Abilities! Discuss!

[chaos_redefined]

PhoenixSong clearly has intimidate... Or at least his wall of text does...

I haven't looked at too many of PS's options. This is based off DL's last batch.

Anticipation: Both PS and DLs work reasonably well.

Honey Gather: Yesterday, I came up with a list, and forgot to post it... Then PS went and wrote his out, and DL likes it. However, I'll throw out a list of ideas anyway.
1) Honey can be munched on. When you munch on honey, you feel happy. Happy = extra hp. As a result, a pokemon with Honey Gather can gain a few hp when it relaxes.
2) Honey is sticky. Sticky things can be used to stick things to other things. Maybe sticky hold-style, maybe able to keep them at a distance. This will typically involve action usage.
3) Honey attracts beedrill. A pokemon with honey gather can dump enough honey on the enemy to attract beedrill.

Reckless: You are right in that it is always on. As long as the pokemon is always using the relevant moves. As stands, which is strictly inferior to anger point, which is something you wish to avoid. It either needs to do something extra, or do what it is doing better.

Rivalry: Gimme numbers. The ability seems fine, I'm just not too sure.

Shed skin: 20% at the end of every round or after every attack?

Also, I would like to see some playtesting of abilities in general. Get some of the gym leaders, some of the strong-but-not-that-awesome people, and some of the suckier players together in different groups and determine how much of an impact these would have.

[Mew Master]

Do I hear call for an Ability Tourny?

[Phoenixsong]

I don't know about a tourney right now... it'd just be playtesting, and I think people would rather focus their title- and money-winning time on something big and fun like the Ditto tournament or whatever else we've been kicking around, I dunno.

And whatever happens with the testing, the battles would all have to be relatively situational if you wanted to get anything done anytime soon--not that we're rushing, but yeah, unless the ability is always on like Huge Power or whatever there's a chance that some of them will never trigger (maybe that 30% Static roll will just plain never happen during one battle) and the test will have been wasted. It's a fiddly thing, testing stuff like this. In all honesty, save for a few abilities that involve numbers or calculations or whatever, I think it would be simpler to just agree on a set of ability definitions and let people start using them normally. If something ends up too horrible or too broken, nerf or buff it then.

Also, for the record, it would be awesome if people stopped capitalizing the "s" in my name and if I could make it clear that I am female. What happened to those little gender things in the postbit? :/

[DarkestLight]

chaos: Dun be discouraged. I liked a bunch of your ideas as well. I was just glad to see something for Honey Gather, as I hate Combee an think it needs to be in my Honeycomb cereal...

Shed Skin after every round. After every attack would be annoying.

Mew: Hell no. LOL Im not reffing that. However

PS:

1) Yes, that's the best way to test this, is to have a few battles go with Abilities on once standard definitions are set-and then see how they fare. Whatever goes sour, we tweak until it seems to work better. Again, the ones with numbers I know are untestable cause someone might get lucky, and someone might not.

2) Does that include abbreviations, like PS or would you rather Ps. And I knew you were female. You licked my face and I was slightly perturbed by it.

Or maybe that was that dream >>..

[Phoenixsong]

Wasn't directed at you so much as the people who don't know me as well. Don't really care about the abbreviations; I don't care for either because they look like "post script" and I am not an addendum to a letter, but whatever.

[Rossymore]

Duh, need to really reply to this.

Sure, abilities, why not? It'd make matches that slightest bit more interesting.

But no, no, no, no items. They fail.

[Mew Master]

I remember you being female Phoenix, is why I was confused at chaos' comment.

"Wait... I thought he was a girl?"

[Crystal Tears]

Not to be ever negative, and someone has probably pointed this out already but I'm much too tired and lazy to read the entire topic. So suck it up to those of you who are going to read the same thing over again ♥

I don't think abilities are a good idea at all. Their tedious, a waste of time (honestly you'd have to read though another big list for another factor that you just don't want to deal with but have too), and more work into a reffing that can already take a while. Whether they're optional or not, let’s say someone did a 3 vs 3 all out at once free for fall. Already there aren’t a lot of refs that take that sort of battle, and then you add "Abilities included" in which even less will probably take them. And that example isn't even considering if someone chose an arena that has its own quirks and effects.

I know a number of refs who are constantly going "Oh... I need to ref =/" and some of them are just normal, presumably easy battles. People may say it’s a good idea now, but when it comes down to them actually reffing it, they may change their minds.

Kay, that’s my opinion… You can continue being optimistic and hopeful now :)

[Blademaster]

Your opinion has been taken into consideration and filed in the paper shredder. Thank you!

