Research During Battles

[Blue Pigeon]

Smogons damage calculator is fairly quick and I have horrible memory so I use it often. i've had times where guessing an attacks damage wrong has cost me the match so I use it on any attack i'm not sure of.

Sometimes I also right my apponents team down so i don't forget.

[Dura]

Sometimes I also right my apponents team down so i don't forget.

On Shoddy, you can just put your mouse over the opponent's pokeballs to read the names.

[lesalia]

only using speed tiers. since one day I thouth gliscor outspeed aerodactyl for some reason <.<

[Losa]

I usually do my calculations outside of the battle. During battles I usually just use my experience assisted with occasional calcs.

[bread]

I don't do damage calculations, and I never used to look up sets for pokemon. However after getting raped by Trick from an unexpected Drifblim, I look up sets on pokemon I am not familiar with.

[Blue Pigeon]

Originally Posted by Fat Dura

On Shoddy, you can just put your mouse over the opponent's pokeballs to read the names.

I've been playing shoddy for almost three months and i had no idea.

[Towelie]

I often run damage calcs. I enjoy maximizing my chances of winning.

[Random Pizzaman]

I sometimes run a damage calc if Im very unsure if a move will KO, but most of the time I do my own in- game estimations based on previous damage, sets, items ect. I do look up speed tiers sometimes too.

[Spike Razzor]

The only time I ever touch a calc. is if I'm trying to figure out how much SE damage something on my team will take/deal while building/editing a team. I never bring this thing up during battle and it kinda pisses me off when someone starts wasting time to run calcs...

[Azure Demon]

I don't run calcs, for the sheer fact that i feel that it makes the game less fun and also more time consuming. Not to mention, I have played a lot of battles and I'm fully aware of what my pokemon are capable of and also not everyone runs Smogon sets (like me) so i could make a mistake assuming my opponent is using a certain set then I get completely reamed because I was wrong.

Now that being said I don't mind my opponents taking a little time to run calcs as i would rather have a semi long and intense battle rather than a quick horrible one where i 6-0 someone

[Rename Card]

Sometimes I will research speed ties for things I'm not sure about, but for the most part I have the speed tier chart memorized. Other than that I don't run calcs during battle because, as mentioned, you can never be 100% sure of your opponent's EVs/IVs, even if 9/10 times they run standard. At best I plan for the highest possible damage output depending on whether my opponent has a Choice item, Life Orb, or neither (Expert Belt/type-specific boost item).

I run damage calcs when building a team if I am using something not on the Smogon analysis.

[Sixfortyfive]

Pretty much the only thing I'll do mid-match is a BST check. I used to have the latest Shoddy statistics page open as well, but I've been using that less and less.

I don't mind it when other people look up or calculate whatever they like mid-battle, so long as they can do it very quickly.

[Forte.EXE]

I'm constantly doing research mid-battle, looking for any and everything I can use to win. I battle under the assumption that my opponent is more than willing to do the same in return. If not, then I've just given myself an advantage. It's gotten to the point where I rarely, if ever, close out the Smogon Damage Calculator, seeing as I'm always using it in the middle of battles. If I can actually do the calculationinstead of just sitting and praying that my opponent is using one set as opposed to the other, why wouldn't I take advantage of that? No point in risking a Pokemon, and the potential win, because I thought a Pokemon could be OHKOed, only to be surprised when it wasn't.

[Little Battler]

calcs? I use gut instinct.

but I do look up for movesets.

[CobraJSF]

Yeah, i won't do calcs in battle but i will look up movesets on pokemon i'm not used to seeing, especially in uu.

[Lucalibur]

i NEVER use calcs mid-battle, if you were having a battle in real life the guy would not give you 20 minutes to run back home, check in your PC if Lucario +1 CC is going to ohko his min-min adamant gyara after SR then go back(it actually ohko but whatever).

on the other hand i sometimes run calcs outside of battle to see if its worth using that move on the pokemon, will surf on starmie do enough damage to t-tar or should i run hydro pump? those are the times i run calcs.

in the end i just feel that while i dont say GG or anything like that i know that the oponent deserve the minimun of respect. not having to wait for you to do a stupid calc when you are going to use that atack regardess if will kill or not.


and battles are a lot more fun when you dont know what will happen!

[bearsfan092]

For those of you who mention the time factor in damage calculations, I disagree for the most part. Whenever I go on shoddy or wifi, I always have Firefox open with a tab on Smogon's damage calculator. Using the premade sets, you can generally get a good idea of damage in about 20-30 seconds if you're quick. I don't think that's too unreasonable of a wait.

By the way, thanks Doug. Smogon's damage calculator is simply awesome.

[Artix]

I don't do research at all. I just don't care enough for it, this is just casual fun play. I usually just base my attacks on experience.

However I'm always against some faggot who is look at every possible set on Smogon and calculating every damage from every attack.

Originally Posted by Fat bearsfan092

For those of you who mention the time factor in damage calculations, I disagree for the most part. Whenever I go on shoddy or wifi, I always have Firefox open with a tab on Smogon's damage calculator. Using the premade sets, you can generally get a good idea of damage in about 20-30 seconds if you're quick. I don't think that's too unreasonable of a wait.

