The Dink Network

For the last file of the year (unless someone is very fast!) Erwin presents a demo version of his great looking D-Mod Day of the Carcass.

I believe this is the first D-Mod from the DDC contest to actually be released...
Not bad seeing as the deadline was only 1st of January 2009!

Downloading. Awesome!

What's with everyone releasing their files at the end of the year?

28mb Downloading it now.

28MB for a demo? This better be freaking worth it.

Edit: It was really worth it. Robert Miles is a nice touch. As is Enya. Don't like boston though.

Played through a few minutes of it, and I quite liked it. I found it rather annoying that David has a sword and herb boots, and all I have are some arrows to go with my bow, as David (NPC) kept killing everything before I got a chance to! I really hate the slow charging time it takes for me to get a decent shot off with the bow. I was also rather annoyed that David could hurt me.

The picture on the title screen of Nadine with an actual bow and arrow was mildly misleading, too.

Aside from that, I really liked the sytem, I'm looking forward to the full release.

David can't be healed!He would be easily get killed...

Played through a few minutes of it, and I quite liked it. I found it rather annoying that David has a sword and herb boots, and all I have are some arrows to go with my bow, as David (NPC) kept killing everything before I got a chance to! I really hate the slow charging time it takes for me to get a decent shot off with the bow. I was also rather annoyed that David could hurt me.

If David is getting annoying just Phase Shift that ducker .

BTW the beginning (the part with the pillbugs, boncas and slayer) is mostly meant to let you get used to the new things. Once you get farther you'll have more to do.

Too big. Really.

I think the system should be introduced in the game itself too. Now you have to read the readme to find out how to use the system. And the readme just vaguely describes what each button does, how am I supposed to know what 'phase shift' does?

I still need to get used to the system before I can give an honest opinion about how good the new system is from a player's perspective, I definitely think the system should be explained step by step in the game itself too...

Just finished the review. I really enjoyed the little demo but unfortunately, because of the several problems the party system makes, I could not give the demo more than 6.6

Very nice... Haven't played this whole thing yet though, I'll review it later.

Problems: When you use a potion you should be able to choose who you would like to heal. David shouldn't be able to hurt you.

Otherwise I really liked this, it includes some very clever scripting, and I'm sure the full version will be one of the best mods around!

EDIT: I also loved the mapping... and Ziggy stardust!

You can heal David by pressing C.

Also, David is annoying for getting killed all the time.

The spiderwebs need fixing. I figured out that you need to shoot them with an arrow, but sometimes I'll get stuck inbetween two pieces of furniture making it impossible to shoot the thing.

If anyone else gets this problem, press 't' to open the console and enter in set_dink_speed(3). Escape will close the console.

I think the system should be introduced in the game itself too. Now you have to read the readme to find out how to use the system. And the readme just vaguely describes what each button does, how am I supposed to know what 'phase shift' does?

I think I clearly explained what is does in the readme. I was planning to introduce the player to the new things through playing but I didn't have the time to do that. I can't explain it any better than what the readme already explains anyway. If you don't know how things work after you've read the readme simply try them out. If you still don't know how stuff works after that I can't help you.

Just finished the review. I really enjoyed the little demo but unfortunately, because of the several problems the party system makes, I could not give the demo more than 6.6

I haven't been able to let people test this yet. Please tell me what problems you're talking about are and I'll try to fix them in a new version.

David shouldn't be able to hurt you.

I tried several things but couldn't manage to fix that. If anybody knows how to do this please let me know. For now just avoid getting too close to him.

Also, David is annoying for getting killed all the time.

If he's annoying or dying use Phase Shift.

The spiderwebs need fixing. I figured out that you need to shoot them with an arrow, but sometimes I'll get stuck inbetween two pieces of furniture making it impossible to shoot the thing.

Yeah I noticed that. If only there were graphics of a brown maiden with a melee weapon.
If you get stuck like that just have David free you by letting him come to you and then let him cast Shadow Shock.

I think you've managed to create the most resource-heavy dmod in existence.

I tried this on my laptop, but it was too laggy to seriously play... and I can play Oblivion on that laptop.

I can't seem to beat the dragon. Any hints? The only thing that seems to do any damage whatsoever is Nadine's Ultimate attack which I can never survive long enough to use more than once.

