don't taper XP cost of XL

[HardboiledGargoyle]

Getting to the next level takes about as much experience as you've accumulated thus far. At least, this is true up to about level 12. Then the exponential growth of leveling slows, turning into a pure quadratic growth formula. This is the point where many characters start feeling very strong, and could take a nerf, and lowering XL is a most straightforward way to do that.
using player.cc:

  Code:

3566     // Here's a table:
3567     //
3568     // level      xp      2^(level)*4
3569     // =====   =======    =====
3571     //   2          10       16
3572     //   3          30       32
3573     //   4          70       64
3574     //   5         140      128
3575     //   6         270      256
3576     //   7         520      512
3577     //   8        1010     1024
3578     //   9        1980     2048
3579     //  10        3910     4096
3580     //  11        7760     8192
3581     //  12       15450    16384
3582     //  13       26895    32768
3583     //  14       45585    65536
3584     //  15       72745   131072
3585     //  16      108375   262144
3586     //  17      152475   524288
3587     //  18      205045  1048576
3588     //  19      266085  2097152
3589     //  20      335595  4194304
3590     //  21      413575
3591     //  22      500025
3592     //  23      594945
3593     //  24      698335
3594     //  25      810195
3595     //  26      930525
3596     //  27     1059325

With exponential growth, reaching level 12 is practically unaffected, but at the point where you'd normally be level 15, you'd be level 14. Instead of reaching level 27 at the endgame, you'd be reaching 18. Roughly:

  Code:

 XP  XL(exponential)  XL(tapered)
==== ===============  ===========
 16k       12             12
 70k       14             15
260k       16             19
.5kk       17             22
 1kk       18             27

This would importantly affect a few things like stat gain, god wrath, certain gods like Ru and Hep, felid deaths, the maturation of certain species, notably demonspawn mutations. Some of these would need rescaling. For example, demonspawn may get mutations at levels 4 through 18. For stats I'd suggest let players pick 1 stat/level but reduce stat bonus from backgrounds.

[ontoclasm]

536,870,912 EXP for level 27 -- approximately 507 times as much XP as it currently takes.

[duvessa]

i think the effect on hp and mp is a little more important than the effect on stat gain

also piety gain for kills is XL-based (which is stupid, but it is)

[Gerad]

It'll be nigh- impossible to gain levels at a certain point -- just like Nethack!

[Rast]

FR: wraiths should leave corpses and when you eat them you gain a level

[HardboiledGargoyle]

yes, the main consequence is a natural way to taper HP growth, somewhat to taper natural MR, and I don't know why XL increases MP in the first place.

[chequers]

An XP curve that doesn't allow the typical 15-runer to reach XL27 seems broken to me. You might as well just set the level cap to XL21.

[VeryAngryFelid]

An XP curve that doesn't allow the typical 15-runer to reach XL27 seems broken to me. You might as well just set the level cap to XL21.

Why? I don't see any problems assuming Zot is rebalanced around typical XL of 3-runer.
It is boring to have the same XL during obtaining 12 runes, maybe we could even decrease amount of torment with less XL.

[HardboiledGargoyle]

of course most games would be won at XL 17 or 18 - so who cares? Let people have their 27.

[chequers]

Having extra levels available only via grind feels counter to dcss philosophy. No need to encourage farming.

[VeryAngryFelid]

Having extra levels available only via grind feels counter to dcss philosophy. No need to encourage farming.

Why? Do people grind abyss/pan/hell before Zot now if they are not XL 27 yet? Do megazigs make winning with 3 runes easier? Do you want to stop skill training at XL 27 currently? (I like the last idea but it was refused by devs many times).