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[wobbly]

So I searched for an angband thread & the only 1 I could find is about 4 years old, so I started a new one. For those who don't know angband it's an old rogue-like based on Tolkien's works that grew out Moria & is still being developed about a gazillon years later.

version 4.1.0 has just come out. details are here:
http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=8431

Also there is now a website for playing on-line/spectating/chat. Includes vanilla angband/poschengband/faangband/sil. There's a thread here:
http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=8431
or the actual site:
http://angband.live/

The site is still a little rough around the edges, but works well enough to play on or spectate games. If you see Gwarl on-line he developed the site so feel free to ask him any questions.

[Robsoie]

Interesting to see Angband is still being developped and improved, some of the changes sounds really for the best.

I wonder which Angband people are playing with here ?

The 2 Angband variants i have been playing the most were :
- Omniband-TK (that contained multiple variants of angband-TK, Zangband-TK especially that had always been my favorite before being discontinued and finding its way into that Omniband)
if someone is interested by a build of it, as the links provided in the thread are dead (or in the end of the thread only link to the source code) , there's this mirror that's still working thanks to zaimoni :
http://www.zaimoni.com/zaiband/Angband.ref/OmnibandTk-1.5.zip
 
- Sil that had a great system and mechanics that made very interesting, with characters improvements not being based on levels but on competence improvements. Very recommended.

[kirkington]

Sil is a great game, it's been stripped and redesigned to the point that it doesn't feel like an Angband variant (I actually forgot until reading your post).

[Frumple]

Only *band I can recall playing much of in the last few years was steamband, heh. Maybe ToME 2 or furyband, a bit, and one or two of some of the heng/entro line. Did look at Sil at some point since it was released, but it didn't really hook me for whatever reason.

There was a point I had played as near as I could tell literally every *band variant that was existent at the time for at least a little (up to and including ones that were outright not in english, the only thing I'm particularly able to read), but somewhen after that I realized I really just kinda' don't like the core mechanics most foobands work off of.

Flat out never enjoyed playing vanilla, though. Not when I first found it and the *bands that spawned from it, not after I had sunk dozens (maybe hundreds, really) of hours into playing variants, at no point after I had started playing the things less. Plenty of respect to give for the effort involved and what it managed to inspire but blegh, actually playing the thing, no, no thanks. Even when I first encountered it, it was, well. Vanilla. Well put together and whatnot but gods alive as bland and uninteresting a set of fantasy setting and mechanics gets without approaching outright shovelware, even considering the tolkien influence. Can't blame someone for enjoying it or some crap like that but keep it away from me, eesh.

E: Though, that said, from what I recall the latest ones might at least be somewhat less samey so far as dungeon layout and such goes. Not nearly on the level of at least a half dozen of the variants, but improved from the days of nothing but featureless terrain and the occasional vault that was effectively nothing but featureless terrain with certain creatures and/or a bunch of loot in it.

[wobbly]

Yeah vanilla is still pretty dry in aesthetic though there's less of the wading through a billion identical Ogres I remember from the much older versions. Pretty sure reworking the monster list is one of the next things on Nick's plan so maybe there'll be some improvements there. I suspect vanilla is always going to be drier then variants because the core players like the simplicity/balance of not having a thousand little quirks in the game play.

I play more Sil or Poschengband than vanilla. Sil has such beautifully tight game mechanics and does a much better job of staying true to the lore than any other game I've seen. Played it to death for a while. Poschengband goes in the opposite direction, real fantasy kitchen sink, with Cthullu monsters, knights of the round table, stuff taken from basically everywhere. Also lets you play as a monster race. It's from that whole zband -> hengband chain of variants.

[PopTart]

I'm an avid player of the vanilla version, at least for the past few months. It gives my gnome mage plenty of mayhem to handle and tools to work with. Angband is a great entry for training patience, which is the most important skill in roguelikes.

[Robsoie]

The talk about Sil made me run a new character in the hope he's going to be better than the countless ones that failed through the years (never managed to win that game and even getting close to do) as Sil can be extremely unforgiving with the random stuff (i remember when walking in a room with a stair and move toward it a bunch of orc soldiers just appeared out of the stairs and killed my totally unprepared for them character) and having your escape route suddenly blocked by a monster that wasn't in the previously cleared rooms.

Looks like that guy has been more lucky, killed truckload of orcs and in a blind archery duel in dark corridor managed to kill a bunch of orcs without even seeing them and badly wound a much stronger one that appeared to be Gorgol the Butcher the orc captain that was so wounded already when he reached me that i managed to take down without dying (in a long past game i was playing a melee type of character and that unique was just way too strong)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Looks like Sil monsters love to pop up out of their normal depth.

