The Dink Network

To those of you who play DMOD's (all of you, most likely), I have a question for ya . Do you prefer DMOD's to be too easy or too hard? Do you prefer them with lots of grinding and leveling up, or do you prefer it when you can get all of your required levels through hidden potions, gold hearts, rewards etc.?

I'm currently making a DMOD and it's full of hidden stuff, but I can't decide how hard the baddies should be. What do you guys (and girls) reckon, would most Dinkers usually find all the hidden potions and things, or will they miss half of them? This is just so I have an idea of how hard my DMOD should be considering the multitude of hidden potions and things. I'm trying to work out roughly how many potions players will have found at different parts of the game.

Personally I prefer them to be too hard, that way if I get stuck and then stumble across a pile of potions I get that "YEEEAAAHHH!! AWESOME!!" feeling. Obviously not so hard you have to cheat, though.

So yeah, opinions people! Chop chop!

I am totally lazy and bad at video games, and I have to steal my gaming time from my other activities anyway, so I like 'em easy. I usually find most hidden things I think, because I explore obsessively.

Everything in reasonable amounts.

Psh, moderation.

Your mom moderated you out of her uterine.

I was thinking about balancing everything so that you shouldn't have too much trouble if you've only missed a few potions, but you'd still need to of found a large majority of them. Plus that way, if you only miss a couple, you could still just grind to get up that last level or two. And I suppose I could stick in a list of every single thing's location in a walkthrough as a last resort kinda thing, but that'll take forever.

EDIT: Oh! And then I could add in a Hard Mode where everything is nice and difficult and everything needs to be collected, to satisfy people like me .

Tough ones, not for newbs.

Yeah, having different modes is good.

I like puzzles and I like them hard (no homo)

Yes, puzzles > grinding. As long as the puzzles don't have random solutions that no one would ever guess.

I was thinking about balancing everything so that you shouldn't have too much trouble if you've only missed a few potions, but you'd still need to of found a large majority of them. Plus that way, if you only miss a couple, you could still just grind to get up that last level or two.

This sounds good. I think that your latest dmod had just the right level of difficulty, though, so just keep doing whatever you did there. =)

A happy balance is best... trouble is that that's very hard to make.

If it's easy and there's loads of powerups lying around then it's likely to get boring unless other aspects of the D-Mod are good enough to outweigh that. A powerup should be a nice surprise and a helpful boost, not the main way of gaining stats.

Similarly if it's too hard - it can get frustrating not being able to get past an area or boring if you need to grind through 250 super-pillbugs in order to gain 3 levels before you can advance.

Iplaydink has done some nice puzzles and super pillbugs does sound like your talking about the bomb sparrow am I right *crosses fingers*.

Medium rare.

Wasn't thinking of any D-Mod in particular, just a general example!

Thanks everyone!

In hindisght, I have decided to remove some of the potions and things... They tended to be the main way of levelling up, so I'm planning on making some of the monsters easier and removing some potions.

Oh, and if I may ask, do you like to have lots of side-quests, or do you find having too many subtracts from the main game? It's got four or five so far, but I was planning on adding several more.

Depends how well you keep the main story thread(s) going I suppose. If the side stories start taking over then the player could lose track of the main story, or if they spend half an hour on a side story they may not know where to pick up the main storyline again.
Of course, side stories could be a part of the main story too, adding more background, details, even required to understand what's going on.

Don't really mind I suppose. You can have a great D-Mod with a very linear route or one more like CC2 where there's lots of options. As long as it's implemented well then it's all good

well i like mine hard but not too hard(as in foes having unfair strenght meaning they can kill you in 1 blow(but if it is a choose-able option unlocking them then it is ok))
and further a well ballanced system of potions and such for strength never hurts either.
but most important is a good story line for a d-mod. good side quests never hurt either

I also like them well don with a pinch of salt and a good dose of pepper. MMM-MMMMM delicious

I love side quests but not like HH2 quests were you have to get beer for a kid then again I am Irish so it's nothing new so I would like the side quests.

Well, the side-quests so far involve helping a knight fight off an army of slayers, finding some cheese for a goblin (Quest for cheese rip off? Pfft, no...), stealing magic apples guarded by a boss fight, Making something shiny to please a goblin, and then there's also a fifth one but I've forgotten what happens in that one. I think it was kinda like a Romeo and Juliet rip off

I actually spend quite a long time making some of them, it's fun! The hardest part is probably the rewards, it's really difficult to not just give the player a bunch of potions each time.

actually i don't find it that hard gold often is a reward for sidequests(but giving weapons for them is way more fun (nobody ever said they had to be stronger then weapons you've already obtained(neither does that mean less useless as FIAT proved elemental charges or other benifits could make them better for certain cases(dunno if you could program script for that purpose but i know is currently beyond my scripting skills(do have a few example script i could ri... err borrow the trick from(so could you do if wanted that in your D-mod ))))

To those of you who play DMOD's (all of you, most likely), I have a question for ya .

Do you prefer DMOD's to be too easy or too hard? EASY

Do you prefer them with lots of grinding and leveling up, or do you prefer it when you can get all of your required levels through hidden potions, gold hearts, rewards etc.? Hidden potions, gold hearts, and stuff

I'm currently making a DMOD and it's full of hidden stuff, but I can't decide how hard the baddies should be. What do you guys (and girls) reckon, would most Dinkers usually find all the hidden potions and things, or will they miss half of them? I for one,
love exploring, so it is hardly possible that I would miss it.

This is just so I have an idea of how hard my DMOD should be considering the multitude of hidden potions and things. I'm trying to work out roughly how many potions players will have found at different parts of the game. Mathematics, are, my friend, your headache

Personally I prefer them to be too hard, that way if I get stuck and then stumble across a pile of potions I get that "YEEEAAAHHH!! AWESOME!!" feeling. Obviously not so hard you have to cheat, though.

So yeah, opinions people! Chop chop!


My replies in BOLD

Iplaydink has done some nice puzzles

Oh, thank you!
I can't believe I missed that, I'm usually very quick on picking up compliments

When it comes to dmods, "It's good to have a long with naked chicks at the end".