Myself and Seven Deadly Sins had a long conversation regarding the concept:
- <Alch> wyverii
- <Alch> I'd just like to check that this concept is legal - http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3226473&postcount=149
- <Alch> I'm relatively sure that it is, but it is my first time so I'd like confirmation
- <Wyverii> Legal.
- <Alch> ok cool
- <Alch> bit of a gimmicky concept but eh it's me
- <SevenDeadlySins> more like a bit of every single cap ever [/rant]
- <Xaqwais> boo sds
- <Xaqwais> utility counter is good
- <Alch> boo hiss
- <Xaqwais> was*
- * SevenDeadlySins was kicked by Alch (boo hiss!)
- * SevenDeadlySins has joined #battlecapacity
- * Porygon2 sets mode: +h SevenDeadlySins
- <SevenDeadlySins> you know damn well what i think about the various caps, lol
- <Alch> I do now
- <SevenDeadlySins> if you listened to the cap smogcast i think i verbalized it there fairly well
- <Alch> um
- <SevenDeadlySins> also utility counter was the best example or something serving "two different roles", even if unintended
- <Xaqwais> Magic guard was so dumb haha
- <Xaqwais> yeah, community shouldn't be included in cap
- <Xaqwais> it should be like
- <SevenDeadlySins> krill was half "ok i counter everything" and half "oh i get free boosts on all my shit"
- <Xaqwais> plus, tennis, doug, and all the best users
- <Wyverii> Good GOD. Why is there a thread encouraging pillow shading in smeargles studio?
- <Alch> pfft the noob spriters started it
- <SevenDeadlySins> it just so happens that the offensive set was the "good" one
- <Xaqwais> Didn't they get rid of magic guard eventually
- <Xaqwais> thank god
- <Alch> magic guard makes everything viable
- <Alch> shinbora~
- <Alch> though shinbora is a cool ass mon anyway
- <Xaqwais> cleffa
- <SevenDeadlySins> also i think your concept has been answered a number of times
- <SevenDeadlySins> venusaur
- <SevenDeadlySins> lucario
- <SevenDeadlySins> salamence
- <Alch> venusaur isn't the same in 5th gen
- <SevenDeadlySins> insert pokemon with great movepool here
- <SevenDeadlySins> etc
- <SevenDeadlySins> yeah but the point is to "examine the metagame"
- <Alch> and lucario really veered toward the SD in gen4
- <SevenDeadlySins> this is not a new phenomenon
- <Alch> now it seems primarily np
- <SevenDeadlySins> or a misunderstood phenomenon
- <SevenDeadlySins> or something we didn't know a lot about
- * cartons has joined #battlecapacity
- <Alch> the concept is more like how far can you push it
- <Alch> than make bogstandard pokemon
- <cartons> eh, look at the numbers we're hitting
- <cartons> whatre you guys talkin about?
- <Alch> how far you can push it within the regions of balance that is
- <SevenDeadlySins> that's silly
- <Alch> http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3226473&postcount=149
- <SevenDeadlySins> i think we saw how far you can push it within the regions of balance
- <Xaqwais> SDS is hatin' on the cap project, alch is defending, I'm sorta neutral kinda, wyv is remaining silent
- <Xaqwais> mai is lurking
- <SevenDeadlySins> see: salamence for nearly the entirety of gen 4
- <SevenDeadlySins> i'm not hating on anything except a concept that has already been played out
- <Alch> mence was deemed broken
- <Xaqwais> :)
- <SevenDeadlySins> but for how long
- <Alch> I.E. not balanced
- <Xaqwais> just wanted to get you riled up on a incorrect description
- <SevenDeadlySins> it spent the entirety of gen 4 being "on the verge:
- <SevenDeadlySins> i think that tells you all you need to know
- <Alch> on the verge isn't what I'm aiming for in that either
- <Mai> 13What?
- <Alch> I'm talking a comfortable top 5 OU type
- <Alch> but nowhere near broken
- <SevenDeadlySins> "aiming for" a specific power level is also ridiculous
- <Mai> 13I'm only lurking because I'm not into this pokemon mumbo jumbo.
