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What I'm Working On

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
I just thought I'd share a little peek at what I've been doing with Essentials recently.

Well, what I've actually being doing is finishing up all the new tilesets and charsets and all that. The attached picture is (part of) what I'm about to do.

No, the picture isn't final by any means; it's just a guideline. Cosmetic touches can come later (and indeed, from you if you're so inclined!).

Now, what do you suppose it all means?
 

Seth Pegasus

Creator of Pokemon: The Conspiracy.
83
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Aug 24, 2021
Cool, I think I know what it is you're doing. I will anxiously wait for the update.
 

Lord Varion

Guess who's back?
2,642
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15
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  • Age 29
  • Seen Jan 6, 2015
Looks like an easier way to make a world map, rather than drawing it out in paint. ?
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
Looks like an easier way to make a world map, rather than drawing it out in paint. ?
No, actually. I made that picture in 5 minutes in Paint, just to be a rough guide for what I'm actually doing - it will be improved eventually. Paint isn't difficult to use, y'know, and I don't know why an in-game region map generator would ever be invented.

What I'm doing is improving the example maps that come with Essentials. The region map I showed off is what the example world will look like (barring a few possible tweaks). It'll be more world-like, and have more features in it.

I should say that I haven't really ever made any maps, which is why most of them will be copies from the official games, and the rest will be of dubious quality. I don't know how long it'll take me, either. A very rough estimate tells me I've got 60 maps to make.

If you want to discuss the layout of the world, go ahead. Any suggestions would be welcome.
 

Lord Varion

Guess who's back?
2,642
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  • Age 29
  • Seen Jan 6, 2015
Not a generator per se.
But say i downloaded a tileset with world map tiles on it. And pieced it together in a Map in Essentails. I thought it would work like that.

But nyeeh, I was wrong.
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
If anyone knows about the Battle Tower/Arena/etc. scripts, I'd like to learn something. Why do they all use the script with name s:pbInChallenge?(3), why is it always 3, and why might that 3 be compared to the tournament's name (which is a string)?

I know basically what it does, and why it's needed. I just want to know why the 3 is there, and why none of the similarly-named switches (with alternate numbers) are used. It just feels like it could be cleaned up a bit, and/or it needs a bit of fixing.

Also, did you know that all those "Reserved" Global Variables aren't actually used? Well, a couple are, but they're for temporary data which can be reassigned to other Variables (Day Care events). If anyone knows differently, please let me know.
 

zingzags

PokemonGDX creator
536
Posts
15
Years
If anyone knows about the Battle Tower/Arena/etc. scripts, I'd like to learn something. Why do they all use the script with name s:pbInChallenge?(3), why is it always 3, and why might that 3 be compared to the tournament's name (which is a string)?

I know basically what it does, and why it's needed. I just want to know why the 3 is there, and why none of the similarly-named switches (with alternate numbers) are used. It just feels like it could be cleaned up a bit, and/or it needs a bit of fixing.

Also, did you know that all those "Reserved" Global Variables aren't actually used? Well, a couple are, but they're for temporary data which can be reassigned to other Variables (Day Care events). If anyone knows differently, please let me know.
I think the 3 means three pokemon per challenger, I got a copy of HG/SS right here, I will try to find out for you.
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
I think you misunderstand. I'm talking about what Essentials does, not what HGSS does. It's also a different matter. The switch returns true if pbInProgress? && (challenge>0 || @currentChallenge==challenge). challenge is the 3 from the switch name, but @currentChallenge is previously set to something like "towersingle". Clearly, this makes no sense. I was just wondering if it was dodgy code.

I've attached a map I created this evening. Its sole purpose is to showcase bridges. I know the trees aren't shadowed properly and the grass needs randomising. I may touch up the ravine somehow, and add rocks to the rocky areas. What do you guys think?
 

zingzags

PokemonGDX creator
536
Posts
15
Years
I think you misunderstand. I'm talking about what Essentials does, not what HGSS does. It's also a different matter. The switch returns true if pbInProgress? && (challenge>0 || @currentChallenge==challenge). challenge is the 3 from the switch name, but @currentChallenge is previously set to something like "towersingle". Clearly, this makes no sense. I was just wondering if it was dodgy code.

I've attached a map I created this evening. Its sole purpose is to showcase bridges. I know the trees aren't shadowed properly and the grass needs randomising. I may touch up the ravine somehow, and add rocks to the rocky areas. What do you guys think?
Sorry I just assumed, it was something related to three pokemon. I have never really looked into the code.
 
185
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12
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  • Seen Apr 7, 2014
I've attached a map I created this evening. Its sole purpose is to showcase bridges. I know the trees aren't shadowed properly and the grass needs randomising. I may touch up the ravine somehow, and add rocks to the rocky areas. What do you guys think?
... I know they don't do this in the actual games, but I kinda feel like it would look better if the bridges cast a shadow on the grassy and sandy ground the way they do on the water.
 

