Puckamon bug reporting/suggestions/discussion thread

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Bird
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Post by Bird »

I have played six hours so far. I'm still very satisfied with all my little monster and OMG!!!!!! I got a DUCK-DUCK!!!!! Impossible...
I had to realize that I won't come very far with Mr. Pepper, Bad Butt and Duck-Duck, because they are just too weak, even on a high level. I currently use Moogle, Mr. Triangle, Kid Eater and Frankfurter. Especially catching Frankfurter was very hard, but it was definietly worth it. So far I still have only one badge, because the other Gyms are very hard and I have to level up a bit. So Puckamon is much harder than Pokemon, but that is just perfect. By the way, why do you call it Frankfurter? Does he come from Frankfurt?

Also I went to the Frnnf Tower and was beaten by their boss. I may found another bug: At the outside of the Frnnf Tower, there is grass, but no Puckamon appear. Maybe you forgot the foemap?

I would like to have a world map in some houses, just like in the real Pokemon. The world you created is quite big and I hope that I don't miss anything.

Can you make a counter to the Puckadex, so that I can see, how many monsters I got?

[quote]Did the Lucario keep using stat-boosting attacks on itself when you were fighting it and rarely actually attacking? [/quote]

No that was not the case. I had three mid-leveled monsters (nearly level 8, it was Moogle, Pikachu and Mr Pepper). I just attacked it and used the right chance.
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FnrrfYgmSchnish
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Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

I currently use Moogle, Mr. Triangle, Kid Eater and Frankfurter. Especially catching Frankfurter was very hard, but it was definietly worth it. So far I still have only one badge, because the other Gyms are very hard and I have to level up a bit. So Puckamon is much harder than Pokemon, but that is just perfect.
What gym are you trying to get through? Brandon's gym (in Lumpen Town; go east from Ballpeen City to get there) is intended to be the second one and shouldn't be a problem for you at this point, especially not with Mr. Triangle on your team. Chef JePoo's gym in Gavel Town is supposed to be the third one, and Robert's in Anvil City is fourth (and the last gym available in the demo so far.)
By the way, why do you call it Frankfurter? Does he come from Frankfurt?
Technically the species is just called "soap-eating eels."

Frankfurter the soap-eating eel comes from my old game Frankfurter's Quest for Soap, so he's a reference to an older OHRRPGCE game just like most of the creatures in Puckamon. The name Frankfurter was just picked randomly because it sounds silly (hotdogs are sometimes called frankfurters, and it just sounded like a funny name for a character to me. XD)
Also I went to the Frnnf Tower and was beaten by their boss. I may found another bug: At the outside of the Frnnf Tower, there is grass, but no Puckamon appear. Maybe you forgot the foemap?
Yeah, the Fnrrf Shrine's elder is pretty tough. I might fiddle with his Puckamon a bit for the next demo, since I've noticed that the Moogle tends to spam defense-boosting attacks that make it really annoying to get rid of.
Also, be sure to save first if you go back and fight him again--there might be a glitch in the current version of the game that makes the "quiz" he gives you after the battle not work.

The foemap seems to be there in my copy of the game, but I'm not sure if the currently-downloadable version has it or not--that might've been a bug that I already fixed. You should be running into critters from formation set 7 (Furry, Duck-Duck, Jigglypuff or Mr. Mushroom, Fat Frog, and rarely Mranamon; I think it's the same set from the route next to it) every 7 to 12 steps.
I would like to have a world map in some houses, just like in the real Pokemon. The world you created is quite big and I hope that I don't miss anything.
That's a good idea. I know I put a map on a wall in one house, but it doesn't actually show the world map like in the real Pokémon games.
Can you make a counter to the Puckadex, so that I can see, how many monsters I got?
I'm not really sure how to do this, actually. I'm guessing it would involve some scripting in combination with the menu I'm currently using for the Puckadex, but I'm not sure how to go about adding the feature in there.
No that was not the case. I had three mid-leveled monsters (nearly level 8, it was Moogle, Pikachu and Mr Pepper). I just attacked it and used the right chance.
Hmm... odd. I would've thought that the Swastikave monsters would be too strong for anything at level 8 to handle, especially with having to fight it long enough to weaken it for catching.
Though looking at the Lucario's attacks, I could see it being possible if it kept using Counter a lot (so it only did twice as much damage as your Puckamon's attacks, and at a much slower rate since it would have to wait for a while first) rather than directly attacking.

