0004186: Dangerous monster warning - Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup Tracker

Notes
(0014254) galehar (administrator) 2011-08-19 11:49	I've started looking into it and it's trickier than I thought. The current algorithm for ash tiers uses experience value and this is based on monster, not monster_info. And it can leak some info. For example if 2 identical monsters have rolled different hp and the higher one get pushed to the higher tier, then the player will see one more dangerous than the other for no apparent reason. Same can happen with random spell selection. Or spell set for ghosts and random pan lords. Not sure how to handle this.

(0014258) rriegs (reporter) 2011-08-20 07:13	While this does leak more information than the game presently offers up, is it really so terrible to clue unspoiled players into the fact that monsters that otherwise appear identical can actually vary in difficulty? The ability to distinguish difficulty levels in like monsters can be exploited in grind-oriented games---it's an essential strategy in FFXI, for instance. In DCSS, however, the only exploit I see is being able to decide at a glance which orc priests/wizards, etc., are safe to fight and which are best avoided for the time being. This can be rationalized, however: "That one looks unsure of itself; that one is crackling with magical energy." Plus, the discrete cutoff between difficulty categories is most often just exaggerating razor-thin differences in actual monster difficulty.

(0014301) galehar (administrator) 2011-08-24 10:35	It's in. I've taken care of not leaking info about fake Rakshasas and Maras, and when misled. Minor variance regarding rolled HP or spells is probably too minor to worry about. We'll see. Still need to make it more visible on the interface. What can be done: warn_dangerous_monsters option like in the OP colour monsters' name in the monster list something similar for tiles (I've been thinking of changing the monster panel to make it similar to the console monster list).

(0014503) dpeg (administrator) 2011-09-03 23:25	galehar: It seems to work well enough for me to resolve. There will be tweaks, but I don't think this item is the place for feedback. Shout if you wanted to keep this open!

Issue History
Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
2011-06-28 02:04	dpeg	New Issue
2011-08-19 11:49	galehar	Note Added: 0014254
2011-08-20 07:13	rriegs	Note Added: 0014258
2011-08-24 10:35	galehar	Note Added: 0014301
2011-09-03 23:25	dpeg	Note Added: 0014503
2011-09-03 23:25	dpeg	Status	new => resolved
2011-09-03 23:25	dpeg	Fixed in Branch	=> 0.10 development branch
2011-09-03 23:25	dpeg	Resolution	open => done
2011-09-03 23:25	dpeg	Assigned To	=> dpeg

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