Suggestion Box

[Zhorken]

Huh, I never knew Mantyke and Remoraid were supposed to work. Karrablast and Shelmet should probably work that way, too... And imo it should also work if they battle against each other.

We were discussing changing trade evolutions in the ASB team social group, too — it's kind of ridiculous that you can get an evolution for free, so I suggested making it so that the Pokémon had to battle under the command of a trainer other than its OT. (The Database already secretly keeps track of OTs.)

EDIT: I'm imagining that all these suggestions would still have exp as an alternative, of course.

 

[allitersonance]

PMD has a "link cable" item that makes trade evolutions act like item evolutions there. Perhaps you can bring that over and just make trade evolutions into an item evolution?

wrt pokemon evolving in the presence of other pokemon shenanigans, I agree that it could just be "both pokemon are on the field simultaneously at some point" (not counting arena-provided pokemon) so that it works whether they're enemies or allies.

 

[Eifie]

PMD has a "link cable" item that makes trade evolutions act like item evolutions there. Perhaps you can bring that over and just make trade evolutions into an item evolution?

Yes, I keep forgetting to mention this, although I got the idea myself from Pinball RS. I am totally on board with this idea and I think it's kind of adorable.

 

[nastypass]

wrt pokemon evolving in the presence of other pokemon shenanigans, I agree that it could just be "both pokemon are on the field simultaneously at some point" (not counting arena-provided pokemon) so that it works whether they're enemies or allies.

that was pretty much what I meant in my Slowbro suggestion. also giving my support to the link cable idea; it sounds like much less of a hassle than battling under a different OT.

 

[allitersonance]

suggestion: ability to comment on asb news so that there's somewhere where I can yell about already having two more luvdiscs than anyone really needs

; ;

 

[Mai]

Toxic was changed in the sixth generation to be never-miss when used by poison-types; this isn't in the app/move's description yet, but it should probably be updated.

(It was even changed to be never-miss during the invulnerable turns of fly and dig, but that's kind of silly with actual ASB logic.)

 

[allitersonance]

So oran berry and sitrus berry are redundant. I mean that's kind of obvious since sitrus is an upgrade over oran, but ingame that reflects the ingame progression of your team. It was also moderately okay in ASB when berries were consumable, because you might try to replace them, so maybe it would make a difference to go for the cheaper version consistently. But right now, sitrus is twice as good as oran and only $2 more expensive. It'd probably be better to expel the oran berry (letting the tournament continue as normal with it but otherwise not having it used again).

If both are kept around, they should at least be made equal and also differentiated a bit. They don't have to be perfectly balanced, but it's a little odd to have sitrus be just outright better all the time. Could have sitrus restore a percentage of lost health, for example, while oran does a set amount, but calibrated so that at the automatic trigger point (50% health?) they restore the same amount. So for example oran berry can do 10% health no matter when it's eaten, but sitrus berry restores [health_lost / 5]. You can take an action to eat an oran berry earlier, or you can risk waiting with a sitrus berry at the expense of now having to spend an action when you want to take advantage of healing. (It might be better to make sitrus slightly less useful at the 50% health mark, but still give it better healing potential after that point, because it's less likely people will want to use sitrus berry earlier than that point anyway. Should be kept simple though.)

 

[blazheirio889]

If both are kept around, they should at least be made equal and also differentiated a bit. They don't have to be perfectly balanced, but it's a little odd to have sitrus be just outright better all the time. Could have sitrus restore a percentage of lost health, for example, while oran does a set amount, but calibrated so that at the automatic trigger point (50% health?) they restore the same amount. So for example oran berry can do 10% health no matter when it's eaten, but sitrus berry restores [health_lost / 5]. You can take an action to eat an oran berry earlier, or you can risk waiting with a sitrus berry at the expense of now having to spend an action when you want to take advantage of healing. (It might be better to make sitrus slightly less useful at the 50% health mark, but still give it better healing potential after that point, because it's less likely people will want to use sitrus berry earlier than that point anyway. Should be kept simple though.)

I do quite like this suggestion, although if they're made more equal this way I think their costs should also be made equal.

Anyway, I wanted to bring up Super Fang. As of right now it seems that the damage is affected by caps, and the energy is calculated from the final damage. I think the energy should be calculated from the damage it /would have dealt without caps/ because as it stands right now it's far too easy to abuse.
Say there's a damage cap of 33%. You can easily hit the cap in one action with Super Fang, and spend the other two actions disrupting your opponent or Chilling, for two rounds. Under current rulings, two Super Fangs would cost 50% energy, but considering that you'd have four actions to do whatever else you want and the opponent can be pretty easily KO'd in the next two rounds with 50% energy or less, there's pretty much no reason /not/ to use Super Fang until your opponent is at around 30%. Your opponent would have to spend disproportionate effort to avoid Super Fang, and even then you're likely to be able to land it, especially when you're attacking second.
If energy is calculated from the damage it would have dealt without caps, it would discourage usage of Super Fang. In the above scenario, the first Super Fang would cost 38% energy, and the second would cost 25%. It's still pretty good because if you land them perfectly you'll still get a lot of free actions, but it makes not landing them more punishing, which should make people more careful about spamming it.

 

[Eifie]

I agree; I mean, I thought that was how Super Fang worked all along, and it was kind of surprising to find out that it wasn't.

