General results for the 2001-2002 Angband survey Figures with '~'s in front of them are rounded (usually by a twelveth of a vote). Some answers did not lend themselves to generating precise vote tallies; in these cases, I used my judgement in assigning fractions of a vote. A number of survey responses skipped various questions, and an answer to one question was contained in a followup post, so totals range from 102 down to 94. ======================================================================== 1) How long have you played Angband? Do you remember the first version you played? total responses: 102 (one person answered this question but no others) Number of people reporting that they played Moria before Angband: 16 (the true number is certainly more than this) ------------ Reports of time when person began playing Moria: 9 Of these, one person (David Grabiner) reports playing at the University of Oklahoma, where Moria was created. Moria: about 15 years Moria: about 10 - 11 years Moria: about 11 years Moria: 1995. moria: for more than ten years amiga-moria (3.?) Played Moria from 1985-88 (at the University of Oklahoma, where it was written!) On and off since I first downloaded Moria off a local BBS's FIDOnet group in early '95. Moria: 1990 ------------- Were there at Warwick where Angband begin: 3 Quite some time - I can't remember exactly how long it is now. Around 10 years. First version : was the *first* version! Started playing sometime in 1991 at the University of Warwick (this is before release to the world at large) so about 10 years. Since June 1990, version - whatever version was being played at warwick at the time, possibly the original. --------------- Started with Frog-knows, or its immediate derivatives (PC Angband 1.3, MacAngband 2.0.3, etc.), or came in during Angband 2.5.# or 2.6.#: 24 Since 92, I think. Frog knows. about a decade 2.4-frog knows about 10 years ago 2.4-frog knows about 10 years ago 2.4-frog knows about 7 years ago nine-ten years ago Frog-knows An ancient port of Frog-knows PC Angband 1.3.1, I think that was just over 7 years ago. 8 years i think. pcAngband 1.41 Since 1992 or so, frog knows version 1992. Version 2.4 IIRC nine years. MMacAngband 2.0.3 2.4_frog_knows one of the PC versions without targetting. 1991 or 1992, with a Mac version of frog-knows. 2.4frog-knows Angband. at least 11 years PC Angband v1.1 Frog-Knows in 93-94 or so. 8 years 8 years ago. 2.5.# series. 94 or '95. vanilla v2.5.3 Angband in 1993. 2.4.Frog-knows.. 1996 (curious...) ------------------ Started playing between 2.7.0 (about 1994) and 2.8.5 (1998 - 1999): 51 6 or 7 years Vanilla 2.7.8 on an old 286 back in 96 or 97. about 4 years about 3 years 2.8.3 about 2-3 years about 2 years 2.8.3 5-6 years October 1997 2.8.# about five years 3-4 years? Must have been 2.7.something for Acorn. About five and a half years. First version was 2.7.9 Since the beginning of 1999, or around 3 years. 2.7.# 2.7.9. - not sure what year V 279b Roughly five years. at least 5 years, about Vanilla 2.7.8. Years. Probably since 2.7.8. two years. 2.8.3 2-3 years Angband 2.8.# 2 - 3 years, angband 2.8.3 1.35 years. Vanilla 2.8.2 since 1995 or so. 2.7.9v4 iirc Discovered Angband in 1997, played [V] irregularly ever since. 4 years, 2.7.8. Vanilla 2.8.3, I think; I've played since summer 1999 2.7.8 when it was new. 4 years, probably 2.8.3 3.5 years. Zangband 2.2.x 6 years, V2.7.something for mac 4-5 years. Vanilla 2.8.3 about 1995 or '96. First was 2.7.something 1996 or 1997. (First version was 2.8.0). about six years. Since 2.7.8. Since 1998. My first was a 2.7 variant, maybe 2.7.8. Vanilla 2.8.3 had just come out about 2 years. [V] 2.7.9 Angband 2.7.? 1996 or 97. About 6 months, V 2.9.3 [V] 2.8.x, four or five years ago. About 7 or 8 years. probably 2.7.8. around 1994. Angband 2.8.3 for the Mac Vanilla 2.7.#. In 1998 or something. First version I played was 283 about 5-6 years. either 2.7.8, or 2.7.7 right before 2.7.8 was released. About four years, (V) 2.8.2. Played since 1997-1996 (I think), Fangband. 6 years, Zangband. Z 2.2.0 About two years. Kamband; ----------------- Started playing more recently: 15 Under two years, 2.9.0 One year, 2.8.#, About 6months, maybe a little longer. Vanilla 2.9.1 2.9.3 Under a year, I think. 2.9.2 Couple years -- BEAngband, followed by vanilla 2.9.x. about half a year Just over a year. First version for me was Vanilla 2.9.1 About 8 months. AngbandTK 2.9.2r1. 18 months or so. About a year or so Only a couple months now. I first played Angband in 1999 A bit over year and a half. Vanilla 2.9.0, I think. [Z] since last year ======================================================================== 3) What is your favorite artifact, in any version or variant? For the third time straight, the Phial of Galadriel got the most votes. In the first Angband survey, curiously enough, it got precisely zero. Artifact (found in most variants) Votes: Mentions: The Phial of Galadriel 16 1/2 17 Ringil 7 1/2 8 Sting 4 4 Dor-Lomin 4 4 Thorin 4 1/4 5 Cubragol 3 1/2 4 Thranduil >3 1/2 6 Arkenstone 3 3 Narya 3 3 Caspanion 2 1/4 3 Aule 2 2 Glaive of Pain <3 4 Vilya 1 1 Soulkeeper 1 1 Himring 1 1 Celeborn 1 1 Arvedui 1 1 Razorback 1 1 Bladeturner 1 1 Morgoth 1 1 Feanor 1 1 Anduril 1 1 Haradekket 1 1 Zarcuthra 1 1 Eonwe 1 1 Nar-i-vagil 1 1 Deathwreaker 1 1 Taratol 1 1 Eonwe 1 1 the Gatling sling [Ed: Buckland?] 1/2 1 Crisdurian 1/3 1 Random Artifacts: The random artifacts 2 2 Random artifact Arkenstones 1 1 Variant-specific: Retalitor [Gum] 2 2 Chainsaw [Z] 2 2 Katana of Groo 1 1 Stormbringer, in Z2.1.1c. 1 1 Rod of Delving [O] 1 1 Sword of Everflame [Cth] 1 1 Vorpal Blade 1 1 Aranruth [Pern 4.1.5.] 1 1 Scullcleaver from Pern. 1 1 Sting/pern (the original one) 1 1 Narthanc, sentient/leveling weapons. 