This functionality doesn't currently exist, but it's a great suggestion for a future update.

Alright, thanks for letting me know. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out here in case a future update includes this functionality.

I got this error when I click on "Give Demo Party" on the Focus Meter selection:

=================

[2023-02-24 01:01:19 -0500]
[Pokémon Essentials version 20.1]
[v20.1 Hotfixes 1.0.7]

Exception: NoMethodError
Message: undefined method `party' for nil:NilClass

Backtrace:
[Focus Meter System] [012] Debug.rb:83:in `pbFocusDemoParty'
[Focus Meter System] [012] Debug.rb:31:in `block in <main>'
036:Event_HandlerCollections:121:in `call'
370:Debug_Menus:138:in `block in pbDebugMenu'
370:Debug_Menus:100:in `loop'
370:Debug_Menus:100:in `pbDebugMenu'
[Following Pokemon EX] Refresh.rb:117:in `pbDebugMenu'
291:UI_Load:336:in `block (2 levels) in pbStartLoadScreen'
082:MessageConfig:572:in `pbFadeOutIn'
291:UI_Load:336:in `block in pbStartLoadScreen'

I also got an error when I fight a wild Victini.

[2023-02-24 01:22:27 -0500]
[Pokémon Essentials version 20.1]
[v20.1 Hotfixes 1.0.7]

Exception: NoMethodError
Message: undefined method `length' for nil:NilClass

Backtrace:
[Essentials Deluxe] Midbattle_Main.rb:235:in `block in pbMidbattleSpeech'
[Essentials Deluxe] Midbattle_Main.rb:228:in `each'
[Essentials Deluxe] Midbattle_Main.rb:228:in `pbMidbattleSpeech'
[Essentials Deluxe] Midbattle_Main.rb:138:in `block (2 levels) in dx_midbattle'
[Essentials Deluxe] Midbattle_Main.rb:101:in `each'
[Essentials Deluxe] Midbattle_Main.rb:101:in `block in dx_midbattle'
[Essentials Deluxe] Midbattle_Main.rb:63:in `each'
[Essentials Deluxe] Midbattle_Main.rb:63:in `dx_midbattle'
[Essentials Deluxe] Battle.rb:185:in `pbCommandPhase'
[Terastal Phenomenon] [004] Battle.rb:159:in `pbCommandPhase'

Every single error you've posted here and on the ZUD thread are all NilClass related. It sounds to me that the issues aren't related to my plugins, and more to do with the fact that your game is just missing a bunch of files or data that are expected to be there.

Update (v1.2.3)
NOTE: This update heavily overhauls many of the previous systems used in this plugin. Even if you are well versed in how to use it, It's highly recommended that you go through the tutorial again to get a handle on what's been changed and/or added.

Midbattle Triggers
I've overhauled and renamed a ton of the existing midbattle triggers. I know this'll be annoying for those of you who have a lot of existing battles set up with the old trigger names, so I'm going to try not to go on a mass re-naming spree from here on out. But I wanted to redo all of the triggers so that all of the ones that are closely related to each other all start with the same word, to make them all easier to sort and remember. For example, all the triggers related to moves now start with the word "move", all of the triggers related to switching now start with the word "switch", etc. A lot of the triggers previously would just have no rhyme or reason for the way they were named, and in this update I tried to make everything much neater and organized.

In addition to this, I've also split a ton of existing triggers into two separate ones. Primarily, this has to do with the triggers related to the Attack Phase of battle. For example, previously there was only one trigger that checked if an attacking Pokemon dealt a critical hit, but no trigger that would activate on the defending side that would activate when a Pokemon took critical damage. To address this I've now split every trigger that deals with scenarios like this into "attacker" and "defender" triggers, so you can choose which side to trigger the effect from.

The following triggers have been removed, renamed or replaced, and are no longer used:


Here are all of the re-worked triggers. A few may still have the same name, but have been given additional functionality. Others simply are renamed versions of old triggers. And some are completely brand new:



General Fixes

• Standardized the

  "statusInflicted"

  midbattle trigger throughout the plugin. Some places were using a differently named trigger by accident.
• Fixed an error that would occur when setting up midbattle messages in wild battles with some configurations.
• Fixed an error that would occur when using the Interactable Party w/ Bag plugin when the Terastal Phenomenon plugin is not present.
• Generalized how the Tera button is displayed in battle when the Terastal Phenomenon plugin is installed so that the button now appears correctly even if you've added or removed types from your game.
• Fixed a typo error with the

  :teracharge

  midbattle key.
• Fixed a bug when using the

  :delay

  and

  :ignore

  keys in a midbattle hash that wouldn't reset their conditions after the battle concluded, keeping them stuck as if they have already activated if initiating the same battle again.
• Fixed a potential infinite loop that could occur when using midbattle triggers to force switching.
• Fixed a potential infinite loop that could occur when using midbattle triggers to force a Pokemon to faint.
• Opponent trainer sprites that slide in during speech will now appear in front of their Pokemon sprites if their active Pokemon in slot 1 is currently Dynamaxed. This both reflects how it works in SwSh (the Dynamax Pokemon is behind the trainer), as well as fixing awkward visual situations where the speaking trainer would be completely obscured by enlarged Dynamax sprites.

