The Dink Network

4 scripts and 6 item bmps for their use, and two additional bmps with no scripts (For ICE and KNOWLEDGE spells). There are no detailed instruction on how to install these spells and get them up and running for the novice DMOD author.

So you will have to add a line in dink.ini to get the graphics into your DMOD, and then you will have to use the add_magic and add_item commands in a script somewhere to make them accessible to Dink/main character.

Of course the bmps are labelled in a way that doesn’t work directly/easily with the dink.ini file, so rename them using the item-nn.bmp convention in which nn is an increasing number from 01 to 06 (assuming you want all six bmps to appear in the DMOD)

So having gone in and done all this work to make this spell/items pack accessible I give it a whirl. The sword is a powerful one, and loads/unloads alright, but the icon that appears in the menu bar is not an icon but words which I didn’t find appealing.

The default magic cost is pretty high for each of the spells that have scripts. More detail on this in the readme wouldn’ve been good

The icon for heal shows up in the Magic/Weapons window but not the status bar

I found the combination of icon and words not that appealing. I would suggest doing two sets of the menu/item bmps, one with words, one without as a choice.

Ice: fires off a blue sparkling star and then the water fountain sprite (because there is no item-ice included in the pack if you get the default acid rain spell if you use add_magic(“item-ice”, nnn, nn)

Judgement day: creates an stomic explosion on a single enemy with about 100 points damage. Sound Fx was strange, sounded like a grunt not a bang.

Heal: well increases you life to 60, so if you have lots of life available (ie you’ve progressed fairly far in a standard DMOD) this may not heal you entirely.

Inferno: shoots out a blue sparkle thing and then the water fountain, not my idea of inferno.

Overall not much of an add on, more work to be done on it.

2 out of 10.

Magic and spells are always one of the most amazing parts of every great medieval RPG games. If you can choose a different main character for the game, mage is usually more challenge but has more fun than a warrior or a knight. I always prefer to use magic in the game, and always hope to get every single magic spell in a game. In the view of magic and spells, Dink Smallwood is subpar to many classical RPG games. So, everytime, if I get a chance to see a new spell used in dmod, I would always be excited. (To me, the coolest magic trick in all dmods up to now is still the frozen magic in POTA.)

Back to this file, although I did not have high expectation from this file, I am still disappointed. There are only 4 item scripts (heal, inferno (I assume), judgement day, and Sword of Sader) and 6 item icons (plus Knowledge and Ice) in this tiny file. Although I did not really run the script in a dmod, from what I saw in the source code, most of them won't work or work poorly.

1. Item-hel: This is probably the most bug-free script, however, it has been used before (not innovative). Basically the main part of this is just a high-gain potion used as a spell instead of an item. &magic_level should be set to 0 in disarm(), too. (Score 1.5/10)

2. Item-ifn: I believe this meant an inferno spell. (The icon said IRFEPRO?) This is basically just the acidrain script or POTA's ice frozen magic. (The author even did not change the command in the script!) As I said earlier, POTA's ice throwing is the coolest magic, but the main trick is on the magic ball's script, dam-ice.c. Here the author did not have any advanced dam-ice script. What you have here is just a copy (I did not check word by word) of acidrain spell! How can you ask for credit if you simply copy Seth's code! (Score 0.0/10)

3. Item-jmd: The best part of this script is that this was indeed written by the author himself. The bad thing is it probably does not work. Defining 8 local variables in use() would easily crash the game if Dink use this magic a few times in one screen! In principle it cast an inferno on a randomly chosen brain monster, and give it 100 hurt. This kind of magic has been used even in the original Dink (by Seth and dragons). It's good to have this for Dink; but the way this script was written, I doubt this can work. (Score 1.0/10)

4. Item-sos: I assume this is some kind of special sword. (Sword of Sader?) Oh, YES! It's so special that you can't even see it! The author did not even bother to modify sword scripts. He simply used fist with all bare-hand Dink graphics. The only difference is that this "item" gives Dink longer range and higher strength. (Score 0.1/10)

5. All icon graphics: Definitely handdraw with some Dink graphics attached. I use Paint to do the graphics, too. But the author should at least make them better. There are 3 different sizes, and none of the size IS the correct size for Dink's icons! Although the sizes of the original Dink's icons varied a little too, this should be easily fixed. Different types of fonts for different icons make them look even worse. (Score 1.5/10)

No any new animation graphics related to the new magic or item. None of the magic has any real new factors in it. Don't bother to download this even though it might not take you any time to do so or occupy any space in your hard drive. I've already sent those files to my trash can... Hmmm, the time I spent in writing this review might be even longer than that the author wrote those files.

This pack contains 3 usable spells, 1 usable item and 2 spells that don't have scripts yet.

The scripts that are available work fine.
The healing spell (item-hel) files life to maximum. The inferno spell (item-ifn) works a bit like acid rain, but this one has a flaming star first so you can cast it over long distances. It even flies over low hills, but won't fly over the mountains. It is stopped by sprites with hardness. The sound is appropriate although it could have been a bit more energetic.
The judgement day spell (item-jmd) gives a blast and chooses randomly an enemy. Very handy, because all you have to do is keep out of range of the enemies and cast the spell. It also works for enemies placed on top of a mountain and even if the enemy hides behind something this spell gets him. If there are no enemies it will blast in the left upper corner. Only the sound doesn't fit; it sounds like a pig making funny noises.
The Sword of Sader (item-sos) adds 52 to attack.
The attacking spells are very powerful as is the sword.
It is indeed a pitty that there are no new graphics.
I especially like the judgement day spell for its features, although it takes a long time to load. If used in a game this one definitely blows away the enemies. If only for this one, I recommend downloading this pack.
I'm curious what the other two, not yet scripted spells will be like.