Win on first play

[Antoine]

Hi

Is there any record of a player winning Angband in their first game, never having played it or any other *band before?

I suppose they would need to be well spoiled and very cautious.

A.

[Hariolor]

Not sure how this would be verifiable even if someone made the claim...but I sincerely doubt it would ever happen...

[fyonn]

I've been playing for about 15 years and have only won once.. and I think that was accidental and it was back in the days of Globe of Invulnerability which was seriously unbalancing (read cool...)

I make no claim to being any good at games, I'm pretty rubbish actually, but still, angband is pretty hard!

dave

[Djabanete]

I think in order to win on your first try, you'd need to be impossibly lucky (Farmer Maggot drops Ringil), or excruciatingly careful. There are just so many things that can go wrong. Of course, someone with a lot of experience with other roguelikes (not to mention patience) could probably manage it.

A related question would be, what are people's success rates, that is (games won)/(games started)? Mine is almost definitely less than 1% --- I play suicidally and with a code of conduct that my friend always laughs at, and which generally gets me killed. When I play slowly I can win, but I always get bored near the end. It's somewhat depressing to think that every last one of my hundreds of characters that didn't win, died horribly somewhere along the way. If player ghosts existed, my savefile would have long ago become completely unplayable... I'd walk into the dungeon and get mobbed by angry "ancestors".

[Antoine]

I think in order to win on your first try, you'd need to be impossibly lucky (Farmer Maggot drops Ringil), or excruciatingly careful. There are just so many things that can go wrong. Of course, someone with a lot of experience with other roguelikes (not to mention patience) could probably manage it.

I bet we could train a really good Nethack player to win Angband on the first try.

1. recruit one of the all stars from r.g.r.n
2. give them lots of spoilers
3. get some of the best *banders to train them
4. explain how to play very conservatively so they are always over geared for depth
5. encourage them to post dumps and seek advice frequently
6. watch them kill Morgoth!

What do you reckon. A good challenge for oook?

A.

[Sirridan]

I bet we could train a really good Nethack player to win Angband on the first try.

1. recruit one of the all stars from r.g.r.n
2. give them lots of spoilers
3. get some of the best *banders to train them
4. explain how to play very conservatively so they are always over geared for depth
5. encourage them to post dumps and seek advice frequently
6. watch them kill Morgoth!

What do you reckon. A good challenge for oook?

A.

Maybe, but still iffy, this game is easy to make mistakes on that don't look like mistakes on the first go...

I'd actually like to see all of oook play one game. Get someone to actually be the player, and each level at a crossroads (vault, down stairs, hard monster pack) the player stops, posts a dump and screenshot and everyone has a go at choosing what to do next.
(Yeah, it would take *forever* but it would be interesting)

[d_m]

I'd actually like to see all of oook play one game. Get someone to actually be the player, and each level at a crossroads (vault, down stairs, hard monster pack) the player stops, posts a dump and screenshot and everyone has a go at choosing what to do next.
(Yeah, it would take *forever* but it would be interesting)

This would be made easier by Pete Mack's game recorder.

[TJS]

I'm sure there was someone on here about a year ago who won on their first go. I think they'd played a lot of roguelikes before and got a lot of advice from people on here.

[SaThaRiel]

This would be made easier by Pete Mack's game recorder.

Where do i find it? Or is it just a fearful illusion

[Tiburon Silverflame]

Antoine: I'd argue that the course of action you describe, isn't playing for the first time. He's just pressing keys for someone else, who HAS played extensively.

I'll concede familiarity with the roguelikes, and MAYBE access to the spoiler files. I'd allow what, 1/2 hour or so to discuss the nuances of the game (like the broad spectrum of player options and monster capabilities). But going much beyond that is giving too much knowledge.

Mind, I do agree with Sirridan: subtle but fatal errors can easily happen.

[Nemesis]

I survived NetHack the first time I played it. Of course, I didn't get the Amulet of Yendor, but I got out of the dungeon alive. My kitten also survived.

The second time I played NetHack I ascended to demi-godhood. But of course, I was spoiled enough to know what Wizard Mode was.

The first time I played Angband, I was eaten by kobolds on my first visit in the dungeon, I thought that saving my money and the torches I started with was a good idea. I was too used to playing Rogue, where every single item is scarce!

[Nero]

I've played a few rougelikes in my day, I started around a year ago with the original Rouge and then moved to NetHack, then to Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, then Dwarf Fortress (More strategy though.) now I am here and I deeply enjoy angband.

I've began over 15 characters to have them all fail at some point. (Usually in the early teen dlevels)

[ekolis]

I survived NetHack the first time I played it. Of course, I didn't get the Amulet of Yendor, but I got out of the dungeon alive. My kitten also survived.

Hehe, "ooh, an up staircase... wonder where that leads?"

Interestingly, you can get a better score by adventuring a bit, then chickening out, than by dying deeper in the dungeon :P

Now Angband, you can't even leave... it's like there's this magical forcefield around the town or something! And the only way to win is to commit suicide... Abandon all hope ye who enter here! :P

[buzzkill]

Hehe, "ooh, an up staircase... wonder where that leads?"

That exactly summarizes my first game.