Would you like to make this site your homepage? It's fast and easy...
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Angband Frequently Asked Questions - Part 1 (Non-spoilers)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Compiled and maintained by Ben Harrison (benh@phial.com).
For Angband 2.8.3 - May be inaccurate with other versions.
Angband FAQ Part Two (Spoilers) is available separately.
Based on the source code, and information provided by: Jules Bean, Scott
Bigham, Matt Craighead, Joseph W. DeVincentis, Ben Harrison, Jason
Holtzapple, Randy Hutson, Stephen S. Lee, Rick Lim, Steve Linberg, Ross
Millikan, Adam Schenker, Andrew Schoonmaker, Cliff Stamp, Billy Tanksley,
Charles F. Teague II, Pat Tracy, and others.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Angband FAQ - Part One:
1. General Information
a. What is Angband?
b. Who is Morgoth?
c. On what computers can I play?
d. What is the latest version?
e. How do I get the latest version of this FAQ?
f. Who's the current maintainer?
g. Version History
2. Downloading Angband and related material
a. FTP sites
b. WWW sites
c. WWW files
3. Technical Information
a. Expanding PKZIP archives
b. How do I use an old savefile or savefile from another platform?
4. Creating Characters
a. What is maximize mode?
b. What is preserve mode?
5. Gameplay Questions
a. How do I set game options and what do they mean?
b. What effect does turning off haggling have on the price of items?
c. How does shopkeeper rotation work?
d. What is auto-scum?
e. How do the cheating options work?
f. What are the messages I get upon entering a new level?
g. What causes a "special" feeling?
h. How do I exchange weapons in newer versions of Angband?
i. What do the minuses in the name of a piece of armor mean?
j. The game tells me that I must "Study" but I can't learn any new
spells. What is going on?
k. How does the fractional speed system work?
l. Introduction to macros
m. How do I save macros?
6. Questionable gameplay techniques
a. Savefile abuse
b. Stair-scumming
c. Monster farming
d. Summoning/Polymorphing
7. About rec.games.roguelike.angband
a. General notes
b. Glossary of terms
c. Questions on r.g.r.a
d. Victory posts
e. Stupid Death (or YASD) posts
f. Why do so many players seem to dislike or even hate Nethack?
8. Suggestions for future versions that have been considered
a. Let the player store money in his/her home.
b. Let creatures who steal items or money drop the goods when slain.
c. Increase the player's carrying capacity.
d. Let players give or sell their items to other players.
e. Allow more than one object per square.
f. A "pass through wall" spell.
g. I want a real-time multi-player Angband!
9. Programming Questions
a. Where can I obtain the source code?
b. To what extent can I modify the source and release modified
versions?
c. Is there any easy way for a non-programmer to hack the game?
d. Why doesn't wizard mode work in the version that I have?
e. What is the borg? Why doesn't it appear in the version that I
have?
f. How do I use the borg?
g. How do I generate auto-spoilers?
10. Variants
a. Are there any variants available for the Macintosh?
b. Drangband
c. Fangband
d. Qangband
e. Zangband
f. Bangband
g. Sangband
h. Utumno
i. GW-Angband
j. Multi-player Angband (Mangband)
11. Old Bugs and Undocumented Features
a. The game says that I'm missing a spellbook when I try to learn
some new spells. What's the reason for this?
b. I'm fighting an invisible monster that I can't kill, and I can't
see it even with see invisible. What's going on?
c. I'm playing on a PC. Why can't I use shift+arrow key to run, like
I could in earlier versions of Angband?
d. How do I drop/sell/etc multiple objects at a time in Angband
2.8.2?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Angband FAQ - Part One
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. General Information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1a. What is Angband?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Angband is a single-player, text-based, dungeon simulation derived from the
game Moria, an enhancement of the old unix game Rogue. It is often described
as a "roguelike" game because the look and feel of the game is still quite
similar to Rogue.
Angband features many enhancements over Moria: unique foes, artifacts,
monster pits and vaults to name a few. Many of these new creatures and
objects are drawn from the writings of J.R.R Tolkien, although some of the
monsters come straight from classical mythology, Dungeons & Dragons,
Rolemaster, or the minds of the orginal Angband coders.
The ultimate goal of the game is to develop a character strong enough to
defeat Morgoth, who lurks around dungeon level 100. Upon doing so, you will
receive the exalted status of "winner" and your character may retire.
