Tweet
Welcome to the Angband forum. People here are friendly and helpful, and someone will usually try to answer any questions you have. But some questions are very common, so it's worth a quick skim of this document in case yours is one of those. If you have time and inclination to do some more research, the forum has an advanced search function which should enable you to find posts relevant to your question. If your question is not answered here or in any previous threads you can find, feel free to start a new thread.
This FAQ is currently about Angband version 3.3.0, and is largely replicated in faq.txt in the source and binary downloads. There's also in-game help available by pressing '?', and a PDF of the same help is shipped with the binary download.
1. Issues and problems
a. How/where do I report a bug?
If you're playing an official numbered version (3.2.0, 3.3.0, 3.3.1 etc.), please post your bug reports and comments/suggestions in this (Vanilla) forum.
If you're playing a "development" version (anything you built yourself, or got from http://rephial.org/nightlies or http://beent.je/macangbandnightly), please post your bug reports in the Development forum. Please make sure you give the revision ID of the version you are playing (this is a long hex string which is visible on the download pages, in chardumps or by pressing V in the game).
Please start a separate thread for each significant bug - this will make it easier for other people to spot your reports and avoid duplicating them in their own "my observations" thread.
If someone else confirms that they can reproduce your bug, please consider opening a ticket for it at http://trac.rephial.org. You'll need to register an account there for opening and commenting on tickets. Please read both these guides before opening a ticket. Finally, *please* check for duplicate tickets by using this list. If at all possible, please comment on an existing ticket or re-open a closed ticket rather than create a new one. Unless you are playing a very new version, it is likely that someone has encountered your bug before.
Bug reports should always include your current operating system, what version the problem appeared in, and the best steps you can figure out to reproduce the bug. Savefiles that show the problem are very helpful, because they help tracking bugs down.
b. I hate the store interface!
Sorry, but it's staying that way for now.
c. Dark monsters are hard to see.
Fix (reduce) the alpha on your screen, or use the "Interact with colors" screen under the options ('=') menu. (On older versions, use the '&' command.) Navigate to the colour you want to brighten up using 'n' and increase the color intensity with r(ed) g(reen) b(lue).
d. I want old-school '#'s as wall tiles, not solid blocks!
Please see this old thread or this newer one.
e. I use Vista and my display is messed up.
See if this thread helps.
f. I play in the console on Linux, and the colours are screwed up.
It's very likely that your console is not set to display 256 colours. Try setting the TERM environment variable to "xterm-256color" in your shell before starting angband (in bash this is "export TERM=xterm-256color").
g. I'm playing in a terminal and the Escape key isn't working as it should - I have to press it twice, or just wait a while.
This is a feature of terminals to allow you to enter keypresses that can't be sent directly. Use the backtick '`' key instead - it's equivalent in every way to Escape. (N.B. This doesn't apply in Sangband, or NPPAngband.)
h. Is there a way to disable that thing that pops up when you hit the enter key?
Yes - by re-mapping the Enter key to do nothing. Go into the options menu, choose "Interact with keymaps", then "Create a keymap". Press Enter at the "Keypress" prompt and a single space as the "Action". In short: `=m8<enter> <enter>`.
Then you'll probably want to choose to "Append keymaps to a file" so that it persists for next time you load the game. This just replaces the default action of Enter with a "do nothing but don't tell me about help" action. If you want to keep the menu available on another key, you can also remap your chosen keypress to the '\n' action.
i. I have a problem with the numpad or the roguelike keyset or a non-English keyboard or inscriptions or a keymap or pref files or mouse movement or ... hey, where did macros go?
We apologise for this. The game's input layer, which deals with keypresses, mouse clicks, commands etc., has grown haphazardly over two decades. It was partially rewritten for 3.3.0, but it will take a long time to iron out all the issues, and we took a decision not to postpone 3.3.0 indefinitely to wait for this.
Macros have gone, on the grounds that there should be nothing you used to do with a macro that you cannot now do with a keymap. If you think this isn't the case, or you have any other issues with the input layer which nobody seems to have mentioned in previous threads, please start a thread about it.
And yes, we know that keymaps need better documentation. This is coming soon.
j. This version is rubbish, you've wrecked everything. The older versions were much better.
We have some good news for you: all known previous versions are available from http://rephial.org/release, so you can play whichever version you prefer.
k. My savefile from version x.y.z won't load in 3.3.0
Sorry about that. Like the input layer, the loading and saving code has been rewritten. It should in future load any savefiles from 3.2.0 onwards, but unfortunately nothing older. If you really want to load an older savefile, try loading it in successive versions - this isn't guaranteed to work, but it might for 3.1.0 or 3.1.1 savefiles.
