Tweet
I played a bit of Angband back in the 90s (probably won it, mostly played rangers) and a bit more Zangband... But haven't played Angband since (though I have done other roguelikes, including newer Nethack versions recently).
I gave Angband 4.2.5 a spin. Played two high-elf mages - one online on angband.live and one on the desktop version (without tiles... text). Default (I think) options for both (other than tiles - ICK!). Ended up winning them both this morning.
angband.live char -
desktop char -
Both games were a bit different. On the desktop I ended getting speed early (and late - ended up with +37 unhasted) and the two dungeon books relatively early, and then I dived. Had worse luck on resists and stat gains and boosts. The angband.live character was stuck with low speed (I had +4 for a real long period, ended up +23 unhasted) but good resists and stats.
Game felt a bit easy compared to the 90s - part of it may be I am more experienced with running away from fights... And the other part is that Angband defaults now to "Preserve on" (I'm not sure this was an option when I played in the 90s, but if it was it wasn't the default way to play) - which makes abandoning a level super easy. Don't like a fight/setup? Stairs or escape some other way... I did read forum posts and consulted monster.txt throughout the game (+ also probed monsters with rod of probing).
On both games I scummed a bit too much on 4750-4900 for items. Could've easily cut say 25% of the game - I was overprepared for Sauron and Morgoth. On the desktop game Morgoth didn't do any damage nor summoned any monster - I think I had him in a setup he never has LOS on me in a loop with I did "thrust away" when he go t close. I can't say I did this entirely on purpose, it just ended up this way. On angband.live I had him in a corridor and he did do a few mana storms and summon some nasties (no uniques, as they were dead).
Did a lot of use of banish... Game from CL35 was basically banish large bunch of letters (including entire vaults which I scummed for), and teleporting away uniques I didn't want to fight (resistances or undead).
What annoyed me in the current version? Well, I'd say that mage damage output is quite low until CL45 and is still low after 45 - so you end up whacking easier stuff with your melee weapon. At least until the end game (45+), you really need wands to deal with unique at a reasonable rate, and wands against undead aren't great (no drain life or annihilate - so some dragon breath is needed while taking into account resists)... and recharging wands is a pain.
Recharging a stack of wands is not optimal in terms of charge levels and lost wands (and I didn't have enough wands at that point in the game to take on uniques with their HP pool with sub-optimal charging), so I ended up recharging them one by one after dropping the wands on a line on the floor.... This is tedious typing. Would be nice if there was some "recharge stack" spell or macro that would do this (even if it cost more time and mana, but just did it for you).
Anyway - this was fun. Maybe I'll try some other class(es) soon.
I gave Angband 4.2.5 a spin. Played two high-elf mages - one online on angband.live and one on the desktop version (without tiles... text). Default (I think) options for both (other than tiles - ICK!). Ended up winning them both this morning.
angband.live char -
desktop char -
Both games were a bit different. On the desktop I ended getting speed early (and late - ended up with +37 unhasted) and the two dungeon books relatively early, and then I dived. Had worse luck on resists and stat gains and boosts. The angband.live character was stuck with low speed (I had +4 for a real long period, ended up +23 unhasted) but good resists and stats.
Game felt a bit easy compared to the 90s - part of it may be I am more experienced with running away from fights... And the other part is that Angband defaults now to "Preserve on" (I'm not sure this was an option when I played in the 90s, but if it was it wasn't the default way to play) - which makes abandoning a level super easy. Don't like a fight/setup? Stairs or escape some other way... I did read forum posts and consulted monster.txt throughout the game (+ also probed monsters with rod of probing).
On both games I scummed a bit too much on 4750-4900 for items. Could've easily cut say 25% of the game - I was overprepared for Sauron and Morgoth. On the desktop game Morgoth didn't do any damage nor summoned any monster - I think I had him in a setup he never has LOS on me in a loop with I did "thrust away" when he go t close. I can't say I did this entirely on purpose, it just ended up this way. On angband.live I had him in a corridor and he did do a few mana storms and summon some nasties (no uniques, as they were dead).
Did a lot of use of banish... Game from CL35 was basically banish large bunch of letters (including entire vaults which I scummed for), and teleporting away uniques I didn't want to fight (resistances or undead).
What annoyed me in the current version? Well, I'd say that mage damage output is quite low until CL45 and is still low after 45 - so you end up whacking easier stuff with your melee weapon. At least until the end game (45+), you really need wands to deal with unique at a reasonable rate, and wands against undead aren't great (no drain life or annihilate - so some dragon breath is needed while taking into account resists)... and recharging wands is a pain.
Recharging a stack of wands is not optimal in terms of charge levels and lost wands (and I didn't have enough wands at that point in the game to take on uniques with their HP pool with sub-optimal charging), so I ended up recharging them one by one after dropping the wands on a line on the floor.... This is tedious typing. Would be nice if there was some "recharge stack" spell or macro that would do this (even if it cost more time and mana, but just did it for you).
Anyway - this was fun. Maybe I'll try some other class(es) soon.