Moria / Angband

[Cort Haus]

Anyone played these old Rogue/Nethack type character-based games?

I played Moria in the early 90's, and recently downloaded a version of Angband - a later variant.

Apparantly Moria was the basis for Diablo. Now there's a thing.

[LDiCesare]

Never got into Angband. I dislike the all random dungeon regeneration each time you go up or downstairs.
As far as I know, ADOM was cited by the developpers of Diablo II for inspiration.

[Cort Haus]

Yep, that's a bit of a downside, as you can't go back into town to get the tools you need to deal with what you've found there, and there's no way of really knowing what you'll be dealing with on a level. I suppose you need many shots at the same level to build up gold, XP (though this diminishes with clvl) and crucially, knowledge.

Seeing as you can get killed very quickly as it gets deep, and you can't legally restore an earlier save, it would probably take me several lifetimes to complete the game once without reloading to at least learn the game.

[snoopy369]

Several lifetimes?

If it takes you less than twenty lifetimes you'll probably be setting a record. I've probably over the course of the last ten years put in five hundred game hours into this game and never gotten anywhere near beating it.

Moria is easier to beat than Angband by a considerable amount, by the way. You only have 50 levels to Angband, and only one Balrog. Angband has 100 and many balrogs Angband is the better game, though.

My best Moria character was a level 35 or so Warrior ... managed not to die with him ever, though I don't have the character any more (on my dad's old mac). He kept going up and down in levels though ... stuped emperor liches

[snoopy369]

I recommend by the way starting as a warrior class character; usually you can learn the game much better that way, and you can carry more loot, and you don't have to carry a spell book. Just keep several scrolls of Word of Recall on you... Don't use them until you're like level 10 or 12 though; until then it's better just to climb up the stairs.

Try to be at about one level deep for every character level you have; plus or minus one, but it should be about that (at least for the early game). There is a certain point where you start hitting much nastier monsters including level draining ones; there's an earlier point where you start hitting invisible monsters. Both of those level points are important ones and usually require having specific gear before you cross them (ring of see invisible, scrolls of restore level). You can look online to see exactly what those levels are, but either way be careful

[Cort Haus]

I'm playing my warrior more conservatively than that. He's about clvl 28 on dlvl 17. I'm starting to hit the invisibles, but have just got a ring of detect invis for them.

I didn't optimise my character at the start - he's only got STR of 18 which is probably not enough, and I only have a one-strike-per-round sword. It has venom and high modifiers though. I gather whips are the best weapon for multi-strikes, but it's a shame when a game only has one correct answer.

I just invested over 12000 in a rod of recall - which should pay for itself after about 40 trips or so, and am hoping that rods don't get destroyed or I'm in big trubble and the rod is effectively a dangerous waste of money. Before that I'd go down with 3 recall scrolls - having two spare in case of damage.

I gather that warriors are strong at the start and weak later - though I doubt I'll be seeing much of later anyway.

[Jon Miller]

I play this occasionally. Some o fthe Angband variants get quite strange... Zangband is cool.

JM

[snoopy369]

Three scrolls of recall

I used to carry 20 Rods do die eventually iirc, I'm not sure if they melt or just eventually break. The only safe way is to be a spellcaster and have the spell in your book I always prefered scrolls to rods though. Don't remember specifically why.

You should probably go further down that 17 if you're L28. You'll make more money if you do ... it's worth the costs of the potions etc.

I'm not sure the inital STR matters... if you're planning on going far down anyway you'll get potions to up your STR all the way to 18/100 anyway

[Cort Haus]

20? Did up to 19 get damaged then before you could say "beam me up Scotty"?

[snoopy369]

20 was a nice round number... you don't always lose only one item at a time Also, each time I beam up it is expensive (1000 gp or so even at high CHA). I'd rather stay down as long as possible to make as much money as possible... as long as you have the Star or else are able to carrey plenty of flasks o'oil, you can stay down for quite a long time. Even if I lost 15 scrolls (which I have before), I still had enough to survive

Once I killed a gnome or something that had stolen like 6 or 7 of my WoR scrolls... you know I was just itching to find him and retrieve my scrolls

[Cort Haus]

They were a lot cheaper than that for me, snoopy. About 170 gp each I think. Even coming back with a couple of decent weapons and a staff or two would yield a profit. I'm wondering whether to by a second rod seeing as there's one in the shop atm. 1200 gp, but two of them (3 lbs?) is a lot lighter than 20 scrolls (10 lbs).

What's getting me at the moment (around level 20) is blindness attacks. I can buy the occasional mushroom of cure blindness but it lasts about two turns and the 'dark hounds' attack again. Are there resist blindness items to be found?

[snoopy369]

Oh, maybe i'm forgetting the costs. I have no idea.

I'm sure there are resist blindness things, but I don't recall specifics. I think this is one of the big advantages of races that have infravision, isn't it?

[Cort Haus]

Perhaps, but if infravision is the ability to 'see' infrared, then presumably you need to still be able to see generally for it to work. I'll try an infravision potion/scroll if I find one.

[Snotty]

i lost a lot of time when i was at school playing angband due to its random generation and difficulty, I was given a copy on a floppy disk. when i got the internet i searched for angband and found a MUD and so lost more time with my first MMO. angband has a lot to answer for!

[Urban Ranger]

The best roguelike game is Omega. Unfortunately it's not finished and unlikely will...

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