Date: 7 Jan 1999 18:22:23 GMT Replies - 46 (exceeding my hopes by quite a bit! Wow! Thanks to everyone who replied!) A nice variety of replies, from veterans and newbies, maintainers and players, lurkers and newsgroup regulars. Thanks to all of you who replied! Sorry if I missed any surveys or missed a response on one question - 62 questions times over 40 replies...I'm not perfect and I don't have the time or energy to recheck each result. Usually, though, any discrepency will be due to the fact that people skipped the question. I tried to edit the grammar and spelling of responses where I noticed errors, but I probably committed my own mistakes in these fields, and most likely overlooked many mistakes. I also forgot to include many questions I wanted to, such as ones about sound and graphics, but I think the survey was long enough as is. Oh well, hope you all enjoy reading the wide range of replies and seeing what other people think of the game we all like so much. 1)Favorite variant or version Interesting to see people are playing many different Zangbands! (I generally assumed latest version if it wasn't specified BTW) ZAngband remained number one, but drew a higher percentage of the votes. Vanilla remains a steady number two, but garnered less votes than last time. Votes ----- ZAngband 2.22 10.7 (2 specific mentions of the TK interface) ("Whatever the latest Zangband version is. I just ignore the stuff I don't like and enjoy the rest.") Vanilla 2.83 8.95 (one person added"with Borg and some personal tweaks to the Borg to make it smarter (hopefully)") ZAngband 2.11 7.75 ZAngband 4 ("Z-TK is the coolest interface," wrote one) OAngband 0.31 3.2 ("It addresses some very basic play balance issues, and very well, too. This is in contrast to a lot of other variants, which seem to be adding a lot of bells and whistles which are, for the moment, messing up play balance quite a bit.") ZAngband 2.1 2 ("the last pre-quest version I think, and the last balanced version. I prefer *band to be more of a pure dungeon crawl.") ZAngband 2.06 1.25 Cthangband3.01 1.2 KAngband 1 KAmband 1.75 1 Vanilla 2.82 1("Why? Becuase it's the one I'm playing now & it doesn't have Cyberdemons.") ZAngband 2.2 1 GSNBand 0.5 1 Cthangband 1 ("the version prior to 3.0 because I dislike the wilderness stuff.") SAngband 0.94 .75 KAmband 0.6 .5 (by someone who said they hadn't played the games for a while, hence the older version) ZAngband 2.21c .5 SAngband 0.95 .2 Totals per variant - Zangband 27.2, Vanilla 9.95, OAngband 3.2 (the rookie of the year), Cthangband 2.2, Kamband 1.5, Kangband 1, GSNBand 1, SAngband .95 Mentioned by people who gave runner-up votes:Zangband 2.11 2,RAngband 1.05, OAngband 0.31 3,ZAngband 2,Kamband,MAngband,SAngband 2)Most annoying monster? Not most deadly, but most annoying. The Magic Mushroom Monopoly is starting to see a challenge from a fearsome wall-eating greater demon. For a third survey in a row, though, the mushrooms caused more frustration to Angband players than did any other. Total votes Ballots mentioning thecritter in question Magic Mushrooms 10 5/6 14 Greater Hell Beast 7 5/6 12 (including a vote for a room full of them) Leprechauns 3 2/3 5 ("especially in vaults.") (Amen to that!) Nexus Quythlug 2 1/3 3 Cheerful Leprechauns 2 1/3 3 Hounds 1 1/2 2 ("If I ever have the chance, I'll kill the guy that made these up.......I'd rather meet Baphomet at 50', than I'd meet a Clear Hound at 4950'.......damn I hate Z's") Giant White Rat 1 1/2 2 ("I lost a good character to them simply because they took up most of the level!") Bloodletters of Khorne 1 1 Gelatinous Cube 1 1 Gravity Hounds 1 1 Memory Mosses 1 1 Shadow Demons 1 1 Smeagol wo/ see invis. 1 1 Software Bugs 1 1 Unmakers 1 1 Warriors of the Dawn 1 1 Water Hound 1 1 Breeders 5/6 2 Angamaite 1/2 1 Anything that causes amnesia1/2 1 Flying Skulls 1/2 1 Sangahyando 1/2 1 Time Elemental 1/2 1 White Worm Mass 1/2 1 Wolves 1/2 1 Tengu 1/3 1 Gremlin 1/3 1 3)What accomplishment in *Angband have you been proudest of (if any)? Mostly used peoples' own words here, but I did some spell-checking and put in a few editor's comments. Some were gameplay, some were code-oriented, others were ...different. The replies take up rather a bit of space for this question. Coding a variant Winning two consecutive characters in Z2.1.1 Completed vanilla (2.7.9v6, IIRC) though required a monstrous amount of save-scumming to do it... Doing almost 200 ths points with a golem monk in one night (I do not play a lot...) Dying via a Summon Monster scroll in the Thieves Quest with two (un-ID'd until death) random artifact broadswords in my inventory. Beating up eight skull drujs for a random quest. I don't remember the depth, though. Killing Lokkak is satisfying The e-mails I get every week from Cthangband fans. It makes the hard work of writing it worthwhile.(And it's good for my ego!) - Dean Still my winner with a human mage in Vanilla years ago, my only character to ever win. My modified Z 2.1.1 info-files. Having a char killed by the Serpent, it was realy tempting to make save cheat - the next char the killed Serpant though. Getting a level 30 Yeek Arcane HighMage. My first (real) vanilla winner - a Dunedan Paladin Killing Brodda at 200' after summoning him with a scroll Whupping up on the Balrog in Moria. [Ed. note - not technically *Angband, but certainly to be proud of] Taking on a greater vault Winning Zangband in less than 1 million turns. Getting the damn thing to compile under Borland 5. Ermm... if you mean gameplay, then getting a ranger to level 47 and 2000' under before dying. My first completion - a High Elf mage, with savefile abuse (Back then, we didn't have Avoid Death :). Sauron gave me more trouble than the big M, though. I won vanilla with a 50th level human mage. I just managed to take a 50th level human mage down to 4400 or so in Zangband without Globe of Invulnerability, but I died on a 5 Great Wyrm of Power quest. Not using GoI just happened--I wasn't going for it, human mages are hard enough with their low hit points. But it was cool. :) Also that same mage without GoI managed to beat (somehow) a Keeper of Secrets quest at 2450, in "hard" mode to kill 20 of them. ..ugh. "Well, it's not much, but in vanilla 2.8.1 I got far enough (with a high-elf warrior) to see Saruman of Many Colours. I didn't kill him though...it was rather a bottleneck." A multitude of little tactical victories, one of which inspired a short story. Winning Zangband without resist shards. I'd go with the rather widespread acceptance of my AI patch. It's something I'd like to concentrate more on when I find some free time. Having a level 35 vanilla mage drop through a trap door to 5,000 feet (when this could still happen) and go several rounds with Morgoth and live to tell the tale. Don't ask me what I was doing at 4,950 feet in the first place. Managed to WIN it 3 times. That I know where I can find everything in the source code. :-) Reaching my greatest depth ever without getting bored. (Zang around 2500ft) Then I ran into a quest for 25 Shoggoths Tombstone time!! Winning Zangband in 300,000 turns Still: Winning Vanilla with my (maximize-mode) Half-Troll Mage without GoI. Winning Zangband, although a Golem Warrior doesn't count for much. Figuring out how to munge around with the code with some small level of proficiency Er, managing to play 5 years without a win? [Ed. note:3 years with one victory, in an earlier and more unbalanced SAngband AND GOI AND Savefiles. I think that takes at least much talent...plus about 6 years of Moria with only 2 wins (both savefiled)] Getting a half-elf ranger to level 35 without even knowing this newsgroup= existed. (My first real character in Vanilla.) Hmm, after an ungodly ammout of years playing (going back to old versions of moria) i finally beat the game, allbeit with a rather cheesy amberite mindflayer using the stormbringer/major displacement/shadowshift cheese to teleport away and still have an escape. Well... Murazor and Ungoliant at the same time were pretty cool. Also won a High-Elf Rogue in Vanilla. Winning without save files. Got a mindcrafter to where he was indestructable. The accomplishment was realizing that having the dimension door + the ball of sound + telepathy + other mindcrafter abilities was a very unbalanced class. Clearing out (not just completing -- actually killing everything) the Sting Quest in Z2.2.2 with a nature monk who had no reason to be anywhere near there. Best moment: terrified and cornered, with Azog approaching. Sloppy (the monk) picks up a wand of acid bolts and empties all 13 charges into Azog before he regains his courage. Not sure how I survived this. Had already run out of teleport scrolls (started with 15), many of them destroyed by a Fire Vampire. Nothing up to now. But I will be satisfied if I kill Saruman or Sauron or if I find The One Ring. That's my life task. And my personal favorite: "None, other than playing and enjoying it for years." 4)What is your favorite weapon, in any version or variant? A variety of reply types for this first time question - weapon types (ex. dagger/mace/sword), special weapon types (ex. vampiric/defender/frost), specific ego weapons they've seen and used and artifacts - I didn't expect the first type at all but it was interesting nonetheless Total Votes Ballots Naming It ----------- ----------------- Stormbringer 2 3/4 4 ("No_tele plus aggravate is great, having everything rushing at you...") Katana of Groo 2 4 The Glaive of Pain 2 2 ("I rarely use it, but there's something elegant about its function. It kills things real dead. Nothing else.") Holy Avenger +4 attacks 1 1/2 3 (Mischa:Wow...odd to have 3 people say this!) Calris 1 1/2 2 Aule 1 9/20 3 Deathwreaker 1 1/3 2 Vorpal Blade 1 1/4 2 Olorin 1 1/4 2 Vampiric Weapons 1 1/5 2 "Tanto (Defender) (+9,+13) [+3] (+3 to Stealth) for my 5th level Hobbit Rogue." 1 1 Arunruth 1 1("The first artifact weapon I ever found. I still remember my bafflement at seeing a 3d5 sword in an otherwise empty room, then the chill that ran up my spine when I realized what I had.") Runespear 1 1 Grond 1 1 ("Playing with it after killing Morgoth is very satisfying") Dagger of Fiona 1 1 Defender weapons 1 1 Eriril 1 1 Scythe of Slicing 1 1 Whip (Defender) -- who needs Ringil when you've got THIS baby? 1 vote "No weapon, an unarmed Golem Monk" 1 vote Well-Balanced Throwing Axe of Poison (+7,+7) 1 vote "Well, playing mages, I quite like weapons of westernese. I seem to find them a lot, and the plus to STR usually lets me wield a weapon heavier than I could normally manage."1 1 OAngband Throwing weapons 1 1 "The complete over-the-top long bow of extra might (+18) I currently have in Kamband v1.7.5 Simple arrows (+5,+5) are *deadly*" 1 vote Aeglos 1 1("It's truly an awesome weapon for a mid-level priest.") Anduril 1 1 "Fire bolt" 1 1 Ringil 5/6 3 Extra attack weapons 1/2 1 Chaotic weapons 1/2 1 Self-made Sangband weapons 1/2 1 "My (+30, +30) mithril axe of slay everything, resist everything, and boost all stats with a pval in double figures. Guess which variant." 1/2 vote Ulmo 1/3 1 Soulsword 1/4 1 Eonwe 1/4 1 HA Whip with extra attacks 1/4 1 Pattern Weapon Whip 1/4 1 Zarcuthra 1/4 1 Cubragol 1/4 1 Brand 1/4 1 Whip of Earthquakes+6 attacks 1/4 1 Holy Avenger weapons 1/5 1 Holy Defender weapons 1/5 1 And one of the sillier answers: "gdb. No bug can withstand a determined assault by a hacker armed with a good source-level debugger. ;-)" 5)What roguelikes have you played? Do you still play? Which is your favorite? While less people report having played Moria each survey, more say they actively play it, which I found a bit odd. ADOM, which appeared between the first and second surveys and hit it off big with respondents, has gained little ground on Angband since. The inclusion of the *Angband/variants explains why more people list Z as a favorite than list playing it for instance...many people also reported having played many variants and then listed the specific ones they still play, explaining why sometimes column two edged column one. This question has grown each year...the first time only the first third was asked, last time only the first two thirds. Only games that got votes this time are listed. 1995/38 replies 1997/36 replies 1998/46 replies Angband 38 36/30 28/17/8.83 Nethack 23 25/6 26/3/0 ("Nethack has a lot of things going for it (the ingenuity of the Devteam, the "you can do just about anything" mentality, and the monster item use), but is hamstrung by a number of serious flaws - the terrible magic system, the catalogue of possible abuses, the over-reliance on holy water, wishes, the pack-rat behaviour patterns required to win. I could go on...) Moria 32 27/3 22/4/1 ZAngband 9/7 16/19/17 *Angband/unnamed "variants" 11/9 18/12/1 ADOM 15/6 18/6/1 Rogue 13 15/4 19/3/0 ("Rogue was good for its time, but not balanced enough; I either starved if I stayed on a level or died from the more powerful monsters if I descended too quickly.") Omega 11 13/3 10/3/0 Sangband 7/5 7/4/0 Kamband 7/3/1.5 Larn 8 6/0 7/1/0 KAngband 1/1 5/3/1 Crawl 1/1 4/2/0 OAngband 3/5/1.33 Slash 'em 3/2/.33 Drangband 2/2 3/1/0 GWAngband 2/2 3/1/0 Diablo 3/1/0 Hack 8 8/0 3/0/0 UMoria 1/0 3/0/0 CthAngband 2/1/2 Pziband 2/2/0 Qu-Angband 2/1/0 Psiband 2/1/0 Ragnaroc 2/0/0 Ularn 3 1/1 2/0/0 ZAngbandTK 0/0/2 JAMoria 1 1/1 1/1/1 GSNBand 0/0/1 IAngband 0/1/0 RAngband 1/0 0/1/0 Ragnaroc 2 2/0 1/1/0 Urogue 2 1/1/0 ("also good, although quite unbalanced.") Nethack+ 1/0/0 Dungeon Hack 1/0/0 Alphaman 2 2/0 1/0/0 LoRD 1/0/0 CathAngband 1/0 1/0/0 GOIAngband 1/0/0 Slash 1/0 1/0/0 BOSS 1/0/0 Morgul 2/0 1/0/0 "Almost all of them" 1/0/0 One respondent also added that they're currently developing an as-yet unnamed Roguelike And ones which I didn't even try to add on the results: "I've played practically every one under the sun. Solved quite a few of them too. Lately all I play now is Zangband and Crawl, and I'm patiently waiting for Leon to add even more cool stuff to Oangband again." "I've played quite a few of the "major" ones - ADOM, NetHack, Moria, and so on. Currently I'm playing a lot of Crawl, actually (forgive me!) more than *angband these days. It's quite cool, actually, and a lot less like NetHack than it appears on the surface." Another respondent added "others I can't remember" after a 3 and a half line list...I think several people probably had similar situations. Heck, without the list in front of me, I never would have remembered some I've played. 