The Dink Network

To open the month of July, I present to you dinkdragon's sophomore D-Mod effort, An Age Of Darkness. Interestingly, after an onslaught of D-Mods with "Dink" in the title, this is the first in a while to be without it. Supposedly it's because you play a slayer in the D-Mod, but I was hoping for something along the lines of playing some fierce guitar with the almighty group Slayer.

I actually decided to play through this one, but I am currently stuck. Where on earth do you get the movie?

You got farther than me . It's hard to know what to say about this dmod. There are a lot of things that annoy/bewilder me about it, but some cool stuff as well...

shall i tell where the movie is?

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it is under the leaves of the red tree in a cave, the screen under the goblin blocade
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got it?

Yeah, I got it. I like how everything's hidden, and you have no sense of direction in this D-Mod. Ha. Ha. Haha.

I like all the freeze-w/o-unfreeze glitches.

I haven't seen too many of those, though I've run across one or two. I like how the slayer inexplicably turns into a pig at one point, with slayer attack animations and Dink push animations.

turn into a pig, where?

Oh, congratulations on testing your own D-Mod, not.

Hey, stop joking and tell me where gorbac turn
into a pig!

Huh?! NEW SMILEYS?!
I thought those were morally forbidden on this site...

On the lemonade stand screen, but he doesn't turn into a pig until he walks on the screen from the direction of the goblin roadblock.

hey, milobones only gave me an 6,7 (or something)

but my D-mod was so cool, only one bug...

<sob>

It was very cool; in fact, I wish more dmods had the same elan (6.2 was a little harsh.) But only one bug is wrong... I'll list the ones I can remember:
Talking to table in house with feasting humans freezes you permenantly.
Talking to duck after you've already gotten the quest freezes you permenantly.
Many barrels are placed on hardness.

And lesser bugs:
Screens without visible borders. (This is really annoying, because you think you can go sideways but you can't )
Poor hardboxing on the ducks' houses.

It may seem like a short list, but keep in mind that having to hit alt-f4 and reload the dmod and start all over from the last save point takes a lot of time and is quite boring.

If you got rid of the bugs it'd be (selon moi) in the high sixes/low sevens. If you at least gave the player some warning about the hidden entrances, and made the enemies a bit harder (especially the boss and others towards the end) it might tack on another point.

I'm waiting for the fixed version before I play it.But it sounds interesting.

well, i can always make a patch...

I normally don't re-review dmods, but since yours was cool, I might make an exception if you put out a patch.

"duck1.c" is one of the bad scripts... you have if(&story == 1) when you probably mean if(&story == 22), so if story is 22, you never get unfrozen.

Me, I always try to add an unfreeze(1) at the end of every talk procedure, just it case

well, i just copied the "mother.c" script, and changed a little, so i forgot changing to if(&story == 22)...

but anyway, i don't much more than to change that duck problem and too easy enemies, if that is all, then i'm done with the patch...

In addition to what Milo's already mentioned (all of which I noticed also - especially the "invisible walls," grr), I've got a handful I thought were worth bringing to your attention:

* When your character attacks downward, one of his animation frames jerks further back than it should.

* Many screens with a screenlock unlock after you kill only one enemy. On some screens it makes sense (big bonca and a few spike creatures); on others it doesn't (two big boncas).

* Your character still makes the Dink moan when he's attacked. While it may not necessarily be a bug, it would be more fitting if you changed it to the sound of a slayer being attacked.

* I didn't really pay any attention to what the king was saying, so I don't know if this was intentional or not, but the stone giant (or "mummy") underneath the castle is invisible and seems to stay in one spot. Also, you can go back in there and kill the "mummy" again, thus returning the story number (or whatever.. I need to brush up on my D-Modding knowledge) to an older state and requiring you to talk to the king again to make further progress.

* As I mentioned earlier, I turned into a pig when I walked back onto the screen with the lemonade stand, when I returned from the path to the goblin blockade.

* Strangely, there are always pigs stuck behind the lemonade stand, which you can kill for 150 experience each. They also respawn as soon as you return to the screen.

I'll be sparing and wait to review it after you've fixed some (hopefully all) of these bugs.

well, it won't take that long to fix...

but i have some defence against your complaining:

how shall i not make invisible walls (mostly in the desert) when there is no sand height, only sand and water...

the sp_nodraw(&thigny,1... oh, i forgot to change to thingy instead of 1... (i think)
that's where the "mummy" is...

and i guess that the screenlock problem is because they shall have brain 10 or 16, if they have an attack sequence...

how shall i not make invisible walls (mostly in the desert) when there is no sand height, only sand and water...

You can place invisible walls that make Dink say "I shouldn't wander this far" when he walks over it. It'd still be annoying, but it'd make sense.

Or he could say .. 'phew, this desert is too hot.Forget this,I'm going back.' or
'Owch.An invisible wall.Well,that sucks.'

