Angband player's age

[Adam]

Maybe we could assign "i" to this purpose...?

I fully agree with Sky's above comment.
I would go further and say "u" executes the default action on each item.
Use, zap, read, quaff, activate etc. It would also free up a lot of keys.
And without this forum I would have never found out how resists work, how speed has less and less use and many such things. Without having nice memories of playing Angband back in the 90's I probably would have stopped playing not much after I returned to the game and would not even care about looking for the info.

[moosferatu]

I'm a new player (age: 33). Personally, the key bindings don't bother me at all. But, I do agree that it would be nice if the in game descriptions were better.

For example, my first character was a fighter, they start with a Potion of Berserk Strength, which "heals 30 hitpoints, cures fear and extends berserk rage for 25+1d25 turns". What does that mean? If I don't have berserk rage, does it give it to me? What affect does berserk rage have? The same is true for other potions, like boldness. Then, I tried a Paladin and discovered that spells have much better descriptions for the same effects.

I also don't think I understand what resists are doing other than drastically reducing the damage I take. Or, what all a "brand" or a "slays" implies. Does it do something special other than modifying the damage calculation that's displayed in the item description?

That said, over the past year, I tried a wide variety of rogelikes, and Angband was the most appealing to me and the most fun as a beginner. It might just be that I haven't tried some of the classes that are harder early game, but Angband's early game feels a lot more beginner friendly than a lot of other games.

[Nick]

So the 'U' command ('X' in roguelike keys) does exactly what everyone is asking for here.

[Diego Gonzalez]

And it uses arrow keys to move between equip, inven, floor and quiver. You dont need much more...

[Pete Mack]

Nick--
And I almost never use it because it makes miscues easier. And brings up a whole lot of irrelevant stuff on screen. I agree it is easier to learn. That said, the original different usage for priest vs. Mage books was insane.

[DavidMedley]

I didn't know about shift-U. I learned all the a/u/z/r etc commands long ago, so it seems intuitive to me. I was trying to make a joke about the i command. That's why my kids use for everything, despite my constant refrains of "yuuuuuu-se a staff, aim a wand," etc. I'll see if they like U.

[DavidMedley]

Whoa... you can activate a wearable item from inventory???

[Diego Gonzalez]

I noticed that, but it doesn't recharge.