Here's a bit of a summary for what you should do to defeat the dragon.

The Dragon can only be harmed by an ultimate attack. Nadine's ultimate deals more damage but david's heals the both of you for 100%. You can extenquish the fire dragons with an ice arrow which reduces their defense to 0. Nadine can escape the burning from the boss's fire magic by casting Ice Shield (if you didn't get Ice Shield just yet try looking around a bit more) and David can escape it with Phase Shift. The fire dragons should be your main target if you haven't got the mana for an ultimate. Kill the fire dragons before the boss can cast his ultimate attack. Keep your health up by using David's Drain Life.

I think you've managed to create the most resource-heavy dmod in existence.

Yeah I tried to fix this as much as I could but it's still quite laggy. It works well enough on my pc though. I think I should clean up a load of code for the next version so it doesn't use that many variables. If that doesn't work I'll just blame Dink for being weak

Just finished the review. I really enjoyed the little demo but unfortunately, because of the several problems the party system makes, I could not give the demo more than 6.6

I just read your review and I have a couple of things to say/ask.

Firstly I can't believe you didn't even finish the demo. Seriously reviewing something that you haven't finished shouldn't be allowed. Secondly what do you mean by not being able to heal David? You can easily heal him by using Drain Life or a potion. Even if all that healing isn't enough you can Phase Shift him.

Also it seems you blamed my D-Mod (giving it a mere 6.6) for not working while it's probably either your computer somehow (perhaps your keyboard is split in two? ) or just you.

EDIT: Patrunjelu just tell me whatever happens when you press 'E' or 'F' while there are monsters around and what happens when you press 'C'. If there's somehow a bug in my D-Mod I want to find it and squish it. To do that I first need to know what the bug is and if it exists at all.

BTW: Key scripts don't work while you're charging your bow. So basically you can't controll David while you're shooting. Stuff like this just makes me want to switch to something better than Dink

David is clearly overpowered due to his speed of attacks. He can easily get killed

Hmm?

Firstly I can't believe you didn't even finish the demo. Seriously reviewing something that you haven't finished shouldn't be allowed. Secondly what do you mean by not being able to heal David? You can easily heal him by using Drain Life or a potion. Even if all that healing isn't enough you can Phase Shift him.

Well, writing a review about a DMOD you didn't finish is allowed if you became stuck and couldn't continue because of a problem in the DMOD. For example if the game crashes everytime you get to a certain point in the DMOD then you can't be expected to finish the entire thing. Also, this proves that the explaination about the buttons in the readme isn't as clear as you might think it is.

Stuff like this just makes me want to switch to something better than Dink

Well, in reality Dink really isn't intended to be used like you're doing in the first place. Still it can be fun getting as much as possible out of a limited system.

Firstly I can't believe you didn't even finish the demo. Seriously reviewing something that you haven't finished shouldn't be allowed.

Truefacts. I posted a review on Infinidink, and I've never been able to finish that game
Although I did post the review for version 1.0, where if you got far enough the monsters stopped spawning.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must slaughter stuff in DotC before I give it a review as well, although any bugs I find I'll post rather then mention in the review straight away.

Looks truly awesome and beyond, going to try it out as soon as possible.

Also, this proves that the explaination about the buttons in the readme isn't as clear as you might think it is.

How does it prove that?

Now if you'll excuse me, I must slaughter stuff in DotC before I give it a review as well, although any bugs I find I'll post rather then mention in the review straight away.

Yes I would much prefer if you would do that since I'm going to update DotC quite soon anyway which would save you the trouble of having to update your review to fit the new version.

I restarted and now I'm getting a bug that kills you even when both players have life. It's been happening over and over again XD It could be something to do with shooting David. I don't know for sure, but that seems to be the case.

I'm not sure if it's the same bug but I do recall something like that. I thought I fixed it though. Could you perhaps give me some more information about the bug? Like where or when it happens?

Well, there was once in Dink's house by the savebot with Nadine's Ultimate attack cast directly onto David, another at the first spider encounter using multishot, and it's happened with the normal shot (though I think it was pierce on that instance). I don't think the location would have anything to do with it.

I've had the most success replicating this at Dink's house using multishot with little to no charge, but it happens quite often in battle.

Erwin, have you actually been able to beat this game without cheating? Because I seriously can't remember every spell and stuff that David has.

