The Dink Network

Simon Klaebe is back again, and this time with a demo for Necromancer!

It's real, it's very pretty, and in my first 5 minutes I accidentally bee-lined my way to my (deserved) death.

Simon says: "Charged by three witches to restore the balance and defeat Decretius once and for all, Dink must journey to strange lands, battle new monsters and save the world one last time. The demo is just the first land, other lands will be available in the full version."

Give it a whirl!

kinda duckin wild to have an authentic download page for motherduckin' necromancer.

I've managed to get to the end of the demo, and I'm certainly liking what I've seen so far. It's surreal to think we're finally going to get a conclusion to the trilogy.

I've now done both a Theurgy run and a Necromancy run. I encountered some bugs along the way (the most prominent one being that the earth essence spawned inside the rock in the middle of the room, which I couldn't blow up), but I also want to flag that the Necromancy level 2 boost currently forces you to stop moving during combat, which means you get forced to take damage occasionally when normally you could dodge it. I'd recommend changing that in the full release.

Hmmm, you couldn't blow up the rock, because you didn't have a bomb? Or something else? Maybe I should put a check to make sure it doesn't appear inside the big rock's hard box, either that or make the rock not hard once the earth essence appears.

Yes Necromancy level 2 is meant to make you stop. It is the downside of sucking life from corpses. You can offset this by always being on the move so you aren't surrounded by bugs... but that gets harder the more bugs there are. Best to blow up the rock as soon as possible.

I bombed the rock before playing the puzzle, and it respawned when I came back. I bombed it again, and the bomb didn't destroy it. Thankfully, it seemed to have stopped the spider generation, but as mentioned, it did stop me from grabbing the crystal.

Given how common lots-of-fast-creatures-on-screen-at-once is as an encounter type, I get the feeling Necromancy level 2 is going to be a death-sentence for any long-standing necromancy run. I would, for instance, expect that the screenlock in front of the Alchemist would be nye impossible with Necro-2.

I noticed a weird bug with the chicken guy, where I picked the speech option about ducks twice and it just exited conversation, but worked on the third try.

Then I got stuck. With the first task in the game. But it's fine, I'll figure it out the next time I play...

EDIT: Or maybe it was the topic about the magic. Thought it was ducks. Anyway, I'm not too sure the dmod plays well with Yeoldedink - it started crashing on that, and the dialogue bug doesn't happen on DinkHD either.

If having trouble on YeOldeDink perhaps try updating to the latest version YeOldeDink 0.95. Main links in the YeOldeDink thread.

I did no even realise YeOldeDink was updated. I have yet to play the D-Mod.

Been busy, and will likely be for the first part of the week. So much to do, so little done...

so what exactly, out of all the graphics and even the title screen, was handled in some way by ai. what was its general involvement

Bombed the rock before playing the puzzle - never thought of that. I always find it amazing how different people play

Going to have to test that out and fix it reappearing, thanks for finding that.

Will try the sceenlock stalkers with N2 level, not sure if I ever tested that screen with N2. I do consider N2 a dual edged sword. It helps, but can also hurt.

Ah Heggarty the chicken guy... yeah he's been weird in the last round of beta testing. Mind you I was on YOD pre-release version 7. Will take another look at that, thanks.

Besides the KlingAI of Decretius disappearing, the Witches static three shot, I used AI to generate a number of pre-images/guides as well as the blacksmith. I went over these and edited them in Gimp, or just created them again in blender. Even the blacksmith, which is the most AI generated sprite in there, I went in and edited/changed his appearance as well as animate with the help of Mixamo. So... it's a mixture. I see AI as a tool to assist, but not yet at the point of just typing in text into a prompt and getting what you want. My attempts at using the image to video AI for the cut scenes with Dink smashing his sword against the basilisk scale and the pole were so disappointing I created the whole thing in blender from scratch using makehuman. And the Decretius disappearing is something I plan to get around re-doing from scratch in blender as it is not great, and I'm going to need a new Decretius model/sprite as I don't want to re-use the PQ Redux version (Spike from over 20 years ago). Oh, and I did use suno ai to create some of the music, wanted to see what that is like.

A patch for the earth essence crystal getting stuck in big rock, and big rock re-spawning.

These are just 3 DinkC scripts, 1 new and 2 revised to fix the big rock stuff at the end, so that it doesn't re-spawn and isn't making the green earth crystal impossible to pick up.

