The results of my Angband Survey 10/25/95-11/5/95 ------------------------------------------------- 38 Total Responses(though not everyone answered each question) This is the simplified response list(more grouping together of answers into categories, less wordy) Basic Results- Most people do not use backup saves People do not tend to max out at stat levels Most People use the Autoroller The majority of respondents have played Moria and/or NetHack, but Angband is the fave High-Elf Mages are the most-played characters, and the easiest to win with Magic Mushroom Patches are voted the most annoying creature Calris is the top vote-getter as favorite artifact Mim is the unique most considered too tough for his level Dracolisks and Cave Spiders are the non-uniques most considered too tough for their level The most popular staff, wand or rod is a staff of Teleportation The most popular rod is recall and the most popular wand is clone monster The most popular ring was, duh, speed Most people don't level scum but do town scum The favorite feature of Angband was Uniques Q1:Do you use (backup) savefiles? How often? 20 never use backup savefiles 3 use backups, but only restore after a stupid death 2 use backups rarely 2 are using backups till they win once 10 said they backed up at given intervals(ranging from 4 backups altogether to very often) 1 said they restore after even a relatively minor item loss Q2:Do you max-out stats at the "stat levels" or descend if it is longer challenging? 22 said they descend if it's not a challenge 4 said they wait for non-stat gains(reistances,etc) before certain descents 4 said they don't max stats totally, but do raise them alot 7 said they max-out Q3:DO you use the autoroller?How rare are the rolls you want? (I must have counted one response twice) 4 don't use the autoroller 1 sometimes does 34 use it, though to wildly varying degrees(from 1 in 20 to 1 in 3Million rolls needed) Q4:Which Angband version/variant is your fave? 24 said 2.7.8 or 2.7.9 3 said they don't care(1 excluded 2.7.7 though) 4 said other Ben Versions(2.7 on) 1 said 2.0.3 1 said 1.3.1 Ben and Shawn said whichever one they're working on 2 split votes between 2.7.8 and DLAngband or 2.6.2 1 split a vote for ZAngband and Graphical 1.4 Q5:Roguelike games played? Favorite? Game # who have played Votes as Favorite ---- ----------------- ----------------- Angband 38(duh) 32 Moria 32 2 NetHack 23 2 and 1/2 Rogue 13 0 Omega 11 0 Hack 8 0 Larn 8 0 ULarn 3 0 URogue 2 0 Ragnarok 2 0 Alphaman 2 0 Original MacRogue 1 1 JAMoria 1 1/2 SRogue 1 0 CWMMoria 1 0 MacRogue 1 0 Crossfire 1 0 Adventure 1(Not roguelike in my opinion)0 BardsTale 1 (Ditto) 0 Q6:Fave race/class combo? Combo Total Votes Ballots Mentioning ----- ----------- ------------------ High Elf Mage 14 16 Dwarf Priest 4 and 1/12 8 Dunadan Paladin 2 and 1/4 4 Half-Troll Priest 2 and 1/4 3 Gnome Mage 2 and 1/30 4 Dunadan Ranger 1 and 1/4 2 Human Mage 1 and 1/4 2 Half-Orc Rogue 19/20 3 Elven Mage 1 1 High-Elf Ranger 1 1 Half-Orc Priest 1 1 Dunadan Priest 1 1 Dwarven Warrior 7/10 2 Half-Troll 9/20 2 Dunadan Mage 1/2 1 Elf Ranger 1/2 1 Elf Rogue 1/2 1 Half-Elf Rogue 1/2 1 Dunadan Warrior 1/2 1 Halfling Warrior 1/3 1 Halfling Rogue 1/4 1 Human Warrior 1/4 1 Human Paladins 1/4 1 Also:Humans got 1/5 of a vote Halflings and Mages split a vote And Elves,Gnomes,Fighters,Mages and Rangers split a vote Q7:Easiest combo to play: Combo Total Votes Ballots Mentioning ----- ----------- ------------------ High-Elf Mage 15 and 1/2 17 Dwarf Priest 4 and 1/4 6 Gnome Mage 1 and 1/4 3 Dwarf Warrior 1 and 1/4 2 Dunadan Warrior 1 and 1/4 2 Dunadan Paladin 1 and 1/4 2 Half-Elf Mage 1 2 Dunadan Priest 3/4 2 Dunadan Ranger 1 1 HiElfRanger 1 1 Humans 1 1 Rangers 1 1 Half-Troll Warrior 1/2 1 BTW, Jason said a Human Warrior was the easiest to PLAY. That's why I'm taking General Writing-I have to learn to write more clearly. At least everyone got the question. Comparison Q6-Q7(or what munchkins?): Votes as Favorite Votes