late game training wheels: disengaged (Patreon)

additional maps for all sidequests finished today, i've done myself in for one more puzzle which may or may not take some effort to code but fortunately i think it's one of those that will be harder to solve than to make...
if it's possible.
which i guess i won't properly know until it's in game and i can test it 🤔

unfortunately none of those maps really make good screenshots to show off because... well, cuz half the fun will be finding these areas in previously existing places and being like, what, that was a thing????
it wasn't.
but it will definitely seem like it was the whole time.

in other nyus, and by that i mean the thing i was also going to talk about last night and didn't... i've removed the arbitrary badge stat boosts from the game.
you know, the like, X badge slightly increases the whateverstat of all your pokemon!!
because it was kindly pointed out to me by a user on the forum that that feature hasn't... actually existed in canon games since 3rd gen.

although some players may be sour to lose this strength they were promised, i see three advantages here:
- first, accuracy to canon
- second, as a result of the above, damage calculators will be more accurate to the game
- finally, the main one and the one pointed out by that same user: late game is often when difficulty struggles. although that'll always depend in part upon just how much effort has been invested into one's team and what matchups there are, i don't think the extra 10% is really doing my job here any favors as far as making a challenge that will be satisfying through to the end.

if i were not about to crash into the level cap, that might be a different story.

incidentally, for science's sake, i calc'd out about how much EXP it takes a on average  to get from a full team from level 85 to 90 (current episode's range) vs how much EXP a trainer's pokemon will give.
by my probably incorrect calculations, i get about 150 trainer pokemon in an episode. and so counting wild pokemon, probably closer to 120. any more than that and i risk crashing a non-rotating player into the level cap. it's even worse considering trading boosts.
that might seem like a lot on paper but if every trainer has six pokemon, then i basically only get 20 trainers.
yikes.

this is, incidentally, part of why there are a lot fewer trainers in the end game than the start. i haven't compared the actual values to the same formula for the early levels, but i suspect it matters less when players are much more likely to be swapping mons in and out early on and as they're still becoming available anyway.

not that that matters because in this case, by "level cap" i mean level 100. haha oopos.

and anyway the point is i'm pretty happy to even this playing field since i have a reason to. the fact that it only affects later in the game is even better since i'm pretty happy with the difficulty in early-mid game and i certainly wouldn't want to throw that off.
really the only issue might be the fact that it's a 10% speed loss after serra which could lead to more or less sweeps...
but we'll see!

alternatively: you'll see!

alternatively: git gud, 10% boosts are a crutch

i have faith in u all