The Dink Network

Some questions

Pilgrim's Quest

March 11th 2013, 07:59 PM
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faster
Peasant She/Her Mexico
 
I enjoy Pilgrim's Quest, which is an extremely well-wrought game. My compliments to SimonK. I understand he has a life to live, but I truly wish he'd made the sequel he promised. I can play the game right up to the ending, but have some questions.

Is there a walkthrough of the game, so I can know if I've missed stuff?

I seem to remember playing the game through to the end several years ago, and they come out of the mountain, all three of them, and the earth is once again green. It may be a flaw of my memory; can't be sure. I haven't been able to get that ending ever since. Instead, Skard gets killed, Decretius has NOT been killed, and they come out in the bleak world, but with the scale. So they have to go to Hieronymous, and it ends with "to be continued." The next installment, it said, would be called "Necromancer." Can both endings be possible? If so, what should I have done in order to come out of the mountain into the renewed Earth?

I've always disliked having to explain a joke to somebody, and don't expect anyone to like doing it for me. But try as I might, I can't get the joke Dink tells to the Air Spirit: "there once was a magical caster, who learned his art faster and faster, but what does it mean, that he hasn't been seen, since he uttered the name, 'Hark...'" and then he explodes very greenly. I just don't get the joke. Could someone please grit their teeth and explain it so I can get the humor of it?

And where is the sequel, "Necromancer?" It's not nice to start a story, end it with "to be continued," and then never continue it.

One more thing. In the Dink Dmods, I often get stuck in the scenery. It's a real pain in the neck, because I got in there, so there SHOULD be a way out. Only rarely do I find it, search though I might. Is there some advice someone can give me to get out of these situations? None of the programmers intended them; they're not part of the games. I hate having to shut down, reboot and start over. And can someone explain how it is that someone can get Dink stuck in the scenery, yet without being able to LEAVE the same way he got in?
March 11th 2013, 08:11 PM
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leprochaun
Peasant He/Him Japan bloop
Responsible for making things not look like ass 
Is there a walkthrough of the game
There's this for a walkthrough.

Can both endings be possible? If so, what should I have done in order to come out of the mountain into the renewed Earth?
I don't know I don't think I ever finished it.

Could someone please grit their teeth and explain it so I can get the humor of it?
I have no idea what that joke means.

And where is the sequel, "Necromancer?"
There's a widely known joke that Necromancer will be coming out tomorrow. Most likely it will never come out.

And can someone explain how it is that someone can get Dink stuck in the scenery, yet without being able to LEAVE the same way he got in?
Those are hardness errors. Sometimes they're the creators fault, and other times they can't be helped.
March 11th 2013, 09:11 PM
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And can someone explain how it is that someone can get Dink stuck in the scenery, yet without being able to LEAVE the same way he got in?

That's a really intriquing question, actually! There's more to it than simple hardness errors. I think it happens most frequently with the shoreline tiles; sometimes you just go straight through into the sea, but since there are no obvious gaps in the hardness, you can't get back.

Why does it happen? I don't know.
March 12th 2013, 05:25 AM
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iplaydink
Peasant He/Him Sweden
Hmm.. 
I don't know how the engine is constructed, I haven't looked at the source code, but maybe dink's movement is dependent on a clock variable to ensure that it runs at about the same speed across all computers. This could lead to dink "jumping" if the computer can't keep up so that the collision isn't tested until he moves through the hardness. This would indeed be more common by the shoreline as the "hard"-area are thinner, just a few pixels.
March 12th 2013, 06:33 PM
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faster
Peasant She/Her Mexico
 
Well, if others have similar hardness problems, I can't gripe. But I don't get stuck often at seashore locations. One I've experienced is when I enter the hidden fertile area for the first time. Dink runs in, but goes into the scenery, and I can't get him out. I've found that pressing a key for him to move upward or sideways while he's running seems to keep this from happening. He's gotten stuck, in many DMODs. One time, in PQ, I was able to make him run into scenes that hadn't taken place yet, like to the place where he will later meet up with Fairy Nuff, and he's in the booth. Sometimes I can send him running into many different scenes, some to come later and others already visited. What I can't do is get him OUT where he got in. Grrr.

Still, it's not just something I'm missing, or doing wrong, so I gotta live with it.

SimonK is highly talented, and is probably appropriately employed and very busy. Could he not work with another DMOD creator, one with proven quality and talent, to create Necromancer? He'd need only serve as a director, not a programmer. Might he spare time to do it that way? His many fans, who have appreciated his Dink-work for years, would be grateful.

Am I to gather that nobody else here gets that joke either?

As for two endings, I guess it must be my incipient senility, that I thought there was an ending where they escape into a renewed Earth. Oh, well...
March 13th 2013, 06:46 AM
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ExDeathEvn
Peasant He/Him New Zealand rumble
"Skinny Legend" 
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hark
Definition of Hark to assist you in your attempts to understand.
March 13th 2013, 12:31 PM
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Feel free to gripe. I've never experienced what you describe. Are you saying that Dink keeps running by himself when you change screens...?
March 13th 2013, 03:08 PM
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faster
Peasant She/Her Mexico
 
No, Dink doesn't keep running by himself. It happens when I'm trying to get him out of the scenery he got stuck in. When he reaches an edge of the screen, he enters another screen in the game, sometimes where he has already been, sometimes where he has yet to go to. I send him back to where he got stuck, usually, but at times it piques my curiosity to see the places I can send him to. Often he can get into a lot of screens. I might as well experiment with the situation, since, for me, the game is over until I close it down and reboot, then start the game all over again.

I'm glad it hasn't happened to you. It's very frustrating. I seem to remember that there was either a cheat or it was incorporated into one of the DMODs, where you can elect to move Dink, sort of like jumping, from one part of the screen to another. But I forget where I found this feature.

I really enjoy the fine epic DMODs, the ones with good story and good craftsmanship. What these people can do is WAY beyond me, and I have respect for them. What's sad is that not all of them will play on my old OS. Nor, being rather poor, do I imagine that will change any time soon.
March 13th 2013, 03:44 PM
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Ah, okay. Yeah, sightseeing places you're not supposed to get to is pretty cool. It's possible because the screens are placed next to each other in the editor... Especially on house screens, you can usually visit a lot of other houses if you manage to get behind the wall.

There is Ultimate Cheat, which I believe is most extensive of the cheats we have here. I'm not sure if it has that function, though.
March 13th 2013, 03:47 PM
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leprochaun
Peasant He/Him Japan bloop
Responsible for making things not look like ass 
This cheat can... warp to a different screen or different spot on the screen; make dink "fly"(walk over low hardness);...

It should work.