1 1 Artifact that activated for acquirement 1 1 Helm of Knowledge [Pern] 1 1 Shadow Cloak 'Moondancer' [Ey] 1 1 Robe of Incanus [Heng] 1/2 1 Sting [Z] 1/2 1 Phial [Z] 1/2 1 Soulsword 1/3 1 ======================================================================== 4) What is your favorite weapon? Artifacts (found in most variants) Votes: Mentions: Ringil 13 17 Aule 4 5 Eonwe 4 5 The Glaive of Pain 4 2/3 5 "It slices, it dices, it's the Glaive of Pain!" Calris 4 4 Harradaket 3 3 'Eradicate'^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HHarradaket' Anduril 2 2 Sting 1 2/3 2 Zarcuthra 1 1/2 2 Ulmo 1 1/2 2 Aeglos 1 1 Aranruth 1 1 Deathwreaker 1 1 Sting 1 1 Big dice artifacts with slays and brands 1 1 Theoden 1 1 Cubragol 1/2 1 Durin 1/2 1 Crisdurian 1/3 1 Taratol 1/3 1 Ego-items: Holy Avengers 6 3/4 8 Blade of Chaos Holy Avenger Holy Avenger Blade of Chaos Holy Avenger Mace of Disruption Bastard Sword (Holy Avenger) (+4 attacks) 1/2 1 Things with extra blows 5 6 Whip of extra attacks I found at 150' Rapier of extra attacks (+2) Katana of extra attacks Scythe of Slicing of Extra Attacks (9d4) (+9,+9) (+3 attacks) Defenders 1 3/4 3 Weapons of *Slay* anything 1 1 Tulwar of Lightning 1 1 Blade of Chaos (Chaotic) 1 1 Longbow of extra might (+12,+13) (+2) 1 1 Mace of Disruption of Slay Evil 1 1 Blessed blades 1/2 1 Westernesse 1/4 1 Weapon types: Sabre 2 2 Long Bow 2 2 dagger (1d4) (+0,+0) (great to start with) 1 1 Long Sword (2D5) 1 1 Pebbles 1 1 "those things are devastating" Bastard sword 1 1 Anything that helps me kill early uniques 1 1 Katanas 2/3 1 Variant-specific: Retaliator [Gum] 2 2 Vorpal Blade [Z usually] 1 3/4 3 Chainsaw [Z] 1 1/4 2 Stiletto from Moria 1 1 Own Claws (Dragon in Drangband) 1 1 2d12 morning star/flail [0] 1 1 Well-balanced daggers [O] 1 1 Sting -- levelling [pern] 1 1 Broken dagger *defender* (probably pern) 1 1 Something-of-Aman (+4 attacks) (pern?) 1 1 Scullcleaver [Pern] 1 1 Daemon Books [Pern] 1 1 Mage staff of wizardry [Pern] 1 1 Slayer [Z] 1 1 Monk bare hands [Z] 1 1 Soulsword [Z] 1 1 Mage staffs (+ mana) [Pern] 1/2 1 *defender* [Pern] 1/2 1 Stormbringer [Z] 1/2 1 3d8 O Lances 1/3 1 Hurin [Possibly A/64 or Psi] 1/3 1 Diamond Edge 1/4 1 *thancs [O] 1/4 1 ======================================================================== 5) What is the most annoying monster? Not most deadly, but most annoying? Monsters (found in most variants) Votes: Mentions: Magic mushrooms 32 1/2 39 "Magic mushrooms in groups, Magic Mushrooms, mushrooms, Magic shrooms, Those !#@$ magic mushroom patches" Lice, giant white lice, giant black lice 5 1/3 6 Hounds, water hounds, gravity hounds 4 1/4 5 Nexus Quylthulg 3 1/3 6 Blink dogs 2 3/4 4 Blue icky things 2 3 Hummerhorns 1 1/2 2 Farmer Maggot 1 1/3 2 Memory moss 1 1/3 2 Fundin Bluecloak 1 1 Lorgan the Easterling 1 1 Anything that blinks away on sight 1 1 Monsters that breathe time. 1 1 Gnome mage 1 1 Undead beholder 1 1 Wereworm 1 1 Boldor 1 1 The new Smeagol from the JLE patch 1 1 Spiders 1 1 Giant fleas 1 1 Tengus 1 1 All Novices, once you reached a decent level 1 1 Vortices 1 1/4 2 Breeders 1 1/6 3 Phase Spiders 3/4 2 Large packs of easy monsters dropping tons of worthless items in the late game 2/3 1 Death mold 2/3 1 Dreads 1/2 1 Barbazus 1/2 1 Battle Scarred Veterans 1/2 1 Cantoras 1/2 1 Squinty-eyed rogues with an eye for your 1/2 1 new mage's one and only spellbook. Azriel 1/2 1 Draebor 1/2 1 Lesser elemental hounds, when high level 1/3 1 Filthy street urchins 1/3 1 Giant Fruit Flies 1/3 1 Nightcrawler 1/3 1 Variant-specific: Greater hell-beasts [Z] 4 1/6 5 Bill Ferny [O] 3 1/3 5 Leprechaun [Z] 2 2/3 3 Intermittant Software Bug [O] 2 1/2 3 Breeders [Pern] (where they mutate) 2 2 Gremlins [Ey] 1 1/3 2 Darkgod [Ey] 1 1 Chaos Tiles [new Z] 1 1 Chaos mushroom [Z?] 1 1 Greater hell magic mushroom were-quylthulg [Z]1 1 Chaos tiles [Z] 1 1 Giant marksmen ants [O] 1 1 Joke monsters [various] 1 1 Variant Maintainer [Pern] 1 1 Lesser Hell Beasts. [Z] 1 1 Jumping fireball [Z] 1 1 RNG & its minions [Pern] 1/2 1 Moldoux [Pern] 1/3 1 Almost every monster in Z 1/3 1 Little Lie [?] 1/3 1 Death swords [various] 1/3 1 Nrulings [O] 1/3 1 "and anything else that casts blind" I'm even more surprised to see that everyone hates magic mushroom patches and they're still in there - when I added them, I didn't think they'd stand the test of time! Anyway, I'm certainly the newbie compared to most here! -- Sean Marsh [Ed: You were there at Warwick. You are not a newbie.] ======================================================================== 6) What do you feel is the toughest non-unique, relative to others at its depth? Monsters (found in most variants) Votes: Mentions: Total for Dracolichs and Dracolisks 12 1/2 16 Dracolichs (specifically) 5 1/2 7 Dracolichs or Dracolisks (either) 5 7 Dracolisks (specifically) 1 1/2 2 Dracolich (just ahead of Dracolisk) 1 1 Battle scarred veteran 12 13 Total for Titans 10 2/3 17 Greater Titan 9 1/2 14 Titans (either) 1 2 Lesser Titan 1/6 1 "I've always hated Titans." Total for Hounds 8 1/2 10 Gravity hounds 5 1/4 7 "A bloody great pack of gravity hounds" Hounds (general) 1 1/2 2 Any Zephyr hound (other than clear) 1 1 Hounds at around 1600ft 1 1 Nexus hounds 1/4 1 Drolem 3 1/2 5 Cave spider 2 1/2 3 Grand master mystic, Master mystic, Mystic 2 3 Novice paladin (especially the group form) 1 1/4 2 Undead beholders 1 1/4 2 Lesser Balrogs 1 1 Storm giants 1 1 Dreadmaster 1 1 Emperor liches 1 1 Basilisk 1 1 Troll priests 1 1 Hardened warrior 1 1 Mean mercenary 1 1 Black reaver 1 1 Kobold 1 1 Black orcs 1 1 AMHD 1 1 Death mold 1 1 Solar, 1/2 1 Kobolds 1/2 1 Yellow jellies 1/2 1 Dark elven priests 1/2 1 Dark elven mage 1/4 1 Novice priests 1/4 1 Greater Qs 1/4 1 Wereworms 1/6 1 Vampire Lords 1/6 1 Novice Warrior 1/6 1 Nightwalker 1/6 1 The first summoners who summon other summoners 1 1 A pit or vault which is slightly too hard for my current character. 1 1 Variant-specific: Crows of Durthang [O] 3 1/2 5 Death swords [Ey, Z] 2 2 Kamikaze yeeks [Z] 1 1 Mongbats [Z] 1 1 Novice Archers [Drang] 1 1 Dark Elven warlocks [Z] 1 1 Storm Trolls in older [O] 1 1 Giant Black Scorpions [O] 1 1 Horrors [Ey] 1 1 Random Number generator [Pern] 1 1 Greater Hell Beast [Z] 1 1 Star-Spawn of Cthulhu [Z] 1 1 Horned Reapers [Ey] 1 1 beastmaster [O] 1/2 2 Maddened weasel [O] 1/2 1 Little Lie [?] 