Anyway, that's an interesting idea. Tech to move rocks...hmmm.
A few ideas here:
1. Since Pokeballs have the technology to store Pokemon into balls of energy, why not have the same technology that turns a rock into a ball of energy? It would be like a tractor beam (from the farm), and you don't actually "push" it, but you hit a button, rock becomes small ball, and you just move it where you want it to go.
Problems: (Cause I've done this many times) You use Strength, then get annoyed by a Zubat, then forget what your doing and never move the boulder until later. We would need a sprite for the ball of energy and the rock, and be able to change whenever you move it. Maybe you move it one space and it turns back into a rock? idk.
2.Hmmm....Well, what if they had (yes, gloves), that found a way to harness the energy of magnetism? You rub the magnets together, and the release magnetic waves, and the glove stores it. It then gathers enough power to
KAMAHAMA-HA!!!
HOUDOKEN!!!
the rocks.
Problems: Charge time after you move the boulder once. It could "charge" like the Vs. Seeker, but it would be annoying if you have to move a boulder like in Victory Road.
3. DUH. A jackhammer, but you hold it with the handle perpendicular to you, and it has a boxing glove on the end. XD
Problems: OK, this is a REALLY bad idea. And it would DEFINITELY be bad for Rocket's mojo.
So yea, there are some ideas.
1. An interesting idea, but then I'd need a script that would change out the sprite every time Strength is used, which would be hard. But Poké Balls to do something to the rocks
could be a possibility if we don't get any other ideas. It's probably just due to limited OWs, but it
looks like every time you pick up an item, that item is kept inside a Poké Ball. But I've always thought that's rather weird, and I'm not particularly fond of using Poké Balls for stuff other than catching Pokémon.
2. That's got the same problem of not really being a Pokémon-ish technology. Power gloves? (What is it with gloves these days, anyway? Could I just put a ban on glove suggestions?) Also, the "charging" wouldn't work. I'm not changing any behaviors of ANY of the items, just making a script that says "treat this item like it's both Erika's badge and a Pokémon with Strength". Once you click on the boulder, it says "Do you want to use so-and-so item? [yes/no]" and you choose "yes," the game will behave exactly like you just used Strength. No recharging of item. The only thing I'm doing to the items themselves is changing their names and their looks. And, rocks aren't magnetic. The only naturally magnetic elements are iron, nickel, and cobalt, and rocks aren't exactly pure iron.
3. Hah, maybe in the anime. :P (I can see Jessie and James doing that. They would use it to battle Pikachu. Of course, it wouldn't work.) In the game universe, though, not so much.
Since team rocket have sliding tiles perhaps you can have a portable one that pushs rocks >< Strength is rather hard!
Perhaps you could go through a 'training program' to get stronger << like a mini quest, and then you could do it. However you then wouldn't have a key item.... unless you use a certificate XD
And I'm glad you liked my Surf idea ^^
Ooh, sliding tile technology... Considering the level of technology that the sliding tiles must take, you probably can't just pick one up and haul it around with you. It'd be seriously hardwired into the floor; it probably needs a strong power source, and it's probably connected to some central mainframe that monitors it and makes sure it's working right. But an adaptation of that, to make it portable... that's got definite potential. I don't know what this new portapad would have to look like or act like to get it to work, much less how you'd get it under the rock in order to make the rock slide...
Thanks, but don't think so on the training program.
In fact, as long as I'm saying no more glove ideas, let's say nix anything that involves relying on the strength/physical exertion of the player character to move the rock. That includes power gloves, power boots, power suits, steroids, lots of exercise, a decade in the Tibetan mountains training in the martial arts, etc. I just don't like the idea. Plus, the point of getting promoted past the rank of Grunt is that you no longer have to do any grunt work. By the time you get Strength, you'll have battled and beaten some of the toughest trainers and Pokémon in Kanto. Your superiors aren't going to go "here, take this and shove around rocks by yourself." No self-respecting Rocket would do that, even if he DOES get some nifty gloves/drugs/Tibetan mountain training. At that point, he would find a Black Belt, steal their Machoke, and have it do the work for him.
