Re: [Crawl-ref-discuss] scoring

[Lemuel P. <lem...@gm...>]

Glad to see there's apparently a consensus on the general approach. I expect
to propose an exact formula (or more likely a menu of formulas) later this
week.


> * Getting many runes equals a high score.
>   (Yes, there probably was grinding involved, but we should not penalise
>   that too much.)


Yes, for winners, number of runes and speed should be the main (or at the
limit, only) factors in score.


>
> * Penalise identical runes: each further copy only gives half of the one
>   before.


Is there some reason to reject the stronger form, *no* additionaol score for
duplicate runes?


>
> * xp should factor in: doing Slime and Elf, even if runeless, should make
>   an impact on two otherwise similar games (but see below).


XP should certainly factor in for non-winners -- my goal in general would be
for non-winner (or winner equivalent) scores to be more or less unchanged
from the current system. I don't know that there needs to be a special bonus
for clearing Elf:7.


>
> * We should give (large!) bonuses for speed: I think that starting with
>   an additive formula (score_xp+score_runes+score_speed) is better than
>   a factor (speed_factor*current_score). An example:
>   score_speed = (10^6) * 2^(200.000/turncount)
>   Many games clock in around 100.000 turns. These would get bonuses of
>   around 400.000 points - a figure which can matter.
>   Really quick games (50.000 turns) would get a bonus of 1.600.000, enough
>   to compete with today's 11-runers.


Seems reasonable. I certainly agree that an additive speed bonus will be
easier to balance correctly.


> As I said, doing Slime:6 without getting a rune should be reflected.
>

Is there any good reason not to just guarantee a rune in Slime?


>
>
> > Here are two options to prevent that:
> >
> > a) XP should only contribute score up to CL27, but any character that
> > wins with the orb should be counted as if they were CL27.  (Easy)
>

Seems reasonable.


>
> PS: in the most ideal system, getting 15 runes as quick as possible should
> pay much more than getting three runes and escape real quick. (Just as a
> remainder to not _over_hype speed.)
>

Right, my preferred appraoch would be for the speed bonus to mainly
distinguish between winners with the same number of distinct runes. In
general, winners with more distinct runes should (almost) always outscore
winners with fewer.

One other thought -- should we boost the score bonus for high-value items or
certain other categories of items? E.g. fans, lamps, bottled efreets, etc.
would be more interesting if you knew that bringing them with you out of the
dungeon would significantly boost your score.

Lemuel