How many people play Angband?

[Nomad]

What, "mellon" isn't clear enough? This is angband, so LoTR should be something everyone remembers.

I think most people would try "friend" in English. I certainly did, and made many frustrated attempts with changing the capitalisation, writing the translation of the question, etc. before it finally occurred to me to Google the Elvish answer. LoTR readers certainly remember "speak friend and enter", but I think very few would actually remember the word "mellon".

[GeoffHill]

What, "mellon" isn't clear enough? This is angband, so LoTR should be something everyone remembers.

Well, having just gone through the registration, it isnt really clear that you are being asked. Here's my experience... it just says "random question" and a bunch of quenya underneath not in the same box, and without a question mark. It just looked like a comment or quenya quote rather than a question, so I presumed that the text box was a place for me to put in a security question, so I did one. Got confused. Guessed it must be a question, remembered my tolkien, put in "friend". That still didnt work. Sighed. Did a google search again....

(I expect I'm not alone in this)

[Timo Pietilä]

I would think there are indeed quite a few people still playing it on some level. It's likely a few people don't bother coming to the forum because the registration question for the forum is dense and unclear what to do! (really, I have to think like Gandalf and speak a foreign language to register for a discussion group...)

What, "mellon" isn't clear enough? This is angband, so LoTR should be something everyone remembers.

[Magnate]

I would think there are indeed quite a few people still playing it on some level. It's likely a few people don't bother coming to the forum because the registration question for the forum is dense and unclear what to do! (really, I have to think like Gandalf and speak a foreign language to register for a discussion group...)

And the real tragedy is that it hasn't stopped the spammers registering (see all the modelling agency avatars on the members list).

[GeoffHill]

I would think there are indeed quite a few people still playing it on some level. It's likely a few people don't bother coming to the forum because the registration question for the forum is dense and unclear what to do! (really, I have to think like Gandalf and speak a foreign language to register for a discussion group...)

[Zappa]

I've had the screensaver running for years now and it usually gets me interested in playing again every once in a while. I'm having a lot of fun with it now running a Kobold Paladin, but if/when I win again, or have a depressing death I'll probably wander away for awhile again. I always come back though.

Moria was the first video game I ever played. On my dad's Compaq "laptop" with the tiny puke green screen.

[takkaria]

I've played very little TOME, maybe 4-8 hours worth total. The one thing that stuck in my head was the convenience of the hot keys. I've mentioned them several times, here in the forums but no one seems interested enough to actually make them happen.

They are something I'd like to do in V but it requires significant underlying code rewrites to make it happen with the same level of ease. The recent input layer rewrites have gone a short way toward this goal, but not far enough yet.

[buzzkill]

Can Tome4's hot keys store spells as well?

In short, yes. If implemented properly, hot-keys should be able do anything that can be defined as a macro/keymap or, more practically, accomplished by pressing the n key. The real advantage (over macros/inscriptions) is that you get all that functionality with just a single key press to set up, and a single (identical) key press to execute. Sounds like a no brainer to me, but I'm not the one who's going to have to code it.

I've played very little TOME, maybe 4-8 hours worth total. The one thing that stuck in my head was the convenience of the hot keys. I've mentioned them several times, here in the forums but no one seems interested enough to actually make them happen.

[fph]

... which I'd imagine are a lot like 'hot keys' (ala ToME 4).

Yes, I assume from the Youtube videos (I tried playing it, but T4 is really too much for my old laptop... this and Shockbolt's tiles make me wonder if it should be counted among "modern graphical RPGs", too )

Can Tome4's hot keys store spells as well?

@APWhite: great tale. Did you tell him in the end?

[Napsterbater]

About 8 yrs ago, I was visiting my nephew and he was telling me about a new game he was playing and how much his brothers and dad enjoyed it. Turns out it was Angband. He was pretty excited to show me that there was a screensaver version of the game too.

"A screensaver too?" I asked. "That's so cool."

I had to laugh. He had no idea.

That is super cool!

[APWhite]

About 8 yrs ago, I was visiting my nephew and he was telling me about a new game he was playing and how much his brothers and dad enjoyed it. Turns out it was Angband. He was pretty excited to show me that there was a screensaver version of the game too.

"A screensaver too?" I asked. "That's so cool."

I had to laugh. He had no idea.

[buzzkill]

... and "quick-use slots" instead of inscriptions.

... which I'd imagine are a lot like 'hot keys' (ala ToME 4).

[fph]

All "modern" graphical role-playing games (ŕ la Baldur's Gate) that I have played have item-verb and "quick-use slots" instead of inscriptions.

[takkaria]

Even though I'd like to know this information, I'm not really a fan of 'spying' on users even in a seemingly innocuous way. What I'd be ok with is logging the number of times Angband is downloaded from rephial. That'll give us a feel for the number of new or updating players, and that's useful.

Generally we get over 1000 downloads each month, but I haven't been collecting stats recently.

[d_m]

Yes. To be clear, I don't mean removing the old commands, just making them optional. Things like macros are great when players want them, but they aren't a substitute for a friendly UI. I consider the specific commands like (z)ap the same way--they are nice when you know them, and they are nice for macros, but there is not reason a beginner should need to learn them.

My goal is not to remove commands to annoy people, but to limit the number of keys that a new player must remember in order to play effectively. Ideally this wouldn't require very many commands to be removed in order to free up some "space".