Prof. Oak's Lab: The Q&A Thread - USE THIS

[UltiMario]

Damage variation.

Likely, the Body Slam does very nearly 25% damage, but it needs a very high roll to actually hit that 25%. It's just coincidence, and it was getting those high rolls when you had that max special.

 

[Circa]

Was it the EXACT same scenario two battles in a row? This is fairly off-topic to your actual question, but I'm mainly curious because there's this interesting thing about Nintendo games I've noticed (probably any game really, but I've only actually noticed it in Nintendo games) where things such as what Ulti mentioned that are RNG-based actually follow a strange set of pre-set variables to determine what happens. It's really hard to explain and I would **** up all correct wording, so I won't get too deep into it really. I can only speak for this as I remember it happening in Diamond in the Battle Tower fairly often. One more notable is encounters between an Umbreon I had and an opponent's Blissey. Every time I faced Blissey in the Battle Tower with that Umbreon I could follow the exact same sequence of 20 or so turns and it would yield the exact same result on every turn, guaranteed. The same exact misses, the same exact crits, the same exact damage calculations.

The same happened in Fire Emblem to me before. I'm fairly certain if you can map out what you do every single playthrough in the exact same order of events, I'm fairly certain you can actually repeat the game over and over and over again and yield the exact same results on every turn, every single time.

 

[Dre89]

Yeah it was exactly the same both times.

That's why I don't think it was just high damage rolls, unless the AI has pre-set damage rolls.

 

[Gates]

A pre-set RNG wouldn't be surprising. I know from experience that this game uses them for coin flips.

I seriously doubt that Nintendo put much effort into making a sophisticated RNG in earlier console generations. It's likely due to limitations of the systems in question.

 

[Dre89]

Hey guys I'd like to start doing nuzlockes (on RBY) and I just have a few questions-

If you play with a species clause, are you allowed to catch the second mon in an area if you already caught the first mon? (ie. A rattata appears but you already have one).

If playing with a limited number of pokecentre visits per town, what's a good number?

If a mon dies and you're playing with species clause can you catch it again?
Are rules broken to be able catch mons for HMs?

Does surfing/fishing count as the same area as the grass on a specific route/town? (ie. So you could catch a mon in the grass then one in the water).

Thanks in advance.

 

[UltiMario]

My personal answers, may or may not be what you're looking for:

If you play with a species clause, are you allowed to catch the second mon in an area if you already caught the first mon? (ie. A rattata appears but you already have one).

Easy fix right here: Don't play with species clause.

If playing with a limited number of pokecentre visits per town, what's a good number?

2. 1 when you arrive, one after the gym.

If a mon dies and you're playing with species clause can you catch it again?

See answer #1

Are rules broken to be able catch mons for HMs?

If you've gotten stuck and can't progress, then you're just ****ed buddy and you gotta start over.

Does surfing/fishing count as the same area as the grass on a specific route/town? (ie. So you could catch a mon in the grass then one in the water).

A route is a route. You can't fish in a route you've encountered a mon in the grass.

You're welcome.

 

[Dre89]

Thanks man

I figured though that without an SC I'd end up with all rattatas and pidgeys.

Two questions I forgot-

Are TMs normally banned?

Are you allowed to have more than six mons and change your party?

 

[SpiredMoth]

TMs should be fine.

Yes, you can have more than six Pokémon and change your team.

Just remember that you can change most of the rules to alter the difficulty for yourself.

 

[Dre89]

I know it's customisable, but I've never done one before so I'm not sure what impact certain rules will have. I want to get the standard experience, but I also want it to be difficult because I understand RBY at a competitive level.

Also I don't see how it's possible to conserve PP during level grinding with only two pokecentre visits.

 

[Deleted member]

i restarted blue version and now it's laggy as **** and basically unplayable. any ideas how to undo the damage?

 

[UltiMario]

Replacing the internal battery couldn't hurt.

 

[Deleted member]

Replacing the internal battery couldn't hurt.

i tried restarting the game and it's not slow that way. it's like my file saved a memory overflow or something.