6a)What do you feel is the toughest non-unique, relative to others at its depth? Oh, some wise guys, eh? Or in other words:town monsters????????? The not very dynamic duo of battle-scarred veterans and mean-looking mercs unseated cave spiders, who took quite a tumble. I think monster AI might be to blame for the fact that the spiders no longer inspire fear. Last year's runner-ups, Greater Titans and Death Swords fell as well...I guess people have gotten used to the latter whereas the former are wusses in the more commonly played Z? Or maybe I'm reading WAY too much into all the replies here. Total Votes Ballots for the critter in question ----------- ---------------------------------- Battle-scarred Veterans 5 7/10 7 Mean-looking Mercenaries 3 7/10 5 Drolems 2 9/10 6 Gravity Hounds 2 2 Umber Hulks 2 2 ("Umber Hulks are my arch-enemy") Black Reavers 1 7/10 3 Pink Elephants 1 1/2 2 Nightcrawlers 1 1/2 2 Dracolisks 1 1/5 2 Keepers of Secrets 1 2 Great Wyrms of Power 1 1 "Probably some of the Zephyr hounds" 1 vote "Must be some sort of Ancient Dragon" 1 vote Dark Elven Warlocks 1 1 Death Swords 1 1 Mutant clanleaders 1 1 Floating Eyes 1 1 Shoggoths 1 1 Novice Warriors 1 1 Dark Elven Lords 1 1 Dracolichs 9/10 3 Auto-rollers 1/2 1 Sabre-tooth Tiger 1/2 1 Iron Lich 1/2 1 Pink Horrors 1/2 1 Servants of Glaaki 1/2 1 Colbran 1/2 1 Raal's Tome of Destruction 1/2 1 Sky Drakes 1/3 1 Solars 1/3 1 Grand Master Mystics 1/3 1 AMHDs 1/5 1 Cave Spiders 1/5 1 "The only really tough creatures were for random quests, so they're all rather out of depth." And a single reply of "I think in general, the designers have made a good job of erring for the safety of the player, so that for the most part I find monsters to be about right or a little easy for their depth." 6b)Toughest unique, depth-relative THE ANGBAND GAZZETTE Around 1300', Dungeons of Angband: Mim's reign was trampled today by an ogre who seemed unsure of its identity. Those who had to live under its reign, though, agree it is one fast and tough bastard, even despite its identity crisis. As its sidekick, it enlisted a hideous purple monster who insits on singing (badly, not Stevie Wonder here) about love and happiness. The combined IQ of the two is deemed to be under 100, yet more reason to fear them. Total Votes Ballots naming the unique ----------- ------------------------ Lokkak/Grendel 10 1/30 13 Barney 4 1/2 5 Fang/Grip 3 8/15 5 (also known as "Maggot's bloomin' dogs" or "those damn dogs") (no relation to "those meddling kids") Azriel 2 1/2 4 Kavlax 2 1/3 3 Freesia 2 1/5 3 ("a housecat on a "Yeek-diet". Looks like Yeeks don't have much calories or Freesia would be *much* slower by now.") Medusa 1 1/5 2 ("Hate medusa and her #^#$%^$ 11-headed hydra clan. Only monster I make an anti-summoning tunnel for.") Tiamat 1 1/6 2 Gabriel 1 1/6 2 Tselakus ("I've found him/it harder than Sauron") 1 vote It ("the goddamn teleporting git") 1 vote Unicorn of Order 1 1 Ulik the Troll 1 1 Ufthak of Cirith Ungol 1 1 Kamband's original Black Death 1 vote Jack of Shadows 1 1 "Some of the orc uniques with about 100 escorts can be really hard for a low level character" 1 1 Mim 1 1 Baphomet 1/2 1 Gorlim 1/2 1 Feldisham the Guard 1/2 1 Lorgan 1/2 1 Caine 1/3 1 Bleys 1/3 1 Malekith 1/5 1 Morgoth 1/6 1 Tarrasque 1/6 1 Uriel 1/6 1 7)Do you use the autoroller? How rare does the stat combo you want show up (1 in 500, 1 in 5, etc) Autoroller use: No/Never 4 Almost never Sometimes 2 Usually 2 Most of the time 2 Yes/Always 33 # of times response given in parantheses: (NOTE:Five of the lowest six responses were given by people who don't always use the auto-roller.) (NOTE 2 - where people didn't give numbers, I placed the comments where I felt they belonged) 1 in 20 More common than 1 in 25 1 in 50 "1/100, except for Ps(z)i Psionicist, then closer to 1/1000" 1 in 100 "going for not so rare stats" 1 in 200-2000 1 in 1000 (3) 1 in 2000 1 in 1000-5000 (2) 1 in 3000 1 in 1000-10K (2) ("I like playing heroes") 1 in 5000 (3) 1 in 2000-10K 1 in 10K (8) 1 in 10K-20K 1 in 20K (2) "Rare. Max STR if it is below ~13, max spell stat, push CHR, others vary." "I make sure my mages have max strength and intelligence. And then I make sure I get a decent life rating. This usually takes anywhere from 15k-60k rolls. I figure it's worth the good starting stats as a "bonus" since everything else about humans, other than level gaining, sucks." 1 in 300K "Almost no limits" "I abuse it horribly. I have rolled a million turns looking for what I want. On the other hand I don't scum, abuse save files, farm animals or any of the other frowned-upon-by-some practices. In Zangband I roll for life ratings more than stats." And four answers I didn't know where to place: "When I am not doing something like rolling for insane things while I write a paper in another window or set it up to roll as I walk out the door, it comes up a lot more often" "It depends. I usually get a high stat in my primaries, and let the rest slide." "Not so rare that it takes forever to roll it up." "Max in two stats" The biggest criticism of the autoroller: "I hate the idea of the auto roller....c'mon its just a question of time before you get that maxxed starter char...I mean why roll at all.......why not just choose your starting stats....with the autoroller, its just a question of time before you get what you want." "It's too close to outright cheating." 8)What is your favorite artifact? The Phial won its second straight title here, wiping out all competition, setting a shining example for future winners. Excuse the bad pun.. Interestingly, the first winner (Calris) hasn't gotten a single vote in the two surveys since. Heh. Total Votes Ballots Singing Its Praises ----------- ------------------------- Phial of Galadriel 15 5/6 18 (" I don't feel complete until I find it.")("At least I can see ONE more square of my impending doom with it..")("It is just so damn useful and for many classes it is essential. I mean can you imagine how annoying playing a warrior would be without it?") (Mischa:Moria warrior players know...townscumming for 20 scrolls of light after 50' in the dungeon gets VERY annoying) Shield of Thorin 3 5/6 5 Thranduil 3 1/3 4 Dor-Lomin 2 1/2 3 (same as last time..neat) Boots of Feanor 1 1/2 2 Jewel/Arkenstone 1 1/5 3 Metal Scale Mail of Julian 1 1/5 2 Razorback 1 1 Colluin 1 1 Hithlomir 1 1 The random artifact which enchants armour every 5 turns or so! 1 vote The Main Gauche of Maedhros 1 1 Crown of Gondor 1 1 "Whichever one gives the most plusses. I guess I sound like a munchkin, but this is a munchkin game after all." 1 vote Doomcaller ("A sword offering a nice fruity boquet of chaos hardened steel with just a hint of really nasty stuff.") 1 vote Bladeturner 1 1 Haradekket 1 1 Any weapon that slays quickly 1/2 1 Zarcuthra 1/2 1 ("I can't believe no-one else has mentioned this. Sure, the aggravation sucks ... but it has every slay in the book.") Stormbringer 1/2 1 ("I like to live dangerously. I've never died to the one-turn instadeath. But once a novice priest cursed it while I was surrounded by monsters at 4,000 ft and I couldn't take the dumn thing off. In the end the vampiric drains just couldn't keep up with the damage I was taking ...") Anduril 1/2 1 Sting 1/2 1 Katana of Groo 1/2 1 Holhenneth 1/5 1 Terror Mask 1/5 1 Arvedui 1/5 1 9)Favorite race-class combo Almost no duplication was interesting..we all like our game a different way...lots of races and classes were represented, none holding a monopoly on *Angband players. Rookie of the year goes to the big guy with the metal skin, an impressive performance after golems, recently built then, managed just a quarter of a vote a year ago. Dwarven priests maintain their command here, as they deserve, for the second time in a row. Total Votes Ballots Mentioning the combo Dwarf Priest 3 5/6 7 Golem Warrior 3 2/3 7 High-Elf Mage 2 3 Klackon Ranger 2 2 (one specified nature-sorcery) Dunadan Ranger 1 1/2 2 Half-Orc Rogue 1 1/3 2 Dwarf Paladin 1 1/3 2 Yeek High-Mage 1 1/3 2 (one person added that they prefer arcane for this) Any Chaos Warrior 1 1/4 2 Gnome Mage 1 1/4 2 Spectre Mindcrafter 1 1/4 2 Zombie Warrior 1 1/4 2 Nibelung Mindcrafter 1 1/14 2 Amberite Paladin 1 1 Dark-elf Nature Monk 1 1 ("Dunno why. I've never even survived very long with them, but I think they're cool. That magic missile augments the monk very well.") Anything not won with yet 1 1 Human Mage 1 1 Dark-elf Nature-Death Ranger 1 1 Dunadan Druid (Kang) 1 1 Spectre Warrior 1 1 Vampire Death-Trump Priest 1 1 Ghost Beastmaster 5/6 3 Beastman Chaos Warrior 3/4 3 Barbarian Life Monk 1/2 1 Half-Troll Mage 1/2 1 High-Elf Necromancer 1/2 1 High-Elf Rogue 1/2 1 Skeleton Sorcery-Chaos Mage 1/2 1 "Spectre spell/warrior types like Paladins, rogues, chaos-warriors." 1/2 vote Mindflayer Sorcery-Chaos Mage 17/42 2 Any Necromancer 1/3 1 Dark-elf Necromancer 1/3 1 Human Druid (O) 1/3 1 Human Necromancer 1/3 1 Half-Troll Warrior 1/3 1 Ghost Sorcery-Chaos Mage 1/3 1 Spectre Chaos Warrior 1/3 1 Vampire Chaos Warrior 1/3 1 Vampire Mindcrafter 1/3 1 Beastman Warrior 1/4 1 Half-Troll Priest 1/4 1 Golem High Mage 1/4 1 Golem Monk 1/4 1 Nibelung Death Rogue 1/4 1 High-Elf Warrior 1/4 1 Human Priest 1/4 1 Human Psionicist 1/4 1 Klackon Nature Monk 1/4 1 Spectre Life-Death Mage 1/4 1 Spectre Nature Monk 1/4 1 Half-Titan Nature Monk 1/14 1 Half-Titan Mindcrafter 1/14 1 Half-Troll Life-Sorcery Priest 1/14 1 Half-Troll Life-Nature Priest 1/14 1 Half-Troll Life Paladin 1/14 1 Mindflayer Death-Sorcery Mage 1/14 1 Mindflayer Life-Chaos Priest 1/14 1 Nibelung Life Paladin 1/14 1 Nibelung Life-Nature Priest 1/14 1 Nibelung Life-Sorcery Priest 1/14 1 Vampire Death-Sorcery Mage 1/14 1 Vampire Chaos-Sorcery Mage 1/14 1 10)Do you use backup savefiles to reload in case of character death? What is your opinion of them? Use cheat death option instead or other life-saving tricks 2 Yes 8 Usually, yes. With OAngband, no. Sometimes yes, sometimes no Sometimes but only for the first few levels. 2 When first trying new versions and variants No 30 (including keeping backups in case of a bug/crash/other problem) Selected Opinions: 1.I consider them cheating 2.I use them because the game is the fun part, not following silly rules and regulations. I don't want to devote alot of effort to a char and then have them killed off. 3.Use them for the first game (at most), then put them away! 4.Not since my first win. I don't consider it cheating, but as a good way to learn without having all your characters bumped off whilst a novice. I don't think my "win" counted, though, because of the scumming. 5.I don't like the high lethality of Angband or any of the variants, you've played for 10 hours with the same character and BANG, you're dead!!!! Start over with a new lvl 1 guy. 6.I tend to play games for fun, and I don't enjoy losing a great character to the RNG. If people have more fun without savefile-"abuse", they can play that way. People have the right to choose either way. 7.If people think that they need to use them, why not? For me losing high level chars is about as good as winning. 8.It ruins my interest in the character - makes it seem tainted. 9.No, but after losing my 5th level 50 Z mage, this last at 4400, I keep thinking I should. :) Back-up files are great for people who are new to the game. It's just too nasty without them. But for those of us really looking for a satisfying win, then no way. 10.My personal enjoyment of the game skyrocketed after I stopped. 11.I think they're fair enough as long as you don't claim victory over the game after using them extensively. If you spend a long time developing a character, you don't want to lose him/her/it to an off-screen dracolisk with no warning. I have no problem with this. 12.I always have, since I began playing Moria. I thought that the lack of save files was simply an omission on the part of the designers out of laziness. Then later I heard of "save file abuse," and I thought the term was amusing. I think its perfectly fine to do, since every other game I play allows saving. 13.Hey. It's a game. Do what you enjoy. And an interesting way to go about the game: "I have 2 versions of Angband installed... Version 1 is played until the character becomes lucky enough that I move them over to Version 2 (or let them die/win) Version 2 is where the backups stay, in a forever-duel between each other. I've had some _IMPRESSIVE_ high scores with some of those backed-up characters... So... uhmm.. yes, I do use backups, but only in a separate installation of Angband... so they don't get to be on the same high score table with the non-backups." 11)Easiest race-class combo to win with (any version/variant) Many took a pass here, either due to having never won or due to not having played enough char types (and with all the variants nowadays, that's rather impossible for most I bet.) Golem Warriors, though, won handily, squashing their competition, gaining more votes than the next 4 vote-gainers combined. Total Votes Ballots Selecting The Combo ----------- ------------------------- Golem Warrior 10 2/3 13 ("even I can do it") Dwarven Priest 4 4 High-Elf Mage 3 1/2 4 ("If you can get past Grip and Fang, you've won the game.") Most types of Mindcrafters 1 1/3 3 Amberite Mindcrafter 1 1 ("the cheesy combo with stormbringer/major displacement/shadow shifting is VERY powerful.") Deathmold Mimic (Pern) 1 1 Dunadan Paladin 1 1 Human Mage 1 1 Priests with a degree of luck 1 1 Golem Monk 5/6 2 Golem Nature Monk 5/6 2 ("find Stormbringer, learn whirlwind, win game, take nap.") Dunandan Ranger 1/2 1 High-Elf Rogue 1/2 1 Any Mage 1/2 1 "Golem Warrior, Golem Nature Monk, Golem ...." 1/2 vote Half-Elf Mage 1/2 1 Zombie Warrior 1/2 1 "Everything with enough warrior in it to win the arena (Kangband)" 1/2 vote Golem Life Monk 1/3 1 Thankfully, only ten people had any correlation at all between this and #9 (favorite combo) - I didn't check in past years but this seems an improvement. Not that there's anything wrong with liking powerful chars - it just seems people aim to twink less and play more the chars they enjoy. And from Zangband maintainer Robert Ruehlmann: "Golem Warrior/Monk, almost any Mindcrafter combo. Somebody should tone them down a bit. ;-)" 12)What monster do you enjoy meeting the most? It was odd how some things showed up under most annoying and here as well - to each their own I guess. Wormtongue came out of nowhere to steal the show. I personally have no idea why he's so popular but some people probably find my liking warriors of the dawn is odd. Orcs and dragons of all shapes and sizes again placed highly. Total Votes Ballots mentioning it ---------- ------------------- Wormtongue 8 9/14 12 Orcs/Orc Pits 4 4 Snagas 3 3 ("rooms full of them, and me with my 3 rods of light :-) ") Ancient Dragons 3 3 ("fun to kill if you have the resists") Morgoth and/or Serpent 2 10/21 5 ("only lost once to one of them..") Tiamat 1 1/7 2 Gothmog 1 1/7 2 Great Storm Wyrms 1 1/2 2 Robin Hood 1 2 Creeping Coins 1 1 Quylthulgs 1 1 Warriors of the Dawn 1 1 "Any great wyrm without summon Ancient Dragons." 1 vote Smeagol 1 1 Any unique 1 1 ("I do enjoy knowing that that specific monster will never be seen again.") Great Wyrms 1 1 Non-Dracolisk 'D's 1 1 Draebor the Imp 1 1 "Great Wyrms but not single colored. I like sky drakes, multicolored, balance etc" 1 1 "Anything I know I can handle. Smaug and Scatha are quite fun especially if my weapon has the Kill_Dragon flag" 1 vote "ZAngband's "Leprechaun fanatics". They *really* breed explosively." 