Angband is a reference to Morgoth's "prison of iron."
1b. Who is Morgoth?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morgoth was 'the Dark Enemy of Middle-Earth' during its First Age. He was
banished by the Valar (offspring of Eru, "god" of J.R.R. Tolkien's world) at
the end of the First Age and thus never appears in The Lord of the Rings,
set during the Third Age. Sauron, who does figure into those tales, was the
most powerful of his servants. Read Tolkien's 'The Silmarillion' for more on
the legends of Middle-Earth.
1c. On what computers can I play?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The most recent version of Angband can be played on Unix (including Linux
and X Windows), Acorn, Amiga, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, Windows, DOS-8088,
286, 386 and OS/2-386 systems. Pre-compiled binaries for most of these
systems are available. With the introduction of version 2.7, it has become
much simpler to port the code to any machine with a decent C compiler. See
the source code for more details.
1d. What is the latest version of Angband?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Angband 2.8.3 is the most recent stable version.
1e. How do I get the latest version of this FAQ?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Both parts of the FAQ are posted to rec.games.roguelike.angband weekly. Part
One is an official Usenet FAQ and is also posted to rec.answers and
news.answers.
Part One (as an official Usenet FAQ) is archived at rtfm.mit.edu
(ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/games/angband-faq).
Both parts of the FAQ are always available at the Official Angband Home Page
(http://www.phial.com/angband/) in several forms.
* Angband FAQ Part One as html
(http://www.phial.com/angband/angfaq1.html)
* Angband FAQ Part Two as html
(http://www.phial.com/angband/angfaq2.html)
* Angband FAQ Part One as text (http://www.phial.com/angband/angfaq1.txt)
* Angband FAQ Part Two as text (http://www.phial.com/angband/angfaq2.txt)
1f. Who's the current maintainer?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ben Harrison (benh@phial.com) is the current maintainer of Angband (and this
FAQ).
1g. Version history
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This would be incomplete without a short Moria history as well:
The first version of Moria was was written by Robert Alan Koeneke and Jimmey
Wayne Todd Jr in 1983 for VAX machines. It was ported to Unix in 1987 under
the name 'Umoria' and further maintained by James E. Wilson.
In 1990, Alex Cutler and Andy Astrand, students at the University of
Warwick, England, decided to write a Tolkien-based game based on Umoria
5.2.1 and Angband was born. Their intentions were to keep, or even
strengthen, Moria's firm grounding in Tolkien lore. Their original changes
included greatly expanded monsters and items (including uniques and
artifacts), level feelings, pseudo-ID, activation, monster pits and vaults.
The resulting heavily-customized Moria was not intended for outside release,
but merely as a local version of Moria, to run only on Warwick's Unix
system. Sometime in its development, before it was released and ported, the
existing Unix code got the unlikely version number 'Angband 2.4.Frog-knows'.
Over time, various people released various changes to Angband, including
Sean Marsh, Geoff Hill, Charles Teague, Charles Swiger, and Ben Harrison.
See the Angband help file "version.txt" for some more information.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Downloading Angband And Related Material
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2a. FTP sites
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are several useful Angband FTP sites. These FTP sites are often not
accessible with the FTP function of a web browser. If you experience
trouble, make sure your browser is using passive FTP or try a non-web
browser FTP client. To learn how to use FTP, read the Roguelike Games FAQ
(http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/games/roguelike/faq.html),
posted every week to rec.games.roguelike.misc.
* Official Angband Development FTP site
(ftp://export.andrew.cmu.edu/angband/)
* Official Angband Mirror FTP site
(ftp://ftp.cis.ksu.edu/pub/Games/Angband/)
2b. WWW sites
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are several useful Angband WWW sites. These sites may contain links to
other useful sites.
* Official Angband Home Page (http://www.phial.com/angband/)
* Unofficial Angband Home Page (http://www.paranoia.com/~jth/angband/),
2c. WWW files
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are currently no known WWW files available.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Technical Information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3a. Expanding PKZIP archives
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
When using "PKUNZIP" to expand a distribution archive, be sure to use the
'-d' option to create the 'lib' subdirectories, or they will have to be
created by hand. This is not necessary with "WinZip".
3b. How do I use an old savefile or savefile from another platform?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest version of Angband should import savefiles from any previous
version, including MacAngband 1.0 - 2.0.3 and PC Angband 1.4, though some
older savefiles will lose some information during the import (for example,
pre-2.7.8 savefiles may lose all or part of the monster memory and/or object
memory).
