It must be love (first post)

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  • cofresi
    Apprentice
    • Nov 2009
    • 52

    It must be love (first post)

    Hello everyone, this is my first time posting on this forum.

    It's been 13 years since I started playing this game, on and off. However, in spite of a long time hiatus and the many times I've removed Vanilla from my pc: I always keep coming back to this game. So it *must* be LOVE (who says the best things in life aren't free

    So, a bit about my *banding experience. I started with Vanilla back when Ben Harrison reworked the code and mostly through the rr9 years. I also played quite a bit of Zangband. Note, I play on a pc with graphics (booh, hiss... at ease!) and miss the cheezy sound effects on the current build. To think my mother used to refer to V as the AAAAAaaaaaaagh!!! game (mostly when I plowed through orc/troll pits with a HTwarrior). I also played some O (*that was light years ahead of its time), Kangband and Kamband (goofy fun).

    But being graphically/sound inclined, my fondest moments of these games were when Tim Baker had the Tk interface running. I miss the Bruce Campell quotes. I even added some bruce lee sound effects to spice up the monk on Z. But this is just reminiscing on days gone by. Currently I make do with the Agervais tileset and no sound on V.

    That said, I have yet to produce a winner. This has been partly due to an impatient playstyle. Usually I'd go for HTTank and learned survival early but would gradually grow tired of being a walking item vault and would stop playing. Or would die YASD for being unprepared/greedy. The other was Dunedain pally whose eternal leveling process would cause me to stop playing. The greedy & patience factor can be managed but not the preparation.

    That's where this forum comes in. Until reading many posts I realized I'd been doing it wrong all these years. Only now do i realize that elemental resists stack with temp resists. Or that some breaths do cap off at some point. Back then there was a newsgroup which made a difference but this site is so much easier to navigate. Plus the spoiler area is golden when I'm playing.

    Anyhow, 2 months ago I fired up Vanilla again after a long hiatus. Once again I grew tired of my HT Tank (very early on i must say). Then went the opposite way for a Gnome Mage... Interesting. The very few mages I made over the years all died horrible early deaths. But somehow in this version 3.1.1 everything seems to be clicking, the ego items are more useful now and stat gain feels less painful. That, and the fact that all my deaths have taught me something throughout the years, besides patience. So, playing a neurotic squishy mage who is master of cheeziness is paying off sofar (may the RNG not hear that)! This forum has aided in keeping him alive sofar. Before that, my only real mentor was the APWborg, whose cowar... ermm.. strategic withdrawals taught me quite abit of survival. Granted, I run away less.

    I have quite a few questions but this is just my longwinded intro. I'll save them for later. Suffice to say, I *still* love this game.
    He once had an awkward moment with a Morgoth, just to see what it felt like. Should he ever be cut, rubies would spill from his veins.

    He is: the most Interesting @ in the world.
  • Nick
    Vanilla maintainer
    • Apr 2007
    • 9634

    #2
    Originally posted by cofresi
    But being graphically/sound inclined, my fondest moments of these games were when Tim Baker had the Tk interface running.
    He has updated this just recently.
    One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
    In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

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    • cofresi
      Apprentice
      • Nov 2009
      • 52

      #3
      Originally posted by Nick
      He has updated this just recently.
      Many thanks for the Heads Up, Nick.
      I will try those out once my mage completes his run (hopefully by natural means and with Morgie's crown). Nice to see Tim back as well.
      He once had an awkward moment with a Morgoth, just to see what it felt like. Should he ever be cut, rubies would spill from his veins.

      He is: the most Interesting @ in the world.

      Comment

      • buzzkill
        Prophet
        • May 2008
        • 2939

        #4
        Originally posted by cofresi
        Many thanks for the Heads Up, Nick.
        Ditto, playing with the iso tiles is both cool and annoying. While I don't see myself playing a lot of TK (it's just too mouse dependent), it does have a few features that I like that could be moved into general variants.

        It's all about the information.

        The hunger/food meter. Though not particularly useful, the status area of the screen does have some free real estate, so why not use it.

        The weight/burden meter. This would be more useful. Knowing how close you are to your burden could better help you manage your inventory. I hope I'm not the only one who is constantly walking that fine (speed -1) line of burden.

        Last but not least, the floating HP meter. Having HP's represented on your character rather than off to the side of the screen is very nice. While I never hold down a key during combat, I often rapid-tap a key when fighting long lines of mostly-harmless enemies. During these rapid-tap sessions, I'm constantly looking from my character, to keep an eye on what I'm fighting and what may be sneaking up on me, to the status area to keep an eye on my hit points. At times, during long battles, I notice that while I'm trying to keep track of both that I'm not really paying close enough attention to either. I also miss big breaths sometimes. If the hp's were somehow right there in the center of the screen I think it would make things easier. I don't have any great ideas on how to accomplish this. I'm aware of the HP-warning, but I find it annoying. I play with graphics, so changing the @-color isn't an option. I think a sound effect HP warning might work well, (as well as sound effects to replace a lot of other messages, but that's a thread of it's own) but I don't believe that there is currently a trigger for it. That's my 2 cents.
        www.mediafire.com/buzzkill - Get your 32x32 tiles here. UT32 now compatible Ironband and Quickband 9/6/2012.
        My banding life on Buzzkill's ladder.

        Comment

        • cofresi
          Apprentice
          • Nov 2009
          • 52

          #5
          Originally posted by buzzkill
          ... it does have a few features that I like that could be moved into general variants. It's all about the information.

          The hunger/food meter. Though not particularly useful...

          The weight/burden meter. This would be more useful. ...

          Last but not least, the floating HP meter. Having HP's represented on your character rather than off to the side of the screen is very nice.
          I couldn't resist, and installed omnibandTk. To my surprise, It ran right off the bat without the need for additional libraries. The use of smooth scrolling graphics adds a lot to the game, plus the customizable sounds. As usual I rolled a HTwarrior for O (HOassassin was a close choice) and a mindcrafter on Z (nibelung just to give mindflayers a break). These are just Dry Runs as my mage on V 3.1.1 is priority. Kudos to Tnb for the update.

          The idea for the weight/burden meter is very useful on any variant, i'm regularly opening the inventory screen just to check my limits.

          The floating HP bar on Tk is VERY distracting but by that same token Extremely useful. A mana bar under the players feet might also prove useful.

          The Food bar seems silly at first but after a recent event I actually thought adding it to reguar V might prove useful (this may be the topic of a new thread). My mage recently found Kelek's on a Division X vault. Ungoliant was convinently boxed in and after careful forum research I realized I won't die from a single breath. Braving the odds I emptied what was left of my quiver and blasted her with manastorms bringing her down to halfstrength and was hoping to finish her off with magic/healing pots. But I became gorged and she occasionally double moved increasing the hurt and thus my consumption of heal pots. In the end I burned my stack of heal pots and had her TPO'd.

          As invigorating as that was (my level 46 squishy mage can hold his own with an UltraHeavy Hitpoint Unique) there have been similar threads about becoming gorged while fighting morgoth, some have suggested bringing salt water potions! There must be a better way, perhaps becoming gorged should only apply to foodstuff/shrooms, while still allowing potions to provide some nutrition for starving lowbies. Otherwise the foodbar might be a workaround to avoid becoming gorged.
          He once had an awkward moment with a Morgoth, just to see what it felt like. Should he ever be cut, rubies would spill from his veins.

          He is: the most Interesting @ in the world.

          Comment

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