The Dink Network

This idea came to me about a year and a half ago. It can be quite annoying to use an elixir or something of the like. You open your inventory and grab the elixir. Then when you use it you have to re-open the inventory and re-equip your weapon.

The idea was simple enough. Spawn a script that switches to the strongest weapon. Then when I got into it.. well how the heck can I tell if you wanted to equip a sword or bow? I ended up leaving it at that.

Tonight I went back to that idea, but this time, you choose the priority of the weapon you want equipped. You can choose sword, bow, axe, boots, or bombs. Scripting handles the rest. It will automatically choose the strongest sword or bow depending on your priority of the items. If you don't have it, then it goes down the list. If you don't have any of them, then it reverts to your fists.

So next time you use that elixir or lay a bomb, let the scripting handle equipping your primary weapon.

Coming Soon! (maybe)

The whole elixir thing is annoying, I agree. This is a good idea. But how would the user choose the priority? A little meny before the game starts? And what if he/she wants to change the priority?

The easiest way to use elixirs or bombs is a key-script (like M for map in the main game) - B for a bomb, H for healing)

The priority menu can currently be accessed by pressing 'q'. You can change it anywhere and at any moment (assuming your not being attacked). So it's easy to change your priority weapon right after gaining a new weapon or buying something.

I do agree that pressing a key for bombs and elixirs is more convenient, and probably the best solution, but that can complicate things. If you have a sensible key attached to the bombs (b) or elixirs (e)(h)(l) it can be a hassle to find the key when you want it. For my hand position, the only battle-ready keys are 'z' 'x' 'c'. It's too easy to make a mistake and waste an item that way.

I also enjoy the feel of opening the inventory and selecting the item itself to use it. The visual display of how many actual icons are there makes you think more about using the item. It also just feels more Dinkish to me.

I'm sure this could be usable for other things as well. So if you add a durability system and your weapon breaks you would switch to your next best weapon or if you run out of arrows you would switch back to a sword or something.

Or maybe this idea was just amiss

It's not a bad idea, but the "priority menu" sounds a bit overcomplicated for something as simple as arming a weapon back after using an item. It would be better, I think, if it just went back to whatever you had armed before you drank the elixir.

What scratcher said. For example, if you had a Claw sword equipped so you could cut through bushes or whatever, though it's not the best weapon in the inventory,and you had to switch to use an item for a moment, such as a key, then re-equip the sword for more bush-slaying.

Prehaps an equipment remembering scrip as well as a priority script, and just switching between priority and remembered weapon modes. Just for an idea.

Well, that should be as simple as defining a global and setting it to the weapon slot upon disarming the weapon then re-equipping that weapon slot upon terminating the disposable item.

Be easier to set it up in the button4 script, then set the re-equip for the disposable items.

What about what lots of 1st-person shooter games do, have 2 buttons which switch your item left or right. You know, something like press 'Q' and it equips the weapon to the left of your current one, press 'W' and it switches to the right? It takes a while to switch through a long list of weapons, but it's useful for games that don't have that many weapons.

how about inventing this incredible thing called a quick-belt/ slot? You'd press Num1-0 to bring up an item elected to that key.

A modified version of Prophecy of the Ancient's morphing magic could work well as a different way to access elixirs.