=== General FAQ ===
Q:Everything is so different! In fact, everything in this game is so far 
from my normal experience in Angband and its variants, why should I even
bother playing?

A: Well, I'd like to think I've produced a challenging modern variant that
not only implements a strong theme to the game experience, but also flat
out corrects several problems that Vanilla Angband has had for *years*, 
including: extreme length of play, a large boring portion of the game 
where you scum for stat potions, instadeath, unsteady power curve, 
excessive item generation involving long sequences of gameplay devoted 
to sifting through junk dropped by monsters and lack of character 
customization. 


Q:But everything is *so* different! Even if I *want* too, how do I go 
about playing?

A:First of all take a deep breath. There are only a few major things that
take some getting used to. The first that bothers everyone is the new 
statistics, and the second is the new skills system. Both those items
have their own individual FAQ's, which you can access by pushing '?'
to go back to the main FAQ menu, and then selecting them from the list
of available FAQ's. Other things which tend to confuse new people are the
'magic' system and wound points, both of which also have their own FAQs,
and the 'reverse short' dungeon.


Q:What in tarnation is a 'reverse short' dungeon.

A:Put simply, in Steamband you begin your journey in the centre of the 
earth and move to the surface, which unlike standard *bands is only
50 levels away - not 100. And since you start in the centre you take
up stairways '<' to move towards the end of the dungeon (the 'surface')
and down stairways '>' to move back towards town.


Q:Ok then, what's with all this stuff I've never even heard of before! On
top of having to learn a new basic *banding system, I've got to figure out
what a 'Clay Worsted Dress Suit' is! How can I play this game if I don't
even know what I'm wearing?

A:One of the stated goals of Steamband is an educational resource for an
era that was fascinating, full of the sources for much of our modern day 
entertainments / society and becoming more distant and poorly documented /
remembered every day. The vast majority of the monsters and uniques that
you will encounter while playing are from actual literary sources, and you
can go read books about them at your leisure. Oh, and to solve the 
difficulty with items - any item in the game can be 'I'nspected which will 
give a detailed description of the item, along with any relevant game 
information.


Q:I can't hit anything! I keep dying! This variant is way too hard.

A:Most often people have this complaint because they have failed to allocate
any of their skill points. You can access the skills screen by pushing 'G'
in the dungeon or town.


Q:I'm having trouble figuring out how to use my racial powers, class powers,
and spells. How do I use them?

A:Racial abilities, and special abilities gained from skills are 'U'sed
by pushing 'U'.  Class 'p'owers are accessed by pushing 'p'. Magic spells
and the activations of enigmatic devices are accessed by pushing 'm'. If
you are having trouble remembering these commands you can simply use the 
quick menu by pushing enter.


Q: I'm having trouble doing a lot of damage. I've got a dagger and four 
attacks, why am I not doing much damage?

A:Heavy weapons with fewer blows are (or can be) better.


Q:What do you mean heavy weapons are better?

A: Weapons have a new feature called 'force'. You can tell the force of 
a weapon by the description of the damage dice. A saber has a damage of 
(1d7|1). The part after the '|' is the force of the weapons. Larger 
weapons do more damage with a higher force. Each time you strike a monster
Steamband attempts another attack for each force blow on the weapon. Each
force blow that connects adds to a damage multiplier, doing progressively
more and more damage. The message that is printed after you attack gives 
you an idea of how hard you have hit the monster. Each successive force blow 
has a smaller chance of hitting. You may notice that it's fairly easy to 
connect a blow on a monster with a small amount of skill, but to strike 
with each and every force blow (and thus take the best advantage of heavy 
weapons) it requires a large amount of investment in combat skills.
One blow with a large weapon is now better than multiple blows with a 
smaller one. Multiple blows are limited to 4 without investing skill 
points into the available skills. 


Q: Seriously, I want a skills spoiler.

A:Steamband is meant to be played without spoilers regarding what skills
are available, but if you check the library folder you will see a spoiler 
folder and it has plain text spoilers as to what skills are available.
More visual spoilers in the form of pdf files are available from the
steamband home page, http://angband.oook.cz/steamband/index.html.
Also, you can hit '?' on the skill on the skills screen and it will
give you a spoiler.


Q: Character 'A' from [V]angband gets this power! Why don't I get it 
in Steam?

A: All classes and races can get any power they want from spellbooks - 
any class can learn. The classes, and the equipment they can use may not 
be the same as the *band you are used to. You may notice that a design 
goal of mine has not been to keep gameplay similar to [V]'s.


Q:Hey! I thought you wanted to get rid of insta-kills! I went from 
full wound points down to nothing! What gives?