as Easiest ----------------- ---------------- HiElfMage 14 15 and a 1/2(1st in both) Dwarf Priest 4 and a 1/2 4 and a 1/4(2nd in both) Simmilarity? Munchkins galore? Nah. Q8:Most annoying monster? Total Votes Ballots Mentioned on ----------- -------------------- Magic Mushrooms 8 and 1/4 10 Hounds 5 and 1/2 6 Time Vortex 3 and 1/2 5 Time Hound 3 and 1/2 5 Death Mold 2 and 1/4 3 Acidic Cytoplasm1 and 1/2 2 Nexus Hounds 1 and 1/3 2 Water Hounds 1 and 1/4 2 Memory Moss 1 2 Dreads 1 1 Red Dragon Bat 1 1 Blue Icky Thing 1 1 "Anything Nexus"1 1 Any mobile jellies/cytoplasms1 1 Lice 1/2 1 Worms 1/2 1 Thief-types 1/2 1 Gravity Hounds 1/2 1 Impact Hounds 1/2 1 Ancient White Dragons1/2 1 Dracolisk 1/2 1 Nexus Quylthugs 1/2 1 Hummerhorns 1/3 1 Chaos Hounds 1/3 1 Disenchanter Molds 1/4 1 Q9:Fave Artifact: (I've only found 4 artifacts, so I used the spelling the writers used, which may well be incorrect. Also I wrote the answers on paper before transferring them to this form-and my handwriting is bad) Artifact(sp?) Total Votes #Ballots Mentioned on ------------- ----------- --------------------- Calris 6 and 1/3 8 Ringil 3 3 Dor-Lomin 2 3 Taratol 2 2 Cubragol 2 2 Bladeturner 2 2 Fingolfin 1 and 1/2 2 Deathwreaker 1 and 1/2 2 The Arkenstone 1 1 Thalkettoth 1 1 SmallMetalShield of Thorin1 1 Faenor 1 1 Trident of Ulmo 1 1 The One Ring 1 1 Aule 1 1 helm that activates to detect1 1 practically everything on the screen(name?) non-artifact Great Axe 1 1 of Westernesse Thanduril 1/2 1 Narvigal 1/2 1 Phial 1/2 1 Celegorm 1/2 1 Doomcaller 1/3 1 Aglarang 1/3 1 The Star 1/3 1 Amulet of Calannas 1/3 1 Q10:Angband Accomplisment Proudest of? (same as Full Summary version-couldn't really simplify these): Killing a Will-O-Wisp(Damn Teleporters) Annoying Wife by Playing So Much 1st level Hobbit Rogue summons green naga and other stuff, kills all and gets to 4th or 5th level in the process Defeating Wormtongue,Logduf and another Unique in one battle Winning!(mentioned by 4 people) Adding dynamically allocated monsters in Utumno(sp?)-A variant by Shawn Being able to quit for 2 years(AAA-Angband Addiction Anonymous) Creating 30+ up-staircases at 4950' before beating Morgoth later Winning wo/ backup savefiles-not actually done by writer of this answer Won wo/ backup savefiles-someone who succeeded Angband still enjoyable after 5 years Fighter to 1000' from the top Broke 30th level Clearing Grtr vault Losing character to pit trap :). Making ZAngband as stable as it is RoS,BoS at around 2000' Winning w/ Half-Orc Rogue 40th level HiElMage defeats Uriel,Ungoliat,some Ringwraiths in Grtr Vault at 1400' in old version-didn't clear vault though(Tarrasque,more stuff) Discontinuing use of backup savefiles Killing Tiamat w/ only haste as preparation in 1st meeting 2.7 to 2.7.9 -Ben Suggestions used to help make 2.6.2 Clearing Grtr vault(2000-2500 ft) over 2 nights w/ monsters 40 levels out of depth wo/ backup savefiles. had to leave artifacts behind because there were too many Pounding Saruman in 1st meeting Killing Wormy wo/ really trying Almost clearing Graveyard at 1950 ft-only drujes left-1st mace disruption found-old version before graveyards made easier Dwarf Priest to 3200 wo/ artifacts(also dwarf ? to 1200 from top) Mage to 4000' Able to get haste in 5-6 hrs-usually can get to level 40 before death(using human magi) Killing Tiamat, Sauron each in first meetings Q11:Toughest Monster,Compared to others on same level: Monster Unique Ballots Mentioning it Total Votes ------- ------ --------------------- ----------- Mim Y 5 3 and 3/4 Dracolisks N 3 3 Cave Spiders N 3 3 Black Reavers N 3 2 and 1/4 Grtr Titans N 3 1 and 2/3 Zephyr Hounds N 2 2 Titans N 2 1 and 1/2 Azriel Y 2 1 and 1/3 Gabriel Y 2 1 and 1/3 Drolem Y 2 1 and 1/3 Solars N 1 1 Pukel-Men N 1 1 AMHDs N 1 1 Dreads N 1 1 Tiamath Y 1 1 Wormtongue Y 1 1 Lrg Kobolds N 1 1 Creatures Y/N 1 1 Faster than You Nightwalkers N 1 1/2 Chaos Hounds N 1 1/2 Time Hounds N 1 1/2 Higher Angels ???? 