Newbie Post - see inside for new depths of ignorance!

[DireWolf]

Hi Guys! I just started playing Angband about a week ago, and I am totally hooked. It sat on my hard drive for about a year, I don’t know why it didn’t click when I first played it… Anyway, I d/led v3.0.9b and I have put in some serious hours of play recently.

I have a host of questions, but rather than ask them and scare everyone away, I will list the things that I think are correct, and please tell me if I am wrong:

1) Monsters spawn randomly in dungeons after a while.
2) Detect monsters detect all but invisible monsters.
3) I don’t really need Detect evil if I am detecting monsters.
4) Slay animals affects creatures with the natural flag.
5) If I flee a level with an artifact on the ground, such as the Phial, will it respawn later. (3.0.9b remember! Birth_no_preserve set to NO)
6) Explosive breeding continues only while you are in LOS of the monster.
7) Tunneling wakes up monsters, rock to mud spells do not.
8) Resistances stack only twice, so armor + spell or armor + potion stacks, but armor +spell +potion or armor +spell + spell has no improvement over stacking 2 resistances.

Ok, here are some technical questions I couldn’t easily find the answer to in the ridiculous amount of information available on this game, too much of which is out of date…

How many feet is a square on the floor? I need to be 200 feet from Snagas, if only for the smell! How stealthy do I need to be to steal something from next to a sleeping monster?

How do you calculate your carry weight before you slow down? (Why is this not a stat on your character page?)

Ranges of monster attacks – breath, arrow, spell, etc… I am tired of being killed by ‘It” outside of my LOS… Also, I need to know when to phase door to avoid the gaze/breath etc..

Does hold life protect from nether bolts? What will protect me from them?

Why are Paladins screaming DIE at me? Its not very sporting of them… How do I resist that, and WTF is it?

Here are the final opinion/strategy questions, feel free to comment or not.

Any use for staff of summoning/Summon Monster/clone monster? Is there an easy kill with good drops that I could be cloning early in the game?

Dungeon feeling for next level works only after 100 turns on previous level, correct? So I should always rest for 100 turns before descending if I can so I get an accurate feeling?

What about auto-scumming levels? If I am auto scumming do I need to rest for a feeling? (I would tend to think not) Will I be widely reviled for auto scumming levels? Also, is auto scumming more dangerous at deeper levels because you are constantly running into out of depth monsters or ridiculously populated vaults, which makes it harder to sneak around and grab the stuff on the floor? Should I just forget it since level feeling are going to be gone in the next version or two?

If a level is superb, and I find an artifact on the floor, should I stick around to look for other stuff? I tend to think it would be unlikely for a level to have two artifacts on the floor, but I defer to experience…

I have read posted that Rings of Protection are useless. What is a good AC to have? Should I bother to bump everything my Mage wears to +9 (no gloves obviously), or skip armor altogether and select only for resitances?

Should I delay killing treasure dropping Uniques or take them as soon as I think I can? (I kill Grip and Fang for the XP pretty early) Is it better to kill them at deepest level you can get to or find them on? Will they stop showing up if I go too deep? (I haven’t seen Bullroarer lately…) Do they drop better artifacts at lower levels?

Should I turn the hide worthless items option on? What is it hiding? (Okay, this was just pure curiosity )

Ok, so there was a huge list of questions. I thank you profoundly for any and all replies, and don't be afarid to give me a link and tell me to RTFM, its just that I have been trying to learn but keep some of the suprises!

[roustk]

3) I don’t really need Detect evil if I am detecting monsters.

I *think* that detect evil will show you invisible evil monsters, as well as visible ones. Smeagol is evil and invisible, so a good test case.

5) If I flee a level with an artifact on the ground, such as the Phial, will it respawn later. (3.0.9b remember! Birth_no_preserve set to NO)

I can't remember the broken status on preserve mode right now. I think that no_preserve is totally broken, so you are in preserve mode.

If you are in preserve mode (no special feelings), *unidentified* artifacts may be created again later. Identified artifacts will never be created again.