Hm... Well you could... (You have now entered, the Twilight Zone)
1: Go all out anime and have a box or something that has a robotic arm inside.
2 A Machop suit. When you where it, it gives you the power of a Machop.
3: A Megaphone. You use it to yell at your Pokemon to make them move the boulder.
4: A Machop.
Do any of these sound good?
1. XD Strength-in-the-box. But nah, we're not going all out anime. If we were, I could have said Random Giant Hammer for Rock Smash, Random Giant Punching Glove for Strength, and been done ages ago.
2. Like I said earlier, not going with physical exertion from the player.
3. If it's just a megaphone, may as well just not have a megaphone at all; saying that you need a loud voice before it's possible to command your Pokémon to do something for you is just... weird. Why can't you yell at your Pokémon without a megaphone?
4. That would be an HM slave. Unless you're saying keep a Machop in a Poké Ball in your bag and not have it count on your team? If you can do that, why can't you just haul 20 Pokémon around with you everywhere? If you can bring a spare Machop along, there's no reason you can't bring along a couple of Scyther and two or three Alakazam to telekinetically levitate you when you get tired and a Charmander and a Koffing if you need a quick smokescreen and maybe ten Pidgeot so you can tie a lawn chair to their legs and have them fly you from town to town...
Strength.. I have an idea.
Well, why not create a device that just teleports it one square forward?
Kind of like a primitive, portable PC.. for rocks.
Kinda the same idea as the portable slide-pad? A portable teleport-bad? Interesting idea, but then one wonders why you can't just teleport it way out of the way--in which case Strength would then behave like Rock Smash. And the PC system seems like it can only interact with Pokémon in Poké Balls at this point, and somehow only the energy signature of Pokémon seems compatible with Poké Balls, so modifying PC tech to work with rocks might not go so well.
I know everyone's chiming in with ideas for Strength, but I've got one that seems kinda Team Rocket-y to me. Since Team Rocket is all about stealing pokemon, why not just steal someone's pokemon and keep the pokemon as a key item? And then you could just not make the actual HM available, which would account for why you keep that pokemon with you all the time.
Just a thought.
The point isn't about the actual HM. If the only point was to get rid of the HM itself, I could make all the Pokémon that learned Strength by HM learn it by level-up instead, and the same with all the other HMs. The HMs aren't the problem, it's HM
slaves, the spam Pokémon that you have to keep on your party all the time.
And, like I said earlier, if you can keep
one Pokémon in your bag as an HM slave then why don't you keep
all your Pokémon with you? Get a big enough bag and you can stuff 50 Poké Balls in there. While you face down trainers that have a team of 6 Pokémon you can throw 50 Pokémon at them, one after the other, to battle. Why couldn't you do that? The six-Pokémon limit has been established in every game to prevent that exact thing from happening, and if suddenly it's okay to fudge with the rules a little by turning an HM slave into a Key Item, it's suddenly supremely illogical to think that you're limited to six when you're already walking around with seven.
There's no good in-game explanation for that limit, of course. But it's there. Despite the fact that naming a Key Item "Macop" doesn't actually give you a Machop to battle with, from an in-game perspective that's sure what it looks like, and Pokémon games just don't function that way. It would make no sense that you're limited to a six-Pokémon team, or even to a seven-Pokémon team (counting the Key Item "HM slave").
This looks like a REALLY fun hack, I think it will turn out great! ^_^
As for strength, what about a robot? Jessie and James are always using those gigantic white gloved hands on their robots, why not the rest of Team Rocket. Another idea is to use a blast of air to push the rock forward, but that's just silly.
Good luck with your hack, I hope it turns out well.
Game universe =/= anime universe. That kind of technology just doesn't exist in the game universe; unfortunately, game canon doesn't have big robots running around. I think that's game canon's loss, but there you have it. Plus, carrying a big robot around in your backpack would be murder on your spine. :P
Thought about the blast of air, but besides the fact that it's silly, what would produce it? (That's a rhetorical question. We're not going with a blast of air.)
... Somewhere in the middle of typing one of those replies, I actually came up with an idea based on something someone said that might've worked with some more development. But now I don't remember what it is. RGH. Should've typed it down somewhere. I'll let you all know if I ever remember it.