 

[UltiMario]

While I HIGHLY doubt this is the case, restarting the game and creating new save files often enough CAN cause permanent cart damage.

Another culprit I guess could be a ****load of dust could be in your cart somehow, and it's built up enough so it's harming it. It takes an effective IQ of a cucumber to get the thing apart. Might as well give checking/cleaning the insides out a shot. If that doesn't work, again, try replacing the internal battery.

That's about the only things you can really do to the cart to try and fix it up. It's not a matter of the culprit, it's a matter of "These are your only options to fix it. If none work, then you can't fix it."

 

[Deleted member]

yeah i really have no idea. replacing the battery would be cool anyway just to play the game forever basically, i just don't want to lose that zapdos lol.

part of what i did was i was looking for a vulpix on route 8 and i got into a trainer battle with no overworld trainer, which is glitchy as ****. it started getting crappy after that.

if i can restart the game to erase the lag, i'd think it's the save file over the cart itself?

edit: guys i have a 15/13/15/15 zapdos in my game. which is like....what the ****kkk.

 

[UltiMario]

I'm going to take a guess you don't have the resources to trade it.

At least check the insides for dust and ****. It won't effect your savegame.

Also, I didn't quite understand what you meant before, but now I do.

This is one of those things. When you encounter a huge error, starting a new game... the game sort of... forgets about it. The error is wiped, like a virus on a hard drive.

You didn't SAVE after encountering this trainer, did you?

 

[Deleted member]

I'm going to take a guess you don't have the resources to trade it.

At least check the insides for dust and ****. It won't effect your savegame.

Also, I didn't quite understand what you meant before, but now I do.

This is one of those things. When you encounter a huge error, starting a new game... the game sort of... forgets about it. The error is wiped, like a virus on a hard drive.

You didn't SAVE after encountering this trainer, did you?

of course i saved lol. it wasn't acting up at first, and none of the glitches i've done so far have done any real damage.

i can trade everything and restart the game, it's just a pain in the ***.

 

[hichez50]

Anyone want to play me using a battle emulator?

 

[UltiMario]

of course i saved lol. it wasn't acting up at first, and none of the glitches i've done so far have done any real damage.

i can trade everything and restart the game, it's just a pain in the ***.

Oh.

Yeah.

Never save if that sort of **** happens.

If you didn't save, and just turned it off, your game would've been fine. The bug must've put something in a bad place and caused damage to your savegame.

All you need to do is trade **** over and restart, then.

 

[Deleted member]

i fixed it. i just battled trainers and stuff until it went back to normal.

this game is amazing.

 

[Dre89]

If you do the pokemon duplication glitch with a traded pokemon in RBY/GSC will they obey you? I'm guessing they won't.

I want to do a koffin solo run in either RBY or GSC but I want a level five one at the start of the game that'll obey me. If there's a way to achieve this let me know. Thanks in advance.

 

[Firus]

I'm not familiar with the RBY duplication trick, but given that the GSC version relies essentially on saving the same Pokémon in two different places, I would imagine you wouldn't circumvent anything with that. I'd imagine any duplication trick works the same basic way and therefore it'd be a problem in RBY, too.

What I've always done with my solo runs is I've traded an egg over and then hatched it in the game in which I'm doing a solo run. That way you get the OT and all but it'll obey you. Of course, that'll only work in GSC. My only other suggestion is a Pokémon modifier through a Gameshark (or just codes through an emulator, but I gather you're not using one of those).

 

[Dre89]

I'm not familiar with the RBY duplication trick, but given that the GSC version relies essentially on saving the same Pokémon in two different places, I would imagine you wouldn't circumvent anything with that. I'd imagine any duplication trick works the same basic way and therefore it'd be a problem in RBY, too.

What I've always done with my solo runs is I've traded an egg over and then hatched it in the game in which I'm doing a solo run. That way you get the OT and all but it'll obey you. Of course, that'll only work in GSC. My only other suggestion is a Pokémon modifier through a Gameshark (or just codes through an emulator, but I gather you're not using one of those).

