For some reason, all the Writ of Challenge movesets for at least gym leaders and elite 4 members (I dunno about regular trainers, I dunno if there are regular trainers, I've never played XY) are just level-up moves. Same with Maxie. Maxie also had level-up moves in the original, but I dunno, I feel like that's not something worth referencing in a remake, if indeed it was an intentional reference.
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The dumbest thing the AI has ever done?
- Thread starter TheGamedawg
- Start date
With the writs I imagine the "some reason" is because it just
okay im about to speak out my ass on this but
It's just running a leveling routine on them, and that routine has it "level up" the movesets rather than retain their current movesets and they did this rather than insert another 3 or 4 or whatever variants for all the leaders & such at different levels.
The Battle Chataeu does indeed have normal trainers in it. The gym leaders/e4/champion only show up inside once you hit certain thresholds (like i think you have to be certain rank and done stuff like beat the game). normal trainers do not, so far as i know, have special movesets and just use whatever defaults.
Actually Ghetsis's Hydreigon was likely purposely nerfed as it was just a killer in the initial versions. So instead they used its lower Attack stat, gave it a Life Orb, and this also gave them the opportunity to give it maximum Frustration. Obviously not the best moveset for it, but it certainly does send out a message about what type of person Ghetsis is.
I wonder whoever chose the moveset forgot Oblivion Wing wasn't a Dark-type move. Sounds like one and you would think a Pokemon that has a Signature Move with a Signature Ability that increases Power of a certain Type of move (in this case Dark) would have its Signature Move be the same Type, right? *sigh*
Sidney:
- Shiftry's Ability is useless as it doesn't have Sunny Day. Also could have used a better Dark-type move; maybe something like Sucker Punch or Knock Off.
- Well I noticed an immediate mistake with Zoroark, it'll come in looking like Absol, aka his ace which you know he sends out last and is the same exact Type as Zoroark. Honestly I wouldn't have given him Zoroark because they probably have it programmed for them to use the Pokemon in the sixth slot last instead of having a specific Pokemon they send out last. I think a Drapion would have been a better choice due to it being neutral to Fighting & Bug. Also, it's for some reason a mixed attacker and doesn't even have its Signature Move which is better than Dark Pulse.
- Mandibuzz might as well have Dark Pulse as it'll probably hit stronger than any physical Dark-type move it has available. Unless it's sent out early also feel Tailwind is a waste on it, might as well made it Roost to at least attempt to have it focus on Brave Birding.
Phoebe:
- Why is Banette a Special Attacker?
- Like, I get what they're doing by giving Dusknoir Hex... but just give it Shadow Punch or Shadow Sneak.
Glacia:
- Glalie shouldn't be the third Hail setter, could probably replace Sheer Cold on Walrein.
- If you're going to give her a Hail team give Vanilluxe Blizzard instead of Ice Beam. Or if you want it to have Freeze-Dry give it another coverage (maybe make it another Hail summoner).
- Speaking of Glalie, it also shouldn't have any Ice-type moves. It should have Headbutt (and maybe Hyper Beam if they want an overkill option) and the rest whatever coverage it can get.
Drake:
- What is wrong with Flygon, let us count the ways: (1) Is a Physical Attacker using all Special moves. (2) Despite having all Special moves has Screech. (3) No Ground STAB. (4) If you wanted coverage for Ice it has better options than Flamethrower (Fire Punch for one, but before that there's Rock Slide).
- At least give Salamence Headbutt so that when it Mega Evolves it has something to use Aerilate with... and have Flying STAB.
Now I would give them better movesets overall, but for now thought to just focus on the immediate problems of the Moves they chose.
Many, though not all, issues with E4 rematch movesets can be laid at the foot of these decisions:
1. They didn't change the movesets of any pokemon that appears in both teams
2. If they doubled up on a pokemon, they tried to differentiate them rather than optimize both.
3. They probably either accidentally or for flavor, chose the "wrong one".
For Drake in particular, why is the Flygon special-focused? Because He had 2 flygon originally, and one was physical focused. Since they wanted them to occupy different niches, in this case they happened to make the other special (Flygon's special movepool is quite nice, if nothing else). Why does it have Screech? Likely to support the rest of the team.
Why did they keep it, though? Honestly, it could have just been an oversight. They replaced the physical Flygon with Kingdra or Haxorus.
Why don't Drake & Glacia take advantage of their -ate abilities while mega? Because the movesets didn't change to accommodate them, because they didn't change any of the movesets to begin with.
1. They didn't change the movesets of any pokemon that appears in both teams
2. If they doubled up on a pokemon, they tried to differentiate them rather than optimize both.
3. They probably either accidentally or for flavor, chose the "wrong one".
For Drake in particular, why is the Flygon special-focused? Because He had 2 flygon originally, and one was physical focused. Since they wanted them to occupy different niches, in this case they happened to make the other special (Flygon's special movepool is quite nice, if nothing else). Why does it have Screech? Likely to support the rest of the team.