1/2 1 In Z or Pern, everything added to the game that wasn't in Vanilla, with the possible exception of GHBs. 1/2 1 Sky Drakes [Z] 1/3 1 Storm Troll [O] 1/3 1 Serpent of the Brownlands [O] 1/4 1 Abyss spiders [O] 1/4 1 ======================================================================== 7) What do you feel is the toughest unique, by the same measure? Uniques (found in most variants) Votes: Mentions: Mim, Betrayer of Turin. "Bane of Mages" 18 2/3 25 "Or any of his pesky offspring" The Tarrasque 7 1/2 8 Lorgan 6 1/3 8 Fang and/or Grip, Maggot dogs 5 3/5 7 Boldor, King of the Yeeks 5 6 Azriel 4 1/3 6 Cantoras 3 1/2 4 Morgoth 3 4 Wormtongue 3 4 Lokkak 3 7/8 8 Grendel 1 1 Kavlax 1 1 Orfax 1 1 Cerberus 1 1 Azog, 1 7/8 4 Gorlim 1 1 Fast orc or Ogre uniques 1 1 Rogrog 1/4 1 Draebor 1/2 1 Unique angels 1/3 1 Fundin 1/10 1 Maggot 1 1 "Maggot, as there are no other (even OOD) uniques that will show up his depth. Any- one who [says] otherwise didn't realize this was a trick question." Anything that blanks my mind 1 1 Variant-specific: Moldoux [Pern] 2 2 Variant Maintainer [Pern] 2 2 Black Death [Kam] 2 2 Player ghost [O] 1 1/2 2 Barney [Z, probably] 1 1 The serpent of chaos [Z, probably] 1 1 The Destroyer [Z, probably] 1 1 Stormbringer [Z, possibly] 1 1 Utgard-Loke [Z, probably] 1 1 Shub-Niggurath. [Z or Cth] 1 1 Metal Babble [Heng] 1/2 1 Gachapin [Heng] 1/2 1 Jack of Shadows [Z] 1/2 1 DarkGod [Pern] 1/2 1 Freesia [Z, probably] 1/2 1 Lotho Pimple [O] 5/6 2 "The damn Ringwraiths with the Black Breath." 1/2 1 Cantoras [O] 1/4 1 Omarax [O] 1/4 1 Snarl [Ey] 1/4 1 ======================================================================== 8) What monster do you enjoy meeting the most? Everyone loves dragons. Monsters (found in most variants) Votes: Mentions: Dragons (sometimes specifying w/ resist) 21 1/3 27 Ancient Dragons/Great Wyrms 9 1/2 13 "walking Christmas trees" Baby dragons 2 2/3 4 "They tell me that I can now be a 'Dragonslayer'." Dragons (general) 2 2 Evil Dragons 1 1 Great Storm/Ice Wyrms 1 1 Storm Wyrm (specifically) 1 1 Ice Wyrm (specifically) 1 1 Great wyrms of ice/hell/storm 1 1 Ancient Black Dragons 1 1 Great Wyrms of Law/Chaos/Balance 2/3 1 Ancient Multi-hued 1/2 1 Wormtongue, "walking Scroll of Acquirement" ~20 1/3 25 Farmer "Santa" Maggot 3 2/3 6 Orcs 3 1/5 4 Morgoth 3 4 Orc uniques 2 1/4 3 Sauron 1 1/2 2 Friendly uniques 1 1 Tengus 1 1 Solars 1 1 "they summon other Solars too, so you can scum for good items without guilt." Saurman 1 1 Hounds with the right resist 1 1 Gelatinous cube 1 1 "...on the other end of a very large room with lots of mana and no fail on magic missiles." Black oozes 1 1 "Black oozes. I scum unabashedly for black oozes." Trolls in pits 1 1 Hezrou 1 1 Blink Dogs 1 1 Shelob 1 1 "She's sexy." Worms 1 1 "Taking down a line of worms with a Spear of Light is always fun." Worms and non-movers 1 1 Either of the two unique Quylthulgs 1 1 Azriel 1 1 11-Headed Hydra 1/2 1 The winner monster 1/2 1 Anything I've created myself 1/2 1 "... - Pit Fiends and Horned Reapers being particularly fun." JLE demons (with resists) 1/2 1 Creeping coins (general) 1/2 1 mithril or admantite creeping coins 1/2 1 Boldor 1/2 1 Bile Demons (JLE) 1/3 1 "...come in a close second, though, just for their description." Most early uniques 1/3 1 Ogre uniques 1/4 1 Trolls 1/5 1 Variant-specific: Black Oozes [Z] 1 1/3 2 Groo (for his Katana) [Z] 1 1 Metal Babble [Heng] 1 1 Gavornian Berserkers [O] 1 1 Crows of Durthang (with the right tactics) 1 1 Kamikaze yeeks [Z] 1 1 The serpent of chaos [Z] 1 1 Princess [Pern] 1 1 Elric/Corum/Hawkmoon... 1 1 "I just love knowing what's gonna be in those drops." Any of the GWAR uniques in my own Gumband. 1 1 Undead Masses [Z] 1 1 GHMMW-Q 1 1 "The Greater hell magic mushroom were- quylthulg - just for the name!" Creeping Coins [O] 2/3 1 Funny uniques (Hobbes and Santa Claus) [Pern] 1/2 1 Big non-unique angels 1/2 1 Bloodletters of Khorne [Z] 1/3 1 Player Ghost challenges [O] 1/3 1 Dark Elven Warlocks [Z] 1/3 1 Miscellaneous: Any that generated good drops. Monsters with attacks that I'm immune to. Anything that lets me hold down a movement key and wade along a corridor. Anything that's previously killed a character, it's great getting revenge! Anything with a good treasure drop, especially most dragons. And who doesn't love killing ewoks? A (soon to be) dead one ;) Any one which drops artifacts. Uniques are always fun, because of the challenge and the drops. ======================================================================== 10) What is your favorite race-class combo (any version or variant)? General (Angband, or no variant specified) Classes: Votes: Mentions: Mage: High-Elf ~8 2/3 12 "Teleri enchantress princess , err... I mean high elf mage." "How do you go wrong with a combo some consider akin to cheating?" Human 2 2/3 5 Hobbit 2 2 Gnome 1 3/4 3 Elf 1/2 1 Priest: Dwarven ~8 13 Dunadan 1 1/2 2 Half-Orc 1 1 High-Elf 1 1 Gnome 1/4 1 (unspecified race) 1/6 1 Warrior: (unspecified race) 2 1/6 3 Half-Troll 1 1/2 3 "I guess it's hard to beat the purity of a half-troll warrior." Dwarven 1 1 High-Elf 1/2 1 Half-Orc 1/3 1 Hobbit 1/4 1 Ranger: Dunadan 1 5/8 3 High-Elf 2 1/2 3 Human 2 2 Elf 1 1/3 2 Hobbit 1/3 1 Rogue: Dwarven 1/2 1 Half-Orc 2 3 Hobbit 2 3 Kobold 3/4 2 Paladin: Human 2 2 (unspecified race) 1 1/6 2 Half-Orc 1 1 Dunadan 1/2 1 Dwarven 1/6 1 --------------- CathAngband: Wood Elf Ranger 1 1 Wood Elf Priest 1 1 CthAngband: Half-Titan Adventurer 1 1 Drangband: Dragon Paladins 1 1 Eyangband: Ranger 2/3 1 Angel mystic 1 5/6 3 Demon Spellswords 1/3 1 Elf Bard 1/2 1 Half-Elf Ranger 1/2 1 Felpur mage 1/2 1 Paladin 1/4 1 Gumband: Golem Weaponmasters 1 1 Astral Golem Warrior 1 1 Beastman Mindcrafter 2/3 1 Sorcery Rogue 1/3 1 Hengband: Samurai 1/6 1 Kamband: Leprechauns 1/3 1 Oangband: Shadow fairy necro 1 1/3 2 Gnome Mage 1 1 Shadow fairy assassin 2/3 1 Half-orc necro 1/2 1 Rogues 1/3 1 High-elf mage 1/6 1 PernAngband: High-elf classical sorcerer (or high-mage) 1 2/3 3 Yeek Sorceror 1 1 Speedster resistor high mage [Pern+] 1 1 Yeek Power-Mage worshipping Illuvatar 1 1 Skeleton rohanknight unbeliever 1 