Pokemon world online

[zammbi]

I can't create an account (i have put random number to be sure that the name is not in use).
When exiting the login Window (Exit button), PWO is still running  . I have to kill it manually.

Fixed.
As for your problem Demonpants not sure whats wrong there. Works all fine for me and other people launching. I suggest trying again.
Just to note our the game server which this runs off is down currently so you will not be able to login.

[Eli Delventhal]

Has it worked for a Macintosh before?

[zammbi]

Just found out there is a bug for macs. Though so far the other macs have been able to get to the login screen, just they can't login. The error is some "NoSuchMethod" error(http://pastebin.com/mfeb1099). Which I'm trying to track down...

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[CommanderKeith]

Hi,

I really like the idea of this game. I haven't tried it yet since I'm behind a firewall but i will soon.

I'm actually working on a pokemon style game at the moment too. I'm using the pokemon graphics, but plan to change then slightly later.

Hey I was wondering, could you tell us how you went about creating this game?  Like how many of you took part in it, how long did it take, what were the hardest things and where do you plan to take it? 

Nice work.

Keith

[gouessej]

Just found out there is a bug for macs. Though so far the other macs have been able to get to the login screen, just they can't login. The error is some "NoSuchMethod" error(http://pastebin.com/mfeb1099). Which I'm trying to track down...

It is a real problem if it doesn't work fine under Mac.

[zammbi]

The game runs on port 800 so if you can unblock that then you could play.

Well the creator wrote the first version all in VB took him about a month to get a basic version to the public to test. He did the whole thing himself grab what free art that was floating around the net,stats and formulas and what not. Once the public started to notice the game they were able to help us with extra art like gui, sprites, etc.
This game started in December last year, so its about currently 6 months old.
The client itself started to had not too friendly vb errors with the users, which some really just would never go away. So I offered him to help about 3 months ago to start on a Java client since I was starting another Java class at uni, thought it would be the best way to learn(which it was). So I been steady working on the Java client for about 3 months now.

how many of you took part in it

We try make it a community project, but only me and the creator do the coding.
We had lots of help in art and some in music. Have our 10 or so Gm's who watch over the game and work on the game content, have a team of mappers, etc...

how long did it take

The current client/server is about 5 months, Java client is 3 months.

what were the hardest things

Currently is our Lag is the hardest thing to get rid of. Our server is what is making our game look bad. The creator has converted the server to .net and slowly working on it to make it stable for all our servers. Problem is hes been so busy with his job, and then users start complaining over the lag and leave nasty messages. But hopefully that will get solved soon.

where do you plan to take it

Well the plan is to do every map/pokemon, our suggestion forum is filled with ideas. We are going to add more skills, add houses, guild halls, players as gym leaders, etc...
But for me I'm just planning to finish the Java client, making sure it supports everything that the current client does so we remove the current client all together.

Hope all that answers your questions. Feel free to post more.

Sad It is a real problem if it doesn't work fine under Mac.

I don't understand why its complaining about the method isEmpty(). I did a few changes added some more crash tracking, that will be uploaded soon. Hopefully help solve this.

[CommanderKeith]

Thanks for the detailed description. It's a great effort that you were able to get the java client up and running so quickly.

So did you make level editors and stuff like that for the map guys to work on?

Is lag an issue due to the server being a bit inefficiently coded or just internet/server slowness?

And how much does the server cost?

Cheers,
Keith

[Eli Delventhal]

Well if the problem is isEmpty(), why not just say if (str == "") or if (str.length() <= 0) and see if those work?

[zammbi]

Well if the problem is isEmpty(), why not just say if (str == "") or if (str.length() <= 0) and see if those work?

That's what I have done. Ill update it tomorrow(late here) when I finish some other stuff.

So did you make level editors and stuff like that for the map guys to work on?

Yep we have our own map editor which does the trick in making our maps.

Is lag an issue due to the server being a bit inefficiently coded or just internet/server slowness?

Inefficiently, too many large packets and too many calls to the database atm.

And how much does the server cost?

