The Dink Network

Are there any Dmods in production that we might see soon?

June 25th 2017, 12:02 PM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
Someone (besides me) must be working on a dmod that they will actually release soon.

Please?

(I need to know that there is a reason to go on!)
June 25th 2017, 12:10 PM
pillbug.gif
Pillbug
Peasant He/Him United States
Love! True love! 
Production around these parts can be pretty slow, but that doesn't mean that you should stop! A lot of us have been bogged down with other aspects of life and don't really have time to make D-Mods at the moment, but I'm sure we'll still play new ones. I know I do. Keep going, it'll be worth it!
June 25th 2017, 02:59 PM
wizardb.gif
Bluedy
Peasant He/Him Romania bloop rumble
I like Frutti Fresh 
I have a few nice new ideas for dmods (as always)
I just dont wanna do them alone and I need some help. You can consider this an announcement I guess.
June 25th 2017, 03:37 PM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
I may be interested in some form of collaboration. Of course, we would have to come to some form of agreement as to who does which parts, etc.

Let me know how you'd like for such a collaboration to work out and I'll let you know what I think of your ideas.

Then again, I may just focus on another dmod of my own once my [THE LAST QUEST (part 2): The Iron Ring of Destiny] has been released.


June 25th 2017, 04:07 PM
wizardb.gif
Bluedy
Peasant He/Him Romania bloop rumble
I like Frutti Fresh 
Im really interested in a collaboration. Im going to post details about my idea here for anyone else interested:
so basically, its an open world game. no main quest, just side quests. Its pretty much a zombie waste land (or plain wasteland without zombies such as fallout) set in the dink smallwood universe. And I'd really like to make or borrow from another dmod some kind of character customization system (I tried to do a very basic idea in the past but I left it alone). Basically find armor, and when you equip it, it shows on your character. Or if not, to be able to choose from a set of characters from the start, each with it's own backstory and personality, so when you encounter a certain situation or quest, every character would react differently and every quest would play differently. A range of characters from good guys, to bad guys, each with their own intro.
The world is basically the same as in the original game, but of course, wrecked. Theres a survival system, so you need food and sleep to survive, so youll have to scavenge houses and places for food and drinks. There could also be some kind of house building system. So you can cut trees and stuff to get materials. Maybe cutting trees could even lead to new areas to explore.
There would also be a weapon and armor crafting system. You could take some kind of bat, find some nails, and you got a nail bat.
For NPCs, there would be traders, allies and enemies. There could be small quests which activate in the style of the ones in the original game where a man is being assaulted by two guards and you have to save him. Only here, you could find a building full of enemies which could hold someone hostage. And that hostage could become a companion or just pay you and leave.
Not sure yet, but the whole world is not accessible to the player yet. They may find broken bridges to try and repair, or go around them.
Thats most of what I've got for now. My only problem is the small number of screens making the replay value of such a dmod kinda small
June 26th 2017, 01:57 AM
peasantmp.gif
Skurn
Peasant He/Him Equatorial Guinea duck bloop
can't flim flam the glim glam 
of course i'm making a dmod. it's a little dmod you may have heard of in the past - dink meats doug the killer mime.

i'm at 12 full maps, 19542 scripts, and all new assets. i doubt the dmod will be out for a few more decades though. only at around 14%.
June 26th 2017, 10:28 AM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
No wonder you want some collaboration! Those are some very ambitious goals you have mentioned above.

Let me see if I can line them up here:
1. Create a zombie wasteland environment (small size world) with some parts of the world accessible later in the game.
2. Replace Dink with one of “a set of characters from the start, each with it's own back-story and personality” accounting for good and evil in character behavior possibilities.
3. Allow for in game changes to characters, such as adding a suit of armor.
4. Resource management system for food and drink for your character.
5. Allow for in-game construction of shelter (housing) for your character.
6. Allow for in-game construction of new weapons.
7. Manage 3 NPC categories: traders, allies (follow along with main character?) and enemies.

