Skill Experience Cost

[davelawson]

I've been swimming through the wiki for a while, but one thing I can't seem to figure out is the cost, in experience, of raising a skill.
Assuming an aptitude of 0, what is the formula to determine the xp required to raise a skill?

[battaile]

I've been swimming through the wiki for a while, but one thing I can't seem to figure out is the cost, in experience, of raising a skill.
Assuming an aptitude of 0, what is the formula to determine the xp required to raise a skill?

  Code:

const int exp[28] = { 0, 50, 150, 300, 500, 750,         // 0-5
                          1050, 1400, 1800, 2250, 2800,      // 6-10
                          3450, 4200, 5050, 6000, 7050,      // 11-15
                          8200, 9450, 10800, 12300, 13950,   // 16-20
                          15750, 17700, 19800, 22050, 24450, // 21-25
                          27000, 29750 };

[Lasty]

There's also (as I understand it) an added cost based on how much experience you already have. So, the amount of XP needed to raise Fighting from 0 to 1 is not the same for your level 1 character as it is for a level 27 character.

[davelawson]

Thanks.
If the costs increase, that certain muddies the waters.
I'm trying to figure out about where I will stand, skill-wise, given an amount of earned XP.
Maybe I should just jump into the code instead.

[TheDefiniteArticle]

maybe you should just play the game instead

[variouselite]

maybe you should not respond if you dont have something constructive/interesting to say.

[and into]

maybe you should not respond if you dont have something constructive/interesting to say.

Okay.

@ davelawson: If knowing the numbers battaile posted helps give you some sense of scope for a game you've just started playing, great. But beyond that those numbers aren't really important, which is the kernel of truth in TheDefiniteArticle's post. I think the most important general things to know about skill training are the following

1.) First order of business is to focus on getting your background's primary means of killing guys reliable and strong. For non-book backgrounds this means getting a good weapon to a good skill level (~12 at least if not higher) and for most backgrounds that start with a book this means getting their good kill spell (varies by book) to a low failure rate (somewhere around 5% IMO)

2.) When you seem to be pretty good offensively, usually you will want to get your defenses (AC and EV) up. After that it will depend. Eventually (sometime between character lvl 12 and 16 in my experience, but it varies so don't follow that religiously) you will want to allocate some experience in fighting for the HP boost.

3.) Try to fix definite priorities and attain them in order. (So only train for one thing at once—preferably with just one or two skills activated for training.) Some time around mid- or late Lair, or just after Lair, you will often find your character at a crossroads. Don't spread yourself thin—build on your strengths and shore up your weaknesses before branching out.

4.) All of the above notwithstanding, how you train your skills is far and away *not* the most important thing when it comes to surviving. Crawl is pretty experience-rich, and game play is focused on tactics much more so than character-building (unlike a lot of RPG and less-Rogue-like roguelikes that mix those evenly or even incline toward the latter). Skill allocation definitely matters but unless you really mess it up, it is not going to be a major contributor to losing—nearly always some tactical misplay will be the proximate COD even if strategic mistakes contributed.

If you are really confused at any juncture about where to go with a character post it as a character-in-progress on the YASD/YAVP board.

A warning pursuant to 4.) — A lot of advice on the tavern will zoom in on skill allocation and equipment. This is because those are easy things to communicate about in writing, so it kind of creates a bias that might be misleading at first glance. (Plus a lot of threads actively seek that out asking direct stuff like "Which skill should I train next?" with a character dump.) Good tactics are difficult to learn except through experience, but getting an online account if you don't already have one (free and easy to sign up!) and spectating to watch how experienced Crawlers play can certainly help.

[Bloax]

getting an online account if you don't already have one (free and easy to sign up!) and spectating to watch how experienced Crawlers play can certainly help.

As can asking the same people in the chat for advice about a situation, or even just in the chat of that one game where everyone is having a chat.

[duvessa]

My experience with Webtiles chat is that it gives even worse advice than you get here, which is really saying something.