List of letters and monster classes?

[ultimaratioregum]

Hi folks. Is there a page on somewhere that shows and describes why each letter has been chosen to represent each class, and what they stand for? Some are obvious from just my general play, whilst some of the letter choices are really puzzling, and I'd be very interested to know if there's some information on this somewhere. I've been searching for a little while and can't find it, so hopefully it is out there somewhere and I've just missed it. Thanks! If not, I'm particularly puzzled about the definitions of H, p, q, u, U, X, and Z, as I think I've got all the others figured out.

[Derakon]

You can hit '/' and then the letter in question, and the game will define the symbol for you. For the ones you asked about:

H, p, q, u, U, X, and Z

H: hybrid
p: human ("person")
P: giant ("large person" )
q: quadruped
u: minor demon (used to be 'l', lesser demon, if I recall correctly)
U: greater demon (used to be '&')
X: Xorn/Xaren, and umber hulks for some reason.
Z: Zephyr hound ("Zephyr" is Greek for wind and all these hounds have breath weapons)

[ultimaratioregum]

Tremendous, thanks, that answers all my questions! One final one based on those: is there any meaningful distinction between 'p'erson and 'h'uman? I've looked over the creatures in question and they both seem to have an equal mix of uniques/non, though 'p'erson seems much larger.

[Derakon]

It's not 'h'uman, it's 'h'umanoid, which is why it gets all the elves, hobbits, dwarfs, and so on. This is arguably not really a meaningful distinction, but it helps keep the two groups from being massively overloaded, so you can still tell what a given monster is at a glance most of the time.

[ultimaratioregum]

AH, got it. That makes sense.

Also, I do not recall - are there trees in Angband, and if so, what character do they use? I'm done with the queries now!

(I'm writing a paper on roguelike displays, need to figure out some of the class systems for RLs I haven't played that much, which is the reason for the queries!)

[Derakon]

No trees in Vanilla Angband, but some variants have them, and they usually use # for trees (same as the wall symbol).

[ultimaratioregum]

No trees in Vanilla Angband, but some variants have them, and they usually use # for trees (same as the wall symbol).

Splendid, my thanks for all these answers .

[mushroom patch]

Pretty sure 'l' has always been for "louse." Yeah, 'h' is a weird category: "non-human humanoids," which includes mind flayers but not orcs and so on...

[Carnivean]

If you press ~ then choose "4 - Display monster knowledge" then you'll see them listed out, at least the ones that you've encountered.

[Derakon]

Pretty sure 'l' has always been for "louse." Yeah, 'h' is a weird category: "non-human humanoids," which includes mind flayers but not orcs and so on...

I thought lice used to be under the I for Insect category, but honestly it's been so long that my memory is not to be trusted on this item.

As for 'h' and orcs, well, if you have a more specific pre-existing category, then you might as well use it. Otherwise h, p, o, O, and P would all be in the 'h' category and you really wouldn't be able to tell what a monster was without looking at them.

[debo]

Pretty sure 'l' has always been for "louse."

lousy, the King of louses says, 'You, transform a louse!'
lousy, the King of louses says, 'Don't look me as I was a louse!'
lousy, the King of louses says, 'Here a louse.'
lousy, the King of louses says, 'Die. Die. Damn thing is strong!'

[Nick]

No trees in Vanilla Angband, but some variants have them, and they usually use # for trees (same as the wall symbol).

Some variants use '+'.