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Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - Printable Version

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Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - sindroms - 04-20-2014

DOWNLOAD THE GAME HERE
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/games/Angband/Variant/ZAngband/zangband-274c-win.zip

OFFICIAL SITE CAN BE FOUND HERE
http://www.zangband.org/



Hey. I wanted to share a game with you, which is just a bit more than meets the eye.


zAngband is a modded version of an old 1990 DOS game called Angband. A game nobody really remembers and/or cares about. Let's keep it that way.

The original was based on Tolkien's novels and lore, though zAngband focuses on its own custom lore and world. The original was a rather simple roguelike dungeon crawler, where you started off at the surface world and had to enter the dungeon below it, eventually reaching the dungeon level 100 and defeating a boss.

zAngband adds more to the general concept by making the game world larger- allowing the player to leave the walls of his town and find a much bigger adventure around them.


What I personally recommend this game for:

*Lite. This game can run on anything short of a potato. I keep it on my Samsung N150p netbook, which can't even run Freelancer properly.
*Replayable. Everything in this game is randomly generated (Though kept within some constraint of logic) allowing no two playthroughs to be alike.
*Difficulty. The game is a lot more challenging than most of our modern games. Permadeath is a very possible thing here, though it can be avoided if you'd like. See below how to do that.
*Atmosphere. I think we all have played that one game, where being loaded down by glowing and over the top magical items is something we are used to. Here, it is completely different.
*DnD style system. If you know something about roleplaying games or at least their systems, this will not confuse you too much.


What I personally think would cause troubles for a new player.

*Difficulty. Again, the game is very challenging in the sense, that it has no difficulty modifyer. You yourself are the difficulty setting and doing something careless will end up with you having to start over.
*Graphics. Yes, we are talking about ASCII graphics here, though thankfully the install above comes with custom-made graphics tiles, which makes the game much more playable.
*Interface. It is something we cannot get around our heads these days, but this game literally uses almost every single key on your keyboard. Laptop users, having a keypad will help. LOOK HERE the full control scheme.





Preparing the game to be played.


When you download the game, depending which platform you use, it should come in a zip file. All you need to do is throw the folder named ''zangband'' onto your desktop or whatever and inside you will find the exe with which to launch the game itself.

[Image: bn7xVJA.png]


In order to start a new game, simply select the NEW option from the FILES tab and it will take you to the character generator.

You will be prompted to choose a gender, race and class of your character. Every single race is different and their innitial stats are compared to the Human.

[Image: 7xuIIt8.png]

The overall process is very straight-forward. Use your arrow keys to select the choice you want to make and press Enter to advance to the next step.

TL;DR version of the stats shown for every class:
STR: Strength. How much you can carry and how much melee damage you do.
INT: Intelligence. How much you are good at learning and casting spells and using magical items.
WIS: Wisdom. How susceptible you are to posion, spells and so on.
DEX: Dexterity. How good you are at evading attacks and disarming traps. Adds to your Armor Class.
Con: Constitution. How tough you are. Adds to your Armor Class.
Cha: Charisma. How much swag you have. Adjusts for how much you buy and sell things for.
Hit Die. How big you are. Large Hit Die will allow you hit hit people more easily, but will make you a larger target as well.
Experience %. How fast you level. A race with 120% experience and using a class of 110% experience will earn XP 30% slower. (Only noticeable on high-level characters, tbh.)

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL DESCRIPTION OF CREATING NEW CHARACTERS:
http://www.zangband.org/docs/birth.txt Character creation.
http://www.zangband.org/docs/charattr.txt Character attributes.
My personal suggestion? Human warrior. Because classic.


[Image: 865UbkP.png]

NEXT

[Image: NqIqU6a.png]

The game gives you a chance to allocate extra points on certain attributes, though I highly recommend against it. Every single attribute is important in one way or another, so pooling everything in one is a complete waste. You will be able to improve your default attributes over time as you obtain and use powerful items.

If you really want to, enter 100 for attributes you want to enhance and 1 which you find meh.

If you want to have it distribute as the default, enter 50 everywhere and press ENTER.

[Image: kKE1GH1.png]

[Image: QWpdBuG.png]

The game will now roll 500 random characters and display the one with the best score. You can try rerolling for a new one, generate from scratch or press ENTER again to continue.

*It should be noted, that all new characters will have poor starting stats. They will increase as you level up and get better gear.