A:Well, it is important to keep in mind that the dungeon in Steamband
is only 50 levels. so if you drop four levels, you've dropped just under
a 10th of the whole dungeon. Also, in pits and vaults monsters can appear
out of depth. The out of depth values have been reduced, but a monster that
comes from 5 or 10 levels deeper than you can be a serious threat. Your 
gameplay will benefit from a high amount of paranoia. :-)


Q:I know I have an active quest, but I don't remember on which level. I
would be nice to have some way to get info on my current quest ingame.

A:Cntrl - Q will give you this information; it is also accessible from 
the quickmenu, by pushing enter, and selecting information.


Q:Melee characters seems very weak compared to gunslingers. I tried to
play three Brittish officers, they all died rather quickly after I ran
out of healing. After this I started a German Engineer who is still alive.

A:Well, rest assured that melee characters are not underpowered. Every 
class has approximately the same capacity for damage from different means.
(For instance, officers should be leading others into battle.)


Q:I can't fire my firearm! It says that it's not loaded. What's going on?

A:You now have to load ammunition into firearms. It takes two turns to 
load your firearm (~200 energy). This is important, I'm going to repeat it.
IT TAKES ~2 TURNS TO LOAD YOUR GUN. You can reduce the amount of time it 
takes to load your firearm by raising your swift shot skill. The number
of bullets each firearm holds depends on the firearm, and the number
of bullets each firearm holds is *also* the number of shots you get
with it per round. 

Q:Um, doesn't this mean--

A:Yes. If you get a pistol, you can have six shots (each one taking 1/6
of a player turn to fire) but when the firearm is empty you have to 
reload it. You get the same number of shots in a firearm regardless of 
your skill or level. Pistols tend to hold the most shots and have short
range. Rifles hold fewer shots, but have the best range. Shotguns 
rarely hold more than 1 or 2 bullets. Firearms of extra shots also hold
extra bullets.


Q:I was reloading my firearm and a monster showed up and hit me
sixteen times and I died!!

A:Yes, it takes 2 turns, or 200 energy to reload your firearm. This
can be reduced to slightly less than 1 turn (or 100 energy) by 
maximizing the swift shot skill. Firearm damage has been rasied to 
compensate. Those that specialize in firearms can do massive damage, 
as long as they can find somewhere reasonably safe to load their gun.


Q:I don't see the swift shot skill. Where is it?

A:It becomes available when you raise Neophyte Firearms to 10.


Q:Why no squelching? Could you add squelching to Steamband, please?

A:You may notice that you won't need squelching. I understand you may
come from a variant where you are used to squelching - but at no point
in the game does Steamband have a glut of items. You will notice that
consistently you will find just one or two items more than will fit
in your pack. You will never be faced with the task of managing two 
hundred items after a battle. Squelching exists to remove the tedium 
of identifying and destroying the item glut. Since there *is* no item
glut in Steamband and hence no tedium to remove, an automated system 
for removing items is unnecessary.


Q:A lot seems changed in this variant.

A:Yes.


Q:How long did all this take you?

A:Thousands of hours. 


Q:Thanks.

A:No problem.

==========
Steamware
==========

Q:What's this 'Steamware'?

A:If you are playing certain races, you can pay a research scientist in 
town to discover how to install certain steam-driven devices into your
very flesh. These can do things such as raise your speed, grant you extra
attacks, and increase your armor class.


Q:How do I use them?

A:Well, first you have to pay for the research. After the research is 
completed (you will get a message, and can check the status in the store)
you can have surgery to install the new part. This is dangerous so be
sure to rest afterwards. This can be done at the steamware lab, the
'0' building in town. The store gives you an estimate on the length research
will take. 


Q:Wow, what do they do?

A: Steamware eyes increase your infravision. Later levels of steamware eyes
increase your searching and your light/dark resistance. The highest level
will even let you see invisible creatures and resist blindness.

Wired reflexes increase your speed, agility, and at the highest level increase
your chance to hit.

Dermal plating increase your armor class. Since this involves placing plates
underneath the beta and gamma levels have a -1 and -2 speed penalty respectively
You can offset this by researching wired reflexes and installing them.

The core furnace replaces your heart with a coal furnace. It provides huge
health bonuses.

Spurs provide you with extra attacks. Eventually they stun and even slow
opponents.

========================
Automata and Steam-Mecha
========================
Q: Uhh, I got my stats drained and when I tried to drink a potion - 
It said I couldn't! What is going on?

A. Automata and Steam-mecha are unable to drink potions, and eat normal 
food. Thankfully - they have all their stats sustained. Sadly, this 
means in the event of a time attack, or casting a spell that drains stats, 
they are out of luck. If they become religious enough, perhaps god will grant
them a way to restore their stats. Perhaps also they may be lucky enough
to run across strange apparatuses in the dungeon that could also repair them.


Q: What do these Automata, and Steam-Mecha eat?

A. Oil. press 'e' and select oil.