1 vote "Oangband troll pits, maybe, are my current fave. Pressed my last necromancer into a thin pulp, those nasty boulders did." 1/2 a vote Ewoks 1/2 1 (Mischa:How dare anyone want to hurt those cute little good guys! Whoever got this response may get a visit from my Stormbringer-armed beastman warrior...) Hounds of Tindalos 1/2 1 Orfax 1/2 1 "Finding orc/troll pits with either a mindwave-casting mindcrafter or a dispel-casting priest is also a lot of fun, as is hitting a treasure pit [Z] with Invoke Logrus." 1/2 1 Barney! 1/3 1 ("I love killing that bastard!") Santa 1/3 1 Feagwath 1/7 1 Cantoras 1/7 1 Sauron 1/7 1 And three fine responses: "Things with big drops that are easy to kill. ;)" "I like any monster that puts up a good fight and drops some intersting items." "Ask rather which monsters enjoy meeting (and slaughtering) me!" 13)What is your favorite spell-casting type? Mages inexplicably have become more popular, while wonderful priests have fallen. Plain mages even moved passed GW mages this time, surprising me. OAngband seems to gaining a solid following, with no variant losing much ground. Total Votes Ballots For It ---------- ------------ Standard Mage 5 11/12 9 Standard Priest 3 1/6 5 O Necromancer 3 1/30 5 Mindcrafter 2 13/15 6 Z Sorcery/Chaos Mage 2 47/60 6 Chaos Warrior 2 5/12 5 Z Nature 2 3 Psionicist 2 2 S Necromancy 1 1/4 2 Cth Sorcery/Chaos 1 1 Arcane/Trump Warrior-Mage 1 1 Z Nature-Sorcery Ranger 1 1 Kamband Mage 1 1 Kangband Druid 1 1 Z Arcane/Death Mage 1 1 "I love the Zangband spell "colors". Once the two new ones are finally balanced, it will be even better." 1 vote Z Nature Monk 5/6 3 O Druid 5/6 2 Z Chaos/Death Mage 1/2 2 GW Mage 1/2 1 Z Death 1/2 1 S Druid 1/2 1 Z Nature/Sorcery 1/2 1 Warrior-Mage 1/3 1 Z Mage 1/3 1 Z Life/Trump Priest 1/3 1 Kam Necromancer 1/3 1 Z Nature High-mage 1/3 1 Z Death high-mage 1/3 1 Any Z Life Priest 1/5 1 Z Sorcery/Death Mage 1/5 1 By variant- Z-Cth specific 16 7/15 Standard Types 9 1/12 O 3 13/15 Psi/Pzi 2 S 1 3/4 Kam 1 1/3 Kang 1 GW 1/2 14/16)Do you level scum/auto-scum? It occurred to me the questions are rather redundant (with a handful of exceptions in the survey answers)- when I first did this survey I don't think autoscum was around. I should have just changed the question a bit rather than add a second one...oh well. 11 said no to both 1 said they only autoscum only if they are not playing seriously 1 said they very rarely level scum and that they autoscum until I find the phial, then they shut it off. 1 said they rarely level scum and autoscum 1 said they rarely autoscum 1 said "Once I get the alter reality spell, I will hang around a certain level for awhile, just exploring special levels until I get bored, and then go deeper."/Don't autoscum 1 said they level scum but never autoscum 1 said they sometimes level scum and autoscum only in vanilla, not in Z 6 said they sometimes autoscum 2 said they autoscum the whole game or not at all ("depends on mood at char creation") 1 said they usually autoscum 19 autoscum Comments: "I consider all scumming to be cheating" "I scum for dangerous (arena, small level, vault/pit) levels in Z. Much more fun and dangerous than clearing out a standard dungeon level, and you get exps and treasure faster." "Tried [autoscum] once. That character had a better equipement at 600' than many normal ones at 2000'. And when that Ring of Speed (+12) showed up, i did quit. (already had RoS +8)." "In Z there's so much in every level that I don't really find it necessary." 15)Do you town scum? 8 said no("I used to do it for restore stat potions and spellbooks, but they add far too long to the number of turns taken to complete the game.") ("If you cant find that potion of restore .,too bad.....") 1 said "only if I don't have ANY light source and the general store is out of all light sources (it happens)." 1 said "I will for Word of Recall scrolls (don't have much choice if you're deep in the dungeon), but otherwise, no." 1 said rarely, "if I need this restore strength!" 1 said rarely (only if MULTIPLE stats are reduced by 5 points or more) 1 said only for identify items 1 said rarely ("My pc isn't that fast, and I prefer playing, not waiting.") 1 said only between-towns in the new Zangs 1 said a little for things like Healing potions, but it's so boring that eventually I just decide to try my luck back in the dungeon. 1 said "In vanilla definately, not so much in Zang." 1 said "For WoR scrolls and restore potions. I used to for enchant scrolls, but I don't so often now. Not as much in Zangband because of multiple towns" 6 said for essential/neccesary items. "If something that I consider *essential* (like WoR scrolls) are sold out. Not for restore stat potions unless it's critical (e.g. STR down so low that I can't carry my gear without a speed penalty)." 1 said to fill important inventory holes and restore important stats 8 said sometimes/occasionally 1 said "Shamelessly, if needed...stock my house to avoid it if at all possible." 1 said "I used to scum for restore potions, scrolls of WOR and scrolls of id. Thankfully this has become less important, at least in Z. Sometimes I'll sit outside the BM for a few 1000 turns, just to see what turns up." 9 said yes ("I think that's a ridiculous concept. The town store regenerates to simulate the normal movement of goods in a store. The only factor involved is the time passing. Now, I see no reason why sitting in the first level of the dungeon for a week should produce different results than fighting monsters for a week. The answer is yes, though." "With a vengeance (restore stat, healing, speed, rings of damage/free action.)") 17)What is angband's best feature in comparison with other roguelikes? (Why Angband Players Play Angband) A better interface was popular, mentioned by 6 people for a total of 3 2/7 votes. Two people enjoyed the complexity, and another person added another half of a vote. Four people combined to give two and a third votes to randomness. Replay value was cited 3 times, totalling 2 and a quarter votes. Uniques, the most common answer to this last time the survey was run, were given votes by three folks, equaling 1 and 5/6 votes. Three people gave 1 and 5/6 votes to the simplicity of play. Clean stable code was cited by four people, who gave it 1 and 11/14 votes. Two people combined to give one and a half votes to "Control over how fast you dive"/"It self-balances, in a way. Players can proceed at any speed they like, so one automatically chooses the depth which feels right (or sometimes not)." The same vote combination went to the lack of instant deaths, someone remarking "It's hard to get randomly hosed" The Tolkien theme won one and a third vote from two people. Open development ("unmatched customizability and expandability") was a factor for four people, who gave this one and 2/7 of a vote. Three people delivered one and a quarter point to diversity. One person answered they liked the dungeon interest One replier said..well..let me just use their words: Does anything else have Hounds? I consider the inclusion of the word "Hound" a feature. Say it with me: Gravity Hound. Vibration Hound. Gravity Hound. Someone said they enjoy the plethora of monsters Another liked that there was no forced plot "to make the whole thing suspiciously like some adventure game." One respondent said they like it since "it's fun and I'm used to the interface." Someone enjoyed the "Elegance. Bloody, violent, elegance: you see it, kill it if you can. If you can't, run the hell away." One person liked consistency. One person liked the plethora of artifacts and resistances, leading to interesting inventory management. Challenge ("the sheer damn challenge of the thing") was popular with two people, who gave it three quarters of a vote between them. One person gave a half a vote to "the fact that it can usually be won if you're careful." Overall atmosphere was given half of a vote. Half of a vote was delivered to the large player/developer base. One person was glad there was no need for spoilers, unlike Nethack. 1/3 of a vote went to the fact it takes up little hard drive space. A third of a vote was placed for the town. The variety of times won the game a third of a vote. One third of a vote went to ASCII graphics ("I love seeing ds run at me and having them be dragons.") Artifacts saw a third of a vote heading their way. Macros picked up 1/3 of a vote. A third of a vote went to adaptability. One person placed a third of a vote with simple inventory management. A quarter of a vote went to years of development and improvement. Targetting got 1/7 of a vote Large dungeons netted one-seventh of a vote Help files won 1/7 of a vote Portability was worth 1/7 of a vote The unique mix of solidity and variety was cited by 1/7 of a vote. The - relatively- unified theme (in Standard Angband, at least) also got 1/7 of a vote. The friendly, knowledgeable people got 1/7 of a vote too. One seventh of a vote also went to the game's "fascinating" history. And the ultimate answer I saw: "It's more fun. I really don't know why." 18)What's in other roguelikes that should be ported over to *Angband? Nothing seemed to have widespread approval but there are many ideas people want placed in. One vote unless otherwise noted. Monsters using objects ("though I understand how much of a pain that would be.") 2 votes for this idea More character interaction (or at least less 'kill everything'; Farmer Maggot should be left alive...)/speaking with NPCs got 2 votes More monster and player character properties. "Moria's simplicity. Artifacts are only good if they are really rare. One of my homes is filled with artifacts that could be better than what I'm using now. It's just a pain looking at the special abilities of each to get to optimal equipment. In Moria, you're lucky if you can find a holy avenger or defender." "I think religion is still better handled in NH than in Kam and Pern. But I'm not sure I wanted to see religion in all variants." Omega's (non)class system as part of a separate variant ADOM inventory system Personally, I'd like to see monsters fight each other - maybe a good/evil type disposition. Several exclusive quest (?) lines (like in ADOM). Friendly and neutral monsters. Better balance in some variants. Kangband's pets to Zangband. A /really/ decent town/world (eg Omega) More uniques with their own speech (like Gollum, Farmer Maggot, Barney, etc.) Pools from ADOM More of a plotline, a la ADOM or Omega or even BOSS. The ability to dig pits and eventually to other levels (from Nethack) Skills from ADOM - 2 people combined to give it 5/6 of a vote A better combat system where armour and dodging ability were distinct (like ADOM's DV/PV.) 1/2 vote Monster inventories from Nethack 1/2 vote Skills from Crawl 1/2 vote Real polymorphing from Nethack 1/3 vote Star signs from ADOM 1/3 vote Creature susceptibilities, especially to elemental attacks. 1/3 vote Multiple dungeons, each with a slightly different monster set (I think Cthangband has done something a bit like this). Maybe these could be implemented as branches leading from the main dungeon. 1/3 vote Different speed and to-hit ratings for different weapons, and a great increase in the importance of base damage (I think Oangband has dealt with this). 1/3 vote And some commentary on what should be added on: "Everything nice has already been ported" "Is there anything left?" Nothing (more than a few people gave this response) "Damned if I know. :)" "None. There's still plenty of fantasy worlds to plunder... someone mentioned recently one based on Moorcock's universe, and I'd still like to see someone design a COMPLETELY true-to-Tolkien variant." Most cool things are already in some variant or other (arena in town, etc...) 19)What is in a variant (any variant) that you want to see put into vanilla? Thirteen people gave 7 23/60 votes for random artifacts, one with an exception - only minor random artifacts that wouldn't replace the major ones and another person added a *maybe* to this vote. One person thought they should be an option. Someone else thought more *identify* scrolls would be needed if the change was added. Two people wish for better offensive mage spells. 1 and three-fifth votes by four people for OAngband's wand/rod stacking. 2 people gave a vote and a half to ZAngband's "always generate small levels" option, one saying it is brilliant. 4 people gave one and 5/12 of a vote to random quests. One person felt they should be an option, one wanted the Sang version and one wanted the Zangband 211 implementation or its equivalent 2 respondents combined for 1 1/3 vote for quests. One and a fifth vote (by two people) for OAngband's reworked melee and magic system. 3 people totalled 1 and a sixth votes for a wider range of races and classes. One respondent wished for the multiple towns of ZAngband without the wilderness. One person wanted to see the psionicist added. Terrain was wished for once. The multiple towns and dungeons from Cthangband were cited by one respondent. Someone suggested inserting the spellcasting half of Keldon's AI patch. 5/6th of a vote was the combination of two votes for more special rooms and vaults. Two respondents combined to give 5/6 votes to wilderness (one adding a "perhaps") Two people registered a total of 7/10ths of a vote for teleport scrolls at the alchemist (one with a PLEASE!) Three people each gave exactly a fifth of a vote for OAngband chests. 1/2 vote for ZAngband's racial activations, as they make each race more unique. The races from ZAngband and Drangband were mentioned on half a ballot. Half of a vote was given to better monster AI. Half of a vote went to random resistances on items, like ZAngband has. One person suggested to add all of Z and K, giving this half a vote. A third of a vote for single monster nests and pits was added. 