ENTERING THE GAME

When your character is generated and named, you will be spawned at a randomly generated town. This will be the first time you will get to see the games graphics, WHICH ARE NOT ALL THAT IMPRESSIVE.

[Image: t9gWpS7.png]

Ew. Do not use ASCII.

[Image: ZGyjwOl.png]

MUCH better.

[Image: OisN1c3.png]

Now that we see the difference between things, let's take a look at the overall interface and what means what.

[Image: ZZ6lbpB.png]


Well then, we are ready to adventure! But surely we won't go down into the depths of hell to punch people with our bare firsts, will we? Well, unless you are playing a monk, no. Press ''i'' to access the ''inventory'' page.

[Image: HxBafdK.png]

We start off with minimal supplies. Food to eat when we get hungry, armor, a sword and a ring, which is quite useless. We also have torches.

Cool, we are all set then.


Eh, no.

You have all of these items in your backpack right now. You must press "w" to ''Wear/Wield'' items and then select the key corresponding to the item you want to wield. In our case, "b" for the ring. Put on your ring, armor and sword.

[Image: vqaYYrw.png]
[Image: UiPpueL.png]


Notice how your armor class increased once you put on your armor. AC is a combination of your armor and your dexterity. Every time something attacks you it will depend weather or not they can even hit you, and if they do land a hit, it will reduce some damage taken from it. AC has no dampening effect on magical attacks.




MOVEMENT


Being a rogue-like game, it allows you to interact with the world via "Turns". A turn passes, when you move your character. As you move your character, the game isntantly makes a move for any other NPC in the area. The day-night cycle is also controlled via turns.

If you look at your torch, you will see it says it has a X turns of light. As you spend time moving, it will consume the torch.


BASIC Controls.

Arrow Keys: Movement.
"i" Access Inventory Screen
"w" Wear/Wield items from your inventory. "t" Take Off items from your body.
"d" Drop item.
''v'' Throw item.

SHIFT to run
''s'' to wait on the spot. Useful to allow a monster to get within range and allow you to hit them first.

SHIFT E Eat item.
''q'' quaff potion
''r'' read scroll

''SHIFT .'' go downstairs.
"SHIFT ," go upstairs.

FULL LIST OF CONTROLS''
Code:
a  Aim a wand                           A  Activate an artifact
b  Browse a book                        B  Bash a door
c  Close a door                         C  Character description
d  Drop an item                         D  Disarm a trap
e  Equipment list                       E  Eat some food
f  Fire an item                         F  Fuel your lantern/torch
g  Stay still (flip pickup)             G  Gain new spells/prayers
h  (unused)                             H  (unused)
i  Inventory list                       I  Observe an item
j  Jam a door                           J  (unused)
k  Destroy an item                      K  (unused)
l  Look around                          L  Locate player on map
m  Cast a spell / use mental power      M  Full dungeon map
n  Repeat last command                  N  (unused)
o  Open a door or chest                 O  (unused)
p  Command your pets                    P  (unused)
q  Quaff a potion                       Q  Quit (commit suicide)
r  Read a scroll                        R  Rest for a period
s  Search for traps/doors               S  Toggle search mode
t  Take off equipment                   T  Dig a tunnel
u  Use a staff                          U  Use bonus power (if any)
v  Throw an item                        V  Version info
w  Wear/wield equipment                 W  (unused)
x  (unused)                             X  (unused)
y  (unused)                             Y  (unused)
z  Zap a rod                            Z  (unused)
!  Interact with system                ^A  (special - wizard command)
@  Interact with macros                ^B  (unused)
#  (unused)                            ^C  (special - break)
$$  User interface                      ^D  (unused)
%  Interact with visuals               ^E  Toggle choice window
^  (special - control key)             ^F  Repeat level feeling
&  Interact with colors                ^G  (unused)
*  Target monster or location          ^H  (unused)
(  Load screen dump                    ^I  (special - tab)
)  Dump screen dump                    ^J  (special - linefeed)
{  Inscribe an object                  ^K  (unused)
}  Uninscribe an object                ^L  (unused)
[  (unused)                            ^M  (special - return)
]  (unused)                            ^N  (unused)
-  Walk (flip pickup)                  ^O  (unused)
_  Enter store                         ^P  Show previous messages
+  Alter grid                          ^Q  Quit to next midi song
=  Set options                         ^R  Redraw the screen
;  Walk (with pickup)                  ^S  Save and don't quit
:  Take notes                          ^T  (unused)
'  (unused)                            ^U  (unused)
"  Enter a user pref command           ^V  (unused)
,  Stay still (with pickup)            ^W  (special - wizard mode)
<  Go up staircase                     ^X  Save and quit
.  Run                                 ^Y  (unused)
>  Go down staircase                   ^Z  (special - borg command)
\  (special - bypass keymap)            |  Check various information
`  (special - escape)                   ~  Check various information
/  Identify symbol                      ?  Help




