Reply to Re: A New Version of Dink?
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Hmmm... I like your list.
But when will we finally graduate from the original Dink's limitations? You want to maintain perfect compatibility, which I understand, but is that really what we need?
This is exactly what DinkHD set out to do, fix some stuff, make it HD (well, higher res), run on mobile, etc... but almost nobody here uses it! That's because for all of its improvements it's still the same old Dink engine that doesn't offer much "new".
My dream is for a version of the engine to surface that would not be chained by the past and instead looks towards the future. I'm not talking about the graphics or core engine parts or anything. I mean changing stuff that would assist authors in (optionally) creating new things. On your list you've said you would like to expand the global variable number. I know for a fact Seth looked into this and couldn't do it without breaking compatibility. He also couldn't remove the 99 sprites per screen limit because of compatibility. The very annoying script end "bug" when a sprite gets hit/talked to/etc... can't be fixed without destroying compatibility.
And the list goes on and on and on. You seem to have a lot of talent and learn extremely quickly. I'm afraid that you'll be spending too much time looking at compatibility at the cost of the things that could REALLY make a difference here, to make your version of the engine the one and only for NEW d-mods to come in the following years.
In light of that dream, I've made my own list of things I would love to see:
- Different variable types (float & string come to mind) and the ability to access these in dialogue. Imagine what you could do if you could pass strings into say() lines.
- Multiple math operation support within one line. As in: &x = &strength + 10 / &magic - sp_defense(&target, -1)
- Combined if statements so we don't need to nest a million times for simple stuff.
- Removal of global variable limitation and the limit of concurrent local scripts/variables running.
- True timer support that doesn't rely on frames per second. We could have a wait(1000) actually be 1 second, imagine that.
- Removal of the 99 sprites per screen limit. How I yearn for this.
- Unlimited hardness blocks. No more of this crap we have to put up with.
- Fixing that darn script ender bug. Just run a timer script on a bed and then hit it. Bye bye timer. Or even look at the original dragon scripts, they also have this bug with their callback function.
- Support for instant return values to be used. So we could freely do stuff like: create_sprite(sp_x(¤t_sprite, -1) * 2, sp_y(1, -1), 6, sp_seq(&dummy, -1), 1)
- Accessing the target that we just hurt with a fist/sword whatever to modify the damage or spawn a script. This way we could build reliable proc effects or critical hits for example.
- Global functions. Redink had this ALMOST ready but released it in a bugged state
He even states he regrets this in the DinkC book.
That's just off the top of my head. I doubt many of these things can be achieved while maintaining percet compatibility. Also, I'm only telling you MY opinions, for all I know everyone else would just like a marginal improvement over 1.8 while still being able to play every d-mod there is without changing one setting in their DFArc, which is all it would take
It already supports multiple engines...
But when will we finally graduate from the original Dink's limitations? You want to maintain perfect compatibility, which I understand, but is that really what we need?
This is exactly what DinkHD set out to do, fix some stuff, make it HD (well, higher res), run on mobile, etc... but almost nobody here uses it! That's because for all of its improvements it's still the same old Dink engine that doesn't offer much "new".
My dream is for a version of the engine to surface that would not be chained by the past and instead looks towards the future. I'm not talking about the graphics or core engine parts or anything. I mean changing stuff that would assist authors in (optionally) creating new things. On your list you've said you would like to expand the global variable number. I know for a fact Seth looked into this and couldn't do it without breaking compatibility. He also couldn't remove the 99 sprites per screen limit because of compatibility. The very annoying script end "bug" when a sprite gets hit/talked to/etc... can't be fixed without destroying compatibility.
And the list goes on and on and on. You seem to have a lot of talent and learn extremely quickly. I'm afraid that you'll be spending too much time looking at compatibility at the cost of the things that could REALLY make a difference here, to make your version of the engine the one and only for NEW d-mods to come in the following years.
In light of that dream, I've made my own list of things I would love to see:
- Different variable types (float & string come to mind) and the ability to access these in dialogue. Imagine what you could do if you could pass strings into say() lines.
- Multiple math operation support within one line. As in: &x = &strength + 10 / &magic - sp_defense(&target, -1)
- Combined if statements so we don't need to nest a million times for simple stuff.
- Removal of global variable limitation and the limit of concurrent local scripts/variables running.
- True timer support that doesn't rely on frames per second. We could have a wait(1000) actually be 1 second, imagine that.
- Removal of the 99 sprites per screen limit. How I yearn for this.
- Unlimited hardness blocks. No more of this crap we have to put up with.
- Fixing that darn script ender bug. Just run a timer script on a bed and then hit it. Bye bye timer. Or even look at the original dragon scripts, they also have this bug with their callback function.
- Support for instant return values to be used. So we could freely do stuff like: create_sprite(sp_x(¤t_sprite, -1) * 2, sp_y(1, -1), 6, sp_seq(&dummy, -1), 1)
- Accessing the target that we just hurt with a fist/sword whatever to modify the damage or spawn a script. This way we could build reliable proc effects or critical hits for example.
- Global functions. Redink had this ALMOST ready but released it in a bugged state
He even states he regrets this in the DinkC book.That's just off the top of my head. I doubt many of these things can be achieved while maintaining percet compatibility. Also, I'm only telling you MY opinions, for all I know everyone else would just like a marginal improvement over 1.8 while still being able to play every d-mod there is without changing one setting in their DFArc, which is all it would take
It already supports multiple engines...
