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What I'm Working On

97
Posts
14
Years
  • Seen Oct 5, 2020
I use envy.nu from when I used to make websites 10 years ago...
I think the upload limit is 1mb per file which is good enough for text files. I was able to make a "Pokemon of the Month" gifting feature so I can attest that it works.
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
Ah, finally!

Here's what I did:

  • Get Dropbox.
  • Find the option to create a public folder (it isn't created by default).
  • Put the file into it.
  • Go to the Dropbox website, find the file, copy public link.
I've gone through half a dozen different addresses which were all called the "public link" by various parts of Dropbox. I don't know why it didn't work for me before.


Anyway, now for some testing! Oh, and finishing writing the scripts (I'm making it from scratch, because my version is better than what's available). It'll give Pokémon and items only, which I assume is fine for everyone.
 

the__end

Pixel Artist
141
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Jun 9, 2016
It'll give Pokémon and items only, which I assume is fine for everyone.
maybe you should add that the player can get complete team data and battle against this team?
this way you can simulate a "multiplayer" battle... ;)
 
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Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
That's not what I'd call a Mystery Gift, though. Its use would be limited too, since only the game's owner (i.e. who can edit the uploaded file) would be able to create the teams. It's not a feature I'll bother creating.
 

FL

Pokémon Island Creator
2,434
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen yesterday
There's another guide called "How to use Essentials", but it's not been made yet. It will include basic information such as how/when to make backups, how to record what you've done (so you can upgrade more easily), and so on.
Several tips (and the entire "Make backups" section), are more related to general game making than Essentials use. But I approve any "make backups" reminder.

There two way to start making backups. The first is understanding the backup importance reading guides/other people tips (like me now). The second is being traumatized by losing your files.

And I suggest you to add in the start something like: Before you starts, it is strong recommended that you made some tests with RPG Maker XP interface and events commands (specially switches, variables and conditional branches) before starting Essentials. I suggest to try to discover at least 90% of events commands. After this, starting Essentials, take a good look in example maps before starting you project.
 

the__end

Pixel Artist
141
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Jun 9, 2016
That's not what I'd call a Mystery Gift, though. Its use would be limited too, since only the game's owner (i.e. who can edit the uploaded file) would be able to create the teams. It's not a feature I'll bother creating.

well you could call it "Mystery Battle" or something like this... :P
and that it is limited is an advantage and not otherwise!
this way you can avoid the spamming of 6x magicarp teams and you have full control about the strength of the team...
you could also add restrictions to the players team!
for example level cap or a banned pokemon list... ;)
i thought if you already redo the mystery gift system you could add "easy multiplayer features" as well... (at least its easier then doing an actual real time battle...)
but its your decision so do as you like... ^^
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
Several tips (and the entire "Make backups" section), are more related to general game making than Essentials use. But I approve any "make backups" reminder.

There two way to start making backups. The first is understanding the backup importance reading guides/other people tips (like me now). The second is being traumatized by losing your files.

And I suggest you to add in the start something like: Before you starts, it is strong recommended that you made some tests with RPG Maker XP interface and events commands (specially switches, variables and conditional branches) before starting Essentials. I suggest to try to discover at least 90% of events commands. After this, starting Essentials, take a good look in example maps before starting you project.
Good points. I've added a couple of sections to the guide.


well you could call it "Mystery Battle" or something like this... :P
and that it is limited is an advantage and not otherwise!
this way you can avoid the spamming of 6x magicarp teams and you have full control about the strength of the team...
you could also add restrictions to the players team!
for example level cap or a banned pokemon list... ;)
i thought if you already redo the mystery gift system you could add "easy multiplayer features" as well... (at least its easier then doing an actual real time battle...)
but its your decision so do as you like... ^^
That kind of feature can be devised by whoever wants to use it. It's very similar to how my Mystery Gift system will work, which is a place to start.

However, I think this kind of thing should be usable by all players, not just the game's maker (it allows more variety), which means it would only work if it read local files rather than online ones. I believe Raptor does this, and failing a MySQL alternative, I think it's the best method. It could of course be improved a bit to read multiple files at once and let the player choose/delete opponents.

I don't know, I may add something like this (Raptor-style) eventually. A basic version only. It doesn't seem too difficult. Don't let my saying "maybe" stop you from trying to do it yourself, though.
 

the__end

Pixel Artist
141
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Jun 9, 2016
Good points. I've added a couple of sections to the guide.



