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Quick Design Questions

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38
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10
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    • Seen Sep 7, 2016
    I'm leaning towards not implementing a real-time system within the game I'm working on. Just some people may only be able to play at night and I'm not so about the idea of someone experiencing the entire game in the night overlay.
    Do you think taking the time system out will hurt the game?
    Another idea that floated around was somehow implementing an "unreal"-time system a la GTA.
     

    Radical Raptr

    #BAMFPokemonNerd
    1,121
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    Years
  • I'm leaning towards not implementing a real-time system within the game I'm working on. Just some people may only be able to play at night and I'm not so about the idea of someone experiencing the entire game in the night overlay.
    Do you think taking the time system out will hurt the game?
    Another idea that floated around was somehow implementing an "unreal"-time system a la GTA.
    I have long been struggling with this idea as well. Personally I love the idea of an unreal time system, like that of Legend of Zelda, or Skyrim. It allows slightly more control over how certain events work, ie, having the story start with the hero over-sleeping, and waking up at, let's say noon - and then have the In-game time actually be noon. This also allows for the player to evolve certain pokemon like eevee gliscor and the like more easily, as there will be many more day/night cycles in one play-through. But overall I enjoy playing through unreal-time systems because you, as the developer, can add little things like npc's that appear at certain times of the day and have players actually take note of it. Using FL's unreal time script, it allows you to have a game with it's own time while still allowing the use of events that take place on certain days to work as intended - ie, having a pokemon showing up on a thursday still show up on thursday despite having multiple in-game "days" in 1 real day.

    Taking out the time-system all together wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, as it would allow the player to see maps in a bright and clear way and enjoy them more, but it would require you to change the evolution methods of some pokemon, so it woudln't be official. However this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
     
    38
    Posts
    10
    Years
    • Seen Sep 7, 2016
    I have long been struggling with this idea as well. Personally I love the idea of an unreal time system, like that of Legend of Zelda, or Skyrim. It allows slightly more control over how certain events work, ie, having the story start with the hero over-sleeping, and waking up at, let's say noon - and then have the In-game time actually be noon. This also allows for the player to evolve certain pokemon like eevee gliscor and the like more easily, as there will be many more day/night cycles in one play-through. But overall I enjoy playing through unreal-time systems because you, as the developer, can add little things like npc's that appear at certain times of the day and have players actually take note of it. Using FL's unreal time script, it allows you to have a game with it's own time while still allowing the use of events that take place on certain days to work as intended - ie, having a pokemon showing up on a thursday still show up on thursday despite having multiple in-game "days" in 1 real day.

    Taking out the time-system all together wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, as it would allow the player to see maps in a bright and clear way and enjoy them more, but it would require you to change the evolution methods of some pokemon, so it woudln't be official. However this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

    The unreal time systems seems like way to go. Thanks for this dialogue.

    Another thing. At first I was going to not worry about adding door animations just cuz of the extra work since the tiles I'm using didn't come with them set up for me. and I've seen 1 or two other projects do without them before. But today I decided I wanted to make things as fleshed out as I could so i set up the door animations and implemented the first one.

    However, after this, the map began to lag very slightly. Enough to throw me off. If adding door animations will cause any sort of lag, I can do without them.
    Does anybody think a lack of door animations can make a game look sloppy/weird/etc?
     

    Radical Raptr

    #BAMFPokemonNerd
    1,121
    Posts
    13
    Years
  • The unreal time systems seems like way to go. Thanks for this dialogue.

    Another thing. At first I was going to not worry about adding door animations just cuz of the extra work since the tiles I'm using didn't come with them set up for me. and I've seen 1 or two other projects do without them before. But today I decided I wanted to make things as fleshed out as I could so i set up the door animations and implemented the first one.

    However, after this, the map began to lag very slightly. Enough to throw me off. If adding door animations will cause any sort of lag, I can do without them.
    Does anybody think a lack of door animations can make a game look sloppy/weird/etc?

