[Completed] GPS Monster Scouter [Android] - with Pokémon data pack

[Tankenka]

I just realized I broke the behaviour phrases in the recent updates, sorry :P

Yeah i believe it should take some time to get strong, because the original games have a storyline which needs about 20 hours to be completed. This game, like pokemon go dont have a time limit. That's why getting strong needs to be a challenge. There is no point in crating a game with millions of potential players, only to find a lot of them with a team of 100s in 2-3 weeks time. The current exp rate seems fine to me, perhaps a small increase in lvl up exp needed wouldnt harm at all. I suggested these changes to balance the respawn time each pokemon needs after a fight.

Yeah, you're right, thanks for the help!

I have been playing your app for a while now, and I must say, keep up the good work! I like how you don't need wifi to use the app. I do suggest, should pvp be implemented, that you use bluetooth to keep this trend going. I do, however, have a question. What exactly are these area completeness circles? I've seen them but I really have no idea what they are...

Thanks! Yep, it's going to be bluetooth.
Imagine being in a Oddish Family route: the circle there will be basically divided in 4 parts, and it will become complete after you have registered in your Dex oddish, gloom, vileplume and bellossom. If you are in a Tauros Family route, it will become entirely visible after just catching a Tauros, that's the only species there.
Actually I lied: even after catching all of them, the circle always has an open spot at the top, which will be visible if you already have the legendary assigned to that route.
Once the circle is 100%, you know you don't have anything to collect there anymore.

 

[Tankenka]

Update incoming.

New functionality:
You've seen a certain family in your region, but you don't remember where it was? The game was on while traveling but you don't know which families you encountered along the way?
Hold the 'region view' pressed, and you'll see an option. You'll see a list of all the families you've seen in the current region, and you'll be able to highlight the routes where one of those lives.

 

[Tankenka]

Update incoming:

Routes until now could be marked with a 'home' symbol, but only one at a time.
The real meaning of these 'homes'/'bases' is still to be implemented, but now this marking functionality is expanded:
You can mark all your favorite routes and positions with new unlimited symbols: heart, star, cross or circle. The symbols' meaning is something for you to decide.
I wanted this functionality because I wanted to see my usual spots on the region map, and can be useful when you are in a place you don't know very well and need to orient yourself.

The amount of exp gained from battle now also depends on how tough the victory was, and therefore also how much is the recovery time. Tougher = more exp gained.
The rules behind it are not how Veiman suggested but I found the most appropriate way. Thanks Veiman for suggesting it!

When monsters level up in battle the player gets a notice about it, but the monster level displayed on screen remains the same as before. That's because that was the level used for battle calculations, and changing it would confuse someone trying to analyze battle values. But leaving it the same would confuse others.
So now when monsters level up in battle, a little '+1' gets displayed beside them.

Enjoy!

 

[Veiman]

Update incoming:

Routes until now could be marked with a 'home' symbol, but only one at a time.
The real meaning of these 'homes'/'bases' is still to be implemented, but now this marking functionality is expanded:
You can mark all your favorite routes and positions with new unlimited symbols: heart, star, cross or circle. The symbols' meaning is something for you to decide.
I wanted this functionality because I wanted to see my usual spots on the region map, and can be useful when you are in a place you don't know very well and need to orient yourself.

The amount of exp gained from battle now also depends on how tough the victory was, and therefore also how much is the recovery time. Tougher = more exp gained.
The rules behind it are not how Veiman suggested but I found the most appropriate way. Thanks Veiman for suggesting it!

When monsters level up in battle the player gets a notice about it, but the monster level displayed on screen remains the same as before. That's because that was the level used for battle calculations, and changing it would confuse someone trying to analyze battle values. But leaving it the same would confuse others.
So now when monsters level up in battle, a little '+1' gets displayed beside them.

Enjoy!

Glad i could help! Would you mind mentioning the new changes in exp gains?
Keep up the good work!

 

[Tankenka]

Glad i could help! Would you mind mentioning the new changes in exp gains?
Keep up the good work!