If you are in no_preserve mode (so you can get a "special" feeling), artifacts will never be created twice.

6) Explosive breeding continues only while you are in LOS of the monster.

Only while in detection radius (and awake), I believe. That tends to be dozens of squares.

8) Resistances stack only twice, so armor + spell or armor + potion stacks, but armor +spell +potion or armor +spell + spell has no improvement over stacking 2 resistances.

Close. There are two types of resistances: permanent (from equipment) and temporary (from spells and potions). Two pieces of armor are no better than one. Two spells/potions are no better than one. But one armor and one potion is better than either alone.

How many feet is a square on the floor?

I believe it is still the D&D model of 10' cubes. Does the gelatinous cube description say anything about it?

How do you calculate your carry weight before you slow down?

It is a complicated formula:
* STR above 18/50 -- "max" is 300lbs
* STR 18/00 to 18/50 -- "max" is 200lbs + twice the post-slash number (18/10 = 220)
* STR below 18 -- "max" is 10 * (STR+2) lbs

Given the "max" carrying weight, you start to slow down at 60% of max, and lose another point of speed for each additional 10%.

Does hold life protect from nether bolts? What will protect me from them?

Nether resist will (partially) protect you from the damage. I believe that Hold Life does (partially) protect you from the experience drain.

Note that for higher resists, "partially" is important. I believe you can still get hit with 6/7ths of the full damage.

Why are Paladins screaming DIE at me? Its not very sporting of them… How do I resist that, and WTF is it?

This is the Cause xxx Wounds spell. I believe the only resist is your saving throw (affected by WIS).

Kevin

[roustk]

If you are in preserve mode (no special feelings), *unidentified* artifacts may be created again later. Identified artifacts will never be created again.

To clarify: if you leave "a Phial" on the ground, you may get it again later. If you leave "The Phial of Galadriel" on the ground, you will not see it again.

At least, that is my understanding.

Kevin

[Mondkalb]

2) Detect monsters detect all but invisible monsters.

Unless you have see invisible.

[PowerDiver]

Unless you have see invisible.

Detect [visible] monsters does not detect invisible monsters even when you have see invisible.

[Mondkalb]

Oh, I thought but probably messed this up, because I haven't played a ranger for a long time. I am used to detect evil and detection spells of the paladin. ^^

[Narvius]

I guess it's always better to use Rock to Mud than Shovels & co - at least if you can.

[DireWolf]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it. I am still plugging away at some of the written resources available, I am suprised that there is not a sticky post for newbies, or a sub forum of "sage advice" for each class for people to browse. Those kinds of things are very common on other game forums in my experience, maybe I will put something together to nominate for a sticky when I have worked though all my questions...

I am still looking for some answers, so don't be scared to speak up!

[DireWolf]

I don't want to sidetrack this on the Preserve issue, but this seems to be a classic case of programmers never having taken a grammer class! I have programmed some myself, and it seems like for clarity the Option description should be "Preserve unidentified artifacts when exiting level" and the flag should simply be "birth_preserve" and most people will set it to YES (default). This is in contrast to the current "Don't preserve artifacts when leaving level" and the default NO for the "birth_no_preserve" flag. I had to read it a few times, then was more confused by the fact that I still get superb feelings on some levels, which reading had lead me to believe woiuld not appear. So, I just have my fingers crossed that I am not missing out on great stuff when I descend into a room of nether hounds and have to flee back upstairs.

I likes English more'n Math 'cause you can learns it gooder.

[takkaria]

I don't want to sidetrack this on the Preserve issue, but this seems to be a classic case of programmers never having taken a grammer class!

And this seems to be a classic case of correcting someone's grammar with poor spelling!

I have programmed some myself, and it seems like for clarity the Option description should be "Preserve unidentified artifacts when exiting level" and the flag should simply be "birth_preserve" and most people will set it to YES (default). This is in contrast to the current "Don't preserve artifacts when leaving level" and the default NO for the "birth_no_preserve" flag. I had to read it a few times, then was more confused by the fact that I still get superb feelings on some levels, which reading had lead me to believe woiuld not appear. So, I just have my fingers crossed that I am not missing out on great stuff when I descend into a room of nether hounds and have to flee back upstairs.

