Your variant of choice?

[swim]

I'm curious to hear what your variant of choice is, and why?

I have just started playing Angband recently and am really loving it. I see myself sticking with vanilla Angband for a while so that I don't get overwhelmed but I am still curious as to what else is out there.

For me, I love the idea that some of them feature an open world. I'm not so much interested in endless class / race combinations. I like to keep it simple in those areas

[Mondkalb]

I like FAangband, which currently is being updated with some of the new features of vanilla Angband.

FAangband (First Age Angband) has a vast overworld and four dungeons as well as several towns of various size.

Nick has tailored it to reflect the first age of Tolkien's world in respect of monsters, uniques, and gear.
FAangband features a few more races and different classes than vanilla. It has a fractional resistance system. Also, various resistance combinations can appear on non-artifact rings and amulets along with activations. Furthermore, classes get uniqe abilities on birth and later with level-ups.

Overall a very interesting and quite hard variant.

[swim]

I like FAangband, which currently is being updated with some of the new features of vanilla Angband.

FAangband (First Age Angband) has a vast overworld and four dungeons as well as several towns of various size.

Nick has tailored it to reflect the first age of Tolkien's world in respect of monsters, uniques, and gear.
FAangband features a few more races and different classes than vanilla. It has a fractional resistance system. Also, various resistance combinations can appear on non-artifact rings and amulets along with activations. Furthermore, classes get uniqe abilities on birth and later with level-ups.

Overall a very interesting and quite hard variant.

Sounds very interesting! I'll be keeping that one on the radar for sure. I like that this one is incorporating newer features from vanilla.

[Pete Mack]

If you want first age purity, play Sil, where Bard is actually a viable choice (except there are no classes.)

[swim]

I like FAangband, which currently is being updated with some of the new features of vanilla Angband.

FAangband (First Age Angband) has a vast overworld and four dungeons as well as several towns of various size.

Nick has tailored it to reflect the first age of Tolkien's world in respect of monsters, uniques, and gear.
FAangband features a few more races and different classes than vanilla. It has a fractional resistance system. Also, various resistance combinations can appear on non-artifact rings and amulets along with activations. Furthermore, classes get uniqe abilities on birth and later with level-ups.

Overall a very interesting and quite hard variant.

You mentioned FAangband is currently being updated.. but everything I see shows the latest update being 1.4.4 in 2013. Are there newer builds up somewhere?

[Nick]

You mentioned FAangband is currently being updated.. but everything I see shows the latest update being 1.4.4 in 2013. Are there newer builds up somewhere?

There is an updated version in the works, based on Angband 4.2, to be released as version 2.0 soon. Development builds can be found here, and an actual 2.0 release is not too far away (I hope).

[swim]

There is an updated version in the works, based on Angband 4.2, to be released as version 2.0 soon. Development builds can be found here, and an actual 2.0 release is not too far away (I hope).

Cool, looking forward to it!

Are there any other variants that are based on 4.x ?

[caruso]

It's been a while since I last played Angband and variants, but when I do for the next time, I'll probably play Quickband by Antoine again. It's a faster variant of NPPband, which, in turn, aims to be a best-of of all variants. What I especially like about Quickband:

• The dynamic "Go deeper" level-feeling prevents players from boring themselves. (If you stay on a depth for which you are overpowered, you will get less rewards.)
• Fast progress, more meaningful battles. Even fighter classes may find themselves in challenging situations as early as DL 3
• Inscriptions on some walls will warn you against the most (?) dangerous enemies on that level: I do feel "lucky", but should I risk encountering that Mature Bronze Dragon, without Confusion Resistance? You can continue to read an inscription until it falls apart.
• Runes, which need to be disarmed like traps, but, unlike traps, can harm you from a distance: Should I really have my clumsy warrior fiddle with that Nether Rune? Or should I grab one more treasure and make for the door?

Minor quibble: A few elements from NPP seem out of place, like the permanently closed Adventurers' Guild and the unattainable "Make spellbook fireproof" service. And, unfortunately for you, the Quickband world consists only of a town and a dungeon.

