[Feature Request]: Timer, screenshot, and nickname ideas
Tipzilla opened this issue · 5 comments
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I've been getting into more and more Kaizo attempts myself and while doing so, have thought of a few ideas for the tracker:
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Timer: I've noticed a few streamers like to show a timer for how long the current attempt is going, but it requires them doing manually toggle it all themselves. I thought it would be helpful if the tracker showed a timer (reading from the gamer file time) for each attempt. Instead of it taking up space on the tracker, maybe it could be a pop-up window?
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Screenshot button: It would be nice if players could easily take a screenshot of the tracker screen so they can share across social media. Currently I just use the Windows Snipping Tool, but it would be handy if you could set a save location and have the tracker sort it all for you. The button could be a little camera icon next to the settings gear?
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Toggle between Pokémon name and nickname: Most of us know the default names of all the Pokémon, so being able to toggle between that name and what you nickname it would be nice. This could either be done through the tracker menus, or simply by just clicking the Pokémon's name for it to switch between the two.
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Nickname suggestion database: This was an idea I've brought up in the Discord. Sometimes I struggle to think of a cool nickname for my Pokémon, I thought it would be cool if the tracker recommended you a nickname when you select your mon. As a community we could have some sort of database that we can add nicknames to that the tracker can read from. Until that database gets populated, it could use randomized names to start with. Alternately it could simply keep track of past nicknames only you have named your mons.
Let me know what you think!
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Another possible idea, purely for a little bit of convenience. Held TM's show an asterisks indicating they are a gym TM, if you click it it will tell you which gym leader it's from. If you pick one up in the overworld the tracker could do a pop-up to say "You would x gym leader's TM!".
Thank you for all these great ideas for Tracker features. And sorry it's taken this long to reply to your post.
I wanted to share that I've added the "Timer" feature as part of an upcoming release (8.0.0). You can read more about it here:
As for the other items, it looks like taking a screenshot is a supported function of Bizhawk. It captures the entire game screen + tracker screen. I'll look into where the best place is to add this. The nickname ideas are a bit trickier to include, mostly due to the way text/letters are received from the game to the tracker.
I was able to mock the up the nickname a bit. Should we always uppercase it or something for formatting? It looks like you are already pulling in the nickname from the pokemon's data in Program.lua
Possible other things to think about:
1.) Should this be a toggle setting to just "Show nicknames" instead of switch every 5 seconds?
Nice work with using the existing Nickname stuff. I believe this should work for most games. Something to double-check, is for all other languages. I'm not sure if non-English Pokémon games offer other characters that can be used for nicknaming pokemon. If so, those characters need to be properly defined in, for lack of a better place, GameSettings.GameCharMap.
Showing the nickname should by a setting that the user can turn on or off. It should be off by default. It likely should live in Tracker Settings > Setup. Might have to make more room on that screen.
While shown, the nickname should not change over time. Ideally things on the tracker screen should not change, as it can be distracting. The carousel is an exception, and one that we had to include settings to stop it from moving for those that don't like that.
I've been able to just slide it into the menu with what I think is a single pixel or two between the images and the top checkbox. ( I need to change NickName -> Nicknames, I know)
Would it be best to split some of these into a separate "Visual" or "QOL" options tab? (XP bar, This setting, Carousel) If this is a dumb question, just tell me so.
I still need to sit down and figure out character mapping stuff. the Gender symbols definitely don't display correctly.