Hola! Another week means another update! Last week we brought in Route 29 to story mode, which meant some really exciting things! Seeing wild pokemon in the map, your first party pokemon following you, capturing new pokemon, and hunting for shinies. But with that brought a new set of features that need to be added and a new set of problems and bugs to fix! That is the nature of games. So let's talk about what is coming this week.
Critical Bugs:
We have a number of what I like to call critical bugs. Bugs that really ruin the experience of the players and should have priority in being fixed. For this update we have 3 of such bugs.
- Saving not working (sometimes) - This one is pretty hard to fix because it sometimes works and it sometimes doesn't. You guys have given me some info that will help track it down. A reliable method to making this bug happen would be appreciated if you guys can come up with one. I have to be able to recreate the bug to solve it.
- Not learning moves - Apparently if more than one pokemon has to learn a move or evolve there are some cases when they don't. This is linked to using faster speeds in battle when this happens.
- Hole in the Route 29 map - There seems to be a gap somewhere in the map that lets the user get inside the forest where they shouldn't be going to. I mean to find this hole and do something fun with it.
After the critical bugs are dealt with (or after I'm tired of trying to fix them) I'll move into new features that I think are necessary before the game can progress much farther. The way I decide which feature should come next depends on what you can do in the game and how much use it is going to get by you guys. It's all about effort vs reward when choosing what to work on next.
- Trading Center for PTD2 - To me this is a staple of the game and what really supports me to keep developing the game. It will start as a copy of the PTD1 version but I will be improving it over time. You guys have given me a lot of great suggestion to what and how the Trading Center could be improved.
- 1v1 Mode Changes - I'm honestly not sure if this will be a quick change or if it's going to take the whole week. I'll have to make the changes and then rebalance the mode so that it won't be too easy/hard. If you don't know what the changes will be check out last week's blog.
- Mystery Gift - Zorua is ready to go but I have to work things out with the sponsor and make the screen for this to get it out.
- Day and Night - This is an interesting one, adding the Day and Night cycle to story mode. This will mean new pokemon to catch and new npc dialog for different times. I also have to answer some questions like: Will time only move forward in Routes? (Like you can be in a town and time will stand still, when you go in the route it will gradually change to night and back to day again. Then go back into town and it will be what ever time you ended up in but it won't change until you go to the route again.) And the technical aspects of how I will do it. Will I use a tint effect or a movieclip overlay? (Technical speak)
- Held Items - This one is pretty fun too. Probably start with berries. I have this idea that berries can have multiple charges. So they last more than one use with a cooldown between uses. Also leads up to super berries that have unlimited charges.
- Releasing Pokemon - Now that you can capture pokemon you need a way to get rid of them.
Weekly Progress:
- Mystery Gift Screen (100%) - OUT NOW! Get your Zorua!
- PTD 2 Pokemon Center OUT NOW!- Note: Other pages, such as Daily Gift, Inventory, Game Corner will be added/changed later on as the game develops.
- Create Trade Page - You will be able to make up to 3 separate request for your trade. Meaning you can request a Shiny Zorua OR Shiny Rattata OR Shadow Sentret. Also you can specify gender. Each request can have up to 10 pokemon up from 6.
- Your Trade Request Page
- Search Trade - Can now search by Gender and you can view all 3 possible request the other trainer has put up.
- Searching for any gender instead of just Male or Female for both regular search and want search
- 1v1 Mode Changes - Note: The last level might be a little too hard right now, I'll fix it up next week.
- Defeated target will no longer give out experience
- Evolutions will not be available for unlocking
- Every pokemon will now start at level 5
- You will level up with candies that are given out after beating levels
- When you use a checkpoint you will get the same amount of candies that you would have received if you have beaten all the way up to that point. So you can skip the previous levels and still have a powerful team
- Lowered the cost of some pokemon.
- Made the level with the old Hiker easier.
- Added the Pokemon Center to the Mode Select Screen
- Fixed a bug that is preventing new users from saving their game
- Fixed a percentage problem on Sentret's waves
- Made it so you can play PTD 1 and PTD 2 at the same time
- Fixed a bug that some battles in story mode give you money when they shouldn't
- Even after you have more than 6 pokemon, the game will put the first 6 on your party in story mode
- Instead of disappearing completely, Sentret that are hiding will now just be faded
- Wave Security
- Prevent users from playing story mode and using the PTD 2 Pokemon Center at the same time to prevent duplication exploits that come when trading is activated.
- Saving Bug - FIXED OMG! It was a stupid server problem, so it should work now!
- Gap in the Route 29 Map - Did something fun with it.
- Added a Police Officer infront of Route 46's entrance
- Randomize the level and distance of the wild pokemon waves to break the uniformity of them
- Pokemon Center
- Picking which profile to enter - The profile page will now show profile that you have made from PTD 2, including your avatar and version color.
- Side Bar - Integrate PTD 2 info into the side bar.
- Home Page for PTD 2 - Being able to retrieve or release any pokemon to your corresponding profile.
- Adoption Page- This page includes Shiny Starters and Shiny Zorua to start.
Last week's CU meeting that I had with the team was really short. We updated each other on what we were doing and called it a night. The game is progressing but I don't have a lot to share with you guys this week. Next week I hope to bring you guys some new creature designs and info.
That's all we have for you this week. Keep checking back to see how I'm doing, and as always, let me know what you think!