[MeLoVeGhOsTs]

Yeah, CT, I know. It can be a pain in the ass to ref even more things that you should have an eye on, but we're working on something to get better payment/advantages for refs.

Perhaps it can make a difference; although it doesn't delete the more-work part.

[Phoenixsong]

If I still reffed here, I would take the ability battles in a heartbeat. I mean, hey, I already do it for every single battle somewhere else, and honestly CT it isn't hard at all if you're used to it. It's just that I... *don't* ref here and probably won't resume anytime soon. But if I did I'd be happy to help!

[DarkestLight]

In a way CT, your opinion is what I'm expecting ot of the actual final product, in a way. People like the idea. Idea goes into play, and then they realize THEY are the ones that hafta work with it. Yeah its great until THEY ref. I see that coming.

I forget things every damn battle only cause I actually don't have battles balanced yet (I actually need alot of battles at once before things run smoothly with me.)-but I don't mind the added quirk. SO refs that kinda are like me would take them, leaving the smaller, easier battles for the other Refs who would then get better and maybe feel confident taking one Ability one with their other small reffings.

It'll take time and that's why we gotta at least give this and all of everyone's wonderful ideas a shot.

[chaos_redefined]

Argh! Where did all these replys come from? Well, I'll try to see what we can do in replying.

I don't know about a tourney right now... it'd just be playtesting, and I think people would rather focus their title- and money-winning time on something big and fun like the Ditto tournament or whatever else we've been kicking around, I dunno.

And whatever happens with the testing, the battles would all have to be relatively situational if you wanted to get anything done anytime soon--not that we're rushing, but yeah, unless the ability is always on like Huge Power or whatever there's a chance that some of them will never trigger (maybe that 30% Static roll will just plain never happen during one battle) and the test will have been wasted. It's a fiddly thing, testing stuff like this. In all honesty, save for a few abilities that involve numbers or calculations or whatever, I think it would be simpler to just agree on a set of ability definitions and let people start using them normally. If something ends up too horrible or too broken, nerf or buff it then.

Also, for the record, it would be awesome if people stopped capitalizing the "s" in my name and if I could make it clear that I am female. What happened to those little gender things in the postbit? :/

Playtesting system will need to be figured out. And ... you're a chick? Did not know. Sorry about that.

chaos: Dun be discouraged. I liked a bunch of your ideas as well. I was just glad to see something for Honey Gather, as I hate Combee an think it needs to be in my Honeycomb cereal...

Shed Skin after every round. After every attack would be annoying.

Mew: Hell no. LOL Im not reffing that. However

PS:

1) Yes, that's the best way to test this, is to have a few battles go with Abilities on once standard definitions are set-and then see how they fare. Whatever goes sour, we tweak until it seems to work better. Again, the ones with numbers I know are untestable cause someone might get lucky, and someone might not.

2) Does that include abbreviations, like PS or would you rather Ps. And I knew you were female. You licked my face and I was slightly perturbed by it.

Or maybe that was that dream >>..

Wasn't discouraged. Otherwise I wouldn't have posted it. We still need to work on Honey Gather, as both sets of abilities are still untested and hard to determine values for. Also, comments on reckless or rivalry? These are, admittedly, number-specific and can come later when we are figuring out numbers for other number-specific sections, but still...

Not to be ever negative, and someone has probably pointed this out already but I'm much too tired and lazy to read the entire topic. So suck it up to those of you who are going to read the same thing over again ♥

I don't think abilities are a good idea at all. Their tedious, a waste of time (honestly you'd have to read though another big list for another factor that you just don't want to deal with but have too), and more work into a reffing that can already take a while. Whether they're optional or not, let’s say someone did a 3 vs 3 all out at once free for fall. Already there aren’t a lot of refs that take that sort of battle, and then you add "Abilities included" in which even less will probably take them. And that example isn't even considering if someone chose an arena that has its own quirks and effects.

I know a number of refs who are constantly going "Oh... I need to ref =/" and some of them are just normal, presumably easy battles. People may say it’s a good idea now, but when it comes down to them actually reffing it, they may change their minds.

Kay, that’s my opinion… You can continue being optimistic and hopeful now

I've been looking into a few options on these problems of recent, I just haven't quite gotten around to sharing these ideas yet. But, yes, you definitely have a point.

Yeah, CT, I know. It can be a pain in the ass to ref even more things that you should have an eye on, but we're working on something to get better payment/advantages for refs.

Perhaps it can make a difference; although it doesn't delete the more-work part.

And then MLG is coming up with other ideas that help solve the problem as well.

[Rossymore]

, but we're working on something to get better payment/advantages for refs.

<3

I wouldn't mind having abilities but not all the time...

