New Home, No longer using blogger

I noticed this blog still exists. I also noticed that a lot of the data here is really old and outdated. Also, I realized my last post was from ages ago. Needed a new post to tell people that THE DEVELOPMENT LIVES ON and also POKESTORY HAS A NEW HOME. The name Pokemon Online Adventures has been scraped to go back to the old name of PokeStory.
(Caps and bold for major emphasis. Many of you might have thought I quit.)

http://pokestory.tm14.net/ <-- new site link, bookmark it for your records!

There isn't much there yet, but dev news will be posted there. This blog is now obsolete. :)

Pokemon Online Adventures

I suppose a final post is in order. The new website is at poa.tm14.net.

Uhm. PokeStory is now known as Pokemon Online Adventures. So... Go there! Yeah!

Tons of New Staff

Well, may I just start out with this: Holy Christ, I would have never imagined so many skilled people would be willing to devote their time to making this game awesome.

I'm serious.

I was expecting maybe 1 or 2 lackluster applications, but no. I've gotten over 6 brilliant applications in so far. This is truly a lot. This means a rapid expansion of the PokeStory volunteer team. In total, we have 16 staffers (counting myself, not counting MODs; their information isn't in yet). That is a lot more people than I would have imagined.

Now, it's time to say this. I'm dusting off the ol' DEV tag and I'm going to start sticking it back in front of the names of the people who freaking deserve it. I abandoned the idea of DEV because one day, a whiny brat logged on and complained about how he did some recolors (crappy recolors) which were eventually replaced with better ones. He insisted that even though they're no longer in use, he remain a DEV (for all the cool powers DEVs got.) I then switched the access level of DEV and MPR around. It used to be MOD -> MPR -> DEV -> GM but I changed it up to MOD -> DEV -> MPR -> GM. This in effect, weakened the significance of the DEV tag, thus no one ever really tried to achieve it.

Now that PDoA has grown (and so have I) and PS has been given birth, I find that a lot more people are willing to put forth their effort just to help make PS great. And I appreciate it.

Phew! That was a long winded intro.

Anyhow, the basic point of this update is to congratulate all the PS staff members and to shed some public recognition on them.

Of course, we have our four directors. Myself, Zinc, Amey, and Al. They are all in charge of different aspects of the game, yada yada, we don't need props.

The guys coming up next and the ones who you should REALLY be admiring.

Part of the programming team, they are on the web development side of things. Introducing Jasmine Rain and Jabee. Jasmine Rain has agreed to begin a Pokedex project (should be pokedex.pokestory.net) for use on PS. I wont get into much detail about that quite just yet, but know she has a lot to do. xD

Jabee will be handling more of the back-end technical database stuff. His most important contribution (thus far) is the universal registration system he's currently working on that works to link your game, forum, and website account together.

The next six individuals make up what is our slowly growing art team.

Coki and Kyrul have both been asked to join the advertisement team. They will be working on the Youtube videos, promotional banners, ads, etc etc you'll begin to see when PS gets up and running.

The next four individuals are recognized for their in game efforts. Merchant, Missy, and Ginger Kid are all on the team for their pixel art. Fatesauce is on the team for his digital art.

Our last group in this post (since Al hasn't finished his list! >=P; I only jest) is the mapping team. These guys have amazing design sense and most of them were on the PDoA team before PS began. They are Zocan, Sid, Sinister, and Eduardo. If you see them ingame (at least half that list still go on PDoA :P) be sure to recognize them for their talents. They make up the largest portion of game you'll see!

Once Al gets his list in, I'll acknowledge them to. And of course, as I make additions, each new member will get equal recognition.

I didn't make PDoA quite the community game I wanted it to be, so I aim for PS to be more submerged in the community. That, I believe, is why I've gotten so many new hires so quickly. :D

Anyhow, I'm done writing; I need to go to sleep.

Until next time,
Silver
Project Manager

New Icon V2!

Well, after seeing a lukewarm reaction to my first icon, Silver told me to make another. A few changes, first, its better, clearly. Second, no more maplestory leaf. I hope you all enjoy this one more than the last one.

