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- === General Information ===
-
- This document gives a brief introduction to Zangband. You will probably
- want to browse through all the "help files", especially the sections on
- available commands (see command.txt [1] and commdesc.txt [2]), before
- beginning any serious adventuring...
-
-
- ***** <Overview>
- === An Overview ===
-
- The game of Zangband is a single player dungeon simulation. A player
- may choose from a number of races, classes and magic realms when
- creating a character (see charattr.txt [3]), and then "run" that
- character over a period of days, weeks, even months. Deep down inside,
- the real objective of the game is to increase your experience, and
- certain other characteristics, and also to collect useful items, to
- give you a decent chance against the great Serpent of Chaos, who lurks
- somewhere in the depths of the dungeon.
-
- The player will begin his adventure on the town level where he may
- acquire supplies, weapons, armor, and magical devices by bartering with
- various shop owners. After preparing for his adventure, the player can
- descend into the dungeon where fantastic adventures await his coming!
-
-
- ***** <Winning>
- --- Winning The Game ---
-
- Once your character has killed Oberon, who lives on level 99 (4950') in
- the dungeon, a magical staircase will appear that will finally allow
- you to reach level 100. The Serpent of Chaos lurks on this level of his
- dungeon, and you will not be able to go below his level until you have
- killed him. Try to avoid wandering around on level 100 unless you are
- ready for him, since it has a habit of coming at you across the
- dungeon, to slay you for your impudence.
-
- The Serpent of Chaos cannot be killed by some of the easier methods
- used on normal creatures. The Serpent of Chaos, like all other "Unique"
- monsters, will simply teleport away to another region of the level if
- you attempt to use a spell such as destruction is upon it. The Serpent
- of Chaos, like some other monsters, cannot be polymorphed, slept,
- charmed, or genocided. Magical spells like Mana Storm and Orb of
- Draining are effective against it, as are some of the more powerful
- weapons, but it is difficult to kill and if allowed to escape for a
- time it will heal itself rapidly.
-
- If you should actually survive the attempt of killing the Serpent of
- Chaos, you will receive the status of WINNER. You may continue to
- explore, and may even save the game and play more later, but since you
- have defeated the toughest creature alive, there is really not much
- point. Unless you wish to listen to the rumors of a powerful ring
- buried somewhere in the dungeon...
-
- When you are ready to retire, simply "commit suicide" ("^K") to have
- your character entered into the high score list as a winner. Note that
- until you retire, you can still be killed, so you may want to retire
- before wandering into a hoard of Cyberdemons...
-
-
- ***** <UponDeath>
- --- Upon Death and Dying ---
-
- If your character falls below 0 hit points, he has died and cannot be
- restored. A tombstone showing information about your character will be
- displayed. You are also permitted to get a record of your character,
- and all your equipment (identified) either on the screen or in a file.
-
- Whether your character is killed or you retire victorious, it will
- leave behind a reduced save file, which contains only the monster
- memory (see attack.txt#MonsterMemory [4]) and your option choices. It
- may be restored, in which case the new character is generated exactly
- as if the file was not there, but the new player will find his monster
- memory containing all the experience of past incarnations.
-
-
-
- ***** <DevTeam>
- === The Zangband DevTeam ===
-
- Zangband is currently maintained by a small development team which
- includes both Zangband's original creator, Topi Ylinen, and Robert
- Ruehlmann who maintained and developed the game from versions 2.01d
- through to 2.2.6c. Robert coordinates the efforts of the DevTeam and
- is the designated project leader.
-
- Since its inception, Zangband has developed a reputation for being more
- difficult than other Angband variants and its maintainers are known for
- their devious and contrary natures. The DevTeam neither confirms nor
- denies its intention to live up to this perception.
-
-
- ***** <Web>
- === Zangband on the Web ===
-
- --- zangband.org ---
-
- Zangband.org is the official Zangband website. It contains links to the
- latest source code and binary downloads as well as documentation,
- spoilers and other useful and fun zangband-related pages.
-
- --- Sourceforge.net ---
-
- The DevTeam recently moved its cvs repository to sourceforge.net. This
- also allows us to make use of sourceforge.net's excellent utilities
- including bug tracking, 3rd-party patch submission, mailing lists, etc.
- If you want to follow zangband's development closely, you should get
- a user account with sourceforge and visit our project site located at
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/zangband/ frequently.
-
- --- FTP Sites ---
-
- Zangband sources and executables are uploaded regularly to the official
- Angband ftp site (ftp://clockwork.dementia.org/angband/). Zangband
- files are located in the ./Variant/ZAngband/ subdirectoy.
-
-
- --- ZangbandTk ---
-
- ZangbandTk is a graphical Windows port of Zangband which adds several
- new features and a very nice interface to Zangband. If you use Windows,
- you may want to take a look at the AngbandTk homepage which can be
- found at (http://persweb.direct.ca/dbaker/angbandtk.html/). ZangbandTk
- is more properly termed a variant of Zangband but, other than the
- graphical interface, the differences are fairly minor. ZangbandTk is
- typically only updated for official releases of Zangband and not for
- the development releases. ZangbandTk is maintained by Tim Baker.
-
-
- --- The Angband Newsgroup ---
-
- The Angband newsgroup (rec.games.roguelike.angband) is a forum for the
- discussion of all things relating to Angband and its variants
- (including Zangband) and is a good place to ask various questions about
- both game play and game design. Be sure to include '[Z]' in your
- subject heading so people know your question is about Zangband.
-
-
- --- #Angband IRC Chat ---
-
- Join the #Angband IRC channel located at irc.worldirc.org. Most of the
- DevTeam are regulars and sometimes we're even talking about Zangband!!
-
-
- ***** <VersionNumber>
- === Version Numbering System ===
-
- Zangband uses a version numbering system similar to that of Linux. Odd
- minor version numbers (for example 2.3.2) denote a development version.
- Even minor version numbers (for example 2.2.7 ) denote a stable
- release. The development versions are released for beta-testing and are
- likely to contain bugs of varying significance.
-
-
- --
- Original : (??)
- Updated : (??)
- Updated : Zangband DevTeam
- Last update: February 19, 2001
-
-
- ***** Begin Hyperlinks
- ***** [1] command.txt
- ***** [2] commdesc.txt
- ***** [3] charattr.txt
- ***** [4] attack.txt#MonsterMemory
-
-