By the way, thanks Doug. Smogon's damage calculator is simply awesome.

Actually is very much is if you ask me. I wouldn't put up with this shit of waiting 30 seconds for your every move in some casual fast game.

[capefeather]

Originally Posted by Fat Lucalibur

i NEVER use calcs mid-battle, if you were having a battle in real life the guy would not give you 20 minutes to run back home, check in your PC if Lucario +1 CC is going to ohko his min-min adamant gyara after SR then go back(it actually ohko but whatever).

The anime did it...

If you want to have a battle in real life, play a real-time strategy game. This is not real-time. All you're doing by refusing to run damage calculations even if you need them is handicapping yourself. I'm not one to insult my opponent by handicapping myself.

As for when I look something up, to put it simply, I do it when I need to. I do have experience playing the game, so I know how some situations will probably go down. But sometimes I forget Tauros's base Speed or whatever, and I look stuff up. Additionally, if I switch into an attack, and I have a good idea of what else the opponent is running, then rough calculations may suffice if I'm not willing to trust the RNG yet. If a resisted STAB Fire Blast takes out 40%, then I know the following Hidden Power Grass could deal 40%*140/90=62.2% and score a KO. So sometimes I just don't NEED to run damage calculations. But sometimes I do, and there's no reason not to do it.

[Chou Toshio]

Originally Posted by Fat Towelie

I often run damage calcs. I enjoy maximizing my chances of winning.

Originally Posted by Fat bearsfan092

For those of you who mention the time factor in damage calculations, I disagree for the most part. Whenever I go on shoddy or wifi, I always have Firefox open with a tab on Smogon's damage calculator. Using the premade sets, you can generally get a good idea of damage in about 20-30 seconds if you're quick. I don't think that's too unreasonable of a wait.

By the way, thanks Doug. Smogon's damage calculator is simply awesome.

Still, if people were taking 30 seconds to a minute on every move, I'd like shoddy to give people much less time on each move. Even 20-30 seconds for every move would be really annoying.

I say a more enjoyable time system would be say, 3 minutes of main time (3 minutes that will deplete to zero no matter how you use them), and then 15 seconds per move every move after you've used up your main 3 minutes.

main time: 3:00 (time given to each player)
byo-yomi: 15 seconds (alloted time-per-move after main time is zero)

Personally, I think pokemon is a game that would be more enjoyable with this kind of time restraint.

[Pann]

No I never use damage calculators and the like. All the research I do is during the breeding and training of my Pokemon. This is Pokemon not accountancy where's the fun if you know how a battle will turn out...

[Human]

I only look at the Base Stats while in battle just to know if I can out speed or not.

[Stylish Interval]

Originally Posted by Fat bearsfan092

For those of you who mention the time factor in damage calculations, I disagree for the most part. Whenever I go on shoddy or wifi, I always have Firefox open with a tab on Smogon's damage calculator. Using the premade sets, you can generally get a good idea of damage in about 20-30 seconds if you're quick. I don't think that's too unreasonable of a wait.

By the way, thanks Doug. Smogon's damage calculator is simply awesome.

You overestimate the amount of time it takes. It's much closer to 10 seconds if you already have the tab for the SDC open. Just selecting two Pokemon, two move sets, and one move is easy. While they may not be entirely accurate (because your opponent may have shifted EVs), using sets that appear similar (Swords Dance Scizor if you see LO, for example) will give you a rough estimate which can work. 10 seconds or less, really.

I also don't understand why everyone is pretending like people would run damage calculations every move instead of every 10 or so moves. I wouldn't calculate unless a) I didn't know if I could KO / 2HKO, b) I don't know if I can survive one / two hits, or c) I don't know if I can switch something in safely. That probably won't be every turn, especially since I probably won't need to re-run the calc after doing it once. Really, overall in a match it would probably eat up a minute or two. I wouldn't call that strenuous on such an already fast paced game.

This seems like one of those 'favorite vs superior' topics.

[Objection]

The only time I ever do anything close to research in a battle is when I forget my opponent's pokemon's base speed. I double-check it on Smogon to see if it has any chance of outspeeding my current pokemon.

The reason I don't run damage calcs in battle is because I find that when I'm in the middle of a battle, I am (almost) always making the most logical choice for the given situation or the situation that I predict will happen. If that most logical choice results in me losing a pokemon or having one of my pokemon incapacitated for any reason, then either I predicted wrongly (eg, I predicted Earthquake but he used Stone Edge) or I was screwed no matter what I did. Doing damage calcs would not have made any difference either way.

[toshimelonhead]

It depends how comfortable I am with a team. The more I play with a team, the less I need to use calcs because I likely have done them beforehand or have been in a similar situation that I know what the result will be. I think I might use a calc mid battle once a day, if that. That is only for game breaking situations or if I am using a new team. I expect that my opponents will have already scouted my teams and have a calc up and ready. I do not always have both luxuries because I find scouting a waste of time. As for calculations, it's not "illegal" to have a calc up, but most of the calculations should come in the theorymon while constructing a team for best results. It's too late to realize that Scarf Electivire won't outspeed DDMence +1 when it sets up the DD on your face. People should know that before they battle.