 

[Eifie]

Am I the only one that thinks Trick Room is kind of OP? If I use it on my first action of a round when I'm commanding second, then the next round I'll command second again... and then the next round Trick Room will wear off, meaning that the command order reverses again, meaning that I get to command second again. By using Trick Room once every two rounds, I could conceivably command second for pretty much an entire battle...

edit: as for an actual suggestion... I think either Trick Room should last an odd number of rounds, so it can't be abused in that way, or it just plain shouldn't affect command order at all, or the command order shouldn't go back to normal after it wears off, which is weird flavour-wise but.

 

[blazheirio889]

I think having Trick Room reverse command order is a nice effect, so I would like to keep that. I'm... surprised that the duration is set so that happens, though. Since it's a fairly minor fix I'll go ahead and change that to 9 actions, same as the weather moves. It's a bit long, but better that than having turn order be so advantageous.

Also I'm gonna go ahead and edit Super Fang so it costs energy as if the damage it dealt was uncapped, since it's been a about a day now? If anyone has anything to add or object, please say so!

 

[nastypass]

I think having Trick Room reverse command order is a nice effect, so I would like to keep that. I'm... surprised that the duration is set so that happens, though. Since it's a fairly minor fix I'll go ahead and change that to 9 actions, same as the weather moves. It's a bit long, but better that than having turn order be so advantageous.

Also I'm gonna go ahead and edit Super Fang so it costs energy as if the damage it dealt was uncapped, since it's been a about a day now? If anyone has anything to add or object, please say so!

... anything for poor, poor Slowbro, tragically outshone by their younger cousin? :( I know it got kinda derailed into a more general conversation about trade evos, but nobody seems to have given more than halfhearted statements about it.

 

[blazheirio889]

Ah, whoops, I seem to have missed that. I'd support lowering the EXP requirement to 2 or 3, since the Shellder option would require either a double battle (which are difficult to get refs for) or a pre-arranged battle, which isn't that bad but is slightly restrictive?

Actually, I'd support general lowering of EXP requirements, since battles take so long. Off the top of my head Negrek based EXP requirements off of levels Pokemon evolve at, which is alright, except for Unova Pokemon since they tend to evolve much later. I haven't exactly looked in-depth, but 4 EXP to evolve a Joltik is quite a bit.

This is probably another one of those things that are not a priority but will be looked at eventually, I think? Anyway only Zhorken can edit EXP requirements, so we have to wave her over here to weigh in on the Slowbro thing. Zhorken? :D

 

[nastypass]

Ah, whoops, I seem to have missed that. I'd support lowering the EXP requirement to 2 or 3, since the Shellder option would require either a double battle (which are difficult to get refs for) or a pre-arranged battle, which isn't that bad but is slightly restrictive?

Actually, I'd support general lowering of EXP requirements, since battles take so long. Off the top of my head Negrek based EXP requirements off of levels Pokemon evolve at, which is alright, except for Unova Pokemon since they tend to evolve much later. I haven't exactly looked in-depth, but 4 EXP to evolve a Joltik is quite a bit.

This is probably another one of those things that are not a priority but will be looked at eventually, I think? Anyway only Zhorken can edit EXP requirements, so we have to wave her over here to weigh in on the Slowbro thing. Zhorken? :D

I think EXP requirements in general are fine as they are. The point as I see it is to keep the league from being dominated by teams of fully evolved Pokémon, as it was in the days before it was implemented and you could just buy an evolution with a little time and money. I'd only ease them slightly if at all, and probably make it based on number of evolutions rather than level of evolution.

I do think there needs to be something more interesting to do with EXP on non-evolving Pokémon, though. As it is there's an opportunity cost of not using unevolved Pokémon and letting them miss out on the experience, and that doesn't quite sit right with me. I have no idea what should be done about that though, since nobody seemed to like Rare Candies as far as I'm aware. :/

 

[Zhorken]

Yeah, I reverse-engineered the evo level → evo experience function at some point and I don't think it's the best method. I would totally be in favour of using the current numbers as a baseline, but going through and just picking new numbers for a bunch of stuff where the current numbers don't make sense. Slowbro (and other level/item branches), Unova Pokémon...

Oh, I was thinking all the caterpillars and stuff should be knocked way down, like 1 exp for Metapod and 2 exp for Butterfree, 'cause as it stands paying for those evos isn't really an alternative. On the other hand, the resulting Caterpie-vs-Wurmple battles probably wouldn't be the most interesting things to ref... but they'd be quick and simple, I guess, so idk.

EDIT: And yeah, I'd also really like to figure out something interesting-but-fair to do with exp to make it more of a thing (and happiness, too).

 

[I liek Squirtles]

Doesn't EXP give you a small power boost? You need like four for the bonus to actually kick in (more or less like an evolution), I believe. Maybe instead of four it could be three for non-evolving Pokémon?

 

[Eifie]

On the other hand, the resulting Caterpie-vs-Wurmple battles probably wouldn't be the most interesting things to ref... but they'd be quick and simple, I guess, so idk.

Bug Bite ~ Bug Bite ~ Bug Bite from both sides for like, 6 rounds doesn't sound very quick to me.

 

[Zhorken]

Bug Bite ~ Bug Bite ~ Bug Bite from both sides for like, 6 rounds doesn't sound very quick to me.

... Okay yeah you're right, that sounds like shit. Hmm.

 

[Meowth]

Well, that's 7% damage per action, 21% damage per round total, so it's only five rounds of Bug Bite ~ Bug Bite ~ Bug Bite, really! Possibly less with crits!

 

[Eifie]

Well, that's 7% damage per action, 21% damage per round total, so it's only five rounds of Bug Bite ~ Bug Bite ~ Bug Bite, really! Possibly less with crits!

If the opponent's holding a berry, you could inflict 29% damage in one round of brute force! You know, there may be hope for little critters everywhere yet.