I likes English more'n Math 'cause you can learns it gooder.

I would regard my English as being really quite good, at least the large majority of the time—that particular option was a slip-up, a mistake, and it is rectified in the development version. Indeed, the reason it was changed was so that "off" could be the normal state of the difficiculty options, in order that new players would know that any "ons" would increase difficulty, rather then vice-versa. The new wording reads: "Lose artifacts when leaving level". I hope one finds that satisfactory.

[Mondkalb]

... The new wording reads: "Lose artifacts when leaving level". I hope one finds that satisfactory.

This is misunderstandable too. Who wants to loose artifacts when leaving a level? :P

[Narvius]

"Not taken items disappear forever", probably?

[DireWolf]

And this seems to be a classic case of correcting someone's grammar with poor spelling!

Guilty! Still waiting for forums to have a integral spellchecker! But lets not bicker and argue about "who killed who".

This is misunderstandable too. Who wants to loose artifacts when leaving a level?

You want to be able to lose artifacts which you intentionally drop and not have them put back on the list and be dropped later, since they cannot be destroyed by 'k'. Having artifacts resurface would be frustrating as hell - for a game already high on the frustration level!

[Marble Dice]

This is misunderstandable too. Who wants to loose artifacts when leaving a level? :P

People who want to make the game more challenging by enabling a difficulty setting.

This is a difficult option to name because it has two implications: one, unidentified artifacts are lost forever, and two, artifacts always generate a special feeling.

1) Monsters spawn randomly in dungeons after a while.

Correct - and they're usually (always?) awake when they spawn, so it's usually more dangerous to stay on the current level than to proceed to the next level. Monsters (townspeople) will also spawn in the town.

2) Detect monsters detect all but invisible monsters.
3) I don’t really need Detect evil if I am detecting monsters.

Just to re-iterate and summarize, Detect Monsters will show you non-invisible monsters for one turn. Detect Evil will show you all evil monsters (invisible or not) for one turn. There's also a Detect Invisible spell which will show you all invisible monsters for one turn. Possessing "See Invis" (such as from gear or being a high elf) does not permit Detect Monsters to detect invisible monsters for you.

4) Slay animals affects creatures with the natural flag.

Correct - and it inflicts x2 damage, unless a higher multiplier is also applicable, in which case the highest will be used.

Ranges of monster attacks – breath, arrow, spell, etc… I am tired of being killed by ‘It” outside of my LOS… Also, I need to know when to phase door to avoid the gaze/breath etc..

Not much for this other than lots of detection. On some platforms (Windows) you can increase the screen size in the angband.INI file (notably the vertical dimension) so you can see more of the dungeon at once. Detect magic is based off of the size of the screen, so you'll detect more efficiently too. I'm not sure if this is considered "cheating" from the perspective of obtaining a clean win, but I expect purists would turn up their nose at it. The asymmetrical dungeon window size has always bothered me - you're 50% more likely to die from the North or the South!

Any use for staff of summoning/Summon Monster/clone monster? Is there an easy kill with good drops that I could be cloning early in the game?

Summoning is a gamble that I never bother with. I sometimes carry a clone monsters around if I have the space, for duplicating creeping coins of various varieties to get the cash drops. This is only mildly useful during early-to-mid game, since higher cash payouts at deeper levels will quickly eclipse this exploit.

Dungeon feeling for next level works only after 100 turns on previous level, correct? So I should always rest for 100 turns before descending if I can so I get an accurate feeling?

If you even care about the feelings, that is. Unless you're playing without preserve mode (when unidentified artifacts are lost), you're usually better off just diving or exploring a little bit for the easy pickings, and moving on. If you're a compulsive floor-clearer, then the level feeling doesn't matter much either, since you'll see everything anyway.

