[Scripting Question] Create an Ability that affects Status Effetcs?

Ravenborn · May 23, 2018

I'm working on my first project using Pokémon Essentials, and since I have no experience whatsoever with things like scripting or RPG Maker, it's kinda hard to make new things like abilities that work very differently from what we have in the games.

What I want to do is something similar to a Boss Battle. By creating a new species on the PBS, giving him plenty of HP and Defenses and decent Offenses, I thought it could make for a challenging fight. However, there are some issues, and the first one of them is stuff that would be able to hit its maximum HP directly, like Poison/Toxic Poison and Burns.

Obviously, just solving that would still leave the boss open to many "tricks" (F.E.A.R. would probably wreck it), but I suppose solving one problem at a time is fine too. So my idea was not to have him completely immune to Status effects, because that would unnecessarily punish players with Stall-er teams. Rather, I'd like to give him an Ability that would make him only take, say, 2% of his Maximum HP per turn in damage from things like Burn or Poison.

Is this possible to implement? If so, how would I do it? I have no knowledge on RUBY (IF that is the language used on the scripts), but I thought that maybe it would need me to create a "Weak Poison" and a "Weak Burn" statuses and change Poison and Burn to these two when the boss is afflicted. Am I on the right path?

Apologies for any mistakes on the text, English isn't my main language. Also, thanks in advance!

James Davy · May 23, 2018

It's indeed possible. However, the HP loss would be negligible at best. A better amount would be 6.25% of the maximum HP like with the Heatproof ability and first-turn Toxic poison. What your ability would boil down to is a variant of the Magic Guard ability only it reduces attrition damage instead of grants immunity to it.

As you would know there are a few other ways to take down this souped-up species of yours. Direct-damage attacks (Night Shade, Seismic Toss, Bide, Final Gambit, etc) doesn't care how high the defences are; Perish Song outright KOs it in three rounds (it cannot be blocked by protection moves); and OHKO moves in the right circumstances can wreck it. Some volatile status effects such as confusion and attraction (assuming it has a gender) can make life harder for it as well.

Ravenborn · May 23, 2018

Hey, thanks for the quick answer.

Yeah, I do reckon that making an actual Boss Fight in Pokémon isn't exactly easy when there are so many gimmicks to play around high HP and defenses. It's not supposed to be close-to-impossible, though, just challenging enough for most players that go against it.

If someone decides to take the easy route and tries to OHKO it, of course, it's up to them. What I can do is just make sure it isn't melt down by a Toxic user in a few turns, I guess, haha.

But back to the topic, I guess taking a look at the Magic Bounce script will give me a hand then? I suppose I'd have to remove the "bouncing" part and then mess around with the values so that it only reduces the damage taken. But is it possible to make the Toxic Poison damage stay at its first turn value? I really have no experience with scripting, so it'd be a very big help of you could show me the ropes.

Thanks!

Ego13 · May 23, 2018

Hey

in PokeBattle_Battle there is a part where the stages for Toxic are handled
it looks like this:

Code:

      # Poison/Bad poison
      if i.status==PBStatuses::POISON
        if i.statusCount>0
          i.effects[PBEffects::Toxic]+=1
          i.effects[PBEffects::Toxic]=[15,i.effects[PBEffects::Toxic]].min
        end

You could implement a clause there to not raise the stage if the pokemon has a certain ability

James Davy · May 24, 2018

Ego13 said:
Hey

in PokeBattle_Battle there is a part where the stages for Toxic are handled
it looks like this:

Code:

# Poison/Bad poison if i.status==PBStatuses::POISON if i.statusCount>0 i.effects[PBEffects::Toxic]+=1 i.effects[PBEffects::Toxic]=[15,i.effects[PBEffects::Toxic]].min end

You could implement a clause there to not raise the stage if the pokemon has a certain ability

Definitely on the right track there. To implement your new ability (let's call it Tenacious) go to PokeBattle_Battle and make the following changes:

Code:

