The Dink Network

Does anyone have any comments in response to MouseDink? It comes with a 6 screen map to test the functionality.

I'm very impressed... I didn't think that the keyboard worked at all when the mouse was enabled?

The only downside I saw was the inventory screen is not displayed correctly. The items and boxes appear, but the background image is completely black. I had to guess when I was equipping items.

With mouse Dink.exe won't call anything directly on a button press (e.g. the inventory screen, the escape menu, "use" on current item, etc.). It won't call key-X.c either. The lone survivor is wait_for_button. So you can still detect button presses (but not holds) for the few standard buttons (ctrl, space, keypad...). With a simple external program (or a special build of dink.exe) it'd be pretty easy to add more functionality, but just those few is enough for MouseDink I think...

The inventory screen does display properly. Haha - that's all it is, just a blank image. I just wanted a demonstration that the functionality is there, I'm sure everyone knows it's possible to replace one bitmap with another. Also I'm not convinced the 6 item types I chose is the ideal. Arrow type seems missing to me... ice arrows, fire arrows, poison arrows, tranquilizer arrows.. the new interface supports ranged weapons a lot better than the standard, so I think it should be taken advantage of

Well its awesome but the pointer's accuracy is small - i've stood a hour trying to kill that dang Bonca.

Thanks.

You need to click at the enemy's feet, in the same way as you need to punch at their feet in normal Dink.

I was extremely impressed with the file. It probably is one of the most advanced things ever done with the Dink engine.

However, I don't think it works well with the typical Dink gameplay. I noticed I died a lot more with the mouse controls. It should be very interesting to make a point and click adventure with this technique, though. I might give it a whirl myself.

i dont know if im missing something big here... but how the heck do you shoot arrows?

Press enter to enter the inventory screen and equip the bow in the bow slot (sorry, it's not labeled). Press enter again and press ctrl to swap to bow. Click anywhere to shoot.

I know this is old, but I didn;t want to make a new topic.
I was kinda dissapointed by this.
this system makes close combat almost impossible, and even when you switch to ranged, you're unable to move- easy prey.
the inventory system is nice, but it makes this system incompatable for most mods - I expected something I could paste into my dink/story and use all over.

I'd like to see a system where wasd is move, f is talk/interact and click is use weapon, and doesn't use that inventory - Itwould be more compatable, and easier for players

I'll try to edit the system myself, but it's very hard to read (although understandably so - you were trying to save space)

sorry for the bad review (and bringing it up)
I didn't think I could do better, I just thought someone much more skilled than me could take my idea and run with it.

Thanks for the comments.

>this system makes close combat almost impossible, and even when you switch to ranged, you're unable to move- easy prey.

I think Christaan said something like this too, but I think if you got more used to it you would find it easier.. I tried to make the gameplay mimic the original Dink. The trick is to attack and then click away at just the right time (I think just as you hear the sound), then repeat. It does work.. but you have to be precise and it's more skilled based than the original Dink.

The unable to move with ranged was intentional too... Ranged in the original Dink is seriously flawed because it tends to be either 0% effective or 100% effective (that is, if you're doing any damage at all with ranged, you can kill anything slower than you with no chance of being hit). So my idea is you start with ranged (e.g. poisoned arrow), but then are forced to move to melee..

Anyway, as I said in the readme, the gameplay isn't really the point of MouseDink, since those things can be easily tweaked.. But the gameplay as it is now works: I can kill everything in my demonstration map relatively easily without magic. Of course with MouseDink in an actual game some time of in-game tutorial would be required. I have also thought of making a video showing how it is done because I'm not sure if anyone got used to the system, but I never got around to it..

>the inventory system is nice, but it makes this system incompatable for most mods - I expected something I could paste into my dink/story and use all over.

Actually MouseDink is necessarily incompatible with other DMODs like that because it can't trigger talk() without help.. it is impossible to just paste it in as you expected. Can't do anything about that..

>I'd like to see a system where wasd is move, f is talk/interact and click is use weapon, and doesn't use that inventory - Itwould be more compatable, and easier for players

I do have a system like that, but I never published it. But unfortunately the movement is either toggle (one touch to start, one touch to stop) or recognition of the key up is a bit delayed. I know I sent some of this code to Erwin for his two-player thing (I think he got confused and credited someone else in the readme), but I can't remember how much code he used or if he used my delayed system.

I'm not sure if it is possible to call up the old inventory in a non-awkward way.. and besides the increase in compatibility would be trivial. DMODs would still need all their NPC scripts modified, but the new inventory just needs add_item() replaced with some other function each time it occurs..

Truth is I made MouseDink as a challenge. It's more of a hack and it's a very inefficient way to add mouse support to Dink. You can see the delay as Dink faces towards the cursor. It'd be much better (and easier) to just add mouse support directly to the engine.