A Newbie says hello! (Questions inside)

[Alice]

Some questions...

Does AC truncate damage as well as make it harder for enemies to hit you?
Also, I've noticed that as I dove, the monsters scaled in difficulty (more or less) to my armor. When I finally cap my AC (while monsters continue to get more difficult), would I expect AC to play less of a part in my survivability and eventually become irrelevant over time?

[Oramin]

It is my understanding that AC reduces damage taken. I could be wrong on this.

AC never becomes irrelevant unless you never get into melee range. After a point, AC becomes less important than other things. For example, I once got instakilled by an Ancient Multi-Hued Dragon since I was running around without a source of Poison Resistance, had no Telepathy to locate it before I got into LoS, and had a lower Speed so it attacked before I could react.

[Derakon]

Armor class does make a fairly significant difference in how hard you are to hit, but its effects will be more subtle in the lategame -- certainly you can't expect to have monsters missing you 50% of the time like you might reasonably achieve early on. AC damage mitigation also only affects "physical" attacks (ones that have no attached effects, like burning, blinding, or paralyzing, as well as not using verbs like touch, gaze, etc.). Such attacks are common early on, but later there's a lot more attacks which it doesn't help you with. Timo mentioned one of the standouts: Greater Titans have 4 12d12 melee attacks, all of which hit to confuse; thus, AC doesn't reduce the incoming damage any (though it still makes you harder to hit).

[robbiodobbio]

New newbie needs help

Hello, Should I start a new thread for another newb or am I ok posting here?

First things first:
Vanilla angband is the classic version right? Where you only have 1 town and just Tolkien based monsters, classes and characters, right?

I'm not really a newb as I used to play about 15 years ago. I played a bit of the original angband then migrated to Zangband for some reason. The thing is I used to play without access to forums and nobody else I knew played so now I'm reading about these different tactics like aggressive diving (my old lesson was painfully slow meticulous clearing of each and every level).

Anywho, to cut a long story short I'd like some tips. But.... I don't know how to make a character dump.

Here are some screenshots:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!295&authkey=!AGSwGV4T60V3UYU

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!296&authkey=!ANSptjKqTxaDh5U

I'm currently diving to level 15, I'm a level 19 ranger. Am I diving too deep? Had a few hairy moments but I've been following the advice about steering clear of uniques until I'm ready.

As a ranger should I be relying a lot on my bow? I dont really have enough mana yet to cast spells for any length of time.

My main problem is my speed, as soon as I get weighed down with goodies I get really slow and turn into a punch bag. How can I increase my speed? Do I need to dive deeper to find speed rings or something.

I found the short sword of slay dragon recently which is nice and obviously really good against dragons but doesn't really pack much punch against other foes.

Also could you tell me a list of essential items / consumables I should be carrying at this level. I'm having trouble balancing leaving enough space to collect stuff and carrying emergency scrolls / potions / staffs etc.

Sorry, bit of a long post but any help you could give me would be most appreciated

[robbiodobbio]

I also have a bastard sword (3d4) (+4+6) at home, should I be carrying that with me too?

[Mondkalb]

Yes, Angband is the "vanilla" version of the -bands.

To make a character dump, bring up the character screen (C), then type f to create a dump. You can either upload a character file to the ladder or use it here.

A rangers main weapon should be the bow. Make sure to always have enough arrows. Later on, with upped stats and a good weapon rangers can also be reasonable good at melee. But they get an extra shot with the bow and can do really high damage with an enchanted or artifact bow and enchanted or branded ammo.

Spells are more for helping to get along; you cannot do enough damage with spells alone or rely on them.

As for diving - char level = dungeon level should be appropriate if you have the resistances for certain depths.

As for that - rings of protection are not that great. You might want to replace them - see invisible will soon be necessary, also free action. (There are also other items that could help you with that.) I would wear that see invisible ring - some invisible creatures can reduce your stats.

Your sword at home does you no good, you can sell it. Try to get a light weapon with as many blows as possible, or at least as much damage. One of the better ego weapons would come in handy, like a sword with see invisible and / or free action.

Don't carry heavy stuff around that would slow you down.

Potions of speed can sometimes be found on shallow levels. Items with +speed are relatively rare and show up deeper.