ToME WikiRavenRed: Quick Idea. The ability of monsters to clone themselves and infest a level could be re-implemented as a monster spell. The spell would have multiple levels, all of which would have the same end EFFECT, but a different mana cost. This makes it easier for designers to regulate the RATE of monster breeding utilising both the mana "cost" and the customisable mana regeneration rates now available in the new monster design.
A possible interpretation of this could be that there could become a cap on the number of monsters that can grow from a single "seed" monster. As an example, the monster "boy band member" has the "clone" spell at level 1, which has a mana cost of 1. Each boy band member starts with 4 mana, and has a mana regeneration rate of 0. Thus, each boy band member can clone itself four times, and four times only, so that a maximum of 21 could emerge from a single member to infest Angband's Top 20. Or you could set their mana regen at a high rate to ensure quick, unlimited growth. Or you could set the "clone" spell to a higher mana cost to allow unlimited growth, but at a far slower rate.
Thus, breeding can be precisely controlled during monster design to either maximise or minimise inconvenience to the player. Sound like a good idea?
2c worth and counting...
DarkGod: Yup *me spanks ravenred for a monster list* ;>
KhymChanur: A simpler way of doing it would be to have teh MULTIPLY flag be the percent chance per round of multiplying.
RavenRed: True, but it also makes breeding monsters relatively unlimited on a level, which was ONE of the things I was trying to work around.
Orvin: Another approach would be to regulate the total number of descendants of a breeder that can be alive at any time, the idea being that too many cannot be alive because of competition for resources, but that, if the player kills some, the breeder can continue to breed because there is now less demand on the resources. You would have to keep track of the number alive, associate with each breeder a maximum number that can be alive, associate with each breeder a "rate" parameter, and provide a single function (for all breeders) depending on the rate parameter and maximum number that can be alive that describes the probability of breeding given that a certain number are alive. This function, giving the probability of breeding, could be, for example:
(M-a)/(M-a*(1-1/r)),
where M is the maximum number that can be alive, a is the number that are alive, and r is the rate parameter. This has the properties that the chance of breeding decreases from 1 to 0 as a increases from 0 to M, and the chance of breeding increases from 0 to 1 as r increases from 0 to 1.