Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Game Discussion => Classic Roguelikes => Topic started by: guest509 on September 07, 2012, 01:30:15 AM
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Hey all. I have never got into any of the bands, was looking for one to check out. There are so many variants.
Is there a 'best' I should check out?
Is straight Angband the best to start with? Quickband maybe?
Is there a variant that tends to dominate the others?
EDIT: I have been playing a bit of SIL...
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Sil and Quickband are high up there alongside DaJAngband....Halls of Mists is very, very much one to watch that might even manage to land for ARRP 2012, Steamband is in the process of coming back to life after several years and could see a release any day now really, most others are not so lively outside of Chengband's incredibly dev pace of late as per the Announcements board.
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Hey thanks Getter. I'll probably go with SIL and Quick. I like the design goals behind Quickband. Half the reason I love this genre is I enjoy the thoughts behind the designs. You know what I mean? I think lots of people are that way.
-JO
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Yep, in fact I think a new version of Quickband is due to be inbound sooner than later if memory serves.
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I'll add some other -bands that I think are definitely worth checking out. The ones with the asterisk are my personal favorites.
1)* UnAngband: The dungeon generation is wonderful, and has some nice colored ASCII. They do some interesting things with decorating the dungeon. It actually feels like a dungeon, rather than a series of generic hallways and rooms. It also has more 'room descriptions'. When you walk into a room, it will give a small description. Reminds me of some tabletop DnD. It has mouse controls too.
2)* TinyAngband: Similar to Quickband, though I think the town is more interesting, with more services.
3)* ZAngband: A more indepth -band. Theres a randomly generated wilderness, towns, and various dungeons.
4) Furyband: Lot's of races and classes, like the basilisk. Some of them are kinda silly. It reminds me of the orignal ToME.
5) Halls of Mist: Already mentioned. Like vanilla Angband, but some interesting features. On any stairs down, you can choose to dive down 1 level, or up to 3. Any upstairs, regardless of level, will immediately take you back to town. When you head back to the dungeon, you can choose to either head back to the same level, or the level above or below it. There's also phantoms that appear that will attack you if you linger too long on the same level. I have yet to encounter them, and I like to take my time, so it's not exactly trying to rush you.
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Hey thanks man. I'll just have to try them all. I recently burned out totally on Cardinal, so need a new one.
-Jo
EDIT: Zangband, windows version, is not working. The download link is bad. :-(
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Here ya go, various others are archived here as well, thankfully:
http://www.furytech.net/tech/angband-mirror/zangband/
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Thanks G!
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I forgot to mention Chengband. It's got a pretty big overworld. Several towns and dungeons. If you play it, and want to travel to different towns and dungeons, Use the "<" key to go to the travel map. I didn't realize this at first, and it took forever to make it to the next town. :p
Also keep in mind to bring a good amount of food rations before traveling.
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I'd like to nominate ToME 2. It, too, has an interesting static overworld with multiple cities, lots of dungeons, and a stronger Tolkien flavor than almost every other *band.
( http://www.furytech.net/tech/angband-mirror/tome/ has a download for 2.3.4, which is not *quite* the last version.)
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Thanks! I was looking for the older ToME's, but was having no luck.
Edit: Damn, I was just browsing around that Angband site, (http://angband.oook.cz) and noticed the original ToME. I didn't think I'd find it there for some reason, despite knowing it was once a *band. My bad. :|
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http://angband.oook.cz/variants.php?variant=tome
More here, old ToME downloads that is.
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Thanks! It's weird, I keep getting odd visual glitches when I play ToMEv2. And Furyband, since it's based off it(I think).
Anyway, I'd also like to recommend SAngband. It's got a skill system similar to some modern-ish RPG's.
I started up playing the *bands a couple weeks ago, and downloaded all I could find. After going through most, I finally settled on my now favorites. TinyAngband and SAngband for fun gameplay, and UnAngband for the interesting dungeon generation and overworld.