Savefiles are platform-independent. Be sure to use 'binary' FTP if that is
your method of transfer. On a Macintosh, use the Import... menu item to
import savefiles lacking the proper type ('SAVE') and creator ('A271').
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Creating Characters
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4a. What is maximize mode? (by Scott Bigham)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
All characters receive stat modifiers based on their race and class
(Half-Trolls get an INT penalty, Priests get a WIS bonus, and so forth). The
maximize mode flag determines how these modifiers are applied to the
character's actual stats. Since this obviously affects character creation,
the value of this flag must be chosen before you create your character.
As an example of how this works, imagine rolling up a High-Elf Mage.
High-Elf Mages receive a combined racial and class bonus of +6 to INT; for
purposes of illustration, let's say the stat roller rolls a 17 INT (the
highest possible value before modification).
In non-maximize mode, the +6 bonus is applied much as if the character
quaffed six Potions of Intelligence. The positive side of this is that your
character can get a starting INT of around 18/70, since each "potion" can
give them more than 10 percentiles once they are past 18. The negative side
of this is that this 18/70 is now your character's base INT, and without
stat-boosting items, he/she can only push their base INT up to 18/100.
In maximize mode, the +6 bonus is applied as though the character had
swallowed a Ring of Intelligence (+6). The negative side of this is that
your character can't get a starting INT above 18/50 (17 plus the +6 "ring"
bonus). The positive side of this is that although the effective INT is
18/50, the base INT is only 17; once you've pushed your character's base INT
up to 18/100, the effective INT without stat-boosting items will be 18/160!
On the flip side, our High-Elf Mage also gets a combined -4 penalty to STR.
In non-maximize mode, this is treated like quaffing four Potions of
Weakness, but your character's STR can still be increased all the way up to
18/100. In maximize mode, you've effectively got a Spleen of Weakness (-4),
which means that your character's maximum possible effective STR, without
stat-boosting items, is 18/60 (18/100 base plus the -4 penalty).
In summary, then in non-maximize mode, your character will get bettter
starting stats, and all stats will max out at 18/100. This typically makes
the early game easier, while in maximize mode, your character's starting
stats aren't as good, but the primary stat(s) will max out above 18/100,
while the "off" stats will max out below 18/100. This typically makes the
end game easier.
4b. What is preserve mode?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Characters created in preserve mode receive no "special" level feelings, but
any unidentified artifacts, if missed, may appear again later in the game
and are not lost forever. Anything that would have caused a "special"
feeling contributes to the level feeling that your character receives
instead.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Gameplay Questions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5a. How do I set game options and what do they mean?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
They are set using the = command. To see what the various options mean,
access the List of Options help menu with the ? command.
5b. What effect does turning off haggling have on the price of items?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turning off haggling causes all prices to be determined as the "best" price
that could have been acheived via haggling, modified by a special ten
percent "transaction tax". This tax is not applied if haggling would not
have been necessary in the first place (if the item is very cheap or very
expensive, or you have a good haggling history for the item, or you have a
good haggling history with the shopkeeper). So, normally, it is possible to
get a better deal by taking the time to actually haggle with a shopkeeper.
5c. How does shopkeeper rotation work?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Starting with Angband 2.8.0, shopkeeper rotation is a feature. In old
versions of the game, it was either non-existent or disabled by default.
The shopkeepers will change, but this can take a long time. Be patient. When
they do change, all items in the shop are marked down to "on sale" (50% off)
and all haggling and insult counters are reset.
Different shop owners will give different prices for items for various
reasons, and no shop owner will ever pay more for an item then the amount
mentioned in the header of the shop's inventory list.
5d. What is auto-scum?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
With autoscum enabled, the Angband dungeon generator will stop only on
levels that it considers "good." The deeper in the dungeon your character,
the "better" the level must be. See question (5f) for an explanation of what
contributes to this calculation.
If your character is not in preserve mode, the game will always stop on any
"special" level.
5e. How do the cheating options work?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enabling any of the cheating options will mark the current savefile as a
"cheater", and your character will be unable to make the high score list.
Each option activates some special behavior which may make the game easier
in some way.
The various "peek into xxx creation" cheating options will cause the game to
announce the creation of "interesting" occurances of the relevant topic. The
"peek into something else" option will cause the game to accounce all
changes involving shops.