Level of difficulty for each feature listed above, and related thoughts:
1. A Small Zombie world seems fairly easy, especially if you start with some backgrounds and such from some other dmods. Of course, this also assumes that any NPC enemies are taken from available graphics from other games such as ghosts and skeletons, etc. I don't think there is much in the way of zombie characters that are available for use from other games.
2. Creating several different characters to replace Dink might be easier with the re-use of some other characters from other dmods, but is going to be a pretty big effort if you get very elaborate at all in how you want this to work.
3. You could replace your starting characters with a knight (suit of armor) character found in the original game. This would not be too tough. However, if there are other types of in-game changes you have in mind, then adding them could considerably increase difficulty.
4. Adding a new form of resource management might not be too tough, as you could spawn scripts that would slowly decrease the food and water “in your backpack” and discovering and/or trading for food sources as the character goes would not be too tough either.
5. How on earth would you want the idea of an in game shelter to proceed? I assume that the benefits of a completed shelter would be something like a place to sleep(to more quickly recover health points) in greater safety and efficiency.
6. How many weapons? Where would you get the graphics for all this?
7. Once the basic behavior supporting scripts are made up for the 3 NPC categories, this would not be too tough.

Anyway, what I asked for was not a wish list of what you want in the dmod (although that was somewhat helpful in getting an idea of scope of the task). I wanted you to suggest the following:
1. What parts would you want to do by yourself?
2. What parts do you want help on. And how much help do you want?
3. What parts you’d want others to do 100% for you?

Example: “I’d want to do the mapping and most of the scripting, but I need someone to do all of the new graphics and animations we will need. Also I’ll need help with some of the more difficult scripting tasks.”

Also, what is the story here? The quality of the story is an important part of any dmod for me. You cited some elements of planned game play, but at this point you seem to have no tale to tell.

June 26th 2017, 12:10 PM
wizardb.gif
Bluedy
Peasant He/Him Romania bloop rumble
I like Frutti Fresh 
Well, to be honest, I'd like to work on the graphics as much as possible (since Im an artist. Thats where we'll get all those graphics you're talking about). I can also work on dialogue and story (be it the main story or stories of sidequests). 100% work I'd like other people to do would mostly if not all of the scripting. Im really not good.

As for the story, its entirely different for every character you choose. We might even go as far as setting every character in a different time, with the world being changed either in a small way or drastically.
For the subject of armors, Its a really complicated feature that I'd think about in the later stages of the dmod. As for the number of armors and weapons, well, I'd first like to see this feature become a reality before we think about what weapons and armors we make or how many.
June 28th 2017, 03:11 PM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
Okay, I tell you what... let's see how things go here.

Since you stated you wanted the player to be able to "choose from a set of characters from the start, each with it's own backstory and personality, so when you encounter a certain situation or quest, every character would react differently and every quest would play differently" and that you wanted "A range of characters from good guys, to bad guys, each with their own intro.", I'm assuming that you want at least 2 characters of each of the classic D&D alignments of Good, Neutral and Evil, so that there are at least 6 total to pick from.

Personally, I think that the effort to make 6 interesting stories out of 1 dmod will not work very well, unless you are just looking to start each character out in a simple "hack and slash your way to success mode" with little in the way of an active story once the back story has been provided. Two maybe, but six seems nutty to me. Also, I think that the burden of producing all these graphic file replacements seems onerous, but I am not much of an artist, so what do I know about that? However, I'm willing to try to keep an open mind if you are willing to do all the initial graphics and background text for each character.

So, once you will provide all of the graphics needed for the 6 or so characters, and the preliminary text for each character's back story, plus a few more graphic elements, I will verify your work and then I will start work on the scripts needed to support a start for the game that allows the player to select one of the 6 and get them ready for game play.

