The Dink Network

I'm working on a dmod based on the book "Bored of the Rings". I think I'm about a third of the way there (long learning curve). Weapons are modifications of existing weapons. Two new magic spells (bolt and heal). A third one is planned. The mechanics of play is more like a Final Fantasy in that you have multiple characters, in the group, to pick from to lead and defend. Plus they keep changing as the story line goes on. I'm not sure how well counter attack works because I've not tested the game long enough to find out. Three sidequests are done with three more planned. If you've not read the book, it is a parody of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I have to update the humor since it was written in the late 60's. Oh well, hi ho, hi ho, it's off to code I go. . .

Once I get around with the bullcrap im dealing with my D-mod is going to be way better.

Once I get around with the bullcrap im dealing with my D-mod is going to be way better.

Please Punisher, stop it. That's just rude. You have no reason nor right to go badmouthing anybody's D-Mods... at least before they're made. Then you can talk crap about them, if they suck.

I think it sounds like an extremely fun idea, Stomper. Hoping for more updates on the progress soon. And maybe some screenshots too.

Sounds nice stomper! Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to seeing more!

Pun, what Dmod were you even making and if you still haven't even got it fixed, Bored of the Rings seems like it be better by a long shot.

The first third, or so can be found at:
http://ubuntuone.com/735FyR0MmI8idob52fmSwz

It's big cause I haven't cleaned it up yet. Feel free to keep any of the bugs in it, or let me know and I'll try to fix them. Undocumented keys are the 'W' for where am I (displays screen number) and 'C' key (for cheat). I use both for development and will disable them when the dmod is complete. The 'Z' key (zoom map) doesn't do much yet.
Enjoy the madness.

I'm just gonna pretend like that stuff didn't happen so, Stomper I would of liked to play what you have, but when I tried to download it, it finished, but failed. Maybe I'll try when it's finished.

Looks like a neat "crazy dmod". The style reminds me quite a bit of something else I played (probably another dmod), but I can't for the life of me remember what exactly... In any case, the imagination and humour going into this seems quite promising!

The most glaring flaw I noticed is this:
http://oi44.tinypic.com/2ai44y.jpg
The hardness! It's godawful!! I don't really mind it when the hardness isn't perfect (it's a common problem area in dmods), but at the very least, there shouldn't be hard blocks in thin air, and the river shouldn't be walk-through. =)

If this is just the result of experimentation, you might be able to fix a lot of it (at least for places where the hardness occurs naturally, such as riverbanks) simply by copying the hard.dat from Dink Smallwood\dink\ over the hard.dat in your dmod folder (Dink Smallwood\BOTR\).

ya hardness should be easy to fix, hopefully you keep us updated so we don't get bored.

Thanks for the find. I've been running into hardness problems with stuff changing on me. I think it's when I change the tile pieces. I've been adding stuff to existing tiles like the gold brick road and it seems to redo the hardness of the tiles. I'll go back and fix it. Thanks again.

I've been adding stuff to existing tiles like the gold brick road and it seems to redo the hardness of the tiles.

Yes, hardness is weird. Here's how it works:

There are (at most) 800 tiles of hardness patterns. You can edit what pattern they are. You can use any of those tiles on any map screen tile.

But if you change the pattern of a tile you already used before, it will be changed in the old place as well as the new one.

Does that make sense?

When you find a hardness tile that works well in a certain place, right click on it and you should be able to make it the default hardness for that specific tile.

I will say this atleast the title screen looks nice.

Yea, I probably clicked on a tile in hardness mode instead of tile mode. I messed up the hardness map on a work area so I am trying not to mess up the one in the BOTR area. I've looked at the hardness tutorials and decided to add as few hardness tiles as I could. I use WindinkeditPlus for most of my development. I just have to save a lot, especially on my windows 7 system. Off to the wars I go.

Looks interesting!

A very bad bug I ran into: in the bar, I talked to the waitress; our talk was interrupted by the barkeep. We didn't continue talking, and I remained frozen in place.

Thanks. That was the first script I worked on. I probably made it more complicated then I had to. I'll go back and revisit it.
Thanks again.

I've uploaded a newer version of BOTR to my cloud at:
http://ubuntuone.com/6HlXrg044yv5yO0YYGw225

I've fixed the hardness problem along with the barmaid problem along with a few more. I've completed the Roi-tan portion of the map along with a few more cutscenes. On to the northern part of the map along with the Isinglass Tower of Serutan. I have a new magic for Goodgulf which is life drain. You drain half of somethings hitpoints and get half of those added to your life line.

Why don't you submit it to the Dink Network?

I agree, we neeeds it.

I've been working on the Lumbar area of the map. This is where Goodgulf comes back as Goodgulf the White. Hopefully I'll finish this area this week. I need to add some monsters to the landscape. The next section will have Serutan's castle with the a sidequest to release the prisoners in the dungeons. Hopefully I'll get it done before hockey season starts and my real work takes away my free time. Go Bolts!