1 Wood Elf Spectre Spirit Monks 1 1 Deathmold Posessor 5/6 2 Elf harper worshipping Eru with horrible note 2/3 1 Half-Giant Unbeliever 1/2 1 Rohanknight possessor 1/2 1 High Elf Hermit 1/2 1 Spectral RohanKnight anything 1/2 1 Sorcerers 1/3 1 Human hermit sorceror 1/3 1 Dunadan hermit sorceror 1/3 1 half-elf hermit sorceror 1/3 1 Hina Alchemists [Pern] 1/3 1 RohanKnight Weaponmaster (Swords) 1/4 1 High-Elf High-Mage (can be Specter) (Magery) 1/4 1 Deathmold Sorcerer 1/6 1 High-Elf/Vampire Mage 1/6 1 High-Elf/Vampire Necromancer 1/6 1 (various races) priest 1/6 1 Possessor 1/6 1 [Ed: Classes and races are so varied in Pern that it is difficult to organize them. However, it was clear that Sorcerers and High Mages, and also Possessors, were big hits. The specialized warrior classes also did pretty well.] PsiAngband: Gnome Mage 1/4 1 Kobold Rogue 1/4 1 Sangband: Sangband druid 1/6 1 Unangband: High-elf mage 1/6 1 Dunadan thief two-weapon style 1 1 Zangband (may also include variants of same): Mage: Half-elf Chaos/Trump Mage. 1 1 Yeek mage 1/4 1 High-elf mage 1/4 1 Half-titan (Sorcery/life or chaos) mage 1/6 1 Spectre (Sorcery/life or chaos) mage 1/6 1 High-elf (Sorcery/life or chaos) mage 1/6 1 High Mage: Golem Death High Mages 1 1 Dark Elf High-Mages of Death 1 1 Sprite trump high-mage 1 1 Spectre Death High-Mages 1/3 1 Monk: Half-Titan Monk 1 1 Yeek life monks 1 1 Vampire monk 1 1 Nature monk 2/3 1 Chaos Warrior: Beastmen Chaos Warriors 1 1 Chaos warriors. 1/2 1 Golem Chaos Warrior [Z 2.2.8] 1/3 1 Amberite Chaos Warrior [Old Z] 1/4 1 Priest: Dwarf Life Priest 1 1 Dwarf (Life-sorcery) Priest 1 1 Niberung Priest 1/2 1 Rogue: High-Elf Death Rogue 1/3 1 Spectre Trump Rogue 1 1 "Ultimate escape artist, that." Warrior: Golem warriors 1/3 1 Warrior 1/2 1 Skeleton Paladin 1 1 Human Warrior-Mage with Death magic [Z 2.4.x 2/3 1 Mindcrafters 1/2 1 Vampire Ranger 1/2 1 Vampire anything 1/2 1 Uncertain or miscellaneous variant: Yeek Lost-Soul (astral) Merchants 1 Ghostly necromancers 1/3 --------------- Races: (not including specific variants) Votes: Mentions: High-Elf 13 1/3 17 Dwarf 9 2/3 16 Human 6 2/3 9 Hobbit ~4 2/3 7 Half-Orc 4 1/3 6 Dunadan 3 5/8 6 Gnome 2 4 Half-Troll 1 1/2 3 Elf 1 1/3 2 Kobold 1/4 1 Races: (including variants) Votes: Mentions: High-Elf ~16 1/2 29 Dwarf 11 2/3 18 Human 6 9 Dunadan ~5 8 Hobbit ~4 1/2 7 Golem [Gum, Zang] 4 6 Elf 2 1/2 4 Gnome 3 1/4 6 Half-Orc 3 5/6 6 Yeek [Pern, Z] 2 1/4 3 Rohanknight [Pern] 2 1/4 4 Half-Titan [Cth, Zang] 2 1/6 3 Wood Elf [Cath] 2 2 Vampire [Z] 2 2 Shadow Fairy [O] 2 2 Half-Elf 1 5/6 3 Angel [Ey] 1 5/6 3 Beastman [Gum, Zang] 1 2/3 2 Spectre [Z] 1 1/2 3 Half-Troll 1 1/2 3 Death Mold [Pern] 1 3 Skeleton [Z] 1 1 Dragon [Drang] 1 1 Wood Elf [Pern 1 1 Dark Elf [Z] 1 1 Sprite [Z] 1 1 Felpurr [Ey] 1/2 1 Kobold 1/2 2 Nibelung [Z] 1/2 1 Half-Giant [Pern] 1/2 1 Demon [Ey] 1/3 1 Leprechaun 1/3 1 Hina [Pern] 1/3 1 Amberite [Z] 1/4 1 --------------------------------------------------------- approximately six votes for "random" or "just about anything" or "no single fav combination", or similar ======================================================================== 11) What is your favorite spell-casting type? General (most probably Angband): Votes: Mentions: Mage 3 1/6 5 Priest 2 3 Ranger 2 2 Paladin 1 1 Half-spellcasters 1/2 1 Angband: Priest 12 5/6 15 Mage 9 1/6 11 Ranger 2 1/2 3 Paladin 1/2 1 CthAngband: Adventurer 1 1 Drangband: Paladins 1/3 1 EyAngband: Mystic 3 1/3 4 Bard 5/6 2 Ranger 1/2 1 Gumband: High-mage (Chaos) 1 1 Mindcrafter 1 1 Monk 1/3 1 GWAngband: Mage "Gotta be a GW mage" 3 3 Hengband: Nature realm 1 1 Kangband: Illusionist 1 1 Kamband: Necromancer 1 1 Oangband: Necromancer 5 1/6 6 Mage 2 1/6 3 Druid ~1 1/2 3 "Mages, Priests, Druids and Necromancers" 1 1 PernAngband: High-Mage 3 3 Sorceror 2 2/3 4 Harper 1 1 Powermage 1 1 Alchemist 1 1 Runecrafter 1/2 1 Mindcrafter 1/3 1 Posessors 1/6 1 PsiAngband Psionicist 1 1 Sangband: Druid 1 1 UnAngband: Necromancer 1/3 1 Zangband: Mages and High-mages 7 1/6 8 "Sorcery/Chaos", "Death/Sorcery", "Nature", "Chaos" x2, "Death", "Old-style (pre-2.3.x) mage" Mindcrafter 5 3/4 9 Rogue (one vote with Trump magic) 2 2 "Vampire anything" 1 1 Life Priest 1 1 Warrior Mage 1 1 Chaos warrior 1/2 1 Unknown: Power-Mage [Possibly Kam or Pern] 1 1 ======================================================================== 12) What computer system(s) do you normally play Angband on (within, say, the last year)? IBM/DOS machines continue to dominate the desktops of Angband players, but Linux (in various forms) is in a strong second place. Macintosh hangs on to third and other operating systems are uncommon. Judging from the responses, the typical Angband player plays Angband at home (although not uncommonly in the lab or at work), usually on one machine. This machine is usually a single-user desktop microcomputer, but may be connected with a LAN, or be portable. Speeds of machines range anywhere from 386 to Pentium 4; low/middle- end Pentium-equivalents are the most common. A number of Angband players note game slowdowns; graphics and certain variants are the most common culprits. Total Votes: 101 Operating system: Votes: Mentions: DOS/Windows: 39 1/2 45 (unspecified) 2 4 WindowsME... Intel 600mhz Windows 95, 2000, Dos, ... P4 1900, 512, wXP. Windows 98 or 2000 Pentium II 350 Mhz with windows '98 Right now, PII 300, 64 RAM, etc. Running Win 98, 1/2 vote Pentium & AMD, Windows Various PCs with Windows. PIII, Windows Windows 98 Win2000 win98 k6-200 and win98 athlon 1,4 Pentium III 400 running Win98. Windows P3 - 733mhz, 256MB RAM, 32mb Nvidia GeForce 256, Windows 98 SE IBM(dos/windows) 1/2 vote Windows 2000 PIII, 933 MHz, 256Mb ram, Win2000. Windows 98. WIntel box, Pentium @ 133Mhz (now @ 166Mhz with MMX). A Pentium 100 with 16 MB of RAM and Windows 95. Celeron 500 box, running windows 98. IBM thinkpad running windows 98 Win98 1/2 vote win98 Win2K SP 2 only. use windows port The same creaking old AMD K6-2 400 MHz Win 98 box that I've used for over 3 years for everything. PIII, 800MHz, 384M RAM, Windows ME. P III 450 at home with Win ME, P 300 at office with W95 (also FreeBSD) P-90 with a bootable DOS-Angband floppy 1/2 vote Pentium 90 MHz, 24 Mb RAM, Win98. windows port DOS (USE_IBM) 1/3 vote Pentium III 550MHz running Windows 98 (or occasionally some distribution of Linux). 