For each character, we need a series of graphic files, all the same dimensions in pixels to allow for movements of various types, plus movement carrying weapons and using them and/or magic, plus a death sequence. 86x128 is the size that is used for most of the NPC type characters that I have checked, so I originally assumed that the same size should be used for Dink replacement files, but lately I am not so certain. Please feel free to verify that size as correct before you get started. I have also seen 64x105 used (for example) for the Dink jumping animations, so maybe this is the correct size for Dink. From what I can tell (see the example [Dink Zorro] download), you might be able to get away with different size bmp files in each animation sequence too, but I suspect that things will be easier to keep smoother if they are all the same size in every sequence and the same size as the original graphics used for Dink.

Download the [Dink Smallwood BMP Graphics] bitmap pack and look at the PEOPLE/KNIGHT/BLUE and PEOPLE/KNIGHT/BLUE/ATTACK BMP files with C[a]-W[b]-[cc].BMP files so you can get an idea of what you will need to do.

Of course, you will need to produce set of BMP files of your own, in DINKREPL/XXXXXXXX/ where XXXXXXXX is an 8 char name of the character class like GOOD0001. Note the file name patterns in the graphic pack for the Blue Night.

Now let's look at all the graphics files that each character that replaces Dink will need. In DINK.INI below we see the following lines for the Dink character.

================================================================================
;dink .ini file, be sure to back it up before you change it!
;NOTE: This file is rarely directly editted - the DINKEDIT.EXE program can make changes to
;it directly, allowing you to graphically set 'depth dots' and hardboxes.

//outdated starting commands, not used anymore (scripts couldn't do as much then)
starting_dink_x 334
starting_dink_y 161
starting_dink_map 1

//load dink
load_sequence_now tiles\s 10 BLACK

//dinks idle
//special moves to make the idle play backwards

set_frame_frame 12 5 12 3
set_frame_frame 12 6 12 2
set_frame_delay 12 5 250
set_frame_delay 12 6 250

set_frame_frame 14 5 14 3
set_frame_frame 14 6 14 2
set_frame_delay 14 5 250
set_frame_delay 14 6 250

set_frame_frame 16 5 16 3
set_frame_frame 16 6 16 2
set_frame_delay 16 5 250
set_frame_delay 16 6 250

set_frame_frame 18 5 18 3
set_frame_frame 18 6 18 2
set_frame_delay 18 5 250
set_frame_delay 18 6 250

//dink hit
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\walk\ds-w1- 71 43 38 72 -14 -9 14 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\walk\ds-w2- 72 43 37 69 -13 -9 13 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\walk\ds-w3- 73 43 38 72 -14 -9 14 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\walk\ds-w4- 74 43 38 72 -12 -9 12 9

load_sequence_now graphics\dink\walk\ds-w6- 76 43 38 72 -13 -9 13 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\walk\ds-w7- 77 43 38 72 -12 -10 12 10
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\walk\ds-w8- 78 43 37 69 -13 -9 13 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\walk\ds-w9- 79 43 38 72 -14 -9 14 9

load_sequence_now graphics\dink\idle\ds-i2- 12 250 33 70 -12 -9 12 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\idle\ds-i4- 14 250 30 71 -11 -9 11 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\idle\ds-i6- 16 250 36 70 -11 -9 11 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\idle\ds-i8- 18 250 32 68 -12 -9 12 9

//this is here for reasons to complex to explain. j/k! This sequence
//is one that is going to be replaced, so I'm loading the one with the most
//frames first, because max frame count is initted only the first time we
//load into a certain seq #.

load_sequence_now graphics\dink\sword\hit\d-sa2- 102 75 52 92 -23 -12 24 11
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\sword\hit\d-sa4- 104 75 74 90 -23 -13 23 14
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\sword\hit\d-sa6- 106 75 33 92 -18 -14 18 10
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\sword\hit\d-sa8- 108 75 46 109 -17 -16 17 10

load_sequence_now graphics\dink\hit\normal\ds-h2- 102 75 60 72 -19 -9 19 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\hit\normal\ds-h4- 104 75 61 73 -19 -10 19 10
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\hit\normal\ds-h6- 106 75 58 71 -18 -10 18 10
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\hit\normal\ds-h8- 108 75 61 71 -19 -10 19 10

