VOTING: Is angband better than T.O.M.E.

[Tachyon]

I like ToME better. In Angband, the isolation of the town, lack of quests, lack of any semblence of a plot, and barely Tolkienian nature annoyed me. ToME isn't the most Tolkeinian variant, but it is, AFAIK, the one with something closest to a genuine plot, though certainly not that close. Plus, last I checked, it's the only none-silly variant that supports modules.

[darkgod]

/me eyes the poll
/me targets 5 people with his Fireflash

[Mitharheru]

'Been playing *bands for many years now, and the only thing I don't like about ToME is that since I started playing it, all the other variants on my harddisc (including Vanilla) are reduced to data-ballast ...

ToME has so many more possibilities for playing styles and customizing diddiculty levels ... not to speak of those opened up by the lots of side-dungeons and quests ... that Vanilla looks very boring in comparison ... but well, I've always favored one variant or the other over Vanilla ...

Still, ToME's the most interesting *band I've ever played.

/me eyes the poll
/me targets 5 people with his Fireflash

Careful, careful ... don't cause lava pits all over the board for innocents to stumble into ... Here, take this wand of Manathrust of Plenty instead ...

[Yottle]

I have been playing roguelikes for about twenty years now. Tome is the most interesting game that I have seen. It can be easy, difficult, or nearly impossible to win, depending on your character and playing style.

Nethack started the trend to multiple types of characters, but everyone ends up with the same equipment and strategy. Angband was better, but Tome has the best differentiation of characters of any game that I have played.

I am not sure what people mean by "game balance", but I expect that it is impossible to get in a game as complicated as Tome. If you want a game that doesn't have any munchkinish exploits try original Rogue. It is simple, easy to play and almost impossible to win. After you have won that a few times you will appreciate Tome.

[Neil]

I know why DG used fireflash... it does double damage against monsters without the TOME_FAVORITE flag.

[darkgod]

Na, 2x is against evil, it's 3x against the ones without TOME_FAVORITE

[Neil]

And not having TOME_FAVORITE *isn't* EVIL? :-)

[Groothewanderer]

In this case the damage should stack: 2x * 3x = 6x!!!!!

Ouch!

[Elliott]

I don't think Warpers are as bad as people say. Great utility skills, so you just need to find your offense elsewhere. I just killed Melkior with a Half-Ogre Warper who used Thaumaturge.

The class that sucks but I never hear anyone complain about is the Ranger. They do everything, but do it all quite badly.

[Elliott]

Err, that should say "Warpers AREN'T as bad...".

[Varil]

If you had put "aren't" instead of are, it would have been a double-negative

[Guest]

If you're looking for that, TOME probably isn't your bag (at least until you get into the higher levels).

I found it disconcerting that I was able to go from level 1 to 20 in the space of 10 minutes, capable of casting like a 25d6 spell, as a high-elf hermit sorcerer. I don't think any of my Angband characters have yet to break 20. My impressions however are due to personal bias.

As to whether TOME is "better" than Angband, I would say that is an entirely subjective judgment based upon what factors are important to you. If novel features, quests, multiple dungeons, and skills are important to you, TOME has them, Angband does not.

If stability, maturity, and a "realistic", gradual progression rate appeal to you, then Angband (or ADOM, or Omega, or Nethack) is going to be more your kind of game, while TOME will appear rather frivolous in comparison.

If I were a registered user, and could vote, I wouldn't vote in this poll unless a third option were included: "Neither. This is a subjective, apples-to-oranges comparison."

[Guest]

(same Guest poster as immediately previous)

I'd love to see a version of TOME that slowed down the level/power progression to that of Angband. I don't have the time to code that myself or I would attempt to do so.

Maybe I'll check out some of the other variants in the meantime.

[petebull]

It's a matter on how you play.

Yes, the possiblity to get to lvl 20 is there. but no one is whipped to use it. If you like to have a slower leveling, play the BD Level 1. I think then there is no difference betwenn ToME and angband. The vanilla town (and thus no wilderness) is available in the options.

[LogrusMage]

indeed, i'm well aware of the swamp-scum method, and have even run a few characters that were perfectly configured to use it, but i'v only done so once, just to see what the hype is about. desperate for FF skill boosts, i play 98 quests, which has 2 pertinent effects: even after jumping to lvl20 or higher right from the start, i'm still gonna go through BD for the possibility of a FF or two, which just gets boring if you start out that overpowered, and with 98 quests, you're fighting enough out of level, and with a built-in maxout on dungeon level progression, while still hitting the orc cave for 3 fixed arts and possible dungeon towns, having enough xp is rarely ever a problem, anyway. this also means i'm well into the game before i effectively stop advancing, at lvl50, at which point the game, at least for me, drops of substantially in fun.