One more example.
Player is Ice Elementalist wielding crossbow.
His Ice Magic and Crossbow skills are both level 10 filled to 99% exp till next level.
In this example, Crawl is right and just in punishing this foolish player because Crossbows are a waste of skill points if you have destructive, direct damage at your willworking fingertips.
Seriously though, what are you saying? The XP -> skill system is straightforward once you learn it, and the devs have gone to reasonable lengths in order to tweak it. I understand that it's not your preferred method of character advancement, but it seems like you're splitting hairs with these examples. Is it supposed to be self evident that one should advance in skill when shooting at Saint Roka but not at the weak Orc? I don't see it that way.
Let me give YOU an example of XP gain versus XP allocation.
We're all nerds here. We all remember how terrifying the prospect of eternal virginity was, right? (All due respect to the remaining virgins; it happens, put yourself out there, etc etc.)
So you were a virgin. The prospect of ever losing your virginity seemed incredibly daunting - and much of this had to do with the fact that you had NO IDEA how to have sex. You had no skill levels in lovemaking. You were so worthless at sex that even low-level harlots scoffed at you. But eventually you found a special someone who, after an epic battle, consented to make love with you anyhow.
Chances are high that you were terrible in bed regardless of how much you cared for this person. You simply had no idea what you were doing. But you still had sex! A major accomplishment, one giving you
1000XP.
But it wasn't just like you suddenly knew how to have sex after that one experience. It was more like a door had been opened for you and now you were able to practice fruitfully. It was a slow process, fueled by optimism and the inertia of being genuinely cared for by someone... but hopefully... after many attempts... some of them with subsequent low-level harlots... you gained a few skill levels in sex by SPENDING that inertia you'd gained from that one special experience with that special someone.
Crossbows shmossbows. Crawl Represent!
I know I sound boring but I personally really like the Adom system: every time you perform an action, there is a little chanche your related skill can improve, regardless of things like Crawl exp pool. This is after all enough realistic and doesn't force the player to behave innaturaly.
Skeletor, you don't need to convince me that ADOM is incredibly engaging. I literally threw my computer away because I'd been spending too much time playing that goddamn game... stupid Kelevaster.... that was like 9 years ago though