Hope you guys like it!

Changing up the Blog

I hope everyone has noticed that I have switched up the blog layout. It looks bare and naked, but this is only the beginning. I will try to have Zinc start creating a GUI for the blog because I've decided to use the blog as PS's main website! :D

Take a look around, note the cleanliness of the new layout and try to remember where everything is. I'm going to be heavily reorganizing everything so it's cleaner and easier to follow.

One more thing to note: the url of the blog will be changing soon so I hope you all will be able to find us once I do it; you'll have to switch up your bookmarks and such as well. Don't forget that!

Anyhow, I don't really have any real development news, so just continue to enjoy PDoA! :D Hope you guys have fun! Until next time, I'll see you guys later!

PokéStory Icon!

Hey there, this is Zinc. First post on the blog, exciting!

Anyway, I've gone and created the Icon for PS, as per request of Silver.

Let me know what you guys think of it in the Discussion boards!

Its transparent behind the Pokéball/Leaf. Again, leave feedback!

PokeStory Secured! :D

I've been redoing the coding for PokeStory and it's rough. But, I'm slowly trekking along.

I just wanted everyone to know that I had a good holidays and I'm refreshed. I've also gotten a few methods for backing up the source code ready. =]

So, everyone, sit tight! I'm going to get this all done eventually. >.>

:D

No hope for PokeStory...

So, the source code... I recovered it! But... It has already been corrupted with data. There is absolutely nothing I can do other than restart the coding.

Again, I didn't want to have to do this but it looks like I have to. D:

I'm sorry a million times over for the unfortunate situation that has befallen PS, but I will be working diligently to get it back up and running. Thanks, everyone for your patience, and I am so sorry about this. =[

I have made a horrible mistake...

So, I made a really birdbrained move. I compressed PDoA and PS so that I'd be able to to put them on my 8gig hard drive (each one uncompressed would be about 5-6GBs each). Compressed, it came down to a light 2.26GBs. I accepted it without any second though. I believed that those files could compress that small.

Days later, I've fixed my computer at the cost of a format. No big deal, I though I had everything.

I was wrong. Everything was corrupt, nothing in that archive was saved properly. I had to scrap the file. I lost everything I had done on PS.

Now, this isn't all bad. Thankfully, I have PDoA Classic saved on a different machine, because I was paranoid about this very thing happening. Build 77's source code is safe and snug on my server machine (it acts as a sort of backup drive). So I lost nothing in the sense of PDoA. However, Pokemon Story I wasn't so cautious about. Now, I admit, this is a few steps back but I can recover. Do not worry about any of the database files or the maps. Those are all saved remotely (thank god!). I would have just about quit if I came out of this reformat with absolutely nothing.

At any rate, I'm just reporting the loss on a public forum so that people would be in the know about what's happening.

Right now PDoA isn't too popular of a game. Mainly due to lack of updates and anticipation of PS. I'm going to have to push that back a bit.

So, I'm guessing the only other option I have is to release a holiday event involving the Rainbow and Silver wings (as suggested by Zinc) to remedy the fact that PS isn't going to be ready as soon as I thought. I said the process would take about a year to complete; thank god I didn't undershoot. Alot of people would have been upset, haha.

And if you tl;dr this then all you need to know is I lost PS, have PDoA Classic backed up, and I'm going to be starting PS over from PDoA's build 77 source code. A large step back, but I'll do it. I love Pokemon and this community too much to bail. The internet deserves a good, plays-like-the-handhelds Pokemon MMO. My goal is to build that MMO.

Virus Attack

My developer's machine suffered a nasty virus attack. I need to repair the PC, but it's taking some time to transfer all of my important files onto a drive. Transfer speeds are okay, but it's finding all the files that's troublesome. The server machine, thank goodness, has been scanned for viruses and the results were returned clean; so the servers haven't been affected. But my personal development time has been majorly hashed on. Not only am I dealing with this virus, but I usually go off the radar during holiday season, only to return a few days after January first. I hope you guys have a happy new years and I'll keep you guys updated on my issues. :D

PDoA2 is now known as...