Write them down on a piece of paper and have it in front of you then...

Erwin, have you actually been able to beat this game without cheating?

Of course I have. I made the D-Mod, it would be sad if even I couldn't beat it.

Because I seriously can't remember every spell and stuff that David has.

Well I guess you'll just have to train your memory. Having a list with the controlls right beside your keyboard like Marpro said will probably help you to eventually remember them.

Very interesting D-Mod. A lot of clever ideas, and a breath of fresh air to play!

I agree the controls should be explained in the game itself, rather than in the readme (both would be best). I'm going to play this later on some more, but please finish this soon, I don't like playing demo's...

I've looked into the player 2 script and I notice you've used wait() commands in the attack and hit procedures. This could cause problems and I have a hunch that the one in the hit procedure may be causing the bug.

If the sprite is hit during the wait() period (I know it's small and seems ridiculous but it still happens sometimes) then that procedure would be interrupted by the hit procedure starting.

If a wait() command is absolutely necessary for something like checking to see if the hit killed the monster or updating the p2 life variable after damage has been calculated, it should be done in a spawned script so there are no interruptions.

Thanks for the information. I'll have it fixed right away.

I didn't know much about interruptions when I made that script and didn't notice any problems when I played it so I never even knew that something could be improved there. I shall look through my other scripts and see what I can improve with the expecrience I gained from creating this D-Mod.

Hmm.. I'm still getting the bug.. maybe it doesn't have anything to do with David's script XD

She just seems to randomly die with full life. She doesn't say the line about David being dead.. Happens while battling the spiders it seems.

On another note, I came across a few bugs with the first spider encounter. Firstly, when you kill it with David phased out, David can't move off to the next screen which means you are both frozen there. Secondly, the script that disables the screenlock and moves you to the next screen can move you on top of the cliff-side if you're too high.

Hmm.. I'm still getting the bug.. maybe it doesn't have anything to do with David's script XD

Yeah that's quite possible. I haven't managed to find the bug for myself so there isn't much I can do to fix it at the moment.

Does it really happen randomly? You just fight for a while and then just die whithout actually having your HP reduced? Or does it happen when you load a game? Don't bother answering if you want to find the bug yourself though. I'm sure that's easier than having to tell me everything that's goin on on your computer

On another note, I came across a few bugs with the first spider encounter. Firstly, when you kill it with David phased out, David can't move off to the next screen which means you are both frozen there. Secondly, the script that disables the screenlock and moves you to the next screen can move you on top of the cliff-side if you're too high.

Ah yes I'll have that fixed. I knew I should have let every cutscene check whether or not David is phased out but I only let the final cutscene do that because I was running out of time. It's easy to fix though, thanks for letting me know

I think I've found the problem (somewhat). It turns out I'm getting hit, but the life bar isn't doing anything to show it. Even stranger is that I've used a keyscript to tell me the value of &life, and it still says 40 even though I've been hurt a considerable amount. It could be that I'm actually dying, yet Dink doesn't let me know.

It's a loaded game that I saved during the first spider battle. I don't know if that has caused any problems, but when I started a new game, it all works perfectly normal there. Maybe it's just Dink being stupid or something

@Erwin
I didn't know about the readme and/or healing keys. I promise I'll finish the DMOD now and edit the review. I must say though that you should have told players in the game that they should read the readme file in order to get their hotkeys straight. The best way would have been to present hotkeys ingame through some little tutorial.
The dmod runs fine on my PC
The bad thing about your dmod is the complexity of things. It has way too much stuff and one readme isn't going to explain them properly, no matter how much it tries to. As I said, the best way to do this would be an in-game tutorial.

I agree with you that it needs a tutorial and I'm working on one. I did mention here that you should read the readme though. I'm glad I finally understand what went wrong for you

Ah, Erwin. Still using paint I see.

It's perfect for pointing out something as simple as this isn't it?

It's a loaded game that I saved during the first spider battle. I don't know if that has caused any problems, but when I started a new game, it all works perfectly normal there. Maybe it's just Dink being stupid or something.

