Compile and play Angband 3.5.0 on Linux

Angband hit a milestone back in December of 2012 – it has a higher version number than “official” Nethack for the first time!

If you use the Windows operating system, the new Angband can be downloaded in a zip file and played once you’ve unzipped it. But if you are on Linux, with the possible exception of Arch Linux, you are probably still using the 3.3.2 version found in the Debian or Ubuntu repositories. I use Linux Mint, which uses Ubuntu’s repositories.

If you check the main Angband page you can download the source code for 3.5. I found a useful page for compiling it correctly, and was able to do so.

For Debian-based systems, you will want to run the following command before attempting to compile Angband, to install all needed dependencies:

sudo apt-get install autoconf gcc libc6-dev libncurses5-dev libx11-dev \
             libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev \
             libgtk2.0-dev libglade2-dev

Remember, in town, building 8 is your home (where you can drop extra items you don’t want to sell).

It is also quite easy to play Angband using wine, which will allow you to use the excellent tiles created for the Windows version.

Some of the gameplay changes in this release include a total overhaul of the way monsters are grouped together, turning off selling items to stores by default, good and great items appear more often early on, but less often in the later game, most shops have some “always stocked” items with an infinite supply, and many others. View the complete list here (as of August 2014).

Angband 3.5 is here, plus other news

Well, it’s been so long since I last wrote anything about Angband that we have a LOT of new things to discuss!

First off, Angband went from 3.4.0 to 3.4.1 (bugfix release), and is now 3.5.0! (As of December 2013). There are too many changes to get into and the best I can do is provide the link to the main website again. There you will find the downloads for Windows, OS X, and Android, and the source code for Linux (speaking of, when will the folks who maintain the Debian repository edition of Angband update the version from 3.3.2 to 3.4.1 ?)

Also there is a list of changes for the new version, as well as the mostly updated player’s guide and manual. Nick McConnell has become the new maintainer for Angband. He also is the creator of FAAngband.

Several variants of Angband have also been recently updated! This is great news, it means that the *band community is still healthy and interested in their games.

Sil is now 1.2.1. This is becoming the best known and most recommended variant of Angband. Instead of a 100 floor slog, often facing somewhat generic monsters, you have 20 floors to get through, and you don’t kill Morgoth, you must steal one of the 3 Silmarils from his crown. The entire game is strictly “First Age” Tolkien, and offers various difficulty levels (justified ingame by letting you choose your race – elves are much easier than dwarves or humans (Numenorians I assume).)

You can get a copy of Sil at this website, along with the manual, source code, older versions, and the change list.

The following are variants that have been updated within the last 5 years (with one exception). This is not a complete list, but does comprise the games that seem the most interesting to me personally.  The entire list is found here, at the official Angband forums.

Chengband (October 2012)

DaJAngband (November 2012)

FAangband (November 2013)

FayAngband (October 2011)

Gumband (January 2010)

Halls of Mist (January 2013)

Ironband (November 2012)

NPPAngband (March 2013)

PosChengband (April 2013)

Quickband (December 2012)

Sangband (October 2010)

Steamband (December 2007 )

UnAngband (September 2011)

Z+Angband (December 2010)

….and those are less than half the variants listed at the official Angband forums! My original plan with this blog was to discuss every one of the above games. Hopefully I can get to more than a few of them during the next year.

Angband 3.4.0

The Angband team released a new version this past Friday, September 14. The last major release (3.3.0) was in July 2011, and there were 2 bugfix releases since. The team has also been working on a v4 release, but there’s no word on when it will be ready.

This new release has quite a few changes, most notably a new resizeable tileset (64×64) by Shockbolt, an artist who also designed ones for the ToME4 roguelike game (look him up at the deviantArt website). These are enabled by default when you start the game, along with the additional windows for information display.  (The only other tileset I like is the one by David Gervais). Other changes include new monster pits and nests, torches now radius 1 light, slight changes to prices and monsters, more consistency for enchant/disenchant, consumables now stack as 40, no weakly cursed items, and lots more.

The tileset looks great, and has different pictures for each race/class/gender combination. It starts out set to 6×3 in the Options>Graphics>Tile Multiplier list and I suggest that you stay with 6×3 or 4×2, or 8×4 if you like them larger.

I’ve created 6 new characters and shall be posting about their successes (and failures) as the weeks go by:

Morgaine, the Dunedan Warrior

Werdna, the Gnome Mage (showing how Detect Traps appears)

Amli, the Dwarven Priest (in the Town)

Sile, the Kobold Rogue (about to learn a spell)

Amilon, the Hobbit Ranger (showing the character screen)

and

Percival the Half-Orc Paladin

(I only really noticed in this release, but Paladins get their spells in the same order every time, unlike priests.)

Some gameplay notes:

Cutpurses are quite annoying early, because if you are a melee character you usually cannot kill them in one hit. Get several in a row and your gold will be depleted rather rapidly.