I should upload a new version... but at 470+ MB, and it exceeding the site's 150 MB contribution page limit I think I'll wait to see if anything else needs fixed before I pester redink1 with a new full .dmod version.

Okay, Yeoldetoast has found the cause of Heggarty's problems... my bad typing/scripting, I used a colon instead of a semi-colon... maybe it's my old man's eyesight... oh well...

Here is the updated script patches file for both this and the green earth essence crystal/big rock reappearing fixes.

I've tested the screenlock with multiple stalkers just before the Alchemist's cave entrance on Necromancy level 2, and while it is harder, even more so without the herb boots, it doesn't mean guaranteed death. Although it does pay to be on the move as much as possible. I find the dual edged aspect of the Necromancy level 2 interesting, although how to will come into play in later levels ... well, time will tell.

More script updates - these fix the big rock not blowing up in the cave with Tenniki if you place the bomb above the rock. It also includes the chicken farmer stuff.

I'll definitely continue my Necromancy run once the full game is out, but it's nice to know it's at least not rendering the game unplayable.

Out of curiosity, are there going to be different endings if you finish as a theurgist or a necromancer? And, if there are, will there also be one for completing the game without ever choosing either path? The latter is possible at the moment, but I'm not sure if you intend to have any moments where you're forced to make a choice.

Yes, the game will get more and more different depending which path you are going down, as the challenges and tasks needed to increase either Theurgy or Necromancy will vary. As to what will happen if you choose neither path, or keep offsetting an increase in one with another in the opposite direction - well, it will be harder to defeat Decretius that is for sure. How much harder? Don't know. While I have a general development plan, things change as I create scripts and graphics. Originally the first world was going to have no humans as such, but humanoid creatures that walked on two legs but I decided against that as it was beyond my blender skill level to create these to a level I was happy with.

Me when I realize this isn't an April Fools Day joke: "My Disappointment Is Immeasurable And My Day Is Ruined"

right? now the only things we can make fun of for not coming out are the dark avilan and dink goes dating

There are plenty of other DMods I never expected to come out that we could point to. CC3, Crosslink, Back from the Grave, QfD3, etc...

Just none of them have been such mainstays as Necromancer.

v1.02 is available now: https://www.dinknetwork.com/file/necromancer/

As a Linux user I thank you drone1400 for pointing out that YeOldeDink or DinkHD is required.

It is a shame that YeOldeDink has not replaced freedink in the various Linux distros. I've heard other Linux users play the original game and then express frustration that dmods don't work when they come here to the DN.

The AppImages are there to skip the drudgery of distro packaging. Due to the minimal feedback I receive, presumably they either work perfectly or not at all.

whats stopping you from taking over freedink anyways

its not like kieran had any interest in actually maintaining it, so it shouldnt be hard

Well, I could ask you or anyone else here the same question! The short answer is it would be difficult and I don't want to, especially at this point. I started yeoldedink so it could be my own personal weird fork, like reDink was, but with all the features Beuc wouldn't/couldn't include mainly so I could test out a few C/++ libraries in a way that was sort of useful, rather than make any sort of Freedink successor.

I wouldn't even know where to begin with formal distro packaging.

you could ask me, but it'd be pointless. you're the one speaking in another language around here, after all.

>I wouldn't even know where to begin with formal distro packaging.

Wait, does distro packaging fall under the maintainer's responsibilities? I always thought that's up to the distro maintainers to decide what package/versions to include in their official releases...

As far as I'm aware, a maintainer would just handle the actual repo and its source code, and the distro maintainers would then either include the "official" appimage or whatever, or build the software from source themselves to make sure it works with their distro.

Edit: At this point though, YeOldeDink has gone so far beyond FreeDink, I would rather it just replaced FreeDink altogether as its own separate thing

The earth essence appeared at the bottom left comer of the screen, right behind (above) the boulder there. I tried to explode it with a bomb, but it didn't work. Lucky for me I got a fresh Quick Save where to revert to. I played v1.02.

I believe it's up to devs (or someone associated) to create and submit packages, after making sure they conform to whatever distro standards exist regarding paths and whatnot. Sometimes the distro package management people will add their own patches, but these are only minimal in order for it to compile and run.

whatever the case, it'd still be nice to rip freedink away from kieran and get that unmaintained and unsupported shit away from outsiders who might think it's actually the current way to play it. it's got the same issue dinkhd did where its presented as more than it is while there's a much more unknown version of the game that works better and gets less attention.