//bow weapon diags
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\bow\hit\d-ba1- 101 75 57 84 -20 -12 20 12
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\bow\hit\d-ba3- 103 75 33 86 -19 -13 19 13
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\bow\hit\d-ba7- 107 75 54 82 -19 -11 19 11
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\bow\hit\d-ba9- 109 75 37 78 -21 -10 21 10

//set which frame can 'hit'
set_frame_special 102 3 1
set_frame_special 104 3 1
set_frame_special 106 3 1
set_frame_special 108 3 1
//make it delay on the third sprite for longer than 75

set_frame_delay 102 2 100
set_frame_delay 104 2 100
set_frame_delay 106 2 100
set_frame_delay 108 2 100

//dinks push sprites
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\push\ds-p2- 312 75 45 79 -7 -21 13 -7
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\push\ds-p4- 314 75 36 69 3 -9 45 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\push\ds-p6- 316 75 67 71 -21 -12 21
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\push\ds-p8- 318 75 46 59 -9 5 12 24

//dink magic
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\hit\magic\ds-m2- 322 30 60 84 -15 -9 16 7
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\hit\magic\ds-m4- 324 30 61 86 -13 -7 15 8
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\hit\magic\ds-m6- 326 30 60 86 -11 -8 13 9
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\hit\magic\ds-m8- 328 30 61 83 -15 -4 15 14

// BLUEDY, THESE TWO ARE SOME OTHER ESSENTIAL DINK ANIMATIONS.
load_sequence_now graphics\dink\die\ds-x3- 436 75 30 67 -10 -9 10 9
load_sequence graphics\dink\crawl\ds-cr- 452 100

// THIS SECTION IS OPTIONAL BLUEDY.
load_sequence graphics\dink\seed\ds-s2- 522 150 49 74 -14 -9 16 10
load_sequence graphics\dink\seed\ds-s4- 524 150 47 73 -16 -10 14 10
load_sequence graphics\dink\seed\ds-s6- 526 150 53 71 -16 -10 16 10
load_sequence graphics\dink\seed\ds-s8- 528 150 50 70 -16 -9 16 9
================================================================================

Now load up WinDinkEdit2 and load the original Dink Smallwood game into the editor. Press [R] and then [E]. For each "load_sequence_now" and "load_sequence command" in DINK.INI, we now see a set of graphics that are specified. Move your mouse cursor over the little tiles and notice down in the lower right of the window, as you move the cursor, the next to last number changes while the last number consistently shows 01 (this means the 1st graphics image in each of the series of tiles is always shown in this view). Move until the numbers look like "072 01" and then click on that tile. Now move your mouse cursor over the various images of Dink and then notice that the display in the lower right corner of the window changes from "072 01" to "072 08" for each of the images of Dink walking. Now you see that these are the 8 graphics files loaded from graphics\dink\walk\ that represent Dink walking in a particular direction.

load_sequence_now graphics\dink\walk\ds-w1- 71 43 38 72 -14 -9 14 9

So, for each of the load_sequence_now and load_sequence commands in my Dink.ini file excerpt shown above, you will need to make a matching set of files for every one of your 6 characters. These Dink sequences seem to be typically 6 or 8 in length, though some are 5 and at least one is 10. Assuming an average of about 7 per sequence, that is a total of about 40 sequences with about 7 per sequence or about 280 per character. Assuming 6 characters, that means 6 times 280 is about 1680 images in total.

Below is a quick list of each sequence needed (I actually count only 39) for each Dink Replacement character.

12
14
16
18
71
71
72
73
74
76
77
78
79
101
102
102
103
104
104
106
106
107
108
108
109
312
314
316
318
322
324
326
328
436
452
522
524
526
528

Make sure that the BMP files that you generate use the GIMP compatibility option of "[x] Do not write color space information" and save as 24bit images with a white background and a shadow for each image.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Have fun!