1/3 of a vote went to the addition of quests. Automatic recreation of the *.raw files was suggested on a 1/4 of a ballot. More monsters in the deeper levels was requested in 1/4 of a response. The Easy Patch found its way onto a quarter of a ballot. A quarter ballot said "Stacking items and monsters carry objects (I don't know if this works - it says "beta" in the options for 2.8.2, so I don't use it)." Cthangband's limit on explosive breeders was given 1/4 of a vote. Rod sorting was considered a nice addition by one-fourth of a response. One fifth of a vote for continuously updated map panels. Rangband's ghosts picked up 1/5th of a vote. A fifth of a vote for water monsters. Rangband's object/inventory system got a fifth of a vote. One person granted a fifth of a vote to Rangband's split r_info structs A fifth of a vote went to level size variation. Rangband's modified monster AI combined with Zangband's pets was suggested on 1/5 of a ballot. OAngband throwing weapons were placed on 1/5 of a ballot. Zang's realms of magic were also awarded 1/5th of a vote. ZAngband's extended 'C'-command was mentioned on a fifth of a ballot. Zang's store additions (that is, what they carry) was marked on 1/5th of a ballot. E'x'amine items in the shop, from Zangband was wished for on a fifth of a response. One fifth of a vote was registered for compressed display in scrollback ["You dig in the granite wall (x99)"] One fifth of a reply for OAngband's enhanced wands. And from one person, quite a handful: -a complete rewrite of the help documents (and probably the FAQ), including a friendly, easy-to-read Novice's Guide, -autosaving, -creation of artifacts in the debug commands, -the elimination of GOI, weapons of extra attacks and KILL_DRAGON, etc., -ability for activations of objects and artifacts to be customized, -a lot more vaults, with improved customizability, -random artifacts with themes, -new standard artifacts for items that lack corresponding artifacts. -a more even increase in difficulty as one descends into the dungeon, -player ghosts, -the replacement of Farmer Maggot, -less destruction of inventory items, but remove the immunity of rods, -one-slot wand and rod stacking, -an expanded understanding of "good" items, so that players don't wind up with so many weapons and armour, -somewhat fewer objects at depths greater than 2000', -"smart" monsters using a modification of the Keldon Jones AI, -Tim Baker's easy open doors and traps as options, -a unified interface for equipment, inventory, and floor items, using Tim Baker's method or something similar, -more varied dungeon levels, or a greater variety of rooms, or a greater variety of terrain types, -totally rebalanced spell, magical item, and activation damages, -faster ascending and descending, -more intuitive stealth and noise, -a revised non-magical combat system, -neater chests, -more differenciated classes (and races), -a less cluttered character screen, -the removal of roughly ten known bugs, -updated makefiles for some systems, -and possibly even some sort of wilderness (it's just that nobody's quite got it right yet) And some replies like: "Let vanilla stay vanilla" "Vanilla's a very solid game, and it should stay that way." One similar response: "Vanilla doesn't need gobs of features. It's already good. It could use a few little things, though -- better rod-stacking (at *least* use DSB's rods patch which puts charged rods before charging ones; I haven't quite made up my mind about Leon's wand/rod stacking yet, mostly due to limited playtime with Oangband); a few little bug fixes; adjustment of certain monsters' attacks and experience point rewards." 20)What feature do you like least in vanilla? Four people voted for Globe of Invulnerability (AKA Globe of Instant-Winner) The way high-level mages are just warriors - or - a like response was given three times Three people said they know everything about it, making it dull (one person who said this also offered - More variation in the dungeon itself. The sameness of it gets so absolutely boring. Monster nests was a good idea. I think more can be done. Maybe a vault-generator) Two votes against the "boring town". One person said the lack of new monsters past level ~60. This is a nearly fatal flaw, IMO. Someone else added the lack of new monsters later also, making two responses here total. Rarity of poison resist was given one and a half votes by 2 people 1 1/2 votes against the boredom factor. A respondent disliked that the town was (basically) useless after around 1500'. One vote to the non-magical combat system. "I've got to the stage where if I hit level 10, I consider the character a winner. As a result I tend to lose interest around stat gain," replied one person. One ballot said that stacks of objects on the floor are handled in a kludgy manner. The autoroller drew in one vote. Rarity of *identify* scrolls was identified by one person as an annoyance One respondent disliked the potential for low-level instadeaths. Somebody said, "Only that development of vanilla is slow and not as open as in most variants. Some info about what Ben is working on would certainly prevent things like removing the "depth_in_feet" option or the quantity prompt in stores. OTOH, it's fun to enter r.g.r.a and suddenly see a new vanilla version." One ballot read "the thing that bugs me the most in *any* version is selling something in a store and having the quantity default to ALL, without a choice in the matter. So that you have to press "0" first. It didn't used to be so." Scanty amount of items (compared to other variants) was mentioned once Only one town was listed as a complaint once. One vote against the magic mushroom patch One person said a flaw was the lack of class/race combos Someone felt the game was too boring from 2000'-4900' "Looks like any other level" after visiting town with permanent speed was mentioned on half of a ballot Destroyed levels were given 1/2 a vote. Half a vote for the fact that "it's too Tolkienish. I love the weird mixture of fantasy, SF and silliness in Zangband." One of the answers got right to the point: "Its got less STUFF." And of course some people had no complaints 21)What feature do you like least in a variant? I really am amazed people like random quests more than fixed ones. This has to be one of the more stunning results I saw. Nine people combined to give 6 1/7 votes against fixed quests. 3 and a half votes (spread out over four people) against wilderness in ZAngband There were two complaints against horrible lack of balance/featuritis at the expense of balance. Two votes against Zangband's silliness ("the bizzare atmosphere...can be fun for a time but I much prefer the Kang and Vanilla style.") 1 1/7 votes (over 2 people) for wilderness in general. One vote for 32-bit .raw file headers because they decrease compatibility One person didn't like artifacts/Uniques in fixed quests... far too scummable, and spoils the fun if you /know/ an artifact is appearing. Zangband's veritable plethora of breeders were criticized once. One vote against the mixture of genres we see in some. A vote against golems wearing shoes, imps with lances and other nonsensible equiptment situations. "I much prefer Drangband's handling of this." One ballot read: "Z quests should be persistent, and Z mutations needed some kind of balancing to prevent winners with 50 or more of them. I think more than 10 is really excessive." One respondent said, "in Psiband I dislike the notion that psionicists needs items to do magic. Psionics is pure mind-power (like the Z Mindcrafter)." One person disliked anything easily abusable (mutations, gambling houses where the odds are in favour of the player, Z quests.) Especially when monsters get bumped up in power to compensate for this. One criticism of Zangband characters who are too powerful. Heading away from the Tolkien Theme was cited once. One person disliked the need to change monster color scheme every time some new version apears on my HD. There was one vote against PernAngband's "quit without saving" command. One ballot read: " They are dynamic, and thus sometimes issues of balance arise. As well, things like Z's arcane and trump magic have some problems still being worked on (I hope?)." Instadeath traps earned one vote. Kamband's mutations were mentioned once. Uniques with resistance to teleport made the top of someone's annoyance list Huge towns were given 1/2 a vote Stormbringer was worth 1/7th of a vote 1/7th of a vote against the arena. Another seventh of a vote against the casino. Monsters fighting picked up 1/7th of a vote. Breaking weapons got a seventh of a vote. Two people repeated their answers to #20, expressing dissatisfaction with the: Magic Mushroom Patch Autoroller 1/2 And again some had no complaints or hadn't tried any variants. 22)Do you use maximize mode? Similar to last more...a slightly higher percentage of respondents use maximize. I'm amazed how constant things like this are. Yes/Always/Virtually always 37 ("Non-maximize mode is ludicrous even within a fantasy context. The strongest half-troll should be stronger than the strongest human." "Unless I play something like a Yeek Warrior.") Sometimes 2 No/Never 7 23)Do you use preserve mode? More people are saying no to preservation, but only by small percentages (about 13% last time, compared to around 17% now). More opinions here than for the previous option.. Yes/Always 31 ("Always. I hate having to stay on a level when I really want to leave (either because I found a jelly pit and don't want to slog through the *whole* *bloody* *level* when there's a 99.99% chance the jelly pit is the only "special" thing on the level, or because breeders have taken over, or because there's a greater vault chock full of artifacts that I'm nowhere near powerful enough to plunder)." "Didn't always in Angband; may stop again now that I'm playing Oangband. Haven't decided." "Zangband has too many really nasty hazards to play without Preserve, at least for me.") Sometimes/Occasionally 4 Only in Zangband 2 ("all levels are "special" otherwise.") No, sometimes in OAngband. No/Almost never/Never 8 ("Artifacts should be *unique.* Miss it and it's gone for good" "I consider it cheating" "I'm big on the challenge game, and I think leaving this off really changes the way you play... you just CAN'T leave a special level without knowing for sure you've checked everything. Makes for lots more fun, and lots more overextending-of-resources type of deaths." "if you loose an artifact...tough noogies bro") Variant-specific 24)[Cath] What do you think of the changes? Nice idea, but needs more work. The idea of a marksman/archer class was neat and should be implemented. The max level change is pointless, but otherwise the changes makes for a fun warrior based Angband. Leon:"I was inspired by its poison weapons, and more interesting critical hits." 25)[Bang] What do you think of the changes? No responses...guess this is way too old. At least it inspired the monk of ZAngband, which has now inspired (partly) the druid of OAngband, and as such made contributions to later *Angband. 26)[Cthang] What do you think of the wilderness/expanded town? Towns are nice, though the wilderness is a little repetitive and boring. Could use some map of the world. Hate! Hate! Hate! Excellent. Except that maybe Gondor should be a little bigger... :-) (IIRC, one of the towns has the old name of Gondor). Of all the wilderness variants that I've played, this is the nicest one. There are certain buildings in the towns that I never really use, though (like the pawn shop). Dean: "I'm really proud of it." 27)[Cthang] What do you think of the multiple dungeons? Fine until I see clear hounds hacking me to pieces at level 1 of the Sword's Vault. /Very/ nice feature - should be added to Zang at least HATE! HATE! HATE! I don't like having a Sewer in every town, unless they're all the same depth and all have a unique guardian at the end. I don't like having one town in particular so *dramatically* more difficult than all the others put together. The wilderness dungeons are too hard to find. There should be some sort of in-game hints to help find them. Slogging through 100 wilderness squares with a rod of door/stair location is tedious. Having to map the wilderness outside of the game is also tedious, but not as bad. (It does bring back memories.) On the plus side, I *do* like the thematic dungeons. Dean: "I'm really proud of it." 28)[Cthang] Anything else you want to comment on "Nice variant - kudos to the author" So, Dean, on behalf of one respondant, I offer you...a Kudos bar! >From the person who answered "hate! hate! hate!" to the last two questions, "Other than the first two, this variant is great, and I play the version prior to the wilderness being added almost exclusively" Also, Dean would like commentary on the "Ritual of Recall" feature. 29)[Drang] How do you like the new races? All really similar replies - this seems one of the more popular "dead" variants. Weird - the dragons are a nice challenge. Too bad artifacts don't work. They are okay, not really anything great. I like the way equiptment is handled for the dragons - other variants should take note. The variant that introduced racial activations also deserves credit for that. Also, the yeek and sprite are also nice for being truly distinct from other races. If only it was more recent and had artifacts! Nice concept, but I wouldn't play a dragon for long - too unconvential. I think the dragons are fun; it's unfortunate that Drangband is based on an old version and dead. Unbalanced, but a cool idea. One dragon race would be enough. Unlike those of most other variants, Drangband's new races are really different and add something unique. One variant maintainer said: "neat. I may have to seriously consider differenciating inventory spaces someday." 30)[Fang] General opinions on the variant? Like the dragons Way ahead of its time, but alas dated now. Many of the features we now take for granted are in it. I played this for a LONG time...I still miss lava levels. 31)[GOI] General opinions on the variant? Decent balancing work. Some nice changes here. My favorite variant before Oangband came along. 32)[GW] How do you like the new mage setup? Great! Mages can effectively play like mages A step in the right direction, but still not quite enough. Great! An improvement over the original, but I like the realms of Zang better. Much better balanced than the old one. Looked good. Unfortunately, i never get a high level mage with high level books, so I don't know how good the spells are. The first good mage. 33)[GW] What do you think of random artifacts? Great idea. Z's system is better. Great. Don't like this implementation. Excellent idea. A superb idea and even better implementation. I am not aware of any implementations of random artifacts that 1) aren't total hacks and 2) actually provide genuine artifacts, that owe nothing to this code. For some reason they don't seem to have as much "character" as the old familiar artifacts. Probably due to the names getting associated with various things. I prefer the Z additional random artifact system. Well thought out. I've never played much GW (mostly because I find the Vanilla monster set a little boring), but random artifacts were one of the best things to happen to Angband for a while. I love them so much I put them in my own roguelike. (this answer courtesy of Linley, creator of Crawl) 34)[GW] What do you think about the other changes? Mages sufficiently powerful enough to not need GOI! I want graphics! (Just the regular 8x8 tiles would do) A solid variant, I played this from when it came out until Zangband came along. Very nicely balanced. My favorite before GOI and Oangband came along. Someone self-inserted a variant I forgot (geez, they're alot.) Sorry folks. As for why I forgot it, probably because a)they're so many! b)it's one I haven't personally tried yet (is there a Mac version?) and c)I was going alphabetically (AAngband, BAngband, CAngband, etc.) and thinking along those lines and didn't think about add-ons to the end. Well, here's the one response: 33.1)[Angband/64] Why is this variant being ignored by the pollsters? Assuredly it must be prejudice against <>! It might also be because the maintainer isn't quite as aggressive about flogging his wares as are the rest of us... 33.5)[Angband/64] OK, so what's Angband/64 like? It you like Kamband, you'll also appreciate Angband/64. Same wacky feel, same spirit of inventiveness and unwillingness to be chained to dusty convention, same (perceived, of course) lack of thematic unity. Several ADOM features. Check out its arena, two-weapon fighters and classes that can get to level 2 with 2 or 50 exp... This is actually one of my favorite variants. 