angband strategy guide

[myshkin]

In response to the OP re: writing an angband guide:

This guide,

http://rephial.org/help/guide

the first hit for "angband guide," is not bad. It's far from comprehensive and it's not the best piece of writing I've ever seen, but it captures the basics of winning angband according to current thinking. It would be better to have more specifics and less focus on things like phase door (which is much less valuable outside of the early game than the guide suggests).

As a bare introduction that leaves a lot of room for people to figure things out as they go, it's a decent guide, even if it offers no real advice about the endgame. A general guide that includes, for example, how to play mages would be a larger undertaking and result in a large, unfocused document. It might still be useful.

It's part of the game source repository, even, although it does not ship with the game. I took a shot at rewriting it for the 3.5.0 release, but gave up. I am very glad to hear that Tibarius is working on a modern guide, and would be happy to lend copyediting and formatting help.

[Tibarius]

re: Myshkin

That's cool - many thanks. The Format is not too good yet, i choosed to write it in 'courier new' to have a font-set which has identical char sizes, because that's a requirement to Play the game in letter-style mode. But it does not look very pretty, compared for example with the Output from the online-dillinger markdown converted example. So once i finished writing down the Content i guess i have to run over the whole work again and think about how to Format it nicely. But one step after the other.

Edit: And of course Quality of Content is more important than the way it is presented, even tho i like it if it is nicely and modern presented.

[Timo Pietilä]

There are tons of enemies with paralysis spells; if you spend a turn in LOS of them, you're basically rolling the dice that you won't get paralyzed. And while paralysis in the early game may be survivable, it very quickly becomes a death sentence -- certainly, well before you manage to achieve a 100% saving throw.

It doesn't take too long with hobbit priest:

18 with hobbit, 32 from being priest, 1.2 / clvl and 18/40 WIS to start with. Assume you find a +4 AoWIS quite soon, so WIS 18/80.

That's 54.2 to start with (I assume clvl 1 already gives you one 1.2?)

18/40->18/80 increases that by 3 = 57.2 100-57.2= 42.8 / 1.2 = 36.

So at clvl 36 you have perfect saving throw. With some luck with HA weapons, better AoWIS, ego-helmets and some potions of contemplation/wisdom you can have that somewhere around clvl 25-30. Especially since hobbit priest gains levels really, really fast it's actually really hard to dive with dlvl/clvl rate early, you tend to get more clvls than dlvls early into game. At least the way I play priests.

dlvl 30 = 1500'. That's beginning of the stat-gain. Before that there are really only two groups of monsters you should avoid: ghouls and carrion crawlers.

I think real challenge from this challenge game would be to find usable gear that doesn't have FA. Many of the really good artifacts have it.

[Estie]

Well you only need to abstain from items with FA before getting 100% save; once that is achieved, equipping FA makes no difference.
But yes, it is not a very interesting challenge.

[Tibarius]

re: ladder

I just won my first ranger character. Now mage and ranger are done, 4 classes to go.

Just when i posted the character to the ladder (Mugashi, kobold, ranger) i stumbled over something. You cannot distinguish the Angband characters by variant. Comparing a 2.8.3 character to a 3.5.1 character is probably like comparing cheese with apples.

I would vote for showing the newest variant always before older variants. That said ... a 3.5.1 char shold always be placed before an older variants char. That way, the top Position of the ladder is always ranked with "fresh" chars. I guess the max XP chars from Long Long Versions from the past should not hold the top positions for all the time.

[mushroom patch]

"No free action" is not as great a challenge as people suggest. Free action is more a convenience than a necessity, in contrast to certain elemental resistances. You simply don't have to let monsters that can paralyze you take a turn in your line of sight.

[Derakon]

"No free action" is not as great a challenge as people suggest. Free action is more a convenience than a necessity, in contrast to certain elemental resistances. You simply don't have to let monsters that can paralyze you take a turn in your line of sight.

This includes basically every upper-level caster. I guess if you do this challenge then you focus on getting a 100% saving throw ASAP, because otherwise every lategame fight is courting instant death.

[Nick]

This includes basically every upper-level caster. I guess if you do this challenge then you focus on getting a 100% saving throw ASAP, because otherwise every lategame fight is courting instant death.

Yeah, you can avoid those fights by dying in the mid-game

[AnonymousHero]

"No free action" is not as great a challenge as people suggest. Free action is more a convenience than a necessity, in contrast to certain elemental resistances. You simply don't have to let monsters that can paralyze you take a turn in your line of sight.