Well to tell the truth, the exp rate was overall reduced (by a little bit), because I think leveling was too easy.
The normal exp points now get tweaked by a multiplier proportional to the difference in battle values, so there are not fixed values like x0.5, x1 or x1.5, the multiplier floats freely in a set range, from a minimum to a maximum.
The maximum is greater than 1, so when the difference in battle value is very low you'll be gaining a bit more exp than before, but most of the time it'll be a bit less than before.
Hope noone has something against it, leveling is now a liiiittle bit harder but this way the game is also more entertaining, I believe it is. It was too easy to begin with, and type advantages could be exploited to gain way too much exp.
Balancing is hard because you have to set up everything perfectly before the players gets to it, otherwise they'll get annoyed by the modifies :/ But oh well, it happens even in AAA games.

 

[Veiman]

Well to tell the truth, the exp rate was overall reduced (by a little bit), because I think leveling was too easy.
The normal exp points now get tweaked by a multiplier proportional to the difference in battle values, so there are not fixed values like x0.5, x1 or x1.5, the multiplier floats freely in a set range, from a minimum to a maximum.
The maximum is greater than 1, so when the difference in battle value is very low you'll be gaining a bit more exp than before, but most of the time it'll be a bit less than before.
Hope noone has something against it, leveling is now a liiiittle bit harder but this way the game is also more entertaining, I believe it is. It was too easy to begin with, and type advantages could be exploited to gain way too much exp.
Balancing is hard because you have to set up everything perfectly before the players gets to it, otherwise they'll get annoyed by the modifies :/ But oh well, it happens even in AAA games.

Yes i tested it today, and i can say that i like the new exp rate. Makes leveling up more challenging which is essential in a game like that. Now that i think about it my exp rates might have been too much, so im glad you came up with better ones!!

 

[Tankenka]

Update incoming, radar functionalities enhanced:
- Radar now points in 8 directions instead of 4
- A new sound signals that the hidden item was collected
- A sparkle icon appears as a hint of the item location when you're near enough

 

[Jolt_]

I love the hint as to where the hidden item is. I always felt like I was walking blindly trying to find it. Also, what's the standby button that in the menu for? Does it make any difference with just pressing the back button while in app?

 

[Tankenka]

I love the hint as to where the hidden item is. I always felt like I was walking blindly trying to find it. Also, what's the standby button that in the menu for? Does it make any difference with just pressing the back button while in app?

Yeah the standby also pauses the GPS tracking, so it's useful where it wouldn't work anyway like inside a building or in subway, to avoid the battery to drain in vain.
'Killing' the app and then restarting it would have a similar effect, but when in standby it reopens more quickly.
The back button instead just places it in the background, but it still works and tracks your movements.

 

[Xero3C]

What are the purposes of the bases? I encountered one and registered it, but I don't know what it does.

And when I tap Z- I see a black screen with some colored squares like red, violet, white... What does that mean?

 

[Tankenka]

What are the purposes of the bases? I encountered one and registered it, but I don't know what it does.

And when I tap Z- I see a black screen with some colored squares like red, violet, white... What does that mean?

Hi, the base has not a purpose yet, it's still to be implemented. Right now if you have the latest version you can 'mark' any route with a variety of symbols, although the 'home' symbol (the base) can be used only once. The markings are just for self-orientation and exploration purposes.

The Z button (I should use images in the button I know) toggles the zoom, so what you see when you zoom out is a view of the whole region you're in, showing all its routes as squares. The routes you visit become colored (from black), and the white one is the current one.

 

[Tankenka]

Update incoming:

- Smartphones' internal compass rarely works properly, so when you stop and look at the game screen, you can never be sure exactly where you're going and where you came from.
...Until now. Now your cursor leaves a trail of dots behind, in previously registered positions, so you can always know where you were some meters ago and orient yourself.

- I'm surprised no one asked for them yet: exp bars in battle!

 

[Veiman]

You can also add potions and rare candies in the game sometime.
Potions won't have the effect they have at the original games, but instead cooldown the timer of pokemon fatigue for example:
Potion: -120 seconds
Super potion: -300 seconds
Ultra potion: -600 seconds

Also a cool feature would be to add collections into the game. Like small rewards for completing a specific task of collections for example: Collect weedle and caterpie families
Rare candies would be the reward for high difficulty collections.