[wobbly]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Looks like Sil monsters love to pop up out of their normal depth.

yep they do. Often they'll come up the stairs from lower levels. Though looking at the forge behind him he has probably been generated as a guard.

[Robsoie]

Looks like my character is a bit too lucky



Probably a way for the game to tell me he's going to meet no more orcs or trolls starting from now.
And probably out-of-depth Smaug at the next level

[Il Palazzo]

Sil is lovely. But ever since I played it around Christmas, I can't make myself run a character without first changing the system date.
As Swords and Sworcery once said, I'm a cheating cheater.

[Madman198237]

First found this a month or two ago, played it a few times, never made it past level 2 without getting horribly killed.

Time to try again!

[Robsoie]

Sil survival isn't only about tactics, seems to me it require more luck than in crawl by example as usefull items are very fewer on the ground and monsters out of their depth isn't a rare occurance by it's nearly every of them.

But sometime, though it's rare, the game rolls actually favor me, as i found myself facing 2 "Mewlip" one with its bell made me forget the explored part of the level while the other just threw me into "Afraid" status, oh well bad luck.
And while i was running toward what i remembered be a stair room as with that status you're as good as dead if anything block your path, guess what happened... a bunch of orc warriors came out of that stair, blocking it to me.

So far, the game rolls as usual with Sil were obviously against me and it reminded me what made me stop playing it several months ago...

But, while trying to move into the unexplored corridor as it was the last possible escape option, after walking a couple of tiles another couple of orc warrior just came and blocked that corridor exit ... great, well at least i still have other roguelike to play ...

The afraid status was simply making my character a sitting duck unable to fight back, so i decided to drink a potion that i had no clue what it was, who know maybe it would put my character out of his misery faster.
... and it put me into a berserk status, removing the afraid one.

Allowing my character to then destroy the mewlips and all the orc warriors, sure i was near dead by the end but my character was still standing, wow so sometime Sil have rolls positive for the player ?

A bit later, while i was in a dark room i got an arrow coming at me from of a previously cleared room (i hate how it happens so often, i guess the stair presence in a nearby location explain that as it's not only escape stairs but are used apparently as monster spawning devices), i then spotted another orc unique "Boldog the Merciless" that as everything seems to be in Sil is an out of depth monster (i was at depth 250 and Boldog is supposed to be at depth 350)  i decided to run away in a long dark corridor as it was obvious my character stood no chance as i don't have great equipment due to finding nothing worthy out of the longbow i mentionned in previous post.

I'm unsure how line of sight really work in that game as it seems enemy monsters all can see in the dark, but i hoped to have broken that enemy los after that long dark corridor.

I took my nice anti-orc/troll longbow from previous post and started to unleash dozen after dozen of arrows, killing many orcs (didn't thought they were so many) without even seeing them.
And one of the orc that died apparently let many items roll , it's where i understood that i just took out "Boldog the Merciless" .

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Finally some luck

[wobbly]

Sil survival isn't only about tactics, seems to me it require more luck than in crawl by example as usefull items are very fewer on the ground and monsters out of their depth isn't a rare occurance by it's nearly every of them.

Luck's pretty helpful but there's a lot less of it then seems at 1st. There's a lot of subtlety in the mechanics as to where you position yourself in a fight & how to explore to maximize stealth (sticking to walls, closing doors etc.)

I'm unsure how line of sight really work in that game as it seems enemy monsters all can see in the dark, but i hoped to have broken that enemy los after that long dark corridor.

Yep they see in the dark. You need an actual corner to break los. They can hear as well, if you want to vanish you really need multiple closed doors between you & them or the vanish skill. It's hard to get the space to vanish properly unless you go with sprinting or invest heavily in stealth.

Anyway I've been playing a bit again so I put this feanor through. Fairly straight forward heavy armour, bow & sword.
http://angband.live/user/wobbly/sil/Deleb.txt

[Il Palazzo]

Do you know if it's at all possible to find a forge on ascending to a higher dungeon level? I tend to play smithing-focused dwarfs, and always feel the pressure to search all the level (whereas I see you went down to 950ft before ascending to 700).

[wobbly]

Yep. in fact that guaranteed forge on 100' generates on 50' if you try & take the up stairs from the 1st level. I've never looked at the code to know how forge generation works exactly.. I just know that there's a chance of a random forge generating & there's a guaranteed forge that generates after the last guaranteed forge. Doesn't matter if you go < or > for the guaranteed forge (randoms generate more regularly lower down). For the guaranteed forge there's a percentage chance 2000 turns after the last rising to 100% after 5000 turns.

All that said the easiest way to find them is to get low enough for staff of revelations to drop.