    # Fire Pledge + Grass Pledge combination damage
    for i in 0...2
      if sides[i].effects[PBEffects::SeaOfFire]>0 &&
         pbWeather!=PBWeather::RAINDANCE &&
         pbWeather!=PBWeather::HEAVYRAIN
        @battle.pbCommonAnimation("SeaOfFire",nil,nil) if i==0
        @battle.pbCommonAnimation("SeaOfFireOpp",nil,nil) if i==1
        for j in priority
          next if (j.index&1)!=i
          next if j.pbHasType?(:FIRE) || j.hasWorkingAbility(:MAGICGUARD)
          @scene.pbDamageAnimation(j,0)
          [COLOR="Red"]if j.hasWorkingAbility(:TENACIOUS)
            hploss=j.pbReduceHP((j.totalhp/16).floor)
          else[/COLOR]
            hploss=j.pbReduceHP((j.totalhp/8).floor)
          [COLOR="red"]end[/COLOR]
          pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} is hurt by the sea of fire!",j.pbThis)) if hploss>0
          if j.fainted?
            return if !j.pbFaint
          end
        end
      end
    end

Code:

    # Leech Seed
    for i in priority
      next if i.fainted?
      if i.effects[PBEffects::LeechSeed]>=0 && !i.hasWorkingAbility(:MAGICGUARD)
        recipient=@battlers[i.effects[PBEffects::LeechSeed]]
        if recipient && !recipient.fainted?
          PBDebug.log("[Lingering effect triggered] #{i.pbThis}'s Leech Seed")
          pbCommonAnimation("LeechSeed",recipient,i)
          [COLOR="Red"]if i.hasWorkingAbility(:TENACIOUS)
            hploss=i.pbReduceHP((j.totalhp/16).floor)
          else[/COLOR]
            hploss=i.pbReduceHP((j.totalhp/8).floor)
          [COLOR="red"]end[/COLOR]
          if i.hasWorkingAbility(:LIQUIDOOZE)
            recipient.pbReduceHP(hploss,true)
            pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} sucked up the liquid ooze!",recipient.pbThis))
          else
            if recipient.effects[PBEffects::HealBlock]==0
              hploss=(hploss*1.3).floor if recipient.hasWorkingItem(:BIGROOT)
              recipient.pbRecoverHP(hploss,true)
            end
            pbDisplay(_INTL("{1}'s health was sapped by Leech Seed!",i.pbThis))
          end
          if i.fainted?
            return if !i.pbFaint
          end
          if recipient.fainted?
            return if !recipient.pbFaint
          end
        end
      end
    end
    for i in priority
      next if i.fainted?
      # Poison/Bad poison
      if i.status==PBStatuses::POISON
        if i.statusCount>0
          i.effects[PBEffects::Toxic]+=1 [COLOR="red"]unless i.hasWorkingAbility(:TENACIOUS)[/COLOR]
          i.effects[PBEffects::Toxic]=[15,i.effects[PBEffects::Toxic]].min
        end
        if i.hasWorkingAbility(:POISONHEAL)
          pbCommonAnimation("Poison",i,nil)
          if i.effects[PBEffects::HealBlock]==0 && i.hp<i.totalhp
            PBDebug.log("[Ability triggered] #{i.pbThis}'s Poison Heal")
            i.pbRecoverHP((i.totalhp/8).floor,true)
            pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} is healed by poison!",i.pbThis))
          end
        else
          if !i.hasWorkingAbility(:MAGICGUARD)
            PBDebug.log("[Status damage] #{i.pbThis} took damage from poison/toxic")
            if i.statusCount==0
              [COLOR="Red"]if i.hasWorkingAbility(:TENACIOUS)
                i.pbReduceHP((j.totalhp/16).floor)
              else[/COLOR]
                i.pbReduceHP((j.totalhp/8).floor)
              [COLOR="red"]end[/COLOR]
            else
              i.pbReduceHP(((i.totalhp*i.effects[PBEffects::Toxic])/16).floor)
            end
            i.pbContinueStatus
          end
        end
      end
      # Burn
      if i.status==PBStatuses::BURN
        if !i.hasWorkingAbility(:MAGICGUARD)
          PBDebug.log("[Status damage] #{i.pbThis} took damage from burn")
          if i.hasWorkingAbility(:HEATPROOF) [COLOR="red"]|| i.hasWorkingAbility(TENACIOUS)[/COLOR]
            PBDebug.log("[Ability triggered] #{i.pbThis}'s Heatproof")
            i.pbReduceHP((i.totalhp/16).floor)
          else
            i.pbReduceHP((i.totalhp/8).floor)
          end
        end
        i.pbContinueStatus
      end
      # Nightmare
      if i.effects[PBEffects::Nightmare]
        if i.status==PBStatuses::SLEEP
          if !i.hasWorkingAbility(:MAGICGUARD)
            PBDebug.log("[Lingering effect triggered] #{i.pbThis}'s nightmare")
            [COLOR="Red"]if i.hasWorkingAbility(:TENACIOUS)
              i.pbReduceHP((j.totalhp/8).floor,true)
            else[/COLOR]
              i.pbReduceHP((i.totalhp/4).floor,true)
            [COLOR="red"]end[/COLOR]
            pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} is locked in a nightmare!",i.pbThis))
          end
        else
          i.effects[PBEffects::Nightmare]=false
        end
      end
      if i.fainted?
        return if !i.pbFaint
        next
      end
    end
    # Curse
    for i in priority
      next if i.fainted?
      if i.effects[PBEffects::Curse] && !i.hasWorkingAbility(:MAGICGUARD)
        PBDebug.log("[Lingering effect triggered] #{i.pbThis}'s curse")
        [COLOR="Red"]if i.hasWorkingAbility(:TENACIOUS)
          i.pbReduceHP((j.totalhp/8).floor,true)
        else[/COLOR]
          i.pbReduceHP((i.totalhp/4).floor,true)
        [COLOR="red"]end[/COLOR]
        pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} is afflicted by the curse!",i.pbThis))
      end
      if i.fainted?
        return if !i.pbFaint
        next
      end
    end

