Forking Hengband?

[ThunderToads]

One thing that would be good to see is a more rational alignment system. Right now I think it's a little unreal. I can get a Good alignment by only eating when hungry and digging some walls, even if I'm also murdering townspeople every time I pass through.

It would also be pretty cool if small player races could ride more monsters. Sprites riding Wolves for example.

Speaking of riding monsters, maybe make the rivers and lakes spawn less Hydras. It's pretty easy to scum for a good early mount there.

[chris]

One thing that would be good to see is a more rational alignment system. Right now I think it's a little unreal. I can get a Good alignment by only eating when hungry and digging some walls, even if I'm also murdering townspeople every time I pass through.

It would also be pretty cool if small player races could ride more monsters. Sprites riding Wolves for example.

Speaking of riding monsters, maybe make the rivers and lakes spawn less Hydras. It's pretty easy to scum for a good early mount there.

I'm not really fond of the current alignment system, but the gameplay effects usually aren't that great (except with regard to extra spell failures). Hmmm ... I too can only control the Temperance virtue. I'll have a look.

I like your other ideas. At the moment, we are adding lots of new classes and changing the gameplay a bit, so things are a bit chaotic right now. I'll definitely keep these in mind, though.

--Chris
Chengband Home Page

[KiTA]

So if one was going to give Hengband a go, where would one start? With a LOT of Google searching, I found Hengband 1.7.2 but it dwarfs even TOME in the number of class/race/etc combinations. I figure I'll move to chengband pretty quickly, but wanted to give the original a go first to get my feet wet.

[Arralen]

I remember having great fun in Heng 1.6.2 with a Vampire Ninja.

Somehow I was able to get by without any light - "you are mantled in shadow from ordinary eyes", which means most monsters cannot see me, what feels almost like cheating - but I can't figure out how I did it ?!

Even loaded up the old savegame, did a char dump, looked at the mutations list, at special abilities .. nothing. Does anyone remember how this works?

edit: must be a Ninja ability ...
I remember vaguely now that Ninja and Vampire had some nice synergy ..

edit2: Maybe it's not the best char/race combination to start with. Or maybe it is - when you have figured out all the peculiarities, you'll most likely have figured out the game

edit3: get yourself the Heng spoilers - the help files are notoriously vage and incomplete. Link is in the link section.

[ThunderToads]

So if one was going to give Hengband a go, where would one start? With a LOT of Google searching, I found Hengband 1.7.2 but it dwarfs even TOME in the number of class/race/etc combinations.

All the classes are fun and worth trying but some of them are obscure and/or difficult to use. The oddball wizard types are particularly tricky.

Any of the fighter types are good to play when you're getting a feel for the game. If you want to start with a spellcaster then a Mage using Chaos and Sorcery is a good combination. As far as race goes, just go with what seems cool and has suitable stats.

If you fancy being powergamey, the Spectre Berserker is pretty nails.

must be a Ninja ability

Yup, Ninja don't need lights and in fact work best without them.

[KiTA]

Why would Specter Berserker be so powerful?

[ThunderToads]

Because its a brutal melee fighter who can pass through walls and has lots of good innate resistances and powers.

Honestly, they're pretty overpowered. They're kinda fun anyway, worth trying just for the hell of it, but they're not balanced at all. Even Berserkers from other races are easier than a lot of characters, not as unbalanced as this one though.

[KiTA]

Yeah, I noticed in the spoilers that they cut the score of them to 1/5th normal. Same with Amberite Berserkers.

I've been enjoying Mighty Android Berserkers, myself. How can you go wrong with a character that STARTS with Legendary [2] fighting? I wonder what other Android classes are interesting. Most of them use mana, I think, which prohibits Androids from doing them.

Maybe an Android Ninja, in honor of the NSFW webcomic Blade Bunny. Would be hard to balance the low gear requirements of the Ninja with the Androids levels-as-gearscore requirements, though.

[ThunderToads]

You could try an Android Cavalry. Cavalry is one of my favorite classes, I enjoy the novelty of riding monsters, levelling them up or looking for better ones to ride. I'm running a Golem Cavalry myself right now (riding a Dracolisk). The only problem with using an Android is you sacrifice one hand to control the mount rather than wield a shield or second weapon, but I think with good enough gear that wouldn't matter in the long run.

[KiTA]

Things I have discovered as I've been playing:

- Don't do the Vapor Quest without See Invisible (!#@$)
- Don't do The Mimic's Treasure without some way to make walls. (!#@$ summoners)
- Don't do Logrus Master without See Invisible AND some way to make walls. (!@#$!#@$ summoning unique)
- Old Man Willow Quest is much easier than it appears.

Wish there was a Lord Dimwit-like strat guide. The spoilers are ok, but they're lacking in some of the details (like quests, and a general order of dungeons to take on).

[ThunderToads]

Heng likes teaching by the 'burnt hand' method.


I downloaded Chengband yesterday, I've been messing with the Blood Knight. I have a Beastman Blood Knight, I scummed character generation to get Chaos Deity: Khorne because it just fits so well. Interesting Class so far, I like the way taking damage makes you fight harder and the 'm' powers are pretty cool. I'm only at level 19 so I haven't unlocked everything yet, I'll post a dump at some point (probably chardeath :P ).

[KiTA]

If I had to make 1 feature request for Chengband, it would be to steal some of the feedback improvements from TOME. The "character icon as HP %%" change, the coloring of text lists (artifacts, for example), etc etc, are all things I'm missing from TOME in Hengband.

I had an option in TOME enabled that would *require* you hit space to get past the *Low Hitpoint Warning!!* -More- Prompt, but I can't seem to find it in Hengband, either. That might just be me, though.


I noticed that almost ALL of the really really high scoring Androids have Ironman Arena Levels and/or Ironman Unusual Rooms on -- so I gave it a shot. It's... weird. I think I like it. Been fiddling with Android Weaponsmith recently, but I keep falling back into Android Berserker. There's just something soothing about a character that starts with Legendary [2] combat.

This is my best run so far. Turns out that the Vault is um, really freaking hard.

I should fire up a Sourceforge account, migrate the Hengband spoiler page into the Wiki, and start updating it.

[Derakon]

From what I can recall of the Vault quest in ZAngband, you basically have two options for clearing it: either stealth it, or wait until you can tank monsters from around 2500' without difficulty. Stealthing it can be tempting because the reward is so nice...but if you get unlucky then you can easily end up dead.

A lot of the quests are really nasty, unfortunately, and it can be hard to tell which is which until after you've lost a character to one.

[DOZO]

So I just started playing a Duelist in Cheng, and while facing my most worthy foe yet in single combat- a giant centipede- was wounded and received the message "You have been horribly scarred" with a corresponding drop in charisma.

...But, seeing this character is a Duelist, shouldn't my Charisma go up?

(Kidding, kidding. I'm guessing this is too much of an edge case to implement any special behavior for. But if you want to, that would be a nice touch! As an alternative, maybe Sustain Charisma as a class intrinsic?)

[artes]

Here's a bug for you in Chengband. I have the artifact The Cutlass 'Lightning Conductor', but it doesn't show up in Display Known Artifacts under Display Current Knowledge. Is it not counted as an artifact? It was the first artifact I found.