Pleasantly Surprised!

[Fishy]

I have not looked at Angband in well over twenty years, and am amazed at how active of a community there is here!

Anyways, just some thoughts, observations, questions.

I would say my memory is not great on these sort of things, so bare with me.

Are levels smaller now. I seem to remember some levels being huge. Do they get bigger as I get deeper? Made it to DL38 so far before I died. I actually like the size now, just wondering.

Identify works differently. Once I know about Holy Avenger for example, will any Holy Avenger item I find be fully identified? I used know runes and flavors at birth for my previous run, but won't be doing that any more.

Searching was a toggle before, but there doesn't seem to be a key anymore. Is searching always "on"?

New classes! Cool! Playing a Hobbit Necro this run, with a few pretty rough starts, but starting to gain some power this time. I suspect this will end badly lol!

I am sure I will posting more in the next couple months, as I have nothing but time right now. I'll try the competition as well!

And a big thank you to all the people who have maintained and contributed over the decades! You are amazing!

[Pete Mack]

1. Levels have different sizes, up to a max of the old max size, so yes: on avrrage tthey are smaller.
2. ID works by "runes" of which there is one for every attribute (either curse, ability, resistance, etc) Once you learn a rune you will recognize it on every further object. You can learn a rune either thru use (some are obvious, some are by resisting a particular attack) or by ID spell or scroll. Stat sustains are a little easier to learn.
3. Searching is gone. Traps have some difficulty of detection by searching. You will either always see them or never see them. Searching ability is fortunately easier to come by, or you can disable traps via a rod, wand, or spell. You can alsi become immune thru equipment.

4.Necro and especially boackguard are difficult classes to start with.

[Fishy]

Thanks for the reply.
1. I may remember one of the variants having huge levels. I think I played Zangband some. Again, my memory could easily be wrong.
2. I see now. A Holy Avenger weapon has several attributes, and each one must be IDed independently, but not each time.
3. Ah, ok.
4. Indeed! Plugging along now; currently level 22. Seems I really need something with some +strength to not be constantly overburdened. Don't seem to be finding much of anything however...Must go deeper...

[Pete Mack]

Note that the easiest way to ID free action by use is with an amulet that gives minus speed. Those are amulets of inertia, and are guarenteed to have free action. So you can let a carrion crawler (or whatever) hit you safely. After that, dispose of the amulet as soon as you find a better source.

Addtionally, there are only a handful of rings that appear to do nothing on wearing them: free action, slow digestion, open wounds, feather falling, resist fire and cold, and 2 rings that grant certain sustains. Slow digestion and open wounds become clear very quickly. Resist fire and cold is easy to ID by use, as is feather falling (via the jump '-' command.) The sustain rings in partucular are not worth wasting ?ID on: once you know the ring has a sustain, you can safely ignore the ring type without ever IDing it fully.

[Fishy]

Yessir. I did find some free action stuff early (gloves boots and rings). Does having free action help with carrying too much weight?

[Sphara]

Yessir. I did find some free action stuff early (gloves boots and rings). Does having free action help with carrying too much weight?

Nope. Free action gives immunity to paralyzing attacks. Only way to get immobile while wearing free action, is to get knocked out (this means death btw) by stunning attacks. This is generally done by 3 mid-to-lategame monsters: (Grand) Master Mystics and Plasma Hounds, and you should never fight any of those.

[Diego Gonzalez]

If my character is strong enough I fight plasma hounds (good exp), one by one, around a corner. Never fight those hounds in a row... If I recall correctly, many times I level up to clvl 50 killing plasma hounds.

Master Mystics killed a couple of my characters years ago, so I try to be far away from them, like a lot!

[Derakon]

Yessir. I did find some free action stuff early (gloves boots and rings). Does having free action help with carrying too much weight?

Other people answered your direct question, but to answer your implicit question: carry less stuff, get more STR, or get more +speed to counteract the speed loss. These are in order from easiest to hardest.

(You should strive not to be wandering around at a speed penalty; enemies getting double turns on you is Very Bad)

[Fishy]

Well, that's what I thought, I was just wondering because "Free Action" got brought up. I quaffed a couple !Brawn helped. I am living with -1 to speed for now and carrying speed potions.

[Derakon]

I'll bet you can find ways to reduce your load; even a low-level mage should be able to avoid speed penalties. What all are you carrying anyway? Post a character dump to the ladder and we can give you advice, if you want it.

[Fishy]

Right, I got my burden dialed down to 85.8 lb of 90 as I finally was able to buy a decent body armor from town. So at least i can enter the dungeon without a speed penalty. I did post my character dump; Tumen2.

[Sphara]

Grats for early Aiglos.
You've cleared your inventory good
I would probably do 2 minor adjustments, that have no huge impact on your game right now, but would still be improvements imo:

1) Wear those heavier boots of Stability you keep at home. This, if they don't drop your MP drastically. I have personal issues with Nexus attacks and Stability gives resistance against it.

2) Aiglos has Slow Digestion so one or zero food ration is enough in your inventory. Stoneskin mushrooms I never carry.

[Fishy]

Thanks! I suspect I'll be using that spear for awhile.
Thanks for the tips. I didn't realize the stone 'shrooms slowed so much lol.
I also found a lighter helm with +5 infravision that shaved another 2.5 lbs of my total, while only losing a few AC points and the +2wisdom.
Also, please excuse my ignorance, but MP? I assume magic points, but it's listed as SP in game.

[Sphara]

Oh yes.. MP -> SP
I've played quite many roguelikes and tend to mix up their magic sources whether it is MP, SP, Mana, Power.. and the list goes on

[Philip]

In case you haven't yet, I would recommend turning on the "notify on object recharge" option in user interface options. As far as I can tell, it is off by definition, for what I assume are strictly historical reasons. It's a handy reminder to perhaps use some of your faster-recharging things multiple times during prolonged fights. Alternately, if you want to only be informed when specific objects (like Aeglos or the Rod of Drain Life) recharge, you could inscribe them with !! to turn the notification on only for them.

Once you start hitting roughly dlvl 40, you will start to want resist Poison, since that's where monsters start turning up who can breathe poison for more than your max HP could credibly be at that point. Fortunately, it seems you have Nar-i-vagil at home, and that's also the point at which the repeatable activation on Aeglos will most likely stop being more impressive than +4 INT.

Other than that, my only real advice is to consider looking for rings of the mouse. Aeglos will most likely deal a fair amount of damage in meleeeven with them on, especially if you can somehow get an extra couple fractions of a blow, and bonuses to stealth are really useful. If it discourages you from using melee then, well, that's just practice for later on in the game.