Code:

      # Bad Dreams
      if i.status==PBStatuses::SLEEP && !i.hasWorkingAbility(:MAGICGUARD)
        if i.pbOpposing1.hasWorkingAbility(:BADDREAMS) ||
           i.pbOpposing2.hasWorkingAbility(:BADDREAMS)
          PBDebug.log("[Ability triggered] #{i.pbThis}'s opponent's Bad Dreams")
          [COLOR="Red"]if i.hasWorkingAbility(:TENACIOUS)
            hploss=i.pbReduceHP((i.totalhp/16).floor,true)
          else[/COLOR]
            hploss=i.pbReduceHP((i.totalhp/8).floor,true)
          [COLOR="red"]end[/COLOR]
          pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} is having a bad dream!",i.pbThis)) if hploss>0
        end
      end
      if i.fainted?
        return if !i.pbFaint
        next
      end

All of these changes halve the attrition damage a Pokémon with your ability would get from the Fire Pledge/Grass Pledge combo, Leech Seed, Poison (Toxic is indistinguishable from normal Poison), Burn, Nightmare, Curse and the Bad Dreams ability.

Ravenborn · May 24, 2018

Wow, once again, thanks a lot guys.

That's a lot of info for me to take a look at, but since I do have a very basic understanding of programming, I get the "if, else" part where you used Ego13's suggestion. This helps so much that I can't thank you enough, specially when you already made the changes for other moves that would be annoying to deal with, like Leech Seed for example.

I believe this solves my problem, at least in regards to what I asked for in this topic. Yet again, thanks to both of you for helping me out, it made things so much easier for me!

James Davy · May 24, 2018

Always happy to lend a helping hand.

[Scripting Question] Create an Ability that affects Status Effetcs?

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