From what I understand the GSC duplication trick also works in RBY.

I always thought you couldn't trade eggs, I'm such an idiot.

I wanted to do a koffing run on GSC, so I saved at the Cherrygrove centre, then rushed up to Burned Tower and caught two koffings (easier to catch than a ditto) bred an egg, hatched it then did the duplication glitch so that I went back to my save point at Cherrygrove with a baby koffing in the PC.

That took nearly three hours. I'm so stupid lol.

 

[Firus]

From what I understand the GSC duplication trick also works in RBY.

I always thought you couldn't trade eggs, I'm such an idiot.

I wanted to do a koffing run on GSC, so I saved at the Cherrygrove centre, then rushed up to Burned Tower and caught two koffings (easier to catch than a ditto) bred an egg, hatched it then did the duplication glitch so that I went back to my save point at Cherrygrove with a baby koffing in the PC.

That took nearly three hours. I'm so stupid lol.

I can't blame you for not remembering that, there is the whole factor of being unable to trade eggs from GSC -> RBY. Sucks that you had to take all that time to do that, though. But, points for creativity!

 

[Gates]

So now that it's released, has Genesect been insta-Ubered like the Kyurem Formes or is it usable in OU?

 

[MewtwoMaster2002]

So now that it's released, has Genesect been insta-Ubered like the Kyurem Formes or is it usable in OU?

It probably won't be insta-Ubered due to its typing and stats. Not sure about the movepool either...

 

[Wave⁂]

He is not Uber.

 

[Bing]

So I want to do a run through of HG but I dont know what Pokemon to use... I dont really have access to trading(Well I guess theres the world trading thing but still I hate that crap)

Any thoughts on what I could do?

 

[Firus]

You could always do a Nuzlocke-style approach (but cut out the death rule and the other minor rules) and only use the first Pokémon you find on each route, skip over duplicates, and just pick and choose from the Pokémon you end up getting.

You could also just do a random Pokémon generator thing using this site.

Or, you could do a Scramble Challenge type of run, where you ask for people to give you Pokémon. Most of the time people add special conditions, too (e.g. can't evolve, must learn X move, can't evolve until level X), but if you wanted regular Pokémon you can just ask for people to give you Pokémon and ask for no special rules like that. If you're looking to do that, you can bump this thread and ask there, as it's probably the most efficient way to do it rather than creating a new thread just for that or using the Q&A thread where it might clutter up with multiple people giving you a Pokémon.

Those are my suggestions, anyway. Hope they help.

 

[ChicknMonkey]

So I want to do a run through of HG but I dont know what Pokemon to use... I dont really have access to trading(Well I guess theres the world trading thing but still I hate that crap)

Any thoughts on what I could do?

You could do this for the lulz.
Also, if you want a challenge, go pick really horrendous Pokemon, or at least stage 1 pokes, and play through like that. Pokemon like luvdisk, skitty, sunkern, sableye, bidoof, unknown, aron, tyrogue. You get the picture

 

[exarch]

So I'm learning that I like the 'flavor' of pokemon more than the battling aspect. I lurk smogon all the time but rarely do anything.

So my question is very broad but hopefully you'll understand the heart of it.

What one or two things would you change or add to balance or imbalance pokemon?

#1 for me would be to make grass not weak to either flying or bug. Grass is by far the worst of the three flagship types (not just overall, it's at least as bad or worse than the other two in every measurable facet--only boasting an 'interesting cross-section of resistances,') and I'd like it to be better than it is now. From a flavor perspective it doesn't make much sense to have grass weak to flying when a bug type exists.

#2 I'd also like to create a grass-centric weather, as it would create a trio of competing weathers and dramatically reduce the dominance of rain. It doesn't take a genius to see in water has an inherent advantage against drought and sand. Lol hail. "Victreebel used Hay Fever, The Pollen Count Spiked!" Restructure how chlorophyll works and give fire a speed doubling ability under sun. Get your **** together GameTrollfreak.