I may also take a closer look at Seven Day Band by Jeff Lait, which allows you to create your own *band as you play it.

[swim]

It's been a while since I last played Angband and variants, but when I do for the next time, I'll probably play Quickband by Antoine again. It's a faster variant of NPPband, which, in turn, aims to be a best-of of all variants. What I especially like about Quickband:

• The dynamic "not a challenge" level-feeling prevents players from boring themselves. (If you stay on a depth for which you are overpowered, you will get less rewards.)
• Fast progress, more meaningful battles. Even fighter classes may find themselves in challenging situations as early as DL 3
• Inscriptions on some walls will warn you against the most (?) dangerous enemies on that level: I do feel "lucky", but should I risk encountering that Mature Bronze Dragon, without Confusion Resistance? You can continue to read an inscription until it falls apart.
• Runes, which need to be disarmed like traps, but, unlike traps, can harm you from a distance: Should I really have my clumsy warrior fiddle with that Nether Rune? Or should I grab one more treasure and make for the door?

Minor quibble: A few elements from NPP seem out of place, like the permanently closed Adventurers' Guild and the unattainable "Make spellbook fireproof" service. And, unfortunately for you, the Quickband world consists only of a town and a dungeon.

I may also take a closer look at Seven Day Band, which allows you to create your own *band as you play it.

Woah, Seven Day Band looks really neat! I wonder how deep it lets you go... Is it just one dungeon and you get to name the spells, monsters, items, etc? I wonder if you have options for a wilderness... maybe that's being too optimistic haha

edit: just fired it up for a laugh. Can't get full screen to work. oh well it is a really cool idea.

[caruso]

You will have found out by now, but not only can you rename those things, you can fully customise them Not sure about Dungeon-only versus optional wilderness... If that turns out to be one of the very few non-customisable features, I'd ask Jeff Lait about it, because he is an active programmer. Also, maybe he knows how to fix the full screen issue. In any case, he will be glad to hear that you like it so much.

[archolewa]

Honestly, I really haven't found any variants that I enjoy as much as vanilla. I love the huge number of races and classes in Frogcomposband, but the power creep feels excessive to me, and there are too many monsters I find tedious. I love Sils lore, but I dont like how open ended character building is. Ive tried FirstAgeAngband, but I dont like its wilderness, and playing without wilderness feels so close to vanilla, it doesn't really scratch that "like Angband but not Angband" itch.

Basically every variant Ive tried has something I love, and some things I really don't.

[Nick]

Honestly, I really haven't found any variants that I enjoy as much as vanilla. I love the huge number of races and classes in Frogcomposband, but the power creep feels excessive to me, and there are too many monsters I find tedious. I love Sils lore, but I dont like how open ended character building is. Ive tried FirstAgeAngband, but I dont like its wilderness, and playing without wilderness feels so close to vanilla, it doesn't really scratch that "like Angband but not Angband" itch.

Have you tried Steamband? It feels very different to Vanilla. The user interface is more primitive, but I find it a lot of fun.

[archolewa]

Have you tried Steamband? It feels very different to Vanilla. The user interface is more primitive, but I find it a lot of fun.

I havent. Last I knew it was almost but not quite 100% complete, and hasnt been developed in a long time. I will have to check it out.

[Pete Mack]

It is absolutely crazy. It is also a bit unbalanced, in the way of ToME2: Mecha(?) Dashing Hussar absolutely destroys everything short of a battalion of Nazi Tanks and Steam Drills. Really. Kill final boss Fu Manshu in 3 turns taking zero damage in return. But those terrifying Nazi tanks... Just run away and "dive" up the last 10 levels.

[budswell]

My favourite variant doesn't exist.

I play Pos/Comp/Frog all the time. It has the best variety of races and classes.
But working through the same series of dungeons gets dull.
I loved the random overworld, towns, quests, dungeons, and camps of Zang/Z+. So my ideal variant would be Frog engine in the Z+ world.