Skeleton
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- Author(s): Mike Snyder
- Categories: Development
- Downloads: 64
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Skeleton B is perhaps the most significant fan-made file in the history of Dink Smallwood. How many people would have given up dabbling in DinkC before even truly starting, how many dmods would have never existed without it? Quite a few probably, as setting up the base for a dmod on your own isn't entirely straightforward. There are a lot of files you need to create, copy and edit (stripping them of stuff that's only needed in the original game) before getting to the more creative part of game making. A skeleton dmod does that all for you, and should be useful to newbies and experienced authors alike.
The problem with Skeleton B is that it does MORE than strips the files of useless stuff. Useful stuff is missing or changed for the worse. Some exclusions and changes are understandable: Replacing Original Dink's title screen graphics with new graphics is cool. Changing the title screen from a small logo to a full-screen picture easily editable by the author is cool. Adding a new tilescreen with several generic tiles usable in many settings is cool, although the tilescreen overwrites existing tiles, which is not cool. Adding helpful comments to all scripts is... mostly annoying, but somewhat understandable.
Then there are a bunch of small but harmful changes that one might never notice unless specifically looking for. Some of these seem to have been done on purpose, others are accidental. Here are all that I could find:
DINK.INI
Missing graphic sequences:
Sequence 150 (small castle wall part)
Sequence 151 (small castle wall part with a hole forming on it)
Sequence 152 (small castle wall part)
Sequence 153 (small castle wall part with a hole forming on it)
Sequence 430 (pig feed being sprinkled)
Sequence 431 (pig feed being sprinkled)
Sequence 455 (piles of caged boxes)
START.C
Sound 12 (WSCREAM.WAV) replaced with a sound that doesn't exist (ENTER.WAV)
HARD.DAT
Density Indexes 3 and 4 (hardness for tiles 920 and 932 (riverbank)) have red hardness instead of blue (meaning the riverbank can be pushed and missiles won't fly over it)
There are much fewer unused hard slots than in original Dink's Hard.dat (meaning you can't add as much new hardness)
MAP.DAT and DINK.DAT
They exist. Screen 400 exists. (Map.dat and dink.dat are created automatically when Dinkedit is used for the first time, which is not the kind of thing someone would assume on their own... having these files effectively forces an author to use screen 400 as the first screen of their map)
All these changes, despite being minor, amount to Skeleton B not being worth using. Download a less crippled skeleton (Skeleton S?) or better yet, go through the trouble of creating your own skeleton dmod, and use that for all your future projects. Then you know what has been changed and what hasn't been changed, or if not, at least you only have yourself (and Vista, always Vista) to blame for it.
The problem with Skeleton B is that it does MORE than strips the files of useless stuff. Useful stuff is missing or changed for the worse. Some exclusions and changes are understandable: Replacing Original Dink's title screen graphics with new graphics is cool. Changing the title screen from a small logo to a full-screen picture easily editable by the author is cool. Adding a new tilescreen with several generic tiles usable in many settings is cool, although the tilescreen overwrites existing tiles, which is not cool. Adding helpful comments to all scripts is... mostly annoying, but somewhat understandable.
Then there are a bunch of small but harmful changes that one might never notice unless specifically looking for. Some of these seem to have been done on purpose, others are accidental. Here are all that I could find:
DINK.INI
Missing graphic sequences:
Sequence 150 (small castle wall part)
Sequence 151 (small castle wall part with a hole forming on it)
Sequence 152 (small castle wall part)
Sequence 153 (small castle wall part with a hole forming on it)
Sequence 430 (pig feed being sprinkled)
Sequence 431 (pig feed being sprinkled)
Sequence 455 (piles of caged boxes)
START.C
Sound 12 (WSCREAM.WAV) replaced with a sound that doesn't exist (ENTER.WAV)
HARD.DAT
Density Indexes 3 and 4 (hardness for tiles 920 and 932 (riverbank)) have red hardness instead of blue (meaning the riverbank can be pushed and missiles won't fly over it)
There are much fewer unused hard slots than in original Dink's Hard.dat (meaning you can't add as much new hardness)
MAP.DAT and DINK.DAT
They exist. Screen 400 exists. (Map.dat and dink.dat are created automatically when Dinkedit is used for the first time, which is not the kind of thing someone would assume on their own... having these files effectively forces an author to use screen 400 as the first screen of their map)
All these changes, despite being minor, amount to Skeleton B not being worth using. Download a less crippled skeleton (Skeleton S?) or better yet, go through the trouble of creating your own skeleton dmod, and use that for all your future projects. Then you know what has been changed and what hasn't been changed, or if not, at least you only have yourself (and Vista, always Vista) to blame for it.