1 1/3 Khum Y 1 1/4 Ibum Y 1 1/4 And there were also a few isolated cases:a BMHD on the 1st trip down(50 feet?), Great Ice Wyrms in town(older version) and Jabberwokkys at 600 ft(older version) Q12:Favorite Wand, Staff or Rod(Misconstrued by some to mean best of each-so lots of split votes here) Wand/Staff/Rod W/S/R Total Votes #of Times mentioned -------------- ----- ----------- ------------------- Teleportation S(Other?)8 and 41/42 15 Recall R 4 and 10/21 8 Restore R 2 and 5/6 4 Perceptions S/R 2 and 5/12(1asRod) 6(4S,2R) Detections R 2 and 5/12 5 Teleport Away W/R 2 and 1/7 5 Light W/R 2 and 1/3(1/3 as Wand)3 -Light is ranked lower due to fewer times mentioned, too slight lead in total votes Speed S/R 1 and 21/41 5(3R,2S) Clone Monster W 1 and 17/21 6 *Destruction* S 1 and 1/7 2 Magi S 1 3 Healing R 41/42 (1/7,1/3,1/2) 3 Treause Location S 2/3 2 Dragons Breath W 2/3 2 Power S 1/2 1 Object Location S 1/3 1 Cold Ball R 1/3 1 Stinking Cloud W 1/3 1 Annihilation W 1/3 1 Curing S 1/3 1 Slow Monster W 1/3 1 And the prize for most far-fetched vote:Rod Brind'Amour of the Flyers(is he still around????) Q13:Fave Ring? Ring Type Total Votes # of mentions --------- ----------- ------------- Speed 16 and 1/3 19 The One Ring 6 6 Slaying 3 and 1/2 4 INT 3 and 1/2 4 Protection 2 2 Damage 1 and 1/2 2 Poison Resistance 1 2 Barahir 1 1 Vilya 1 1 Constitution 1/2 1 Free Action 1/3 1 See Invis 1/3 1 Engagement Ring of Woe 0 0 Q14:Level Scumming? 22 said they don't 8 said they do, but not always 6 said they do(always?) Q15:Town Scumming? 5 said they don't 14 said for neccesities only 15 said yes Q16:Fave Feature(vs. other Roguelike) 5 and a 1/2 votes for uniques(by 10 different mentions) 3 and 5/6 votes for artifacts(8 mentions) 4 for variety, but not too much 2 votes for Tolkeinesque(4 mentions) 2 said macros 2 votes for targeting 2 said multi-windows 1 vote for monster memory 1 vote for richness of game 1 said bigger levels than Rogue/NetHack, more variety than Moria 1 vote for ability to ditch out-of-hand levels 1 vote for more planning,strategy required 1 vote for ability to play less often, not lose spot 1 vote for color(!!!) 1 vote for Angband's constant improvement(thanks, Ben!) 1 vote for more consistent mythology 2/3 votes for unlimited dungeons(2 mentions) A 1/3 of a vote each for Monster Packs, Rods, Bow Slots, the Autoroller, Pseudo-ID and consistently more challenging than Moria Q17:Least Fave Feature:(take note, Ben) 3 people said that levels aren't repititive/maps not saved 2 people said it is TOO repetative(sp?) 2 people complained about dying too often :( I said it needs water, like JAMoria Someone disliked Graveyards(wimp) Someone complained that the player is a mega-hack Someone said we need multi-user Angband Someone said it was becoming too slow(modern-day Word it ain't though) Someone wanted a digger slot(As if carrying a 2-handed sword, a shield, a lantern and a bow didn't take enough hands up :) Point:there are too many quick, unforeseen deaths Counter-point:no insta-deaths, like AMHDs in Moria Someone said not enough artifacts But someone else wanted more-a random artifact generator Someone said new versions came out too quickly(Sad ain't it?) But another said they don't come often enough One request was made for a list of all ID'ed items to that point(hmm...) Someone complained that they run out of luck, and can't find what they want One person said it was too addictive(go fig) Someone said Artifacts are too rare in the Ben Versions Someone thought mages were gutted(uh, check the easiest to win with poll earlier) Ben asked for monster corpses, like in Hack(Figure the programmer to ask for more features) Someone said length of game(gee, a nearly legit gripe) And a three-way split vote:Mages are too much better, resistances are too hard to gain, and breath weapons now do multiple-item destructions And 9 people(not including Ben!) said the game had no flaws And yes, I did mean to ask maximize/preserve and several other things, but I guess this was enough