Ledge Climbing

[Team Kanto]

My friends and I have been working on our Pokemon game for a bit, and have only got as far as Route 1. However, we have talked about this idea since day one.

The problem with Pokemon is that you can only really go through the routes one way. We wanted an option that would allow you, for instance, to go from Cerulean to Pewter on foot. We wanted... Hiking boots.

It would be something that would allow us, should we have the boots, to change pass-ability of the ledge tiles and allow the character to hop over either side of the ledge.

 

[TeamSoddom]

Well, I tried to find out how to do it, but I have run into the problem. There is so much cross-referential information in PokemonEssentials that I am having a hard time finding anything.

I have found a method that defines how to use the running shoes, but I don't believe it actually makes your character run, unless I am mistaking how Walk_Run works.

 

[PiaCRT]

You don't need a script for this. This can be done with events.

 

[Maruno]

You know you're making these maps, right? Can't you just stick in a Rock Smash rock or two instead of coming up with some roundabout way of going the wrong way over ledges? If you have your boots, all ledges become immediately pointless, which sounds to me like a bad thing (even if they're only obtained later on in the game).

 

[Pokemon Trainer Jackey]

Another option you have is that you can design special tunnels/paths that allow for fast back-tracking.

Like, in what I've done so far, I've got a cave you can access the south entrance of from close to the first town, but to get to the second town, you have to take the outdoor route. Then once you beat the gym in the second town, you'll be able to access a northern part of the cave that will let you use it to back-track if you want.

 

[TeamSoddom]

I suppose you guys have a point, but it was an idea that the guys really fell in love with in the first few weeks of development, and they really wanted to see it done. It was essentially along the lines of being able to, at home, switch shoes and essentially choose between running or "hiking" where the hiking boots were really more of a reward for completing something along the lines of a trading quest (long and a bit tedious, but with a great reward)

But, this might be a situation where you need to kill your baby. Yeah, we could do the Hiking Boots, but do we really need them? Or are we just over-complicating things?

I'm gonna run the ideas you've all come up with past my guys and see what they have to say, but I don't think they'll like ideas pertaining to fast travel, hidden passes (because then you'd miss anything along the route on the way back, meaning you'd have to backtrack further than you may have wanted) or rock smash (as they've been pretty opposed to ended up with "HM mules", and they have been trying to eliminate that possibility since day one.



(oh, and as for doing this with events, are you saying just making a conditional branch for whether or not you have the boots, then changing... something? Or are you trying to say to make an event for each ledge? The former sounds promising, while the latter is gonna bog down the system.)

 

[Stochastic]

I would have to agree with Maruno that this would kill the purpose of ledges all-together. What you
could do instead is have another type of tile that is perhaps passable only when you have the
Hiking Boots.

If you're thinking of placing events on the ledges, you would have to do one type of event for every
side of a ledge, but then you could just reuse and paste it everywhere. But then again, if you ask me,
I would rather make a new type of tile.

 

[tImE]

I actually rather like the idea.

While people are right that it would kill the purpose of ledges, I think still it would work fine, provided that all maps are designed to still force you through grass.

But honestly, I have a better idea.
Why not incorporate the functions from RSE with the Mach Bike and the Acro Bike?
In the Jagged Pass, south of Mt. Chimney, there are ledges which have small rocks shooting out from them, making them traversable in the "wrong direction" using the Acro Bike, while the Mach Bike, makes traveling up mud slopes possible.

If you design your maps right, and make the Running Shoes, which you would switch away from, have another purpose, just like the Mach Bike, I think you could make this a really cool feature.

I always loved being able to explore previously unavailable areas using the Acro Bike, but maybe that was just me.

 

[FL]

I also thought this idea before (but in a form of a HM) with two types of the ledges, the common one that can be jumped with this boots and a second one, made with events. The first time that I heard about Rock Climb HM I thought that this worked this way. These boots should be a good item for later game.

The ledges can be jumped if you hold Ctrl, this is a good start point for implementation.

 

[Nickalooose]

This idea sounds interesting, and timE is right in my opinion... Why couldn't this work? I believe it could, given a map is created properly and like timE said, you are still forced through grass patches...

Couldn't you just use the ledge tile, but code it in reverse order, so instead of smashing in to it with that silly "bump" sound, your character would traverse it at -1 speed... And obviously providing you own/are wearing, the hiking boots... Otherwise, play SE.

Sounds legit enough to me, I've done this with numerous things, and it works, but personally I prefer ledges to work 1 way lol.