If you are having trouble loading a 3.2.0 savefile in 3.3.0, we'd like to know about it. Please start a fresh thread in this (Vanilla) forum and attach the savefile. Thanks.
l. How do I get graphical tiles? I hate ASCII!
This depends on your chosen platform. If you are playing the console version (-mgcu) or the x11 version (-mx11), you're out of luck - neither has tile support. The SDL, GTK, OSX and Windows versions all have menus which allow you to select your chosen tileset.
As with the input layer, improvements to graphics handling are a work in progress. If something isn't working right, please check whether anyone else has mentioned it and then start a new thread if necessary.
2. Gameplay
a. Hey, my character starts without any equipment! What's up?
You've turned on the no_selling option. Since you couldn't sell any equipment you didn't want, you start out with nothing (and more money instead).
[B]b. I keep being told "You are too afraid to attack the [foo]!" - why?[B]
You are Afraid. Either something has cast a spell on you, or you are wearing something which makes you afraid. If the former, it will go away in time. If the latter, it will go away when you take off the item which causes it. You can 'I'nspect your equipment, which may reveal the offending item.
c. How do randarts work?
Each "standard" artifact in artifact.txt is randomised, i.e. given a new set of abilities on a randomly-chosen base item. (Only the rings, amulets and light sources keep their base item types.) The idea is that the randart has approximately the same power/utility level as the original, but of course there is no guarantee that it will actually be useful to you when you find it. The total number of artifacts will be the same, but no guarantee that you'll find them all.
At the moment randarts are an alternative to the standard artifact set, they do not mix. Randart games are generally viewed to be a type of challenge game, because you can't ever think "hey this will be ideal once I find Thorin, so I'll keep it". Anecdotal evidence holds that randarts are currently slightly harder to find than standarts, but this may just be because of the randomness (and should be addressed in 3.4 if it is real).
d. Hey, I can see all the store contents while I'm in the dungeon - surely this should be a cheat option?
What you can see in the dungeon is the store contents when you were last in town. This is purely to save you writing them down - there's no guarantee that any of it will still be there.
There is a mildly odd side effect of this, which is that you can see all the store contents at the start of the game (and every time you return to town), before you've ever visited the stores. This minor bug will be fixed one day.
e. What is "ironman"
It's a general term used for challenge play, i.e. with more restrictions than the game normally has. The basic ironman restriction is that there are no up stairs, and you cannot recall to town by magical means. Other options include not allowing any initial shopping before descending the dungeon (no_stores), and not allowing artifacts to be generated. All these can be toggled in any combination in the birth options menu.
People playing challenge games often invent restrictions of their own: taking the first down staircase seen, not using missiles, or spellbooks, or ego items etc. The only limit is your imagination: winning naked would be hard - but the game has been won with a shovel ...
3. Development
a. What are the current plans for the game?
Ever-changing and subject to U-turns with public dissent. See http://trac.rephial.org/roadmap. Top of the list for 3.4 is item generation, and specifically smoothing out the drops of ego and artifact items.
b. How do I suggest an idea or feature?
Start a thread about it. If people think it's a good idea, it will generally get some discussion; if they don't, it won't. The developers keep an eye on the forums, and ideas deemed OK will get filed for future implementation. Sometimes a suggestion may not be right for the game, though. Some suggestions would change aspects of Angband that are essential to its nature; Angband has a long history, and so has developed a certain character over the years. Some suggestions might make a good game, perhaps even a better game than Angband, but would make a game that is not Angband. To some extent, variants exist to address this, but even so they tend to adhere to the core Angband principles. (No, those aren't written down anywhere - and whatever principle you come up with, you can almost always find a variant that's changed it.)
c. How do I get a copy of the source code?
The latest release's source is linked from the page at http://rephial.org. To get the bleeding-edge development code, clone the git repository at git://github.com/angband/angband.git
d. How do I clone from github and compile the game?
See this thread.
e. How do I contribute to the game?
First, join the mailing list [http://angband.oook.cz/mailman/listinfo/angband-dev] and/or drop by#angband-dev on freenode IRC. The mailing list is very low traffic. By contrast, the IRC channel is almost always occupied - even if there is no activity, several people are usually idling and someone is likely to respond.
If you already have a patch you want to be included, please submit a pull request on github, post it in the Development forum, attach it to the relevant ticket on trac, or send it to the mailing list. Patches should be in the form of a unified diff against the git staging branch (e.g. using git diff). Please be careful to follow the Angband coding guidelines. All contributions to individual files are accepted under the licences used in the file header. Make sure you're OK with this before sending in patches.
If the patch is a bugfix, then you can reasonably expect it to be integrated into the development tree. If it's more involved, and the feature is not one that the next version is planned to have, the patch may go through several reviews before being incorporated. It may also just be unsuitable for Angband - in which case, please don't take rejection badly; you may just be better off writing a variant.
