This is a minor issue, but is definitely a one that can impact battles, as it has happened to me on multiple occasions. Basically, in a randbat, if you send out a Zoroark (or Zorua maybe idk) disguised as another pokemon, it shows on your pokemon list under your name and avatar that one of your mon is a Zoroark, and this is shown for your opponent as well. Now this might be simply a balance change made by PS, but it does kinda defeat the point of having Illusion in the first place when your opponent can see when you send it out. I hope this doesn't go unnoticed, as it isn't that big of a deal but I would love it if this is changed. Thank you.
-
The moderators of this forum are the Pokémon Showdown! Administrators.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
View the suggestions ordered by popularity here.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
Done Zoroark Mechanics in Randbats
- Thread starter DERPGengar10
- Start date
You are not describing the situation accordingly. What actually happens in randbats is that, when rolled, Zoroark gets the level of the Pokemon it will make the Illusion at first i.e. the last mon in your team. If Zoroark then disguises as another Pokemon, and that new illusion was a Pokemon already revealed, the tooltip automatically lets you know that there is a Zoroark becase there is a contradiction on the level of the new "Illusioned" mon. This was made like this to avoid certain tooltip bugs that happened before, like, having a 7th slot when this situation ocurred.
To make it clear with an example:
1. Your random team generates with Pikachu on the last slot and Zoroark. Then your Zoroark will digsuise as Pikachu so it will be lvl 92.
2. You send in a Nidoqueen, level 84.
3. Pikachu dies and now Zoroark disguises as Nidoqueen.
4. You send in Zoroark, disguised as Nidoqueen but it's lvl 92. Then the tooltip has to aknowledge it was a Zoroark
Also believe me, it's not unnoticed, on the contrary, it has a good bunch of reports on the bug thread and the help room. But it only happens on this kind of instances, when leveling reveals the existence of an Illusion mon. I'm sure if you'd have provided a replay of the issue you'll see that that was the case.
To make it clear with an example:
1. Your random team generates with Pikachu on the last slot and Zoroark. Then your Zoroark will digsuise as Pikachu so it will be lvl 92.
2. You send in a Nidoqueen, level 84.
3. Pikachu dies and now Zoroark disguises as Nidoqueen.
4. You send in Zoroark, disguised as Nidoqueen but it's lvl 92. Then the tooltip has to aknowledge it was a Zoroark
Also believe me, it's not unnoticed, on the contrary, it has a good bunch of reports on the bug thread and the help room. But it only happens on this kind of instances, when leveling reveals the existence of an Illusion mon. I'm sure if you'd have provided a replay of the issue you'll see that that was the case.
We're actually not revealing Zoroark enough! If Zoroark gets statused or faints while as a Zoroark, it should also be revealed, in addition to the level mechanic that Irpachuza accurately explains. This is intended behavior, not as some kind of "balancing" mechanic, but as a representation of what the games themselves actually do.
The level mechanic is actually worse than you think, though. Because Zoroark would get so easily revealed, the random battle generator will always initially generate your Zoroark with an identical level to your 6th Pokemon (or maybe the 6th Pokemon becomes the level of your Zoroark, I forget which). So the level of your Pokemon are changed just to try to avoid the implications of the level mechanic!
In my opinion, allowing Illusion in non-Team Preview formats is just bound to confuse people. It was designed by Game Freak as an Ability meant to confuse people, but it's no coincidence that it was implemented in the same generation as Team Preview. They were never meant to be separate. Without Team Preview, Illusion confuses newer players to the game, because a Pokemon is using moves and moving faster than the Pokemon appears to be, and it confuses more advanced players who aren't aware of all the intracies of Illusion that an astute player would be able to recognize on cartridge. However, I'm told the random battles community prefers this element that Zoroark brings to the table, so that's why it's still around.
The level mechanic is actually worse than you think, though. Because Zoroark would get so easily revealed, the random battle generator will always initially generate your Zoroark with an identical level to your 6th Pokemon (or maybe the 6th Pokemon becomes the level of your Zoroark, I forget which). So the level of your Pokemon are changed just to try to avoid the implications of the level mechanic!
In my opinion, allowing Illusion in non-Team Preview formats is just bound to confuse people. It was designed by Game Freak as an Ability meant to confuse people, but it's no coincidence that it was implemented in the same generation as Team Preview. They were never meant to be separate. Without Team Preview, Illusion confuses newer players to the game, because a Pokemon is using moves and moving faster than the Pokemon appears to be, and it confuses more advanced players who aren't aware of all the intracies of Illusion that an astute player would be able to recognize on cartridge. However, I'm told the random battles community prefers this element that Zoroark brings to the table, so that's why it's still around.
The former n.n
Do you mean Zoroark changing its level during the battle? Or the Illusion showing a "fake level"?
Illusion showing a fake level. TI shot it down at the time, so I don't know how everyone else feels about it.
Thank you for clarifying! This makes it a lot easier to understand what is going on.
I think the most prevalent thing is that you have very little control in a battle over whether your zoroark will be revealed at all, and it showing up when a pokemon is sent into battle completely defeats the point of illusion as an ability.
On the other hand, and like DaWob pointed out, team preview metas already reveal Zoroark when this happens, so seems like a proper sim mechanic then.
Talking on a personal level, I dont like adding that, basically just because thats not how Illusion works ingame. Level is not "illusioned" as well, and although that mechanic sounds less prone to make a lot of people mad, it is also inexact and people that actually knows how Illusion works may feel equally misguided/cheated. Wouldnt be mad if this was the best possible option tho.
I have a question: is it possible to showcase a message to only the Zoroark user when the Zoro reveals itself saying "Your Zoroark is disguising as a Pokemon that was already revealed to have a different level on your team. Therefore, Zoroark was revealed on your team tooltip. This is intended and closest as possible to cart behavior. In Random Battles Zoroark always has the leveling of the Pokemon on your last slot at the start of the battle." or something of that sort?
Maybe a server-side hint would be easier, though? It's a decent amount of state to keep track of (has the Illusion as well as the real pokemon been revealed), but the client isn't really set up for hints.
I don't know if I'll get to this anytime soon, so if some other programmer wants to tackle this, the idea is that, once per battle, when applicable, display the hint: "(Two Pokémon with different levels but the same species have switched in, and Species Clause is on. This is a sign of an Illusion user like Zoroark.)"
I don't know if I'll get to this anytime soon, so if some other programmer wants to tackle this, the idea is that, once per battle, when applicable, display the hint: "(Two Pokémon with different levels but the same species have switched in, and Species Clause is on. This is a sign of an Illusion user like Zoroark.)"
Took a couple of years but finally this was implemented, closing then!