to see how this can be true; normally levels seem to
bug me, but I'm clearing Darkforge with a level 12 healer at the
moment, so...

[Berserker]

What are the tricks to get more XP from big XP enemies (bosses)? Turn them invisible right before the kill? What else?

[nathrakh]

Turn them invis, slow yourself & have good learner talent.

There are atleast two exceptions: cat lord, which gives more exp (and is more dangerous!) the more you've killed cats.

Another one is shambling mounds that grow bigger if they come intact with lightning. If you trap one inside a small room and bounce lightning bolts it can give humongouns amounts of exp when killed eventually.

[sorear]

There is a place in experience calculation where it comes up with 2 for good learner and 5 for good + great learner; it should do xp += xp * X / 100 but instead it does xp += xp / X. It's really 50%.

[gut]

> Just to point this out... levelling doesn't matter
> much in ADOM.

My exp. says otherwise. Even for the PC's that can
start clearing DF at exp. level 8, they are a lot
more dangerous (and safer) at exp. level 12.

> you still will probably be doing the Tower around
> level 20

Especially for a new player, an extra 2 or 3 levels can
make a big difference. It's not just HP's. The game
just treats you differently (better) in a number of
ways when you are higher level. XP level is involved
in many internal calculations, though personally I'm
mainly aware of the more magic oriented ones.

> Being 1-2 extra levels when fighting wyrm...so what?
> Might as well have +2 speed or +1PV or +2 DV or something.

Not so true. The benefits you list are each worth 1 talent or
less. Having the 10 extra HP's (alone) that would come with
2 extra levels would be worth 3 talents. I find that to be an
accurate estimation of their worth.

> Candle makes such a huge difference, nothing else
> is really worth considering (well, Raven might be
> for some types of PCs).

And cup/book for some others, and dragon/sword for
others...

[Dudley]

don't forget wand, book.

[Doorsfan]

From my own experience, LvLs can be important
dependant on your way of playing. For example
assume that you are levling a troll like i did a while
ago - now at times age is not that much of an issue
(i mean if you can blast ghost x/y/z to oblivion, then
there's no prob) - but there's only one clear problem
about trolls.

Levels - it's a fact of that if you play a troll, it's likely
that you'll have to re-do your whole thougt of stratergy
towards visting places due to strict number requirements
(For example, what troll would hit 30 before having cleared
D:50 for unicorn q? What Troll would hit even 22 before deep
dive to even START THINKING of Mino maze?) - even the pyr-
amid can be quite a problem in question.

But assume that you're not a troll then - that you are a gnome
instead. Then you could end up blasting your self to lev 10 or 11
when you just get out of Puppy Cave - now that's quite cool,
you'll be close to having your lev 12 perk, you have a bit of hp so
that even if you're a weak char you do stand a chance of living -
and you also get talents. So over-all, there is really no minus to
getting levels faster in any way, more then it is acctualy only +.

And thoose +'s are quite heavy - seeing as of how you'd say "Oh, yeah
i always go hardy/etc. line or quick/etc." line - where as of you acctualy
get thoose bonuses from just getting a bit more of levels. My 2 cents of
turning a blind eye towards Xp.

[Silfir]

Well, of course there is no minus to getting levels faster. (Well, amulet of order working.) Who said that?

The point that was made is that one level - which is all the difference between Good Learner and not Good Learner starting from about level 10 - is a minor difference. If you don't have the tools to beat the tower at level 20, you still won't have them at level 21.

[zasvid]

Well, of course there is no minus to getting levels faster. (Well, amulet of order working.) Who said that?

I disagree. I don't like leveling too fast in the beginning (before dwarftown), because it gives the ancient dwarf an opportunity to give you a crazy monster for the first quest. It makes me sad when it happens, because often I get my first fireproof blanket in dwarf's 4th reward. Also, wand of fireballs isn't bad either.