 

[Tankenka]

You can also add potions and rare candies in the game sometime.
Potions won't have the effect they have at the original games, but instead cooldown the timer of pokemon fatigue for example:
Potion: -120 seconds
Super potion: -300 seconds
Ultra potion: -600 seconds

Also a cool feature would be to add collections into the game. Like small rewards for completing a specific task of collections for example: Collect weedle and caterpie families
Rare candies would be the reward for high difficulty collections.

These were already on my mind, but you pointed out some details I didn't think about, and I added them to the TODO list. Thanks!


For those coming from reddit, there is r/gpsmonsterscouter now.
It's not really pretty but oh well.

 

[CDB]

Great work Tankenka! I don't have much time to play, so my Pokemon are all pretty low level, but it definitely feels like they're gradually getting stronger :) I also love how the item locations are shown now! I don't have to go hunting for them haha

 

[Broleta]

Thank you for all of the updates recently Tankenka, it is great to see the game improving. I have subscribed to the subreddit.

 

[Tankenka]

Great work Tankenka! I don't have much time to play, so my Pokemon are all pretty low level, but it definitely feels like they're gradually getting stronger :) I also love how the item locations are shown now! I don't have to go hunting for them haha

I feared showing the items would take away the fun, but it seems reaching them is already satisfying enough. Glad it was the right thing to do!

Thank you for all of the updates recently Tankenka, it is great to see the game improving. I have subscribed to the subreddit.

Thanks for your support, seeing some appreciation always enlightens my day.



--------------

I'll be honest, it's hard... maybe I'm not trying hard enough, or I'm making poor decisions, but even after months and months I struggle creating interest for this game. I think it has potential, I made it not because I wanted to make some random game and to say "woo I make games lol", but because I really wanted to play a game like this, I searched for it, and didn't find it. I thought anyone would be immediately interested even after seeing a beta screen, but it didn't turn quite like that.

Even though I'd like to spend my time just programming, and even though I think graphics can come after gameplay, I think I'll spend some time polishing them, to better promote the app. My initial thought was to leave it all in the hands of someone else, but it doesn't look I have that option yet.
Man, doing a game all by yourself is hard, not just programming but graphics, promotion, social media, public relations, and even if I had other people working on those fields, I'd still have to spend time coordinating them.

Also I sometimes regret not having full control of the game through internet, like most of the other games have, because I can't know if people are playing it. Sure you write here every now and then, a pair of close friends sometimes send me a screenshot of their team, but you're like 5% of the game downloads, and I have this fear that only a small bunch of people is playing it and it'll never get any significant recognition. The quality counts and not the quantity, I know, but you know what I mean, of course I'm more than immensely thankful to all of you for taking your time to write to me.

Sorry for this rant, it's just that it's hard doing everything alone, and often the results are less than expected, so I feel a bit down. I'd really want to see this game finally at its full potential, but time passes and at a certain point I'll have to come to results or leave it be, sadly.
Sorry again, but I wanted to let you all know how things are without the "hey people, everything's fantastic" marketing mask. Hope it doesn't ruin your fun with the game!

 

[pbood2]

Hello Tankenka. I hope you are doing well.

I totally understand the above when you were ranting about making games and how it's tough. I am doing my own game with a team luckily and it still takes a long time and lots of effort and at times, you just don't feel like doing the work which makes things hard so I wish you the best of luck and all the motivation because I do things with a team but I can't imagine how much harder it is doing everything alone.

I signed up as a beta tester for your app but my phone (Blackberry Z10 with google play store on it and the app works without the data pack) still hasn't received the update (it's been 7 hours now so if that's not long enough, sorry to bother you) so could you help me so I can try and see what everyone else has been playing :D

Thanks and keep up the awesome work. I know you can do amazing. :D

EDIT: Okay so I got it to work but I never got notified about the update. I had to open the app and let it download the pokemon pack from the internet and it works now. I apparently live with shuckles lmao. You said in the app if we have any suggestions for packs, we should give you them. A digimon or yugioh one would be pretty awesome but that's just me. :D Keep up the awesome work though.