- <cartons> wait..is there a new cap?
- <Alch> that's what my ideal is
- <SevenDeadlySins> especially considering the community
- <Alch> unlikely to happen
- <Xaqwais> No, cap concept theorymonning thread
- <Alch> you're considering my concept, not the future
- <Wyverii> Nah, it's the theorymon- feck it
- <Alch> obviously the concept influences the future
- <cartons> ah right
- <Alch> but not that much
- <Alch> the ideas in my head won't play out, but the ideas are there all the same
- <SevenDeadlySins> do you honestly think that the community is capable of "hitting the mark" and knowing when enough is enough, because it doesn't have a great track record
- <Xaqwais> I was so goddamn pissed with magic guard
- <Alch> I thought CAP meant Create A Pokemon, not Community Analysis Project
- <Xaqwais> man
- <Xaqwais> still makes me mad
- <Alch> that's not the point
- <Alch> I agree with you on the community being flawed
- <Wyverii> The community is a community, you can't expect cohesiveness to a great degree within a popular project.
- <Alch> but you can't override a concept with that
- <SevenDeadlySins> of course you can
- <Alch> so why didn't you overide the previous "bad caps"
- <Alch> of which you say there are many
- <Alch> how do you spell override btw
- <SevenDeadlySins> two Rs
- <SevenDeadlySins> and really, there aren't many "bad caps"
- <Alch> "because it doesn't have a great track record"
- <Alch> you seem to dislike CAP enough for these "failures" to be important or numerous enough
- <SevenDeadlySins> yay for out of context quotes
- <Alch> it isn't out of context
- <SevenDeadlySins> the context of that quote was "hitting the mark" in terms of power levels
- <Alch> mhm
- <Alch> clearly a CAP that doesn't hit the right power levels is flawed
- <SevenDeadlySins> they tend to make things stronger than they need to be, but the only one i would say "failed" were cyclohm and krilowatt
- <SevenDeadlySins> on the whole i like most of the caps
- <SevenDeadlySins> and what they say about the metagame
- <SevenDeadlySins> they're all "mostly accurate"
- <SevenDeadlySins> cyclohm failed because it simply doesn't tell us anything
- <SevenDeadlySins> and krilowatt went from "utility counter" to that thing everyone slaps a life orb on and sweeps with
- <Alch> and yet through and through it's the same type of community that has served us these CAPs
- <Alch> maybe not the same members, yet comparable
- <Alch> so you can't say that the community will ruin this concept
- <SevenDeadlySins> i think you're missing the point
- <Wyverii> What was the arguement again? I fail to see where one is.
- <cartons> myself id have liked to have seen the projects explore with a minimalist attitude. how little can you give them while making them useful and fulfilling their purpose?
- <Alch> SDS claims that the community will ruin the concept that I suggested
- <cartons> i think you stand to gain a lot more from that kind of approach
- <SevenDeadlySins> the argument is that a concept dependant on a cap having a certain specific power level will fail
- <SevenDeadlySins> because the community tends to overshoot the mark
- <SevenDeadlySins> and cartons i agree
- <SevenDeadlySins> i find the best pokemon are the ones that have amazingly precise movepools
- <Wyverii> Alch's concept mentions no such thing.
- <Alch> It isn't dependant on having a specific power level at all
- <SevenDeadlySins> take terakion, for example
- <Wyverii> Also a minimalist concept should in theory be legal. I think.
- <SevenDeadlySins> it has a pretty lame movepool, but it has the perfect moves to be fucking amazing
- <cartons> well, i just mean as an overall philosophy
- <SevenDeadlySins> mhm
- <Xaqwais> (fucking terakion)
- <SevenDeadlySins> remove the issue of "overshooting the mark"
- <Alch> it will be obvious if it overshoots the mark as you say, or if it falls under it
- <Alch> in which case it is changed
- <Wyverii> Sadly, when there's a lot of people with varying view points there's going to be comprimise which usually ends with things such as movepool bloating.
