[Scripting Question] Ability that reflects damage back onto the attacker

[Tommaniacal]

Hello, I'm trying to create an ability that removes 25% of the damage taken from "light based moves" and reflects the removed damage back onto the attacker. For example, if a light move would normally deal 100 damage, the ability would reduce it to 75 damage, and the 25 damage that was removed would hurt the attacker.

What I have so far, is:

in Pokebattle_Move:

[SPOILER]  def isLightMove?
  return true if ( isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:SIGNALBEAM) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:SOLARBEAM) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:JUDGEMENT) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:TECHNOBLAST) 
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:LUSTERPURGE) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:POWERGEM) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:DOOMDESIRE) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:FLASHCANNON) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:DAZZLINGGLEAM) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:LIGHTOFRUIN) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:ORIGINPULSE) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:PHOTONGEYSER) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:SOLARBLADE) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:MIRRORSHOT) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:TAILGLOW) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:FLASH) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:MOONLIGHT) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:LIGHTSCREEN) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:REFLECT) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:AURORABEAM) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:HYPERBEAM) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:MOONGEISTBEAM) ||
                   isConst?(@id,PBMoves,:SPOTLIGHT))
  end[/SPOILER]

farther down in pbCalcDamage:

    if opponent.hasWorkingAbility(:MIRRORSHIELD) && isLightMove?
        finaldamagemult=(finaldamagemult*0.75).round
    end

Then in Pokebattle_Battler, under "if damage>0"

      if target.hasWorkingAbility(:MIRRORSHIELD) && move.isLightMove? 
        user.pbReduceHP((turneffects[PBEffects::TotalDamage])/3)
        @battle.pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} is hurt by #{target.pbThis}'s Mirror Shield!",user.pbThis))
      end

(since the ability is multiplying the damage by 75%, dividing the damage by 3 brings it to the 25% that I want)

The problem is that I'm receiving this error:

Spoiler:

[Pokémon Essentials version 17.2]

Exception: NoMethodError

Message: undefined method `*' for nil:NilClass

PokeBattle_Move:706:in `pbCalcDamage'

PokeBattle_Move:1522:in `pbEffect'

PokeBattle_MoveEffects:1855:in `pbEffect'

PokeBattle_Battler:3463:in `pbProcessMoveAgainstTarget'

PokeBattle_Battler:3418:in `each'

PokeBattle_Battler:3418:in `pbProcessMoveAgainstTarget'

PokeBattle_Battler:4025:in `pbUseMove'

PokeBattle_Battler:4005:in `loop'

PokeBattle_Battler:4028:in `pbUseMove'

PokeBattle_Battler:4234:in `pbProcessTurn'

Which is strange, because I copied and altered from other abilities in the same section, so I'm not sure why "*" would cause an error. At first I thought it was coming from an interaction between the ability's Pokebattle_Move script and Pokebattle_Battler script, but removing the battler script still has the same error. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tommaniacal]

EDIT

Turns out the script was in the wrong place, in Pokebattle_move, underneath "if !attacker.hasMoldBreaker"

      if opponent.hasWorkingAbility(:MIRRORSHIELD) && isLightMove?
        finaldamagemult=(finaldamagemult*0.75).round
      end

and in Pokebattle_battler, above destiny bond

    if target.hasWorkingAbility(:MIRRORSHIELD) && thismove.isLightMove? 
      user.pbReduceHP((turneffects[PBEffects::TotalDamage])/3)
      @battle.pbDisplay(_INTL("{1} is hurt by #{target.pbThis}'s Mirror Shield!",user.pbThis))
    end

It no longer returns an error, but the ability doesn't activate if the target faints from the light move. If they live it works as intended. How would I change it to make it work regardless of them fainting or not?

 

[mgriffin]

I'm not 100% sure, but doesn't hasWorkingAbility have a second parameter that is "should this return true even if the Pokémon has fainted?"?

 

[Tommaniacal]

I'm not 100% sure, but doesn't hasWorkingAbility have a second parameter that is "should this return true even if the Pokémon has fainted?"?

Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

Changing if target.hasWorkingAbility(:MIRRORSHIELD) to if target.hasWorkingAbility(:MIRRORSHIELD,ignorefainted=true) makes it work as intended

 

[mgriffin]

I think you probably should write that as if target.hasWorkingAbility(:MIRRORSHIELD,true). AFAIK the ignorefainted= only introduces a local variable; so it's not harmful, but not necessary either.