Best variant to play??

[robbio]

Hi I've just rediscovered angband after about 12 years in the wilderness, just wondering which variant is the best? or is that an unanswerable question? I've been playing Zangband because of the nostalgia attached to it. Is it a good variant or are there better? Also I'm playing as a beastman nature monk, is this a good idea? or are my race and class choices going to hinder me later in the game? cheers

[Djabanete]

Everyone's got their own favorite variant. The best thing is probably to give them all a go and then see which you like best. ToME/Fury, Heng/Entro, Steam, NPP, FA, and Un all have devoted fans and are worth a look (at least FA and Un are being actively developed, maybe others). Hellband is a newer variant with a lot of unique features that's undergoing active development. PosBand is extremely cool (monster races!) but no longer in development.

As for your current character --- Nature Monk is very strong throughout the game.

Good luck and have fun!

[Pete Mack]

Like Malak says, those are the primary groupings, though I would note that V is a pretty popular variant, that FA is in a group with O (if you don't like wilderness), and that NPP is again under active development.

Finally, if you need to knock off the rust before going in deep, there's Quickband/Ironband. A fast Quickband win makes for a nice lunch break.

[Nick]

If you like Zangband, too, there's also Z+Angband.

[robbio]

Nature Monk

Cheers for the response I'm gonna stick with Zangband while this character is still living because he's made it to level 16, what's a good level to be fighting on if i'm playing cautiously? I was wondering if there might be a problem later in the game getting all the resistance needed without being able to wear much armour or wield a weapon. Or are their artefact weapons that will be better than my martial arts? And artefact armour that will not disrupt my balance? As a monk should i be meleeing or doing this phase door tactic i've heard about? How can i take a screenshot to post a character dump?

[robbio]

dumps

or do you only get dumps when you die? oh and what potion restores exp, f***ing grape jellies keep sapping mine right before a level up.

[fph]

or do you only get dumps when you die? oh and what potion restores exp, f***ing grape jellies keep sapping mine right before a level up.

1) IIRC, 'C' and then 'h' should get you a chardump. There should be a reminder at the bottom of the 'C'harater info screen.
2) you're looking for potion of restore life levels
3) you'll run into far more trouble than grape jellies if you keep meleeing every monster. Kill them with a ranged weapon, or just ignore them -- there are plenty of other sources of XP.

[Derakon]

To make dumps, you want 'C' then 'f'. 'h' gets you additional pages of the character screen, to look at things like resistances, stat adjustments, and so on.

[Rizwan]

Wasn't there a poll in the forums for which variant was the most popular? If not can we have one?

[rdanhenry]

Gumband is obviously the best variant. I can give a more objective endorsement of Steamband. However, unless you can specify what *you* are looking for in a variant, nobody can give advice that will really be useful.

[konijn_]

Hi I've just rediscovered angband after about 12 years in the wilderness, just wondering which variant is the best? or is that an unanswerable question? I've been playing Zangband because of the nostalgia attached to it. Is it a good variant or are there better? Also I'm playing as a beastman nature monk, is this a good idea? or are my race and class choices going to hinder me later in the game? cheers

If you like Zangband, you should try Hellband. Its based on zangband minus wilderness plus Dante's Inferno and some mad powergaming in the endgame.

T.

[Orrus]

I vote for Entroband.

[The GP Fury]

Well, personally, I'd recommend FuryBand, but I'm a bit biased in that regards.

As my non-biased suggestion, Entroband or Sangband would be my favorites.

[cofresi]

Steamband is a welcome change from kobolds and dragons. The change in ambient (victorian age/pulp) makes it worthwhile as does the skill ladder system. Alas, it is no longer actively developed.

Sangband is an amazing variant where the player feels rewarded by the choices he makes while boosting up skills. It feels like a well crafted product with many options (crafting, investing in town shops !). The game is well documented and has a learning curve that makes sense. In short, learning this variant is part of the fun. (I am currently playing 1.0.0 unofficial beta 2).

[Tenka]

I love Hengband, it has a very intelligent control system, a huge world to explore with many special dungeon challenges, a massive number of races and classes many are totally unique to hengband and extremely interesting to play.
Many unique town features like casino, gladiator fights, museum, multiple towns.
I can't think of any major weaknesses


I've been playing Sangband recently and I really enjoy the flexibility it offers and I really wanted to craft some awesome gear but WOW it is hard. You're scrounging for every lousy exp point and pseudo ID is almost non existent
(it says that a 'small' investment in Perception gives pseudo ID, but I've got 20 points in it and don't have the effect) until much later leaving you with piles of [unknown] quality items you can't afford to ID. Lanterns don't seem to be sold in town either, or very very rarely.
Good in theory and potential but getting into is harder than it should be.