That kind of feature can be devised by whoever wants to use it. It's very similar to how my Mystery Gift system will work, which is a place to start.

However, I think this kind of thing should be usable by all players, not just the game's maker (it allows more variety), which means it would only work if it read local files rather than online ones. I believe Raptor does this, and failing a MySQL alternative, I think it's the best method. It could of course be improved a bit to read multiple files at once and let the player choose/delete opponents.

I don't know, I may add something like this (Raptor-style) eventually. A basic version only. It doesn't seem too difficult. Don't let my saying "maybe" stop you from trying to do it yourself, though.

yeah Raptor has a feature like this... ^^
this is how they explain their trade system in the game:

1) To carry out a Pokemon trade, you must first offer a Pokemon. This can be done by speaking to the lady on my right.
2) When you have done so, a unique code will be generated for that Pokemon. It will be saved to a text file within the Trades folder, labeled with the name and species of the Pokemon.
3) Send that code to the person you want to trade with; they will send you their code.
4) When you receive a Pokemon code, save it to a .txt file in the Trades folder.
5) Then, speak to the lady again, and choose to receive a Pokemon.
6) Select the file containing the Pokemon. You will not get the Pokemon straight away. Instead, you will get a short confirmation code; both traders must send this to each other. Similarly, this must be saved to a .txt file in the Confirmation folder.
7) When you have done so, ask to finish the trade, and select the correct confirmation file. Once you have done this, the Pokemon will be added to your team.
*You cannot finish a trade while your team is full.
*At any time before you confirm the trade, you may withdraw your Pokemon from the trade. However, this means the trade will be unable to go through.

the battle system is similar like this without the confirmation i think and instead receiving a pokemon you start a battle...
the confirmation is important but its to bothersome...
i will think about an easier way and write it here when i found it... ^^
ahh and maybe its possible to fix that you cant trade when your team is full?
i mean sending the pokemon you received into the pc box or something like this...
 

venom12

Pokemon Crystal Rain Relased
476
Posts
17
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 28, 2023
You could make trade like in raptor, it would be cool to have something like that and not everyone can make a system like that, also you could made battle in the same way. :)
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
If there's going to be online trading, it's going to use MySQL because that's a much better system than faffing around with text files (and Raptor's seems rather inefficient with its confirmation files; I don't know what they're for).

In any case, this isn't the "Suggestions" thread; it's a thread about what I've been doing.
 

Luka S.J.

Jealous Croatian
1,270
Posts
15
Years
You could make trade like in raptor, it would be cool to have something like that and not everyone can make a system like that, also you could made battle in the same way. :)

If a developer wants to have trading and battling, they can do it themselves. Keep in mind that this is Pokemon Essentials. All those multiplayer features are not essential to make a game. You can play a Pokemon game without ever trading with others. While they are nice, there are other things that do take priority.
 

FL

Pokémon Island Creator
2,434
Posts
13
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  • Seen yesterday
How about tips for resource hunting in the guide? Something like "Search for a resource before making it, avoid rework." and "with the Essentials resources on the web, is easy to port some of gen 2/4/5 graphics to essentials, gen 5 pokémon and animated sprites.".

If a developer wants to have trading and battling, they can do it themselves. Keep in mind that this is Pokemon Essentials. All those multiplayer features are not essential to make a game. You can play a Pokemon game without ever trading with others. While they are nice, there are other things that do take priority.
I can point dozens, maybe hundreds of features that Essentials had and aren't Essentials. The project is going to be an easy use, complete and useful tool for making pokémon games, but some features are added because they are useful and nice, specially while the project was under Poccil management.
 

Luka S.J.

Jealous Croatian
1,270
Posts
15
Years
I can point dozens, maybe hundreds of features that Essentials had and aren't Essentials. The project is going to be an easy use, complete and useful tool for making pokémon games, but some features are added because they are useful and nice, specially while the project was under Poccil management.