Non-code activites are different. Documentation can be written on the wiki, or if you're a graphics designer (and they're always welcome) then please post about your work. See also this thread for more ideas on how to contribute.
This FAQ is currently about Angband version 3.3.0, and is largely replicated in faq.txt in the source and binary downloads. There's also in-game help available by pressing '?', and a PDF of the same help is shipped with the binary download.
1. Issues and problems
a. How/where do I report a bug?
If you're playing an official numbered version (3.2.0, 3.3.0, 3.3.1 etc.), please post your bug reports and comments/suggestions in this (Vanilla) forum.
If you're playing a "development" version (anything you built yourself, or got from http://rephial.org/nightlies or http://beent.je/macangbandnightly), please post your bug reports in the Development forum. Please make sure you give the revision ID of the version you are playing (this is a long hex string which is visible on the download pages, in chardumps or by pressing V in the game).
Please start a separate thread for each significant bug - this will make it easier for other people to spot your reports and avoid duplicating them in their own "my observations" thread.
If someone else confirms that they can reproduce your bug, please consider opening a ticket for it at http://trac.rephial.org. You'll need to register an account there for opening and commenting on tickets. Please read both these guides before opening a ticket. Finally, *please* check for duplicate tickets by using this list. If at all possible, please comment on an existing ticket or re-open a closed ticket rather than create a new one. Unless you are playing a very new version, it is likely that someone has encountered your bug before.
Bug reports should always include your current operating system, what version the problem appeared in, and the best steps you can figure out to reproduce the bug. Savefiles that show the problem are very helpful, because they help tracking bugs down.
b. I hate the store interface!
Sorry, but it's staying that way for now.
c. Dark monsters are hard to see.
Fix (reduce) the alpha on your screen, or use the "Interact with colors" screen under the options ('=') menu. (On older versions, use the '&' command.) Navigate to the colour you want to brighten up using 'n' and increase the color intensity with r(ed) g(reen) b(lue).
d. I want old-school '#'s as wall tiles, not solid blocks!
Please see this old thread or this newer one.
e. I use Vista and my display is messed up.
See if this thread helps.
f. I play in the console on Linux, and the colours are screwed up.
It's very likely that your console is not set to display 256 colours. Try setting the TERM environment variable to "xterm-256color" in your shell before starting angband (in bash this is "export TERM=xterm-256color").
g. I'm playing in a terminal and the Escape key isn't working as it should - I have to press it twice, or just wait a while.
This is a feature of terminals to allow you to enter keypresses that can't be sent directly. Use the backtick '`' key instead - it's equivalent in every way to Escape. (N.B. This doesn't apply in Sangband, or NPPAngband.)
h. Is there a way to disable that thing that pops up when you hit the enter key?
Yes - by re-mapping the Enter key to do nothing. Go into the options menu, choose "Interact with keymaps", then "Create a keymap". Press Enter at the "Keypress" prompt and a single space as the "Action". In short: `=m8<enter> <enter>`.
Then you'll probably want to choose to "Append keymaps to a file" so that it persists for next time you load the game. This just replaces the default action of Enter with a "do nothing but don't tell me about help" action. If you want to keep the menu available on another key, you can also remap your chosen keypress to the '\n' action.
i. I have a problem with the numpad or the roguelike keyset or a non-English keyboard or inscriptions or a keymap or pref files or mouse movement or ... hey, where did macros go?
We apologise for this. The game's input layer, which deals with keypresses, mouse clicks, commands etc., has grown haphazardly over two decades. It was partially rewritten for 3.3.0, but it will take a long time to iron out all the issues, and we took a decision not to postpone 3.3.0 indefinitely to wait for this.
Macros have gone, on the grounds that there should be nothing you used to do with a macro that you cannot now do with a keymap. If you think this isn't the case, or you have any other issues with the input layer which nobody seems to have mentioned in previous threads, please start a thread about it.
And yes, we know that keymaps need better documentation. This is coming soon.
j. This version is rubbish, you've wrecked everything. The older versions were much better.
We have some good news for you: all known previous versions are available from http://rephial.org/release, so you can play whichever version you prefer.
k. My savefile from version x.y.z won't load in 3.3.0
Sorry about that. Like the input layer, the loading and saving code has been rewritten. It should in future load any savefiles from 3.2.0 onwards, but unfortunately nothing older. If you really want to load an older savefile, try loading it in successive versions - this isn't guaranteed to work, but it might for 3.1.0 or 3.1.1 savefiles.
If you are having trouble loading a 3.2.0 savefile in 3.3.0, we'd like to know about it. Please start a fresh thread in this (Vanilla) forum and attach the savefile. Thanks.
l. How do I get graphical tiles? I hate ASCII!