In Cloud Castle 2: Scarab we had a sort of force-field barrier thingy to stop Dink going any further.

You couldn't see it, but you were told it was there, and the Barrier Poles signified where it was.

That was a good solution, yes. *nod of approval*

another way would be to warp Dink a few screens back when he reaches the end of the desert, so he could wander there forever without really getting anywhere.

well, that's a good idea scratcher, but how shall i do?

*edit* well, forget it, it would just be strange... you would get lost...

but how do you make him say something when he walks over an invisible barrier...

*edit* well, forget it, it would just be strange... you would get lost...

nope but it's pretty complex... here's a short invisible wall script:

void main()
{
sp_nodraw(&current_sprite, 1);
sp_touch_damage(&current_sprite, -1);
}
void touch()
{
int &dinkx = sp_x(1, -1);
&dinkx += 10;
move_stop(1, 6, &dinkx, 1);
say("Mirage wall!", 1);
}

Depending on where the wall is, you'd wanna change sp_x(); to sp_y(); and decrease pixels instead of adding them and change the direction Dink moves to. (just say if you didn't understand. )

well, if i don't want him to move shall i just have:

void main()
{
sp_nodraw(&current_sprite, 1);
sp_touch_damage(&current_sprite, -1);
}
void touch()
{
say("Mirage wall!", 1);
}

then you should do something like this... say_stop is necessary.

void main()
{
sp_nodraw(¤t_sprite, 1);
sp_touch_damage(¤t_sprite, -1);
}
void touch()
{
sp_touch_damage(¤t_sprite, 0);
say_stop("Mirage wall!", 1);
sp_touch_damage(¤t_sprite, -1);
}

EDIT: not sure if that could stop to work in some situations, say_stop_npc or

say("Mirage wall!", 1);
wait(1000);
sp_touch_damage(¤t_sprite, -1);
}

would "always" work.

Of course, just say(); would work too, like you suggested... I must be tired... nevertheless I'm pretty sure everyone would prefer if you freezed or moved Dink.

well, that would be too much work in the desert, you know, one script for each invisible wall, but i have fixed it already...

now the only problem left, is the screenlock problem... i guess i only should change brain or something, i can show a monster script

//Bonca.. strong one

void main( void )
{
screenlock(1);
int &mcounter;
sp_brain(&current_sprite, 9);
sp_speed(&current_sprite, 1);
sp_distance(&current_sprite, 50);
sp_timing(&current_sprite, 33);
sp_exp(&current_sprite, 80);
sp_base_walk(&current_sprite, 600);
sp_base_death(&current_sprite, 550);
sp_base_attack(&current_sprite, 590);
sp_defense(&current_sprite, 3);
sp_strength(&current_sprite, 10);
sp_touch_damage(&current_sprite, 5);
sp_hitpoints(&current_sprite, 28);
preload_seq(531);
preload_seq(533);
preload_seq(537);
preload_seq(539);
preload_seq(551);
preload_seq(553);
preload_seq(557);
preload_seq(559);

preload_seq(542);
preload_seq(544);
preload_seq(546);
preload_seq(548);

}

void hit( void )
{
playsound(29, 22050,0,&current_sprite, 0);

sp_target(&current_sprite, &enemy_sprite);
//lock on to the guy who just hit us
//playsound

}

void die( void )
{

screenlock(0);

{
int &hold = sp_editor_num(&current_sprite);
if (&hold != 0)
editor_type(&hold, 6);

&save_x = sp_x(&current_sprite, -1);
&save_y = sp_y(&current_sprite, -1);
external("emake","medium");
}

void attack( void )
{
playsound(31, 22050,0,&current_sprite, 0);
&mcounter = random(4000,0);
sp_attack_wait(&current_sprite, &mcounter);
}

it should be:

void die( void )
{
int &crap = get_sprite_with_this_brain(9, &current_sprite);
if (&crap < 2)
{
screenlock(0);
}
&save_x = sp_x(&current_sprite, -1);
&save_y = sp_y(&current_sprite, -1);
external("emake","medium");
int &hold = sp_editor_num(&current_sprite);
if (&hold > 0)
{
editor_type(&hold, 6);
}
}

I typed that off the top of my head, so beware

well, i'll rty it then...

now, i tried to change the fire-to-grass tiles so i have desert hills and such (from stone of balance (guess so)) so i just made the desert had the same name as the firethingy but now, it changes from desert hills, to fire every half second, what shall i do to hinder this?

The water tiles and the fire tiles are animated. It's a hardcoded thing, you can't change it. If you want to add new tiles, don't add them to the fire/water tilesets.

but... but... dang!!

i use all tilesets already!!

The full 600*400? Whoa... that's a lot of tiles.

yeah, it's lots of worlds in my D-mod...