[Legacy] Suggestions to improve Essentials

Status
Not open for further replies.

Maruno

Pokémon Essentials dev
Essentials Developer
Joined
Apr 5, 2017
Posts
548
This thread is a sequel to the "What would make the Essentials engine a better experience?" thread from the old forum, only a bit broader in scope.

In a nutshell: What could be added to or changed in Pokémon Essentials that would make it better?

Like all nutshells, there are caveats:
  • Don't bother with the obvious stuff. Triple/rotation/horde battles, Contests, Pokémon Amie, online play, add Gen 6/7 data, port to a better engine, etc. etc. (This list is not exhaustive.) There's no point mentioning them, because you won't be adding anything new to the discussion - I've obviously already thought about these things.
  • Explain and be specific. "Improve the AI" isn't a valid suggestion, because it provides no clue as to what parts of the AI you're unhappy with, nor does it suggest how to improve it. You can use images and code and anything else to help with your explanation.
  • Remember that Essentials is an engine made for many people to use. It's not going to bother including features that maybe only two games ever would want. This thread is not an opportunity for you to get other people to do your work.
  • State why you think your suggestion would be a good thing to do to Essentials. Since you're making the suggestion, you obviously think it would benefit the engine, so tell us why. Would it improve gameplay, or ease game development, or offer some other bonus?
You can mention things that are from the main games and things that aren't. You can also suggest removing something from Essentials, if somehow you think the removal of a thing that's currently in Essentials would be a good thing.

As a secondary question: How do you feel about making some features stray from how the main games do them, in the name of user-friendliness? How far should they deviate?
 

FloofyPanthar

Gen 5 Guru
Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Posts
66
I believe that a good feature would be the auto-animation of some water tiles. Many water tiles just move to the bottom right corner, and from my own experience, it is a hassle to manually animate. This would save a lot of time for developers and allow them to focus more on making their game into a masterpiece.

Also, I think that an in-game resizer of sprites like EBS has would save a lot of space. It would also make sprites easier to edit because people wouldn't have to half the size of sprites before editing and double the size after (not a big problem tho, the storage space is what is most important).
 

FloofyPanthar

Gen 5 Guru
Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Posts
66
I have been debating whether to put the roamer's current location information in the Pokédex or the Town Map. I still can't decide - it's a location where you can find the Pokémon so the Pokédex makes more sense, but I can easily imagine you setting loose a roamer but you haven't "seen" it yet (in terms of having an entry for it in your Pokédex) so it'd be a complete fluke to encounter it the first time. It's shown in the Town Map only in Gen 4, which is a minus for that side.

A roamer is supposed to be the exact same Pokémon each time, though. I've just tested it and it remembers how much HP it had between encounters, and there's nothing special about HP to make that remembered but nothing else. Are you sure you weren't knocking it out between encounters? That will cause it to re-generate and be different, I think.

A roamer only changes location when you change maps, and you can't encounter it more than once while on the same map. It's not a bug, it's intentional, although I can see that it should immediately go elsewhere if you're able to see its current location.
I'd say town map, since the ui is supposed to be based on gen 4. Maybe you can do something so the roaming Pokémon only show up if the town map is opened through the pokegeae
 

FloofyPanthar

Gen 5 Guru
Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Posts
66
Also, VS seeker and ball animations (for hidden moves)
unknown.png
Am I the only one still on here?
 

thebigguy270

Novice
Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2018
Posts
47
No, my friend.

Another idea I got is a way forrandom encounters to work the way they did in Sword and Shield, with visible Pokémon and all.
 

DarKnighT_0_9

Rookie
Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2017
Posts
6
This thread is a sequel to the "What would make the Essentials engine a better experience?" thread from the old forum, only a bit broader in scope.

In a nutshell: What could be added to or changed in Pokémon Essentials that would make it better?

Like all nutshells, there are caveats:
  • Don't bother with the obvious stuff. Triple/rotation/horde battles, Contests, Pokémon Amie, online play, add Gen 6/7 data, port to a better engine, etc. etc. (This list is not exhaustive.) There's no point mentioning them, because you won't be adding anything new to the discussion - I've obviously already thought about these things.
  • Explain and be specific. "Improve the AI" isn't a valid suggestion, because it provides no clue as to what parts of the AI you're unhappy with, nor does it suggest how to improve it. You can use images and code and anything else to help with your explanation.
  • Remember that Essentials is an engine made for many people to use. It's not going to bother including features that maybe only two games ever would want. This thread is not an opportunity for you to get other people to do your work.
  • State why you think your suggestion would be a good thing to do to Essentials. Since you're making the suggestion, you obviously think it would benefit the engine, so tell us why. Would it improve gameplay, or ease game development, or offer some other bonus?
You can mention things that are from the main games and things that aren't. You can also suggest removing something from Essentials, if somehow you think the removal of a thing that's currently in Essentials would be a good thing.

