New to Angband, but not to Rouglelikes

[Nero]

Dungeon Crawl is my favorite rougelike, and I am trying out Angband vanilla. I need your advice and tips.

Thank you,
Nero

[buzzkill]

Well you've come to right place. Browse the forum, search the forum, and ask your specific questions here, even the stupid ones. Welcome.

Most anything you want to know has probably already been asked and answered, though you may not be able to find what you're looking for. Access in game help by pressing ?, or browse the text files found in the angband/lib/help directory.

[Deranged Archivist]

Also a dungeon crawl fan

I actually came here intending to post about Dungeon Crawl, it's quite a coincidence to see a newcomer from those waters.

I've also been playing a fair bit of Dungeon Crawl- it's got a totally different feel to it than any version of Angband. But it has one feature that I think Angband and its variants could learn from- auto-exploration. Sort of a mini borg that goes until the next relevant player decision comes up.

There was an interesting article about it on the @ Play column, which covers roguelike games (and is a worthwhile read, by the way)

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/03/column_play_crawlapalooza_part_3.php#more

I actually did not know the feature existed in Crawl until I read this article, and just like the author described, at first it felt wrong, until I realized that it was taking over one of the tedious parts of the game, and getting back to me for the interesting parts. Now I've picked up Angband and Z+Angband and so forth again- and I still love them, but I keep tapping that 'o' key out of reflex.

I'm curious what you guys think- would Angband benefit from such a function? Available to those who want it, even if unused by those who don't?

One of the things that makes it hard to pick a band back up is that if you get really far, and die, it can be discouraging, which makes it hard to restart. But it's been far less painful to restart Crawl characters, because it's so much faster play.

What do you think? Would such a function destroy cautious habits in favor of faster gameplay, or is this a case where roguelike cross-fertilization would be a good thing?

[Nick]

You might like to check this thread.

[Deranged Archivist]

Thanks for the heads up! I will go examine the prior discussion.
(and also stop hijacking Nero's advice thread. )

[PowerDiver]

One of the things that makes it hard to pick a band back up is that if you get really far, and die, it can be discouraging, which makes it hard to restart. But it's been far less painful to restart Crawl characters, because it's so much faster play.

I recommend that you try to go as fast as you can. The game changes qualitatively around DL20 and then again around DL40. If you spend too much time in the early levels, you will develop habits that will get you killed in the later levels.

The initial part of your learning phase is building up your knowledge about monsters. You should consider any game when you get deeper than you have been before and you learn about new monsters to be a success. In the long run, you will need to develop a strong aversion to taking risks, but at the beginning you don't even realize what risks you are taking.

I recommend that you start with a half-troll rogue with stats [under Self] 17/14/10/16/16/10. This is not the best class-race combo, but it is sturdy and will expose you to the importance of light weapons, the pains of getting blinded and lacking see invisible, and gives you a chance to learn about casting spells from books.

[Nero]

Much thanks for the tip about the Half-troll rouge. I've been playing things like Dwarf and human warriors to get the feel of the game.

the tile sets do annoy me, because they are so small on the screen and its hard to tell whats is what some times.

Ill take any advice for noobs you have.

[Derakon]

Bottom line is, if you can easily kill stuff in melee, then you don't need to rely on spells to save your bacon. Spells are very useful, but relying on them is dangerous until your spell stat gets good enough to cast them with minimal chance of failure, which won't happen until the midgame unless you're playing a pure caster class (mage or priest). That in mind, your top stats are Constitution and Strength. High CON means more hitpoints, which directly makes you harder to kill. STR and DEX both increase the number of attacks you get (vital for being effective in melee), but STR also increases how much stuff you can carry; carrying too much stuff slows you down, which is very dangerous. You also don't need DEX to get multiple attacks -- for example, I have a half-troll paladin whose starting STR of...I forget, but it was over 18/50, was itself enough to get three attacks per round with a ilght weapon (whip, dagger, main gauche, spear), even though his DEX was 6.

Always carry a healthy stack of Cure Critical Wounds potions and Phase Door scrolls. Don't be afraid to run away.

Word of Recall scrolls are used to go from the town to the dungeon and vice versa. They take some time to kick in, though, so they aren't a guaranteed escape (still, if you're in trouble and you lack better options, read one and try to hold out until it kicks in).