Well, obviously! Assuming you see them and always do the exact right thing. If you can see Lurkers you have probably changed the visuals in fundamental ways, but frankly I'd consider that cheating. (I'm working on removing visuals from my own branch of T2 for this reason. I'm still considering exactly what to do with permanent/illusory/granite walls, but I'll certainly make permanent wall distinuishable from granite walls.)

Look, it's like losing weight: It's simple, but it's not easy!

EDIT: ... exactly like winning using only your fists.

[myshkin]

That's cool - many thanks. The Format is not too good yet, i choosed to write it in 'courier new' to have a font-set which has identical char sizes, because that's a requirement to Play the game in letter-style mode. But it does not look very pretty, compared for example with the Output from the online-dillinger markdown converted example. So once i finished writing down the Content i guess i have to run over the whole work again and think about how to Format it nicely. But one step after the other.

Edit: And of course Quality of Content is more important than the way it is presented, even tho i like it if it is nicely and modern presented.

It's best not to worry about things like line length and pagination until the content is final; otherwise editing will take even longer than it needs to. The most likely exception is if you have any tables or graphics in your content.

Anything that ships with the game would likely get reformatted to work with the in-game help parser.

[Timo Pietilä]

If you can see Lurkers you have probably changed the visuals in fundamental ways, but frankly I'd consider that cheating.

Lurkers are no threat, you are talking about their bigger cousins Trappers and even they are survivable with high enough AC. Floating Eyes for example become non-threat after gaining +8 AC.

Melee-paralyze is not that big threat as it used to be, when already paralyzed paralyze counter doesn't add to previous counter as it used to, but resets the counter, so if monsters miss often enough and you have high enough saving throw you break free from the paralyze sooner or later. Danger comes from being already dangerous situation and then getting paralyzed which would give that other monster couple of free turns. So it is more a late game problem if you don't get high saving.

That means that H-Troll warrior might have troubles with no-FA, but priests OTOH should not have any problems.

[Tibarius]

status report

Just to mention it, today i won the game with a rogue. Now i played all 3 mage-classes. Diving into priests now

[werepacman]

Mages have very few HP from the start so additional HP and new spells from new level help them a lot.
One advice for quick mage start.

Find breeding monster - (w , l , r)
near the long corridor or room with with door.
Wake a monster, so it starts breeding.

###############
########__w__w_#
########w_w__w_#
__@'___w_w_ww_ww#
########_w___w_#
########_w_w_w_#
###############

Now you can use circle:
1) kill monster with magic
2) close the door
3) rest
(repeat)

Upgrade with mass spell like Stinking cloud or Lightning bolt.

Light an area with a spell so you can see monsters and cast spells without consumable light source.

Buy at least 5 food rations, shovel, light source and book of Conjuring and Tricks in the first travel.
First spells to learn - Magic missile and Detect monster.

Few levels can help mage avoid random unpredictable death. Now your mage can survive first unique monster - Maggot dogs.

5-9 lvls is enough for mana and HP to start travel.
It is possible to gain 11 lvl and identify this way but this is boring and it is much faster with diving and killing more fat monsters.

Than I dive as deep as it is safe to collect money for next items:
stafs of teltportation and mapping, next 2 books from magic shop.

You can search on 750 depth for 2 rings of escaping.
Collect few offensive stats and wands to fight uniques.

Now it is possible to start discover levels for your liking.

One thing which should be mentioned again and again - the biggest difference angband from other games is that you don't need to try to kill everything! You need to run often. That is what items, scrolls and spells with teleport, phase door, create stairs, recall are for.

[Tibarius]

status update

Dear Folks,

unfortunately (for the players guide) i am working again. So the amount of spare-time drastically dropped to a value around zero.

I played 5/6 classes through and won the game with those five classes.
Warrior class is missing, even tho i feel i have already a good grip on the class.

There is a lot finished already in the guide. If anyone wants to take a look because she/he cannot wait on me finishing it, give me a call.

Until then the production of my players guide is sadly "on hold" (even tho that is something i wished to do for around 25 years already).

To my dad: Once again with great unsatisfaction i have to recognize that my nature does not allow me to do what i would like to do.

[Pete Mack]

@Tibarius--
Can you post the guide as an attachment? You will probably have to do it a zip file unless it is *.txt