AmethystRain

pixie-powered judgment!
253
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Nov 28, 2022
The stairs going down-north, if that makes sense, are a little awkwardly sprited. Probably because that's like impossible to sprite from third gen perspective, so noble effort. @_@
The map itself looks great though. Grass aside, which isn't even that bad, I'd say maybe round out some of the cliffs, though that's purely an aesthetic nit-pick and even the main series games are sometimes bad about that.
...Also, you might need more buffering tiles on the top-left so that they don't see the black edge of the screen.
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
Shadows on the cliffsides would look nice, but I won't spend time making the appropriate tiles.

I've had a look at what the Trainer Tower did for the "down-north" stairs (the only instance of them, I think), and I'll try something similar. It's more convenient than trying to turn it into a regular south-facing stair.

When I said grass, I meant the short grass, not the long stuff. There's about 5 different patterns for the short grass, and I only used one. I'll try rounding out the cliffs a bit more.

The map will eventually be broken into 3, and I'll deal with buffering then.


EDIT: Added an improved version of the map.
 
Last edited:

FL

Pokémon Island Creator
2,434
Posts
13
Years
  • Online now
About the world: In my opinion the little brown/green things mess up with the third generation style.

How about making a separate location like a small island?

About the bridge map: I thinks that will be better if you remove the fences, except the lake ones. The river without water (in the second bridge from down) is a little strange. Aside for these thing, will be a good map.

But I didn't like the idea of making a entire map only for bridges, what about putting others stuffs?

No, actually. I made that picture in 5 minutes in Paint, just to be a rough guide for what I'm actually doing - it will be improved eventually. Paint isn't difficult to use, y'know, and I don't know why an in-game region map generator would ever be invented.
I disagree. The exact tile division isn't easy to do by eye.

If anyone knows about the Battle Tower/Arena/etc. scripts, I'd like to learn something. Why do they all use the script with name s:pbInChallenge?(3), why is it always 3, and why might that 3 be compared to the tournament's name (which is a string)?
This 3 make no sense, any positive number have the same behavior. This can be some code to debug or a code that the scripter forget to finish. There also others similar things in PokemonOrgBattle scripts, these scripts are a bit incomplete. Aside for Battle Tower I don't know how complete are these Battle Frontier systems.
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
About the world: In my opinion the little brown/green things mess up with the third generation style.

How about making a separate location like a small island?
Again, that's a draft Town Map I knocked up in 5 minutes for my convenience. All it does is tell me where I should be putting maps. The brown squares represent caves, and the green squares are other points of interest. It is definitely not the final design; aside from a few tweaks to the layout as I progress, it will probably be redrawn in HGSS style anyway.

What would the small island have on it?


About the bridge map: I thinks that will be better if you remove the fences, except the lake ones. The river without water (in the second bridge from down) is a little strange. Aside for these thing, will be a good map.

But I didn't like the idea of making a entire map only for bridges, what about putting others stuffs?
The northern pool does look a bit odd. I'll tweak that a bit. However, I do like the fences, as they mark out the cliff edges and they mask the inability to put tall grass on the tiles where the fences currently are.

The map has more than just bridges in it. There's tall grass for wild encounters, and still water for surfing/reflections/fishing/encounters. The tall grass also helps with showing off roaming Pokémon. And, if nothing else, it shows how to make a pretty map.

My design ethos is to make a small region, each part of which showcases a different feature. If you want to know how to make any kind of bridge, go here. If you want to know what you can do with an ice cave, all the possible puzzles are here. There will be warps to each area from the Nexus map. I think connecting them together is better than having isolated and/or cluttered maps, because it adds to the feel of the region and it also demonstrates a lot of map connections at the same time (i.e. so they don't need their own example maps).

Of course, most maps have multiple features in them. Perhaps the bridge map and other routes aren't the best examples of this, but certainly the towns have many different buildings (the large southern city contains a Poké Center, department store with elevator/stairs/marts/vending machines, Game Corner, Gym, fossil reviver and Move Tutor-type NPCs).

I spent a while coming up with the layout of the region, and I came up with a fairly decent distribution of features. Said features are all listed in my "To Do" file.


I disagree. The exact tile division isn't easy to do by eye.
I work with a 240x160 map, then enlarge it to 200% at the very end. I also begin making a map by using squares (like in the map I posted above), place the towns/routes in, and then worry about the cosmetic details of smoothing out the coast and adding contours. I don't find this approach that difficult. Then again, I am a bit of a neatness freak.


This 3 make no sense, any positive number have the same behavior. This can be some code to debug or a code that the scripter forget to finish. There also others similar things in PokemonOrgBattle scripts, these scripts are a bit incomplete. Aside for Battle Tower I don't know how complete are these Battle Frontier systems.
I think it may be a hangover from an earlier design, when the challenges were called by numbers rather than actual names (I don't know if this actually happened, though). I'm just speculating, and I'd like other opinions.
 

FL

Pokémon Island Creator
2,434
Posts
13
Years
  • Online now
Again, that's a draft Town Map I knocked up in 5 minutes for my convenience. All it does is tell me where I should be putting maps. The brown squares represent caves, and the green squares are other points of interest. It is definitely not the final design; aside from a few tweaks to the layout as I progress, it will probably be redrawn in HGSS style anyway.

What would the small island have on it?
I agree with the HgSs style.

