Okay, this is a very tough concept to understand. Here is a rough description of how training vs experience works, as I've picked up from any number of posts in the forums:
Every time you kill a monster you get class experience for that monster, which is based on how tough the monster was. Keep an eye on this value - if you kill something and it's worth a lot more than you expected, then you may have just wandered into a much tougher area of the dungeon...
Every time you kill a monster you get skill experience for that monster in the skill you used to deliver the killing blow. You ONLY get experience for that killing blow - if you used another skill to weaken the creature first, then you don't get any experience in that skill when you kill the creature with another skill. I get the impression that skill experience for a skill is roughly proportional to class experience, but I can't be certain of that.
Even though it isn't mentioned anywhere, you also apparently get *some* experience just for using a particular skill, although I suspect not as much as you get for killing something with it. (Otherwise, a Healer who starts with just the MEND discipline would never get any better at Healing skill...)
Thus if you were a 4th level in Shortsword, at 5.00% of the way to 5th level, and you trained until no more gold was accepted, then your trained experience would be at 55.00% If you were at 80.00% of the way to 5th level, and you trained until no more gold was accepted, you would be trained to 130.00% of 4th level, which corresponds to 15.00% beyond 5th level. This is because it takes twice as much experience to get as far in the next level as it does in the current level.
So now the question becomes: What use is the trained experience? Well, when you receive skill experience, if you've trained beyond your current skill, you additional skill experience will be worth more than if you haven't. Thus, you'll go up in skill faster. (I wish I had the exact formula, but since this is all being typed in by memory from some vague descriptions posted in the forum, what do you expect?) I've heard this compared to "paving the road" ahead of you. Training paves the road so that driving forward on it (ie. practicing your skill) isn't as difficult.
There. Clear as mud, right? One last thing - while you'll be tempted to spend all the cash you can get on training, don't forget to put aside some in the bank for other things - eventually you're going to want to buy things like Con potions and the like, and you'll need the cash. I tend to bank roughly 1/4th of my gold - others have recommended 1/3rd.
Finally, if anyone sees a mistake, let me know. I'd also love to know what the formula is for trained vs untrained skill advancement, how much skill exp do you get from MEND and similar things, and any other internal formulas if people have them...
The following is entirely speculation, and as such nobody should take it seriously. If you have any evidence or observations which would prove or disprove these pieces of speculation, feel free to email me...
From some research and based on posts in the forums, I've come up with a possible training schedule. Note that it's most likely incorrect, but it meshes with some of the evidence collected so far. I suspect it actually levels off at some point, but can't be certain. Here is the table:
Another guess is that the above table of costs is a base *minimum* cost, and that choice of trainer and your charisma may modify these numbers upwards. But it's a fairly shaky guess...
Even less stable is a wild guess that skill experience required is based on the same table. Notice that the table is the same as the class experience table shifted one level. Thus you would expect that if you remained fully trained in your skill, and all experience received was due to use of that skill, you would remain exactly one level behind your class. This doesn't turn out to be the case always, however, so I suspect this will have to be revised.
Finally, I'm guessing that when you are untrained, you are slowed down by a factor of at least 4, and probably as much as a factor of 8. Thus, hitting the edge of the trained area would be much like hitting a brick wall - you're gonna stop dead. So train, train, train!
A recent change to the Drakkar programs appears to make skill gain and training a bit less onerous than it has in the past. There hasn't been enough data collected to define the changes as yet, however. More to come.
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