The "know complete monster info" cheating option will grant your character
complete information about every monster.
The "allow player to avoid death" cheating option will allow your character
to "cheat death" whenever he would normally die. This causes your character
to be fully healed, and instantly teleported to the town level.
5f. What are the messages I get upon entering a new level?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
These are known as "level feelings" and give the general rating of the
level. You will only get them when you enter a level if you've been on the
previous level long enough. Otherwise you will get a "Looks like any other
level" message. "Long enough" is 1000 game turns, adjusted by your speed.
For a normal speed character, this would be 100 player turns. Many players
say that only "good," "very good," "excellent," "superb," and "special"
levels are worth exploring, but this of course a matter of opinion.
Valuable objects, artifacts, player ghosts, pits, nests, vaults,
out-of-depth creatures and out-of-depth non-cursed objects all contribute to
the "rating" of a level, and thus to the resulting "feeling".
5g. What causes a "special" feeling?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A "special" feeling (about a level) only occurs if, when the level was first
created, it contained an artifact, a monster pit, a monster nest, or a
vault. As your character gets deeper in the dungeon, there is less of a
chance that monster pits, monster nests, and vaults will cause "special"
feelings. See the spoiler "dungeon.spo" for more detail. If you are playing
in preserve mode, you will never receive a "special" feeling.
5h. How do I exchange weapons in newer versions of Angband?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The spare weapon slot was replaced by the bow slot in Angband 2.7, but there
is a fairly simple way to exchange weapons using a default macro. Using the
"{" command, inscribe your "primary" weapon with "@1@0", and your
"secondary" weapon with "@2@0". The "X" command will then switch between the
two, and you will be also be able to use the command "w1" and "w2" to
explicitly wield the primary and secondary weapons, respectively.
5i. What do the minuses in the name of a piece of armor mean?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a to-hit penalty for wearing heavy or inflexible armor. Such armor,
if not identified, will not show the penalty but it will still be in effect.
5j. The game tells me that I must "Study" but I can't learn any new spells.
What is going on?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your character is missing one of the more powerful books containing spells
that s/he can learn. See question (11a) for more detail.
5k. How does the fractional speed system work?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
As of Angband 2.7.3, the old simplistic speed system (slow, normal, fast,
very fast, and extremely fast) was replaced with a new fractional speed
system which in which speed is point based (0 to 199).
Basically, time passes in the world in small units called "game turns", and
during every "game turn", each entity (the monsters and the player) receives
some "energy" points, based on its "speed" rating. When an entity acquires
at least 100 energy points, they must perform some action (such as move or
attack or rest) which consumes some of their energy points. The higher the
"speed" rating, the faster "energy" points are acquired, so more actions can
be performed in a given number of "game turns".
A "normal" entity has a speed of 110, and receives 10 energy points per game
turn. A "slow" entity has a speed below 110, and receives between 1 and 9
energy points per game turn. A "fast" entity has a speed above 110, and
receives between 11 and 49 energy points per game turn. Note that the number
of energy points received per game turn is approximately equal to the speed
minus 110, but the actual equation is more asymptotic. The current speed of
your character, if not "normal", is displayed as "Slow (-N)" or "Fast (+N)",
indicating the distance of the speed from "normal".
The most obvious effect of speed is in combat, but it also affects the rate
of food consumption (extremely fast characters must be careful not to
starve), and the number of "player turns" that a character must spend on a
level to get a level feeling on the next.
5l. Introduction to macros
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
See the Angband help file "playing.txt" for a good introduction to macros,
and to the "user pref files" in which they can be saved. Since macros are
stored in user pref files, and not in your character's savefile, if you quit
without saving your new macros to a user pref file, they will be lost.
Angband will automatically load several "user pref files" when a character
is loaded, for example, if I am playing a high-elf mage named "Fearless" on
some kind of Macintosh computer, in graphics mode, then the user pref files
"pref.prf", "graf.prf", "user.prf", and "Fearless.prf" will be autoloaded,
which will themselves load "pref-mac.prf", "graf-mac.prf", "graf-xxx.prf",
and "user-mac.prf". In this example, new macros sould be saved either in
"user-mac.prf" or "Fearless.prf".