TOWNS AND THE SHOPS


The town you start in has only some basic buildings. You will need to leave the comfort of your town in order to find more interesting ones.

[Image: 611Bs1o.png]


Your first 100 coins should be spent either on additional pieces of armor or, if you are feeling like you will spend your first trip to the dungeon for some time, get a scroll of Word of Recall. What it does is teleport you to the surface, but costs a lot, depending on your CHA.


After you are done, just head over to the stairs in the town center and press SHIFT >.





The DUNGEON


[Image: CfoE1Km.png]

From there on, it is simply a very straight forward game.
Survive.
Evolve.
Acquire swag.
Be a badass.
Get your pucker wrecked by a monster, because you went somewhere you shouldn't have.


In order to attack something, just walk up to them until you are sitting next to it and try to step on the same tile as they are.



NOTE ON DIFFICULT

While the game is predictable enough to spawn certain monsters at certain levels and you can be sure that the lower you go, the bigger baddies you will find, there is no real difficulty setting. The game does not have training wheels and will let you fail in any spectacular way you want to. It is up to you to move on to harder levels when you feel like it, but you are taking risks with every little click.


NOTE ON SAVING AND AVOIDING PERMADEATH

Permadeath is a thing. If you die, you lose your character and have to start over. It works in a way that the character gets one save file and it gets overwritten every time you save. If you die, it automatically overwrites it. In other words, you cannot undo a death, because it was already written onto the file. If you load a dead character, it will just show you the highscore and info on what killed you and your gear.

If you want to avoid permadeath, simply go to the save folders inside the game folder and make a copy of your character's save file. If you die, remove the original and rename the backup to the original. Just remember to do this frequently enough.



WELCOME TO 2D DARKSOILS





I WILL ANSWER EVERY GAMEPLAY RELATED QUESTION HERE:

RE: Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - Wraga - 04-20-2014

Man...you really have too much free time or just got a genie who could give you infinite life.

Scary...

Edit: Nice game btw.

RE: Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - Kazinsal - 04-20-2014

I miss playing larn on my old sparcbook.

RE: Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - sindroms - 04-20-2014

Yeah, but again, it seems complicated as hell, but the moment you get the basics down you are in for a treat.

RE: Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - Praetor - 04-20-2014

I still love DOS games,esp like Elite series and also Frontiers First Encounters ( a part of the Elite series made by Chris Roberts)
// thats right i have been playing Space sims from that time
My current D-fend Reloaded database has more than 100 games and 200 odd ones I have nor never will play and (I collect them virtually sue me)

RE: Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - lIceColon - 04-20-2014

>click on thread, thinking it's just a link or a plug or something

>scroll up:
(04-20-2014, 02:51 AM)Wraga Wrote: Man...you really have too much free time or just got a genie who could give you infinite life.

>Sees the op.

RE: Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - sindroms - 04-20-2014

[Image: RTikudS.png]

[Image: ujgBtk3.png]
:| Well, apparently rushing down to Level 15 on a level 7 character is ill advised.

RE: Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - Kazinsal - 04-20-2014

Speedrunning Angband is inadvisable, to put it in discovery-swearing-rules-friendly terms.

EDIT: Also, I think the zAngband lore is based on The Chronicles of Amber.

RE: Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - sindroms - 06-20-2015

A recent skypechat reminded me the existence of this. Go play it 8|

RE: Server down? Play some zAngband with me. - Fluffyball - 06-20-2015

If you are playing roguelike with graphical mods, you can't consider yourself roguelike veteran.

Save-scumming and copying original save that is meant to be DELETED UPON DEATH are rather serious cheats, according to ALL roguelike players (myself included). If you want to enjoy such games, do not to that. You can always go somewhere else, like, to play Dragon Age - as expected from a casual player!

Encouraging players to do so in RL games is very bad. And you should feel bad.