Sorry for the double post but I didn't want people who might be interested to miss this (which would probably happen if I did an edit).
I've been doing some more type testing over the past few days. This was the theory that I proposed before:
I think I have been looking at this a bit wrong. Initially I thought that each area had its own preference rate and that this rate was EQUAL for all types that prefer it (so Fire, Fighting and Rock would all boost the rate of Rugged Mountain to the same percentage). However, these tests make me think that not only does each type prefer its own area, but each type boosts the rate of the preferred area by its own unique amount!
I thought that it might be true and suggested some testing for Mountain types, but then Rock turned out to change preferences after Icy Cave opened up...
So I tried to focus on Manor. I tucked in Mismagius and got the following:
Manor: 90 (68%)
Sea: 7 (5%)
Sky: 7 (5%)
Cave: 7 (5%)
Mountain: 10 (8%)
Forest: 11 (9%)
Obviously we know that Ghost favours Manor, but what's interesting is the rate. Compare that to what Lrrr got for Psychic:
Forest: 41
Sea: 44
Sky: 57
Mountain: 53
Manor: 235
Cave: 49
And Dark:
Forest: 55
Sea: 30
Sky: 61
Mountain: 49
Manor: 255
Cave: 55
Basically, Dark and Psychic boost Manor to about 50% but Ghost boosts it to a higher rate. The actual rate I got should be considered tentative due to the smaller sample size, but it does seem to be higher which is what's important and it supports my theory.
I've also been doing some more tests involving dual types.
Firstly, I did a test with Vanilluxe:
Cave: 135 (69%)
Manor: 16 (8%)
Forest: 10 (5%)
Sky: 12 (6%)
Mountain: 9 (5%)
Sea: 15 (8%)
I then tucked in Jynx and got:
Cave: 59 (40%)
Manor: 39 (26%)
Forest: 17 (12%)
Mountain: 11 (8%)
Sky: 9 (6%)
Sea: 10 (7%)
Jynx has a stronger preference for the Cave than the Manor. This is to be expected if Ice boosts Cave to a higher rate (about 70%) than Psychic boosts Manor (about 50%). What is interesting is that the rate that Ghost boosts Manor to is similar to what Ice boosts Cave to (both are about 70%).
So what I want to do is tuck in a Froslass. If the rates are correct then I would expect that Froslass would favour Cave and Manor equally (unlike Ice/Psychic and Ice/Dark types who would have a bias for the Cave). If this goes as expected then it would further prove that types can be unique in the rates that they boost their preferred areas to. Alternatively, I could try Drifloon/Drifblim, since I have data for Ghost and I can just use Lrrr's data for Flying (in this case Sky and Manor should be favoured evenly if I'm right).
I think this is important because it would be useful for players to know which types they should use if they want to go to a particular area. For example, assuming Ghost does produce a stronger effect, people looking to go to the Manor should be tucking in a Ghost type rather than a Psychic or Dark type. So if this is true, I might have a go at testing all the types and comparing those types that prefer the same area. I honestly don't care about the specific percentages but if certain types have a stronger effect than others then I think people should know so that they know which types are truely the best ones to use.
