ASCII or Tiles?

[K.I.L.E.R]

You need to spend some time with Renewal Theory before you get used to ASCII graphics.

I prefer ASCII because it's easy to see and I can fit large amounts on my screen without worrying about image artifacts.

[Dragonboneman]

After using ASCII for my entire *band "career", I just had a brief experiment with Mr. Bolt's tiles. I kept shooting at piles of treasure, couldn't instantly recognize any monsters, and died.
I'm not slagging off the tiles themselves, but it's hard to adapt.

[Angrist]

I choose to ASCII. Because it leaves a lot of room for imagination. I see Angband way I want it to be. And not as the author sees a set of tiles. And if I play with the tiles, it seems to me that I'm playing a normal RPG with very bad graphics, but not roguelike.
For me, ASCII-graphics is an integral part of Angband.
But I am not a fan of old school. Just Angband much more interesting than modern RPGs.

[Lionmaruu]

I use ASCII and actually can't play with tiles, does not matter the size or the tileset, but that is just my personal preference, that's how I started and is the only way I can recognize the enemies and items on the dungeon floor.

The only thing I can say, imo, is that you cant play comfortably with tiles and also have the same game area(you need to "zoom in" the game) and I feel claustrophobic on much smaller areas

[MattB]

The only thing I can say, imo, is that you cant play comfortably with tiles and also have the same game area(you need to "zoom in" the game) and I feel claustrophobic on much smaller areas

I use Shockbolt tiles zoomed out to 2x1 and have no problem at all. Each to his or her own, I guess.

[Zikke]

ASCII, but with solid walls.


So much easier to see creatures/items. And # walls cause unnecessary eye strain.

[Carnivean]

I use Shockbolt tiles zoomed out to 2x1 and have no problem at all. Each to his or her own, I guess.

Another vote for Shockbolt. I played Moria and 2.x with ascii ages ago, but Zangband showed me that tiles were awesome.

Shockbolt makes good tiles. Everyone but Timo should at least trial them.

[ChrysFox]

Having started with Moria, lo these too many years ago, I think I prefer ascii. But I've never really used tiles.

I might give the tilesets a run on a new character, but for the gnome rogue I'm currently running, I'll stick with
the comfortably familiar til she finishes (one way or the other).

Wouldn't want to shoot something nice, while the blue thingys shock my inventory to trash or something NASTY steps out of the wall and eats my soul

[Raajaton]

As much as I appreciate how good the shockbolt tiles look, I simply can't play with them. I've spent too much time playing ASCII, so when I look at the tiles I have no idea what things are at first glance. Too much effort to re-train my brain.

That being said, I play ToME4 with tiles, but I hadn't ever played played it ASCII.

[PowerWyrm]

Tiles when I play V, ASCII when I play PWMAngband... because in real time, you need to distinguish a grave wight from a nightwalker really really fast.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Ascii for all Angband and variants but I use tiles if available for other games. I prefer ascii, but hate having to remap everything mentally. I have spent more time with Moria/Angband so I prefer that ascii set the most.

[Nomad]

I made my own tile set because it bugged me that all the tiles were square instead of rectangular like ASCII letters. So obviously I'm biased because it's made to my personal preferences, but I like it because it's designed to be clean and simple so it's readable at tiny 8x16 size and the colours are matched to the ASCII equivalents.

I did start out playing Angband exclusively in ASCII, though, and I still play other games that way. But the first roguelike I played was Nethack and I downloaded the Windows version that had tiles as default, so I'm not super attached to the roguelikes = ASCII way of thinking: I tend to just play games however they're default set up when I download them.

[Estie]

As much as I appreciate how good the shockbolt tiles look, I simply can't play with them. I've spent too much time playing ASCII, so when I look at the tiles I have no idea what things are at first glance. Too much effort to re-train my brain.

That being said, I play ToME4 with tiles, but I hadn't ever played played it ASCII.

Do you like ToME4 ? I have played it too (and won in adventurem mode), but the fact random bosses can be harmless sheep or insta killers without giving any indication at a glance turned me off big time.

[the Invisible Stalker]

I don't really view Angband as a role playing game. Like Chess, it retains some of the terminology of a real battle, but concentrating on that is hardly conducive to successful play. There is no real advantage to thinking of o's as orcs rather than as lower case O's. Tiles, at least well designed ones, are nice as art, but they interfere with playing the game. There are some beautifully designed Chess sets available, and I sometimes like to look at them in shop windows, but I've never seen a grand master play with one of them. Ease of recognition always trumps aesthetics.

Maybe it's just habit. After all, I'm old enough that my first rogue-like was Rogue. But I think it's not that. ASCII is objectively more efficient at conveying a large amount of information in a limited space.

[Raajaton]

Do you like ToME4 ? I have played it too (and won in adventurem mode), but the fact random bosses can be harmless sheep or insta killers without giving any indication at a glance turned me off big time.

I do like it, though not as much as Angband and its variants. I appreciated its take on utilizing cooldowns in place of consumables for more tactical combat. You don't have that safe point of the late game where you're swimming in consumables and can basically wade through anything. It took many many games, but I did eventually get a couple of winners on permadeath (Yeek Solipsist, Thalore Oozemancer, and Dwarf Wyrmic). I'll admit that all of the race/class combos I won with I would consider legitimately OP.

The randomized uniques can certainly be a pain in the ass, but the game does give you some indication of what to expect once you've played it enough. When you 'l'ook at them, you can tell what abilities they're gonna have by what buffs they have generally.

I haven't played it a whole lot lately, but I'll admit there was a period where I was feeling a bit burnt out on Angband and it did feel like a breath of fresh air at the time. Now though I am very much sucked into poschengband.