Why did they keep it, though? Honestly, it could have just been an oversight. They replaced the physical Flygon with Kingdra or Haxorus.
Why don't Drake & Glacia take advantage of their -ate abilities while mega? Because the movesets didn't change to accommodate them, because they didn't change any of the movesets to begin with.
This is one of the reasons I rank FRLG above ORAS as remakes and games in general. They're both good games, but ironically over ten years before the release of ORAS they had a better approach when it came to designing certain remake features, namely the FRLG Elite Four rematches.
If you look at the Elite Four rematch move sets in FRLG, you can clearly tell they were optimized. It results in what I think has a strong case as the toughest Elite Four from top to bottom. Agatha, Lance and especially Blue have fantastic teams with tremendous coverage that will really put the pressure on you, which I don't think ORAS's counterparts did nearly as good a job of.
Here's hoping BDSP takes a page out of the older remakes' book and optimizes their Elite Four rematch move sets. Some of them could use an upgrade, like Garchomp trading out Giga Impact for something actually useful.
Like Dragon Dance. Do it, cowards!
As for my on-topic contribution...
Pearl's AI is embarrassing. Wake's Gyarados used Bite on Wormadam-Trash for all of 7 damage when it had Dragon Rage. It literally used all of its moves before picking the one that could 2HKO Wormadam.
In-Game testing in that game is hell, nothing makes sense, the AI is definitely the worst part about it.
The Mind Electric
Calming if you look at it right.
AI's Oranguru in Sun spammed Stored Power at my Magneton with zero buffs. Not sure what the plan was there.
If we're talking about confusing moveset decisions, let us not forget Blue's Exeggcute.
In the 7th battle (the battle before the final one), his Exeggcute has Solarbeam/Poisonpowder/Leech Seed/Growth. Basic stuff.
In the champion battle, ALL of Exeggutor's moves are missing and he has Barrage/Stomp/Hypnosis. Yellow adds Leech Seed.
Honestly I could probably sin his entire team, but WHERE DID HIS MOVES GO? My theory is that they just used the 4 most recent level up moves, which Exeggutor has a different set. Why? They have the ability to set the movesets(His Blastoise has Blizzard)!
In the 7th battle (the battle before the final one), his Exeggcute has Solarbeam/Poisonpowder/Leech Seed/Growth. Basic stuff.
In the champion battle, ALL of Exeggutor's moves are missing and he has Barrage/Stomp/Hypnosis. Yellow adds Leech Seed.
Honestly I could probably sin his entire team, but WHERE DID HIS MOVES GO? My theory is that they just used the 4 most recent level up moves, which Exeggutor has a different set. Why? They have the ability to set the movesets(His Blastoise has Blizzard)!
From what I understand, ALL trainers in Red and Green/Blue (not Yellow) use the most recent level-up moves, with the exception of their last Pokemon, who can replace the second-to-most-recent move with something else. It's an incredibly limiting system.
Hmm, that's actually pretty interesting. They were always trying to cut down on space.
In BW1, I went against this Trainer in Celestial Tower who uses an Elgyem, Solosis, and a Sigilyph. On several playthroughs, I sent out a Litwick to train against it. Every time I did, the Trainer started off with Elgyem, then immediately withdrew and switched to...Solosis. Every time it would end up sending Solosis right into my Litwick using Hex. Funnily enough, both are weak to Ghost, but Elgyem would actually take Litwick's Hex better than Solosis more often than not. It's funny that the Trainer would switch out Elgyem, supposedly because it's weak to Litwick's Ghost STAB, but then switches a Pokemon who is also weak to Ghost...and takes the hit even worse. Absolute buffoonery.
I don't actually think that trainer is switching out Elgyem because it's weak to ghost. Instead, I think they're switching because Elgyem cannot hit Litwick at all. Looking it up on Serebii, the elgyem in question only knows Headbutt and Hidden Power as attacking moves, and I believe trainer IVs are set so it would always be the same HP type each playthrough. If it has HP normal (or even if the AI just reads HP as always normal because that's what is displays as), than it can't do damage to Litwick.
HP Normal isn't a thing.
Right, that was a brainfart on my part. I wonder if it has HP fire, and thus doesn't want to risk hitting another immunity in Flash Fire?
IIRC NPCs usually have Hidden Power Fighting. Fighting’s Hidden Power value is 0 and so is essentially the default, though the formula is complex and just having 1 in every stat might not be Fighting.
Regardless, this Elgyem almost certainly has that, because it would only switch out if it couldn’t hit Litwick like Ironmage said.
Regardless, this Elgyem almost certainly has that, because it would only switch out if it couldn’t hit Litwick like Ironmage said.
CTNC
Doesn't know how to attack
I could easily say any time the AI uses Status Moves because they do stuff like using Barrier when you're not using moves that are affected by their Defense and loving to use any Status Move even it's useless, but I somehow found a new contender for worst fail. If you don't know how extreme the stupidity has to be to try to claim worst fail, read this post.