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I'll throw out there that if you are starting on 'bands, there's nothing wrong with "vanilla". It's a great game that's stood the test of time. I like how it basically let's you play at your own pace.
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I'll throw out there that if you are starting on 'bands, there's nothing wrong with "vanilla". It's a great game that's stood the test of time. I like how it basically let's you play at your own pace.
Yeah, I was doing some vanilla runs right after 3.4.0 was released, huge fun ;D
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Do any of the mentioned variants have persistent dungeons? I really hated dungeon resets in the original...
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Leading Angband variant? I'd pick two, Oangband and Sil, for very different reasons.
Oangband hasn't been developed in years but who cares, it's "done". It's tough, balanced, stylish, no-nonsense game. For me, it's Angband done right. It's the leading variant because it has already reached all its goals. Most of the rapidly developing variants are still a long way from reaching their own goals. (FAAngband is based on Oangband and is actively developed.)
Everybody loves Sil. It's a totally different game from Angband. It's a young game, but already mature and well-balanced. I haven't actually played it yet but I know that when I do, I'll be hooked for months.
My own variant, Halls of Mist, seems to develop more by revolution than evolution. Each new version is an experiment of sorts. I like testing wild ideas by playing. Maybe by 2.0 I've reached something that I'm actually happy with, and can continue with evolution. It feels weird when people compare my little hobby to other Angband variants. I actually like Larn more than Angband, and it may show in my game.
Arthandas, Hengband and Entroband have persistent dungeon of sorts. The dungeon levels are remembered until you return to town, and then the memory is erased.
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It feels weird when people compare my little hobby to other Angband variants. I actually like Larn more than Angband, and it may show in my game.
Just a sideline, but you have played this then...right?
http://nlarn.sourceforge.net/
Could prove handy!
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I played and really liked NLarn, but weapons broke very fast for me, and it got annoying. Was it just me? Or was I doing something wrong?
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I've tried nlarn but I haven't seriously played it yet. There were some techical problems the last time I tried, a long ago.
My favorite version is the graphical Amiga version that runs fine on emulator. I was able to find a link to the game here (http://www.roguelikedevelopment.org/archive/files/executables/amigalarn.zip), on roguelikedevelopment.org's archive of older roguelikes (http://www.roguelikedevelopment.org/archive/index.php). (Not sure whether the link is to the graphical version.)
Amiga Larn did not have breaking weapons.
I'm going to implement a Larn-like spellcasting system in a future version of Halls of Mist.
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I'm going to implement a Larn-like spellcasting system in a future version of Halls of Mist.
Not sure how much I dislike that. Then again, I dislike angband's spellcasting system too, so it might actually even be an improvement.
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I'm going to implement a Larn-like spellcasting system in a future version of Halls of Mist.
Not sure how much I dislike that. Then again, I dislike angband's spellcasting system too, so it might actually even be an improvement.
You can check here (http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=5727&page=17) for details (an updated list of spells five posts below).
I like how finding random items in roguelikes defines my character's abilities. I figured random spells would be just as fun.
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Hey all. I have never got into any of the bands, was looking for one to check out. There are so many variants.
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One of the all-time greatest variants hasn't been mentioned yet: Skills Angband (http://code.google.com/p/skills-angband/).
I think many people who don't like Angband would like this one. A big part of the enjoyment comes from the long-term strategy of building your character. Thousands of viable character builds, and dozens of well-balanced ways to kill monsters.
The skills system is elegant in a baroque way. It makes perfect sense in the end, but it has a pretty high learning curve.
Sangband has a beautiful SDL frontend. You may choose to play with graphical tiles, ascii, or modified fonts with some special characters for trees, doors, etc.
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ToME 2 : I think it is the best angband variant as ever.
TomeNET : not a turn-base but a realtime, so this game has thrilled me. somewhat like a angband + diablo. http://www.tomenet.net/