5m. How do I save macros?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use the "%" command. Option 2, "Dump macros," will allow you to save all the
current macros into a user pref file. There is currently no way to only save
newly added macros.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Questionable Gameplay Techniques
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6a. Savefile abuse
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Angband follows the same behavior when a character dies as many of the other
rogue-like games. When a character dies, that's it, game over. Information
on monsters that the character has seen (monster memory) is retained, but
the player must start again. This is in contrast to most fantasy
role-playing computer games that let you restore your game from a savefile
if you die. Angband also differs from most commercial games in that there is
no puzzle solving as such.
This behavior has given rise to backup savefile abuse, which entails making
a copy of the savefile to another part of your disk, and in the unfortunate
event of death, moving it back to its original location and restoring the
game.
Almost everyone uses backup savefiles at the start, but as soon as your
players stop dying with great frequency, you should probably stop using
them. Your play experience will become more rewarding as a result. You
certainly do not have to stop using backups, many players never do. As long
as you enjoy the game, who cares?
Note that it is possible to compile Angband with a variety of options which
attempt to prevent savefile abuse and other security problems, but this
normally only applies if you are using some version of UNIX.
6b. Stair-scumming
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stair scumming is a technique primarily used to generate levels with
artifacts (special weapons and items). It involves loitering around a
stairway for a certain number of turns on a "non-special" level, then using
the stairway to force the game to generate a new level. If the new level is
not "special," the process is repeated.
The technique may also be used to force the storekeepers in town to refresh
their inventory of identify and word of recall scrolls, restore stat and
life-level restore potions, and light sources, since they restock every
10000 game turns (1000 player turns for a character at normal speed).
The first type of scumming is a more serious abuse than the second.
There has been much discussion on the newsgroup on how to restrict this type
of abuse. It will likely remain unresolved because of the personal decision
involved, i.e. you don't *have* to stair scum.
6c. Monster farming
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Involves cloning monsters with good treasure drops in the hopes of getting
good items and gaining experience. Effective with ancient dragons, wyrms,
druj, and many others. Can be dangerous, considering the power of the
monsters. Also used in regards to "worm farming," which is an easy (albeit
boring) way to quickly gain experience at low levels.
6d. Summoning/Polymorphing
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summoning and polymorphing monsters at low experience levels can be
dangerous if the new monster is more than your character can handle.
Summoning deep in the dungeon is perilous for any character, especially
since it is no longer true that dangerous monsters will be forced to sleep
when summoned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. About rec.games.roguelike.angband
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7a. General notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The newsgroup serves a dual-purpose role, supporting both game development
and gameplay discussions. If you write new program code for the game, don't
post it (unless it is really short); upload it to an ftp site and give a
pointer. Also, since Angband is still in active development, this newsgroup
has high traffic.
7b. Glossary of terms
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Common Abbreviations:
* DSM - Dragon Scale Mail
* PDSM - Power Dragon Scale Mail
* GoI - Globe of Invulnerability
* OoD - Orb of Draining
* Phial - Phial of Galadriel
* RGRA - rec.games.roguelike.angband
* RLL - Potion of Restore Life Levels
* RoS - Ring of Speed
* WoR - Word of Recall
* YACD - Yet Another Character Description
* YASD - Yet Another Stupid Death
Definitions:
* Borg - An automatic Angband player. Must be enabled at compile time.
Precompiled versions of the game do not come with the Borg.
* Graveyard - a monster nest filled with undead creatures.
* Nest - Similar to a pit, but containing an inner room and a random
assortment of monsters of a given type. Monsters vary by depth, so a
Nest deep in the dungeon can be very nasty.
* Pit - A 19x5 room filled with a certain type of creature.
* Vault - A special room that comes in two flavors, lesser and greater.
They will often contain out-of-depth monsters and good items.
* Wizard Mode - Used mainly by Angband coders to debug the game. Allows
object creation, telepathy, etc. Must be enabled at compile time.
Precompiled versions of the game come with wizard mode turned off.
* Zoo - A monster nest filled with animals.
7c. Questions on r.g.r.a
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't let the amount of technical information discussed deter you from
asking a question, but do browse this FAQ (and the table of contents of Part
Two as well) and read some recent postings before posting yourself.
Questions on strategy, bug reports, suggestions, and amusing stories related
to the game are all welcome.
If you give hints, you should be fairly sure that you have accurate
information (or you may qualify your statements with a comment on your
uncertainty). Also any spoilers as should be marked as SPOILER in the
subject line.
