anyone here play Zangaband?

Jon Miller · December 18, 2002, 02:53

I had a quite nice game going

my first ever with a magic user (I had to fighters who got to level 9-11), my character was a level 9 warrior-mage mindflayer and had a 6,+6 shield as his best equipment

andway, I venture down to level 3 (I had been there before, both with this character and with my other characters who made it past level 3 (most don't)) and what do I run into but a Greater Hell Beast

it just kicks my ass, and although I try a hail mary (shuffle), I die quickly (in fact, I spend most my magic trying to get away)

anybody else play this game? (any advice)

I was playing a mindflayer warrior mage with arcane and trump magic

Jon Miller

Urban Ranger · December 18, 2002, 22:45

IIRC, Zangband is a variant of Angband, which is itself based on Moria, which is an offshoot of rogue.

I used to play Angband but got bored. Got a link to download Zangband?

Drake Tungsten · December 18, 2002, 23:33

Isn't this game like NetHack?

Jon Miller · December 18, 2002, 23:53

yes it is like netack

the cycle went as so

first was rogue

which begat hack and moria
than hack begat nethack
and moria begat angband
and angband begat zangband

www.zangband.org

Jon Miller

Jon Miller · December 18, 2002, 23:55

BTW

my story was big because normally you run into small kobolds and maybe a novice mage in the third level

so running into greater hell beasts was odd to say the least

of course, I rarely venture down to level 3, since I usually die at level 1 (my warriors and rogues last longer though)

Jon Miller

MariOne · December 19, 2002, 05:58

There was a committed bunch of zangband players back at ACOL, now migrated to www.counterglow.com, go in the Games Forum and post a call. Oh, but you know the way, JM....

I was a keen Rogue player, and there was a Win3.0 version named Castle of Winds.

Last year I gave a shot a a version of Angband. Recently I decided to use the Zangband version, which adds some nice feature, that variant is more diverse and articulated. Bad thing is, there is one game in the 'Casino' building which has favorable odds for the player, and I easily got ridiculous amounts of gold with it, so that I can buy ANY item I find in the shops, and this takes out a bit of a thrill in raking the levels. In next games I'll definiely stay away from Zangband's Casino.
I have a Znagban character even here @work, when I want to relax, or during the lunch pause, I kick it for half an hour. It's going on since two months now, and I'm hanging on around dungeon level 20 with my level 30 Amberite Rogue.
I think Qaj and SirPenguin did beat the last dungeon (level 100, Serpent of Chaos) several times.

Nicest little feature Zangband has in my eyes over Angband, is that identical rods don't unstack while they're charging...

PS: Hey, as far as I can tell, The GHB is just a spoof annoyance.
From the site's FAQ 4.2.1:

Quote:

The 'Greater Hell Beast' is a joke to scare all the veterans who know that an "U" is normally a very dangerous greater demon. It appears very early and can't hurt you directly, but it's very annoying. The huge amount of hitpoints and the big armor-class make it nearly invincible and even if you manage to kill it, it's not worth the efforts.

Urban Ranger · December 19, 2002, 06:44

Cool.

Jon thanks for the link.

Jon Miller · December 19, 2002, 07:40

hmm, so basically I was so scared a killed myself

(I cast shuffle and the like with no magic, and got the death card)

Jon Miller

Urban Ranger · December 25, 2002, 22:49

What's this shuffling card thing?

pg · December 26, 2002, 02:55

zangaband is the only rogue i can really get into lately. i've never been a really hardcore rogue player though. the highest lvl i've been so far is 13 and like dungeon lvl 8. i don't really understand all the d&d stuff(like 6,+6 shield?), and i've only played warriors so far(dwarfs usually). anyhow quick question - what does it mean when your main stats turn yellow and go down? how do you get them to go back up? it didn't seem like it was from cursed equipment since i uncursed it all, so what could it be?

spartak · December 26, 2002, 13:45

Did you ask this question at CG?

pg · December 27, 2002, 08:03

i figured it out by just playing more. there are potions called restore strength, etc that do the trick. expensive in the early game though, at 500 a pop from most stores. they also seem a bit rare but i'm a total newbie.

pg · December 27, 2002, 08:04

i still don't know what causes my attributes to go down though. it seems just fighting does it over time(certain monsters doing it i guess?).

Urban Ranger · December 28, 2002, 05:31

There are monsters that drain stats - for example, giant ants in rogue drain strength. Maybe there are other causes, evil magic, etc. There are items that can sustain your stats, check on the zangband website.

CapitanGarlic · December 28, 2002, 19:22

Interesting. I'll have to check this one out...

pg · December 29, 2002, 08:08

i've been playing like mad. i'm lvl 25 now with my dwarf warrior. on lvl 13 of the dungeon i had a encounter with wormtongue and managed to kill him after a pretty long(but easy) fight. he had some really nice armor - blue dragon scale mail (-2) [30,+14]!

Urban Ranger · December 29, 2002, 23:58

Warriors are easy to play in the beginning but will have a hard time at the end. Wizards are just the opposite.

pg · January 1, 2003, 10:39

wizards seem *really hard* at the beggining. are there any tricks to lvling them up or easier magic classes + magic types to play?

Jon Miller · January 1, 2003, 15:57

I have been playing Golem Warriors recently

umm, good mage/warrior classes include wqarrior mages and rogues

Jon Miller

Urban Ranger · January 1, 2003, 22:46

You could try paladins, rangers, warrior-mages, and mindcrafters.

Urban Ranger · January 1, 2003, 22:48

The trick to play a wizard is to be prepared to run away and have a bunch of healing potions (at least in the beginning).

Urban Ranger · January 2, 2003, 02:01

I still don't understand why anybody is still bothering with the auto-roller and all that silly crap. Let a player play whatever he wants, just build in an experience slider so that a strong character takes longer to go up levels.

In fact, I wrote to Ben Harrison about this, but he didn't seem interested.

pg · January 3, 2003, 14:15

yeah that some of the stuff is silly like the auto-roller. i read somewhere that no secret doors are locked for history reasons. so i guess some of the other silly stuff is history too.

i'm lvl 28 with a mindflayer mage(sorcery/death). i just kept playing until i was lucky enough to lvl up easy vs easy monsters in the beginning. magic users seem much better than fighters after you get past like lvl 5. they have so many more options, and long range fighting is quite powerful if you use it smartly(which is how i'm lvl 28 already). the amount of money you save alone by being able to cast things like identify is probably enough reason to play a magic user imo.

here's a way to get really easy experience and good loot. find a river(in the wilderness not the dungeon), and make sure you aren't overloaded so you can swim w/o drowning. go along the river until you find a nest of baddies(preferably high lvls), then lure some of them over to the river. go into a shallow spot surrounded by deeper water so they can't get to you, then pick them off with your cheap magic damage spell. it works like a charm for me, the only problems i've had is with spirit trolls/water trolls and those light blue T's(which destory me in a second!). 2 really useful spells when doing this are magic mapping and detect monster. using this exploit(technically it's just a good tactic!) i got to lvl 28 in a few hrs.

Urban Ranger · January 4, 2003, 08:12

Make sure they don't have magical attacks