Questions from a returned player

[Wozar]

Hi All,

I have been playing Angband on and off for more than 20 years and have just downloaded 3.4.1 to give the latest version a try.

I love the new user interface but there are a few things I have questions on.

I am now lvl 24 and I am on dungeon level 23 and yet I have not found a single "ego" item! The closest I have come is a ring of acid.

Is this normal now? Have ego items rarity been increase this much?

I am also struggling with the shops. The shops so rarely change stock (must be more than 10,000 turns) that I run out of consumables constantly. I haven't had arrows for more than 2 levels now which sucks as a ranger.

The new level feelings are a mystery to me! Is there a table that compares them with previous feelings?

To be frank, I am really struggling with the new version. I have no resistances, no ego items, my weapon is a katana +4 +5. The level of micro management required to keep playing is getting ridiculous!

I went to turn "peek into item creation" to see if I just wasn't looking thoroughly enough but it looks like that option is gone now.

I love the new lay out. It looks amazing on my 30" monitor but the game is beginning to drag.

Wozar

[Timo Pietilä]

I am now lvl 24 and I am on dungeon level 23 and yet I have not found a single "ego" item! The closest I have come is a ring of acid.

Is this normal now? Have ego items rarity been increase this much?

I think that is just bad luck.

I am also struggling with the shops. The shops so rarely change stock (must be more than 10,000 turns) that I run out of consumables constantly. I haven't had arrows for more than 2 levels now which sucks as a ranger.

Check general store, if you buy all the arrows from there it will always get 40 of them at next restock which is something like 1000 player turns at normal speed (10000 game turns). You might also get arrows from weapon store and from BM.

The new level feelings are a mystery to me! Is there a table that compares them with previous feelings?

No table, but have you noticed that part of the level feeling comes only after you have explored the dungeon a bit? First part is about monsters, second is about items. They are now actually easier to understand, if you have "visions of death" then there is something very nasty onto level like graveyard, and if it gives "there might be something worthwhile" means there is something worthwhile in the level: usually ego of some sort.

[DaviddesJ]

No table, but have you noticed that part of the level feeling comes only after you have explored the dungeon a bit?

It would be nice to have a chart of the relative ordering of the "feelings". It's not always obvious to me which one is better or worse than another. Of course, I could just pull it out of the code.

[Derakon]

I still feel like level feelings are an anti-feature. I turned them off shortly after the option to do so became available and haven't looked back since. The game is much more fun when I'm not exploring the level expecting to find some nasty monster or awesome item and instead just letting whatever happens, happen.

[DaviddesJ]

I still feel like level feelings are an anti-feature.

I think they were originally added when artifacts would be generated once and if you didn't spot them on your visit to that level then they would be gone forever. You can see how that would be sort of a bummer.

It's also sort of nice to have some warning of vastly out-of-depth monsters. There's so much that can instakill you in this game, I don't think a small heads-up is so unreasonable.

[Swishtail]

Level feelings

Are level feelings calibrated to depth? To character level?

[Derakon]

To depth. They warn you when unusual things are on the level, not when powerful but in-depth things are on the level.

[Monkey Face]

Hi All,

The new level feelings are a mystery to me! Is there a table that compares them with previous feelings?

Wozar

Found this list in an old response from Magnate when I posted a similar question. It doesn't compare with previous feelings (since those combined monsters and items while these are separate) but at least you can see the relative values.

"there are superb treasures here.",
"there are excellent treasures here.",
"there are very good treasures here.",
"there are good treasures here.",
"there may be something worthwhile here.",
"there may not be much interesting here.",
"there aren't many treasures here.",
"there are only scraps of junk here.",
"there are naught but cobwebs here."

"Omens of death haunt this place",
"This place seems murderous",
"This place seems terribly dangerous",
"You feel anxious about this place",
"You feel nervous about this place",
"This place does not seem too risky",
"This place seems reasonably safe",
"This seems a tame, sheltered place",
"This seems a quiet, peaceful place"

[DaviddesJ]

Thanks. I wasn't sure about "not many treasures" vs "not much interesting". Not that it's too important.

[damerell]

It would be nice to have a chart of the relative ordering of the "feelings". It's not always obvious to me which one is better or worse than another. Of course, I could just pull it out of the code.

Don't pull it out; while you're in there, edit it to prepend a number to each one.

[DaviddesJ]

Don't pull it out; while you're in there, edit it to prepend a number to each one.

I guess I think that displaying the text but having it be possible to look up the ordering is a good compromise. I mean, you could get rid of the text entirely and just display a numeric measurement of the danger level, but that starts to seem sort of mechanical.

[damerell]

I guess I think that displaying the text but having it be possible to look up the ordering is a good compromise. I mean, you could get rid of the text entirely and just display a numeric measurement of the danger level, but that starts to seem sort of mechanical.

I kept the fluff text (trimmed a bit in some cases; there's a line length limit).