Pokémon Online Battle Simulator - Most Frequently Asked Questions
Pokémon Online
· What is Pokémon Online?
· How is Pokémon Online different from other simulators?
· Who is the programmer?
· How did the Pokémon Online project start?
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What is Pokémon Online?
The latest and most up-to-date online Pokémon Battle Simulator, written in C++. It is an open source project started by coyotte508. The Beta Server boasts ladders for 10 tiers, including Little Cup and Challenge Cup as well as the viable 2v2 metagames!
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How is Pokémon Online different from other simulators?
Pokémon Online is the third online simulator in the Diamond/Pearl generation so it has the benefit of hindsight, to put it in a certain way. It has been designed to be as user-friendly and visually pleasing as possible. We currently have translations in 9 different languages other than English: German, Spanish, Finnish, French, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese/Brazilian, Chinese, and Swedish; with other language projects underway. If you want to contribute, you can visit the Translations thread.
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Who is the programmer?
coyotte508 had his first programming experience back in Netbattle 9.4, through the use of Netbattle scripting. He learned Netbattle scripting by tweaking existing scripts, eventually he would go on to vastly improve popular scripts. It was during that time he met some cool people like Sesshy, Pollo, Blaze, Mew Master, Kaiba (Shiv), and by the time 9.6 rolled around he was considered an expert on Netbattle scripting.
There were many times when coyotte dropped Netbattle for weeks and months, even once for years, because of the inactivity and lack of direction. It was during one of his on again, off again moments that he decided to learn a programming language for video games, so he could create a replacement for Netbattle.
Armed with an outdated C++ book, and a tutorial on how to make a full Tic Tac Toe in C++ + SDL, he began his venture into programming. Despite having strange habits stemming from Netbattle Scripting, coyotte was able to create his first Team Builder with the experience he had gained from programming and soon aimed his sights higher, towards a more detailed project.
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How did the Pokémon Online project start?
By mid-October 2009, coyotte discovered a tutorial about Qt. One week later, he started this project (from scratch again) with the help of DN, aka Darkness, who he met back in Netbattle in years past. The name of the project was decided in 2010 and it was becoming more organized and glued together. It was during this time that many people stepped up and started helping with the project: Steve became the host for the registry and Beta Server, zeroality coded the forums based on DN's artwork, and another website redesign is currently underway.
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User Interface
· How do I protect my username from being used by someone else?
· Why am I crashing all the time when I enter the server?
· What does Being Overactive mean?
· How do I make a server?
· How do I create scripts for my server?
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How do I protect my username from being used by someone else?
Use the Register button directly to the right of the Find Battle button. By selecting this, you will be requested to create a password for your username. This should be a password that you can easily remember but not guessable by other users. You will need to do this for each server that you log on to.
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Why am I crashing all the time when I enter the server?
The most likely cause is that your version is outdated. For updates, you must download the latest version of the client. Please visit the downloads page for the latest release.
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What does Being Overactive mean?
Overactivity, in simple terms, is sending too many commands to the server in the span of one minute. Examples include: PM Flooding, main chat flooding (like when someone is muted), rank check flooding, battling extremely fast (1 turn = 1 sec).
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How do I make a server?
Steve has created a very easy to understand Server Hosting Tutorial that shows you how to host a server, step by step. If you find that you are having problems, please post in the tutorial thread.
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How do I create scripts for my server?
The coding language for Pokémon Online is quite different from Netbattle. In Pokémon Online, we use javascript because you can do more with it. There are many tutorials for learning javascript on the Internet. You can take a look at this basic script, which also has a list of functions.
If you need more help, or would like to discuss it further, there is a Pokémon Online Scripting Group. It is led by Lutra and is a place where you can learn more about scripting.
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Battles, Ratings, and Ladder
· How do I hide my team?
· How do I change my tier?
· How do I stop incoming challenges?
· What is the ladder?
· How do I view my ladder rank?
· Everyone shows as busy! How do I find a battle?
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How do I hide my team?
Uncheck Options > Show Team in the file menu at top to hide your team. If you want to make it visible again, go to the same place and mark it checked.
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How do I change my tier?
Select Tiers in the file menu and you will have your choice of which tier you wish to play in. It is important to note that each tier has different Pokemon you can use. By changing your tier, you will be placed on that tier's ladder. It is possible to be #1 on the NU ladder while being last place in the OU tier.
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How do I stop incoming challenges?
In order to not receive challenges you must first go idle. To do this, you check Options > Idle in the file menu, which will stop all challenges. To turn them back on, simply uncheck the idle option.
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What is the ladder?