This depends on your chosen platform. If you are playing the console version (-mgcu) or the x11 version (-mx11), you're out of luck - neither has tile support. The SDL, GTK, OSX and Windows versions all have menus which allow you to select your chosen tileset.
As with the input layer, improvements to graphics handling are a work in progress. If something isn't working right, please check whether anyone else has mentioned it and then start a new thread if necessary.
2. Gameplay
a. Hey, my character starts without any equipment! What's up?
You've turned on the no_selling option. Since you couldn't sell any equipment you didn't want, you start out with nothing (and more money instead).
[B]b. I keep being told "You are too afraid to attack the [foo]!" - why?[B]
You are Afraid. Either something has cast a spell on you, or you are wearing something which makes you afraid. If the former, it will go away in time. If the latter, it will go away when you take off the item which causes it. You can 'I'nspect your equipment, which may reveal the offending item.
c. How do randarts work?
Each "standard" artifact in artifact.txt is randomised, i.e. given a new set of abilities on a randomly-chosen base item. (Only the rings, amulets and light sources keep their base item types.) The idea is that the randart has approximately the same power/utility level as the original, but of course there is no guarantee that it will actually be useful to you when you find it. The total number of artifacts will be the same, but no guarantee that you'll find them all.
At the moment randarts are an alternative to the standard artifact set, they do not mix. Randart games are generally viewed to be a type of challenge game, because you can't ever think "hey this will be ideal once I find Thorin, so I'll keep it". Anecdotal evidence holds that randarts are currently slightly harder to find than standarts, but this may just be because of the randomness (and should be addressed in 3.4 if it is real).
d. Hey, I can see all the store contents while I'm in the dungeon - surely this should be a cheat option?
What you can see in the dungeon is the store contents when you were last in town. This is purely to save you writing them down - there's no guarantee that any of it will still be there.
There is a mildly odd side effect of this, which is that you can see all the store contents at the start of the game (and every time you return to town), before you've ever visited the stores. This minor bug will be fixed one day.
e. What is "ironman"
It's a general term used for challenge play, i.e. with more restrictions than the game normally has. The basic ironman restriction is that there are no up stairs, and you cannot recall to town by magical means. Other options include not allowing any initial shopping before descending the dungeon (no_stores), and not allowing artifacts to be generated. All these can be toggled in any combination in the birth options menu.
People playing challenge games often invent restrictions of their own: taking the first down staircase seen, not using missiles, or spellbooks, or ego items etc. The only limit is your imagination: winning naked would be hard - but the game has been won with a shovel ...
3. Development
a. What are the current plans for the game?
Ever-changing and subject to U-turns with public dissent. See http://trac.rephial.org/roadmap. Top of the list for 3.4 is item generation, and specifically smoothing out the drops of ego and artifact items.
b. How do I suggest an idea or feature?
Start a thread about it. If people think it's a good idea, it will generally get some discussion; if they don't, it won't. The developers keep an eye on the forums, and ideas deemed OK will get filed for future implementation. Sometimes a suggestion may not be right for the game, though. Some suggestions would change aspects of Angband that are essential to its nature; Angband has a long history, and so has developed a certain character over the years. Some suggestions might make a good game, perhaps even a better game than Angband, but would make a game that is not Angband. To some extent, variants exist to address this, but even so they tend to adhere to the core Angband principles. (No, those aren't written down anywhere - and whatever principle you come up with, you can almost always find a variant that's changed it.)
c. How do I get a copy of the source code?
The latest release's source is linked from the page at http://rephial.org. To get the bleeding-edge development code, clone the git repository at git://github.com/angband/angband.git
d. How do I clone from github and compile the game?
See this thread.
e. How do I contribute to the game?
First, join the mailing list [http://angband.oook.cz/mailman/listinfo/angband-dev] and/or drop by#angband-dev on freenode IRC. The mailing list is very low traffic. By contrast, the IRC channel is almost always occupied - even if there is no activity, several people are usually idling and someone is likely to respond.
If you already have a patch you want to be included, please submit a pull request on github, post it in the Development forum, attach it to the relevant ticket on trac, or send it to the mailing list. Patches should be in the form of a unified diff against the git staging branch (e.g. using git diff). Please be careful to follow the Angband coding guidelines. All contributions to individual files are accepted under the licences used in the file header. Make sure you're OK with this before sending in patches.
If the patch is a bugfix, then you can reasonably expect it to be integrated into the development tree. If it's more involved, and the feature is not one that the next version is planned to have, the patch may go through several reviews before being incorporated. It may also just be unsuitable for Angband - in which case, please don't take rejection badly; you may just be better off writing a variant.
Non-code activites are different. Documentation can be written on the wiki, or if you're a graphics designer (and they're always welcome) then please post about your work. See also this thread for more ideas on how to contribute.