600 or so MHZ win98 system DOS 400Mhz Pentium 2. dos window in win 98 Windows 98 Athlon 500 with 192 RAM PIII 733 MHz, 128Mb RAM, Win Me Pentium II 233MHz, Windows 98. Celeron 400/Win98, or more recently, the same but with Win2000. My computer is a Pentium 200 MHz, about four or five years old, with Windows 95. Win 2000, 98,95 1/2 vote Linux: 19 21 Linux (unspecified) ~8 10 Pentium III, linux linux/X11 Debian Linux. Linux, console gnu/linux quad ppro 200. Debian GNU/Linux with X11 Slackware Linux 8. 486, PII with linux Notebook, PII 366MHz, 64MB, running Debian mostly-Woody Linux Debian. X-windows, one main window and three smaller ones: one for equipment/inventory, one for messages and one for monster memory. Right now, PII 300, 64 RAM, etc. Running Mandrake 8.0 1/2 vote PII-400 with Linux (Debian Woody) 1/2 vote PC-compatable (unspecified OS): 24 25 386 1 1 PC 7 8 Pentium 1 1 Pentium II 1 1 Pentium III 2 2 Compaq laptop PC LapTop 66Mhz 486 with 19Mb with ASCII on a Leenoox box. 486 with 4 megs of RAM. P450 with 300+Mb RAM P166MHz laptop, Win95, using the roguelike keyset Celeron 400 last year, AMD 1400mhz this year AMD K6 I recently upgraded my computer, but prior to the current 1.5 GHz AMD 1800, it was on a 400 MHz Pentium II. Athlon 1800+ 1GB ram. Normally PC 486-33 Home computer, Pentium III 500MHz, 19" monitor. Macintosh: 8 1/2 12 Macintosh (unspecified) 3 2/3 6 PowerMac G3 Mac os 9.2 450 MHz G4 Cube, running Mac OS 9.0.4. PowerMacs 1/3 a 500 Mhz iMac (15" screen). Mac 0s 8.1 -9.0 Acorn/RISC OS: 3 3 Acorn, RISC OS RISC StrongARM RiscOS 4.02 RISCPC 49Mb Other: ~2 4 SIMMs running NetBSD 1.5.1. Unix(Xaw or Gtk) 1/3 vote Amiga 1/3 vote (also FreeBSD) ~1/3 vote Uncategorized: "(1) An i586 200MHz with 64MB of SIMMs running RedHat Linux 7.2. (2) An i686 350MHz with 384MB of SDRAM running a home-spun Linux distro. (3) An AMD i586-equivalent 133MHz with 32MB of SIMMs running OS/2 Warp v3. (4) A DECsystem 5000/240 with MIPS 3000 processor (40MHz) and 256MB of " "...I just upgraded my machine to an AMD XP 1600 with 512 MB DDRAM, 100GB hard drive, and a GeForce3 Ti 200 video card." "Lots. Anywhere and everywhere. Mac, PC, Linux, DOS, Win..." "Two macs: a dual headed Quadra 650 (Dungeon window on the color monitor, inventory, equipment, character, and recall windows on the B&W one), or an old LCII. A P166 with 54 MB of RAM running W98 or FreeBSD 1.4.something, depending. My computer at work, an old HP workstation running HPUX 11.00 for when I'm stuck here late at night and don't feel like working anymore...." "I have my home directory on a RAID 1 on SGI XFS on the first machine. I have it exported to all the other computers on my LAN, so I can play Angband no matter what computer I am sitting in front of, without having to worry about terminal-emulation issues." ======================================================================== 13) Do you use ASCII (or similar), or prefer graphics? Something like 85% of all Angband players usually play with ASCII. Many of them, however, started out with graphics of some sort. Total votes for ASCII: about 86 2/3 Total votes for TK: about 5 1/3 Total votes for all other graphics: about 9 ASCII 71 "I like to know where I am @" ASCII, started with 8x8 or other graphics 4 ASCII, have also played TK 2 I would rather gnaw my leg off than play with the graphics. ASCII. Wish it was more than 16 colors, though. Usually ASCII, like Tk for the sounds I prefer the tk graphics to the ASCII, but recently have begun to be converted ASCII and graphics ASCII, like TK too ASCII also some TK Usually ASCII.. Haven't really tried graphical views much except for in TK ASCII and 8x8 I know I should probably play with ASCII, but I always seem to end up using graphics. use graphical tiles TK, graphics *Graphics* 8x8. 16x16 Adam Bolt graphics TK - Davis E. Gervais 32*32 pictures i would like to see a new version of ISO-Pern but i play adam bolt-tiles normally TK, don't like ASCII Small 8x8 graphics I use graphics... I'm not sure what size they are though. I'm guessing 8x8 I enjoy playing with Adam Bolt's tiles. Usually Ascii. If forced to play graphics, I prefer the DEG 32x32 tiles to all else, but I also prefer the old 8x8 tiles to the Adam Bolt tiles. ======================================================================== 14) Do you use maximize mode (where race and/or class bonuses affect final stats)? Maximize mode is almost, but not quite, universally accepted. Some people feel hesitant about using it for really low-stat race-class combin- ations, and there were a few respondants who felt that race/class stat adjustments should be rejiggered. Total: 97 Yes or Always 84 almost always 2 yes, but am having doubts 1 Usually 1 sometimes, half the time 3 usually no 1 no 5 ======================================================================== 15) Do you use preserve mode (where artifacts are preserved, but you get no "this is a special level" feelings)? Preserve mode is also very popular, but not as popular as maximize. People didn't much like the frequency of special feelings for monster pits. Total: 100 yes or always 64 Always, except sometimes in O 1 usually/mostly yes 9 1/2 the time 2 V, no, variants yes 1 sometimes 2 usually not 3 rarely 2 no, except in Z and its variants 1 not anymore 2 No / never 13 "Special feelings were invented by the multinationals to sell more orc pits to gullible adventurers." ======================================================================== 16) Do you use the autoroller? If so, how infrequently does the stat combo you want show up (1 in five, 1 in five million, etc.)