So this post finally gave me the impetus to listen to some of RR, and I found the Quickband episode interesting.
The point was made during RR that one of the defining features of Angband versus other roguelikes is its epic scale. IMHO this gives it a sense of gravitas that the others fail to have (that's on top of the fact that the aim in some of the more popular other roguelikes is to fetch a necklace named 'Rodney' spelt backwards).
In the interests of balance, I downloaded these two to compare UI. Now I am aware that this is a matter of taste, but I felt that Brogue was a bit busy - I like the clean, uncluttered feel of Angband. No offence to DarkGod, but Tome 4 made me want to put my eyes out.
I don't believe this was a conscious attempt to mimic Diablo. Given that, I think it is better to see how the new affix system works in Angband (well, v4 for now) and judge based on that rather than on perceived parallels.
If something was worth doing in the early 2000s, it could surely be done now. The difficulty with UI work in particular is getting people interested in doing it, and keeping it up to date.
As for the last comment, I suspect it is actually a reflection on how long it is since you've played Angband...
In case you haven't realised yet, I disagree. The magic of Angband and variants is in the seriousness and the scale and the glorious enormity of it all. It's not a game that you pick up and play for a bit before moving on to the next shiny object; it's a game for devotees. It doesn't suit everyone - it's not even close to suiting everyone - but the people it does suit tend to fall deeply and lastingly in love with it.
I only started playing Angband about 8 years ago, but I realised very quickly that I had been looking for it for a long time without realising. And I don't think I am the only one, and I think it needs to be maintained in its current spirit for those who, after wandering lost in the wilds of the internet, come upon Angband and find that they are home.
The tl;dr is that IMO Angband was great during the nineties, but there's been a complete lack of cross pollination between Angband (and variants) and other roguelikes, which have moved on considerably from where more=better.
The recent devteams supposed focus on 'improving the UI' actually hasn't - see Tome 4 and Brogue for examples of good to great roguelike UI.
The current focus on balancing and creating more interesting item affixes is just mimicing the path Diablo took, which is another game from the 90s.
There was a window of opportunity in the early 2000s to merge back a whole lot of great ideas from Angband variants (4GAI, monster mana, actually interesting monsters, the TK user interface) into Angband, in order to improve the game, but I think that window has since passed. Playing Quickband recently just reminded me how colourless and hard to get into a game Angband really is in many ways.
As for the last comment, I suspect it is actually a reflection on how long it is since you've played Angband...
I'm not sure what to do to fix Angband these days. Whatever magic it had is being done much better elsewhere.
I only started playing Angband about 8 years ago, but I realised very quickly that I had been looking for it for a long time without realising. And I don't think I am the only one, and I think it needs to be maintained in its current spirit for those who, after wandering lost in the wilds of the internet, come upon Angband and find that they are home.
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