Midbattle Speech & Text

• All custom messages entered in a midbattle hash have been updated to now accept

  \\PN

  to display the player's name.
• The name of a speaker that is displayed during midbattle speech will now be displayed in its own text box above the speaker's dialogue, instead of appearing in all caps as part of the speaker's speech. The windowskin for this name plate will default to one with a blue outline for male speakers and one with a red outline for female speakers. This windowskin may also be customized for each speaker as well.
• You may now display speech events for opponents during wild battles, not just trainer battles. Doing so will allow the wild Pokemon to "speak", complete with their own name plates.
• The name displayed for a speaker during midbattle speech may now be customized, allowing you to display a name or title that doesn't necessarily match the actual name of the speaker.
• You may now have any trainer or Pokemon sprite you want slide in and speak during battle, even if they aren't your current opponent. For example, if you are currently in a battle with your rival, you can have Prof. Oak slide in to speak, even though he isn't your opponent.
• New functionality with midbattle speech has been implemented to now allow you to set up choice boxes during dialogue, and set up different outcomes depending on the chosen option. Refer to the tutorial for an in-depth guide on how this can be accomplished.

Midbattle Rules

• Added the

  :compbattle

  Deluxe battle rule. When set to true, the battle will function with the same rules as competitive PvP battles, or those found in the Battle Frontier. Specifically, no exp. or money is earned from this battle, and the player is unable to use any items from the bag. The player may also select "Run" to forfeit the match.
• Added the

  :introtext

  Deluxe battle rule. You may use this to override the default battle text that appears at the start of the battle, such as "A wild __ appeared!" in wild battles, or "You are challenged by ___!" in trainer battles.
• Added the

  :losetext

  Deluxe battle rule. You may use this to override the speech text that will display at the end of battle for opposing trainers when they are defeated.
• Added the

  :wintext

  Deluxe battle rule. You may use this to override the speech text that will display at the end of battle for opposing trainers when they defeat you. This text only appears when the

  :compbattle

  rule is active, since trainers only show their win speech text in those types of battles (such as in the Battle Frontier). For all other battles, you can still use the

  "loss"

  midbattle trigger to display trainer speech when you lose.

Midbattle Hashes

• When the

  :move

  key used in a midbattle hash is set as an array, the array will now accept "nil" as a valid entry. This will make it so that you can use this feature to delete moves from a Pokemon's moveset. For example,

  [nil, :TACKLE, nil, :LEER]

  would delete the Pokemon's moves that appear at indexes 0 and 2, and replace the moves at indexes 1 and 3 with Tackle and Leer, respectively. You may also set all of a Pokemon's moves to nil to force it to Struggle.
• Added new midbattle functionality that allows you to set and manipulate a variable during midbattle events that you can use to proc different outcomes. For example, you can have a battle that keeps track of "points" earned by the player throughout the battle, and different events are triggered depending on what number this variable is currently at. More details are covered in the tutorial.
• Added the

  :setvariable

  key to be used in a midbattle hash to allow you to set or alter a midbattle variable.
• Added the

  "variable_#"

  midbattle trigger which activate whenever the midbattle variable reaches a certain total, represented with #.
• Added the

  "variable_over_#"

  and

  "variable_under_#"

  midbattle triggers which activate whenever the midbattle variable reaches a total that is above or below the number represented with #, respectively.
• Added the

  "variable_up"

  and

  "variable_down"

  midbattle triggers which activate whenever the midbattle variable is increased or decreased, respectively.
• Added the

  :setchoice

  key to be used in a midbattle hash to allow you to set up a tag for a specific speech event that contains a question for the player to select an answer to.
• Added the

  "choice_/tag/_#"

  midbattle trigger which activates whenever the player selects a response to a question represented by /tag/, and the index of that selection matches the number represented with #.
• Added the

  "choice_/tag/_correct"

  and

  "choice_/tag/_incorrect"

  midbattle triggers which activate whenever the player selects the correct or incorrect response to a question represented by /tag/, respectively.
• Added the

  DEMO_VS_OPAL

  hash to

  Midbattle_Config

  to showcase and replicate the battle quizzes found in the battle vs Gym Leader Opal from Pokemon Sword & Shield.
• Added the

  DEMO_BATTLE_QUIZMASTER

  hash to

  Midbattle_Config

  to showcase a more elaborate example of what the new choice/variable functionality of this update is capable of.