I am thinking on putting at least something in a separate area rather than everything on main area.

I think that the feature that best fits is a ticket/boat sample event with two tickets to two islands with legendary pokémon. The first only have the legendary pokémon, the second have a mini-dungeon with the legendary pokémon at the end. About the pokémon I am thinking in Latios/Latias (like the event in Emerald) and Deoxys (Speed Form). Starting in Platinum, if you don't caught the legendary pokémon (defeat it) it return after you beat the E4 event. The pokémon continues returning until you caught it. How about making a sample legendary event with this, but maybe another event instead of the E4?

The northern pool does look a bit odd. I'll tweak that a bit. However, I do like the fences, as they mark out the cliff edges and they mask the inability to put tall grass on the tiles where the fences currently are.

The map has more than just bridges in it. There's tall grass for wild encounters, and still water for surfing/reflections/fishing/encounters. The tall grass also helps with showing off roaming Pokémon. And, if nothing else, it shows how to make a pretty map.

My design ethos is to make a small region, each part of which showcases a different feature. If you want to know how to make any kind of bridge, go here. If you want to know what you can do with an ice cave, all the possible puzzles are here. There will be warps to each area from the Nexus map. I think connecting them together is better than having isolated and/or cluttered maps, because it adds to the feel of the region and it also demonstrates a lot of map connections at the same time (i.e. so they don't need their own example maps).

Of course, most maps have multiple features in them. Perhaps the bridge map and other routes aren't the best examples of this, but certainly the towns have many different buildings (the large southern city contains a Poké Center, department store with elevator/stairs/marts/vending machines, Game Corner, Gym, fossil reviver and Move Tutor-type NPCs).

I spent a while coming up with the layout of the region, and I came up with a fairly decent distribution of features. Said features are all listed in my "To Do" file.
Really. Now I think that is the best thing to do.

I work with a 240x160 map, then enlarge it to 200% at the very end. I also begin making a map by using squares (like in the map I posted above), place the towns/routes in, and then worry about the cosmetic details of smoothing out the coast and adding contours. I don't find this approach that difficult. Then again, I am a bit of a neatness freak.
But some people doesn't know how to make perfect 8x8 tiles. I played some games that had an awry map and myself had problems with this in the past.

I think it may be a hangover from an earlier design, when the challenges were called by numbers rather than actual names (I don't know if this actually happened, though). I'm just speculating, and I'd like other opinions.
Probable
 
1,748
Posts
14
Years
You can improve this by using a perlin noise algorithm to let people generate their own land basis (not the routing and towns just the land basis of it) anyhow this seems much easier than paint. Also I have a few suggestions I would like to share:

1. File downloading (pbDownloadToString can do this, determining the file's name is a different story though.)

2. Having the option of dynamically placing x amount of trainers with a good level range of the player's party. (this way you can keep the game a little more interesting)

3. Having the option to auto-adjust the enemies Pokemon to be within a good level range of the player's party.

4. Encrypting the save data (I figured out how to crack a save without decrypting anything at all which is really simple.)

5. Add some essential game versioning info (Game Key (XXXX), Game Version 1.0, ect.)
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
I agree with the HgSs style.

I am thinking on putting at least something in a separate area rather than everything on main area.

I think that the feature that best fits is a ticket/boat sample event with two tickets to two islands with legendary pokémon. The first only have the legendary pokémon, the second have a mini-dungeon with the legendary pokémon at the end. About the pokémon I am thinking in Latios/Latias (like the event in Emerald) and Deoxys (Speed Form). Starting in Platinum, if you don't caught the legendary pokémon (defeat it) it return after you beat the E4 event. The pokémon continues returning until you caught it. How about making a sample legendary event with this, but maybe another event instead of the E4?
I currently don't have any plans for a second region, although I think one should be included (it doesn't really need anything in it, though). Adding a harbour would be a nice idea, where the surfable water is at the south. As you suggested, the player could also unlock other destinations in the same region (which uses the "don't show map details for this point unless Switch X is on" feature). The unlocking/item obtaining can be done by/from NPCs also in the harbour, for convenience.

Deoxys would be a good example, as there can also be meteorites to inspect which change its form. The other Pokémon can be something like the Shiny Gyarados (i.e. use a script to force it to be always shiny). One can return every 24 hours, and the other can return upon setting a certain switch (which is then unset).

The only problem is that there's currently no support in Essentials for changing the Town Map's graphics during a game. I'm not entirely sure how best to go about it (specifically, how to make it easiest for the user to use).
 
1,748
Posts
14
Years
The only problem is that there's currently no support in Essentials for changing the Town Map's graphics during a game. I'm not entirely sure how best to go about it (specifically, how to make it easiest for the user to use).

This could easily be done by using something simmilar to the pokemon's image names, but except a little different:

game_switch,xpos,ypos.png

an example:

50,1,2.png

but the problem is loading it, since you don't know any of the names it can't be read so easily so the best way is creating a small program/script which you
just open the townmap and drag sub-images into it then it saves it into the townmap database. (I'm sorry if this sounds confusing.) This is the easiest way to do so in my opinion.
 
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