Start at clvl/dlvl 20

[Derakon]

I'm just tossing this out here as a feature idea: how about letting the player start at character level 20 and recall depth 20? Everything else would be identical to the normal start except the player would get an extra WoR scroll (to get them down into the dungeon). The thinking is that this would allow players to skip the early game, without giving them any notable advantages otherwise (and in fact, making the initial exploration for such a character much more dangerous as he/she would lack important equipment). I know some people consider the early game to be not very interesting, and even if it can be blazed through in a matter of an hour or two, that's still an hour or two of not very interesting gameplay.

I thought about other possible starting points, but past dlvl 20 I think it becomes impossible to decide on a "fair" starting character, especially since equipment becomes far too important a consideration. I can't see us ever deciding on a fair dlvl-40 set of gear, for example. The 20/20 start seems fair to me, in that anyone who is capable of playing it would have to be capable of taking a character to that depth "naturally" anyway, and so it shouldn't have any effect on scores aside from its turncount, which we could just set to 15k or so.

Of course, you could just take the new level-20 character and start diving from the town normally. I'm not certain what to think of that.

Thoughts?

[Therem Harth]

It would be nice, but I think it would be better to make the early game either faster or more interesting.

[Derakon]

I don't know that it's possible to have an early game that is a good introduction for newbies and also interesting for veterans. That's not to say that the early game couldn't be improved somehow, but I don't think it's ever going to get to the point where some skilled players wouldn't rather just skip it.

I suppose you could simply make Deep Descent available for sale in the stores.

[Djabanete]

Well, it's certainly easy to test --- just go to dlvl 20, level up to clvl 20, recall back and buy/sell/buy from the stores until you're out of money. I'm eager to see your results

[nobody]

i think 20/20 would be pretty cool.

[Sirridan]

20/20 file patcher

Simple python program. Named ttpatcher.txt, rename it to ttpather.py

do this: python ttpatch.py savefile

it will output savefile.2020, open that and enjoy.

It sets your xp to level 20 + 1, your max depth to 20, and your current level to 20 and adds 200 gold so you can buy one more scroll of recall.

Warning: May be buggy, may break a save file. Don't use on your main file with your monster memory, use a copy. Works fine for me on win7 with python 2.6.

Enjoy.

EDIT: 3.1.2v2, it may work for earlier versions, probably will in fact, but don't count on it *too* much.

[Zikke]

I think removing the early game takes away a key part of the game. People that find it tedious are usually the people that can blow through it really quickly.

[Derakon]

Ha, awesome. Thanks for the quick work, Sirridan. I'll have to give that a shot once I kill my current character.

And to note: I'm not necessarily advocating that we add this option to the game right now. It'd clearly need to be playtested, and even then there may be philosophical reasons (like Zikke mentions) why it shouldn't be added. Mostly I think it's an interesting consideration, and would like to see what the game is like without the first 20 levels.

[Sirridan]

Ha, awesome. Thanks for the quick work, Sirridan. I'll have to give that a shot once I kill my current character.

And to note: I'm not necessarily advocating that we add this option to the game right now. It'd clearly need to be playtested, and even then there may be philosophical reasons (like Zikke mentions) why it shouldn't be added. Mostly I think it's an interesting consideration, and would like to see what the game is like without the first 20 levels.

And this script I think accomplishes that testing spirit well enough, it's an extra step many novices wouldn't get how to do, not to mention would be unable to go further with. Even if it's never an official game option, the option is now out there.

[Hariolor]

Excited to try it. This may turn out to be a great solution to the 1-20 doldrums.

Also wondering if it might be possible to give an O-style prompt for the early level staircases as an alternative? Certainly the first ten floors can be skipped with impunity by even a CL1 character. A simple "Continue down? y/n" option might be enough?

[Nero]

I need help with getting this to run, I have it downloaded and I have it renamed as ttpatch.py and in my save game folders. When I open the file it brings up command prompt for a brief second and then shuts it down.

I am running:
Latest version of Angband (Vanilla of course)
Vista
Python 3.1


EDIT:
I ran it through command prompt and I get:

  File "C:\Users\Sam\Desktop\Try\ttpatcher.py", line 42, in <module>
    chgme = open(sys.argv[1], 'rb')
IndexError: list index out of range

[Derakon]

You need to run it from the commandline, and tell it where your savefile that you want to modify is. For example, on my computer my savefile would be in ~/Library/Preferences/Angband/save, so I would open up the command line, navigate to where the patch program is, and type "python ttpatch.py ~/Library/Preferences/Angband/save"

Windows' command line isn't identical to OSX's commandline. In your case, since you already have Python installed with proper file associations (I can tell from your error message), you'd not need to type "python" in the command above. Otherwise it's the same.

[Nemesis]

Finding the stairs to the next level isn't very tedious if you ask me. The most tedious things in the early game is maxing your stats and getting those important resistances. But then again, those things are basically what Angband is about, and I don't consider Angband a boring game.

[Sirridan]

I need help with getting this to run, I have it downloaded and I have it renamed as ttpatch.py and in my save game folders. When I open the file it brings up command prompt for a brief second and then shuts it down.

I am running:
Latest version of Angband (Vanilla of course)
Vista
Python 3.1


EDIT:
I ran it through command prompt and I get:

  File "C:\Users\Sam\Desktop\Try\ttpatcher.py", line 42, in <module>
    chgme = open(sys.argv[1], 'rb')
IndexError: list index out of range

You might want to use python 2.6 for this, I'm not sure it's syntactically correct for 3.1.

In any case, you need to supply a save file name for it, otherwise it won't work.

Try:

python ttpatch.py Savefile

edit: Derakon beat me to the punch

[Zikke]

Let's just give people a birth option to start with a full kit, a pack of consumables, and standing on dlvl 100 with all the other uniques dead.