Seems a lot more then I said in the previous post.
Was talking to the creator today, it seems we went over our bandwidth somehow. The main server was meant to cost 270 but somehow costed us 500us. Trying to track down what sucked it all up.
The other 4 servers about 100-200us/month.
So it's very costly. Glad I'm not paying heh.

So looks like we will need to fix our server problems asap and cut down on our servers.

[Eli Delventhal]

Well when you put the update in I'll let you know if it works.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[ShannonSmith]

Note: if (str == "") won't work in Java, need to use str.equals("").

[Eli Delventhal]

Note: if (str == "") won't work in Java, need to use str.equals("").

Actually, it does work sometimes, and most of the time with "". This is because "" is always the same pointer location (null).

[jezek2]

Note: if (str == "") won't work in Java, need to use str.equals("").

You're required to use equals methods, always. Comparing string by reference is used only in special cases (and where you exactly know what consequences it has). This is the same as with threading, if you do it wrongly it might work on your computer, but it might blow on others.

[zammbi]

I used .equals("") anyway.
Can someone with a mac try see if they can login now or get a error for trying?

[Eli Delventhal]

Hey zammbi. It still wasn't working for me, but this time I took a gander at your JNLP to see what was wrong.

Two things:

1	<jnlp spec="1.5+"

I changed to

1	<jnlp spec="1.0+"

because the actual JNLP isn't 1.5. I'm not sure if this matters at all.

More importantly, I also added:

1	<j2se href="http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se" version="1.5+"/>

under the resources. This is what was causing an error and not allowing my JAR to run at all.

On Mac, I was able to create an account and log in, but now it seems to be loading perpetually.

[zammbi]

Hey zammbi. It still wasn't working for me, but this time I took a gander at your JNLP to see what was wrong.

Two things:

1	<jnlp spec="1.5+"

I changed to

1	<jnlp spec="1.0+"

because the actual JNLP isn't 1.5. I'm not sure if this matters at all.

I just changed that heh. Because another user posted some info on that.

More importantly, I also added:

1	<j2se href="http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se" version="1.5+"/>

under the resources. This is what was causing an error and not allowing my JAR to run at all.

Ok Ill add it in.

On Mac, I was able to create an account and log in, but now it seems to be loading perpetually.

There are some server bugs that cause some trouble, try relogging and see if that helps.

Thanks for helping.

[CommanderKeith]

I tried it out from a non-firewalled computer, but when I tried to create an account it said that there were problems with the server. I suppose I'll just wait until it's back up later.

The music was cool.

Hey where did you get all of the pokemon graphics? I've found some sprite sheets around, but they've all got different scales and are incomplete and most do not have transparent backgrounds which is annoying.

What's the largest number of people who have used it at once?

Well the creator wrote the first version all in VB took him about a month to get a basic version to the public to test. He did the whole thing himself grab what free art that was floating around the net,stats and formulas and what not. Once the public started to notice the game they were able to help us with extra art like gui, sprites, etc.
This game started in December last year, so its about currently 6 months old.
The client itself started to had not too friendly vb errors with the users, which some really just would never go away. So I offered him to help about 3 months ago to start on a Java client since I was starting another Java class at uni, thought it would be the best way to learn(which it was). So I been steady working on the Java client for about 3 months now.
We try make it a community project, but only me and the creator do the coding.
We had lots of help in art and some in music. Have our 10 or so Gm's who watch over the game and work on the game content, have a team of mappers, etc...
The current client/server is about 5 months, Java client is 3 months.

That's pretty amazing the way all of you have pulled together so quickly and did so much in 6 months. So do you know the server programmer very well before starting? And those GM's, mappers, sound guys etc, what do you think motivated them to help out so much? Maybe you and the server programmer are just very charismatic?!   

[zammbi]

I suppose I'll just wait until it's back up later.

Yea sorry server was down. It's back up now.

Hey where did you get all of the pokemon graphics?

Not sure where the original stuff came from, but there is a bit of royalty free stuff out there.
Also what ever our users create, we add in.

most do not have transparent backgrounds

Most of our art use white as transparent, which you need to convert it to transparent in game. Maybe that's your trouble?

What's the largest number of people who have used it at once?

As in the max amount of people playing at once? Over 90 or so. Would be more if our servers would handle it.