As a secondary question: How do you feel about making some features stray from how the main games do them, in the name of user-friendliness? How far should they deviate?

As I sit here working on my pokemon.txt there is only one thing that really stands out to me that I wish was different. It's a small thing but, the order of the field "BaseStats" goes HP,Attack,Defense,SPEED,Special Attack, Special Defense. Maybe there's a specific reason for this but the official games and every resource on the internet that I have seen (Bulbapedia, Serebii, etc.) all list the stats as HP,Attack,Defense,Special Attack,Special Defense,Speed. As the PBS file is somewhat tedious, (it's a good solution but even good solutions can be tedious) having this small change would make such a huge difference when it comes to adding in Pokemon.
 
As I sit here working on my pokemon.txt there is only one thing that really stands out to me that I wish was different. It's a small thing but, the order of the field "BaseStats" goes HP,Attack,Defense,SPEED,Special Attack, Special Defense. Maybe there's a specific reason for this but the official games and every resource on the internet that I have seen (Bulbapedia, Serebii, etc.) all list the stats as HP,Attack,Defense,Special Attack,Special Defense,Speed. As the PBS file is somewhat tedious, (it's a good solution but even good solutions can be tedious) having this small change would make such a huge difference when it comes to adding in Pokemon.
I think it's in the event that somebody wants to make a Gen 1-styled game, so it can easily be adapted to HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, Special. (Though I would also welcome the change, especially since Gen 1 styles aren't very common)
 

Maruno

Pokémon Essentials dev
Essentials Developer
Joined
Apr 5, 2017
Posts
548
It can't be changed, because then compatibility for everyone currently making a game would be broken.
 

DarKnighT_0_9

Rookie
Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2017
Posts
6
It can't be changed, because then compatibility for everyone currently making a game would be broken.
Fair enough; though I think anyone currently working on a game would probably just stick with whatever version they are already using since it seems there are still a lot of people using v15 and v16 from what I've seen.
 

TsukiStuffs

Rookie
Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2020
Posts
3
This thread is a sequel to the "What would make the Essentials engine a better experience?" thread from the old forum, only a bit broader in scope.

In a nutshell: What could be added to or changed in Pokémon Essentials that would make it better?

Like all nutshells, there are caveats:
  • Don't bother with the obvious stuff. Triple/rotation/horde battles, Contests, Pokémon Amie, online play, add Gen 6/7 data, port to a better engine, etc. etc. (This list is not exhaustive.) There's no point mentioning them, because you won't be adding anything new to the discussion - I've obviously already thought about these things.
  • Explain and be specific. "Improve the AI" isn't a valid suggestion, because it provides no clue as to what parts of the AI you're unhappy with, nor does it suggest how to improve it. You can use images and code and anything else to help with your explanation.
  • Remember that Essentials is an engine made for many people to use. It's not going to bother including features that maybe only two games ever would want. This thread is not an opportunity for you to get other people to do your work.
  • State why you think your suggestion would be a good thing to do to Essentials. Since you're making the suggestion, you obviously think it would benefit the engine, so tell us why. Would it improve gameplay, or ease game development, or offer some other bonus?
You can mention things that are from the main games and things that aren't. You can also suggest removing something from Essentials, if somehow you think the removal of a thing that's currently in Essentials would be a good thing.

As a secondary question: How do you feel about making some features stray from how the main games do them, in the name of user-friendliness? How far should they deviate?
More tilesets built into Essentials. This would help reduce the tedium of making tilesets ourselves. In addition, Gen 4-5 overworld sprites would also be a great addition to Essentials.
 

FloofyPanthar

Gen 5 Guru
Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Posts
66
More tilesets built into Essentials. This would help reduce the tedium of making tilesets ourselves. In addition, Gen 4-5 overworld sprites would also be a great addition to Essentials.
More tilesets built into Essentials. This would help reduce the tedium of making tilesets ourselves. In addition, Gen 4-5 overworld sprites would also be a great addition to Essentials.
Essentials is based on the Gen 3 overworld with Gen 4 UI. I'm pretty sure that Maruno has no interest in including Gen 4/5 resources as it is not a priority for him and it's quite easy to find them online. Also, the inclusion of inter-generational overworld sprites into Essentials would be quite a large mess anyway. Here's what you're looking for. Or try this cool gen 5 pack.
 