Sure, that may be true. I'm just saying, that if you do want the extra features that aren't in the kit, a developer should go through the effort to try to make it themselves. But pestering Maruno to do all the heavy lifting for things they personally want, is a bit selfish, considering the large amount of good work Maruno is putting into this kit already. I feel that we get more and more people who just want more and more ambitious systems, functions, etc, but don't want to be bothered to learn, and put work into it.
 

the__end

Pixel Artist
141
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Jun 9, 2016
Sure, that may be true. I'm just saying, that if you do want the extra features that aren't in the kit, a developer should go through the effort to try to make it themselves. But pestering Maruno to do all the heavy lifting for things they personally want, is a bit selfish, considering the large amount of good work Maruno is putting into this kit already. I feel that we get more and more people who just want more and more ambitious systems, functions, etc, but don't want to be bothered to learn, and put work into it.

uhm saying that it is possible to make a feature that is similar to the one he is currently working on isnt pestering imo... <.<
for example if you make pokemon data downloadable you can make entire team data downloadable (6x pokemon) and start a battle against this team...
why restrict yourself if you can make an entire new feature with a little more effort on the feature you are currently working on?
and why is pointing that out pestering? <.<
its not like someone said he HAS TO do it...
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
I should weigh in at this point.

Yes, I want Essentials to contain everything needed to make a Pokémon game. Not necessarily a great game, but definitely a complete one. Anything beyond that is up to the user to do themselves. As far as I'm concerned, it's pretty much at that stage already (minus a few move effects, etc.).

On the other hand, there are a range of completely unnecessary features I'd like to see in Essentials - trading, swarming Pokémon, dongle encounters, more mini-games, Virtual Trainers (battling other players' teams as mentioned above), multiple save support, a Radio app, improved dungeon maps, a customisable time system, and so on and so forth. However, they aren't quite as important as getting what exists to work properly, which is what I mostly work on.

In the specific case of Virtual Trainers (you come up with a better name!), I've considered the suggestion and decided it would be better if it worked a little differently (i.e. put the teams in a folder rather than download them). This alteration makes the feature almost completely unrelated to the Mystery Gift - the only similar part is saving Pokémon details to a text file, but even that will end up being remarkably different for reasons of purpose and efficiency. That means it's a separate feature, and one I won't look at at the moment. It's an interesting idea, though, and I'd like to see someone have a go at it (or even think in depth about it) and see what they come up with.

Maybe it's a good sign that people are asking (demanding?) hugely complicated features like online battles and trading. It means there aren't many bugs and vital things for them to complain about instead.


How about tips for resource hunting in the guide? Something like "Search for a resource before making it, avoid rework." and "with the Essentials resources on the web, is easy to port some of gen 2/4/5 graphics to essentials, gen 5 pokémon and animated sprites.".
That's general advice and common sense. The guide is about using Essentials, which resource-hunting isn't. And before you say "neither is saying you should keep backups", I'll point out that every section of the guide has some information specifically about Essentials (e.g. that you can consider a fresh version to be your first backup, which people may not realise).

Besides, resource-hunting is about changing Essentials, not about using it, and tilesets/charsets is an RMXP thing.



Scripter of the year, eh? I wonder if I've released six versions of Essentials during 2012 which might prove my skills? :cheeky: Nah, it's "Most Talented Scripter", not "Best Script Contributor" or something like that. I'm sure other people have stronger scripting skills than I do. Why there are community awards celebrating talent but not contributions to the community, I don't know.
 
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FL

Pokémon Island Creator
2,434
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen yesterday
Sure, that may be true. I'm just saying, that if you do want the extra features that aren't in the kit, a developer should go through the effort to try to make it themselves. But pestering Maruno to do all the heavy lifting for things they personally want, is a bit selfish, considering the large amount of good work Maruno is putting into this kit already. I feel that we get more and more people who just want more and more ambitious systems, functions, etc, but don't want to be bothered to learn, and put work into it.
I agree. When Maruno took over Essentials my first request was to fix the Battle Tower and Hall of Fame, mostly for my use. I end up doing both myself and now they are in Essentials.

Like I said before, when people are suggesting things in Essentials, they need to think "Which features in Essentials can better fit on my game" rather than "Which features in Essentials can better fit in majority of games".

However, I don't agree that everyone needs to learn scripting. There are some people that aren't good with scripting, others with graphics, etc... At least these people need to team up with some scripter if their wish to have custom scripts.

I should weigh in at this point.

Yes, I want Essentials to contain everything needed to make a Pokémon game. Not necessarily a great game, but definitely a complete one. Anything beyond that is up to the user to do themselves. As far as I'm concerned, it's pretty much at that stage already (minus a few move effects, etc.).