? Although point-based generation has been quite a hit, the autoroller remains popular. Some people (10-15 at a guess) prefer the authentic feel of hand-rolling. A number of respondants praise auto-rolling for its ran- domness, but dislike the wait time for stats to come up. The point-based system is preferred by some because of greater control (especially over starting gold), but is rejected by others, who claim it to have a clumsy interface (too many numbers to enter in), and dislike its non-randomness. Total: 97 yes 50 (no figures) 3 (RML autoroller) 1 1 in 10 quickly quickly pretty quickly pretty short the combinations I choose come up fairly frequently I usually just ensure to get 18 for the max>18's 1/50 - 1/1000 about 1 in 1'000. 1 in 1000 or greater 1 in 2000, no more 2 stats max a few thousand rolls. about 1 in 2000. I choose stat combos that don't take long to get max on st and/or spell-att (comes up normally in less than 1000) [Ed: Try about 1 in 2,500.] about 1 in 500 to 1 in 10000 depending on how greedy I get - about 1 in 2500 1/5000. not too long I usually just role until I have 18/30 or 18/40 in INT and maybe WIS or something, but I don't like to spend a lot of time rolling. Usually the combo I want shows up within 10,000 rolls. about 1/10,000 1 in 10000 or so. 1 in 10k sounds about right... I try to go for 1 hit per 10000 rolls. ie a good char in a couple of stats but the rest a bit crappy. 1 in 10,000 but only really pay attention to Life stat pretty long quite a few usually 1 in 20000 or so. Maybe 20-30k at top end, but I get bored easily with the waiting and often cancel out. 1 in 30,000 pretty high Generally I manage to balance it so it comes up within the first fifty thousand rolls. 1 in 50,000 About 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 100,000. Usually within 30k, but I've tried for the occasional multi-stat mir- acle at birth, and those can go above 100k. Usually it's the former character that I roll for. 50-100k rolls (OK I'm impatient) [Ed: I would be getting impatient too.] About 100,000 rolls usualy gets me what I'm looking for. 1 in 100000 The infrequency of my stats is generally around 249,999 in 250,000 1 in 300k. 1 in about 400,000 to half a million. More often than not I have to restart it to get the stats I want to start with (or tone them down a little). I think it gives up after a million rolls, so on average about 1 in 500,000. [Ed: You know the Reason why it stops after a million rolls?] about one in a million. 1 in a few million. I normally get the stat combo I want around the 1 in 2,000,000 mark. I generally pick something between 1 in 1*10^6 and 1 in 5*10^6. [Ed: You know a man is abusing the autoroller when he has to use scientific notation.] I set int 18/40 and roll for history. about once in 5-10 millions. [Ed: This one, the RML autoroller ain't gonna help.] the stats I roll appear about 1 in 352218425212634 years. [Ed: I believe you. Really.] mostly 1 usually about 1 in 100000 usually 4 one in a few hundred. Around one in one thousand. 1 in 100,000 generally 1 max two stats sometimes 8 1 in 10. very quickly. One in twenty-five hundred, generally. Probably about 1 in 100000. probably 1 in 100,000 or so occasionally 1 1 in 1000. usually not 1 It usually takes about 500-2000 rolls. rarely 1 pretty quickly if no point-based/not any more 10 I used it before the point-based system came out. I'd usually get what I was looking for every 20000-80000 rolls, but I'd roll up two or three characters then choose the one I liked best. no 17 ======================================================================== 17) Do you use point-based generation (where you spend points to increase stats)? Total 97 yes 24 1/3 more and more 1 sometimes 8 for lots of money if autoroll too slow like the way you can get more money occasionally 2 not frequently 1 seldom 2 rarely 4 no 54 2/3 (some of the "no's" are because people haven't tried it, or play variants without it. Others are people who tried point-based and disliked it.) ======================================================================== 18) Do you use backup savefiles to reload in case of character death, or use other similar methods? Some wizard must have read a Scroll of Maturity in this newsgroup. The tone of debates over savefile backups and the like has gotten more and more gentlemenly since '95. The majority of current new players appear to use savefile backups (or some sort of in-game cheat) if not prevented by technical difficulties. They report that they feel less frustration when they are allowed to see more of the dungeon than the first ten levels. Almost without exception, former newbies gave up the practice sooner or later, usually when they started making a little progress with the game. At this point, they also tended to stop asking for multiple lives. Some players will temporarily return to savefile backups if they are faced with a difficult new version of the game or want to try something new, and even more use them to prevent losing characters to hardware fail- ures or particularly buggy variants. A few naughty souls will scum mon- sters with good drops and the Gambling Hall. Total votes 96 yes 6 "no need with wiz mode on." 1 Not usually/sometimes/a little/rarely 9 no, except when testing new features/variants 4 did when starting out. not any more 24 no, except in pern 1 thinking about it 1 only for computer problems 6 no 44 "Not since I found it was cheating when I first joined this group." "hang me if I do ! :)" "Not any more. But I'm tempted to in Oangband, just so I can actually get a character below 2000' without dying in a humiliating way AGAIN." "Not in case of character death, usually. However, I shamefully cheat on any variant that has gambling halls... These are absolutely horrible in the new version of Zangband... Being able to BUY PDSM in town is... abusive." "Yes indeedy. I just wish all ports had the coolest feature of the mac version; you can quit the game just as the tombstone appears, and not get killed." "Not anymore. I did for the first couple of years I played, then set out for a real challenge. It was a totally different experience playing Angband as it was meant to be played, with no safety net. Now I'd never go