Angband on android

[geoff_tewierik]

I seriously contemplated buying a 10" Android tablet just to play it on as I was so frustrated with the 5" screen of my phone.

[Sky]

Well its too late to gooback and buy a tablet so i guess ill be playing pixeldungeon or some crap like that.


(Recommendations are welcome)

[Pete Mack]

If you're willing to play with a tiny font, the big problem is UI, not screen area. Of course the screen isn't used well currently--there's a huge blank space between the bottom of the map and the keyboard. But the real problem is having too many escape sequences. For example: Rather than moving the map around with gestures (i.e. scrolling), you still need to do cap-W {movement} Esc. This is the most egregious example, but there are plenty of others.

The Android port is excellent for Android tablets. It's all but unplayable on a phone-sized screen; there's just not enough room for both the play window and a virtual keyboard.

[AnonymousHero]

I forget... does vanilla have a (u)se item command rather than the absurd proliferation of individual commands for each device type + activation? It seems to me that you could do away with most of the keyboard just by doing a little unification on that front.

[Pete Mack]

Yes it does. {RETURN} key brings up a menu of options. However, this doesn't get rid of ridiculous menus, because there are so many things you can use--from spellbooks to arrows.

[Sky]

I cant seem to find the ' key (target nearest) on android, limiting the use of wands. And there are no keybinds, so no spells either.

Im trying nethack but gave up after not finding any down stairs on persistent levels.

[Pete Mack]

Hmmm. The * key is right there at the side of the main keyboard. You pretty much have to play with the roguelike keymap, since toggling back and forth between keyboards is too painful even without doing it for movement.

[Jessica]

Check out Pathos. It's based on NetHack and is designed for touch devices. Quite a nice game.

[Pete Mack]

I'm getting better at this. There are some crippling UI problems, notably: the Phoenix (offscreen) breathes fire. The 24 height restriction is just nuts.

[Pete Mack]

Current character is a CL34 high elf rogue at 3150'. Weapons are Anduril with Taratol swap (for temp speed and imElec. So nice not to worry about TO sticks.) Also have Bard, which is pointlessly nerfed at only +1 DEX, speed. All else is pretty basic--shield of resist acid really limits armor choice. Dwarven GDSM (+2) and Himring are in storage.

[Sky]

Turns out you *can* have the keyboard in landscape mode - press screen and hold.

Still unplayable but at least you can see.

[Pete Mack]

Sure you can. But you can't see the screen while you do. About all you can do is run and hope there's nothing off screen to nail you (especially as map movement is out.)

The game isn't actually unplayable as it stands. It is clumsy, but a few simple UI fixes would solve much of it. Looks like I need to learn to program android.

[Pete Mack]

Had a near death experience with an Istar (I'd forgotten how much tougher they are than blue mage.) Finally got speed boots+7 at dl 69 from a huge mob of scouts. (Killing mobs works so much better in older variants--I have 400K EXP from Mumak, Vrock, and Hezrou--roughly 1/3 of total experience at cl 35.) And now I have an amulet of ESP at dl 71, a huge step up from Regen.

[Pete Mack]

ESP and speed finally! Amulet at dl 71, and boots at dl 69 from a huge mob of scouts. Mobs in this older variant have pluses and minuses. On the one hand, hounds are a real challenge, even crummy ones like vibration hounds. On the other hand, I have about 400 EXP--1/3 of total--from Mumak, Vrock, and Hezrou alone. Between them, that is 150 easy kills for 2000+ EXP a piece. And the mobs are big enough that they generate real drops.

Can finally drop these annoying but valuable light rods.

Edit:
On the other hand, the rest of my equipment is a patchwork:
* Mundwine (514 vs evil) for rBase. I haven't had to use this in ages.
Taratol for haste and giants. (It can get hairy waiting for recharge with temp fire and cold resist only. But INT is too low to rely on the spell-50% fail and only 65 mana.)
* Bard
* =Damage +13
* =CON +5
* "ESP
* GDSM Dwarven +2
* Cloak of protection
* shield of res acid (really!)
* Helm of INT +2
* Cestus of free action
* BoSpeed +7

I also have arvedui and Himring for armor, but the +2 CON is too valuable.

[Angrist]

So character dumps are not accessible on android by default? Probably root access may help here. But without root access, it is not possible to share character dump on android?
Also I know there were 'nightly' builds. Where they are?