Suggestions

[eric the espeon]

Post suggestions for guides, peer edits and the like here, it will be looked over and the mods will decide whether its wanted for the site.

You do not actually need to get approval here to post anything, but it greatly reduces the chance of you wasting a lot of time on something that Smogon does not want. Remember that even if something is wanted by Smogon, it will still be rejected if done poorly. Obviously if your idea is rejected here and you go off and write it anyway, it will most probably be rejected.

Before suggesting anything here please read all of the following:

• Don't be afraid to suggest things. Unless its clearly stupid or has been suggested before, all relevant suggestions are welcome. If its not a good idea we will say so.
• Always check to see if your idea has been suggested before.
• In your suggestion post, state whether you are offering to write what you suggest, or just think its a good idea to have. This will mean that other people know whether they should offer to do the suggestion.
• Present your idea as well as you can. This means using correct grammar, spelling and outlining exactly what would be needed for what you are suggesting, as well as any uncertainties you have about it.
• If you are suggesting an edit of something that already exists, always provide a link back to the original. It saves everyone you are trying to convince from having to go searching for it.
• Small changes to analysis that should not go in this thread are outlined Here and Here.
• Suggestions that are not about single pages, such as guides, peer edits and item analysis, should generally go in the Suggestion Box forum.

Feel free to comment on other people's suggestions, but try to avoid replies that consist simply of "good idea" especially if its already clear from other responses that the suggestion is wanted. Try to add something useful to the discussion.

Approved suggestions:
<suggestion name> - <person working on it>

Approved by caelum. If mods want to edit or add to any of the above, go ahead.

[zarator]

I'd like to suggest a guide to Late-game. How do you prepare to Late-game during team building, and during early and mid-game; genral tips on how to behave in late-game situations divided for game-style (Stall's late-game, Offense's late-game, Weather offense's late-game and so on). I have some ideas and I could write such a guide by myself, but if someone wants to helps, that's fine too.

[mtr]

How about a guide to building, implementing (on a team), and effectively playing lures in various metagames? Something like: what makes a good lure, how can I make sure my team uses it well, and how can I make sure it does what I want it to do in a match? Maybe a subsection on what separates a lure from a gimmick...

I would be happy to write it up, but I'll probably need somebody to do UU since I don't know much about it. Also, although I'm decent at Ubers, I'm young compared to much of the community, so plenty of players have more expertise there than me.

[Maxim]

One idea I had was to build a guide detailing the basics of building a team.

Often while browsing through the RMT forums for ideas, I see many RMTs being locked due to not long enough descriptions. Obviously some of the people are not thinking about the rules at all, but others come to Smogon, build a team, then immediately go about building a RMT, only to be discouraged when they get locked due to breaking one rule or another. If the guide were to be built, those types of people would probably be able to build a decently acceptable team and probably work on it if it fails.

Now they could also sign up for the Battling 101 program, trouble is, there is a limited amount of tutors, and, if the new signup system somehow doesn't work it is very hard to get in [I doubt that will be an issue, but you never know], and it even takes three weeks to complete. Some of us just aren't that patient.

What will this guide specifically contain? Let me give some points of what I had in mind:

• 1. Specify techniques to come up with an awesome team [such as using a team builder or looking at the RMT archives.]
• 2. Give overviews of the "triad of style" types of teams: Offence, Balance, and Stall.
• 3. Give a list of tried-and-true pokemon that work with each team, focusing mostly on the OU metagame, but also giving a few examples from Ubers and UU.
• 4. Not sure if this will be appropriate, but perhaps some quick battling tips.
• 5. Other relevant topics on the matter [such as links to the hail stall guide, just as an example]

As for who will write it, I'm not so sure, if somebody looks interested, they are welcome to try, just be sure to post so that we don't have two versions of the same thing.

Thank you for looking at this long post.

[diinbong]

I think talking about different types of teams and giving suggestions on how to apply strategy to teams (DDGyara+Metagross, etc.) offensively and defensively would be a nice basic guide (in response to Maxim).

And zarator, I think that guide would be best a bit more broad to be similar to this long term thinking guide of RSE. The information is basically the same, the examples and explanations just need to be adjusted to suit DPP.

