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Opinion Angband - OAngband

Current version: 0.7.0 (2nd May 2005)

Original author: Leon Marrick

Current maintainer: Bahman Rabii

Home page: http://www.oangband.com/

Based on: Angband 2.9.1

Downloads:
OAngband 0.7.0 (2nd May 2005)
System / Comments Compiled by Size Date
Source code Bahman Rabii 1385 kByte [New]2nd May 2005
For compilation instructions see my Compile Page.
Windows Bahman Rabii 906 kByte [New]2nd May 2005
 
Mac (PPC) Courtney Campbell   [New]1st June 2005
 
Mac (68k) Courtney Campbell   [New]1st June 2005
 
RISC OS Antony Sidwell 838 kByte [New]3rd June 2005
Requires the 32bit Shared C Library.
Mac (OS X) Robert Rühlmann 1027 kByte [New]5th June 2005
OS X (any version) or OS 8.6--9.2.2 with CarbonLib system extension
 
OAngband 0.6.0 (14th January 2003)
System / Comments Compiled by Size Date
Amiga (680x0) (Mirror) Bablos 732 kByte 10th March 2003
 
 
OAngband 0.5.2 (25th October 2001)
System / Comments Compiled by Size Date
MS-DOS (386 or better) (Mirror) Bahman Rabii 1116 kByte 6th December 2001
 
 
OAngband 0.5.0b
System / Comments Compiled by Size Date
OS/2 (Mirror) ??? 938 kByte 19th March 2001
 

Review of version 0.3.2

by Neal Hackler

Opinion Angband is one of the most radically different Angband variants available, not because of its new spells or monsters, but because the basic combat and damage system has been completely reworked.

In most *bands, players attempt to get the most hits, usually from a very light weapon such as a whip, and take slaughter wave after wave of monsters until they find a significantly powerful ego item. In OAngband, the skill of the character and the quality of the weapon are the most important part of how well their character fights, as opposed to how many times they can swing the blade in one round. In fact, until a character reaches a very high level, they will be limited to two blows per round, and no magical bonuses (eg. dagger of extra attacks) are available! The damage statistic has been changed to a percentage multiplier to the number if dice, and thus has a greater effect on higher damaging weapons than on the single dice items of choice in many other variants.

Outside the world of the warrior, OAngband has some changes to the combat system as well. The four "pure" spellcaster classes, the Mage, the Priest, the Druid, and the Necromancer, all have their own breed of combat. Mages and Priests are similar to those of vanilla if not a little weaker with the sword, the Druid fights barehanded, and the Necromancer can barely fight at all.

The rogue, and it's new cousin the assasin, have a new form of combat to specialize in: thrown weapons. The addition of throwing axes and throwing hammers, plus "well balanced" ego items, fill in the gap that many variants have left in the game. In fact many formerly useless artifact weapons have become absolutely lethal in the hands of an experienced adventurer!

There are many many more features left to be discussed in this variant, but I don't want to spoil all of the surprises, many of which will still surprise me (pink 'p' anyone? heh heh.) All considered, however, OAngband is one of the best variants available to play, and with it's recent publicity in an Angband competition, is bound to become one of the most popular.

An incomplete story of Don Rickles, half-troll warrior

by Lev Zakrevski

Don Rickels entered the dungeon, ready to glory! He was very strong, and was able to perform 3 blows with a dagger from the very start. But still, he decided to purchase a better weapon ASAP.
Starting (level 1-15)
A little unexpected (he was not too intelligent) but pleasant fact for Don was, that it is easy to travel up/down in the dungeon, using connected stairs (he just moved up, down, until it was possible to travel to the needed direction). As result the first trips were in the region of 400 feet, so Don reached experience level 15-16 in no time, and gathered some money from selling all staffs and wands.

He has wisely (strange!) decided to purchase a good two-handed sword (3d6) and enchanted it to about (+7,+7). Even with only 2 blows it was a much better deal than a dagger. Yes, plus for hits were more important. Also, he was lucky to spot a cap of seeing at the armory - no more problems with invisible monsters. Finally, a bit of *extreme* luck - he found some boots at 100' - it appeared to be boots of speed (+10)!

Gathering strength (levels 15-25)
Later, however, things became more difficult, as confusing, terrifying, and poisoning monsters became more common. So Don spent some time in the region of 900-1000' (using scrolls of Word of Recall now). Luckily, with the speed bonus he usually had enough time to quaff potions of cure critical wounds, or use spells of teleportation.

He decided to invest into a good missile weapon at this stage, and acquired a long bow (+9,+9), and some arrows (mostly with 1d10 and 1d8 basic damage, some with slays). A strange thing - arrows 1d4 of slay animal were more expensive than arrows 1d10! The missile weapon was very important! In Oangband it is even more important then in other variants. But you need to look for good arrows. First use was Wormtongue, who dropped a nice set of gauntlets "Cammitrin" (?). Well, they had (+8,+8) and free action, which was very important! After this, it was slow moving to stat gain depth - about 2000'. Just when the first potion of wisdom was found, Don had another luck - at one level he have found the ring of Barahir (poison resist) and the suit of Rohirrim armor (basic resistances, resist confusion - another essential for Oangband resistance).

Roaming! (level 25-45, then retired)
After some time at stat gain Don has decided to move further. Really, he had not a lot of challenge here! Most important equipment questions were:

Rings: He finally decided to use the ring of Barahir and a ring of nether resistance, although there have been such rings as skill (+17), damage (+19), and speed (+7). But there were too many poison/nether attacks.

Amulets: Candidates were Baramir (+18 damage), Faramir (+18 skill?) and an amulet of magical items mastery (+4). The last was unexpected for Don, but with it he was able to use wands of teleport away, and some good rods. Finally, he decided to take Baramir and the magical amulet, swapping them sometimes.

Standard equipment kit:

If some items go below the minimum number, scroll of Word of Recall have been immediately used!

Some advices (for warriors in OAngband)
  1. Use max. base damage weapon! (usually you can have at least 3d6 from the start)
  2. Use scrolls and potions in emergencies, not wands/staffs
  3. Most important resistancies, in order of necessity:
  4. Have a good missile weapon, and always think about good arrows/bolts! In OAngband they do make a difference.
General impression - OAngband is easier to start and to finish, but more difficult in the middle area than standard Angband (although more difficult than ZAngband for the whole game!) I liked the changes in the combat system and the improved chests.

© 1997/98 by Robert Rühlmann, rr9@thangorodrim.net [News] [To the Variants Page]