Cobblemon Nuzlocke & Soul Link

Twenty-seven reports from the playtest, answered. The trainers learned manners, the Soul Link became a real link, and the log finally shows the whole run. ☠️

⚔️ Trainers challenge you when they should, and only then

They started battles with their backs turned, while you were already in a battle, while they were on cooldown, and after telegraphing a challenge that never came. One cause behind all four: two systems were picking fights at once. There is one gate now, and it is asked before the head turn and the "!" — you are free, they are off cooldown, the levels are fair, nothing is in the way, and you are in front of them (a new 180° field of view).

Gym leaders and the Elite Four wait to be challenged. Lt. Surge is the exception, and the exception is a setting. A trainer in a battle can no longer be killed, so the fight always resolves.

Closes #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #32.

🔗 The Soul Link binds by where you caught it

Only starters were ever bound, so a co-op run was two people playing alone next to each other. The bind is formed by the capture zone now.

• Every Pokémon in a linked run must be bound. The exception is pending — you caught somewhere your partner has not reached, and it cannot battle until they catch there too.
• Signing binds what you already have, matched up by zone.
• If your partner fails that zone, the Pokémon waiting on them dies.
• A third and fourth player can join a link that already exists — refused outright before.
• Being wiped out by your partner's loss is not instantly a Game Over. One last chance: catch something and the run continues; fail it and it ends.
• Offering a link lives in Cobblemon's interaction wheel, and being offered one is a screen you have to answer.

Closes #25, #26, #30, #45, #46.

📖 The log shows the whole run

In a Soul Link the log becomes the link's log: every member's zones labelled with whose they are, your partner's Pokémon in full, and which binds are still waiting. Offline partners still appear.

It also shows your starter — caught in no zone, so it was missing from your run's own record — and who is on a Gym Leader Challenge, on what type, with the type icon. And the game now tells you the log exists, naming the key you actually bound.

Closes #39, #43, #44.

🎓 The Gym Leader Challenge, offered and helped

Every player is asked at character creation; declining is one click, and owners can switch it off for everyone. While a challenge runs, your type turns up more often — a bias, not a filter. An off-type catch spends the zone: the challenge decides what you may use, not how many tries.

Closes #28, #34, #41.

📏 Rules that behave

• Your team gets its EXP back — a capped lead threw away the whole share. Closes #27.
• Nothing over your level cap picks a fight with you. Closes #33.
• Losing sends you to the nearest city by default. Closes #42.
• "No bag in battle" can spare your X items. Closes #35.
• Sites give one encounter per KIND of site, with a switch to turn them off. Closes #36.
• Mix only offers real starters — no more Budew or Eevee. Closes #29.

🗺️ Places that make sense

• The Elite Four stands out on a road, as its own place. Closes #37.
• Giovanni's gym can stand on the surface instead of as an unreachable cave. Closes #38.
• Gyms stop generating on top of things, and try another side of town.

✏️ Smaller things

• The naming prompt shows the sprite, gender, ability and moves. Closes #40.
• The Soul Link and Gym Leader screens stop blurring the world. Closes #31.
• Refusing a forfeit no longer prints engine internals at you.