7d. Victory posts
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Victory posts are where you get to boast of your crowning achievement, the
defeat of Morgoth. A victory post commonly gives the equipment list and
statistic screen for the lucky King or Queen (through the 'C' command), plus
a short summary of the game including highlights such as especially lucky
treasure finds or near-death experiences.
With a victory post you should state some facts like which version of
Angband you are playing and whether you used backup files, cheating options,
wizard mode. If you are a die-hard player and win with a self-imposed
restriction (like "no artifacts") mention this as well so others will shower
you with even more glory.
7e. Stupid Death (or YASD) posts
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is where you post your depressing stories about your poor, late alter
ego. Other people may be able to empathize with you and console you; others
may be able to offer tips so that you won't fall into the same trap again.
Also, you teach others about your experience and help them avoid the same
mistake you made. Posts that are in the form of a short, amusing tale often
provoke a positive response from other readers of the group and do wonders
at relieving stress.
7f. Why do so many players seem to dislike or even hate Nethack?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nethack's atmosphere is less serious than Angband and sometimes just plain
silly. Many people enjoy and play both games, there is just a different
philosophy behind Nethack.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Suggestions For Future Versions That Have Been Considered
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
8a. Let the player store money in his/her home.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This would make the monetary theft attack useless.
Omega features a bank. Nethack allows players to keep money in bags so it
can't be stolen, but this allows the whole bag to be stolen!
8b. Let creatures who steal items or money drop the goods when slain.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is available (as of Angband 2.8.1) as an option, but only for stolen
items. Future versions may support stolen gold in a similar manner.
8c. Increase the player's carrying capacity.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This idea involves giving the player more item slots or the creation of
items like "bags of holding."
If the character was allowed to carry a nearly unlimited supply of items,
then there would be no strategy involving careful selection of equipment and
inventory, which is an integral part of the game.
8d. Let players give or sell their items to other players.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
That would make the game trivial for low level players with friends and make
rare items much easier to acquire. The "pawn shop" in town falls into this
category.
In Nethack, players can do this indirectly, because its "bone" files contain
the inventory of the dead player. The roguelike FAQ contains a list of
multi-player roguelike games, where this might be an option.
8e. Allow more than one object per square.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is available (as of Angband 2.8.1) as an option.
8f. A "pass through wall" spell.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This would create too many problems with line-of-sight computations. If the
player was somehow blinded by being in the wall, then the wall would grant
infinite armor class.
Omega, Ragnarok and Larn all have pass-through-wall spells.
8g. I want a real-time multi-player Angband!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is harder than it sounds. See "Mangband" below.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. Programming Questions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9a. Where can I obtain the source code?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The source code for the most recent version is available via anonymous FTP.
* Official Angband Developement FTP site Source directory
(ftp://export.andrew.cmu.edu/angband/Source/)
* Official Angband Mirror FTP site Source directory
(ftp://ftp.cis.ksu.edu/pub/Games/Angband/Source/)
9b. To what extent can I modify the source and release modified versions?
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You are free to rewrite sections of the game code and release your own
version of Angband, provided that you retain copyright notices and proper
credits, and do not attempt to make a profit in any way.
9c. Is there any easy way for a non-programmer to hack the game?
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Figure out the format of the "./lib/edit/*_info.txt" files, edit them,
delete the corresponding "./lib/data/*_info.raw" files, and restart the
game. This should not be done unless you know exactly what you are doing.
These files should be treated in the same manner as "source code", and for
those of you who do not know what this means, realize that changing such
files may result in unusable savefiles and/or unexpected crashes. You have
been warned!
9d. Why doesn't wizard mode work in the version that I have?
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The debug commands are intended as a debugging tool for programmers. It is
not currently enabled with most pre-compiled versions of Angband because of
the additional memory and disk space required, but some special pre-compiled
versions do include the debug commands. You can always activate the debug
commands by compiling your own version of Angband (or by getting somebody
else to do it for you). Using the debug commands will "mark" your
character's savefile, and you will be unable to make the high score list
that character. See the source code for more information.
9e. What is the borg? Why doesn't it appear in the version that I have?
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The borg commands allow an automatic player to control your character. It is
not currently enabled with most pre-compiled versions of Angband because of
the additional memory and disk space required, but some special pre-compiled
versions do include the borg commands. You can always activate the borg
commands by compiling your own version of Angband (or by getting somebody
else to do it for you). Using the borg commands will "mark" your character's
savefile, and you will be unable to make the high score list that character.