I guess maybe I could have the kid who talks about barely getting out of the cave alive blocking the way for a while, and only moving after you have at least one badge so at least you won't be able to beat Cap'n Crunch just by catching some high-leveled critter from in there. Or maybe make it so that the cave is unblocked after you get through the forest, so you can't just beat Cap'n Crunch and then immediately go in there and catch super-high-leveled critters right away.
So Puckamon is much harder than Pokemon, but that is just perfect.
Heh, yeah... the regular Pokémon games are generally really easy (...just last night I beat Cynthia in my White version with a team 14-15 levels behind her lowest-leveled Pokémon, without even using any healing items. XD) I wanted to make Puckamon at least somewhat harder, at least to the point where you can't just massively overlevel your starter Pokémon and get through half of the game just with that one.

The OHRRPGCE's leveling formula is probably a big part of why Puckamon is so much harder than a real Pokémon game. Leveling up doesn't give you very big gains until you get to very high levels (unless you set it up so that a character's max stats are absurdly high), so just gaining a few levels usually won't make as big of a difference as it does in a Pokémon game unless you happen to learn a new attack at one of those levels.
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Master K
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Post by Master K »

Based on this comment, I would guess your name must be Brandon. XD
Pika pika. Pika Pika! PIKA PIKAUGHHHH SHUT UP!

NO! NO! No...!
You were supposed to be the chosen one

Oh, and do you plan on having an Elite Four and champion after you finish all the gyms?

Mjölnir Plateau, home of the Puckamon Elite Four...
Last edited by Master K on Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Bird
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Post by Bird »

Now I am at 9,5 hours of playing. I've got four badges so far. These fights in the GYMs were very good! I really had to try it often at the fouth GYM with Robert. The next thing I will do is looking again in every town to see, if I missed something. And finally, I found the Scientist Lab, which was very cool.
Also I found the vampire in Anvil City. These little gimmicks make a game very interesting. And your game has a lot of these "eastereggs".
I changed my mind about what I said concerning more Puckamon evolutions. Now I think, that the evolutions you can use here (fusing, stones) make your game more unique and that's good. There are a lot of Pokemon-like-games existing and why not trying something different? You did it different and that's fine.
I am very lucky about finding a Gohrilla. I only saw it once when I started playing this game in the forest. I didn't catched it that time but when I went back, I wasn't able to find it again. And now I got it!

And finally some suggestions:
If I would be you, I would change the name of the game. I was not playing Puckamon at first because of the title. I expected the game to be a crappy version of Pokemon, only because of reading the title. Quite stupid, I know. For my own luck, I was taught that the game is better than I expected.
Maybe you could add the possibility of flying between the towns? That would be more comfortable.
When you actually work at this game, you could also make a town, which you can reach only by boat from that harbour city with the French guys (don't know the name). This new town could be in France, where you can catch Snail- and the Baguette-monster.
A lot of houses in the towns are closed. You could add some quests and more possibilities of changing Puckamon with other people.
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FnrrfYgmSchnish
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Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

The name's unlikely to change. Puckamon sounds like the kind of name a spoof Pokémon game would have because... well, it's a spoof Pokémon game. I can't even think of another name I could call the game if I did change it (I definitely don't want to call it something lame like "OHRmon" or something, because a name like that would make me not want to play the game! XD)

Some way of quickly getting between towns would be a really good idea, yeah. I actually have an idea for how to get something like that to work, so I'll probably add it in before releasing the next demo (though you probably won't be able to get it until sometime after the 5th gym.)

Hmm... going to France seems unlikely. I've already planned out all the towns and such for the game, so adding another town at the last second would be kind of weird.
Also, most of the monsters in the game are based on monsters from OHRRPGCE games, so a bunch of French-themed monsters coming out of nowhere wouldn't really fit. (Though snails might work--I could put in a Yogurt Snail, since they showed up in Okédoké... but only if the hero/party limits get increased, since right now there's just no room for new Puckamon.)

The houses you can't get into are there mostly to make the towns look bigger, like a lot of the closed houses in actual Pokémon games (though in the official Pokémon games it's only the bigger cities like Saffron and Celadon that get very many of them.) I might eventually open up some of them here and there if I think of anything to put in them, though.
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FnrrfYgmSchnish
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Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

It's been a while since I've released a new demo for this, hasn't it?

*checks the last-updated date*

...oh. It's been since 2010. Well, that's about to change! Those of you who liked Puckamon will be getting a Christmas present from me this year -- the first major update to Puckamon since... well, the first major update ever, really, considering that the previous update was just bugfixing/rebalancing without much of any new content.

