The Dink Network

Figured it's about time I get off my arse and update this D-Mod.

My goals for this update are to:
- Fix bugs
- Touch up certain scripts/messy points in the game
- Rebalance certain enemies/aspects of the game
- Remove the current ending and complete the first trial (find Moa and convince her to strum her magical harp)

If anyone feels like giving suggestions or telling me about bugs I may not be aware of that would be greatly appreciated.

At this stage I have:
- Fixed the bomb bug (when having only one bomb would consume the bomb without placing it).
- Fixed a bug where if you walked up the stair's in Fransisco's house (farmer in Dink's neighbourhood) at a certain angle you would walk into his table and be stuck in hardness.
- Fixed a mis-warp in the inn in the windy part of the Icelands where you couldn't exit the rental room.
- Nerfed the Sword of Protection's defence against yellow scorpions (still extra protection against them, just not as much).
- Severely decreased the drop rate of large hearts (hopefully now the game will be less of a hack-and-slash and you'll be more encouraged to buy the fancy swords like the Drainage Sword).
- Fixed a bug in Ian's Merchandise Shop (in the inn in the Icelands) where if you exited the conversation at any point Dink wouldn't unfreeze.

Fiddling around yesterday I found that the old Potion Bag System I made a while back had a few flaws (mainly with the 'H' hotkey). It was slightly inaccurate in terms of picking which potion to drink on the fly.

Spent some time re-coding it and tidying it up today. Also might add some extra hotkeys (probably 1, 2, 3 and 4 at this stage) to allow the player to decide which potion to drink themselves. Will probably upload an update to that file.

Also realised that my implementation of the whole potion bag system in TOAB was quite messy, so might do some work on fixing that up. I feel like having decreased the drop rate of large hearts will encourage the player to spend more gold on potions, so hopefully I can make the bag system a useful addition.

Gotta make sure I balance the gold income so the player isn't broke 24/7 though.

There should be a hotkey to make Dink dump ass. Then you can collect the shit as a throwable weapon.

Dink would need some glove or something then, unless a "charm" stat is added.

Been messing around with some stuff lately. Thinking about new spells I can implement to expand the magic element of the game.

Dink can summon asteroids.

that looks so awesome!

Questions about the asteroids

1. Can they hurt Dink?
2. Do they have hardness or can you walk through them with ease? If so, it may need to have a limiter in places else problems can occur, or some way to get rid of them; like a very strong punch.
3. How vulnerable is Dink while casting/positioning the spell?
4. Are there going to be upgrades where there are bigger and/or badder meteors?
5. Will the enemy have a special sprite if killed/squished with it?
6. Will there be any secrets/minigames/puzzles/etc involving the spell?
7. How good are the meteors at squishing Leprochauns?

Will we get an upgraded version of the spell called meteor that decimates the entire screen?

At this stage it's very much a WIP, and very incomplete. All I've done is make the animation and the basic functionality. Next step is the finer aspects, such as the one you've mentioned.

At this stage you can cast the roid, walk under it, and then be trapped forever! Muahahaha!

But yes, at this stage a clone of Dink is created and left in place while Dink is turned into the targeting reticle. Gotta figure out how I'm gonna approach his vulnerability amongst other things. Don't wanna have the game ruined because you dropped a rock on yourself by accident.

"Will we get an upgraded version of the spell called meteor that decimates the entire screen?"

Unlikely, unfortunately.

Heyyyy, put one in anyways.

You could make the roid fade away after a certain period. You could make an invisible missile the size of the roid prior to it falling to prevent it from falling on dink's location. You could just turn hardness off so you can actually walkthrough it.

I'm not sure how you're going to do touch_damage() while determining the location of the roid. I suppose you could run through all brain 9, 10, 16, missile brains, and any other animated brains, and freeze them while you're selecting the location and then unfreeze them when you're done selecting. That would be a pretty interesting effect, but running through all those sprites might be a bit lag-inducing.

" I suppose you could run through all brain 9, 10, 16, missile brains, and any other animated brains, and freeze them while you're selecting the location and then unfreeze them when you're done selecting. That would be a pretty interesting effect, but running through all those sprites might be a bit lag-inducing."

That was the first thing I was gonna try, if that doesn't work too well I'll have a headache to deal with.

I would just give the asteroids an hp and let them be destroyed by Dink or Enemies. Probably not the best solution but the one with the least headache trying to figure out. Also, make sure you consider that if you put too many on the screen you could probably crash the game. So perhaps limit the number on the screen to a certain number (depending on how many sprites you use on your most decorated screens).

I don't think it's really necessary to freeze everything. That can be what makes your spell unique and not overpowered, that you can use it most easily on slow enemies and enemies that haven't started chasing you yet. Plus, if enemies are frozen, it may be hard to see which direction they are heading in, so that you don't miss.

Good ideas, newguy. I definitely hadn't thought of giving the roids an HP. I think it wouldn't be such a big deal to leave them behind (editor_type 4) if they were destructible.

I like the way you've built the animations, and especially how accurately the shadow tracks with the falling and rotational aspects of the asteroids.

If I can presume that the asteroid will land where the reticule indicates, which yields control to Dink once it launches, perhaps it could be left to the whim of the player if they wish to be crushed under the asteroid.

To be nice, you could provide a mechanism to limit the amount of damage Dink takes from this and allow a punch out, as Dink will be inside the hardbox of the crack anyway. Optionally, he could fall through the crack and be warped back to the spot he was standing on just prior to being crushed?

finish this series.

Please finish the dmod!

:'(

I wish!

then do it. you got a lot of it so far

@ DinkDude95:
> :'(
>
> I wish!

Make your wishes come true! Think how much you could improve on an effort you have already started.

@ DinkDude95:

If you cannot finish the whole thing, then how about trimming it down in scope to a short romp?

let's scoop up all these unfinished dmods and make them group efforts.

@Skurn:
That's an idea I like too. Of course, the unfinished games will change a bit under new authorship, but that's okay with me.

I was thinking of basing my next(*) dmod on something from our unfinished collection.

Anybody else want to do that?

(*)=(after "Before...", currently under construction and targeted for a release sometime before the late spring of 2019)

i'm enough of a loser to think of a bunch of story and then not actually making it.

maybe others have written their stories out too then we gud

i'm enough of a loser to think of a bunch of story and then not actually making it

Reverse the process? Start mapping first, put a tree onto the screen, then get bored while doing that, close the editor, think about deleting the folder, then feel sorry for the tree, reopen the editor, add a guard next to the tree (because he wants to cut it), then make a little story about Dink trying to prevent that from happening. Dmod's title?
The wrath of the Treehugger