That's pretty amazing the way all of you have pulled together so quickly and did so much in 6 months.

Thanks. Really myself I don't see it being that hard but you do need the money to pay for servers and the time to keep working on such a project.

So do you know the server programmer very well before starting?

Yep a friend of mine.

And those GM's, mappers, sound guys etc, what do you think motivated them to help out so much?

Well some may say that it's because we based out game off the popular theme pokemon. But that said there are still many online pokemon games out there.
I think what makes us different from the rest is we have a nice community and friendly Gm's that help out as much as possible. We listen to the community and anything they wish to help in we accept.
Also we are unique from the others, like creating the playerdex www.playerdex.com sorta like hi5 or myspace where you can create your own page, post comments and make official guild page.

Maybe you and the server programmer are just very charismatic?!

Yea that helps too

[CommanderKeith]

Ok thanks, I'll give it another go the next time I'm on a proper computer.

Hey I just checked out the playerdex and saw this:

Kyrocorp Australia

Are you guys in Australia?

[zammbi]

We are both from New Zealand. But hes only recently moved over there for a job.

[CommanderKeith]

Oh cool, well hello from over the other side of the tasman.  I'm in Sydney.

Does your buddy work on games over here? Is he in Sydney? There's a few of us on these forums from australia.  I've heard some people here are from NZ as well, I think Demonpants is? But I'm not sure.

[zammbi]

Ah cool 
Yep hes in Sydney. His job is some big database job over there. But hes always working on some game. He has like 5-10 games hes working on at once. Another online game he has up and running is Pokemon Battle arena . He has also making a game called hellraider But those ones I don't have anything to do with them really.

[CommanderKeith]

Great, well please let him know that if he ever wants to meet, I'd be very happy to have a nerdy chat about games and programming! And hey, if you're ever on holiday over here, let me know so we can get drink. 

I haven't met anyone in Sydney who's very into games development, but then I don't work in IT.

That's a fair load of games, wow. You and your friend are very good at getting things going. I have trouble managing my everyday life, let alone a couple of big projects that heaps of people take part in.

[zammbi]

Hehe cool. If you email him he would most likely accept your offer hehe.
I don't see myself coming over there anytime soon, my current trip planned is going to India with some friend about new years.
Myself I'm just working on PWO and my unnamed game that I'm learning jpct and writing it. I wouldn't want to work on more then 2 unless I was doing this as a job which I wouldn't mind doing.

[Eli Delventhal]

Oh cool, well hello from over the other side of the tasman.  I'm in Sydney.

Does your buddy work on games over here? Is he in Sydney? There's a few of us on these forums from australia.  I've heard some people here are from NZ as well, I think Demonpants is? But I'm not sure.

Nope, I'm from California, but it would be nice to be in New Zealand. 

I couldn't log in right now. Still haven't had a successful session, unfortunately.

[zammbi]

Yea NZ is a great place.
The server is playing up and crashing, I just restarted it again. It's a development server so meant to do that 

Only if the server was written in java, but o well.

[Markus_Persson]

Actually, it does work sometimes, and most of the time with "". This is because "" is always the same pointer location (null).

What? No. "" Is a perfectly normal string, just like "monkey" and "banana".

String literals are safe to compare with other string literals, because they go into the string pool. Strings interlalised with String.intern() are also relatively safe to compare with string literals. Strings only created in one place are also safe to compare with each others.

There is no magic.

Strings work exactly like other objects when it comes to ==. If it's the same object, == returns true, otherwise it returns false. String.equals(), however, compares the contents of the string objects, which might be the same.

[Eli Delventhal]

I stand corrected. I only assumed the null thing, because I've had problems with == but never specifically with == "".

[ShannonSmith]

I stand corrected. I only assumed the null thing, because I've had problems with == but never specifically with == "".

This tends to catch people out in Java because a lot of the time it will work as a side effect of the way Java optimizes String literals. The following will return true with most Java compilers:

1	"testing " + "1.." + "2.." == "testing 1..2.."

This however is always false:

1	"" == new String("")

Short story is never use == for comparing the contents Strings.

[Eli Delventhal]

I like .equalsIgnoreCase() anyway.