The ladder is a ranking system currently in use by Pokémon Online. First, you need to enable the ladder by checking Options > Enable Ladder. If this is not turned on then battles will not count towards your rating, or your opponent's.
To get the highest points possible per win, you will need to battle opponents with higher ratings than your own. If you keep battling users with lower ratings, then your own rating will rise very slowly. If you lose, you'll also take a bigger hit than you would if you lost against a higher rated opponent.
To find out more about the Ladder System, check out the Ladder Functioning Guide.
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How do I view my ladder rank?
You can right click your username and select View Ranking, which will display the leaderboard in a separate window. You can use the controls to view your rank across the tiers that you have played on. Alternatively, you can type in /ranking which will display your ranking for the current tier.
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Everyone shows as busy! How do I find a battle?
Use the Find Battle button, located below the main chat. When clicked, a popup box will appear and give you some options - outlined below.
Force rated battles - By selecting this you will get only battles that count towards your ladder rating.
Force Same Tier - Enabling this will ensure that you get an opponent in the same tier as yourself.
Double Battle - If you are looking for 2v2 battles, then turn this on. Singles players should not touch this.
Only battle players with a max rating difference of - This is pretty much how you make the best use of Find Battle. The default difference is 200, which means you will only battle people with up to a 200 point difference. You can increase or decrease this amount. The lower you set it to, the harder it will be to find a suitable opponent.
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Pokémon Team Builder
· How do I import/export my team?
· How do I change the levels of my Pokémon?
· How do I adjust Pokémon happiness?
· How do I choose a different form for Rotom/Deoxys/Shaymin/etc?
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How do I import/export my team?
Pokémon Online has a feature where you can import your teams from Shoddy or Netbattle. To do this, you need to copy your team from Shoddy/Netbattle using Export to Text. In the Pokémon Online team builder, click the Import button and a window should appear. In the space provided, paste your exported team and hit Done. Your team should now appear in the team builder.
To export your team from Pokémon Online, click the Export button. This will bring up a window with your team in text format.
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How do I change the levels of my Pokémon?
Directly underneath the Pokemon sprite you should see an Advanced button with a drop down arrow. Select either window option and look directly underneath the Pokémon sprite in the new window. You will find the level box, which you can now change accordingly.
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How do I adjust Pokémon happiness?
To make use of Return, you must manually set your Pokémon's happiness. Click on the Advanced button to bring up the window and look below the area where you can adjust your IVs. There is a Happiness tracker, set it to 255 for maximum power on Return.
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How do I choose a different form for Rotom/Deoxys/Shaymin/etc?
Using the Advanced button once again, bring up the window and look below the Happiness tracker mentioned above. There is a button labeled Alternate Formes, which you can click for the choice(s) of changing forms.
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Simulator Development
· What has changed in each version?
· I have a great idea! Where do I post this?
· Where do I post bug reports?
· How can I be a Bug Tester?
· If I see coyotte508 on the server should I let him know about a bug?
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What has changed in each version?
On the download page there will always be a changelog that shows what was updated in the current version. To view past changelogs see Pokémon Online Changelogs.
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I have a great idea! Where do I post this?
There is a suggestion board on the Pokémon Online forums. However, before you post your suggestion make sure that the concept has not already been presented. There is a Suggestions Index that is stickied in the board, which you need to look over. If your suggestion is original then there will be discussion, however coyotte508 has the final say if it will be implemented.
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Where do I post bug reports?
Because Pokémon Online is currently in the BETA stages, finding bugs are not uncommon. If you find a bug, the best thing you can do is take a screenshot and/or copy the battle log then post it on the Bug Reports forum.
Make sure the topic title is descriptive; the bug will be tested then categorized. It is greatly appreciated if you assist in testing the bug (such as reproducing it to confirm the conditions) and post your own findings. This will help out tremendously with the workload that coyotte and other staff volunteers have to handle.
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How can I be a Bug Tester?
The best way to help in bug testing is to be active in the Bug Report board. This means you should try testing the bugs out yourself ingame or on the simulator, wherever applicable, and assist with the documentation of proper game mechanics or function.
Contributing to the board will decrease the workload for all the other volunteers, and will help Pokémon Online get out of the BETA stages faster. For a quick reference on the latest and/or fixed bugs please check the Bug Report Index
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Should I report bugs to coyotte508 on the server?
No, the Bug Report Forum is there for you to post any possible bugs that you come across while on the simulator. coyotte and the other admins have things to do and don't need to be interrupted by bug reports. Feel free to bring it up in the main chat, but only after you have posted about it on the forums. Other users aren't going to check the index for you either.
Original FAQ by Elements.
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