Which variants are the closest to Angband?

[Adam]

You can't start with an artifact or ego weapon, just books or stuff from object.txt

You can however start with an ordinary weapon that just happens to be called sting and has all the same properties as sting by adding it to object.txt 1st.

Thanks. I guess that would have the side effect of being able to find multiple sting objects, but that does not really matter.

[will_asher]

I'm considering making a new variant branching from current V, and if I do, I'd be happy to make at least several of the changes your mention. (especially the gorging thing. I agree, the way it is now is stupid.)
Still, it'll probably be at least a month or two before I (potentially) have something like this out.

[Grotug]

Awesome! Would love to playtest it. I've been thinking some more about wands of slow monster. When @ gets free action he cannot be slowed, yet there are virtually no monsters in Angband that cannot be slowed. I think hasty ents might resist it? I think this game would be more fun if slow monster didn't work very often on deeper monsters.

[will_asher]

I really would like to, but I'm terrified of coding. I took a rudimentary coding class once and got an F in it.

I'm not that good at coding either, but I've made my own variant before. it's pretty easy with Angband because the code is so well commented. The Angband source basically tells you how it works as you read it (At least this is the tradition with Angband. I assume and hope the more recent maintainer(s) since I left have kept this up).

I thought I'd take another look at the changes you would want and comment for each one if it looks like something I would both want and be able to do for my variant:

Hmm.. let's see...
* Tone down annoying monsters; namely make vortices less common as well as super-breeders.

I'd want do this anyway.

[*]Fix the obnoxious gorging mechanic to be more realistic. (Why would @ eat so much as to cause themself to be -10 speed?) If eating will cause gorgedness, a prompt, "are you sure you want to eat the slice of meat? You will be heavily gorged if you do" will appear.

I'd want to do this anyway too.

[*]Code a game option that scrambles the rarity and depth of items at the game's outset without the player knowing what items are scrambled (so free action may become super rare but rods of speed maybe as common as rings of escaping) (This one's kinda dumb but might be fun for a laugh).

I could probably do something like this but it wouldn't be very high priority.

[*]Make my own silly starting scenarios: like the one where a hobbit starts out with Sting and The One Ring. I'd also make my own competition where @ gets to start with one of two super launchers (I wasn't able to find the post I made about them awhile ago); and then host it as a competition.

Sure, sounds fun.

[*]Make spells that increase in power with character level also increase in cost with leveling. So a 3 mana minor heal spell will cost 20 or so mana for a level 50 character. Add back in the 300 heal spell.

Don't know if I'd want this, but I'd consider it.

[*]Add a poor man's !*Enlightenment* spell that works similarly to how Holy Vision from Warcraft 2 did: allows you to map a small area anywhere in the map (instead of just your location); revealing the objects and evil monsters there as well. Use the cursor to select the portion of the dungeon you want mapped.

Sounds like it might be complicated, but not necessarily. We'll see if my coding is up to it.

[*]Tweak speed items in such a way so that speed feels special again (speed items are too common, currently).

Haven't noticed this because I haven't been playing the current version for very long. I'll think about it.
(But this is something that would be easy to do yourself in the gamedata files.)

[*]Make early levels smaller, or at least with a lot more down stairs, or some combination so that early levels are easier to find the down stairs.

I could definitely do something like this.

[*]Make small, rectangle "special" levels less common.

but why? If you don't like them, you can just take the stairs back up and then down again. (unless you play without connected stairs.)
(This might be easy to tweak in the gamedata files without touching the code. hmmm, if you mean the labyrinth levels, it looks like those are hard coded. Looks like their rarity isn't in the gamedata file.)

[*]Play around with pastel coloring of special rooms and make secret doors visible (maybe the brick is a slightly different shade)

You mean always visible? Then what's the point of them being secret?
...But this is really easy to do without touching the code. Just open terrain.txt, find where it says:
"
name:secret door
graphics:#:w
priority:10
mimic:granite wall
flags:WALL | ROCK | DOOR_ANY | GRANITE | TORCH
desc:A door that appears like a granite wall to untrained eyes.
"
and change the "w" in this line:
graphics:#:w
...to a letter representing another color ("g" for green, "p" for purple, etc)
(This will only work if you're not using tiles, though. I'd need to do some more looking to figure out how to change it with tiles.)

[*]Make a bunch of new room types, especially for secret rooms.

I would totally do this anyway.

[*]Add some new effects for potions of surprise, such as causing the level to suddenly become mirrored (the level you are on suddenly flips horizontally making upstairs now look like down stairs and down stairs look like upstairs. Not sure if monsters and items would also be visibly flipped)--add this effect to the "causes bizarre things to happen" activation.

I would add new effects for !surprise and "bizarre things" anyway, but I don't know if I could do the level-mirroring thing.

[*]Remove the effect that slow monster wands and staves now have of waking monsters and limit their use only to monsters that can be held/paralyzed, or otherwise leave them as is but make them much less common.

I haven't noticed this, but I wouldn't mind making this change.

[*]Make rare artifact staves that cannot be destroyed by acid or fire or recharge backfire, with a randomized power level. Like staves of power, for example, but perhaps with more than one activation, (up to 3), with the ability to choose which activation (heal 1000 hp, deal 150 damage to all, or hasten self) for example. When recharged with scrolls Artifact staves would get a 50% increase in number of charges restored (as compared to normal, similarly powered staves). So instead of 3 charges being restored they'd get 4 or 5 charges.