What is "late game"?
How to Prepare for Late Game
Late Game Teambuilding
Win Conditions
Conclusion

[eric the espeon]

I would like to suggest a guide to Hidden Power that compiles and adds to information from Toothache's Technician Hidden Power Guide, the maths behind Hidden Power from the move description page, AA/X-Act's list of useful legal IV/Nature combinations (which could probably be expanded upon), and Aeolus's R/S list of alternate useful Hidden Power IV Spreads (with the addition of TR spreads, min Atk spreads for non physical attackers wishing to reduce confusion damage, and maybe more 30 HP spreads for SR damage reduction). It may also be a good idea to list some of the useful spreads available for Hidden Powers on legendarys with the restrictions imposed by Shoddy. This guide could also go into what kind of Pokemon tend to use Hidden Power effectively and which tend to be competitively viable in different metagames. It would help players to learn about Hidden Power without searching through several threads and pages all over Smogon.

It could be placed as an article and linked to from several places to avoid replication of information (like here), or n the move description page (this would somewhat go against convention). If it becomes an article then the move description page should link to it.

I am not offering to write it right now, but if no one else volunteers I may be able to do so once a few other things are finished. Would be happy to work with someone on it if they want ideas.

[zarator]

Originally Posted by Fat diinbong

And zarator, I think that guide would be best a bit more broad to be similar to this long term thinking guide of RSE. The information is basically the same, the examples and explanations just need to be adjusted to suit DPP.

I know about that guide, but I think it is too limited and generic. I wanted something more in-depth and detailed like:

1) What late-game is
2) How to prepare to late-game during Team Building
a) Late-game sweepers
b) "Win conditions" (Trick, Encore, Perish Song, Explosion etc)
3) How to prepare to late-game in battle
a) Bulky Offense's late-game
b) Heavy Offense's late-game
c) Stall late-game
d) Weather Offense's late-game (with Weather I include also Trick Room and Gravity)
(You could add more categories here)
4) Conclusion

Basically, what I disliked about the guide you linked is that it did little to distinguish between the stallish and the offensive styles, which play very differently their late-games (and the aforementioned guide is a bit biased towards offense IMO). Also, to people who say "there is little you can do to prepare for late-game", this is false. A bad built offensive team, for example, can lose to Empoleon no matter how you play it. And even a well built team cannot face late-game situations properly if they have not behaved well in the early and mid-game (assuming they do not have as well team building issues).

Most people think that preparing for late-game is impossible because there are so many scenarios you should describe in a guide for it. Well, let me say that, for comparison's sake, there exist guides to late-game for chess: they are 800-page books with a miriad of situations which could derive from the standard 20 or so openings.

In short, I think such a guide is not impossible, and definitely not useless. It would be long, VERY detailed and full of specific examples and explainations, but still functional and much needed IMO.

Also, this thread needs more input! There are a lot of possibilities for articles, guides and so on.

[Malachi]

Originally Posted by Fat Maxim

One idea I had was to build a guide detailing the basics of building a team.

Often while browsing through the RMT forums for ideas, I see many RMTs being locked due to not long enough descriptions. Obviously some of the people are not thinking about the rules at all, but others come to Smogon, build a team, then immediately go about building a RMT, only to be discouraged when they get locked due to breaking one rule or another. If the guide were to be built, those types of people would probably be able to build a decently acceptable team and probably work on it if it fails.

Now they could also sign up for the Battling 101 program, trouble is, there is a limited amount of tutors, and, if the new signup system somehow doesn't work it is very hard to get in [I doubt that will be an issue, but you never know], and it even takes three weeks to complete. Some of us just aren't that patient.

What will this guide specifically contain? Let me give some points of what I had in mind:

• 1. Specify techniques to come up with an awesome team [such as using a team builder or looking at the RMT archives.]
• 2. Give overviews of the "triad of style" types of teams: Offence, Balance, and Stall.
• 3. Give a list of tried-and-true pokemon that work with each team, focusing mostly on the OU metagame, but also giving a few examples from Ubers and UU.
• 4. Not sure if this will be appropriate, but perhaps some quick battling tips.
• 5. Other relevant topics on the matter [such as links to the hail stall guide, just as an example]

As for who will write it, I'm not so sure, if somebody looks interested, they are welcome to try, just be sure to post so that we don't have two versions of the same thing.

Thank you for looking at this long post.

This is/has been going on over a few months with on-and-off (severely off) periods. Split into three separate articles covering each of the three dominant styles of play.

Stall is to be posted anytime now, for example.

[Maxim]

Originally Posted by Fat Malachi

This is/has been going on over a few months with on-and-off (severely off) periods. Split into three separate articles covering each of the three dominant styles of play.

Stall is to be posted anytime now, for example.

Ah yes, I thought I heard that somewhere, but I suppose I figured that was a rumor .