35)[GSN] General opinions sought. No comments received. The variant's maintainer promises major upcoming changes BTW. 36)[Ironman] General opinions sought. I grouped the comments here, as they fell along similar lines. There seems to be some desire at least to make this an option. Good for a bit of light relief now and then. Fun to play as a break from the others Damn hard. It's great cure for anyone with abundant self-confidence. A short, quick game. No need to make it a variant. Cool idea. Didn't need to be made into a variant, rather a style of playing that you could break with a promising character. My promising ironman characters were backed up. One copy would play ironman until death. The backup would be played normally. Never won either way. Not a variant, more of a lifestyle. The idea of making this an option is not a bad one. This should be an option, rather than a variant. Perhaps we could put it on at start-up, so all the shops are permanently locked. Shouldn't be a variant. Best way to play Ironman is Zangband 2.1.1c with a golem nature monk. Or golem something. It's what this otherwise far over-powered race was born to do. Maybe a choice/switch set at character birth Didn't play it, but I sometimes use similiar rules when I don't have much time. (There is always time for an Ironman Imp Rogue). Might be interesting to play a competition on it. "Fun. My problems with Ingband, though, are: (a) You can't choose WHAT restrictions you want on your character. (b) There aren't enough restrictions in the first place :-) Out of depth monsters should be more common, good items should be rarer... (c) You _should_ start with more stuff, though.. like a LAMP. :-P (d) ZAngband Classes/Races could always be added to make it more.. interesting." 37)[Kang] How do you like the town changes? Very good. The guilds makes the game slightly more friendly and diversifies the classes some more. I dislike the arena. The rules seem rather arbitrary (everyone but the warrior gets screwed), and there are no incremental rewards, other than the experience points. Having to return to town to study spells makes from-the-top impossible for non-warriors. Not a big loss, but anyway.... Oh, the same goes for Cthangband. I don't like how you have to explore everything every time you get there. Other than that, some of the lighting seems a little bit shaky. But the new shops/guilds/castle are pretty good. The point is that IMO the town should be fairly static. The dungeon is the changing environment. Makes each class a bit more distinct...the static wilderness is dull. I liked JAMoria's take on this better. The new town is my least favorite change for Kangband and Zangband. Nice. Not keen on the buildings for individual races or the arena/casino. I liked the individual mini-hiscore tables. Cool. Should maybe even be in Vanilla LOVE IT! Wilderness could use some population though. The arena is a poor idea. I never used the inn, beastmaster, or weaponmaster. The library is a good idea, and the class specific buildings are a good idea. Among the more innovative ideas in any variant. This variant has had a lot of influence, and deservedly so. 38)[Kang] What do you think about quests? I like quests; I don't like set quests. Nice. Presently buggy and exploitable. Multiple dungeons with bosses a la CthAngband or BOSS would probably be better. I really approve of the plot system, including Zangband's adaptation. Once some good quests/plots are written, playtested, debugged, and balanced it will be most awesome. (Until then... on with the writing, playtesting, debugging and balancing! Best quest setup in an *Angband...actually creates some feel of a plot. Love 'em. I'm not a fan of these 'fixed' quests. I prefer my game randomised so I never know what's round the corner. Great! Havent really played the latest versions, but they were pretty nice a while ago, although they did make the game easier. This is clearly still very much a work in progress. Good, especially the complex ones (those that are not just "kill x y's (at level z)" 39)[Kang] How do you like the terrain features? They are wonderful, I would like to see more added if possible. They're nice but the versions with terrain are way too slow on my computer. A definite improvement. Not really. Good, but the wilderness is too large, or has too few interesting features (towns) They mainly just get in the way. Good idea, but underused. I'm not really into the whole tree/bush thing. I see it as an unnecessary complication. I was impressed by the new terrain features The terrain features are kinda nice, but they need to bemore... umm... meaningful in terms of game play. They're basically pretty colored floor squares right now. (Except for the lava.) Love 'em Someone answered 37-39 all in one shot, giving this reply: "I think all these features add a new dimension to Angband. They'll need some time to balance, add more flexibility and fix possible problems, but that should be no problem. Mark is doing a great job on this from what I've seen so far." 40)[Kang] What's your opinion on the new classes? Solid, nothing special. Nice usage of terrain and other new features for some spells. Quite good Last time I checked, the rogue needed to be re-balanced. The transition to the illusionist spells was somewhat incomplete. The illusionist spells themselves were also sort of hacked in. Even at the code level, they're still closely tied to the mage spells (a lot of them are literally the same; the game just doesn't check the spellcaster's class when those spells are cast). Nice idea, though. Fun. Hmmm... I do like druids, but they werent in Tolkien. Fairly neutral Love 'em They add variety without going overboard like in Zang. 41)[Kam] What is your opinion on the new races and classes? Alot of ghost fans out there... Death molds are amusing; the others seem very unbalanced. Many are good ideas but need tinkering to work right. Ghost beastmasters are the main reason to play this variant. Too many "strange" combos, really. The mold is downright annoying. The ghost is great. The corrupted is ok, but should avoid open levels. Far too unbalanced. Mutants are probably not viable. They're just too crunchy. Ghosts are neat, but ghost beastmasters are sick. A superb way to unwind. They are a bit extreme. Death Molds and Leperchaums? Luckily nobody forces you to play one, so their existence does not bother me. Same thing with classes. Ghost Beastmaster gives you a different game altogether, and for that I thank the Kam coder. It is nice to be a general, sometimes. Seem ok. Munchkin is boring. Ghost is too difficult at the beginning. The idea of a spellcasting class who gets a completely random set of spells is an excellent one. Some are Interesting, some are sick. I like the Ghost. It feels *different* to climb upwards to town hiding in walls and trying to grab a good item without getting eaten. (only fun if you don't have pets) Some of them are a little crazy (Death mold), but they are good fun. Ghosts are one of the best additions I've seen. The new classes are good for a challenge as well. Weird. I hardly use any of them. I like the idea of Ghosts 42)[Kam] Other opinions on this variant? A nice test-bed for outrageous ideas, but I don't play it seriously. Needs some cleaning out;has plenty of potential. A great testing ground for ideas. It's too unbalanced for my taste. The peaceful inhabitants drive me mad. Too easy to get artifacts for one kobold corpse or such. Latest version seems broken. I like the alchemy. Weird and funny. The experience gained from pets is completely unbalancing. Far too unbalanced. Quite a few nifty ideas, really poor balance. This is one weird variant. I neved did get the hang of it. Kamband is the "Anti-genre" game, the in-your-face foil to everything Standard, the hilarious Mad-Hatter take on the world of Angband. It's great. I like the style of Kamband a lot more: the feel of it (ie. the terrain, town), the new monsters, religions, and so on. Also, I like the interface changes (infinite inventory) and so on. What I don't like at the moment is the balance. This is a very difficult issue to sort out, however. Good, but buggy. Poorly balanced. Many features in this game need work. Not quite balanced yet, but the mutations are A LOT better than Zanband's. Most are really nasty, so they more than compensate the immunities. Oh, and I like the sanity counter. Seems a bit... chaotic. Unbalanced for everyone concerned (players and monsters both). 43)[Mang] What do you think about this variant? It has great potential It's very well done; the possibility of multiplayer play is great. Fascinating. Weird. Impressive. Fascinating. Weird. Spent a lot of time as a teenager trying to figure out how to do this. *I* could never figure it out. It's a great variant - I've been playing since 020. However, the lag is brutal on anyone with less than a t1.. unfortunately, nothing can be done about this. Auto-retaliate was a _GREAT_ idea, which helped this game a WHOLE lot. Cool idea, but too few players and enormous phone-bills It's almost unfair to call this an Angband variant. I haven't played it much, but it's a bold and wonderful experiment. The fact that it's actually viable is still amazing to me. I love the auto-fighter. It's one of the little stokes of genius that it takes to make this game playable. But it probably doesn't do such a good job for magic-types. 44)[O] How do you like the new classes? Adore them. Necromancers are good. I like 'em Only tried spell casters - seems good so far Druid and Necromancer (as well as assassin) offer what is, for me, a totally new play style. Druid is very nice I think Ok, I suppose. I like 'em. Have to play some more to be sure, but they seem balanced and interesting. Adds another dimension to the game. Just played my favorite mage-type. I really like Leon's attempts at rebalancing spells. The necromancer is amusing, in a Psiband sort of way. O rogues are neat. O mages are fun, but tough early. 45)[O] How do you like the other changes? Wow, hope all the nice comments don't go to Mr. Marrick's head. The improved combat system is /very/ nice - I'd like to see this introduced in vanilla. This is one of the more ambitious variants. But it's *subtle* -- unlike Zangband, it doesn't have lots of flashy new features; and unlike Sangband, it doesn't immediately hit the player with dramatic differences. I haven't really played it enough to have a feel for how well it does in the later game. I have enough trouble getting through the early game. (Around 500'-1000' or so in vanilla, I really start to need that third (or fourth) melee attack, and that ring of damage. Oangband doesn't let me do this, so I haven't quite adjusted to it yet.) I think that swinging a broadsword when you're a mage user should get you maimed in no time. They seem well thought out and consistent. ADORE them. Single slot rod/wand stacking should be added to every *band immediately. (I honestly thought everyone would release new versions just to add these, they're so good. Silly me.) The expanded 'good' items is nice, the traps are scary, rogues don't *completely* suck, the throwing weapons are wonderful. The shape changing spells...eh. The terrain that directly affects combat is terrific -- do I try and fight these orcs, or run for that rubble?? I think the game needs a lot of tweaking, but generally I'm in favour of trying to downgrade hitpoints and brawn and emphasize skills They are great! The only variant AFAIK that it makes sense for a warrior to use those huge weapons instead of Whip (+7,+7). Generally I like what Leon is doing. Some truly excellent stuff. Some really nice level variations (vault- type rooms), chests are cooler, rods, staves, and wands actually have a use after reaching level 10, lots of new items and creatures to surprise the jaded veteran *bander, and combat's reworking towards getting mage-types to fight hand to hand less is a good thing. I really think this variant has some incredible promise, and I hope Leon continues to develop it. It's really difficult when you're used to the press until everything's dead classes of Vanilla/Zang. I call it runawayband myself. Seems to have some *nice* ideas for rebalancing Angband. Currently the number one on my list for variants to try. From a quick look at the source: Why is the contents of chests dependent on the players class? Subtle, but nice. I haven't gotten really far with this one, but so far I like it. I like how Leon's differentiated the classes, including the old ones, from each other. A Mage will never be as good as a Warrior in combat, unless he has really good equipment and really pumps himself up before the battle. Warriors tend to be much better off with Really Big Weapons, while most other classes can't use them very well. All the little things (wand and rod stacking, new vaults, new traps) are very nice too (and difficult to get un-used to when playing another variant), but they're less important than the basic combat balancing that's gone on. 46)[Psi/Pzi] What do you think of the psionicist? It's a nice class. Rather hard in the beginning, but fun to play later on, and completely different from the spellcasters. Too difficult. A class that actually revolves around magic rather than melee. Wow. Very nice. Haven't played it enough to really have an opinion. I can't even keep a mage alive for long, let alone one of these little toothpick characters. Strong dislike for the object-based magic. A wizard should benefit from a magic-enhancing item, but psi is pure mind-power. Psionicists are very weak at low levels and incredible at high levels, which is what the mage class should be. Introduces new tactics like focus switching. However, psionic monsters are overpowered, especially for non-psis. Too many things that are available only to him (like the out-of-mind experiences and such) A blast to play. They seem a wee bit powerful later on. Psi is Angband whittled down to one class, as far as I could tell. The class was very interesting, but you couldn't really play any of the normal ones without getting handed your head on a platter. Combining with Zangband seems like a good move, all around. (Haven't played Pziband.) It seems very odd that psionicists should require foci to use their powers, especially as these foci are even more restrictive than the books used by mages (the wielding thing). 