June 28th 2017, 05:01 PM
wizardb.gif
Bluedy
Peasant He/Him Romania bloop rumble
I like Frutti Fresh 
Well thanks for this tutorial but I already know everything you said
In any case, for starters, lets just keep this dmod with 2 characters to choose from. I think being able to play a dmod twice and get quite a different experience is something. Just a good guy and a bad guy. The good guy should be a knight, and the bad guy should be the blue guy.
I still dunno if Ill actually start working on this dmod, but if I do, I'll start a serious thread about it. That is, after making some tiny but significant progress
June 28th 2017, 05:59 PM
burntree.gif
Striker
Noble She/Her United States
Daniel, there are clowns. 
SimonK told me that Necromancer would be released tomorrow.
June 28th 2017, 06:05 PM
peasantmp.gif
Skurn
Peasant He/Him Equatorial Guinea duck bloop
can't flim flam the glim glam 
WOW
June 28th 2017, 06:19 PM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
I assume you are talking about the commercial game, not a Dmod that happens to share the same name, correct?
June 28th 2017, 09:08 PM
wizardg.gif
leprochaun
Peasant He/Him Japan bloop
Responsible for making things not look like ass 
You definitely don't need to replace all 39 or so dink sequences to have a good alt character. It also is heavily dependent on what you want that alt character to do. There are alt-characters that don't really need intensive graphic changes. Lyna for instance just had arrow indicators for her weapon. Paul didn't make anything new for lyna herself though. I guess it depends on how much bluedy really wants to do. If he wants to incorporate an armor system too though, all the new characters and designs might prove to be far too much work. I would recommend trying to focus on one of those things. Even then it's still going to be a lot of work. You may want to just start off with a much smaller scope and expand when you feel you can.
June 29th 2017, 12:52 PM
burntree.gif
Striker
Noble She/Her United States
Daniel, there are clowns. 
No, the dmod. It comes out tomorrow.
June 29th 2017, 01:54 PM
peasantmp.gif
Skurn
Peasant He/Him Equatorial Guinea duck bloop
can't flim flam the glim glam 
well it's tomorrow now. where is it
June 29th 2017, 02:33 PM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
> Well thanks for this tutorial but I already know everything you said

Oh, that's good news that you have some dmod making experience, or something like it at least. Sorry if I pointed out the obvious though.

> In any case, for starters, lets just keep this dmod with
> 2 characters to choose from. I think being able to play
> a dmod twice and get quite a different experience is
> something. Just a good guy and a bad guy. The good guy
> should be a knight, and the bad guy should be the blue
> guy.

So then they are both knights, eh? I guess that sort of leaves out the idea that they might don armor later in the game.

> I still dunno if Ill actually start working on this
> dmod, but if I do, I'll start a serious thread about it.
> That is, after making some tiny but significant progress

I see.
June 29th 2017, 02:39 PM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
Hmmm. A quick google search seems to turn up the idea that a commercial game of this name was recently released.

Commercial Game Release highlighted on Google

I suppose you were joking when you stated "No, the dmod. It comes out tomorrow.".

Thanks for letting us know about the commercial game. This thread is supposed to be about upcoming dmods though.
June 29th 2017, 07:02 PM
burntree.gif
Striker
Noble She/Her United States
Daniel, there are clowns. 
No, it's today now. Tomorrow is tomorrow.
July 3rd 2017, 03:02 AM
maiden.gif
I'm working on... something. But it's a very long way away, if it even happens at all. I'm not even done mapping yet, and that's typically the first thing I do (at least a rough layout is essential).
July 3rd 2017, 09:30 AM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
OK good! Please consider this an official message of encouragement.

BTW, I always thought "Silence" was a great story and a highly underrated dmod, that I truly enjoyed playing.