See the source code for more information.
9f. How do I use the borg?
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Use the "control-z" command to access the borg commands, if they have been
included in the version you are using. When prompted, you may start the borg
using the "z" key, and stop it by pressing any key. See the source code for
more information. Be warned that the borg may contain bugs!
9g. How do I generate auto-spoilers?
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You must have a version compiled with ALLOW_WIZARD and ALLOW_SPOILERS. Enter
wizard mode, then type control-a and a double quote (").
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10. Variants
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Many of these variants are available for anonymous FTP.
* Official Angband Developement FTP site Variant directory
(ftp://export.andrew.cmu.edu/angband/Variant/)
* Official Angband Mirror FTP site Variant directory
(ftp://ftp.cis.ksu.edu/pub/Games/Angband/Variant/)
10a. Are there any variants available for the Macintosh?
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Yes! GW-Angband, Zangband, Sangband, and Cat-in-the-Hack Angband were
recently compiled for the Macintosh. Any decent variant created from any
recent copy of the Angband source code should be trivial to port to the
Macintosh.
10b. Drangband
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This version adds 7 new character races: Copper, Gold, Crystal, Bronze and
Pseudo dragons, Yeeks and Pixies. Drangband 2.0 is based on 2.7.8 code and
is relatively easy to compile on multiple platforms.
10c. Fangband
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Another variant of PC Angband 1.4, Fangband adds different terrain types and
delayed level feelings.
10d. Qangband
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Probably descended from Angband 2.4.Frog-knows. Adds a quiver slot for
wielding ammo.
10e. Zangband
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Though officially Zangband stands for "Zelazny-Amber Angband", it could just
as easily stand for Zany Angband. It plays like Angband with some Nethack
and Doom thrown in for good measure. This is a variant for those who want
something completely different. It has been updated to use the 2.8.1
sources, and is easy to compile for multiple platforms.
10f. Bangband
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Adds two new character types, Monk and Dragon. Skills like backstabbing are
also added.
10g. Sangband
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A descendant of Bangband, with no character classes, as such. Instead, you
spend your experience to improve various skills such as weaponsmithing,
spellcasting, backstabbing, etc. Based on 2.8.0 code, and is relatively easy
to compile for multiple platforms.
10h. Utumno
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Utumno is a graphical version of Angband written by Matt Craighead in beta
test for DOS/SVGA machines. There is a web site
(http://www.citilink.com/~craighea/utumno/).
10i. GW-Angband
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A variant by Greg Wooledge. Attempts to balance the character classes
(specifically the mage). There is a web site
(http://kellnet.com/wooledge/angband.html). Based on 2.7.9v6, and is
relatively easy to compile for multiple platforms.
10j. Multi-player Angband (Mangband)
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Keldon Jones is coding Multi-Player Angband (Mangband). There is a web site
(http://www.umr.edu/~keldon/mangband/).
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11. Old Bugs And Undocumented Features
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11a. The game says that I'm missing a spellbook when I try to learn some new
spells. What's the reason for this?
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You are missing a book containing spells that you can learn. More often than
not, your character needs one of the books that can only be found in the
black market or deep in the dungeon. Only 4 of the 9 mage or priest
spellbooks are readily available in town.
11b. I'm fighting an invisible monster that I can't kill, and I can't see it
even with see invisible. What's going on?
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You have encountered the invisible monster bug. Save and exit the game, then
restart. The monster should be gone. Of course, a more permanent solution
would be to upgrade to a newer version without the bug.
11c. I'm playing on a PC. Why can't I use shift+arrow key to run, like I
could in earlier versions of Angband?
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In 2.7.X, this has been fixed using macros. Make sure the default macro
files are loading correctly. Note that pressing shift plus keypad five
causes a fatal error in some copies of Angband 2.8.1.
11d. How do I drop/sell/etc multiple objects at a time in Angband 2.8.2?
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In all recent versions of Angband, if a command count is given to certain
commands (drop, sell, etc), then this count will be used as the "quantity"
for the command. This means, for example, that you can simply type "099da"
to drop (or sell) all of the item in slot "a". For convenience, some recent
versions of Angband prompt for a quantity under certain circumstances, but
this was removed in Angband 2.8.2, causing some confusion. In Angband 2.8.3
the prompting has been restored (if an appropriate option is set).
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| © Copyright 2001 Steve Register. |