Marina

Cooltrainer
Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2018
Posts
129
I like the ideas of FloofyPanthar, Kiribartlett and thebigguy270. All suggestions to improve Essentials would be
amazing. I'd suggest the same as they did. Also I think that Maruno isn't interested on adding Gen 4+ resources to
Essentials, as everyone can do it by himself/herself. Though I read the pastebin of Maruno and there is written
that many things have been fixed to behave like Gen 4.

For everyone who wants resources this isn't the right thread and I think we should do resources by ourselves
and make a whole package as a resource for gen 4, 5, 6 etc. and upload it at the resource section. But as I said
this isn't the right thread to talk about this.

And yes there are many people using version 15 and 16, because most of those peoples don't like or don't need
the Gen 6 improvements and settings, other peoples just stick with v.15 and/ or 16 because the old scripts works better for them,
they have less work to do, they can avoid most of the errors that pops up in v.17 but in 15 and 16 they doesn't pop up.
Other reason is that they like to customise the trainer character, and as far as I know in v.15 and 16 it is possible to use that script to
customise the trainer char, but in v.17 and v.17.2 this isn't possible. I tried to know it, as well.
 

Anuran

Novice
Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2018
Posts
45
There is s 1 thing off in the essential, which is -
When I use a healing item on my party pokemon which is not in battle, it doesn't show the HP going up and cut to the main batte saying "Your pokemon has be healed" or something. We normally see the HP meter rise in the party menu itself when u use a potion or something in the main games, but not in essential
 

Aldo

Adventurer
Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2018
Posts
147
For the debug animation editor, I think a way to directly input the values, instead of having to click the arrows until it reaches a desired value would speed up things a bit.
A shortcut for opacity, and in addition to the +/- shortcuts for Zoom In/out, shortcuts for zooming x and y individually.
 
Last edited:

FloofyPanthar

Gen 5 Guru
Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Posts
66
For the debug animation editor, I think a way to directly input the values, instead of having to click the arrows until it reaches a desired value would speed up things a bit.
A shortcut for opacity, and in addition to the +/- shortcuts for Zoom In/out, shortcuts for zooming x and y individually.
I agree. The clicking is REALLY annoying. I would be fine with the ability to have something selected and manipulate it with arrows tho.
 

Autumn Rain

Rookie
Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2020
Posts
2
How about changing the default Z key (hold to run/toggle run) to Z key (accept)? I'm use to having the Z key being the accept button in other RPG games.
 

Mashirosakura

With my wishes frozen in time and long forgotten
Member
I've been recently made aware of some rather interesting choices your predecessors made with some of the code. I understand that some of these things aren't important for v18, but for a future update I'd look at some stuff mentioned here and here. I'm aware this particular game isn't on the latest version, so I looked over the code sections before I made this post and most of these are still a thing in v17.2. Also I'm sorry about the poster she's a little...eccentric?
 

Mr. Gela

Discord: theo#7722
Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2015
Posts
201
The smallest inconsistency, but while most "multi-word" methods and other keywords are named "likeThis" (obtainMode, obtainText, abilityFlag...), PokeBattle_Pokemon uses "ballused" not "ballUsed".
 

Maruno

Pokémon Essentials dev
Essentials Developer
Joined
Apr 5, 2017
Posts
548
The smallest inconsistency, but while most "multi-word" methods and other keywords are named "likeThis" (obtainMode, obtainText, abilityFlag...), PokeBattle_Pokemon uses "ballused" not "ballUsed".
The same goes for "totalhp". I'd like to use camelCase everywhere, but changing this would require additional code for backwards compatibility.

...And before anyone chimes in about how easy that would be, I know. It's still clutter and I don't want it. It's not so big a deal that it justifies aliases or additional methods or whatever would be involved. It can get changed as part of a bigger update that will be focussed on this kind of stuff and intentionally breaks backwards compatibility, and I'm fine with that.
 

Mr. Gela

Discord: theo#7722
Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2015
Posts
201
A small visual fancy pants improvement:
I'm personally using RBYGSC numbers in my databox, as the original games the battle screen is emulating.
Compare the "right" number font I've turned to using, to the one in default Essentials, and the battle scene in the main games:
ktQoXli.png
0occMoj.png


253172.jpg

Mine's not a perfect re-creation of the number display, but I also think including that font as a "legacy" font or as the numbers font for the battle screen would make for a neat minor cosmetic upgrade. I think accuracy/faithfulness to the real deal is important to many people. It's not hard to code at all for me, it's just annoying to force fonts onto others for a (subjectively, I'll give you that) better experience and looks.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top