Pokémon Story! (Will be referred to as PokéStory, or simply PS).

Such a simple and sweet, but EXPANSIVE name. That was the goal.

Thank you everyone for help with the naming!

A Look at PDoA2

Alright, I decided it's time to show you guys what I've actually been doing to the game. I know I keep talking about it, but I'm not posting any pictures; for that I am sorry. Heh. The first private beta phase is going to happen sometime soon. Those who made it as private testers, this is the kind of stuff you should expect.

The Union Room is making a stunning comeback in PDoA2, calling for more space and organization only sacrificing clutter.

The battle screens are all being updated with a chat box in the screen. So, even if you're in the most intense of battles, you can still communicate with whoever you want to.

Pay attention to the marker on the top right! It'll tell you exactly where you are in a clean and stylized manner.

The city of Anastacia is a booming port city crawling with life. It is where you will encounter a grand bridge, the likes of which you've never seen on PDoA Classic!

A sneak peak at the Victini summary screen. Upon PDoA2's release, everyone will have the chance to obtain this rare Pokemon!

Taking a lovely stroll on the outskirts of Anais.

I hope this is enough to get you guys excited to play. You can only imagine how much excitement I'm feeling anticipating release day!

GUI and Battle Screen done by Zinc.

[Fixed] Beta Map and Continental Map Progress

The first map is a map of the Beta Area and the second map is an updated progress map. Check it out, and leave behind your thoughts.

PDoA2 Database Help!

If you are interested in helping me add data to the database please shoot me an email at matt.nwachukwu@gmail.com! I will walk you through everything you need to know to be adding data to the database in no time! The quicker this gets done, the quicker I can start releasing betas! =]

Database Files

First off, I'd like to thank Navarr for actively being part of this project.

Without his help, I wouldn't know about the beautiful open source database I found. Most of you might know the website veekun. I got a hold of their data and I'm now taking the time to convert all of it to useable data to upload to my database. =]

So, while I'm redoing PDoA's backbone, you guys can rest assured; the PDoA development train is moving along! Thanks for being part of the project.

Private Beta Information

Interested in helping out? Follow this link!
Redirect to PDoA2 Beta Information

Has it really been a month?

Wow! It's been one month and four days since I've written in this blog. It's been feeling lonely and neglected.

Now, the reason for my absence was that I had gotten up and tangled up in the rush of real life. Nothing to terribly bad happened. And I was always online, developing for PDoA. Pulling off all nighters and such.

Well, regardless of the excuse, I do terribly apologize for keeping you guys in the dark for so long.

Now, what you've all been waiting for. More development news.

PDoA2 Beta News I - Shedding Light On The Private Beta
Mapping for the 'Beta Area' has been completed. Only a small section of Taeyl has been completed. This small section is known as the 'Beta Test Zone'. Pretty much, mapping will cease, so that I may be focused on adding features. This 'Beta Test Zone' serves as the test map.

Anyhow, a private beta is is the conception stage. Private beta access and more details will be posted on the Pokemon: Den of Ages Classic website. The private beta will be a shoot and go kind of thing. More involvement with the development process. I plan on coding and adding features, and once features are administratively tested, I will allow a 3 day (up to a 2 week) testing period to test the integrity of the new features. Anyhow, you'll just want to keep the PDoA website on your radar for the next day or two until I solidify these details for you.

PDoA2 Beta News II - Breeding!
Lastly, a confirmed feature (which will mark the release of the first private beta release) is breeding! EVs need to be tweaked a bit, I admit; however, IVs and Natures need to be implemented (well, they were implemented in PDoA Classic but were not active). These are crucial for any Pokemon game, I understand; so, yes! I will be making those additions before the first release.

PDoA Classic News - Updated Development: Introducing TMs
This next bit of news also covers the status of Pokemon: Den of Ages Classic. I do believe that if I'm to garner support for PDoA2, I have to actively be a part of that game too. And just for those who are unaware, I try to be as close to that game as possible. The more support I get for PDoA, the more support PDoA2 will receive upon public release. That being said, I've decided to partially support PDoA.