What about auto-scumming levels?

It's fine if you want to, but I never bother. I find more often than not levels with good feelings are just a pain in the ass because there's larger quantities of more difficult monsters.

If a level is superb, and I find an artifact on the floor, should I stick around to look for other stuff? I tend to think it would be unlikely for a level to have two artifacts on the floor, but I defer to experience…

I've definitely found multiple artifacts on the floor of a single level, but it usually involves vaults. Again though, if you're playing with preserve, it doesn't really matter if you miss an artifact early on. Once you get !Enlightenment, the priest spell Clairvoyance, or the mage spell Detect Enchantment, you can just hit all of the object types on the floor that might be artifacts you're interested in (long swords, crowns, etc).

I have read posted that Rings of Protection are useless. What is a good AC to have? Should I bother to bump everything my Mage wears to +9 (no gloves obviously), or skip armor altogether and select only for resitances?

You should almost never take AC over useful resistances or abilities. If you've already enchanted your melee weapon (for melee classes) and ranged weapon (for most classes) up to (+9,+9) and you've got the cash to blow, you can spend a little bit of money on enchant armor. I wouldn't go much above [+5] though, especially on things which aren't immune to acid, since the success rate is much lower at higher bonus values, and acid damage is common and will reduce your hard-earned armor bonuses. Rings of Protection can be nice if you find them early, but they're usually trumped by Rings of Damage, Rings of Constitution, or Rings of Speed.

Should I delay killing treasure dropping Uniques or take them as soon as I think I can? (I kill Grip and Fang for the XP pretty early) Is it better to kill them at deepest level you can get to or find them on? Will they stop showing up if I go too deep? (I haven’t seen Bullroarer lately…) Do they drop better artifacts at lower levels?

Monsters drop items based on a calculation of their usual level, and the current dungeon level, so they can drop better stuff on deeper floors. It's probably not worth "saving" uniques unless they've got exceptional drops (like Wormtongue). I don't think they ever stop appearing, but they will become much less common. Some enemies can summon uniques, and uniques can sometimes appear in summon undead, summon dragons, summon animals, etc, if they fit the monster type.

Should I turn the hide worthless items option on? What is it hiding? (Okay, this was just pure curiosity )

I'm not sure... but I think it hides the cursed items (amulets of teleportation and DOOM, rings of aggravate monsters, etc) and also the "bad" consumables (mushrooms of poison, potions of confusion, scrolls of darkness, etc). I don't use it because I'm not sure if it will auto-squelch !Death, and I'm afraid I'll try to quaff a potion from the floor only to find a squelched death was in the first floor slot, unknown to me...

And, finally...

RTFM.

(Just don't reply with TLDR!)

[zaimoni]

Not much for this other than lots of detection. On some platforms (Windows) you can increase the screen size in the angband.INI file (notably the vertical dimension) so you can see more of the dungeon at once. Detect magic is based off of the size of the screen, so you'll detect more efficiently too. I'm not sure if this is considered "cheating" from the perspective of obtaining a clean win, but I expect purists would turn up their nose at it. The asymmetrical dungeon window size has always bothered me - you're 50% more likely to die from the North or the South!

They do. V SVN has explicitly fixed the size of detects.

Never mind that this is the one "exploit" that doesn't measurably affect game balance. (It did not rate mention in the V3.0.0 changelog, and got absolutely no negative PR under Robert Ruehlmann; all GUI ports have it.)

Summoning is a gamble that I never bother with. I sometimes carry a clone monsters around if I have the space, for duplicating creeping coins of various varieties to get the cash drops. This is only mildly useful during early-to-mid game, since higher cash payouts at deeper levels will quickly eclipse this exploit.

As long as a melee-optimized character has enough escapes, Summoning can make sense from CL5 through calculated summoning level 20 or so. [Phase Door Is Not Enough: summon Mughash+escorts or Boldor+Master yeek escorts both require immediate action.] [Melee-optimized := 4 attacks/round with a +9-dam weapon.]