Maybe it's obvious grass is among my favorite types at this point. Oh well. What would you change? Make steel immune to electric? Give Ice types .5 boost in Def/SpD in hail? Make ghost types not take damage from hail? Confusion ends when buffeted by sand? Water equivalent of Gigadrain? I'd like to see what other good/terrible ideas are out there.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

Let there actually be some sort of pure flying type pokemon that is not some sort of freaking legendary.

 

[UltiMario]

#2 I'd also like to create a grass-centric weather, as it would create a trio of competing weathers and dramatically reduce the dominance of rain. It doesn't take a genius to see in water has an inherent advantage against drought and sand. Lol hail. "Victreebel used Hay Fever, The Pollen Count Spiked!" Restructure how chlorophyll works and give fire a speed doubling ability under sun. Get your **** together GameTrollfreak.

Grass already benefits from 2/3 relevant weathers.

We also don't need more weathers. We need to make the weathers we have and make Sun/Sand/Hail as broad as a weather as rain is.

I'd like to see Hail not damage Fighting Types any longer, as well as hail getting a Attack and Speed boosting abilities. Passive 1.5x boost to Ice Type Physical Defense in hail would be amazing too.

 

[ChicknMonkey]

I wouldn't mind having grass lose a weakness, because it is usually the lesser of the three when it comes to starters.

One thing that I think would open up the metagame would be make a new "something." There is so much emphisis on weather effects and hazards, a third thing would be cool to see. I'm not talking like barrier, reflect, baton pass stuff, but more kinda like a Trick Room kinda move.

 

[Grizzlpaw]

Venusaur and Serperior are both arguably the best starters for their respective gens.

because Stealth Rock mudders and Can't compete with the likes of Cloyster, Vaporeon, Rotom W, Tentacruel ect (His only real use is Rapid Spin)

Setperior becausr Perversity + Leafstorm = HAX

 

[ChicknMonkey]

Setperior becausr Perversity + Leafstorm = HAX

This is true, but perversity is available yet unfortunatly

 

[Wave⁂]

Serperior is pretty much the reason why we need a phrase for the opposite of "type coverage", I'd say Emboar is better.

 

[ChicknMonkey]

If I see another Fire/Fighting starter, though, i'll lose it.

 

[exarch]

Grass already benefits from 2/3 relevant weathers.

We also don't need more weathers. We need to make the weathers we have and make Sun/Sand/Hail as broad as a weather as rain is.

I'd like to see Hail not damage Fighting Types any longer, as well as hail getting a Attack and Speed boosting abilities. Passive 1.5x boost to Ice Type Physical Defense in hail would be amazing too.

3/3 relevant weathers. Cacturne has dat sand veil omg.
I thought it went without saying that there'd be a rock-paper-scissors shift in the weather paradigm with the new one added. (Either Rain weakens fire, sun weakens grass, and pollen weakens water; or rain weakens grass, sun weakens water, and pollen weakens fire.) There's a fundamental unbalance between sun and rain. (Water is still supereffective on fire.)

Otherwise I agree with the rest of what you said, hail most of all needs a broadening, but sand is pretty broad already.

pure flying type

YEEEEESSSS

a new "something."

Interesting, but anything specific you're thinking of?

Anyone else with suggestions? I like these.

 

[Grizzlpaw]

Serperior is pretty much the reason why we need a phrase for the opposite of "type coverage", I'd say Emboar is better.

Serperior essentually gets a Nasty Plot and a 140 base power STAB Move put into one.

He's going to be ripping gapping holes left and right whether the opponent resists Leaf Storm or not.

After just one leaf storm, he does 112.5% Damage on a 50% resist.

His coverage could be better though, I admit.

 

[Wave⁂]

If I see another Fire/Fighting starter, though, i'll lose it.

The third non-human main character from Journey to the West sounds more like a Water/Ground to me, so I wouldn't worry about it.