I'm sure I can do something like what you said, but I don't think I'd do multiple different activations. That sounds like it'd be complicated and not worth the trouble IMO. (I did mention I'm not that great at coding either...)
BTW, In my old variant, all staves could be wielded as (usually not very good) weapons in addition to their normal use. I might do that again.

[*]Maybe play around with an ironman-lite game option with in-dungeon shops. Maybe every 5 levels there is a shop somewhere with the last shop maybe being dungeon level 70. In such a version have money and precious stone veins be much more rare. maybe add back the charisma stat for this game option.

This sounds too complicated to be worth it (especially since I don't play ironman and don't plan to).

[*]In a similar vein, maybe add oracles: shop-like rooms in the dungeon that either give the player a clue about some of the items in the game (see option 3 in this list), or about fighting Morgoth or some other deep, dangerous monster; kinda like how Commander Keen had cryptic messages throughout:

You will need a Raygun in the end, but not to shoot the Vorticon...

or... offer a reward for the player to complete a quest. The quest would need to be completed before reaching a certain floor. So if you are on DL23 you could come across a bloke who offers you a reward if you kill Gorlim before reaching DL50. He'll tell you to see his cousin who will be on DL50 and will give you the reward (maybe you'll have to take up an inventory slot with Gorlim's head to prove it). The cousin would have 5 artifact items (totally randomized) but all of a similar power level (the power level would be less random to increase the chance that lugging around Gorlim's head wasn't for naught). You'd then get to choose the artifact you liked the most.

This sounds like something I'd like to do, but it wouldn't be easy and not that high on my priority list. So it would be a while before I get to it (assuming I do decide on making a new variant).
(I remember Commander Keen. that's a blast from the past.)

[*]Make dragons of annihilation more rare.

dragons of annihilation!? yikes
I've never heard of such things, but if they are what they sound like, I would definitely make them more rare. (or maybe just remove them completely. They must be something that's been added since I stopped playing.)

[*]Make rare, new item: backpack, that has a random assortment of lesser items in it as well as increasing max number of items per inventory slots above 40, capping out at 60. Or, make said item not super rare and have @ starting pack only have a per item carrying capacity of 20 (instead of 40).

This sounds too complicated to be worth doing. (Although in my old variant, I succeeded in adding a couple slots to the home inventory, so I can do that again at least.)

[*]Make a tweaked version of the game that removes teleport other wands, rods and spells (but maybe keep as rare object activation). To compensate, tone down monster summons by a lot.

I wouldn't want to do this for my variant, but removing teleport other is really easy to do yourself in the gamedata files. Just go to object.txt and remove (or comment out) the wand and rod of teleport other.
I would probably tone down monster summons a little for my variant though.

[*]Include option to play the game with 20 dungeon levels instead of 100 (protract the deeper monsters into the last two levels, so something like monsters native to DL62 through DL79 show up on DL19 and those currently native to DL80 through DL100 show up on DL20.

This shouldn't be too hard to do, and I wouldn't mind implementing it as an option.

[Pete Mack]

Grotug--
Definitely agree about the Heal300 spell. The heal2000 spell is stupid overkill for a paladin. If you really need it, you can't risk casting it. Meanwhile, you're out 50MP when you actually heal down 300.

[whartung]

This sounds too complicated to be worth doing. (Although in my old variant, I succeeded in adding a couple slots to the home inventory, so I can do that again at least.)

Actually, you could pull it off by making every X levels a Town level.

Just plonk them in to town, and remember what actual level they're on, and hope the Happy Drunk isn't a Unique Summoner.

it should be easy enough to make experimenting with it worthwhile, if nothing else.

[will_asher]

Actually, you could pull it off by making every X levels a Town level.

Just plonk them in to town, and remember what actual level they're on, and hope the Happy Drunk isn't a Unique Summoner.

it should be easy enough to make experimenting with it worthwhile, if nothing else.

I might give it a try. It does sound like a fun alternate play mode.

[bughunter]

Just plonk them in to town, and remember what actual level they're on, and hope the Happy Drunk isn't a Unique Summoner.

Actually that sounds like it might be fun...

As long as it isn't one that can bore thru walls... and who bores right thru the General Store.

[caruso]

Grotug, you might want to try out Seven Day Band by Jeff Lait. It allows you to create your own *band on the fly and without coding. Editing options will be unlocked one after another as you lose characters. You can even create hamsters with heat-seeking spit for ranged attacks, so I guess anything you can think of will be doable

[will_asher]

Grotug, you might want to try out Seven Day Band by Jeff Lait. It allows you to create your own Angband variant on the fly and without coding. Editing options will be unlocked one after another as you lose characters. It even allows you to create hamsters with heat-seeking spit for ranged attacks, so I guess anything you can think of will be doable

That sounds hilarious. I'll have to try that out.

Anyway, I'll take further discussion about my planned variant to the variants subforum.
EDIT: see my RubberBand plans thread.

[sffp]

Frodo also has pretty nice armor when he sets out: mithril chainmail, possibly magical.

We actually played the frodo start as a competition some years back, but that requires the debugger to avoid (or get out of) wizard mode.

And that ring...

[Angdrim]

I wasn't around for the competition, but he should totally have the One Ring but be unable to use it. It just takes up a slot in his inventory.

[MattB]

Frodo also has pretty nice armor when he sets out: mithril chainmail, possibly magical.

We actually played the frodo start as a competition some years back, but that requires the debugger to avoid (or get out of) wizard mode.

That was a lot of fun.

http://angband.oook.cz/competition.php?showcompo=164

Some good reads on that comp ladder.
The lowest XP criterion was a nice change from turncount.