On the other hand, there are a range of completely unnecessary features I'd like to see in Essentials - trading, swarming Pokémon, dongle encounters, more mini-games, Virtual Trainers (battling other players' teams as mentioned above), multiple save support, a Radio app, improved dungeon maps, a customisable time system, and so on and so forth. However, they aren't quite as important as getting what exists to work properly, which is what I mostly work on.

In the specific case of Virtual Trainers (you come up with a better name!), I've considered the suggestion and decided it would be better if it worked a little differently (i.e. put the teams in a folder rather than download them). This alteration makes the feature almost completely unrelated to the Mystery Gift - the only similar part is saving Pokémon details to a text file, but even that will end up being remarkably different for reasons of purpose and efficiency. That means it's a separate feature, and one I won't look at at the moment. It's an interesting idea, though, and I'd like to see someone have a go at it (or even think in depth about it) and see what they come up with.

Maybe it's a good sign that people are asking (demanding?) hugely complicated features like online battles and trading. It means there aren't many bugs and vital things for them to complain about instead.
I think that isn't hard to do using serialization on trainer object and, maybe, a cryptography algorithm (like Vigenère) to don't allow for a player (not the developer) easily edit a virtual trainer.

By the way, my time system is working.

That's general advice and common sense. The guide is about using Essentials, which resource-hunting isn't. And before you say "neither is saying you should keep backups", I'll point out that every section of the guide has some information specifically about Essentials (e.g. that you can consider a fresh version to be your first backup, which people may not realise).

Besides, resource-hunting is about changing Essentials, not about using it, and tilesets/charsets is an RMXP thing.
Yes, but some people are lacking common sense. And I saw several people preferring others kits because Essentials has gen 3 graphics. They didn't realise that isn't hard to port some resources to Essentials.
 

Maruno

Lead Dev of Pokémon Essentials
5,285
Posts
16
Years
Like I said before, when people are suggesting things in Essentials, they need to think "Which features in Essentials can better fit on my game" rather than "Which features in Essentials can better fit in majority of games".
Although Essentials is by definition a part of every game, and should focus on features that fit in the majority of games, what you suggest is a reasonable idea.

I'm not making a game myself, and I don't know what people are doing and want to do with Essentials. It's always nice to hear what people want, and it's easiest to draw inspiration from what you want for your own game.

I won't implement every single suggestion (e.g. "glitch" Pokémon), but there are some suggested features I hadn't thought of but would like to include (e.g. Virtual Trainers - please give me a better name for this feature!).


I think that isn't hard to do using serialization on trainer object and, maybe, a cryptography algorithm (like Vigenère) to don't allow for a player (not the developer) easily edit a virtual trainer.
Certainly it's not difficult to make the data-saving and -loading work. The majority of the effort goes into doing things with that information, like creating new screens (e.g. a list of trainers), events which showcase the feature, and so on.

As far as encryption goes, it depends on how the information is saved (obviously a string, but there are many different ways to put the string together). I've not looked at this aspect yet.



People can now upload .txt files to the wiki. Obviously they'll be susceptible to griefing there and you'll have to keep an eye on them (don't expect any help from me), but it's a simple last resort for people who can't upload their Mystery Gift files to somewhere secure for whatever reason.
 

the__end

Pixel Artist
141
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Jun 9, 2016
(e.g. Virtual Trainers - please give me a better name for this feature!).
- Battle Simulation (i like this one best... ^^)
- Mystery Battle
- Mystery Trainer
- Mystery Challenge
- Challenge Mode
- VS. Battle
- VS. Trainer
- VS. Mode

thats all for now i think...
maybe you will like one... ;)
 

zingzags

PokemonGDX creator
536
Posts
15
Years
Yes, but some people are lacking common sense. And I saw several people preferring others kits because Essentials has gen 3 graphics. They didn't realize that isn't hard to port some resources to Essentials.

This is the part that made me laugh. It is true what you are saying it is more for "my game" than "most'.
 

IceGod64

In the Lost & Found bin!
624
Posts
15
Years
- Battle Simulation (i like this one best... ^^)
- Mystery Battle
- Mystery Trainer
- Mystery Challenge
- Challenge Mode
- VS. Battle
- VS. Trainer
- VS. Mode

thats all for now i think...
maybe you will like one... ;)

Battle Sim is a name I particularly like.
 
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