anyone here play Zangaband?

[Jon Miller]

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]

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]

Isn't this game like NetHack?

[Jon Miller]

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

https://www.zangband.org

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

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]

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:

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]

Cool.

Jon thanks for the link.

[Jon Miller]

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]

What's this shuffling card thing?

[pg]

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]

Did you ask this question at CG?

[pg]

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]

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]

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]

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