Physical features of pokemon

We all know that it is quite difficult for the pokemon games to be on par with the anime especially where battling is concerned. All the pokemon games out there involve turn based battling. Ever since the ability feature was introduced in generation iii, battling became lot more interesting. But there one thing that I always keep wondering about. Why these guys-the game makers-haven't yet thought of using physical attributes as an extra feature to make an added impact on battling.

Here's an idea. Just consider this... Many pokemons (though not all) have unique physical feature of their own. e.g. Rhydon, Heracross, Nidoking have powerful horns. Some one like Croconaw and Feraligatr, Aerodactyl have strong jaws. Now I believe that Bite of Aerodactyl must be stronger than that of Umbreon and this should not be decided by the stats alone. There are certain moves which take such features (weight, HP etc) into consideration but there are lot more things which need to be focused upon such as the appendages (claws-sharpness, hands, legs-muscularity). This calls for introduction of something like physical features in addition to existing abilities. These features may then boost or reduce the damage of the moves concerned with them.

I hope future pokemon games will be more realistic but I still enjoy all the pokemon games that we have today however they are.

The first thing that came to mind was Strong Jaw, the new ability that boost the power of biting moves. Oh and Iron Fist, for punching moves. And there are other abilities related to the Pokemon's physical features, like Rough Skin or Big Pecks. Also, moves like Horn Attack, Hone Claws or Hyper Fang can only be learned by those Pokemon who possess certain body parts, like horns, claws or fangs.

So I guess for now, stats and some abilities take care of this, though it would be an interesting addition to the battling system. It would require a lot of work from the developers though, actually enumerating what physical features each and every Pokemon can use in battle would be a lot more complicated than stats. Also, players would have to memorize everything and the way it affects the damage dealt/received, which would probably make things overly complicated.

How about splash as well lol.
Sure Magikarp's splash does nothing, but I'd really like to see how Gyarados's splash in a building would do nothing lmao.

But yeah, it's a cool idea, would be cool if they applied dimensions of Pokemon or parts of their body to the game and amount of damage done by a certain Pokemon.
:D

This is why they put things like Tough Claws and Strong Jaw in the games recently! This sort of thing's been implemented already, such as in moves like Heavy Slam, using the Pokemon's weight as a calculator for damage. I think they put a base power stat on everything purely for balancing purposes, to put it simply.

Things like Iron Tail should vary in strength via tail shape/weight, but again, balance issues.

Sounds good to me, having to keep in mind that a croconaw bites better than a torchic or whatnot (I know Torchic can't learn bite, letitgo..)

There are moves based off weight as well, though. Like Grass Knot and uhh. There's another one that comes to mind, I just can't think of it. Anyways. I think they are slowly starting to do things like this and before you know it, the calculations will be a lot better. I think it can be kind of hard though. You have so many Pokemon based off different things that it's really hard to perfect it.

Also, some of the Pokedex entries make things seem weird. For example, Blastoise's Hydro Pump can cut steel in half. So why wouldn't it OHKO steel types? Well, clearly, you can't make Pokemon overpowered compared to other Pokemon. I think you can't look at all the specifics and sometimes, you just have to accept that some things are just how they are so that nothing becomes too incredibly overpowered.

It might be a good idea this, but I believe this is imbalancing off to the physical side of Pokémon to the special side. Sure, it's a nice thing to attribute Totodile to get a 25% bonus while using any attack that uses jaws. It's also a nice thing to put abilities. The Pokédex could also record this, by saying Totodile and Croconaw's jaws are sharp (+25%) and Feraligatr's are extremely sharp (+50%, basically same as STAB).

But consider this: How would Pokémon like Alakazam and Reinculus benefit from this? How will the metagame be affected once the game tilts off back to Attack and having more advanced mechanics for the same?

It just seems like a hierarchical way of defining pokemon. As in clearly a magikarp would be much weaker in all moves then cyndaquil. But it's more fun if they are all even!

At least for me!

I imagine something as complex as this requires a better game engine than what Pokemon is using. Though it is possible, I doubt it'd happen anytime soon.

What I would like to see, however, is a proficiency aspect in Pokemon moves. It makes sense that if you use a move for a long time, you would be proficient at it, thus having strengthened base attack, and higher chance of the move to hit. This way, weak moves like Pound and Tackle are still usable. Not to mention early-game grinding would be an absolute cakewalk :p

Hmm! Good thinking! This one thing I should have thought of. Some one like Kadabra who relies entirely on special attacks have nothing to do with physical bonuses so that would be unjust for pokemon relying on special.

rom hunter said:

Hmm! Good thinking! This one thing I should have thought of. Some one like Kadabra who relies entirely on special attacks have nothing to do with physical bonuses so that would be unjust for pokemon relying on special.

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Though the pokédex says that Alakazam is incredibly intelligent, so that could be an aspect that makes its psychic attacks stronger.

However, I think the game makers are trying to convey these physical aspects (at least some) through the stats. Pokémon with high Attack obviously are built in some way that makes them deal more damage than others. Bulky pokémon have more defense. It's the simplest way, even though it doesn't allow for different stats for different moves and pokémon.