Hmmm, was Tenniki near that boulder when he died?

If not, I think the simplest fix is to make the crystal appear in a defined spot, not relative to where Tenniki dies. I think I was over scripting this...

I was wondering if DinkHD would ever include DinkLau support? Maybe this should be a separate topic...

Okay here's a fix for that, just one script to over-write in the story folder

>Hmmm, was Tenniki near that boulder when he died?

Yes, he was pretty close (on the right) and in that sense that position was normal.

Well, I can now say I've finished it. It was not like I expected it would be. I have to say, it is one of the most interesting and fun D-Mods in my recent memory. It's quite different compared to original Dink.

I completed it on a theurgy run. Should I also try a necromancy run?

I played it on the latest version of YeOldeDink. I have not encountered any major problems. Sometimes I'd get stuck on terrain when using fast-forward, but that also happened with other D-Mods. And it's not like you'd even want to use it with this D-Mod anyway.

The enemies are difficult, and noticeably smarter then usual Dink enemies. Sometimes I could bait the one-eyed blobs behind corners or rocks in the caves. And once a spikey one decided to flee to the end of the cave, only to go back and fight Dink. Yeah, I got weird nicknames for the monsters.

Every time there was a numerical puzzle, I could bypass it by random guessess. I don't know if I should even consider this a negative though. I wasn't one for me. The color-shape puzzle was triky, but was finally a puzzle I could solve by thinking instead of cheesing.

Combat is very different from regular Dink. I found myself switching between a fighter and a mage many times. It was no more "strong and sturdy fighter who also happens to know magic". It was more like "a mix of a figher and a mage who switches styles depebding on the enemies". I had low defense, and I had to use hit and run tactics for most enemies. I found the herb boots essencial if I were to cast magic to fight the faster enemies.

The story seemed longer then it probably was. That I had fun and my playstyle is likely different from others likely says something about the D-Mod.

The only bug I noticed was that I managed to get two bags of chicken dung, but the alchemist only gave me 6 flashbangs in total. Was this intentional?

Also - Bluray?

Overall, I'm impressed. This might be one of the very few demos on TDN I'd actually rate with at least a 9. Well done, Simon. Necromancer might live up to it's legendary reputation. I actually like it more then your any of your other D-Mods.

Yes you can get two bags of fermented chicken dung, and that should give you six bombs in total, that was intentional - eventually after beta testers had feedback. You only need two bombs, but it seemed wise to give more as most players will try and bomb many rocks.

Is it worth doing a Necromancy run? Well, the story in this land doesn't really change, just what abilities you get, which can impact on fighting style. Necromancy is more about destructive power than protective power. Although I do plan to diverge the story between the two paths in later lands.

I've found some bugs with Moulien Snottler. If you attack him, he gets aggressive and tries to fight you, but every time I do this he gets caught inside the wall, unable to stop me fireballing him to death. To make matters worse, killing him doesn't actually change the cutscene that takes place when you move the boulder, so he still talks, tells you he's returning to the surface, and takes the lantern away. EDIT: Nor does it change any of the other cutscenes involving him. It does, however, count as an NPC kill for Necromancy.

I'd suggest either removing the ability to kill him, or resolving these issues.

Ah... I never thought anyone would try to kill him, he is very tough... but you are right I should deal properly with his death.

Maybe I might make the rock able to be blown up if M Snottler is dead...

Hmmm, I have to think about it, and the NPC dead count for this story is a factor.

The simplest solution is to make him unkillable.

"Caught inside a wall", do you mean he gets around the hardness of the cave and gets stuck on the other side? I've noticed this with enemies at times, mainly where the hardness meets the edge of screen. Is this what happened?

You can push the rock on your own, so that's not an issue. But I do think making him unkillable is the best plan, since it also means you don't have to deal with things like "why can't I steal his lantern?"

And yeah, that's approximately what happened. He also had a nasty habit of teleporting backwards each time he got hit, which I expect is the combat initialization trigger happening repeatedly. But even the initial hit was enough to get him stuck. It wasn't a result of the edge issue though (I think that's a hardness issue with Dink itself), instead I think it's the animation of him turning around that did it.

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Yeah, making him unkillable is now done.

This zip file has all the .c scripts that were changed since ver 1.01 of the demo, so just extract and overwrite the existing files in the story folder.

Looking at depth dots, I think Moulien is actually too close to the cave hardness, but I wanted him down so Dink had somewhere to push without standing over him.