The Battle Subway
Overview:
The battle subway is a random battle sequence where players can challenge the subway at any time instead of battling other opponents. Certain aspects of the battles are fixed, but the subway accepts challenges in both singles and doubles formats. Additionally, users are rewarded special currency, Battle Points, for winning battles in the subway that can be used to purchase actually useful held items that don't perish when used.
User Interaction:
- Four players may challenge the subway at a given time. This may increase or decrease based on my business at any given time with the rest of Smogon.
- A player may only challenge the subway once every week. Users who have challenged the subway fewer times are given priority in user selection for who faces the subway.
- Players challenge the subway until either they win 3 consecutive battles and defeat the Subway Boss or lose.
- While taking the Subway challenge, all Pokemon you bring with you cannot be being used in any other battles in ASB, nor can they be used in other battles in ASB while the Subway challenge is ongoing. By bringing a Pokemon with you for the Subway Challenge, you effectively remove them from the rest of ASB until the challenge is over.
Battle Details:
- Opponents for the players are randomly selected from a pool based on difficulty and played by myself.
- I will ref all matches as well. Deck can hopefully trust me not to cheat or something.
- Difficulty of a match depends on which round the player is at. The first match chooses from a list of fairly weak Pokemon, the second match chooses from mid-stage or generally decent Pokemon, and the third stage chooses from some fully evolved Pokemon and is fairly tough.
- The Boss battle after all 3 stages are defeated will include Pokemon of the Boss's choice with moves of the boss's choice. The Boss chooses these Pokemon before the player announces their team for the challenge. This way I cannot counter team the player. The player also does not know what the chosen team is until the player reaches the Boss.
- If you clear the entire subway and then challenge it again, the difficulty of all matches will increase dramatically, but the rewards are multiplied for the raised difficulty.
- If you defeat the Subway enough, you may face special and extraordinarily difficult opponents that will bestow special rewards upon you for winning.
- Players must use the same team of Pokemon for the entire challenge until the Boss is beaten or they lose. If they challenge the subway again later on, they may change teams before they begin the new challenge.
Battle Formats:
Singles Battle Subway
- Pokemon: 1v1
- DQ: 1 day
- Switch: OK
- Abilities: 1
- Items: OK
- Recovery: Unlimited
- Chills: 0
- Restrictions:
- No two Pokemon on your team may be of the same species.
Singles Battle Subway Boss
- Pokemon: 3v3
- DQ: 1 day
- Switch: OK
- Abilities: 1
- Items: OK
- Recovery: Unlimited
- Chills: 0
- Restrictions:
- No two Pokemon on your team may be of the same species.
Doubles Battle Subway
- Pokemon: 2v2
- DQ: 1 day
- Switch: OK
- Abilities: 1
- Items: OK
- Recovery: Unlimited
- Chills: 0
- Restrictions:
- No two Pokemon on your team may be of the same species.
Doubles Battle Subway Boss
- Pokemon: 4v4
- DQ: 1 day
- Switch: OK
- Abilities: 1
- Items: OK
- Recovery: Unlimited
- Chills: 0
- Restrictions:
- No two Pokemon on your team may be of the same species.
Arena: Subway
(
Image) Cramped spaces are characteristic of this arena and during the battle the train zooms along briskly, bumping occasionally to throw all Pokemon for a loop. There are no seats in these custom trains, as they are designed for Pokemon battles, though there are metal rings hanging from the ceiling that Pokemon and players alike can hold onto. The train is big enough in size to fit all Pokemon within reason, though larger Pokemon will find it difficult to maneuver. Somehow, the train is so immeasurably tough that no attack can damage it or throw it off course. There is no dirt to dig into, there is virtually no room to fly, and there is no initial weather. Although there is electricity flowing about and tons of metal, it is all properly insulated so that no single type of Pokemon has a distinct advantage over any other.
Rewards:
- Winning a battle in the subway awards you with Battle Points (BP) equal to the match in the subway you're on. This means that if you win the second match, you win 2BP, and if you win the third match, you win 3BP.
- Defeating the Boss for any subway line awards you with 5BP.
- If you beat the Boss and challenge the subway again, all rewards will be multiplied by a factor equal to (1+N) where N is the number of times you have beaten the Boss without losing. For instance, this means that if you successfully clear the subway 4 times in a row, the first match of the next round will be worth 5BP, the match after 10BP, and so on.
- The player with the longest win streak in the subway is awarded with a specialty item of their choice that they will be able to use in any battle in CAP ASB for as long as they retain that streak. If someone overtakes their streak, they cannot use the item in future battles and the new streak-holder will get an item of their choice. The minimum streak required to qualify for this reward is 4.
- BP may be exchanged for hold items that can be used in all CAP ASB battles and are accessible nowhere else in CAP ASB. This makes it well worth your time to challenge the subway, although you will definitely want to train against your peers before taking it on. It won't be easy.
Reward List:
I've only briefly discussed this with Deck, but he seemed optimistic that he would implement held items like Life Orb, Choice Band, Choice Scarf, Choice Specs, and others to be acquired through this. He said he'd want to balance these items and implement them first, but to post this anyway to garner interest for the idea.
Conclusion:
Well, what do you all think? I'm dying to know!