What happens if you release the prisoners? Also how do you come up with names, i.e. "Goodgulf"?

If you release the prisoners, you will receive another gem plus a gold heart. You will also learn about the invention one of the prisoners (Otis) is working on. The names for the characters come out of the book "Bored of the Rings" (yes Virginia, there is a book) that the whole dmod is loosely based on, down to the map found in the book. "Bored of the Rings" was a parody of "Lord of the Rings" and was released in the late 60's, so some of the puns in it are somewhat dated. Google "bored of the rings pdf" to get a copy. I've taken some of the dialog from the book for the dmod, but there is way too much good stuff to use.

Will Dink use the invention when it is finished and what is good about the gems? The gold heart better be worth it then and those prisoners better be there under false pretenses.

Most sidequests include other prizes (money, etc). Yes, Dink will be able to use the invention (hmmm Otis, what did he known for???). I finished the Lumbar region but got stuck on fixing some bugs I found. Also giving Legolam (the elf) the healing spell I originally gave Goodgulf plus a defense power up spell, although I might stick that in a sidequest. Back to work.

Haha, I love those names.

I hope there might be a cameo in there though.

Updated version of the game is at:

http://ubuntuone.com/7d2JE1FweZIHeyTXySOpNy

This is thru the Lumbar region where
the group gets attacked and Pepsi and Moxie find the forest giant. Also Goodgulf makes a comeback as Goodgulf the White. There is a bubble I left in one of the screens, it will be gone on the next release. (Spoiler-it's part of Serutan's resist attack spell).

Well hockey season is in full swing which means I spend more time at real work and less time working on BOTR. Still, Serutan's tower is done (6 upper floors and 4 dungeon floors), the battle between Serutan and Goodgulf, the Spiral Maze (it's a cave and not a hedge maze) to the land of Twodor, and the Quik-E-Mart at Spring Field (for power drinks).
The town of Minas Troney in Twodor may be a challenge, but I think I may have an idea for it. I'll probably put out a work in progress soon. New screen map is at:
http://ubuntuone.com/0bqypTK96aSCW8LBV4LnXi

wow busy busy That white around the sprites is your graphics driver - shouldnt be there and makes it hard to set things out properly .. i know cause mine used to do that too - irritating. Keep at it huh dont let this be another fail to produce like so many of our efforts

Nice to hear it's progressing again

That's a big map.

I would like several beta testers for the greatest game you've ever played*. This takes from all the a lot of great games** and creates a game you can play for hours on end***. I still need to finish a few ending cut scenes, but I think the basic game mechanics are sound****. To find the game go to:
http://ubuntuone.com/0FmbMkRbZi1k5jHRN2dFjd
to download it (it's big). Please let me know of any bugs you find. You can use the w-key to see what screen your on or the c-key for an savebot anywhere. The warping feature uses the mouse and the left mouse button to work. Thank you.

* assuming you've been raised by wolves in Rome.
** written before 1958.
*** of 5 minutes time if you use the walkthrough in the story folder.
**** mechanics charge $75/hour so be careful

Guys, it's a dmod. ^

It has like, all map screens filled and stuff.

It is 100mb of stuff in it.

And it's fun.

By the way there is a walkthrough in the story folder, in case you need any help. (Mostly for my behalf). It's called "Bored Walkthrough.txt". Good luck.

Yes please if this is still up for grabs - Beta Testing sounds fun.

Updated dmod available at:
http://ubuntuone.com/68KFP1LxGzT6zUULLEPCtB
I don't know if you need to save your savefiles before installing or not.
Changed features:
I added the cutscene of Sorhed's stuff blowing up after he dies.
The ending cutscene in Frito's house has now been added.
Some landscaping and random enemies have been added throughout the Oleobar area.
Some warp stairs have been added to allow you to walk around the above ground areas of the world map after you complete the quest.

Updated dmod at:
http://ubuntuone.com/4pypIdcZZYayouJke9gL5e

Fixes include:
Fix to ending palace scene for bug I just put in.
Added counter attack to enemies that were suppose to have them.
Fixed the arrow firing pillboxes in the spiral maze.
Fixed one of the the zip lines you fall off of to not land on a door.
Added some more landscape items to the land of Oleobar.
Disables the cheat key.
The walkthrough is still in the Story directory.
Good luck

There is an issue running BOTR on the Dink Smallwood HD 1.09 engine. The load_tiles command is no longer supported, so any script that uses it doesn't run. I am planning to fix the problem as best as I can, by changing some of the background tiles to background sprites. The game did hang up on me, on one screen. I hope it's a load_tile issue as well. If the engine finds a load_tile command in the script, it bypasses the whole script. Back to the drawing boards.