The Dink Network

1) I think I agree with SabreTrout - this has to be the best action D-Mod ever.
2) Entering the Air/Earth building via the side entrance while there are still monsters on the screen tends to crash the game.
3) What's the point of the Star Path? Sure, it's very cool and all that, but since the player has to solve a "puzzle" to get to it, I expected it to be easier. Instead it's even longer and harder than the normal path. Did you make it so the player could gain more XP/bombs?
4) Why are the Twin Knights so easy to beat?
5) Is that Samantha on the last screen of the first ending?
6) Is Lucy still alive if you get the first ending?
7) The "losing" paths (Endings 3 and 4) seem to be significantly easier than the "winning" paths (Endings 1 and 2). Is that intentional?
8) Does the Fire Snake actually have an attack pattern or are its attacks random?
9) I almost expected to have to fight the "Bonca size XXL" in Ending 4.
That will be all for now.

EDIT : Also, when I enter the Shrine of Fire and Water after defeating the Fire Snake, I repeatedly hear the footsteps sound until I exit the screen.

1) Thanks

2) Waah... okay, that's another for the list

3) Yeah, the balancing on that bit is kind of messed up The intention was to make sure that each stage had variant routes, so that the player could have some variety when replaying the levels if they died and to keep the whole thing from seeming too linear. It worked better in some places than others.

4) Are they? I had no perspective by the time I made them. I scripted Samantha and Twin Knights in the two days before the D-Mod was released, heh. Twin Knights was the boss that gave me the most grief in the entire game, conceptually, as my first draft wasn't very fun and the various replacement concepts (Legion and Burning Legion) just didn't work from the design stage. In the end I just remade the Twin Knights and put some work into making them simple and fun.

5) Possibly She couldn't have died in EVERY ending, could she?

6) It's unknown. She could have made it. Perhaps Samantha rescued her, or she found a shelter by herself. She wouldn't have lasted long on her own.

7) I didn't really consider them "losing" paths - more "evil" paths, as opposed to the "good" paths. This may have informed the tone a little - it helps with the evil feeling if you're going on a bit of a rampage, whereas the path of righteousness is never easy. But I think the real reason the good paths are harder is because you have to deal with all those rock monsters - those guys could have been bosses on their own!

8) There are a lot of random elements to it, and as it uses Dink's targetting method it occasionally gets a little lost on the way home, but the attack pattern is simply A) Appear, B) Chase Kara until he hits her or gets hit, C) Retreat to a randomly selected pool of fire and D) splash globs of flame all over the place. Rinse and repeat, increasing the viciousness as HP goes down.

9) I actually had that in the game at one point It was the fake boss before the guardian spirits, instead of the wizard. It didn't feel right there though.

Thanks for the fast reply. Ironically, I edited my post at the very moment you posted yours. ^_^

Regarding the Twin Knights - they're pushovers, and I did think Samantha was a bit of a disappointment as well. Her patterns are too repetitive, and I never had much trouble taking her down with the Fire dress.

On the other hand, that pre-boss fight in the Burning Moat... Mind-numbingly hard.

EDIT : The rock monsters are already bosses... *cough*Rock Gods of Rock*cough*. That was one tough boss battle, by the way.

Fix one bug, create another... steps sound noted.

Yeah, the last battle in the Burning Moat was basically my last chance to throw all the enemies at you, so I really went for it. As for Samantha, well, she's only human

BTW, if you want to send on the Scarab walkthrough to me for finishing like you mentioned in the other thread, feel free.

Twin Knights are pushovers? I haven't managed to beat them yet! How did you do it?
I find that I can kill the water knight, but the fire knight is too fast to hit him without being hurt yourself. It's also very hard not to hit him with fire (which adds to his speed)when attacking the water knight. Is it important not to do that? Or do you just keep running and let them hit each other until one dies and finish off the other one

I use Fire magic on both knights until the water one dies, then I finish off the fire one with water.

The Knights will sometimes "break formation", so you can use one of those moments to hit the fire knight with water to slow him down to normal speed if you're having trouble; though "hit and run" works well enough for me.

EDIT : The CC2 walkthrough... We'll see. I'd really, really like to finish it, but it's becoming pretty clear that I'm being way too slow.
Thanks for the offer.

EDIT 2 : Also, letting the knights hit each other does work pretty well, but then the fight will take a while. You can do both, though - hitting the knights with magic, in addition to making them hit each other.

EDIT 3 : Forget what I said about the Fire Knight slowing down if you hit him with water, I couldn't get it to work again. I guess it must have been one of those weird one-shot bugs. Or maybe my memories were just messed up.

The knights speed up if they hit each other, or if you hit them with their own element. They slow down if you hit them with their opposing element. At least, that's what should be happening.

Ideally you'll want to divide and conquer - if they're right next to each other then they'll hit each other, speed up and become dangerous. Which is O.K if you're very careful, but you'll probably want to keep them at manageable speeds.

So they do slow down if hit with their opposing element? It doesn't always work on my computer, then - I killed the water knight and tried to slow down the fire knight with water, but nothing. That's odd.
Ah, the ways of the Dink Smallwood engine.

Ah, I'd forgotten about that - once you've killed one knight, the remaining one doesn't slow down Not an engine thing, don't worry.

Oh, that explains it. I've just fought them again, and that's exactly what happened. Thanks.

One more thing - when exactly do "max chain" events occur? I've never managed to trigger them on purpose, but having a few extra red hearts was nice when they did occur.

Huzzah! I killed them! (And finished the first ending). I ended up using the little extended bits on the island to shoot diagonally at the knights, which works very well.

Hey, congratulations!
Good luck with the remaining paths.

A little tip for starters :
SPOILER
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-Ending 1 : Leave the Cave of Trials to the south after beating the dragon. After the Cave of Tribulations, follow Henry to the west and enter the Steppes.
-Ending 2 : After going through through either the Cave of Tribulations or the Sunken Lands, go to the village. After the village, speak with Lucy to rescue her.
-Ending 3 : Same as #2, but don't talk to Lucy and follow Samantha instead.
-Ending 4 : Leave the Cave of Trials to the north. After going through the Sunken Lands, kill the wizard.

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END OF SPOILER

EDIT : Also, attacking Lucy or the people in Overlook has a slight effect on the first two endings.

That's not irony, that's coincidence.

You know what would be really fancy for this board? Maybe [spoiler] block-code tags that actually hide spoilers, ala making something like digg's show-comment button.

Hmm... thanks. I thought the word "irony" could be used that way under certain circumstances... But maybe it's only the French word, not the English one. I'll have to look it up in a dictionary.

Also, I agree with Chrispy - spoiler tags would be nice.

Chaining is a little easter egg for people who've played Ikaruga. I just put it in because I didn't want to randomise the drops.

*Reads an Ikaruga FAQ*

Oh, now I get it. Thanks. I'll try to do some more chaining soon, it should be easier now that I know the trick.

New bug report!

The Holy Mother will sometimes skip one of the stages in the final battle, namely the one where she's trying to squash you with two beams (the sixth one).

Triple posting, yay!

Anyway, not sure whether that's intentional, but killing a monster with the same elemental as the one it's using will not give a chaining reward. For example, if you want to do Combination #1 by killing three fire pillbugs, you will get no bread if you kill the third fire pillbug with fire magic.

It's intentional. The chain should continue, but you won't get any rewards.