- <Alch> you simply cannot use that argument to pick flaws in the concept itself
- <Xaqwais> Alch, going back to specific problems with your concept, I see the major problem the fact taht too many pokemon fit your role too well anyway
- <Xaqwais> like SDS mentioned a bunch of examples through multiple tiers
- <Alch> not in this meta
- <Alch> or at least not yet
- <Xaqwais> victini
- <Alch> is hardly used
- <SevenDeadlySins> Alch: give it some time
- <SevenDeadlySins> a metagame is not generated in a day
- <SevenDeadlySins> or a month
- <Alch> obviously not
- <SevenDeadlySins> remember how you brought up venusaur?
- <Alch> mm
- <SevenDeadlySins> how long did it take for people to figure out all the awesome sets it could run
- <SevenDeadlySins> back when i still played uu venusaur was basically sd
- <SevenDeadlySins> and that was it
- <Alch> which period was that
- <SevenDeadlySins> maybe you saw a couple special ones
- <Alch> end of ducks?
- <Xaqwais> Swords dance lucario wasn't brought to prominence until a couple months into DP
- <Xaqwais> maybe more
- <SevenDeadlySins> beginning of ducks
- <SevenDeadlySins> i stopped playing in the cress meta
- <Alch> hm
- <SevenDeadlySins> it takes time for a metagame to mature
- <Alch> in my defense, I can't predict the future
- <Alch> I designed that concept for now, not two months time
- <SevenDeadlySins> and for less obvious movepool elements to make themselves known
- <Alch> in which time, as you say, so much could happen
- <Alch> and sd luke was more than a couple of months iirc
- <Xaqwais> I wasn't a early DP player, so I'm not quite sure
- <Xaqwais> I came into competitive at the start of DPP
- <SevenDeadlySins> even with sd luke there's divergence within the set
- <SevenDeadlySins> is it running ice punch or crunch or stone edge
- <SevenDeadlySins> bullet punch or extremespeed
- <SevenDeadlySins> or both?
- <SevenDeadlySins> agility started being used near the end of dp too
- <Alch> I've never encountered anyone running both
- <SevenDeadlySins> i have
- <Alch> and agility wasn't all that great
- <SevenDeadlySins> i know locopoke used to
- <Alch> in the concept I mention "excel"
- <Xaqwais> bp for gengar?
- <SevenDeadlySins> but the point is that different sets mean different checks
- <SevenDeadlySins> scarftar, xaq
- <Xaqwais> er
- <Xaqwais> yeah
- <Xaqwais> that thing
- <Xaqwais> heh
- <Alch> individually, sd works far better than agility
- <Alch> however
- <Alch> agility works because the meta shifted to counter sd
- <Alch> and the loop continues (in theory)
- <Alch> if a mon excels at both from the start, then this loop does not occur
- <SevenDeadlySins> but the point of versatility
- <Alch> and unpredictability sets in, which is what the concept seeks to explore
- <SevenDeadlySins> is that the counters to x set are beaten by y set, whose counters are beaten by z set, and so on
- <SevenDeadlySins> this is an observed phenomenon
- <SevenDeadlySins> and not one that requires more in-depth analysis through cap imo
- <Alch> "is that the counters...etc" explain this more please
- <Alch> I'm tired !_! xD
- <SevenDeadlySins> ok
- <Alch> oh I get you
- <SevenDeadlySins> your opponent is running mence
- <SevenDeadlySins> you bring in hippo to counter dd
- <SevenDeadlySins> and get owned by draco meteor from special mixmence
- <Alch> but this observed phenomenon is the loop that I was talking about
- <SevenDeadlySins> not really
- <Alch> the counters shift due to the set shifts
- <Alch> and so on
- <Alch> mence does not excel at both special mixmence and DD in the same periods
- <Alch> special mixmence may be good, but it doesn't excel
- <SevenDeadlySins> this is a silly argument
- <SevenDeadlySins> you're missing the point of versatility
- <Xaqwais> Then why do we need a cap to do this?
- <Alch> that's because its success is defined by meta shifts and not merits / diversity of the pokemon
- <SevenDeadlySins> and technically it excels at everything at all times
- <Xaqwais> not when of the many pokes that already fit?