Wands are good items to sell early on; light and they fetch several hundred AU each. Most weapons you find will be enchanted these days, which means they can also be worth selling. You can equip them and hit a monster to find out what their plusses or minuses are (obviously weapons with negative enchantments aren't worth much to stores). Armor tends to be too heavy and cheap to be worth lugging back to town, though.

Keep your light source fueled so you have a radius-2 light. Radius-1 light sources are dangerous because they can lead you to walk right next to an enemy before you even realize that it's there.

If you see potions of Speed or scrolls of Teleport in the black market, buy them. Carry some of the former with you for emergencies or big monsters; they'll double your rate of actions which makes fighting much easier. Scrolls of Teleport are a good fail-safe escape, so long as you aren't blinded or confused.

[Nemesis]

Much thanks for the tip about the Half-troll rouge. I've been playing things like Dwarf and human warriors to get the feel of the game.

the tile sets do annoy me, because they are so small on the screen and its hard to tell whats is what some times.

Ill take any advice for noobs you have.

Playing Angband is probably mostly like playing the Mummy species in Crawl... In Angband you never have to rush down to find food and so on... In Angband, you choose which level of risk/reward you'll be playing at... In many cases it might be better to play at more dangerous depths, because then you'll be more excited and constantly on your toes... When playing at "safe" depths, you'll get bored and boredom leads to carelessness... Where carelessness will lead you to, you can probably guess...

When it comes to tilesets, I'd actually recommend you to learn the ASCII tiles... Remember, a book lacking pictures is no less "real" than a comic book...

EDIT: Read Derakon's hints above, having ways to escape are vital to your surivival, but you know that already from other roguelikes...

[Zikke]

When playing at "safe" depths, you'll get bored and boredom leads to carelessness... Where carelessness will lead you to, you can probably guess...

Mexico >_<

[Nero]

Haha, the ASCII tileset gives me a major headache. Haha, I hated the mummy in Crawl. (Im a troll priests fan, kill and eat everything. haha) Thanks for all your help, and still feel free to keep posting those tips.

I can already tell this game has a great community.

[PowerDiver]

Don't knowingly take large risks. 1% chance of death is too large. If you are forced to do so, figure out what your error was that got you into the predicament.

Most of the time, phase before healing rather than heal while in combat.

Never test potions at full hp. Test scrolls and staves the first time on stairs. The next time you pick up a scroll it will be marked {tried} so you know.

Buy a scroll of remove curse to start the game if you can. A significant amount of jewelry is cursed in the early game. I'm still waffling on whether you should leave the scroll at home or take it with you on your first trip.

Angband is currently "the game of shopping". When your pack is full with stuff to sell, go home. That's true even if it happens after you clear the very first room of your trip.

Don't spend too much time on a level. The longer you are there, the higher the proportion of monsters that are awake, and the less free loot on the floor. If you feel the need to rest, it is best to rest on stairs and then leave the level when your hp/mana are regenerated, unless you have a specific objective. Don't worry about going up if you would rather go down. Ways down outnumber ways up by enough so that it is never a problem.

[PowerDiver]

Also, it is better to play the nightlies as opposed to the official release. Minor bugs get fixed in the nightlies, but only major bugs result in a new official release.

[buzzkill]

the tile sets do annoy me, because they are so small on the screen and its hard to tell whats is what some times.

If you generally prefer tiles, the 32x32 tile set is plain as day. You'll never have to l)ook at a monster again. Perhaps your configuration is poor. Edit the first few lines of the angband.ini file to resemble this (that's actually from DaJ, but I think that Vanilla's is identical), the important bits are highlighted...

[Angband]
Graphics=3[COLOR="DarkOrange"]
Bigtile=1[/COLOR]
[Term-0]
Visible=1
Font=8X16B.FON
Bizarre=1
[COLOR="darkorange"]TileWid=16
TileHgt=32[/COLOR]
NumCols=80
NumRows=24
PositionX=2
PositionY=-7
Maximized=0

[PowerDiver]

One more thing. Learn how to autoinscribe your spellbooks so that you cast by selecting the book with a number. m1f rather than maf