My first game of Angband

[Icey]

I haven't played Vanilla Angband before or any variants, so I decided to try it and document exactly what happened:

http://iceyboard.no-ip.org/projects/rl_tales/angband/sari/

Note that this is very long and contains a lot of images

Negative thoughts:

The vast majority of creatures didn't provide any challenge. They just died on the first hit.

There didn't seem to be much differences between creatures. I encountered a lot of different creatures, but the only significant differences were that mushrooms don't move, one type of creature stole my money and novices mages can cast spells. I even met a named creature, but other than being a bit stronger it didn't do anything other than hit me.

I appreciate that I've only played it once at very low levels. I suspect more exposure to the game would allow me to appreciate the differences between creatures.

Positive thoughts:

There's a lot of useful documentation included with the game and on the site. The Wikipedia entry is up to date. I was able to easily locate what I wanted within the documentation (for example, when i wanted to know what to do with a quartz vein).

I encountered no bugs, other than the Vista Wall Bug. A solution to that was available and it's known, so I assume will be fixed in the next release.

The game is easy to get into. There's not a million meaningless character creation options. Using shops is easily understandable. I never got confused by something or overwhelmed. The novices guide is great.

Overall I'm very impressed. I look forward to exploring the game further and seeing how it progresses

[Fuma]

You made a tactical mistake with the spiders. Using the healing potions when low on health, you should go for the east corridor. That way you'd be able to kill the spiders one by one if they decided to follow you.

Also, instead of the second sword, you should buy scrolls of phase door. When surrounded by spiders, you read one and teleport a few squares away in a random direction. Hopefully away from the danger.

Another tip is that those long corridors ending with a wall are very probable to have a hidden door at the end, so just press 's' to search a few times and you should find a hidden door.

For the "too similar monsters" problem, you should play a mage. Then every monster you encounter will be dangerous :P

Oh, and you seem to mix up the roguelike and normal keyset. They are both listed in the command list. You're using the normal keyset, so check out the headers. To inspect an item you have to press I.

[AR_chie]

anyway... I have a lot of fun reading this site

OBTW Fuma, u have a really fun av

[takkaria]

Negative thoughts:

The vast majority of creatures didn't provide any challenge. They just died on the first hit.

Note that you ran away from the majority of them. And when you didn't run away, you got yourself surrounded rather than waiting by a safe corridor and fighting from there.

Another point is that you explored really very slowly. You'd find the game more interesting if you attacked more monsters more often -- you'd advance quicker, and as a result, be able to go down dungeon levels much quicker. You'd probably learn the game quicker, too.

There didn't seem to be much differences between creatures. I encountered a lot of different creatures, but the only significant differences were that mushrooms don't move, one type of creature stole my money and novices mages can cast spells. I even met a named creature, but other than being a bit stronger it didn't do anything other than hit me.

I appreciate that I've only played it once at very low levels. I suspect more exposure to the game would allow me to appreciate the differences between creatures.

What were you expecting?

[will_asher]

I'm the kind of person that, when he reads a description of a game like that, feels the urge to give a bunch of beginner's tips. I'll hold my self back from the more spoilery ones.

The only thing even remotely dangerous which normally appears on level 1 is the floating eye because it can paralyze you, but then again it doesn't move.

Others have mentioned always to fight groups of things in the hallway and not in the middle of them, and read a phase door scroll if you do get stuck in the middle of them.

The lack of interesting monsters is the main thing about the game that bothers me too, but I still think it's a fun game and the monsters do get some more interesting later on.

that thing that was robbing you without letting you see it, (I won't tell you what it is in case you want to find out for yourself). But then again, it's quite easy to find out for yourself because, though it's invisible, it can be seen from close range with infravision and any race except human and dunedain have infravision. The human race is supposedly the most simple, but the lack of infravision makes it significantly harder. If you want the most simple game, play a dwarf or half-orc warrior.

If you use point-based stats, use more of the points. You don't need 1000 gold to start with, higher stats is more important. Did you read in the documentation about the effects of stats? You might want to.

[takkaria]

Offtopic, but...

The lack of interesting monsters is the main thing about the game that bothers me too, but I still think it's a fun game and the monsters do get some more interesting later on.

I would like suggestions and/or monster definitions that alter this. I know you went through the monster list and changed it somewhat; major flavour changes like those wouldn't be good in V, but if there's a way to make monsters more interesting without making the game feel totally different, I'm listening.

[andrewdoull]

I would like suggestions and/or monster definitions that alter this. I know you went through the monster list and changed it somewhat; major flavour changes like those wouldn't be good in V, but if there's a way to make monsters more interesting without making the game feel totally different, I'm listening.

I would argue that the monsters that are currently in vanilla are interesting - its just too many of them appear at a depth where they are uninteresting.

I've posted about my 'rebalanced' monster list before, and I'd like more people to try it, if possible. It only changes the order the monsters appear in, the rarity, and the experience reward for killing them - everything else is untouched.

Andrew

[Icey]

Fuma:

Thank you for the advice, I'll use it in my future games.

When fighting the spiders, I managed to quaff one healing potion and get into a location where I could fight one at a time, but there was just too many of them. I probably should have waited by the east corridor, thrown a few bolts at them to wake them up, then let them come towards me one at a time.

takkaria:

I think I only ran away from the spiders at the end. Everything else I either killed or just left alone because it presented no danger.