I agree that this would be an interesting featureset to bring into the games, though I think for variety they should also be balanced with the Pokémon Characteristics and other "currently flavour text only" features. This would also help balance the effect of physical attributes as well as special attributes, of which I can think for quite a few.

MIAU said:

Also, players would have to memorize everything and the way it affects the damage dealt/received, which would probably make things overly complicated.

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>Implying they don't already for competitive.
I really don't see this being an issue. Competitive people for example already memorize double sixtuples of stats to the digit, not to mention the power, PP and accuracy rate of every move, the type chart, and the effects of various abilities when combined. And non-competitive people just go with heuristics anyway.

Compared to all that, species-wise attributes are far easier and more "automatic" to remember because they can be made to make sense with better sensory input, such as visual cues ("oooh! That Pokémon has big jaws! I bet a Bite from that thing would be nasty!") to begin with.

-Yoshi- said:

Also, some of the Pokedex entries make things seem weird. For example, Blastoise's Hydro Pump can cut steel in half. So why wouldn't it OHKO steel types?

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It's 2014 already, we all know that the Pokédex entries are crap on sale.

Hoenn said:

But consider this: How would Pokémon like Alakazam and Reinculus benefit from this? How will the metagame be affected once the game tilts off back to Attack and having more advanced mechanics for the same?

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Simple: ATT status is not the only thing affected. Just because something says "physical" attribute it doesn't mean it can only affect physical stats, which are a different thing; after all, a Quilava's ability to put up larger plumes of flame is a physical attribute as well. (or, to use a better term, physiological attribute)

Ditto for attack / defense, and even for status things, such as making some Pokémon with access to mystical properties such as Ninetales inmune to Disable / Spite, just to put an example.

Coding-wise, I don't think it's too expensive to implement considering how expensive implementing a Pokémon engine already is. In the times of Generation 3, a Pokémon individual's stats were determined by a binary dump of about 60 bytes plus the information about the species in the ROM (which is a fixed cost). Adding for example two available tags out of a set of 63 (or 64) for each species only takes two bytes, which were back at the time already available as padding.
That only amounts to an increase of size in about one Pokémon of a box of 30.

The algorithmics behind the implementation of course are a different matter, but I still think it's basically fixed cost compared to what is already done (and what has been done with eg.: the PMD series).

solovino said:

It's 2014 already, we all know that the Pokédex entries are crap on sale.

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Totally.

I agree on adding 'mystical' properties to various Pokémon, perhaps there can be a 'concentration' property that will increase the accuracy of all psychic moves (making stuff like Hypnosis much more viable). An 'elemental power' property could be used to increase the chance of burning/paralysing/freezing/poisoning of special attack moves. Finally, a 'directed power' could increase the critical hit ratio of special attack moves.

All in all, I guess it's a really nice idea, and considering the buffed 3DS game engine, I don't think it's a far-fetched concept. It also makes the games more realistic by a large level and adds another item for competitive battlers to analyse, thus making it harder for them to predict everything, and so adding more spice into the game.

Hmm... Kinda interesting.

Compared to all that, species-wise attributes are far easier and more "automatic" to remember because they can be made to make sense with better sensory input, such as visual cues ("oooh! That Pokémon has big jaws! I bet a Bite from that thing would be nasty!") to begin with.

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Exactly what I want. Specie-wise attributes are must and they will make each and every pokemon valuable (or else who would want to catch something like Mawile).

I agree on adding 'mystical' properties to various Pokémon, perhaps there can be a 'concentration' property that will increase the accuracy of all psychic moves (making stuff like Hypnosis much more viable). An 'elemental power' property could be used to increase the chance of burning/paralysing/freezing/poisoning of special attack moves. Finally, a 'directed power' could increase the critical hit ratio of special attack moves.

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The idea is good but I was basically talking about bringing the games on par with anime. Something like concentration is a general feature (we have seen different trainers asking their pokemon to concentrate, even our hero Ash Ketchum) so what is so unique about it? I don't know about 'mystical' as property. Every pokemon in itself is mystical. We can call some one like Ho-oh or Suicune mystical so can we call Ninetails. This may work as an added feature but not 'realize' the anime.


There are few things more! I believe that rather than 'PP' concept to limit the usage of attacks something like 'mana' (for special) and 'stamina' (for physical) would have done better. Now just figure this: a pokemon is too exhausted to use thunder after using it for ten times but can still shoot fifteen thunderbolts (ie Thunder PP =0 but Thunderbolt PP=15 just coz we haven't used Thunderbolt). Now how on the earth does this make sense? Logically, if a pokemon exhausted after using 10 thunder can hit 15 thunderbolts, it should be able to hit 30 thunderbolts before using any thunder attack. I hope you guys are getting what I am trying to say.

I wish future games allow a full build system.

By that I mean: I'll hVe a few points to distribute when my Pokemon level up... So at this point I would be able to make a boxer Mewtwo and a magic powered Pidgeot.

Also, we could get some sort of equipment system that could improve our Pokemon in many ways, like an armor for my Mewtwo.