Other

• Added a placeholder for the

  NoDynamax

  attribute for NPC trainer's Pokemon, to be used by the ZUD Plugin. This may be used to allow NPC trainers to use Dynamax and Terastallization in the same battle. More details found in the ZUD Plugin.
• Added the

  :nodynamax

  setting to be used in the Pokemon hash of a Deluxe wild battle. This flags the Pokemon as being unable to use Dynamax when the ZUD Plugin is present. This allows wild Pokemon to Terastallize even if you are on a map that would normally cause them to prioritize Dynamax instead.

Video Examples:
Below are example battles showcasing just a few up the new features in this update. Keep in mind that these videos were made prior to the new name plate additions, so they are mostly just to show off the dialogue choice features.
Battle vs Gym Leader Opal
Battle vs Quizmaster

Here is a GIF to showcase the new

:introtext

Deluxe battle rule, name plates, as well as the ability to set guest speakers during midbattle speech.


Please refer to the tutorial for more information about changes to specific mechanics.

Note: When updating, please make a copy of any custom work you've added to

Midbattle_Config

. Updating the plugin will overwrite any of your additions.

Update to this, update to Enhanced UI and randomised trainer teams got a compatibility patch. Nice.

Minor Update (v1.2.4)

• Fixed some speech in

  DEMO_VS_SADA_PHASE_1

  from displaying the wrong speaker.
• Fixed how the

  :ignore

  midbattle key works so that it no longer repeats infinitely until the conditions for the ignore are met. The trigger now only occurs once (unless set to repeat), regardless if the trigger was ignored or not.
• The

  :useitem

  midbattle key can now be triggered by wild Pokemon, allowing them to use items on themselves in battle, as if they were a trainer.
• The

  :bgm

  midbattle key now accepts arguments to control volume and pitch when set as an array.
• Added

  :disableballs

  as a new midbattle key. You may set this to true or false to toggle the availability of Poke Balls mid-battle.
• Added

  :shadow

  as a Pokemon property when setting up a wild Deluxe battle. This can be used to make wild Pokemon into Shadow Pokemon.
• Made several small edits related to the (eventual) upcoming Pokemon Birthsigns plugin.
• Aliased how trainers are generated for better compatibility with other plugins.
• Aliased several methods related to battle databoxes for better compatibility with other plugins or custom edits.
• Added compatibility with the All Abilities Mutation plugin (v1.2).
• Added a new PBS file to this plugin that adds various new item categories to existing items to better group them.
• Added a ton of new methods to check for new item categories. These can be used to more easily check for a certain category of item, instead of having to list each relevant item.
  
  Spoiler:

  • is_repel?: Returns true if the item has the "Repel" flag. (Repel, Max Repel, etc.)
  • is_medicine?: Returns true if the item has the "Medicine" flag. (Potion, Ether, Revive, etc.)
  • is_remedy?: Returns true if the item has the "Remedy" flag. (Energy Root, Revival Herb, all bitter healing items.)
  • is_vitamin?: Returns true if the item has the "Vitamin" flag. (Protein, HP Up, PP Up, etc.)
  • is_exp_candy?: Returns true if the item has the "ExpCandy" flag. (Exp. Candy S, Exp. Candy XL, all Exp. Candies.)
  • is_feather?: Returns true if the item has the "Feather" flag. (Muscle Feather, Swift Feather, all feathers.)
  • is_mint?: Returns true if the item has the "Mint" flag. (Jolly Mint, Naive Mint, all mints.)
  • is_incense?: Returns true if the item has the "Incense" flag. (Rock Incense, Wave Incense, all incenses.)
  • is_contest_item?: Returns true if the item has the "Contest" flag. (Red Scarf, Blue Scarf, all items that boost contest stats.)
  • is_ev_booster?: Returns true if the item has the "EVBooster" flag. (Macho Brace, Power Weight, etc.)
  • is_flute?: Returns true if the item has the "Flute" flag. (Black Flute, Red Flute, etc.)
  • is_shard?: Returns true if the item has the "Shard" flag. (Green Shard, Yellow Shard, etc.)
  • is_nectar?: Returns true if the item has the "Nectar" flag. (Red Nectar, Purple Nectar, all Oricorio nectars.)
  • is_sweet?: Returns true if the item has the "Sweet" flag. (Love Sweet, Ribbon Sweet, all Alcremie sweets.)
  • is_plate?: Returns true if the item has the "Plate" flag. (Insect Plate, Dread Plate, all Arceus plates.)
  • is_memory?: Returns true if the item has the "Memory" flag. (Fire Memory, Ice Memory, all Silvally memories.)
  • is_drive?: Returns true if the item has the "Drive" flag. (Burn Drive, Douse Drive, all Genesect drives.)
  • is_fossil_half?: Returns true if the item has the "FossilHalf" flag. (Fossilized Bird, Fossilized Dino, all Gen 8 fossils.)
  • is_enhancer?: Returns true if the item has the "BattleEnhancer" flag. (X Attack, Dire Hit, Guard Spec., etc.)
  • is_heal_berry?: Returns true if the item has the "HealBerry" flag. (Oran Berry, Sitrus Berry, all berries that heal HP.)
  • is_status_berry?: Returns true if the item has the "StatusBerry" flag. (Pecha Berry, Persim Berry, Lum Berry, all berries that cure status conditions.)
  • is_flavor_berry?: Returns true if the item has the "FlavorBerry" flag. (Figy Berry, Wiki Berry, all berries that may cause confusion based on flavor.)
  • is_ev_berry?: Returns true if the item has the "EVReduceBerry" flag. (Pomeg Berry, Tomato Berry, all berries that reduce EV's.)
  • is_type_berry?: Returns true if the item has the "TypeReduceBerry" flag. (Yache Berry, Haban Berry, all berries that reduce damage from certain types.)
  • is_pinch_berry?: Returns true if the item has the "PinchBerry" flag. (Salac Berry, Starf Berry, all berries that trigger at low HP.)
  • is_tera_shard?: Returns true if the item has the "TeraShard_TYPE" flag. (Requires Terastal Phenomenon)

