Iso-Funband - My try in variant making

[Hajo]

Iso-Funband is my try to create a variant which is more forgiving and suitable for new players. I hope that eventually I can adjust the whole set of levels, but I started with the early levels, these are the most important for the beginners anyways. In the long run, I want to adjust the late game, so that monsters which are usually just avoided, or levels which are skipped, become a more interesting part of the game - or be left away altogether, if they can't be integrated better. At the moment, below level 15, it's just Angband 2.9.3 with a bit higher monster density (so rather harder than easier I guess ...)

Also, it features the latest incarnation of my isometric display frontend, and I have tried to tailor the Angband core a bit to work better with it. (Screens are not quite up to date, but very close to the release).

Click for full size.


Click for full size.


Click for full size.

Iso-Funband Changes

- Less OOD monsters on early levels.
- Room shapes slightly adjusted to work better with the iso view.
- Third page for shops and home.
- Moved all early artifacts but phial up one level.
- Moved level 10 artifacts to level 8 and level 15 to level 14.
- Entering home will restore max HP.
- Added "of vita" ego armor with +1 CON .
- Raised default no. of monsters per level from 14 to 20.
- Lowered HP of some of the early monsters.
- Mushroom patches now have a 30% chance to drop edible mushrooms.
- Hobbits now also have a 30% chance to drop mushrooms.
- Since edible mushrooms had to be level 1 to be dropped from level one monster mushrooms, they were dropped frequently by monsters on the early levels as well.
-> Made them more rare (rarity 5)
-> Moved up some level 3 items to level 1, to have more drop options on level 1
-> Added hard biscuits as possible level 1 drop. I see no reason why some of the monsters wouldn't have such.
-> Items had a base chance of level+10% before to become good, now they have level+15% - this evens out at higher levels, and is generally capped at 75%.
- Added ego lights,
-> of Brightness, +1 light rad
-> of Sight, see invisible
-> of Bright Sight, +1 light rad, see invisible, up to +5 to hit.
- Light sources have 10% chance to become ego lights.
- Code for 9 part walls reactivated.
- Lightable features, doors, stairs.


Download

For Windows users, there is a precompiled executable included. Also two starting batch files, "start_small.bat" and "start_large.bat" which choose a smaller or larger font, and therefore start with a smaller or larger window.

==> http://funkelwerk.de/data/iso-angban...band-0_5_0.zip <==

Sources and images are included as well. I think it should compile for Linux, too, but I had no chance to test that yet (See http://www.funkelwerk.de/forum/index.php?topic=380.0 for help with compiling).


Ideas to inspect

- Paralyze weaker, remove stacking?
- Item prize calculations?
- Themed stairs?

I'll try to pick up more ideas forums, also in regard to monsters, randarts and artifacts. In addition I will see if I can back-port some of features from Angband 3.1.2v2 into my codebase.

[ekolis]

Just curious, why did you start with 2.9.3 instead of a more modern version?

[buzzkill]

A variant for beginners might benefit from a (optional) non-random DL1. Laid out as an 'only one way to go' dungeon, you could place items and enemies in convenient locations, and teach the absolute newb the basic keystrokes with in game message at appropriate times. Maybe march players up to CL5 or so while teaching them how to attack, fire, wield, take off, search, use, zap, aim, throw, read, Gain, pray, etc. Gradually increase the difficulty of the enemies beyond those normally found on DL1 as you need to for this tutorial only. Cap it off by having them (likely) killed by a low level unique and escorts, thus teaching them the most lesson of all, death is always an option.

[Hajo]

Just curious, why did you start with 2.9.3 instead of a more modern version?

I had the code from a former try, and unfortunately it turns out that patches from the 2.9.x series do not merge well into the 3.1 version. Just too much changed. So at the moment, I work with the old code.

@buzzkill:

Such a guided tutorial looks like a good idea to me. I'll see if I can do something. Thanks for the suggestion