- <SevenDeadlySins> the meta may shift
- <SevenDeadlySins> but that doesn't mean it's not good at doing it
- <SevenDeadlySins> also special mixmence was always good
- <Alch> "good" =/= "excels at"
- <SevenDeadlySins> as was dd
- <SevenDeadlySins> there's also choice band
- <SevenDeadlySins> or scarf, that one was fun
- <Alch> tell me, why was CB used over DD
- <Alch> what could CB do that DD couldn't
- <Xaqwais> hit hard from the start
- <SevenDeadlySins> immediate power, less susceptible to switchins, caught people off-guard
- <SevenDeadlySins> but you're missing the point
- <Alch> imo you're also missing the point
- <Alch> justify that
- <SevenDeadlySins> i have no idea what the hell that means
- <Alch> how am I missing the point
- <Alch> because I think that you're missing the point
- <SevenDeadlySins> the point was never "is this good in the meta"
- <SevenDeadlySins> that doesn't determine what sets a pokemon is good at running
- <SevenDeadlySins> obviously metagame shifts will make specific sets more desireable
- <SevenDeadlySins> which will make specific counters more desireable
- <SevenDeadlySins> which will make other sets more effective in the meta
- <Alch> yes
- <Alch> what I'm saying is having a dual purpose mon that excels at both
- <Alch> regardless of meta shifts
- <SevenDeadlySins> but that doesn't mean that at any point in time the pokemon isn't good at or capable of doing that
- <SevenDeadlySins> THAT DOESN'T EXIST
- <Alch> not yet it doesn't
- <SevenDeadlySins> that's what you're missing
- <Alch> CAP - Create a Pokemon
- <Alch> or come as close to it as possible
- <Alch> at least
- <Xaqwais> I'd argue that base 100 fairies can excel at any metagame
- <Xaqwais> but eh
- <SevenDeadlySins> also jirachi
- <SevenDeadlySins> which was a great example of a bunch of different sets coexisting
- <Xaqwais> does jirachi count as a base 100 fairy?
- <Alch> yes
- <SevenDeadlySins> or tyranitar
- <Alch> because it's base 100
- <Alch> I might get internet cut off soon
- <Alch> but I'll be back
- <Alch> !
- <SevenDeadlySins> but the point is
- <SevenDeadlySins> that saying a pokemon will be "equally good at 2 things" during every metagame is folly
- <SevenDeadlySins> there will always be 1 thing that is more effective due to the nature of the metagame
- <SevenDeadlySins> which will be focused on
- <SevenDeadlySins> thus making it "less effective" and causing a swing in the other direction
- <SevenDeadlySins> ad infinitum
- <SevenDeadlySins> "and the loop continues"
- <Alch> granted, it's impossible to make something completely immune
- <Alch> but we can likely get close
- <SevenDeadlySins> not really
- <Alch> how do you know
- <Xaqwais> I doubt it
- <Alch> you haven't tried
- <SevenDeadlySins> no, but i've seen pokemon in this loop
- <Xaqwais> It would requite constant adjustments, not something to be made in one go
- <Alch> ah my internet is gone
- <Alch> be back in about 10 mins
- <SevenDeadlySins> you can't say "this will be good at x and it will be good at y" because that depends on the metagame
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- <Xaqwais> with new event moves coming into the loop--
- * Alch has joined #battlecapacity
- <Alch> Powah
- <Alch> No I'll be on and off on this
- <Alch> *but
- <Alch> Where were we
- <Xaqwais> do you need logs?
- <Alch> Sevendeadlysins?
- <Alch> I was just thinking that
- <Alch> It would be helpful to post them with the concept too
- <SevenDeadlySins> anyway as we were
- <SevenDeadlySins> no pokemon is immune to metagame shifts
- <Alch> Do you mind doing that for me xaq? It'd be much appreciated
- <SevenDeadlySins> it's just not possible
- <Alch> There have been impossible things that have been proved possible
- <Alch> Certainly worth exploring
- <Alch> How close can we get?