Note: When updating, please make a copy of any custom work you've added to

Midbattle_Config

. Updating the plugin will overwrite any of your additions.

Hi there,

Thank you so much for creating these amazing resources. I wanted to report a bug that I experience on a fresh install of Essentials 20.1, with the plugins Following Pokemon EX (ver. 2.2.2), Generation 8 Pack Scripts (ver. 1.0.3) and of course Essentials Deluxe (ver. 1.2.4). Every time I try to initiate a trainer or wild battle (whether via events or via the debug menu), I am presented with the following error:

[Pokémon Essentials version 20.1]
[v20.1 Hotfixes 1.0.7]

Exception: NoMethodError
Message: undefined method `[]=' for true:TrueClass

Backtrace:
[Essentials Deluxe] Pokedex.rb:331:in `register'
[Essentials Deluxe] Battle_Misc.rb:359:in `pbSetSeen'
Battle_ActionSwitching:293:in `block in pbSendOut'
Battle_ActionSwitching:291:in `each'
Battle_ActionSwitching:291:in `pbSendOut'
[Essentials Deluxe] Battle.rb:366:in `block in pbStartBattleSendOut'
[Essentials Deluxe] Battle.rb:338:in `each'
[Essentials Deluxe] Battle.rb:338:in `pbStartBattleSendOut'
Battle_StartAndEnd:284:in `pbStartBattleCore'
Battle_StartAndEnd:270:in `pbStartBattle'

Other than the installation of the plugins which I handled exactly as instructed through the forums, I haven't modified this game and I'm not using any plugins that aren't listed as compatible with this one. I am using the demo party from Pokemon Essentials (done via debug) to initiate these battles.

Any help would be much appreciated, as this plugin has so much potential that I wish to utilise!

EDIT: This only seems to occur when using the demo party from Pokemon Essentials. Do you have any idea why? This can easily be worked around, of course, but it would be convenient if there was a way to edit the demo party so that this doesn't happen.

As the instructions of this plugin state, you must start a new game after installing. This will not work on previous saves.

Constructive Criticism: Instead of just telling people just to install all this stuff, you should show steps how to do it or make a video to detail this stuff.

I've tried to add in this and extra features and none of it will activate, and I'm not entirely sure how to sort out the wise array of files.

I feel like if you require a video demonstration for installing this, then you are dramatically overcomplicating what the installation actually is. Its a 3 second process that is mainly just a single step of highlighting all of the folders contained in the download, and dragging them all at once into your root Essentials folder so that all the files merge. That's it. A video demonstration feels like overkill for something that is just a single step of dragging and dropping. So I don't really see the utility in making one. If youre feeling overwhelmed by where to put files, or how to "sort out" where to put things, then again - you're kinda making your own problem for yourself by overcomplicating things. You dont need to sort anything out, everything is done automatically for you. Open the download contents, and open your Essentials folder. Drag A to B. That's it. At most, the most technical thing you might have to do is refresh your plugins if its not immediately recognized. But thats just a general Essentials 101 maintenance issue, not something related to my plugins specifically.

Now on the other hand, if you were to suggest that a video demonstration to cover everything covered in the tutorial would be nice to have, then yes, I would agree with you. Because the tutorial is very dense and complex, and youre pretty much not gonna understand any of it if youre inexperienced. But that has the opposite problem that the hypothetical instructions video has. Where the instructions video would be so short that it wouldnt be worth the time to make, a video on the tutorial would be a massive undertaking because of how much work would have to go into it to visually explain everything. So thats why a video doesn't exist for either one.