Make Encounter Trackers Less Invasive

[Th3M4ttman]

As we all know lots of people shunt in this game, and keeping a tally of encountered Pokémon is one of the only things that keep the players sanity going as they get deep in the weeds. But there is a major flaw.

 

For any encounter tracker to function you must accept the security issue of allowing an app to record your screen. On android it was thought impossible until I created an even more dodgy/hacky(programming term not literally hacking you lol) method for the meantime. But this is even more of a security issue and is only possible for rooted phones

 

I understand a full blown encounter tracking system which displays all this info would be a considerable amount of dev effort so I propose a low effort alternative.

 

Just* append the Pokémon encountered to a log file in a publicly accessible part of the file system. Then external apps can consume that data and display it with pretty floating widgets and implement all the front-end-ish features finally stopping everyone asking for you guys to do it.

 

*I also understand I know nothing of your code based so it is entirely possible it isn't anywhere near that simple

 

I've taken the liberty of explaining what I mean by way of a java snippet:

 

Quote

 

static void log_encounter(String[] pokemon_array){

 File file = new File("/storage/emulated/0/Documents/pokemmo/log.txt");

 

 //Setup FilerWriter

 FilerWriter fr = new FileWriter(file, True);

 

 //Get datetime as string

 Date date = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();

 DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss");

 String strDate = dateFormat.format(date);

 

 //convert array of pokemon names to string

 String str = String.join(",", pokemon_array);

 

 //format string

 String logstr = "[" + strDate + "] " + str;

 

 //log the encounter

 fr.write(logstr);

 fr.close();

}

 

I appreciate your guy's' work and hope you consider my proposal or inform me of how it is misguided.

[Bitdrifter]

At this point I think encounter counter should just be built-in. Having to use an external program to count encounters is a pain and does not work when shunting on multiple devices. I personally dont use an encounter counter while shunting because of how "hacky" it is (not even speaking about the horrible font you have to install for it to work).

 

The server could keep an encounter counter for each pokemon and display it in the pokedex. No need for reset button or any fancy features. I understand this can be quite challenging to implement (because the database need to store a counter for each pokemon for each player, which is a lot). But if the community had to build the tool, I believe it's obvious the feature is needed.

 

[Th3M4ttman]

10 minutes ago, Bitdrifter said:

At this point I think encounter counter should just be built-in. Having to use an external program to count encounters is a pain and does not work when shunting on multiple devices. I personally dont use an encounter counter while shunting because of how "hacky" it is (not even speaking about the horrible font you have to install for it to work).

 

The server could keep an encounter counter for each pokemon and display it in the pokedex. No need for reset button or any fancy features. I understand this can be quite challenging to implement (because the database need to store a counter for each pokemon for each player, which is a lot). But if the community had to build the tool, I believe it's obvious the feature is needed.

 

I agree. Though this could serve as a bandaid for the time being as Devs are always busy bees.

 

No database necessary for the tracking though. It can/should be entirely stored locally as it has no bearing on the server logic

[Bitdrifter]

11 minutes ago, Th3M4ttman said:

No database necessary for the tracking though. It can/should be entirely stored locally as it has no bearing on the server logic

It could be a client-side counter (and that would be a good start!). But the best part about having a built-in counter is to have the same counter for all your devices (i.e. account-based counter). And in order for the counter to be used by all devices, it will need to be stored on the server.

[ZeldaaLuv]

Hey, i did all the steps and the encounters runs fine but it didn't have permission to screen cap my screen and I can't find it in the settings either

[nurver9]

On 2/28/2024 at 5:08 PM, Bitdrifter said:

At this point I think encounter counter should just be built-in. Having to use an external program to count encounters is a pain and does not work when shunting on multiple devices. I personally dont use an encounter counter while shunting because of how "hacky" it is (not even speaking about the horrible font you have to install for it to work).

 

The server could keep an encounter counter for each pokemon and display it in the pokedex. No need for reset button or any fancy features. I understand this can be quite challenging to implement (because the database need to store a counter for each pokemon for each player, which is a lot). But if the community had to build the tool, I believe it's obvious the feature is needed.

 

Not to butt in here, but I am assuming you are talking about Archetype Counter when you mention font changes.

If so, the entire 'application' is portable and utilizes built-in Windows features, nothing is actually installed on the users system.

The Counter utilizes the game's default font NotoSans and changes the y axis offset value slightly so characters like "y", "g", "q" etc do not hang over the HP bars. This is required for the text to pass through optical character recognition properly, as explained in the documentation and startup messages. Only the battle nameplate font is modified, no other areas of the theme. There are no visible differences between the font the Counter modifies and the default theme.

(Also, if you uninstall via the Counter menu options, it will automatically undo the XML changes, as stated in the instructions.)

From this post I assume you have your own custom theme with a custom font, which the Counter can only be used with the game's default font.

We've devoted a lot of time over the past two years to this project and if you have feedback you wish to relay we have multiple open communication channels. We are always open to new ideas and suggestions. If I am misunderstanding, my apologies.
 

Edited March 2 by nurver9