    I would bet like a trillion dollars I know what the problem is, but tell me, which version of essentials are you using (assuming you are using essentials)

    Also I would definitely at least try and make your own door animations. You can look at the ones that exist and see how they work and then replicate it like that because even if door animation don't exist, whatever you have for buildings almost certainly has a door. Just take that and work with it for a bit.
     
    38
    Posts
    10
    Years
    • Seen Sep 7, 2016
    I would bet like a trillion dollars I know what the problem is, but tell me, which version of essentials are you using (assuming you are using essentials)

    Also I would definitely at least try and make your own door animations. You can look at the ones that exist and see how they work and then replicate it like that because even if door animation don't exist, whatever you have for buildings almost certainly has a door. Just take that and work with it for a bit.

    v14 I believe.

    I have no problem making the door animations and implementing them myself, I was just being lazy before. but I got over it. The only reason I'm considering going back to leaving them out is cuz of the lag, but if you have a solution to the issue that would help.
     

    Radical Raptr

    #BAMFPokemonNerd
    1,121
    Posts
    13
    Years
  • v14 I believe.

    I have no problem making the door animations and implementing them myself, I was just being lazy before. but I got over it. The only reason I'm considering going back to leaving them out is cuz of the lag, but if you have a solution to the issue that would help.

    I have found that there is a lag problem in v14, but strangely not in v13
    the fix I found was modifying v13's PokmonField script with the changes in v14.

    I never made a big thing about it cuz anyone I asked said it was my map or events, but I found this to be a fix for me.
     
    38
    Posts
    10
    Years
    • Seen Sep 7, 2016
    I have found that there is a lag problem in v14, but strangely not in v13
    the fix I found was modifying v13's PokmonField script with the changes in v14.

    I never made a big thing about it cuz anyone I asked said it was my map or events, but I found this to be a fix for me.


    are you open to sharing the mods so I can try and see if that works for me?
     

    Radical Raptr

    #BAMFPokemonNerd
    1,121
    Posts
    13
    Years
  • are you open to sharing the mods so I can try and see if that works for me?

    I suppose, sure.
    But this was just a little fix that worked for me, I recommend saving your original as a backup just in case this doesn't work out. Replace your whole pokemonfield with it

    Spoiler:
     
    31
    Posts
    10
    Years
    • Seen Nov 12, 2023
    So in my planned game, I wanted to encourage players to keep their starters with them throughout the whole game. I decided to boost every fully evolved starter's BST to 560, and gave all of the megas, with some added typing and moves. How does this look?
    Starters that already have official megas just have the same stat boosts applied to their new base stats when they mega evolve.

    Spoiler:


    The idea behind Serperior was that I wanted Coil to be viable as a mega along with Contrary Leaf Storm, so I settled for stopping stat drops for its ability. I Intend to chane Clear Body so that it also stops self-inflected drops. Thoughts? Are all of these worthy of carrying to endgame?

    Also, should the rival pick a starter of the same gen, past gen or next gen?
     

    TBM_Christopher

    Semi-pro Game Dev
    448
    Posts
    14
    Years
  • So in my planned game, I wanted to encourage players to keep their starters with them throughout the whole game. I decided to boost every fully evolved starter's BST to 560, and gave all of the megas, with some added typing and moves. How does this look?
    Starters that already have official megas just have the same stat boosts applied to their new base stats when they mega evolve.

    Spoiler:


    The idea behind Serperior was that I wanted Coil to be viable as a mega along with Contrary Leaf Storm, so I settled for stopping stat drops for its ability. I Intend to chane Clear Body so that it also stops self-inflected drops. Thoughts? Are all of these worthy of carrying to endgame?

    Also, should the rival pick a starter of the same gen, past gen or next gen?
    My first concern is that you're offering a choice of 18 starters at present, a huge amount of choice, not to mention that in order to do so you're tweaking at least 12's stats and adding mega evolutions to those 12 as well. I'd recommend picking the starters you want to design your game experience for and go from there - otherwise you would need to consider each playthrough with one of the 18 starters. It's a novel concept to have that many choices, but in the end it's making a lot more work for you with very little benefit.
     