back..." ======================================================================== 19 and 20) Do you level scum? Do you autoscum? About two-thirds of all players scum for better levels using automated or manual methods. Total - level scumming 98 yes 18 occasionally/sometimes 11 rarely 6 for stairs when power-diving 1 near the end of the game. 4 if I was to play for a winner, I would 1 in Astral (bottom to top Ghostly) mode only 2 [Ed: This basically counts as "no".] No (many of which use autoscum) 55 ---------- Total - Autoscumming 98 yes 53 usually/sometimes/rarely 16 "Always when I play preserve on. Never when I play preserve off." "yes, for the first half of the game" "in special situations" variant-dependant 6 "V, yes, O no" "less in Cth and O" "usually not in O" "in V, no. In Z, yes" "In Vanilla, yes, in variants, no." "except in Unangband." no 23 "Even autoscum doesn't always produce enough levels that are actually interesting for me." (some people using autoscum use it as an "always on" option) ======================================================================== 21) Do you town scum (resting in the dungeon and checking stores until they stock what you want)? Respondants usually town scum, but some players do it far more reluctantly than do others. Some players run from town to dungeon or from town to town to refresh the black market, more try to keep their survival aids (scrolls of get away, potions of fix-the-problem, etc.) topped up, and the great majority will not ignore stat (or exp) loss, and demand Scrolls of Recall. Total: 97 yes 38 "Not just for "basic" supplies, but I often scum the black market if I've got lots of gold (it isn't doing me any good in my pocket, right?)." yes, within limits 4 sometimes 12 essentials 11 "stat potions and spellbooks" "restore stat" "necessities" "if really needed" "important stuff" rarely/restore primary stat only 16 "dire emergency" no 16 "I travel to another town" Angband was specifically designed to be played this way. If you don't town scum you're imposing an artificial limitation upon yourself. -- Stephan Lee ======================================================================== 27) Please pick out one (can be more than one) coder, maintainer, idea contributor, rgra denizen, or anyone else you want to specifically thank for his or her dedication to the Angband community. Robert Alan Koeneke, the man who started this whole crazy adventure, got some appreciation, as did Andy Astrand and Alex Cutler, and also Mark Fishpool. As always, Ben Harrison earned heartfelt praise for his hard work: "The macro system rocks!" "lots of improvements to vanilla, and for making the variant explosion possible." "...hard worker who unified the Angband versions and made it easy to modify." "If you look at what the code was like before he took over, and then after he had finished, you'd understand why." [Ed: Amen.] Robert Ruehlmann, current maintainer of Angband and successor to Ben H., garnered many, many laurels: "for giving Vanilla a real kick this year." "for his largely thankless but hugely important work on keeping everything coordinated and making everything else possible. Thanks Robert!" "I want to thank Robert for his seemingly tireless dedication to the improvement of Angband and his level head on what to put in and take out of Vanilla. (My favorite quote from Robert was when someone asked him how many people had to want a feature to get it into Angband. His response: 'One. Me.')" "for his work on Thangorodrim and maintaining the FTP site. It is these, above and beyond his maintaining Vanilla and his contributions to Zangband, that really help keep the community alive and vibrant, and allow it to remain a single community instead of splitting into many variant- specific groups." A number of the variant maintainers and other programmers got some kudos: And everyone that plays or played BorgBand. And of course not to forget RML who made BorgBand possible :) neko, maintainer of Cat and the Hack Angband, got a vote. Dean Anderson, David Thornley, and anyone else involved in developing Cthband. Eytan Zweig: "for being about the only variant maintainer whose world and presence on RGRA does not centre on his own variant, but instead contributes positively to debate almost as if he did not own a variant." "Ey is, in my opinion, the best variant at keeping the specific things that make Angband the game it is while ditching or changing the problems it has left over from earlier incarnations." Joseph William Dixon: "for Gumband" Mr. Hoge: "Mr.hoge; of course, the creator of Hengband!" Bahman Rabii: "excellent ideas implemented into [O]. Has the variant heading in the right direction." "It was a good day for Oangband when he took over." Leon Marrick: "for the best variant i played" "for the O combat system" (various renditions) Andrew P White (much praised for coding the Borg) DarkGod, maintainer of PernAngband and PernMangband, was thanked by a lot of people, and he thanked all the PernAngband developers. Andrew Doull: "because I've been playing Un a lot lately." Topi Ylinen, founder of Zangband, won praise from several: "cause i like the realms system" "for creating ZAngband and allowing me to mess around with it." Eric Bock (aka Qlzqqlzup): "for ZCE, for spending way too much time on #angband, and generally for keeping me from going sane." Steven Fuerst, lead coder of Zangband, got thanks: "for all the work he's done on Zangband" "who seems to almost single handedly code all the new Z features" "for the huge amount of stuff he's done for Z." Robert Reuhlmann got one vote in his role with Z: "your contributions to Z have melted my brains, and caused me to join a cult of the Serpent. My regular sacrifices of gerbils to the Lord Melkor have lost me a great number of misinformed prospective ladyfriends...." The Z Devteam as a whole got a vote. Tim Baker was mentioned by name several times: "I hope he's doing well, wherever he is," "for the Tk versions which hooked me into *band." Greg Wooledge: "for starting the whole randart concept and laying the groundwork for the latest version." "All