47)[Psi/Pzi] General opinions sought. Someone pointed out this question really duplicated #46 as people play these games for the psionicist. No one gave responses that differed from their ones for #46. Question 48 was removed because several people commented that it was too leading, which was true. I also misspelled the maintainer's name there..I sent the results to Aram because he showed interest though. 49)[Quest] What do you think of the changes? Random quests are fun! In my first tries, I got 'impossible' quests in the 1000' - 1700' area, and stopped playing. Love it, though I haven't tried the new mages. Good idea, but needs a code cleanup to remove the bugs. I like the random quests. Not that interesting to me, but did a favor to the Angband world by inventing the first quests. Good, but dated. Too bad it hasn't been updated in a while. This was the first variant to introduce random quests. Great idea. 50)[Vanilla] General opinions. Has a nice balance to it. Great game but I've got too used to it. I wouldn't want to see much changed though. Something needs to be done to the mage spell list, and there's a long dull stretch past~2500 feet. Other than that, it's good. Never really liked standard Angband or Moria - I've always liked variants of both more. Bland, inoffensive. Still viable but somewhat stagnant. If it had random quests, I would probably return to it. Not much has changed here lately. 2.8.1 -> 2.8.3 has had little impact. Very solid game. Don't play much due to the lull around 2000', though. Vanilla's still my favorite; it hasn't been overwhelmed by changes. I'd love to see it updated more frequently, although if I was to keep the current style I don't know what I'd add after my comments in #19 (Continuously updated map panels; Rangband's ghosts, object/inventory system, split r_info structs, and it's modified monster AI combined with Zangband's pets.) The best game (series of) ever played. It is plain and simple, fun for awhile but I think most people should seek a variant after they get use to it. Seems pretty dull, if you ask me. Especially 2.8.2, with the need to repeat buying and selling stuff via the 0 command. Great game.. it's the one I keep coming back to. A good base-line. Solid but stolid, steady but slow, strong but stiff. I cannot praise it enough, in gameplay, in design, or in coding, but it does need an update. It tends to get largely ignored these days because minimal changes are made to it. It should definitely incorporate the better and more widely accepted ideas from variants, such as spells, rebalanced combat, psionics, more ego items, monsters, random artifacts and so on, while retaining the original dungeon crawl spirit, or it will be entirely eclipsed by K, Z or something. It is good as is. It shouldn't change much. Good old Angband. I'd like to see changed GoI, upgraded attack spells and some other changes mentioned above, though. It got me started. Curse it! :) It's great, but just no longer playable for me since I know it backwards and forwards. Needs more monsters at depths. Otherwise is a mature game. Where it all started. It's good to start with but I think the variants have more to offer. Still good. Clean. Better balanced than most variants, I think. Except for the mage, a good solid game and codebase. I like Ben's slow approach to changes. A dinosaur. Still my favourite. I like the simplicity, but I'd like it even more with random artifacts (with more *identify* scrolls), random quests, limits on explosive breeders (as in CthAngband), stacking items and monsters carry objects (I don't know if this works - it says "beta" in the options for 2.8.2, so I don't use it). There are still problems, but a very classy game, both inside and out. The fact that it has so quickly (and relatively painlessly) spawned so many variants is tribute to both the general design and state which the code has achieved (mostly thanks to Ben, I gather). >From a hopeful respondent: "I wish I'd find Ringil in it ;-)" And one of the ultimate compliments: " I would build a shrine to this mother of all goodness, except what can you sacrifice to thousands of lines of code?" 51)[R] What do you think about this variant? Odd. The corpses really get in the way, and the drops seem a bit obscene early. Nothing in it struck me as being horrible, but then nothing in it struck me as being wonderful either. Corpses got irritating really quickly.. Otherwise, I liked it. Someone gave a cryptic warning (at least to me. I have yet to try the variant): Don't eat an AMHD, or else! Eric warns us that 1.04 may be rather annoying to play due to the lack of a useful stacking or inventory system but says 1.05 is in (slow) development and is obviously working on this. 52)[Pern] General opinions sought on this variant. Everyone seems to be saying the same thing, a mix of praise and concern for balance. Rohan Knights are way too powerful. I mean, +5 speed + 1/3 levels?? Some nice bits, but right now a bit unbalanced. *NO* game balance, but some interesting additions. Far from an adult variant. I like it! But new races are too strong (have played Rohan mindcrafter and Deathmold mimic). And stealth rating are too high/low! Yes, and I hate aquatic levels! Can it become an option? DragonRiders are BROKEN. I had +13 speed with a DR monk at level 19. I repeat, BROKEN. No fun. Too easy. The Ghost thing is interesting, but seems sort of a toy. In general, it needs a bit of proofreading for SP/grammar. But I approve of the effort and think it has potential. Badly coded. 3.0.4 is a bit too full of bugs, Rohan Kinghts are too good and I'm not overly fond of religions. OTOH alchemists seem intresting, symbiants too. Implements some nice ideas. I haven't played it since the first preview, so I don't know about balance and bugs, but the source code is is a pain to read. Seems like Pernband is to Zangband as Kamband is to Kangband. One maintainer replied: "I think it is ok, but less conservative than mine (resurrection, hah!)" 53)[YY] General opinions sought here. No comments here. It's one of the few variants I haven't even tried and I do try to give them all a shot. Guess the variants with minor changes never have hit it off too well. 54)[S] Skill system - what are your likes and dislikes about it? Not balanced, but I'd love a skill-based Angband. Excellent. You get to personalize your char and set your own difficulty level. More skills would be neat, as would better work on the talents. Dislike - some skills are not good described in documentation and skills are not balanced - some are much more important! Like - the whole idea and fenneling. Too awkward to get a character started. There is too little documentation given the huge changes. It's a great idea, but just too difficult to balance well. The skill set is nice but too easy. I don't know how good I am in melee. I never find enough exp to satisfy all my needs Great to break out of a rut. Haven't played 0.9.5 yet though, just 0.9.4. It needs a bit of balancing, but this is another variant feature I liked enough to put in my own game (albeit in considerably modified form). Some combos useless or overpowered - eg Wrestling vs Fenneling Too slow at the start, too quick later. Some races just suck too hard at some skills. Loved it, but found it too easy to become over-level for any given area. Healing was a bit too slow at the beginning, too. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I consider this to be among the most innovative ideas floating around. This alone makes Sangband among the great variants. So all-encompassing is this change that it is hardly surprising that it has taken years to balance out its new possibilities. Easy to abuse. Broken. Maybe unfixable, suspect it will always be abusable. Neat game, though -- valiant attempt. The item combining is extremely silly. It's like laying out a doormat that reads, "Welcome, Demons of Unbalance". Promising, particularly in its latest incarnation, but still needs work. It's a really nice, refreshing change. Should get even better if Julian continues to work with it. Really good idea, although a bit unbalanced (HighElves and Dunedain arent such wimps and hobbits dont use bows better than Elves etc.) Makes characters very configurable. No longer a case of -- gain a level, learn new spell continue-- but becomes a trade off. (is it better to put points into dodging so I don't get hit or into swordmanship so I can kill the monsters faster) As with most of the other ambitious variants, it's a great idea that will take some refinement in order to become truly playable. The original Sangband (John Gorse's, before Julian became the maintainer) was full of bugs and imbalances. But it was also full of brilliant ideas. Julian has the unenviable job of trying to eliminate the former without simultaneously clobbering the latter. One of the most challenging things about doing a skill system is making the various skills equally useful. Or at least in the same ballpark. Just to make up a stupid example, would you rather put points into Sweater-Knitting or into Getting-Instant-Kills? On a more practical note, how does one compare the benefits of putting 5 points into Dodging versus putting 5 points into Spellcasting? How many points should be required to notice X "units" of benefit (however benefit is measured)? How many points should the player get for specific actions (in this case, primarily monster kills)? I'd love to see this variant really flourish, but it's not something that's likely to happen overnight. 55)[S] Any opinions on the other changes? The difficulty level has been upped too much for someone playing the equivalent of an Angband warrior or mage rather than a twink, with pink elephants, resistance to edged and blunt weapons, hellfire... Difficulty levels really need rebalancing. I like talents and weapon/armour forging. Should fix the magical infusion so I could make staffs/rods of healing and restoration :-) Fenneling still produces items that outdo artifacts (ring with +6 to Str, Int, Dex, Con, +12 to Speed, (+19,+21) slow digestion) The scrolls of questing are nice. There are some nice spells in the new realms. A start takes too long. And there must be some better way to *identify* things! Luck is ok, but plays a minor role. Fenelling is supposedly abusable, haven't tried it. Fenneling should never have been put in the game. Alchemy and infusion need help. "I was happy to adopt shapechanges and the four-realm system of magic pioneered in Sangband in my own variant. Fenelling is the bad apple in the Sangband barrel; it's ruined game balance in several versions, and it isn't dead yet." Love Pink Elephants. I think everything's been said about Fennelling which needs to be said about Fennelling. I love the new creatures and items in this variant, plus the spell changes, and of course the new gameplay from skills. It's all good stuff. Got tired of eating it to pink elephants though. :) The Scroll of Questing is just too cool an item, and should find its way into other variants. And I think themes of quests could be added, to make it even neater. And LONG replies to the ZAngband queries: 56)[Z] What are your opinions of the new wilderness setup? I think it will grow and become a more interactive part of the game. At that point, it will become a more integral part rather than open space inbetween towns. It's more appropriate for a more RPG-ish game like Adom or Omega. I don't think it has much character in Angband. I like the wilderness for providing something outside the main dungeon, but if the wilderness exists, I think the main dungeon should not be important until the end of the game (ie, much more difficult, with other dungeons to explore first) Don't particularly like it, but I haven't given it a fair try. Like it a lot. Running from place to place is very annoying. Adds nothing but abuse potential and game dilution. I'm not sure. It certainly does add much-needed variety. There is a problem with it, though. I've explored most of it and almost all I've met are centipedes and novices. There isn't any dangerous area. It would be great if a quest was to go to a deadly wilderness screen and to find or kill something there. Also, the wilderness is just outside of the towns. Nothing can be gained (except for a small amount of experience) from going to the wild. The multiple towns are good, though. Hate it. Keep K and Z separate! Very nice, though it's /way/ too slow at regenerating the wilderness after leaving a "new" building. I haven't actually played the newest Z, but looking at Pern 3.0.4, I'd say I don't like it. Good. Not so good. Really dog slow, and so far adds little to the game. Eh. It's pretty, but it doesn't really add much. I like having multiple towns because that way I get multiple homes and multiple black markets. I hate running around between them all the time, though. I like the multiple towns but never spreadout into the wilderness. It seems that it's still undergoing rapid development. It's probably too early to say much about it. Is there any point to going beyond the four towns that are connected by the roads? Why is there a partial road going west from Outpost, which disappears as soon as you leave the Outpost panel? Don't like it. I like it. I love having multiple towns. I don't town scum as much now I don't really like it. The fact that you can play with wilderness off, and basically only lose the ability to scum the Sewer quest, is very telling. Thumbs up. Definite thumbs up. Good, but fixed. Can we add some random towns/buildings etc? It's dog-slow on a 68040@40 Amiga. That's bad. It's cool. And it's optional, so no reason for people to complain. Don't like it - I've gone back to 2.1.1 Level 1 characters can advance up to lvl 4 without any troubles, then accept thieves hideout quest. Makes much better alternative to 50ft dangers. Wilderness is a cool idea, but it didn't get implimented quite the way I had been imagining it ("I was kinda hoping the maps would look similar to ADOMs - where it would be easy to tell different areas from each other (rather than having one giant screenful of 'forest' or whatever... although the fractal generation is cool, it isn't quite as cool as what the quests look like (or what the towns look like, which was what _I_ was hoping every wilderness area would look similar to...)" Nice. Would be better if there were things to find in the wilderness ( in the center of a thick forest is a small potion shop where potions of stat are cheap, but once bought out there are no new supplies...etc, etc) The main effect I see is to make the game more easy, since you have several houses and black markets. And it make the game _so_ slow. Thumbs up. Good idea. I like how the game seems bigger. I just think it's too early to make a judgment on it. When more specific monster types can populate particular wilderness areas, and there's special buildings and places to go that make exploring it worthwhile, outside of finding the four cities, well, then you've got a great addition. No logical world approach (does there exist any map of Amber or whatever?) 