The Dink Network

D-Mod Learning Stuff

January 23rd, 2003
v1.00
Score : 7.0 good
fish.gif
Binirit
Peasant She/Her
 
This tutorial explains all the basic things you need to know on how to create a D-mod. It explains the use of the editor, basic scripting and gives tips.

I know that explaining how to script is really difficult, but the following will not do what it says:

say_stop("hi", 1); = let player say "hi" you can skip text by pressing [SPACE] (while playing)

This will only work if a freeze() procedure is added.

When explaining the colourcodes, the author does not mention that text might not be showing after using a '% before a I, D or J, and that you have to put a space after '% to prevent that from happening.

The author_learnstuff.txt says the following:

REMEMBER! Always put an [;] behind a line, okay?
Now, try experimenting with this! This is the choice-dialogue box that dmods are using often. Everything from the load game menu to talking with NPC's is done with this. It's actually quite easy to use and so here is an example:
choice_start() "Yes" "No"
choice_end()

Since the author has just stated that a semicolon should be after every line and he then gives an example of the choice menu without any semicolon behind the line, this could be confusing for newbies.

He indeed states a bit further:

CAUTION! -> NO [;] BEHIND THE "if (&story == 3)" !!!

But that still does not explain to the reader why there also should not be any semicolon behind the lines of the choice menu.

This example of a script misses a letter, namely the 't' of & current_sprite:

say_stop("`5Wow, that's great Dink! I mean, If you can read this, you're on the good way", & curren_sprite);

The tut1.txt that is added is supposed to be a modified version, but the modifications are very few and of no importance. Several sections are not modified at all, such as The Map Edit Screen, Tile Selection Modes, Sprite Replacement Mode, Editing the Hardbox & Depth Dot of a Sprite, and Attaching a Script to a Sprite.
Other parts of the author_learnstuff.txt are from DinkC.txt. Most of chapter 5 is copied from that, as is the whole chapter ITEMS.

Others only have very small changes. For example: in tut1.txt the text says: 'After a really cool title screen (...)' while in the author_learnstuff.txt the text is changed into: 'After a nice title screen (...)'.
Tut1.txt says: 'Press ESCAPE.' whereas the author_learnstuff.txt says: 'Hit [ESCAPE].'.
Tut1.txt says: '(...)we are now moving a tree! Neat.' The author_learnstuff.txt says: '(...)we are now moving a tree. Sweet.'
Now, those changes really do not add anything nor make the text easier to understand.

Some things however, have been added to the original text of tut1.text, like the tip that you can press I to see information on all sprites, and that you can circle through the sprites with the [ and ] keys (the author says that you have to use the { and } keys, and, although that works as well, you then have to use the shift key too, so the [ ] keys are more handy).
Those are indeed helpful tips, but, if you are saying that tut1.txt is modified then you have to come up with more things then just a few changed words and added lines. To just copy seven complete chapters from some other tutorial and add a few things to the remaining ones is too easy.
One thing the author could have at least done, if he indeed wanted a modified version, is to get rid of typo’s in the text, such as this one: ‘say("Thankyou, human.", & current_sprite);’. It is too easy to just change minor things and then say the text is modified.

Luckily, there is still enought text left that is written by the author himself. I do think that it is very useful to have several tutorials on the same subject, since the same things are always differently explained by different authors and if a newbie does not understand something that is explained in a certain way, changes are he will understand it if he reads another explanation. And that is one of the reasons why I like this tutorial. Other reasons are that it is explained clearly, it has good tips such as to download a skeleton, it gives nice examples and it gives a detailed explanation on how to use the editor. And it also combines most of the parts on how to create a D-mod.

This is a fairly good tutorial and although it has some faults and flaws, I would still recommend it for those who want to learn how to create a D-mod.