On Switching

There was discussion about a lot of things in ASB last night, and I brought up switching. Nobody likes the way it works right now. Ending the round at the action of the switch slows the pace of the battle way down, especially if your opponent decides to counterswitch.

The alternative I propose is to not end the round at the action of switching. Allow the incoming Pokémon to act for the remaining actions (not the one it switches in on), at the cost of your opponent getting to recommand those actions if they went first that round. This still slows the game down some, but not nearly as much as having to wait for a ref does.

Feel free to bring your own suggestions! I think this is the most intuitive way to approach the issue, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily the best.

For transparency, the logs from when Zhorken, MF, and I were discussing this in #tcod:
<Walker> i have far too many concepts for asb challenges that don't hinge on arena
<Walker> (vgc style challenge where both parties pm their squads to the ref in advance and keep their back two secret)
<Walker> (ideally with switch mechanics that aren't boring as piss)
<Zhorygon-Z> I would definitely like switch to be less irritating in ASB
<Zhorygon-Z> somehow...
<Walker> just. don't end the round. let the pokemon switching in act the rest of the round.
<Zhorygon-Z> that would be more irritating
<Walker> not on the action of the switch, but certainly afterward
<Zhorygon-Z> imagine the conditionals you'd have to cook up to deal with that shit
<surskitty> that sounds really unfortunate
<surskitty> yeah
<Walker> maybe at the cost of letting your opponent recommand after switch?
<MetallicaFanboy> but then, what if your switch makes the opponent switch
<MetallicaFanboy> do you recommand after that, for another switch
<MetallicaFanboy> and so on
<Walker> well then one of you is going to have to change.
<Walker> or you just get a whole round of switching
<Walker> because you're only recommanding the actions post-switch
<Zhorygon-Z> I guess that makes some sense
<Walker> so it can only go on so long until the ref gets a very easy $8-$12
<MetallicaFanboy> so then your opponent is like "use charm, then captivate, and then attack!" and you're like "nope switch on the third action"
<Walker> you can do that under current mechanics...
<Walker> i thought
<Zhorygon-Z> yeah
<MetallicaFanboy> yeah, but at least you don't make your opponent recommand something largely irrelevant
<Walker> if you switch on the third action there aren't any actions left to recommand
<Walker> you don't get to recommand the action -of- the switch just after it
<MetallicaFanboy> oh
<Walker> it might be wise to make/revive a meta thread about this
<Zhorygon-Z> yeah
<MetallicaFanboy> yeah

I think there are a variety of ways you could go about making switching less disruptive to the flow of battle, but I don't know that streamlining it will make switching much more of an appealing option (assuming that's your goal). The thing is that switching is almost universally a bad idea because it locks you into another one of your pokemon before your opponent, which is a huge disadvantage in ASB.

I think there are ways to solve that problem, too. But before talking strategies, I think it's more to the point to ask: why do you think it's important to make switching easier/more appealing?