    31
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    10
    Years
    • Seen Nov 12, 2023
    Does it matter that much? I wanted to give the player a lot of choice so they'd be almost guaranteed to be happy with whatever they chose. The idea was the the starter would most likely be their 'main' team member, with the rest of the team supporting it. What are some things to consider?

    I think the starters I should be most concerned with are the Unova ones, since they're the weakest with their original stats.
     

    TBM_Christopher

    Semi-pro Game Dev
    448
    Posts
    14
    Years
  • Does it matter that much? I wanted to give the player a lot of choice so they'd be almost guaranteed to be happy with whatever they chose. The idea was the the starter would most likely be their 'main' team member, with the rest of the team supporting it. What are some things to consider?

    I think the starters I should be most concerned with are the Unova ones, since they're the weakest with their original stats.

    The main issue to consider is that you're wanting to encourage a style of gameplay which guarantees a couple things: The fact that the player has a Grass/Water/Fire type, the player has had this Pokemon from the beginning(and it's likely to be slightly higher in level than any other Pokemon in theparty, though I don't recall if the growth rates differ between generations' starters), and in the late game, they will take on a major type change. (if you picked Tepig, Chimchar, Torchic, Bulbasaur, Chespin, or Oshawott you're going to have a rougher time with psychics, whereas if you go with Totodile(since you were planning on adding Dark Type to the mega evolution), Snivy(because of Psychic type on his mega evolution), Froakie, or Fennekin, you'll be going toe-to-toe with psychic types more reliably).

    So right away, just with considering a psychic-type trainer in the late-game, you have to consider that 6 of your starter choices are at a disadvantage, 2 can resist psychic, and two are outright immune. The player with Totodile as a starter may find the overall experience too easy for his Mega-Feraligatr, whereas a player with Torchic might find it too hard, and the player with Snivy could have the intended experience.

    That said, you could also just wing this with a lot of playtesting, but why hextouple your work when you can pick 3 starters and focus on making the game a consistent experience for them?
     
    31
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    10
    Years
    • Seen Nov 12, 2023
    Because a major reason I wanted to try my hand at making a game was precisely to give every starter a starring role. I think I have a good balance of ideas for gyms in mind, if I balance with the general popularity of fire types in mind. Much of the game would likely be stacked against fire.

    Although I would say this is more an issue for the early game, since pokemon availability is supposed to be high, you can be expected to have a diverse team just three badges in. See games BBVW
     
    Last edited:

    Wootius

    Glah
    300
    Posts
    11
    Years
    • Seen May 31, 2022
    How do people feel about gauntlets? AKA short sections where you're not allowed to go back to a Pokemon Center unless you die? Do they need huge warnings? What if I've made sure you have a decent supply of items via NPCs giving you some(for the first try at least)?

    I have a few in my game. One beta liked it a lot, the other hated it but he also hated the area it was in too.
     

    Arma

    The Hyena
    1,688
    Posts
    14
    Years
  • How do people feel about gauntlets? AKA short sections where you're not allowed to go back to a Pokemon Center unless you die? Do they need huge warnings? What if I've made sure you have a decent supply of items via NPCs giving you some(for the first try at least)?

    I have a few in my game. One beta liked it a lot, the other hated it but he also hated the area it was in too.
    I personally like them a lot. You do have to make sure the player knows what they are getting themselves into. I mean, I don't to get stuck in one carrying around weak Pokemon.

    It still depends on the implementation though, they can get furiously annoying if they last too long.
     
    32
    Posts
    9
    Years
    • Seen Jun 15, 2015
    Map Critique: Nearizon Region

    So, I'm finally working on stuff for my fangame, and the thing I think is going to give me the most trouble is the map. It's LOOSELY based on New Mexico/Arizona, which is why there's only one water route.
    Progress isn't limited by HMs but instead by HM-replicating objects.