Image Image
As previously mentioned in this thread, there's a new palette that's more "Game Boy Color trying to look like the original Game Boy" rather than "the green row of the OHR default palette." And you can now travel into the depths of the Internet (via computer in the Mad Scientist Lab) after getting your fourth badge.

Image Image
Also within the Internet somewhere: a new town and the game's fifth gym.

Image Image
Of course, there's also more Puckamon -- nothing truly new since as far as I'm aware the number of hero definitions and the size of the reserve party haven't been expanded yet, but there's around ten monsters you can get in the upcoming new version that were previously unavailable.

Image
Of course, not all the new content revolves around traveling into the Internet. There's more new stuff out in the real world, too.

I'm aiming for a demo release on or near Christmas of this year. Considering how well my progress is going so far (I'm currently working on the town where the 6th gym is located), there's a very good chance that will end up happening. So... yep, new version of Puckamon coming soon!
Last edited by FnrrfYgmSchnish on Tue Dec 13, 2016 5:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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RMZ
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Post by RMZ »

I know you're likely not going to do this, but what if you redid the monster evolutions to be based around the stats of one specific monster and just use scripting to change pictures/palettes/stats manually? It'd free up a ton of extra space for you, likely not enough for a decent amount of base evolutions, but it'd be something. I was considering this concept when I was drafting my monster game idea.

Like, the difference between Pidgey and Pidgeotto, hypothetically could be an increase in stats. You just add to all of the stats affected and call it a day. If you catch a Pidgeotto and make it into a Puckamon, it could be a Pidgey at that level caught, then in the summoning portion, add the stat increases. This is just a thought. Glad to see you're working on this game.

If you think about going the Google Play/App Store route, maybe consider ditching Pikachu and any other main Puckamon copies to get away from any issues like I did with Batman. This was a fun idea and I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with it.

Also, what about a way for the player to change their Gameboy Palette? Like putting the game in a traditional Gameboy is all green, but in a Gameboy Pocket it's gray?
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FnrrfYgmSchnish
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Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

I've considered the possibility of having some evolved forms that were scripted like that rather than having their own separate hero definitions, but the problem with that idea is that it only really works when the evolved form is (like in your Pidgey --> Pidgeotto example) basically the same thing as the unevolved form, just with different sprites and better stats. There's so few evolutions in Puckamon to begin with, so pretty much all of them are big changes from their unevolved forms (they're all either stone evolutions or fusions, no basic level-up evolutions.)

Unfortunately, even if this would work for any of the evolutions that currently exist, it wouldn't really help fix the biggest problem -- the combined active+reserve party size being only 40-something (I want to say 44 or 45 but can't remember off the top of my head.) Right now the only way to run into that limit is to do something silly like catching multiples of the same Puckamon for some bizarre reason, but by the time the game's finished it'll be really easy to start brushing up against the limit just from catching one of every available monster. I'd like to add more variety to the game's monsters, but until the engine supports a bigger reserve-party size that won't really be possible.

I have had thoughts of making a similar game at some point that uses all original creatures rather than OHR characters or actual Pokémon (or spoofs of them, as with Hitlerchu and the Nazi Lucario), but that would have to be a different project rather than a redone version of Puckamon. I really haven't thought much about putting any of my games into the various phone app stores, since I wouldn't have any way to test out how well they'd work on those formats firsthand (I'm not a smartphone/tablet user and don't have any plans to change that), but I suppose it'd be possible if at some point in the future I get a game done that isn't based as closely on another game like Puckamon is.

I do like the idea of having different Game Boy palettes (gray, green, maybe a Game Boy Color-playing-an-old-Game-Boy-game style one where everything on the map is green but sprites are red or blue instead? that last one would take a bit more work but should be doable) Putting something like that in shouldn't be too hard since I know it's possible to have multiple master palettes in one game and I assume changing between them in-game through a script is something that can be done. If I have extra time after getting the main content for the new demo finished, maybe I'll try to add something like that in.
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Spoonweaver
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Post by Spoonweaver »

Scripting could solve all your problems.

Depending on the customization of each dude, you could really store each of your dudes in as few as 1-2 variables. (Level and character type.) Perhaps a string for the name.
Then you'd just need a Pokémon-like computer system to swap your guys in and out.
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Post by TMC »

Wow, a major update after six years. I wasn't expecting that! I remember that this game got criticism for still being a 'joke game' despite a lot of work being put into it, but I seem to remember (from 6 years ago) that it was fun and impressive, so would give it another go (maybe for the 2016 in Review Contest)
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