Fonts and colors questions

[Whatproblem]

Hello all,
complete newbie here. My two questions are related but I don't think they are exactly the same question. First question: I have been playing Nethack for a long time but never tried Angband until this week. Having tried it, I can't get past the way it changes the font, font color and background color I was using in my terminal window when it starts up. Is there any way to make Angband respect the terminal window font and colors I was using, the way Nethack does?

Slightly different question: in fact I would prefer not to have any color in Angband at all (except for the terminal window foreground and background colours). That is the way I play Nethack, without any colors or graphics, and I much prefer it that way. Is Angband still playable that way, and if so how does one configure that?

I have tried both the -mibm and -mgcu options. -mibm doesn't seem to work (I get the 'unable to prepare any display module' error) and with -mgcu option Angband still switches to its own font and colors.

I have access to both Windows and Linux, and could recompile on the latter if necessary.
Thanks in advance for any help.

[d_m]

So on Linux, if you want to play in a terminal, you should have total control.

First of all, when you say "changes your font" do you mean literally changes your font? From what I know, it should be impossible for Anband (in GCU mode, e.g. -mgcu) to change fonts in your xterm, gnome-terminal or whatever you're using. If this is what's happening, please send two screenshots (one of your terminal with some ls output or something, and one with angband running in it). Maybe I misunderstood you.

As for colors: If you give something like "TERM=vt100" before the angband, you should have Angband not use any colors. I think the game is probably easier with colors, but YMMV.

I have no idea how to address these issues in Windows.

[will_asher]

I wouldn't recommned playing without colors. A lot of monsters use the same letters. At least if you play without colors, make sure you use the monster list in a side window. (which is a good idea anyway)

[Whatproblem]

Thanks d_m and will.

I'm happy to stick with Linux, and TERM=vt100 solves both my problems - it preserves my font and suppresses any colors other than my pre-existing foreground and background colors.

The font still looks different to me when I don't use TERM=vt100, see attached screenshots. Or is it just that Angband is displaying everything in bold, or with extra brightness or something like that? My 'before' font is Courier New (and my 'before' font color is white 255, 255, 255).

I have a different problem now however! When I try to move using the vi keys, I can't. Instead, when I press 'k', for example, to move up, it asks me: "Destroy which item?"

What have I done wrong now? Thanks in advance for your help.

[ekolis]

There are two sets of keyboard commands in Angband; the one you're used to is called the "roguelike" keyset for some reason - I guess it was used in the original Rogue? To switch to it, you'll need to go into the options screen (press the = key) and under "user interface options" there should be a toggle for "use roguelike keyset".

[d_m]

The font still looks different to me when I don't use TERM=vt100, see attached screenshots. Or is it just that Angband is displaying everything in bold, or with extra brightness or something like that? My 'before' font is Courier New (and my 'before' font color is white 255, 255, 255).

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're noticing the font being bold.

I have a different problem now however! When I try to move using the vi keys, I can't. Instead, when I press 'k', for example, to move up, it asks me: "Destroy which item?"

I'm pretty sure if you take ekolis' advice and choose the rogue keys (press = to get to preferences, a to go to interfaces, and b to select the rogue keys) then you'll get vi movement keys.

[Whatproblem]

Thanks ekolis and d_m, all problems now solved and I'm ready to explore the game.

However I'm still not convinced that without TERM=vt100 Angband is just using the font I had, made bold. If I change my terminal window font to Courier New BOLD, then start Angband, the font looks different again: it is now even "bolder"! I wouldn't have thought this was possible if it is still Courier New, i.e. there is no such thing as Courier New Bold Bold is there?!

[ekolis]

Some fonts can have varying levels of boldness... at least, CSS supports multiple levels of boldness than just "regular" and "bold", so I'd assume that there are fonts that actually have that feature as well!