[VirtualPlay]

My opinion on abilities overall is that we should include them in every battle. CT pointed out that yes, we would have to look up yet another factor in our refs, and something that would be in effect every turn. The difference with Abilities over Attacks is you have ONE per Pokémon for the entire battle. That's it. Once you look it up, you have it until that Pokémon faints.

Just so you know, this is me speaking as a REF, not as a battler. I have already had a lot of battles go by where I see the ability on Veekun or wherever when I look up the Pokémon, and then something happens in the battle that would have caused the ability to go into effect. But can I use it? NO! And in the example I'm thinking of (a Lucario flinched), it ended up putting that Pokémon at a temporary disadvantage it could have avoided. Not to mention all the multitude of Pokémon that have Levitate as their ability that as of right now can still get hit by Earthquake/Dig/etc. when they should just be able to float away from any Ground damage. Even in the anime that one makes complete sense.

So if/when abilities go into effect, you at least have one ref right here fully willing to incorporate them immediately.

[DarkestLight]

Whoo haa. Ok.

Using the information here, I'm going to edit the first post with new definitions (PS, I'm telling you now, yer descriptions may be stolededed for about oh... 100% of them xD. No but I'll be using your descriptions for a good few.) Whichever ones are blank, we'll work on a bit more and then Testing will being.


This should be done by later today-as I get distracted and lose creative insight sometimes.

Edit: Aiming for Dec 1st to have list fully compiled. S's are aggravatingly long..

[Greyfox]

So I'm thinking we should playtest the abilities right now by having just two people having a very short, 5-round battle with these abilities in play. Just to see how well it goes...

[Phoenixsong]

Would this be using people's existing Pokémon or just temporary "rentals" for the sake of testing?

Either way, a limited playtest battle strictly for the purpose of playtesting is a tricky thing--there are only so many abilities that you know for a fact you'd be able to test, especially with a five-round limit. Testing Levitate or Static, for example, wouldn't prove anything, as Levitate just has the opponent avoiding Ground-type attacks and Static may never kick in in such a short amount of time--especially not if the player against the Static Pokémon has the common sense to avoid contact attacks, which would normally be the case. The only abilities (depending on the definitions Darkly settles with) would be along the lines of Huge Power, Hustle, Illuminate, Pressure, etc., as those are always on and have an effect that isn't easily avoidable, unlike, say, Inner Focus, which probably won't trigger in a short battle and so won't prove anything.

The long and short of it is, I still believe it would be much simpler just to roll them out whenever they've been defined and just see how it goes. Normal battles without tiny round limits or other forced conditions are more likely to see things like Static or Inner Focus or whatever taking effect, and if anything's wrong with them then, fix them then.

Now that my workload has diminished I might be able to ref the test battle, if only because it's guaranteed to be short and I'm used to reffing that way anyway.

[Greyfox]

Well, you do seem to have the best grasp on abilities right now, so I think you should take on the mock reffing if it comes down to it.

[chaos_redefined]

I agree that 5-rounds is a problem, but 1v1 matches should be fine.

[Knight of Time]

Just wondering, but are any of us allowed to set up a battle to test out at least one of the abilities?

The abilties that I think I'm going to enjoy most here are Pressure (on Sabre and Devia for now), and Sniper (on Scorpino), is it okay to test them in a double battle?

[Mew Master]

There's already a Battle being laid out to test the Abilities, but its' DL and MLG's call if yo can or not.

[DarkestLight]

>> People must not read the Newsletter correctly. :p

We just ask that if you start a new battle, consider using Abilities in it as that will be a better way for us to gauge them-that real battle with be a test battle, so you can feel them out.

[Mew Master]

I only thought it meant that the Abilities were in a Testing Phase with certian Battlers... only one. *shrug*

[Crazy Elf Boy]

Maybe MLG was first to attempt the abilities.

[Metallixs Girl]

May I ask how Natural Cure would work? I would like my Budew to have it but not if it wouldn't ever be used. Description says you have to switch them out and put them back in, but... we don't do that here, lol. May I suggest they take a Round off but instead of Relaxing, they'd be curing themselves? That way people wouldn't just do it everytime something happened because of the risk. But if someone had all the status problems and were suffering, they could tell their Pokemon to cure and have no moves that round?

[DarkestLight]

You make a good point. That is a passive ability-we might have to evolve it so it acts like Shed Skin moreso.

[Metallixs Girl]

Oh yeah. ^^ Anything to make it usable would be cool.

[DarkestLight]

Letting everyone know. In the next day or so, this topic will completely disappear-and you can find the Abilities over in the Stratedex soon enough. Thanks

[Ayeun]

Requesting this gets stickied or something. It was hard to find.

[chaos_redefined]

It's in the stratedex. Which is stickied.