Scaling battle system

[cheesecake]

Would it be possible for every pokemon trainer battle in a game to automatically scale the pokemon battling to level 100?

This would actually make base stats matter more than levels, make over- and underlevering less of a gamechanger, make EV and IV more important, and most importantly make moves and evolutions feel more powerful.

Any thoughts?

 

[mgriffin]

I don't know how to do it, but I'd love to play a game that worked like that.

I suspect that you might want to pick a slightly lower level to scale things up to, Pokémon get awfully tanky at high levels and nobody wants to spam Tackles and Embers for hours on end. Of course there are lots of other options for making this less awful, like changing the exp rates/yields, learnsets, etc etc.

 

[Lycanthropy]

I'm sure it would be, since locations as the Battle Frontier also use a routine like that.

But... wouldn't it be much easier to simply make every Pokémon level 100 right away? If you catch all Pokémon at level 100 as well, there's no need for any scaling whatsoever. :)

 

[Zeturic]

I'm not sure how this would work. Pokemon would never be able to gain experience (level 100 Pokemon don't gain exp, so after battle it'd return to its regular level with the same amount of exp as before); you'd have to rely on the Day Care or Rare Candies.

And if you're confused as to why leveling up would matter, it's because Pokemon learn moves and evolve by level.

 

[cheesecake]

First of all I really appreciate people actually answering my thread! I see there are a couple things worth explaining. Apologies for the shitty quoting btw.

Pokemon would never be able to gain experience

I'm pretty sure I specified trainer battles. Wild pokemon would still have to function normally, though perhaps with a boosted experience yield, as someone mentioned.

locations as the Battle Frontier also use a routine like that

This is pretty much what I'm going for, yes.

I suspect that you might want to pick a slightly lower level to scale things up to

Pretty sure both being scaled to 100 would the fairest, and would give more of a Battle Frontier/Showdown vibe. It does however lend itself to difficulty options though. Easymode would be you lvl100 while the opponent is always lvl95, normal would be 100/100, and hard mode would be easymode but in reverse. Not sure if this is doable though.

I mostly just want to see if the idea is interesting to others aswell. I can 100% guarantee you that I'll never actually do any kind of coding of my own hack. Yes, I'm basically a freeloader wanting others to do all the work for me, but I'm so sick and tired of boring romhacks in boring new regions with boring new fakemon. I'd much rather play something that has fun with the gameplay.

 

[Schrroms]

I'm sure it would be, since locations as the Battle Frontier also use a routine like that.

But... wouldn't it be much easier to simply make every Pok?mon level 100 right away? If you catch all Pok?mon at level 100 as well, there's no need for any scaling whatsoever. :)

The problem is that Pok?mon wouldn't be able to learn moves or evolve if that was the case.

 

[Lycanthropy]

The problem is that Pokémon wouldn't be able to learn moves or evolve if that was the case.

I personally don't see that as a problem. If all Pokémon are level 100, there's no progress to be made in training, so why not achieve the feeling of getting stronger in the form moves instead? You can easily change even usually common moves into TMs or move tutors. The Rare Candy can be made into an evolution stone and replace level evolution. You can even make Pokémon specific items if you want some of the stronger evolutions only to be available starting from a certain point in the story. Options enough, I'd say.

Apologies for the super late reply btw.

 

[haven1433]

I'm not on hear often, but this post was recent enough that I thought I'd put in my two cents.

tl;dr: Epic Kanto does something similar to what you want.

5 years ago, I made a prototype for a ROM Hack based on a similar idea. I went with the "everything is always level 100" idea instead of trying to only scale the trainer battles. I solved a number of the problems you guys are talking about as follows:

• Most pokemon are fully evolved. Those that need to evolve do so using stones.
• There's a free move-relearner in oak's lab, giving you access to every pokemon's full moveset.
• TMs are infinite use.
• Battles vs trainers are always 'set' style: you can't switch after a KO.
• Many pokemon's base stats have been adjusted to make them more usable.
• Gyms are about mechanics, not types. For example, there's a weather focused gym.
• Your route through the game is determined by your starter: it's not fixed.
• HM moves like Flash and Cut are actually good in battle.

The game only contains the first 5 gyms, but it's enough for you to get the feel for how a game like this would play.