    2ylo9yw.png

    Green-Special zones
    Red-Towns
    Yellow-Routes
    Purple-Caves
    1-Your starting town. Not much happens here. There's a pond just above it that is the den of a legendary Pokemon, available only after you get the Raft(Surf)
    2-Second-to-start town, home to the Fighting Gym. The bridge just past it is closed for construction until after you beat the gym.
    3-Rock/Mining town, home to the Rock Gym, as well as a small cave. You gain the Pickaxe here, which lets you get to town 5.
    4-Big town. Mall, Game Corner, the works. No Gym.
    5-Floral/Grassland town, home to the Grass Gym. You gain the Shears here, allowing you to cross to the next town.
    6-Colorful fashion town, home to the Bug Gym. You gain the Go-Goggles here, allowing you to cross into the desert and then the next gym.
    7-Dry, desolate desert town, home to a big industrial Purplup Soda plant where a Strange Chemical is being produced. The bad team is doing lots of strange stuff to the townsfolk. Also home to the Poison Gym. That spot just below there is an optional ruins/Mining spot. You gain the Magic Hand (Strength), which lets you get past the cave.
    8- Through the cave that's been blocked off, we see the big oil town. This is home to the Ground Gym. Missing a gateway object here. Any ideas?
    9- Because the player can't progress up without the Climbing Gear, they instead go here, to the Tundra city. Just an excuse to get some colder Pokemon in, really.
    10- This is the location of the penultimate gym, the Flying gym, as well as the Raft, which allows progress to the final gym.
    11- Strange, isolated community, home to the Ghost gym.
    12- Victory road substop city. Not much to do here.
    13- Final town, home to Elite Four.
    14- Postgame town, home to Mystery Safari.

    Major concerns-
    Is this too big? I don't even have a mapper on the team currently, and I don't know about size constraints. It seems like it's bigger than most regions.
    Is it too spread out? I needed to get 14 towns in there, but I think it's fairly dense, no?

    Any other comments/criticisms, questions about the story, or other general advice/problems.
     
    2
    Posts
    8
    Years
  • Sorry if I interrupt current discussions but I have a teeny tiny question. I'm a total newbie in game developing (and the pokecommunity xD) and I started to experiment with RPG Maker XP and Pokemon Essentials recently. I wanted to start working on a real town map now but I don't know how big I should make it. The standard setting for a map in rpgmxp is 20x15 but I think that's rather small. Which sizes would you recommend for different locations like cities, forests and such? I'd be happy to get some answers :)
     

    Wootius

    Glah
    300
    Posts
    11
    Years
    • Seen May 31, 2022
    Sorry if I interrupt current discussions but I have a teeny tiny question. I'm a total newbie in game developing (and the pokecommunity xD) and I started to experiment with RPG Maker XP and Pokemon Essentials recently. I wanted to start working on a real town map now but I don't know how big I should make it. The standard setting for a map in rpgmxp is 20x15 but I think that's rather small. Which sizes would you recommend for different locations like cities, forests and such? I'd be happy to get some answers :)

    I think ~30-40x30-40 is good size for most non-starter cities. Pallet town is ~20x16 but Cerulean City is ~32x25. The big city, Celadon, is 52x36.

    You also have to add 6 of something to each edge to make sure you can't see black also. So Pallet Town is full sized 32x28.

    Forests can be a large as you want. I like to make it a bunch of small maps that are pretty open, like a small Safari Zone.
     
    2
    Posts
    8
    Years
  • I think ~30-40x30-40 is good size for most non-starter cities. Pallet town is ~20x16 but Cerulean City is ~32x25. The big city, Celadon, is 52x36.

    You also have to add 6 of something to each edge to make sure you can't see black also. So Pallet Town is full sized 32x28.

    Forests can be a large as you want. I like to make it a bunch of small maps that are pretty open, like a small Safari Zone.

    Thank you very much! :D
     

    Schrroms

    Pokémon Infinite Fusion dev
    334
    Posts
    9
    Years
  • I'm the guy working on the pokemon fusion game with 20 000+ pokemon.
    I'd like to get some ideas on how to design a new Pokedex UI that takes so many Pokemon into account.

    I'm thinking something like the first page only shows the 151 regular Pokemon and when you select one it displays a second page with all (seen) fusions with this Pokemon as a base. Does that sound useable?
     
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