ALWAYS Tunnel into quartz squares. Most of the time my characters can do it without a pick, and the gold you get will somewhat make up for the annoying cutpurse thieves.

Cave spiders are deadly when you are low level. As are louses (for a different reason). Never get into a room with them, you’ll very quickly be surrounded and then keep getting bitten faster than you can heal and kill them. In hallways they are much easier to handle. (spiders tend to travel in groups, so although they don’t “breed explosively” they can be quite dangerous)

what “breeds explosively” usually means

Try to avoid grey mushroom patches unless you’re in a big empty room. Their confusion (by spores) lasts fairly long, the safest way to remove it is to just Rest, which is not really possible if other enemies are within sight.

If you return to town and can’t see most of it, you arrived at night. Beware, many cutpurse and rogue types are in town at this time.

Upcoming:

There are indications that several variants have new releases coming soon – Sil, UnAngband, and FayAngband. Along with Quickband, I’ll be discussing them in future postings.

Angband commands

EDIT: Immediately after posting this, I found that Angband just got an update from version 3.3.2 to 3.4.0. I doubt that commands are different, but keep in mind that all my discussions AFTER this will be based upon Angband 3.4.0.

One aspect of Angband that initially threw me for a loop is the commands. Some are obvious, but there are many that are just different enough from the ones I use in Nethack that a review of them is worthwhile. Within the game, there are two ways to read information about the game: either press the “?” to bring up a group of subjects to look at in more detail,

or else press the Enter key (if you are looking for a command).

Each of those lines will bring up a list of related commands. For instance, setting the cursor at “Information” and hitting Enter gives you

Here is a list of most relevant commands, just keep in mind that the link in the beginning to “Thangoradrim.net” is broken and won’t work.

Inscriptions, macros, and keymaps:

Angband has the ability to let you set up complex commands to activate with a single keypress. I can’t really do better describing how to do this than the official manual, so here’s the link to the relevant page. Although it does warn you that it’s outdated, the information is still applicable.

Useful early playing tips:

Even if you don’t set up macros, learn to use the ‘ key to target nearby monsters with spells or missiles. The rooms in Angband can get pretty large even in the early game, and moving to a straight line of sight lets the monsters move closer (when they are awake).

You can “T”unnel without a shovel, but it takes more time. Differently colored squares mean magma or quartz, which will yield ore when dug out. As you go deeper, more valuable metals can be found.

When the way is blocked: if it’s rubble in a hallway, just “T”unnel past it. If it’s a hall, try “s”earching for a secret door; Angband seems to have a higher success rate for that than Nethack does, and secret doors are never locked. Sometimes a door is stuck, in which case you can “B”ash it open or use a spell to open it. Bashing will stun/paralyze you for a few turns but doesn’t seem to hurt you.

Beware of traps, which can be detected by mage spell and disarmed by rogues or rangers (or spell, I think).

Mushrooms are a bit like potions – they come in different flavors, not all are beneficial, and you can sell them to some shops (which will identify them).

One of Angband’s unique features is that you can restart dead characters at level 1, as if they were newly created with the same name. Such characters will have a “monster memory” file that lets you gradually get information about the creatures you encountered with the previous version of the character. To read the information your character has learned, press the “~” key and select the section you want to see:

main knowledge menu

and to learn about monsters, just select the correct type and press Enter. Here’s what my mage knows about white snakes:

You learn more the more of any type you kill.

Shops in Angband play an important role; here’s the manual page about the Town and its shops. If you follow the links at the bottom of the page, there are additional helpful instructions for beginners on various topics.

Dipping my toe into Angband

So I spend yesterday and today playing Angband. I’m actually doing fairly well considering I haven’t played seriously in years. I have a Ranger who just turned 9:

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Angband has 6 classes: warrior, mage, priest, rogue, ranger, and paladin. It is definitely a different game to play than Nethack, and I can see why many people like one or the other but not both.

Rangers seem (so far) to be archers who get mage spells. I tend to use arrows and magic missiles about equally; you can “R”est to regain mana and health when no monsters are about. You can also close doors to prevent monsters from coming up on you while you rest. Food is much less of an issue so far than it is in Nethack – you find or buy food rations, and need to use them much less often. No monsters leave corpses behind to eat. When you fire a spell or arrow, you’re able to not just pick a direction, you can instead target the nearest monster if it’s within range.

Rogues also get some mage spells; I am unsure of how they are different from rangers so far. The one time I tried to disarm a trap in a corridor, it worked immediately. Paladins are some mix of warrior and priest – I’ll start one of them tonight, to see how melee characters do.

You can’t steal from shops as you can in Nethack, but the shop owners will say some amusing things – especially when you sell them a NICE potion or scroll for the standard amount they give for unidentified items. Then they will grumble when you sell crappy potions to them.

The dungeon so far has had few stuck doors, some traps, and no special objects such as fountains, sinks, or thrones. The levels are huge (you can “M”ap the entire area discovered on the level if you need to), and mages get a detect spell for traps, doors, and stairs – which my ranger uses frequently. It won’t cover the whole level, but you get a message when you leave the boundary, so you know to recast the spell.