Ah yes I think I did encounter this bug before. Strangely it only occured for my after loading a certain game. Looks like you somehow got the same issue. Let's just blame Dink and be done with it, saves me the time looking for something I can't find

You could use the first part of the demo (before the spiders) as a tutorial (if you haven't thought about it by now). Make sure you "force" the player to use each one of the hotkeys at least two times in appropriate situations. Remembering them afterwards will be very easy since he/she will have in mind all those situations.
The main disadvantage of the readme file is the fact that it cannot be shown in-game. If there are more than <insert huge number here> hotkeys, after entering the game the player would have some of the following things in mind:
"What does "C" do again?"
"How do I select this tree?"
"dang, I forgot the hotkey for healing!"

Also, the spiders do way too much damage.

dang this DMOD is hard. Those spiders are waaay too overpowered. >.< I just died like 8 times. I wish there was a save machine in that village.

There is one, but not til near the end in v1.0.

Also, Gold is dropped often if you look for it. Spam-purchase elixirs

Where can I purchase elixirs?

... Don't you have the whistle yet o_O? P key if you do, otherwise you're screwed if you're up to the spiders without it.

Right! I forgot about that merchant dude and the whistle he gave me. Thanks.

@Patrenjelu

I have something very similar in mind already. Discussed it in this thread for a little bit.

Also I think the spiders should be as strong as they are. They deal some good damage but Nadine and David can actually deal huge ammounts of damage. I like playing with power while having low defense which prevents you from being overpowered. You can kill your enemies easily enough but you still have to be carefull. Basically all you have to do to defeat the spider's is trying not to get hit. David can dodge quite a couple of blows, just make sure he doesn't get cournered. Also try avoiding the webs. I'll change them in the next version though. I don't know what I was thinking making those tiny webs able to trap a big human like you.

An additional save machine will also be added in the new verion.

I have left the game at the dragon. I'll beat him on friday since I'm not able to play until then. I have a question (sorry if it's in the readme, I can't access it right now):
Sometimes, David just stops attacking and runs away/moves to a random location. Is it a (known) bug?

Hey Erwin, it looks like David is able to dodge attacks in the beginning of the game. He can't be hit! How did you script this, and why?

Sometimes, David just stops attacking and runs away/moves to a random location. Is it a (known) bug?

Yeah I know about this and it's a small issue I'll try to fix. If you press 'A' again David will go back to normal.

Hey Erwin, it looks like David is able to dodge attacks in the beginning of the game. He can't be hit! How did you script this, and why?

I wanted to have a smart NPC fighting by your side, one that isn't stupid and one that is as powerful as you are. I got annoyed with other NPCs like Skard in PQ that just stand in an enemies attack out of stupidity. A player dodges attacks, that's how the player stays alive. If you have a NPC fighting with you that you want to keep alive then the NPC has to dodge attacks too else it will die and there won't be anything you can do about it.

How did I script this? I added a bit of code in all the enemies' attack procedures that check if their target is David. If this is true the direction of the monster is remembered and a script will activate. The activated script then moves David a bit towards the direction the monster is facing, dodging the attack.

Very cleverly done, Erwin, it's pretty impressive. Although it may be a bit overpowered, as the enemies seem unable to even lay a hit on David!

If you get farther you'll notice that things will start hitting David. (Unless you keep an eye on David and move him to safer spots, kill whatever is killing him or Phase Shift him.) This mostly happens when David is cornered or surrounded. Also wouldn't the same reason make the player overpowered? If the player performs well he/she can dodge nearly everything, it's not like playing hit and run is that difficult. The difficulty comes when there's just too much to dodge, this goes for the player just as it goes for David.

You make a good point there, Erwin.
Actually, I'd like to suggest something; David's really better used if he has more mana eventually, otherwise its easier to keep him phase-shifted which can get difficult for yourself. So, for david only, would it be possible to create a david-only mana potion that you can buy? With a set use-time limit, just like casting spells/ultimates?

edit: Yes, I'm suggesting something outside the dev thread. Blame laziness

Sounds good to me. I have been thinking of mana potions but I thought they would just make you over powered. Having a cooldown on mana potions (kind of like in WoW. I really should stop mentioning that game.) will probably work just fine.

Yes, I'm suggesting something outside the dev thread. Blame laziness.

I don't care really. To hell with order and go laziness.

BTW: I think you just keep David phased out too much. He can't be that anoying now can he? (Phase Shifted, phased out. I just keep using these at random. Am I mocking my own spell? Or just grammar?)