[To the Variants Page] [News]

KAngband

[Shadowfax (8 kByte)] Current version: 2.9.3r1 (5th November 2001)

Previous maintainers: Ken Wigle and Mark Howson

Current Maintainer: John I'anson-Holton

Homepage: KAngband homepage

Based on: Angband 2.9.3

Downloads:
KAngband 2.9.3r1 (5th November 2001)
System / Comments Compiled by Size Date
Source code (Mirror) John I'anson-Holton 1300 kByte 5th November 2001
 
Windows 95/98/NT (Mirror) John I'anson-Holton 1176 kByte 5th November 2001
 
Mac (PPC) (Mirror) Scot Meyer   14th November 2001
 
Amiga (Mirror) Bablos 726 kByte 18th November 2001
 
Linux (Mirror) Christian Schmidt 573 kByte [New]17th April 2003
Compiled with glibc-2.3.1
 
KAngband 2.9.3 (11th October 2001)
System / Comments Compiled by Size Date
MS-DOS (386 or better) (Mirror) John I'anson-Holton 1357 kByte 11th October 2001
 
 
KAngband 2.9.2r1
System / Comments Compiled by Size Date
Mac (68020+) (Mirror) "Gileba"   6th April 2001
 
 
KAngband 2.9.2
System / Comments Compiled by Size Date
OS/2 (Mirror) ??? 711 kByte 20th March 2001
 
 
KAngband 2.8.3j patch 1
System / Comments Compiled by Size Date
RISC OS Thomas Harris 721 kByte 18th May 1999
Requires RISC OS 3 and at least 2 MB memory. For more information look at Thomas Harris' home page.


Interesting Links:

Changes in KAngband 2.9.3r1


Changes in KAngband 2.9.3


Changes in KAngband 2.9.2r2

Bug Fixes:

Changes in KAngband 2.9.2r1

Codebase updates: New / Changed features: Bug fixes:

Changes in KAngband 2.9.2


Changes in KAngband 2.9.1r1


About Kangband 2.9.1

by John I'anson-Holton

In February 2000, Mark Howson anounced that he would be discontinuing development of Kangband. This was, in my opinion, a great loss to the Angband community as Kangband has historically been a significant influence on some of the most popular and innovative variants as well as being a great game in its own right.

After waiting several months for someone to volunteer to pick up where Mark left off, I decided that if no-one else was going to do so, I would. What this means for Kangband is continued development of the 2.8.3jp1 branch. The python-enhanced version Mark was working on is not dead, but is certainly dormant for the foreseable future.

Kangband 2.9.1 represents an update of 2.8.3jp1 to the standard Angband 2.9.1 codebase. No new features have been added other than those inherent in the code-base upgrade. Going forward, I intend to keep the codebase as similar to standard Angband as possible while continuing to develop Kangband along its current lines. Future versions will include an upgrade to the quest system incorporating many of the enhancements other variants with quests have added since 2.8.3j was released, a move closer to Tolkien in terms of the monster and item listings, a reworking of the magic realms and a general rebalancing to suit my personal preferences.


Review of Kangband 2.8.3c

by Robert Rühlmann

The most radical change in KAngband is the new town-level. Ken added many new buildings and a wilderness. Other changes are: a new race - Kobold, class - Illusionist, terrain features and user definable quests.

There are class-specific buildings in town like Fighters-Hall, Order of Paladins, Rangers-Tavern, and Tower of Sorcery. Here players can receive rewards from the guild-master, spellcasters learn spells, weapons and armor can be repaired, possessions identified, magic devices will be recharged and healing may be offered.

Other special buildings like the Library, Castle, Inn, Arena and Gambling House are open for everyone. You can research your items (*Identify*) in the Library, try your luck with gambling, fight monsters in the Arena to become the Champion, and receive quests and rewards from the King. Rewards include your house, entrance to the weapon master (compares you weapons damage potential) and the beast master (gives you complete information about monsters), access to all guild halls, and magical items.

Some of the quests are simple 'kill 10 Hill-Orcs' quests, other quests open entrances to special areas in the wilderness like a thieves hideout, a volcano, or a nest of dragons. New usermade quests can be added, a detailed description is included with the game.

KAngband has a new race - the Kobold and a new class - the Illusionist. The Kobold is taken from Greg Wooledge's GWAngband and has poison resistance. The Illusionist is a magelike character. He lacks offensive and teleport self spells in the first levels, and has no identify, word of recall, globe of invulnerability, teleport other, or satisfy hunger spell. This class is seriously underpowered and the slow monster, confuse monster, ... spells are no replacement in my opinion.
Maybe I've just not found the right strategy for the Illusionist.

The mage and illusionist class can only wield a dagger or a quarterstaff, all other weapons have penalties to hit and damage. Spellcasters can no longer learn new spells in the dungeon, they must return to town and train them in the guild. I really hope Ken powers up the spellcasters in the next version, KAngband seems to be geared toward the fighter classes with all the options in the new buildings (identify, heal, enchant weapons/armor/bows/arrows).

The new terrain features like lava, trees, water and mountains are very promising. You can walk through shallow water and lava (if you have fire resistance). Deep water can be an obstacle if you can't swim with your heavy gear and deep lava is impossible to walk over. You can chop (tunnel) your way through the trees, mountains can't be crossed and are a natural barrier. This can change the strategy of the player in various ways, a level with a subterranean sea is nice for killing monsters with your bow or spells from the other shore and nasty if you are attacked by monsters with a ranged attack. The rivers of deep lava can divide a level into several parts and you need a teleport spell (and some luck) to reach the other side. The new spell-effects, promised for the next release, will affect the terrain (grow forest, freeze water, cool lava, ...). This may allow completely new tactics.

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