Easyband

Lineage

Moria → Umoria → Angband 2.9.x → GSN2band → Easyband. Gwidon S. Naskrent first made GSNband on Zangband 2.2.8 (1998), then GSN2band, which he summed up as “Angband + GSNband − Zangband”: his GSNband features moved onto vanilla Angband 2.9.1. GSN2band 1.0 came out on 10 November 2000. Easyband 1.0 followed on 9 January 2001 as a set of easier-game patches (more hit points, less experience per level, faster pseudo-ID, two new races); 2.0 then “adopted GSN2Band 1.0 code”, mainly for its features and auto-squelch. 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 followed during 2001; 2.3 is the last.

Which Angband? The sources disagree: the GSN2band page and RogueBasin say GSN2band is based on 2.9.1, defines.h says VERSION_STRING "2.9.2", and the readme and news screen name Angband 2.9.3 (8 July 2000).

See the family tree. Sources: lib/file/news.txt, the changelog, the archived Easyband and GSN2band pages of Bablos’ Angband variant list, RogueBasin’s Easy Angband, GSN2band and GSNband.

Credits

From lib/file/news.txt, the changelog and the archived variant pages.

Trivia

• The changelog ends with a dedication to the author’s wife, Federica, “for all her patience and support”. (changelog)
• It warns that the game is easy only at first: from character level 35 on it plays much like vanilla, “this is Easyband not Gottakill'emallband”. (changelog)
• Easyband 1.0 already dropped the cheater mark: wizard and debug mode no longer flag the character, which the author calls “quite munckinish”. (changelog, variant list)
• The long sword ‘Lucille’ comes from an old AD&D character, as a comment in the artifact file says; the changelog even gives the debug keys to create it. (a_info.txt, changelog)
• Two of its uniques: the Topobanshee, “in life … a little white singer mouse”, and the Happypotamo, half unicorn, half hippo, with green hide and purple wings. (r_info.txt)
• Two savefile breaks in a row: both 2.0 and 2.1 apologise that older savefiles no longer load. (changelog)

What's unique

• Easy start: bigger hit dice for every class, about 20% less experience per level, fast heavy pseudo-ID for all, better slays, ammo that rarely breaks, stronger potions, wands and rods.
• Shop services: the store identifies your whole pack (E) and recharges staffs, wands and rods (R); tax cut to 5%, a better Black Market.
• Shortcut commands: K *identifies*, J cures everything, Ctrl+T tells the time; thieves steal from monsters with +.
• New races: the Snip, “a little lovable furry ball” that levels on almost no experience, and the PowPlayer, a born killer from space.
• Class resistances at levels 20–40, Crystalia ego weapons, the Blood of Life that cheats death once, plus everything GSN2band brought: monster vulnerabilities, invisibility, poison and vampiric brands, two-handed weapons, auto-squelch and a monster list window.

Code dive

• Language: C, 152,214 lines in 74 .c/.h files in SRC/ (upper case), Angband 2.9.x structure: dungeon.c, cmd1-6.c, spells1-2.c, one main-*.c per platform.
• Data: text files in lib/edit/ compiled to lib/data/*.raw at start; monsters in r_info.txt carry no index numbers (a GSNband feature: “N: line in r_info.txt no longer needs a number”).
• Changes marked in place: the changelog points to its edits by file and line, e.g. cmd3-188, store-2900, xtra1-859.
• History: none; the source is one RAR archive (Easyband23_src.rar, September 2001). On 64-bit machines its u32b was 64 bits wide and character birth looped forever (fixed in this port).
• This port: WebAssembly build with a canvas z-term frontend, Shockbolt tiles, seven sub-windows, sound and music, auto-explore (H), an Enter command menu and item menus. Source: memmaker/easyband (our changes).

Stats

Counted in lib/edit/*_info.txt (without index-0 entries) and SRC/tables.c, defines.h.

Manual

The full in-game help (?, all of lib/help/: general, birth, dungeon, attack, playing, commands, options, version history and the four spoiler files) is here: manual. Also the changelog (Easyband23.txt: 2.3 back to the GSN2band changes) and the licence (the Moria/Angband notice of the source headers; no separate licence file).

Getting started

1. Open the game and make a character: a Dwarf or Half-Orc Warrior is forgiving, a Snip (experience factor 30%) levels fastest.
2. Your torches start in the pack: wield one (w) and wear your gear.
3. Buy Cure Light Wounds potions and Phase Door scrolls; the shops identify (E) and recharge (R) for gold.
4. Go down: > walks to known stairs, H explores for you, Enter lists every command, i and e open item menus.
5. Read the game’s help page for keys and saving.

Help

We found no walkthrough: the dungeon is random. The goal, as in Angband, is to kill Sauron on level 99 and Morgoth on level 100. Rules of thumb:

• The early game is easy; from character level 35 on it is close to vanilla, so get Free Action, See Invisible and the base resistances before diving deep.
• Always carry an escape (Phase Door, Teleportation) and Word of Recall; J cures all, but it is no escape.
• Read Playing the Game and the monster spoilers in the manual.
• More: RogueBasin’s Easy Angband page and angband.live forums for general Angband strategy.

Cheats

Both modes are in this build and, unlike vanilla, do not mark the character (Easyband removed the cheater flag), so the score still counts.

• Wizard mode Ctrl+W: asks for confirmation each time.
• Debug mode Ctrl+A, then a key: create objects and artifacts, summon monsters, jump levels, map the level. Tested in the browser: Ctrl+A y n and a full name summons that monster.
• Cheat options (=): peek into object and monster creation, know all monster lore, avoid death (cheat_live), GSN2band’s invulnerability (cheat_invul) and vault choice (debug_vaults).
• Save scumming: Export save / Import save on the game page.