What can you tell us about your new dmod so far?
July 3rd 2017, 07:51 PM
anon.gif
brassweasel
Ghost They/Them
 
"Silence" is a dmod that MegadogV2 can be proud of. I was the first to review it and gave it a 5.8. Now that score could seem low to some, but what I was actually conveying is that the dmod was definitely above average which is actually quite impressive considering the following:

1.) It was his first dmod.
2.) it was an actual adventure (not just killing stuff) where the main character couldn't speak at all!
3.) There were other limits such as number of screens allowed.

So to make a dmod that is above average (average being 5.0) considering these handicaps would be no easy feat. I tip my cap to the man!

I have no doubt, based on his prior work, that MegadogV2 could make something really special if he puts his mind to it.

One could look at this in one of two ways -- that 5.8 is too low compared to what some other dmods have been getting, or that so many other dmods have just been getting scores that are just obscenely high! Personally, I think it is the later. There's nothing anyone can do about it now though. TDN just went too far down that road for too long, and now scores have lost all meaning. It is no longer about how good a dmod is that determines the score, it is about who is doing the scoring. That's all there is to it...... It isn't anyone's fault in particular though, but the fact is that you just can't safely judge a dmod by the score that some random person gave it or by what scores any other dmods get. This is the biggest problem in the history of The Dink Network that I am aware of. Downloading a dmod is buying a pig in a poke.

Finally, I too support and encourage all dmod makers. Even many of the worst dmods have their own charm. Not that there have been any bad ones lately.
July 12th 2017, 01:50 AM
maiden.gif
Don't get me wrong. I'm not discouraged. It's just finding the time right now. Thankfully, I've gotten my old computer up and running again, which had a lot of old files for the D-Mod on it. Until now, I've been trying to remake it from scratch.

It's still miles away, with a lot of stuff in it that might be just a little too ambitious to begin with, but I've pretty much figured out exactly what the story is, and just need to get there...

As for the D-Mod itself, it sprung from an idea I had for a multiple hero story, and has since expanded into a large quest - small epic size tale. I don't want to give too much away, among other reasons because it encourages me to actually make the damn thing.
June 7th 2021, 09:33 PM
peasantmp.gif
Skurn
Peasant He/Him Equatorial Guinea duck bloop
can't flim flam the glim glam 
what's a dmod
June 8th 2021, 10:11 AM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
@Skurn:
Would you prefer "D-Mod" or was this a way of pointing out that no new dmods have come out recently?
June 8th 2021, 01:36 PM
peasantmp.gif
Skurn
Peasant He/Him Equatorial Guinea duck bloop
can't flim flam the glim glam 
i'm just wondering what a dmod is. i assume the d must mean dink. but i can't imagine what the mod part stands for. i've looked at many abbreviations and none of them make sense.
June 9th 2021, 09:48 AM
spike.gif
SlipDink
Peasant He/Him United States bloop rumble
2nd generation. No easy way to be free. 
@Skurn:
i'm just wondering what a dmod is. i assume the d must mean dink. but i can't imagine what the mod part stands for. i've looked at many abbreviations and none of them make sense.

Hmmmm... well, assuming you are asking a serious question, here is a serious answer (from wikipedia).

modification
A mod (short for "modification") is an alteration by players or fans of one or more aspects of a video game, such as how it looks or behaves. Mods may range from small changes and tweaks to complete overhauls, and can extend the replay value and interest of the game.
June 9th 2021, 11:25 AM
death.gif
RangerLord
Peasant He/Him Hungary bloop
The nation above all 
As far as I remember, D-Mod stands for Dink Module. I read it referred as such, although googleing turned up few results.
Oh, found the origin of the word. On the Dink Smallweb (which is apperently still online).
Seems Mike Snyder came up with the term, then Seth accepted it as offical. Here RtSoft refers to Mystery Island as such.
June 9th 2021, 12:56 PM
peasantmp.gif
Skurn
Peasant He/Him Equatorial Guinea duck bloop
can't flim flam the glim glam 
hmm. no, i don't think that's it. this is the dink network is it not? otherwise, it would be known as the dmod network.