 

[Tankenka]

Hello Tankenka. I hope you are doing well.

I totally understand the above when you were ranting about making games and how it's tough. I am doing my own game with a team luckily and it still takes a long time and lots of effort and at times, you just don't feel like doing the work which makes things hard so I wish you the best of luck and all the motivation because I do things with a team but I can't imagine how much harder it is doing everything alone.

I signed up as a beta tester for your app but my phone (Blackberry Z10 with google play store on it and the app works without the data pack) still hasn't received the update (it's been 7 hours now so if that's not long enough, sorry to bother you) so could you help me so I can try and see what everyone else has been playing :D

Thanks and keep up the awesome work. I know you can do amazing. :D

EDIT: Okay so I got it to work but I never got notified about the update. I had to open the app and let it download the pokemon pack from the internet and it works now. I apparently live with shuckles lmao. You said in the app if we have any suggestions for packs, we should give you them. A digimon or yugioh one would be pretty awesome but that's just me. :D Keep up the awesome work though.

Thanks for your very kind words, I'm motivated most of the time but sometimes the hardships get me, but that's probably something that happens frequently to any game developer on any level. Today things seem to be going much better. What are you and your team creating? Best of luck to you too!

I'm not sure what you're referring to, after registering as a tester google play can take some minutes to grant you access, but it doesn't send any notification about it. After you download and open the app, it asks you to go download a data pack, and after the download is completed you can reopen the app and it should start normally. Maybe you thought it would work differently, in that case let me know, it could be useful for an improvement.

Yugioh was something I haven't thought of, even though I'm a fan of it. It would be amazing, thanks! Now it's probably too soon, but I'll need everyone's contribution to create all the other packs, to decide how to precisely adapt all these other groups to the pokémon standards (if it evolves, in what, at which level or with which item, what type is it, how much powerful is the species, and so on), so if you want to contribute check the reddit every now and then.
See ya!

 

[pbood2]

Thanks for your very kind words, I'm motivated most of the time but sometimes the hardships get me, but that's probably something that happens frequently to any game developer on any level. Today things seem to be going much better. What are you and your team creating? Best of luck to you too!

You're welcome for the words. I would agree that hardships happen frequently to any game developer. My team and I are creating a Pokemon fangame for PC called Pokemon Darkness. It's based on the Pokemon Reborn forums right now but will be promoted here in the future. Check it out sometime and let me know what you think of it. I'm the lead creator on it. Thanks for asking and showing interest. It's much appreciated. :D

I'm not sure what you're referring to, after registering as a tester google play can take some minutes to grant you access, but it doesn't send any notification about it. After you download and open the app, it asks you to go download a data pack, and after the download is completed you can reopen the app and it should start normally. Maybe you thought it would work differently, in that case let me know, it could be useful for an improvement.

This is what it says when you click the google play link you have in the main post:
Get the testing version
If you already have the GPS Monster Scouter app installed on your device, you'll get an update with the testing version shortly. If you don't have the GPS Monster Scouter app installed, download it on Google Play first, then you'll get an update with the testing version. It can take a few hours for the update to arrive.

By this you can tell why I was waiting for an update to appear eventually. I would definitely change the text to say you have to go into the app and look for the pokemon pack in the app and that there is no update to wait for because you have to find it manually or something like this.

Yugioh was something I haven't thought of, even though I'm a fan of it. It would be amazing, thanks! Now it's probably too soon, but I'll need everyone's contribution to create all the other packs, to decide how to precisely adapt all these other groups to the pokémon standards (if it evolves, in what, at which level or with which item, what type is it, how much powerful is the species, and so on), so if you want to contribute check the reddit every now and then.
See ya!

Yu-gi-oh might be tougher based on what you listed here but Digimon and Yokai Watch would be cool still if you and others could manage it. I'll definitely check the reddit every once in a while but could you put the link for the reddit again and I wish you and others luck adapting other series to the app. Sorry for causing issues.

Have a great night and talk to you later. :D