Why aren't you playing Unangband?

[andrewdoull]

I'm curious as to what's stopping you from trying or playing Unangband on a more regular basis.

Any feedback welcome.

[Fuma]

'So many variants, so little time..'

[TJA]

Just detected the homepage and began to read the differences
Befor your posting already ...


I am searching such a variant:

A Tolkin- or generel Fantasy-topic
Semi-Random Levels like in Heng/Entroband
An improved user-interface with colors and optionally tiles
A flowless compile environment
A variant that is actively maintained and not already abbandoned

What can Unangband give me?

[Daven_26d1]

Sell it to me right now and I swear I'll play it right after I'm done with Sang.
I've read the descriptions of most variants, and it just wasn't one of the ones that stood out for me.

[TJA]

Maybe need to start a new variant?



But even if that was an option - where to start?
At Vanilla Angband?
At ToME?

What is a maintained, current and modern variant that is already stripped down alot and able to handle new quests, monsters and rules easily?

[andrewdoull]

Sell it to me right now and I swear I'll play it right after I'm done with Sang.
I've read the descriptions of most variants, and it just wasn't one of the ones that stood out for me.

Key points of difference from Sangband:

* Dungeon is more interesting, with more dungeon features than any other variant.
* Has a wilderness/campaign mode which models the Third Age of Angband.
* Has a much wider spell selection for mages.
* Possibly a harder game than Sangband.

The hard sell comes later.

[andrewdoull]

Maybe need to start a new variant?



But even if that was an option - where to start?
At Vanilla Angband?
At ToME?

What is a maintained, current and modern variant that is already stripped down alot and able to handle new quests, monsters and rules easily?

I'd go with NPPAngband 0.5.0 if I was starting again.

[Psi]

I think you need an 'other' option.

I always wondered about the lack of Un dumps on the ladder considering it always seemed to be the variant with the most active development going on. Perhaps that is part of the problem as to be honest I find myself a liitle bewildered by each changelog and how far it seems to have diverged from V. Personally I don't want to be worrying about whether I have to take two steps into a monster to charge it or how to dodge etc and that is not to mention the range of diseases that I don't want to worry about dying from.

Angband is ostensibly a simple game and Un strikes me as too involved to just pick up when I fancy a change from FA. The relevance here being that I decided to try something new last night, so I picked NPP. This is marketed as a kind of V+ so I dived straight in and am enjoying it so far (though I don't know what is going on with the terrains yet - but I believe they were borrowed from Un ).

Hope that helps,
Si

[ajps]

Well, I never really had a hook to get me into it, I suppose. Sheer wealth of "things" is about the only description of the game on the berlios project page, and I'm not sure I've ever seen a description of the game that isn't a comparison to V or another variant. Not that Un is unique in this, most variants are made to be "different in these ways" and so that's the best way to describe them, but I don't play most variants either.

So I'm signing up for being sold it too. Sell me the game on it's own terms and it's more likely I'll be drawn in if I do see something interesting there.

[Bodkin]

I'm already a fan, but I'm currently not playing that much.

Pro:
I love the extra features. E.g., the fact that so many of the things that I ignore in Vanilla are useful, even the harmful mushrooms and potions. Dipping my arrows in things is great. The blood trails, the combat leprosy (that is, monster parts falling to the floor), the shrines which I am still trying to figure out ... I enjoy it all. I also think the detecting system, with its warning when you pass outside of detection range, is superior to Vanilla.

Con:
It still has some annoying bugs, such as that unholy "magic bag of items" whose primary function seems to be to crash the game, or else permanently destroy an inventory slot. Also -- and this may only be me -- I just don't find the wilderness model all that immersive; I much prefer Zangband in this regard. But when I turn off the campaign in the birth options, it isn't so good because scrolls of recall are very hard to acquire. Finally, the documentation is way behind the development; there are many races and classes that have no description listed. Is there any difference between a Man of Bree, Man of Rohan, Man of Gondor, and Man of Harad?

I live with and work around all these things for the sake of the features I like, and it's generally worth it, but to me these are all fixes that would be nice to have.

Finally, I still haven't mastered Vanilla, so I'm still spending a lot of time with that. I want that as a foundation so that I can evaluate variants more knowingly.

Does this help? Just my two bits; I hope it's what you were seeking.

[andrewdoull]

I'm already a fan, but I'm currently not playing that much.

Con:
It still has some annoying bugs, such as that unholy "magic bag of items" whose primary function seems to be to crash the game, or else permanently destroy an inventory slot.

I've never had any problems with magical bags. Could you file a bug report and email me an affected save file?

What platform are you running on?

[camlost]

Why am I not playing UnAngband? Good question. Mostly, I really like S already, so there's only a small incentive to switch. The other end of that is that my perception of UnAngband is that there is a lot of changes, which means it will take longer to become accustomed to, which doesn't work as well compared to when I'm just looking for a distraction. NPP, Quick, FA, and O are all pretty easy to pick up without investing too much time and energy. Of course, I haven't even d/l a current version of Un, so maybe I'm selling it short.

[Matthias]

Unangband, the raw gem...
Did you know that you can increase the damage of fire branded arrows by throwing a flask of oil onto the target?

Un is full of them, little details that give, in theory, the game a kind of life that is nowhere to be found in any *band. Too bad there are way way too many of them , so it is ultra hard to get into the game. I have played 5 or 6 characters to level35 and I still don't know which of the 3 or 4 instances of Bree I have to avoid at nights at all costs.

Too many options, too many things to look out for, resulting in playing takes forever. Especially with the new monster generation you can't just clear a level. Doing so might take an hour of careful planing. That is: If the features allow you to. Features... I don't like them in NPP where they are a minor danger/annoyance. And Un is so overfull of them, even lacking a normal dungeon more or less all the game. Did anyone ever try to play in those water dungeons?!? Seriously... Or those chasm ones? I guess one could disable the campaign, but that would take away half of what makes Un special, so I'd rather not do that. The campaign itself is a great idea... It is huge, I bet half of the levels have never seen an @.

So what does Unangband need?

Playtesters:
Many of them. I can talk about how charging is too weak deeper down, with noone else playing, I could be right or just not good enough.

Get rid of the annoyances:
Allow going back the route you have taken for two ingame hours (say backtrack own footsteps) in all but a very few cases (entering lonely mountain should stay the way it is ...).

Get someone to draw a map of the campaign. Not the autogenerated one that, I think, Pete made, but a jpg one with descriptions. Heavy spoilers.

Offer some goodies:
Heng's Big home is a nice start. There is way more stuff I want to store than those 24 places can hold. Further, allow all ego item melee branding combos. Allow branding of Magic items. Remove penalties from ego boots. Yes this makes the game easier. The game is hard, it needs rewards to make it worth going for. Take Heng again as an example... Scrolls of Artifact creating... where are those in Un.. Scrolls of Magic item creating could be available too, and not deeper then ?acq.
The perfect variant, in my eyes is challenging to the max, but still very fast to play and very rewarding. In Heng there are two uniques that can actually stop the time! In Un, the generation of only deep monsters should be challenge enough alone...

Yes I know you hate color coded recall screens, but with all the new things, a well readable monster/feature recall is necessary to speed up the gameplay.

[andrewdoull]

Unangband, the raw gem...

As always, I appreciate your insights. I'm going to talk about your specific comments in another threat - as its likely to take over what it supposed to be a quick comment thread.

[TJA]

For me, this was a valueable reading.
It did increase my interest in Unangbang.