57)[Z] How do you like the new races and classes? Variety and options are good. Good. Very nicely done, with each race having a different feel to it. It's nice to have the variety. Some are good. Some are useless. A lot of the races are pretty pointless; they're too similar. Plenty of variety - I like what I've tried. Mostly good. Mindcrafters badly broken. Trump & Arcane badly broken. I think lots of the races give extra resists, stat bonuses, and hit points without any real penalty attached. So it takes 30% longer to gain a level. That just doesn't buy it for me... an intrinsic resistance is like giving a character an extra item slot in this game. So I think races could use some rebalancing. But the assortment is neat, and it makes for a lot of fun games, especially if you try the "choose random race/class" option. The classes are okay. I think more spells can be added/tweaked in the spell realms to make it even better. No specific suggestions in here though. I think there are too many races now, and not all of them are worth playing much. I like diversity. Great! Like most of them. Still wish Z would be Tolkien over Amber, but what can you do? There is enough for everybody. Love them. They provide a very nice variety. Some of the races are a bit gross, though. The more choice one has when making a character, the better. Love 'em. Excellent. Not enough time in one lifetime to test them all. Who knows. Some, like Klackon, receive too much with too little exp-penalty, and vice versa. But I like them, it is nice to have so many races to choose from, and their unbalancedness gives player this easy-or-hard-choice, which is good. The new classes are intresting and original enough. Great. A large assortment. I like them. Fat. Some need balancing. I live and breath this variant. Love the monk. Great stuff. Lots of fun - the more distinctiveness here, the better. Some of the new races are very cool, a lot of them are pretty dull (the seventy-five Half- races, in particular - does anybody ever play Half-Giants?). The classes are all pretty neat. Too many races, I love the Monk class but can't seem to get a mindcrafter going so no comments on that. Love the new races and classes. I love them! Some are unbalanced, but I don't mind I'm playing mostly new races. I suppose this counts as vote for them. I like it. But trump magic and high mages need to be improved. Some nice, some far too powerful, some funny (chaos warriors). Since there are so many, you can pick what you're in the mood for. Speaking from my experience with Cth, they're pretty cool, although I dislike the level requirements for racial powers. I'd much rather have a scale than a limit. Like, I think vampires get life drain at level 30 or something... I'd rather have them get it to do level * 2 drain or something, so its not unbalancing. Love the new possibilities and combinations And the most in-depth glance at them: Great, although the races could probably be toned down a bit - reduce stat bonuses (and penalties), give less intrinsic resists, and lower the xp penalties as well. Take Vampires, for example: Do they really need +3 to both str and int? +1 or +2 would be enough for str, and I doubt their int needs boosting at all. Likewise Golems: why give them Hold Life, FA _and_ See Invis, all on top of +4 to str and various other good things? Also: Amberites should be able to use their special abilities once they've walked the Pattern (at any xp level), but not before. The classes are good. But here are a few suggestions by which they could be made even better (not necessarily more powerful, just better): - Remove GOI (and replace it with something powerful, but not *as* powerful). - Give Warrior-mages the choice of Sorcery for their primary realm. - Remove the edged-weapon penalty for Death Priests - they don't get Bless Weapon, they aren't the best at their primary realm, and in any case the restriction doesn't make much sense thematically. None of which apply to Life Priests. - Give Death Rogues a better spell set (at least one form of Genocide). - Improve Paladins - at the moment they seem like underpowered monks. Giving them the same to-hit and extra-blows chart as Warriors would be a good start, because after all they can't use Terror Mask. - Reduce all level requirements, mana costs and fail rates for Arcane magic by a lot. - Reduce the chance of Trumped monsters being hostile - maybe make this dependent on the CHR stat. - Did I mention: Remove GOI? 58)[Z] What is your view of the new monsters? Excellent, although there seem to be too many shallow monsters with Fear spells/attacks. They're good. All they need is some graphics. I enjoyed meeting new monsters after being too familar with the old set. Some are downright silly, but I like the addition of pets and allies. Most are really good. Topi is evil. The set in 2.11 is nice (except for GHB's and leprechauns); 2.2 just has too many, and too many silly monsters (greater magic mushroom were-quylthulg?!) Excellent. Most of them are , I don't like Ewoks and other funny stuff too much though. Really nice ones. Some are silly (we know which ones) but i think overall they present a rather formidible challange. Great. Generally *angband is short of monsters with nasty melee attacks. Most dangers from deep monsters come from magical attacks, summoning or breaths. Some of the hard hitting monsters from Z should be exported to other variants. I guess I'd like to see that in Vanilla too. The monsters added in the latest version are probably a bit over the top, but I don't play it. This was probably added in view of characters getting too powerful through quest and mutation scumming. Just try clearing a pit of Hellblades and Raals. A nice change of pace from standard, but nothing special. Great, I've finished vanilla loads of times so some new stuff keeps the interest there. Too many similar monsters for my liking. Good except for breeders. Most of the new monsters are really cute additions. I love'em. Too little Tolkien. And some monsters are pretty silly too. Haven't played versions >2.1.1 much, so no comment on the newest mosnters, but I like a lot of the non-vanilla monsters. I love killing Ewoks. Otherwise, its nice for some variety. Always nice to run into something I've never met before Not enough time in one lifetime to see them all. Who knows. I think somewhere the line marked "too goofy" might have been crossed. The variety is pretty cool, though. Some are a pain, but generally I like them. Keep 'em coming. Fun. Enjoy all the moria monsters. Missed (#$^#$^%#@$%@#$@#$!!!) nether worms. They're a lot of fun. They made the game addicting again for me. A few of them are hideously powerful (Keeper of Secrets, for one). But anyway, I think part of the lure of *band is the complexity of creatures out to get you... not knowing exactly what's down the corridor. It's cetainly exciting to face them for the first time. I think more wilderness specific monsters should be added, to make going to varying segments of the wilderness a more Might and Magic-like experience (that is, it's exciting to explore because you keep encountering new things). Like some of them, hate others (Exploding monsters are so nasty!!!) They need some more playtesting time to be balanced. But I'm surprised at how well-balanced they already are, given their sheer numbers. Like them - they're something new, interesting, funny, ... It's only a pity some of them are REALLY dangerous :-) I haven't played that much since the Explosion of New Monsters, but they seem pretty OK on the whole. Pretty good for the most part. Mostly very good, I really like the fact that red horrors die and create blue ones.. nice touch. 59)[Z]Other opinions on this variant? Fun, dynamic, well maintained. I can see why many consider it the one of the best variants. Basically, I think it's good that the focus seems to be moving from adding stuff to balancing stuff that's already there. Mutations should be more like Kamband. "I am Z of Borg. Resistance is futile. Prepare to be assimilated." OK, I'm being unfair. It is fun for a mind-bending change. But balanced it is not. The two new realms (Arcane, Trump) need re-balancing. Too many people hate them, and they're clearly under-powered compared to the other realms. With two concurrent, basically incompatible quest systems in the same game, there will be a need to redesign certain fundamental aspects of the quests. It should be... an interesting time in Zangband's history. There are currently a few major abuses that need to be closed off, like removing selected mutations. Mutations in general need to be much, much less beneficial. True to its theme - more humor added in, but equally balanced as normal Angband. The best roguelike I ever saw It's gotten far too must like Kang/Kam lately. It has turned out really well This mutation business is getting a bit out of hand. But maybe that's just because I'm in the middle of writing a 2.2 mutation spoiler (half done!). Set quest mania is also a little much. It seems like Z sort of absorbs things from all sorts of other variants, and acts as a sort of proving grounds for things. This is pretty cool, but only really ok because so much work is being done on it so fast -- Robert is doing an excellent job at churning versions and bug fixes out, and responding to issues. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the arena or the casino. Lastly (and this is not just a Z thing), I hate graphics and sound. Don't use 'em. Like the old-school ascii feel. Dunno why. Stay away from Kangband ideas. They don't mix well with Zangband. It's great. It seems (especially 2.2.x) to be trying to include everything, instead of letting each new feature settle in. This variant adds too much. I know that sounds weird but there really are too many classes and races. Overall the best, IMO. It should go back to 2.1.1 and start again. A few months ago, someone posted a message saying they had nightmares about "MicroSoft Angband" - it takes all the features of the other *bands, and puts them all in one big unmanageable glob. I think this is what Z has become. OK, I know the current maintainer has put a hell of a lot of work into it, but it seems to have an awful lot of bugs, even in things as fundamental as the character inventory. Funny. But one thing: Either the quests are too easy (like the Tower) or they're too difficult (like the Vapor Quest). One thing which could be changed: the failure-rate display for abilities is very confusing. It would be better to just show the relevant stat and a failure rate. Among other things, this would let you know when (if ever) you have a 0% fail rate (is this even possible?). It seems to be necessary for things like the Living Trump Treatment to be more than a novelty. Best variant It's my favorite, and I think a Sorcery/Chaos human mage win, involving 49 quests and killing most or all of the uniques has got to be a pretty big accomplishment. I've had 5 characters make level 50 but none of them have made it to the bottom yet. ...argh! I don't even want to think about succeeding in this without GoI, which I almost did accidentally since I didn't find the book with my last character. Haven't played any other variant for the last few months. Dislike the set quests - too repetetive and can spoil the game by making available artifacts etc. at the wrong time. It's cool. Finally...Farmer Maggot's *other* dog. That had been bugging me since Grip and Fang were introduced. And speaking of Maggot, he needs to drop mushrooms, or there needs to be a mushroom farm out there in the wilderness somewhere, or something. My favourite variant. The current powerhouse. Features range from terrific to truly awful. Robert is doing a hell of a good job, all things considered. Would like to see some long standing problems addressed before major new features are added. The whole mutations thing is too good. Mutations should be limited to chaos warriors and beastman (except the ones caused by eldrich horrors). Please make custom race generation and complexity levels! Chaos warriors are very entertaining. Trump is too difficult as it is. Zangband seems to be overloading on features. Some very good ideas, well implemented, but I'm not very fond of set quests. Increasingly seems to be becoming the One Variant. Personally, I think it should have stuck to the dungeon crawl feel, due to the limited number of interactions in Angband it works much better that way than trying to emulate an RPG. One respondent answered 56-59 all in one shot: "Zangband is the cornucopia variant. Although some might consider it a bit buxom for their taste, no other *angband has added so many features to play with, and so many new avenues of exploration. As is inevitable with such a generous view of the possible and such a dauntless endeavor in practice, many of the new features still mesh poorly together." Someone added here yet more variants I missed.. 