Playing Angband again after many years!

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by hyperdex

Speed -10 (0.5x)

or

Speed +10 (2.0x)

This is an excellent idea if for no other reason than to make it clear to the player that there are diminishing returns on speed at the upper levels.

[Estie]

I dont understand. The average artifact displays half a dozen damage values, taking into account all relevant monster vulnerabilities. Are you suggesting that this line be shown for various speed values, thus multiplying the length of the inspect screen ?

[Derakon]

As I understand it (and this is what I endorsed), he's simply suggesting that the speed indicator at the bottom of the screen also provide an indicator of what your speed multiplier is, since this is not necessarily immediately obvious (especially when slowed or when very fast).

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Derakon

Half-trolls, dunadan, high-elves, and (oddly enough) kobolds and hobbits are what I tend to think of as the "good" races, roughly in that order.

Dwarf priest is arguably the easiest to win, but not especially fast combo (they can't kill anything really fast, but they also wont die easily). Probably most versatile combo of all. Dwarves in general are quite good, definitely better than Half-trolls for almost all classes, and I would put them above dunadans and Half-Elves as warriors, priests and paladins, so that is missing from Derakon list. Gnome mage/rogue is also quite good, but requires a bit skill to survive early game.

Elves and half-elves are weak.

[Estie]

My list for recommended starter race goes like this:

High elves - very good

Dunadan, half-troll, dwarf - good

everything else - not so good

The chosen class doesnt affect this. Now experienced players can get alot of milage out of the stealth of hobbit, for example, but at that point people dont need recommendations which race to pick anymore.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by hyperdex

Also, it used to be the case that there was a reasonably set pattern to what is needed before one dives. With the rebalancing, is this still the case?

That actually was not the case in older versions either. The old guide how to play the game is quite obsolete and with "new style" you can play old games as well much faster.

FA requirement has been reduced: Paralyzation no longer stacks, once paralyzed next attack doesn't start counter from beginning or add to it, so every now and then you get chance to escape (good saving throw & high AC helps a lot). This doesn't mean that paralyzation isn't quite deadly still, you better have very high AC and saving throw before you can risk going without FA (perfect saving throw prevents all forms of paralyzation).

Poison resistance "old 2000' rule" is now just "detect often, and if you detect anything breathing poison powerfully, avoid it". Avoidance is easy. Just detect often and be prepared to run away. Select your fights.

Stat-gain (which started at 1500' and ended at 2000') no longer applies, stats you can get sooner by gain one - lose one potions, and after 1500' actual stat-potions start to appear, but they get more and more common the deeper you go so there is no real limit to stat-gain. Monster deadliness no longer have this huge jump after around 2500' as there used to be (it still jumps, but not quite as quickly). Augmentation potions are not very rare either deep down, they are just deeper items than stat-potions. There are also a lot more sources to poison resistance now than there used to be.

Getting deeper fast is actually safer than going slowly (unless you do insane suicide dive, some sense of danger you have to keep). I can now win in approx 1/10 of the turns I used to use while keeping same success rate, and it really doesn't feel any harder. I just don't go everywhere into dungeon and don't even try to kill every monster I meet. I use magic mapping a lot and detect objects a lot. If there is object I might check what it might be, if not then I let the mapping "fill" that part of the dungeon without actually going there.

With "gain one lose one" your stats probably get very biased toward what are important to you before you actually max them all, and this period of time is a bit risky. Nexus resist is for that reason more important than it used to be. Luckily you can get it rather easily (boots of stability, and later trickery amulet). Without nexus resist, don't go near nexus hounds. Stat-scrambling when you have ~3 INT and ~18/100 STR really sucks.

[hyperdex]

My display suggestion was actually for the 'C'-screen, but if the multiplier can be fit into the normal game display, that would be great as well. I do think it is useful for the later game when the effects of additional speed are reduced.

Thanks to everyone for the tips. The game has changed a lot since I last played it, and as far as I can tell it is almost entirely for the better!

Cheers,

Dave

[LostTemplar]

Does this incorporate speed into the calculation? Looking at the code, my guess is that it does not, and I do think that this would be a useful enhancement that would come into play when deciding between Rings of Damage and Rings of Speed, for example.

Damage per second (or per game turn) is indeed the only resonable value to describe damage dealing ability, opponent speed does not matter, you can fight several monsters at one time after all. However displaying actual (linear) speed value is also good, maybe instead or alongside with internal speed value in 'C' screen.