New players: The bare minimum you should know

Best practices and optimistic theories.
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Fink
Ancient MultiHued Dragon
Posts: 614
Joined: Tue 20.01.2004, 13:55

New players: The bare minimum you should know

Post by Fink » Wed 07.12.2005, 15:25

It's very difficult to distill down all the usefull things to learn and know about in MAngband to a short list for players just starting. However, after watching new players check out the game, I've decided that at the very least, the following is the absolute bare minimum of things that make a profound difference in the first twenty minutes of play:


The bare minimum, for people who don't want to read the FAQ:

1. In town, light blue "t"'s (Battle Scarred Veterans) are deadly for the low level character. Run!
2. Town is actually more dangerous than the first level of the dungeon. Get to the dungeon quickly!
3. You absolutely should have a macro (hit one key to perform a series of commands) set up for:
- firing a bow/sling/xbow at the nearest enemy. (manually firing and targeting takes too many key presses, and is not realistic in realtime MAngband)
- quaffing a healing potion
- reading Scroll of Phase Door (the short range teleport scroll, so you can get away from danger quickly)
4. Hold down the shift key + <direction> to run (if you can see a monster, however, you can only walk).
5. Make your first character a troll warrior - there's a bit to get used to when beginning MAngband (even for longtime Roguelike players), and a beefy tough-to-kill troll warrior will help things go smoothly for you as you get comfortable with the game.
6. Hit the colon key (":") to chat.
7. If you die when low level, just suicide your character and start a new one - it's much faster. (cntrl-k)
8. Sell your starting torches and buy a lantern and oil from shop 1. Lanterns will illuminate the far wall of a 2-square-wide corridor, unlike torches. F fill the lantern with oil.
9. Seeing wierd shifting wall squares in the dungeon, or other graphical oddities? If so, you probably use WinXP, which has a slight problem with some font settings. Here's how to fix it.



How to set up a bow, potion, and scroll macro:

Macros work by allowing you to specify a series of commands, and then assign these commands to a key. In Angband, macros are a convenience. In MAngband, they are an absolute necessity due to the real-time nature of the game. You must make macros! Do it now! Don't say to yourself "well, I'll just check the game out a bit and see what I think, and maybe make some macros later." Macros are part of the game: playing without them results in you not actually experiencing the game that you want to check out, and will also result in you getting killed alot. Just do it! You'll be done in 5 minutes, and will have a much better time with the game thereafter.


To make a macro, you follow 4 steps:
1. Inscribe: Mark ("inscribe") the items to be used by the macro.
2. Enter commands: Enter the series of commands that will be your macro.
3. Assign to key: Assign this list of commands to a key.
4. Save: "Dump" (save off) your macro so it is permanently stored for the next time you load up the game.

So, to make a bow/sling/xbow macro:
1. Inscribe your arrows/shot/bolts by using the { key. When prompted, enter "@f1" (no quotes) as the inscription for your projectile.
2. Enter the macro menu by hitting the % key (shift-5)
3. Select option 3 to enter a new action.
4. Type in this action, without the quotes, and then hit <enter>: "\ef1*t" (this will target nearest monster, and fire)
5. Select option 5 to assign the macro to a key.
6. Hit the key you want to assign your macro to once. For now, try F1. *DO NOT ASSIGN TO A KEY THE GAME ALREADY USES!* The function keys are safe to use.
7. Test your macro by getting a monster in sight and hitting your key a few times.
8. Enter the macro menu again ("%") and hit option 1 to dump (save) your macro. Use the default user-win.prf file for now.

To make a macro to quaff a healing potion:
1. Inscribe your potion by using the { key. When prompted, enter "@q1" (no quotes) as the incription for your potion.
2. Enter the macro menu by hitting the % key (shift-5)
3. Select option 3 to enter a new action.
4. Type in this action, without the quotes, and then hit <enter>: "\eq1"
5. Select option 5 to assign the macro to a key.
6. Hit the key you want to assign your macro to once. Assign, for now, to a function key. *DO NOT ASSIGN TO A KEY THE GAME ALREADY USES!* The function keys are safe to use.
7. Test your macro.
8. Enter the macro menu again ("%") and hit option 1 to dump (save) your macro. Use the default user-win.prf file for now.

To make a macro to read a Scroll of Phase door:
Follow the same steps as with making a potion macro. However, use the inscription "@r1" for the scroll, and use the macro action "\er1" . Remember to save off your macros!



You're done! Now get your butt in the dungeon and start killing! Morgoth awaits you, one mile straight down.
Last edited by Fink on Wed 05.12.2007, 23:14, edited 1 time in total.

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Warrior
Evil Iggy
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Re: New players: The bare minimum you should know

Post by Warrior » Fri 09.12.2005, 07:46

Thats a good post, fink, but it's too long!
I'd like to present Warrior's version of the bare minimum! - Log onto any random server with any random gender, race, class and stat order, walk around until you get killed, when you die - hit Q. Repeat this until you understand the following:
  • A: You love to die!
  • B: You'd love to live a little longer!

Now - go to http://www.mangband.org and check out the tutorials and the spoilers.

Good luck.
-- Mangband Project Team Member

Fink
Ancient MultiHued Dragon
Posts: 614
Joined: Tue 20.01.2004, 13:55

Re: New players: The bare minimum you should know

Post by Fink » Sun 05.02.2006, 16:39

And for a slightly longer, but still easy to breeze through, informal FAQ, check Warrior's FAQ here:

http://www.mangband.org/documentation/faq.html

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