I don't want to go into the interestingness-of-creatures topic too much, because I've only played one game and therefore have a very limited experience. I'm sure once I play more and get further into the game, I'll discover more differences between the creatures and meet a whole variety of opponents.

Thanks for the advice about killing creatures to progress faster, I'll do that.

will_asher:

Beginners tips are useful! I'm sure there's a massive amount of stuff to discover later, so a few hints to get me started is really useful.

I'll try out a dwarf or half-orc warrior and make sure I spend a lot more stats next time. I didn't realise that characters start with a weapon and armour, so I was being a bit too over-cautious. Half the fun is just learning how to play the game

[takkaria]

I would argue that the monsters that are currently in vanilla are interesting - its just too many of them appear at a depth where they are uninteresting.

I don't dispute it, really. I seem to do a terrible job of communicating my intentions. I was just soliciting more detail on the feedback, because new people's feedback is always useful for seeing things with a fresh set of eyes.

I've posted about my 'rebalanced' monster list before, and I'd like more people to try it, if possible. It only changes the order the monsters appear in, the rarity, and the experience reward for killing them - everything else is untouched.

I played it a little before I started work on 3.1.0 properly. I enjoyed it, and I'll play it again when I'm reasonably happy from testing the dev version.

[Bandobras]

I agree V is too easy at the start. I think it does not make learning the game easier for newbies, rather the opposite, because they don't learn survival soon, but instead die at various depths for various reasons and don't see a pattern. They end up thinking they can do better next time just by being more careful or having better luck. I remember my first 10000 characters were hobbit mages. I died a lot and finally, out of frustration, I stopped mindlessly meleeing monsters and started thinking how to setup stats and initial equipment so that I can fight in a more purposeful way.

Two uncalled for tips: first, you wouldn't guess, but the daggers you kept ignoring were probably better weapons than your two broad swords. When the guide tells you to buy cheap weapons it assumes you start with the standard 100 gp...

Second, torches are not refueled with flasks of oil. The flasks, however, have come other uses...

Bonus tip: you can sell stuff in the shops when you return to town.

Parting tip: the "boring place" should be read not as a technical description of the game level, but an in-game feeling your character gets when entering the new area. Not that it changes a lot... V has (IIRC) an autoscum option (accessed with '=', somwhere under that name) that does exactly what you wanted with the level generations.

May you reach stat-gain soon.

[TJA]

Again, i have that feeling that i need something different than V ...
Want persisant levels, want "realistic" weapons and damage (no whip and dagger ..) and also, i want to be able to save and reload

[Daven_26d1]

Negative thoughts:

The vast majority of creatures didn't provide any challenge. They just died on the first hit.

There didn't seem to be much differences between creatures. I encountered a lot of different creatures, but the only significant differences were that mushrooms don't move, one type of creature stole my money and novices mages can cast spells. I even met a named creature, but other than being a bit stronger it didn't do anything other than hit me.

I appreciate that I've only played it once at very low levels. I suspect more exposure to the game would allow me to appreciate the differences between creatures.

Interestingly you answer your own worry here. Yes, the creatures get more weird and wonderful later - usually, just when you start tapping away and not paying attention, something will do something new, kill you good, and its back to character generation.

Also, the more you play, the more appreciation you will have for more subtle differences. Its got a lot to do with what class/level you are when you encounter them, and what kind of equipment/stats you are toting. A monster which never seemed to be any kind of threat in the past can surprise you a year down the line... trust us, its worth taking the time to understand!

Just pay lots of attention and analyse everything - killing things in 1 hit by being overlevelled isn't satisfying, no... but killing things in the most stylish and efficient way possible when totally underpowered is what will give you the real rush!

Play a gnome mage, for instance, and when you see a snake in a room, don't blast it with magic missile, but take it on with your dagger. After a couple of practices, I'll bet you'll be feeling a lot more confident about your tactics, and a lot more interested in Angbands monsters...

[zaimoni]

....If you use point-based stats, use more of the points. You don't need 1000 gold to start with, higher stats is more important. Did you read in the documentation about the effects of stats? You might want to.

Eh...800-1000 gold actually is very useful (and the key reason I thought point-based was recommended over autoroller). That's about how much I need to purchase an "optimal kit" before entering the dungeon the first time; it's possible to have decent stats with 800 gold left in points-based with careful choice of class/race combination.

It's just a matter of knowing *which* stats deserve the money. The player-level documentation is not exactly fully informative

[Bandobras]

CON and STR is needed for every starting char. Then the casting stat or DEX or both. No way to max them even with all points spent...

Players usually find better equipment than you can buy for 1000 gold on the first trip down (at least with autoscum or in variants). OTOH, there is no way to raise stats for a loong time. And a couple of points in stats can net you another attack or lots of mana/HP. Compared to that the additional equipment is useless.

[Daven_26d1]

The most gold you should ever save in point based is an extra 100... then only with a mage or whatever that needs a bit of extra protection.

If you're playing Ironman however, 2000 gold(!) can actually net you a better performance - after all you only get 1 chance to shop. Its very important to pick the stronger races (high bonuses) and min-max the hell out of everything, though.