The amazing thing that is Zangband

[Therem Harth]

Swamp levels! Snow-covered trees! Pine forests! Where has this variant been all my life?!?!

Somewhat more seriously, why'd it get abandoned? As far as I can tell, the only really broken thing about it is that screendumps don't work.

[Rydel]

It's basically been replaced with Zangband+ and PosChengband, which is why it doesn't get a lot of attention anymore. I'm not familiar with Zangband+, but PosChengband is basically Zangband with more classes, races, etc. Zangband+ was last updated in 2010, but PosChengband is still in active development.

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by Rydel

It's basically been replaced with Zangband+ and PosChengband, which is why it doesn't get a lot of attention anymore. I'm not familiar with Zangband+, but PosChengband is basically Zangband with more classes, races, etc. Zangband+ was last updated in 2010, but PosChengband is still in active development.

PosChengband has a lot of extra stuff above and beyond what Zangband has. I'm honestly not fond of some of it, like the randomized energy gains and fear effects. I'd say there's room for both variants...but nobody's bothering to update Zangband any more.

[hading]

I thought that when it was abandoned the 2.4 -> (2.6) -> 2.7 transition was just on the cusp of being successful. I don't remember what if anything I still thought was problematic.

Agreed that PosChengband doesn't feel all that much like Zangband. Z+ is much closer in feel, IMHO.

[AnonymousHero]

Originally Posted by Derakon

I'm honestly not fond of some of it, like the randomized energy gains

Wat? That's the best bit!

Well, actually, I can understand the dislike for randomzied energy since it does mean that you usually need a greater margin for error than 600HP and there are few guarantees when you're in combat. I must say I do dislike the lack of guaranteed casting on scrolls, etc. in PosCheng. My favorite of this line of variants was Entroband -- though it also has rather a lot of things which don't make sense wrt. consistency (Genji vs. 'Spec' and dual-wielding would be an example), so it's definitely not perfect.

EDIT: I accidentally a word.

[budswell]

The best parts of Z+ which unfortunately did not make it to PosCheng are:
- Random World Map
- Random dungeons
- Random quests
- Random world map "Camp" quests

I thought these made it a much better game, especially for replay value. So much of the early game in PosCheng and Tome2 is the same routine of dungeon, dungeon, shift town, etc.

Don't get me wrong, the variation in of classes and races in PosCheng is fantastic, and have been enjoying it a lot. But I really miss the random world stuff.

[debo]

I think random quests are in there as an option? You turn off the unique monster quests or something.

[Arjen]

Originally Posted by debo

I think random quests are in there as an option? You turn off the unique monster quests or something.

If you turn off Uniques as quest, you get OoD monsters instead of uniques as dungeonquest (from dlvl 70ish, you will be starting to kill xx Power Wyrms for a quest...)

[ThunderToads]

Originally Posted by Therem Harth

Somewhat more seriously, why'd it get abandoned? As far as I can tell, the only really broken thing about it is that screendumps don't work.

I think it's just one of those things where the maintainer loses interest and other maintainers are busy doing their own variants. As time passes and new features are added to vanilla Angband and to variants, old Zang starts looking long in the tooth and the work needed to update it becomes larger.

Zangband was the basis for the Japanese variant Hengband, which I think is still active. An older version of Hengband forked into Chengband and then PosChengband. So in that sense a lot of Zangband lives on.


I do miss the Zang wildernesses, they could be crazy dangerous though. After having a few low levels chars eaten by T-Rexs while on their way to the next town over, I'd never even stick my head out of the starting town gates without having a stack of teleport scrolls.

[xorzac]

If someone could help me get zangband running on a linux emulator for android, I have a whole list of improvements for it and would consider maintaining it. More classes, rebalancing of races and classes, enemies too. Still my favorite variant.