I had an opponent in Restricted Sparring spam Acupressure with Drapion even when everything but Special Attack was maxed out even though they only had Physical attacks. I figured it was just going for +6 in everything because the AI wouldn't know not to use Nasty Plot when if it only had Physical moves, but they kept on spamming Acupressure even after getting every boost! I thought it was because they were out of PP in attacks but they weren't. I couldn't believe it when I read, "The opposing Drapion used Crunch" after they used Acupressure and it failed. Then they kept using Acupressure until it ran out of PP! (Which wasn't long because it takes 21 out of 30 PP to max out everything.)
I had an opponent in Restricted Sparring spam Acupressure with Drapion even when everything but Special Attack was maxed out even though they only had Physical attacks. I figured it was just going for +6 in everything because the AI wouldn't know not to use Nasty Plot when if it only had Physical moves, but they kept on spamming Acupressure even after getting every boost! I thought it was because they were out of PP in attacks but they weren't. I couldn't believe it when I read, "The opposing Drapion used Crunch" after they used Acupressure and it failed. Then they kept using Acupressure until it ran out of PP! (Which wasn't long because it takes 21 out of 30 PP to max out everything.)
Agreed that it was definitely Fighting-type, yeah!
To elaborate on this just slightly: in most cases (I think every single NPC from Gen I through Gen VI, but there are plenty of exceptions starting in Gen VII and continuing in Gen VIII), NPC-owned Pokémon are meant to have six IVs of the same number. I do know of one exception - a very funny and entirely accidental edge case in Volkner's Electivire - but that's the game trying to set its IVs to the same number, and, uh, failing because that number was 303 and that's not an option. P:
Hidden Power's type only cares if an IV is even or odd, and all six IVs being the same number means there are exactly two relevant possibilities: either all of them are even, which is always Fighting, or all of them are odd, which is always Dark.
You can very safely assume that any NPC-owned Pokémon in the first six Generations has one of the two, which makes it easy to narrow down any time you run into one! I don't know of any other oddities like Volkner's Electivire myself, but I think it's unlikely that there would just happen to be the same on something with Hidden Power - and it's clearly not deliberate, so I don't think they would have used it to try to set a nonstandard type.
A trainer's Steelix in Iron Island used Sandstorm against me while a Sandstorm was blowing. So it's not just me who wonders what's up with Pearl's AI.
While experimenting with different AI partners for AI multis in Battle Tree, one of my partners had this Cobalion set:
Cobalion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 255 Atk / 255 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Protect
I was hoping that it wouldn't just spam Protect, and would actually attack with some sort of reliability. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. In the first battle where it hit the field, it stayed alive for 4 turns without using Protect a single time.
It spent each of those four turns using Quick Guard instead.
While Psychic Terrain was up.
In a 2v1 situation.
When the only enemy Pokemon left was a half-health Abomasnow that would have easily been knocked out by any attack.
Needless to say, I benched that AI partner immediately.
Cobalion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
Level: 50
EVs: 255 Atk / 255 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Quick Guard
- Protect
I was hoping that it wouldn't just spam Protect, and would actually attack with some sort of reliability. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. In the first battle where it hit the field, it stayed alive for 4 turns without using Protect a single time.
It spent each of those four turns using Quick Guard instead.
While Psychic Terrain was up.
In a 2v1 situation.
When the only enemy Pokemon left was a half-health Abomasnow that would have easily been knocked out by any attack.
Needless to say, I benched that AI partner immediately.
Riley’s Lucario used Laser Focus twice in a row. It’s not gonna make the next hit extra critical, bud.
Later in Iron Island, the opponent is down to a Steelix against Lucario and my Azumarill, and decides it’s a good idea to use Thunder Fang. On the Lucario.
Later in Iron Island, the opponent is down to a Steelix against Lucario and my Azumarill, and decides it’s a good idea to use Thunder Fang. On the Lucario.
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So, I was playing the Diamong (original) Battle tower, multi-battle with AI partner. Anyway, our opponents send out Exeggutor and Claydol, I have out my Starmie, Mira (my partner) had I think very slow Gardevoir. Anyway, the first turn was fun: I used Ice beam on Exeggutor, which leaves him with little HP. It uses Worry seed on my Starmie, getting rid of my Natural cure.
I think "Wow, that´s acutally pretty smart.". But then, Claydol uses... Hypnosis. On my Starime. Which just got Insomnia. I mean, wow, real smart, guys.
I think "Wow, that´s acutally pretty smart.". But then, Claydol uses... Hypnosis. On my Starime. Which just got Insomnia. I mean, wow, real smart, guys.
If they were on the same turn, I assume this was just a case of the AI both making their decisions independently and not thinking of what the other will do.
case in point: there is a Ace Trainer Duo in Vast Poni Canyon in Gen 7 that like to both use Hail on turn 1.
It frustrates me that Game Freak clearly wanted to show off their pair of Ice-type regional variants who they intentionally gave synergy with Snow Warning + Slush Rush, and then didn't give the Ace Trainers access to Snow Warning + Slush Rush.