59.33 You forgot Utumno! I liked Utumno while it was around. Besides Mangband it was the most drastic change anyone had made. It looked good and managed to keep just enough on the screen to be playable. It would be nice to see someone else continue it. 59.67 You forgot AngbandTk! AngbandTk, OTOH, doesn't have enough on the screen. The extra windows are very useful, but it's difficult to play. 60)What is your general view of the state of Angband and its descendants? A few cautionary notes, but generally I think people see a good future for these games. Healthy, varied and evolving. Fecund. Rivaled only by Fractint, the most astonishing computer program/program family I've ever seen, bar none. My thanks to all the coders, from the bottom of my bitter, sniping little heart. Microsoft, eat your shorts. It's probably one of the few games to last this long and will probably last forever. Keep the variants at variance. Some are so close to each other as to be almost the same game. I like many of the additions to Zang from Kang but wonder if that was ultimately a good move. Unless Mark Howson comes up with something spectacular for future versions of Kang I can't imagine playing it when Zang is so similar. It's a great game, and its wonderful to have so many talented people adding new things to it. Alive and well. Quest-happy. There is too much time wasted identifying stuff and fixing up an inventory. Also this may be too much to ask for, but I think it would be nice if I could set certain items and the amount of those that I want and let the computer auto-buy the items for me. I mean after a certain level I hate having to town scum becuase there are no phase door scrolls or something like that. Anything I can automate is good for me. Maybe I should just extend the borg. Too little angband....too much descendants for my taste. Angband is, of course, doing well. I think the variants, after the current period of extremely fast growth, will peter off a bit. All the "obvious" changes (not that *I* could do it) - new monsters, new (but only cosmetically different) races and classes - have been done and will no longer interest people just because they're different. People are starting to ask for balance, and I think that'll be harder to deliver. It stays well, despite repeated assertions to the contrary. Angband is a very solid game. Some of the variants have gaping holes in them that make them rather unplayable. Some have really good ideas that should be in Angband. Some are downright silly. Very healthy - have any commercial games come close to the longevity of *band? Free or not, these wouldn't be played if they weren't any good. Angband is going strong. :-) I don't see any stats of # of players/etc, but it _SEEMS_ like its a growing force in the gaming community.. I've converted people from DIABLO to Angband. Let's hope this can continue happening. :-) A bit chaotic, but that's the way things should be. They should contain a warning about the amount of time that one will spend playing. I can attribute my poor marks in 3rd year varsity to angband. It seems a highly successful game that's garnered the interest of hundreds of people. The more development, the more players, the better for the game itself. We as players have the right to choose the variants that appeal to us. If it's too unbalanced for our tastes, we choose another. And it seems every developer thus far has been very open to user suggestions for improvement in the game. I just wish Ben was still around, actively developing the core version on the side. His changes seemed like a major catalyst for everything. Confusing. Can't be improved much. But perhaps someone will have a brilliant idea. Superb. I've never seen so many experiments happening all at once in a roguelike. Stand aside Nethack, ADOM, Omega: this is where the action's at! However, I feel obliged to interject a cautionary note. I worry that much of the simplicity and clarity that drew many of us to Angband (or even Moria) is being lost. As we continue, we need to consider: "How much is too much?" The newsgroup seems to indicate that the game is alive and kicking. Is *anyone* still playing Diablo [snort]? Well... taken about half a year of my life all together :-) 24 variants, about half of them in active development, every programmer seems to have a personal Angband variant, don't ask me if that is good or bad. Would Angband be even better if several maintainers join forces and work together on a smaller number of variants ? Angband itself is quite neat; however, I don't really see where it can go now. For instance, 2.8.3 only had minor interface changes and so on. I think that the game should be expanded with more monsters and items. The variants are doing a great job of keeping Angband interesting, but games with fast development cycles (Kamband, Zangband) never seem to be complete packages. Ben slowly improves the technical side of Angband, which is good. Tim Baker is creating a very user-friendly interface. Keldon Jones is making improvements (better AI, ease patch), Adam Bolt is making graphics. I really like this show of cooperation. Only thing missing is someone making a website with lots of sound files and sound configs for AngbandTK. Alive and kicking, growing more each day. I wish it was more Tolkienish. Vanilla seems too stagnant, but most variants seem too chaotic. Reminds me of a Professor I had in Variational Mechanics. He spent the first half of each class correcting the errors he had made during the last class and the other half making new errors. Angband rocks. Very healthy. Now if only I had time to play all of them... The variants seem to be either slow, dead, or approaching Nethack. For a long time Zangband managed to avoid all of these, but that's changed. I'm happy with where Angband is. The number of variants is amazing, though it's impossible to keep up with them all. Angband is stable, but the variants are adding new life and keeping things interesting. Zangband looks like it's going to take over entirely if nothing radical happens to standard Angband for another few months. Vanilla is approaching where Moria is today. But that's okay. It's incredible stable and well-designed and isn't ripe for too many major changes. Chests are still useless. I will send 5 bucks to the writer of any variant who makes chests worthwhile. It's a lot better than most commercial games. Someone else also said: "Better than most commercial games" I think the future looks .. chaotic, but not neccessarily in negative sense. If all the variants go their own, separate ways, there will always be something for everyone. I think we have Ben Harrison and his excellent coding to thank for the proliferation of variants... There are a lot of them, and more appear every month. This can only be good. I also think it would be good to put Angband under a variant of the GPL, but I understand there are problems involved in doing this (not least the number of contributors). Angband has a solid codebase, variant authors with tons of ideas, patch writers to make nice one-trick ponies, and enough compilers to keep the game players in most platforms happy. Who could ask for anything more? And one I'd response like to add an 'amen' to: "These games are just too good. It prevents me from buying all these new commercial games." 61)What topic is discussed way too much on the newsgroup/belongs in the FAQ? Note:This survey was sent out before Julian put together the variant FAQ and Weisiger/JMartin put together his nice Newbie Guide. Therefore I removed numerous requests for both (the former was maybe the most requested thing) from the results. I left in one request for the latter, though, because it adds another suggestion that might come in handy. Thanks, Julian and "weisiger" for the nice work you guys've done on those files. There seems to be a fair amount of desire for inclusion of info on life ratings in the FAQ and for a longer ZAngband-specific FAQ (and Ethan volunteers to help write it if someone is willing to plow through all the code for details). Finally,I think Aidan will enjoy one of the answers someone gave. Note 2:I also erred in mixing these two questions. Some people referred to topics they don't want discussed period, others to ones useful but overly discussed (ones the newsgroup residents offer constantly). Oh well...with almost all the answers it's possible to figure out which of these categories they fall into. No topic is discussed too much, r.g.r.a is one of the few newsgroups without huge flamewars. How to run DOS *band without graphics belongs into the FAQ. (BTW, the answer is: start it with the "-mibm" option.) Hard to say. One *good* thing that really helps is people putting [Z] or whatever at the start of their posts. BZ to everyone who does. Complaints about features without offering alternatives are annoying. OTOH, the recent discussion between Ethan Sicotte and Have clue-will travel was very interesting. For the FAQ: item inscriptions, the borg and the borg commands, and the complete list of wizard commands. No topic is discussed too much, r.g.r.a is one of the few newsgroups without huge flamewars. How to run DOS *band without graphics belongs into the FAQ. (BTW, the answer is: start it with the "-mibm" option.) Character dumps (My pet hate - I think they should be banned!) Zangband. "What's the best variant?" How do I beat How to compile/where to get a compiler How do I make a character dump? What's with the greater hell beast? What is free action? Where do I find __________? Life rating, using of slaying flags The which is which of the variants, or the "what is your favorite" question, which really can't find its way into a FAQ, but does generate a lot of traffic that I'm not too interested in. Want to find a favorite? Try them all! Then ask if there's someone else who is playing a particular one, and what strategies they use. That's a better topic to me, in my opinion. Slime molds. No topic can be discussed too much, I think. Z fixed quests. Which is the best programming language. Which OS can be used on which MAC. (I think the last two are dead now) Life ratings. New stuff from Z that is not well covered by spoilers (mindcraft, mutations, chaos patrons) - and things change fast. "graphics -- another flame" In general, maybe there should be some sort of geek code people could append to their sig files. Life ratings. I think the main thing is that the FAQ be updated more regularly. Zangband. It's hardly mentioned in the Angband FAQ, and the Zangband FAQ is only something like 2-3 pages long, it should be 30 pages long! Life ratings!!! A clear, even spoil-ish, explanation of how damage is figured for melee and missile combat. (I've been playing since the birth of Moria, and I doubt I'd get an explanation completely correct. Thank Leon, once again, for Oangband. ) Double resistance. Zangband needs a FAQ Dig bonuses to shovels, etc. A really good, "So, you're a newbie, start by doing this, and this" moved right up front in a seperate text file, clearly marked. Mention this group in the FAQ & the load screen Life ratings. Z mutations. There are also way too many complaints about various variants, but they don't belong in the FAQ. Random level quests, which were a bad idea from the start. Life ratings, damage from melee and bows 62)Pick out one coder/maintainer/rgra denizen you want to specifically thank for their dedication to *Angband. I didn't want to make this into a popularity contest so didn't total votes. I did make distinctions between those several people wanted to thank and the rest..and of course, I know forcing people to pick one is rough so I didn't really enforce that at all. There're just so many nice maintainers and nonmaintainers on the newsgroup! The Most Praised: (no relation to The Forsaken or The Nine or The Taken)(we hope) In no particular order, a hearty round of applause to: Ben Harrison ("for the clean, easy to modify code" "for his work in getting Vanilla to the state it is today." "Without his clean-up work, we wouldn't have the current bounty of variants." "Clean code is something wonderful.") Greg Wooledge ("for all his helpful debugging/patch work, and for making GW a mage's delight." "For his insightful comments and good work on GW-angband." "Since he was the first 'variant-coder' to start making some clever and insightful changes." "for his authoritative, patient, nonjudgmental answers and comments on rgra" "Definitely a great guy." " He seems to know everything.") - geez, Greg, hope all the praise doesn't go to your head! There sure is alot of it. Topi Ylinen ("for making the most diverse variant with so many fun, challenging, and refreshing additions." "for nice and nasty ideas for Zang" "who started the whole Zangband thing and got me onto the Amber books.") Leon Marrick ("for his ability to *think and balance* all his changes through" "with his creativity and concern for game balance that make all the changes he's made to Oangband thus far a wonderful change of pace." " Not only is his game great, but he's swimming against the tide. Thanks Leon! I was >< this close from quitting *bands for a while. Your game...suffice to say I've haven't had this much fun with a game -- ANY game -- since I first started playing Moria a decade ago. (Sorry, the rest of you, if I sound like an Oangband flack; don't blame him. )") Robert Ruehlmann Other Praised Individuals: Tim Baker Julian Lighton for cleaning up the mess that was Sangband pre 0.9.3 Ethan Sicotte ("for making me play [OAngband], without save-file abuse") Ivan Tkachev is to be commended the most, since he came with a lot of new and original ideas lately. Remco Gehrlich Robert Alan Koeneke ("without him, there wouldn't be Angband today.") (Nor Moria, another lovely game) Weisiger Jeff Coleburn ("I really like [his] posting style") Darin, Arcum, and everybody else who helps get the *bands to the Mac. Dean Anderson Aram Harrow A mention for whoever wrote the original rogue, which was the inspiration for Moria / Angband) And praise for all of us in the masses: One vote for "The Unknown Bug Reporter"! Omnes Omnibus! All of them Thanks to everyone who continues to develop this game. If I never write a novel, it's all of your fault. One maintainer wanted to thank "all the *band players out there! What would we do without you?" Everybody that's reading this newsgroup are really nice people, that are taking their time answering the questions asked *MAJOR APPLAUSE* Thanks really have to go to anyone whose involved in producing anything to do with Angband, and also to everyone who keeps it current by participating in the ng. Everyone who contributes to the meaningful discussions... they make rgra what it is! I'd also like to thank the previous Angband maintainers, and the Moria maintainers, all the way back to Rober A. Koeneke. For obvious reasons. We variant-makers have stood upon the shoulders of giants. Don't want to name one single person, so: "In 1990, Alex Cutler and Andy Astrand, with the help of other students at the University of Warwick, created Angband 1.0, based on the existing code for Umoria 5.2.1." This was the beginning ... Everybody - I think anyone who has the dedication to spend a lot of free time (I hope y'all aren't doing this at work, or while you should be studying!) coding, bug-fixing, tinkering, and generally trying to improve something, for free, deserves all the respect we can muster EVERYONE who makes rgra a polite forum for questions and discussion about angband. it is a great newsgroup. I would like to thank all the people who have contributed to all the variants. There has been too much done by so many to just thank one person. So from the survey respondents, thanks Ben, Greg, Topi, Robert R., Leon, Darin, Arcum, Remco, Tim, Weisiger, Julian, Ethan, Ivan, Aram, Robert K., Jeff, Dean and everybody else. Youir contributions are all appreciated by people out there. Finally, I would like to thank again everyone who participated in the survey and anyone who bothered to read through all the results. Thanks to you all! I hate to single out any of you, since I enjoyed reading all the replies, but every year I do this Adam Horowitz delurks to give thoughtful, well-written answers to basically every questions. Thanks Adam and thanks everyone who responded!