I probably need to find a stronger bow. I understand Angband has enchanting scrolls to improve your weapons and armor, but so far the shops don’t sell any. (Also, the 7 shops each deal in specific items – you won’t be able to sell excess armor to the potions guy).

I actually think that Diablo (the original) takes most of its inspiration from the Angband type of roguelike, with some ideas from Nethack thrown in the mix. The gameplay, dungeon/town layout, and goal all seem to be much more akin to Angband than the puzzle-focused Nethack.

Nethack and Angband

I chose to focus primarily on 2 games and their variants: Nethack and Angband. Each one has a very distinct playing style.

Nethack

In Nethack you choose your character’s race, gender, and class (called “role” in Nethack). The standard game offers 13 roles to choose from, and 5 races. While one role is restricted to females, the others can be played with male or female characters. The role you choose affects which races you can become. You’ll start off equipped with some useful items, a weapon, and armor. As your character gains levels, they get abilities (some right away) that are unique to each role. Learning how to use those abilities will improve your chances of survival.

The roles are: archeologist, barbarian, caveman, healer, knight, monk, priest, rogue, ranger, samurai, tourist, valkyrie, and wizard. The races are the usual fantasy ones:  human, elf, gnome, dwarf, and orc.

The way to win Nethack is to journey through a dungeon of 50 levels, find the Amulet of Yendor, bring it with you back to the surface, ascend a few more levels, and offer it on an altar to your god. This, of course, is far from simple. Becoming better at Nethack involves learning the uses of anything you are carrying (including some far from obvious uses), interacting with the features and inhabitants of the dungeon, and trying not to make mistakes. Because it is turn-based, you should think about your options carefully – that vicious monster won’t move while you check your inventory.

Nethack includes a “Guidebook” of 62 pages, and an in-game help system. The Guidebook has a lot of useful information and hints to help you play the game, and reading it before you begin play is definitely recommended. The game is very hard even without making use of other sources of information about the game  (termed “spoilers”).

Nethack can be played using ASCII characters

Priest – Nethack with ASCII

or with tiles enabled:

Priest – Nethack tiles version

If you play on a Debian-based Linux system, the “Documentation” section of the repositories will have a spoiler file.

Nethack is considered to have 3 stages of game progress – early, middle, and late – determined roughly by what area you have reached in the game. Your short-range goals will change from stage to stage. It seems to be the consensus among the better players that the roles also fall into 3 groups: strong in the early game, weak in the early game but becoming excellent in the late game, and weak throughout the game (yet still able to win).

It is a single player game, but most variants (and the vanilla version) let you play online using a telnet client to sign in and play. You can watch other people play, see high scores, and others will see your progress. The only thing you can’t do online is use a “tiles” version of the game.

Nethack doesn’t have a town level, and each dungeon level is preserved while playing the same game. Unless you look up spoilers, you’ll be taking a lot of notes about monsters and their weaknesses, special levels of the dungeon and how to reach them, and what items are the best ones to keep with you for use later on.

There are less than 10 Nethack variants, some of which are no longer active. The Nethack wiki has a list of all of them.

Angband

In Angband you also choose your character’s race, gender, and class. The standard game offers 11 races but only 6 classes. The classes are Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Priest, Ranger, and Paladin – much more “standard fantasy” types than Nethack lets you play.  When you choose your race and class, the game shows you how your attributes are affected, and any advantages or disadvantages you have.

Your choice of race has no effect on which class you are allowed to choose.

Angband doesn’t have a Guidebook, but an FAQ mentions the 2 primary websites for it: rephial.org and angband.oook.cz. The forums, and a list of variants are at the second link, while rephial features a link to spoilers and an outdated but still useful Players Guide.

Two of the big differences between Angband and Nethack are the town level at the top, and the fact that when you leave any particular level, it is lost. Returning generates a new level, new artifacts, and monsters. You are expected to return to the town every so often in order to buy scrolls, better weapons, etc (town portal scrolls in Diablo are definitely borrowed from Angband). Angband is generally considered to take longer to play through than Nethack. It is more of a combat-oriented game, with very few puzzles. Because of the way shops work, stealing from them is impossible; in contrast, good Nethack players have learned the benefits of stealing from shops they find (one of the benefits of keeping your pet around!)

The levels in Angband are also much larger than those in Nethack. Nethack levels always fit on one screen when using the ASCII graphics, while Angband’s sprawl all over. There’s a command to see the entire map at once, which will also show you any stairs found. Hunger in Angband is much less a focus than it is in Nethack – monsters won’t leave corpses, and you must buy your food.

The number of Angband variants is much larger than those for Nethack – many are no longer being maintained, although they are still playable. The Angband forums has a Variants subforum that seems to consider less than 10 variants still current.

Playing online is pretty well supported in all versions of Nethack, while I don’t really see it as an option for Angband. I’m planning a post specifically about online play, where I will go into more detail.