the maintainers of ZAngband, EyAngband, Gumband and Oangband. These variants rip :)" "the original writer of the borg" "Musus Umbra, for Acorn ports" "all the porters to the Mac. They are special to me." And, lastly, my favorite: "all the vanilla and variant maintainers, because you make games that I can play, and that's greatly appreciated. :)" A goodly number of other contributers to Angband are much appreciated, and the community as a whole was mentioned as well: Ross Morgan-Linial "I'd like to thank Ross Morgan-Linial, a.k.a. Antimatter on #angband. He does a great job of "looking after" #angband, he runs Gandalf[bot] which is very useful and is used by many and he is always happy to dispense help if someone asks for it." "everyone that plays or played BorgBand. And of course not to forget RML who made BorgBand possible :)" Jonathan Ellis: "I'd like to thank Jonathan Ellis, for being an outstanding example of how a non-programmer can be influential, and producing 'patches' that epitomise a lot of my own ideas about how Angband ought to be." William Tankesley, "he agitates without being agitating" "I can't believe this guy is _still_ posting detailed 6000 line posts." Timo Pietilä: "... his insightful advice and patience. I always feel like Timo wants me to win as much as I do!" Brian Gallew, administrator of the main Angband FTP site, was thanked several times. "The sysadmins of angband.org for the free hosting of Thangorodrim." "IRC regulars from #angband" The whole newsgroup was thanked several times, and people like Ethan Sicotte, Pelpel, arch, and Julian Lighton got mentioned by name. "I'll just thank everybody on this newsgroup for their patience, congeniality and general helpfulness." In addition to Thangorodrim, the Poet's Anguide got several votes: "I'd like to point out a webpage that's helped me a great deal that other people may not mention: http://199.185.138.2/poet/angavoid.html " Last, but certainly not least, someone felt it appropriate to thank the Random Number Generator. ======================================================================== 28) Which of the below variants have you /ever/ played? Standard Angband, to no one's surprise, tops the list of variants played. Zangband has a secure hold on second, but Oangband and Pernang- band have really made an impact. Special attention should be paid to the rising new stars; EyAngband leads, followed by Gumband. In general, those who filled out this survey seem to be rather open to new variants. a1) [Angband] 90 (Is actually somewhat more) z1) [Zangband] 75 o1) [Oangband] 61 p2) [PernAngband] 54 e3) [EyAngband] 34 k1) [Kangband] 31 c2) [CthAngband] 30 d3) [Drangband] 29 s1) [Sangband] 30 g3) [Gumband] 29 k2) [Kamband] 25 p5) [PsiAngband] 21 g4) [GW-Angband] 18 c1) [CathAngband] 15 g2) [GSN-Angband] 14 h1) [Hengband] 14 a2) [Angband/64] 11 u1) [UnAngband] 12 r1) [Rangband] 11 m2) [Mangband] 10 z3) [Zceband] 9 d2) [Discband] 6 p6) [PziAngband] 6 y1) [Ying-YAngband] 6 ) [PernMangband] 5 (at least) u2) [Utumno] 5 i1) [IronMan-Angband] 4 b2) [BeAngband] 4 s2) [SBFband] 4 e1) [Easyband] 3 f1) [Fangband] 3 g1) [Goingband] 3 ) [Angband--] 2 (at least) d1) [DvEband] 2 m1) [MJband] 2 n2) [NTAngband] 2 q1) [QAngband] 2 s3) [Sillyband] 2 l1) [Langband] 1 n1) [NewAngband] 1 p4) [PAngband] 1 r2) [RobertAngband] 1 t1) [TAngband] 1 z2) [ZAngbaA] 1 e2) [Eric-band] 0 b1) [Bangband] 0 p1) [Pangband] 0 p3) [Prfnoff's Angband variant] 0 Three miscellaneous votes: "most of them at least once" "most of them" "All of them at least once." Clearly, the length of time spent playing a variant is just as important as total number of people who have tried it. Some respondants only mentioned often-played variants; this means that the figures take into account playtime to a certain degree. ======================================================================== 29 & 30) What is your favorite variant/One that give you the most pleasure last year? And they're off! Leading the pack by a mile is the veteran "Angband", from the Ruehlmann stable, clear winner of the Keoneke Cup. "Oangband" beats "Zangband" by a nose, and "PernAngband" is a strong fourth. The stands erupt with cheering as new contestants storm up the track; the swift-running "EyAngband" is clearly the focus of attention here, but "Gumband" and "CathAngband" will come away with honor too. Variant "is favorite" "most fun in 2001" Total number of votes: ~100 ~94 a1) [Angband] 40 2/3 37 1/2 "with the new randart patch of course" 1 0 "2.8.#" 1/2 0 (some votes specifically for +JLE) o1) [Oangband] (total) ~13 1/3 14 1/6 "0.5.#, or unspecified ~11 5/6 14 1/6 "0.4.#" 1 1/2 0 z1) [Zangband] (total) 14 2/3 9 1/2 "latest", "0.6.2", or unspecified 6 1/6 6 1/2 "2.4.#" 2 1/2 1 "2.2.#" 4 1/2 2 "ZAngband currently 2.6.2(although the fixed quests have me sorely temped to turn back to the 2.4.x ones)" 1 ~ "2.1.1" 1/2 0 p2) [PernAngband (including "Pern+") ~12 11 "latest", "5.1.0", or unspecified 7 3/4 8 "5.0.1" 2 1/3 3 "4.1.5. It had the alchemist's bug, and overly powerful possessors. :)" 1 "4.1.#" 2 e3) [EyAngband] ~6 1/6 8 1/6 g3) [Gumband] 2 4 1/3 c2) [CthAngband]* 3 2 1/2 u1) [UnAngband] 2 2 h1) [Hengband] 2 1 c1) [CathAngband] 1 2 n2) [NTAngband] 1/2 1 z3) [Zceband] 1/2 1 r1) [Rangband] 1 0 p5) [PsiAngband] 0 1 g1) [GW-Angband] 1/2 0 k2) [Kamband] 1/3 0 The total for the "most fun in 2001" column is less than that in the "is favorite" column, because four people report not playing much least year, and a few others had no opinion. Readers of previous surveys may note the great increase in apparent Angband popularity. There are at least three reasons for this: 1) The question now makes it clear that Angband is on the ballot. 2) Most of the responses that left the whole variant-specific section blank seemed to me to be obviously Angband-focused, so I assigned their votes to that variant (except for one that I gave half of to PernAngband). 3) This survey got a lot more responses than any general survey did in the past. The more responses you get, the more long-established variants will benefit.