... Partially? What do I mean by partially? Well, I wont be tailoring to those who lost Pokemon in a glitch or anything like that. Those days of PDoA Classic are over. However, due to the recent banning of Pokemon with TM moves, I have decided to make TMs work in PDoA Classic before cutting off all support for it. This way, those of you who have ordered Pokemon with TM moves can start to actively use them without reprimand; and those of you who don't want to order Pokemon because of this new ban; fear not! Hopefully with this addition, the sudden ban on TM moves will disappear completely. I will post more details about TM moves and their addition to PDoA Classic on the website hosting that game. I'll reiterate: you may want to keep PDoA Classic's website under your radar for the next few days.

[HEAVILY REDONE] New Chat System

So, I'm sure we all like the old ways of chatting. You can see everyone's presence whenever you wanted and you can chat on all open channels freely. There was really no reason to have any channel turned off. Well, on PDoA2, I strive to change that.

Let's get the first thing out of the way.
1) More channels. Yes. More of them.

Here's my list:
- Map: Speak with people in the same 'area' as you.
- Trade: Setup Pokemon and Item trades in this channel.
- Team: Talk with your teammates here.
- Admin: Reserved admin only channel.
- Friend: Talk with all your friends here.
- World: Off topic server-wide discussion.
- Battle: Setup Pokemon battles here.
- Miscellaneous: No rules chatting.

8 different channels. Now, by default, the only channels that will be turned on are Map, World, and Friend. Admin Chan is only unlocked if you're admin (otherwise, you don't get the option to turn it on.). Team is only unlocked if you're a team (otherwise, you don't get the option to turn it on.). And Trade/Battle channels can be entered and left freely. Misc is only for those who are 18+, once you're in here, no one is holding your hand... It's rule-free chatting. Of course, you can always turn it off if the heat gets to be too much for you.

2) I plan to make 'Who's Online' only display people who are in your selected channels. So you only see the presence of those talking with you. (This option may be removed in the future.)

So, yes, look foward to that new system of chatting!

*New GUI concept on the way, by the way. Chat will be MUCH bigger, do not worry. :]

Mapping Progress Update

If you all haven't noticed, you should check out the continental progress map. Alot more mapping has been done.

Here is a screenshot of the starting town, Anais.

Click to Enlarge

Yeah, we've gotten a major update to our tile sheet. No more Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald tiles. Everything is now purely D/P/Pt/HG/SS/B/W style now. =]

Give us some feedback!

Future Insight + New Dev Feature

Well, Silver here. Letting everyone know what the deal is with mapping. I figured, rather than just increasing the number, I'd go ahead and throw up a really useful link to the side in the Progress Center.

The link is this. Too lazy to click? Here.

 

Click to enlarge.

Alright. "This just looks like Taeyl" Well, that's because it is. This new feature I'm talking about is... This picture will be updated constantly. I'll put a link to it in the Progress center. Pretty much, the roads in highlighted yellow have been named and completely mapped. The cities, towns, and special areas that are crossed off with an X have been completely mapped and named. The untouched parts of the map represent an area that is completely mapped, but with no name, or aren't mapped at all. Keep in touch with this map, I should update it every so often.

Now, the future insight I promised... Here.

 

Click to enlarge.

"Ahh! Silver, quit spamming me maps of Taeyl!" Well, calm down for a minute. Haha. See, this map has been marked differently. This is a map displaying all of the 'port' towns that will be available in the game. "Why so many port towns?" Well, I have lakes and rivers n' such, but I don't want those to be the only fishing spots. I don't want to limit where a player can fish, especially considering the fact they are surrounded by an ocean! The cities or towns marked with yellow are towns that are ports, but only contain docks for fishing... Fishing docks. The towns marked in red are the only ones with both fishing docks, and a boat docks to enable travel between the two cities. The boat docks will house the boats (obviously) where the fishing docks can be used to fish!

I'm doing this, so that some towns are more than just a place to pass by and say you've visited. I want to give every single town and city a specific use and purpose, to enable traveling between all of them. That's why so many paths are circular and nonlinear.

I hope some of you found this update to be of interest. Thanks for being a part of PDoA2's development! =]