Angband’s lore destruction: “Nick is going to butcher the game”

There were loads of new awesome stuff came in Angband: new ID, traps, curses, new light effects etc. All this enhancement of the gameplay made Angband a bit different, but the better game overall. I know some guys (eg in Discord) who like old gameplay mechanics more, buy most of players enjoying evolution of the gameplay mechanics (and I’m among them).

But currently there are coming changes to monsters and races (game’s lore actually) which are NOT liked by a lot of players. This changes pushed by huge Nick’s authority, which he absolutely deserved by his work on the game. But what is more important: Nick’s authority or Angband itself?

What made me to write this post? New LORE-based changes in Angband:

This is just a small drop. If it was the only changes in games LORE – I won’t created this thread. But it’s a long lasting job on game’s lore transformation. Loads of monsters changed depths (eg all nazguls now >75 lvl monsters.. poor Uvatha), renamed, revamped.. NOT rebalanced, but revamped 🙁

So the question now – could we save vanilla Angand from destroying? 

Why monsters are lore?

Overall I liked a lot of stuff Nick’s doing, but all past monster revamp is really bad – when he just throw away monsters which were with us FOR YEARS. I understand that Nick got his own vision on the game, but it feels like a destroying the game which we knew. New version would certainly be not an oldschool classic Angband anymore, it’s a new variant. I do not know why other players are silent or only approving Nick’s changes to monsters.. It can not be that I’m the only one who can’t bear it. I know some people who also said that “Nick is going to butcher the game” and they do not like this stuff. Why are you silent, guys?

Certain stuff shouldn’t be changed. Angband doesn’t have ‘lore’ like some other RPG’s which got a static map and a rich storyline. The only ‘lore’ and ‘spirit’ of this game is concluded in monsters. Monsters in Angband – it’s LORE, A WORLD. It’s a CORE of the game. It should be preserved and threated with huge respect. It should be great cautious to put our dirty fingers at any of classic monsters, which loved by thousands of players.

Traps mechanics – alright. They were boring with trap detection. Curses.. Yeah – it was annoying not to be able to drop stuff. ID system.. New one made gameplay more rich. All this stuff is an enhancement of gameplay, but the game itself stayed the same. Because it had a) roguelike concept and b) WORLD (lore)

With changing WORLD you change the game. It’s becoming not an ‘Angband’, but something different. It’s not right to do this to ~30 year old game. People loved and KNOW the monsters. They recognize them by tiny sight and they understand what to expect from them because they played Angband for years.

I’ve created this separate topic, cause if I’ll just a reply to ‘feature/monster’ topic, it would be quickly buried by Nick’s supporters messages. I myself got HUGE respect to Nick, his work and his personality, he is great leader. But game design, coding and game’s lore is different areas of responsibility. Maybe there should be different persons in charge for this particular game component. Let’s Nick would be lead gamedesigner and coder, but someone else would take lore-based decisions in their hand – some of Angband veterans. Or even create a ‘council’ of veterants – like 3-5 past V-maintainers who would vote for LORE-based changes.

What else could I add.. I have my own variant which would preserve classic stuff in it. I won’t ever touch any respectable monster, because I’m in love with them. I know each and everyone there. Of course, monster’s itself should be rebalanced sometimes, but their LORE – names and depth where you find them – wouldn’t be changed. It shouldn’t be changed. It’s a core of the game.

Angaband is RNG-based game; I mean when each dungeon levels is created – we do not know what to expect there. The only things which we expect – is certain monsters. Each one is good known and got it’s own special place. You won’t meet Nazguls at -50, you know it and it’s one of small static things in absolutely RNG game. The only thing which we have is lore and our knowledge of it. Please don’t take it away.

The right way – is to add new stuff and to enhance the game, not to cut it’s parts. How come that I’m as a huge Tolkien fan (damm I even runned in the forests with wooden sword in real life) – do not like current Angband tolkienization? Because it’s a conflict of interests – Tolkien lore VS Angband lore. Sorry, but Angband is not a fanfic Tolkien website to bend it like this. In Angband ‘game’ it’s lore and traditions more precious then Tolkien heritage. Nick doesn’t feel like this it seems 🙁 But even Gandalf was mistaken a lot of times. Let’s go back…