Smogon Simple Questions & Suggestions Thread

Hey guys, I'm a trash pokemon battler that can't even beat those who are even worse and needs to share his frustrations to calm himself down. So what I'd like to cry to u about today is the matchmaking/scoring system of PS ladder battles. Basically what I find flawed/not particularly fair is that u can be high in ranks, get matched with someone much lower, then battle them for like 6-8 points while risking to lose even 40+ if u're defeated. This is especially common in lower tiers since they're not as overpopulated as UU/OU, so sometimes there might just not be anyone with rank similar to yours online and as a result u get matched with whoever's available at that moment, often someone much lower if ur rank is high. Thing is, low rank doesn't always equal low skill, a lot of people make alt accounts to test stuff, or are other tier veterans who are giving a low tier a try etc, which in practice may as well mean that u're battling someone with similar skill level even if the rank difference is a few hundred points. Not to mention low ranks are typically full of gimmick teams that aren't so unlikely to give u a hard time, or u can just get haxed or face a counter team and struggle for your 6 points. I'm sure everyone would rather wait a bit longer in the ladder queue and face an opponent of similar rank than risk 3-4x as much points for very little potenial gains in a battle that's often unproportionally difficult.

So what are my suggestions then? Got a few thoughts on it, maybe something will interest u.

1. First of all, we could make a try at altering the point gain calculations to better match the user's actual experience and skill rather than just base on their rank alone. The formula could take into account the total games played by each user in the tier, since having 1200 rank after 100 battles (just a random example) isn't the same as having 1200 after 7 battles with 100% win ratio, the latter meaning that the player could have prepared a working team beforehand to climb quickly (possibly by testing stuff on another account...) and/or has higher skills than their battle history would suggest. They could battle a 1500 guy on a level playing field while the potential point gains would differ greatly for both sides. Having a variable that depends on both users total battle count in the formula rather than plainly compare their rank could help mitigate the difference. There could and maybe should also be another variable with a smaller impact on the final results that would reflect an user's overall laddering experience in PS, in other words how many battles they have in all tiers combined. This would especially help deal with the plague of alt accounts. The downside is that new but already skilled players would have harder time rising in ranks fast, I'll address this issue later tho.

2. Make a player only gain/lose a portion of normally acquired points till they reach a fixed numbers of battles in a tier, for example 50 per tier. It could be something like 25% or whatever. This would greatly help with the issues mentioned above while not holding back new users for too long if the number of required battles is reasonable.

3. Set a limit on how big the point difference between both players can be, for example 200, so at 1500 u can only encounter ppl who have 1300+ or 1700-. This could differ among tiers and even rank levels within the same tier since there's a wider point variety in higher tiers and 1500 in PU isn't the same as 1500 in OU. This would make people in (mainly) lower tiers wait longer for their battles, personally I wouldn't mind that at all if it solved the main problem, but that's just my opinion.

4. Separate the winner's and loser's point calculations so they don't necessarily have to gain/lose the same amount of points, for example if the winner is much lower and gets 40 points for winning, the loser would still only have 5 subtracted from his count. Both calculations would depend on the rank difference as always and would be inversely proportional, so it would work just like it does now if both users have similar rank. Incidentally, why is it even that the winner always gets the same amount of points that the loser loses? Kinda looks like a fundamentally unfair design to me for a ladder system but it might be just that I don't fully grasp how it works, I suppose?

Or it could just be a mix of all this, or something entirely different. These are just some random ideas that I wanted to put up for discussion, not sure if there's even any chance of changing the current calculation system but won't hurt to try since the current one appeared to me as imperfect. Lemme know what ur thoughts on this are guys (or just treat it as crying of a noob that it indeed is and ignore it).
 
After looking around for a little while I've given up finding an answer elsewhere to my question. What are my options when it comes to battling solo on PS? I haven't run across any rules against it, but I know one cannot register multiple accounts to avoid a ban so playing against yourself would appear prohibited. When considering my options I found one cannot play unrated randbats via challenging. Which means challenging yourself would essentially be considered rank inflating.(I wouldn't mind if my rank were made -X or 0 indefinitely.)

I remember reading somewhere about users bots you can play. Are those still in use? What are their names?

I'm wanting to simply return to PS and practice randbats without being rushed. To take my time and get acquainted again with all the move sets, types, teams, and meta. Thanks for your time.
 

Quite Quiet

I need a kitchen knife that doesn't whisper to me
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After looking around for a little while I've given up finding an answer elsewhere to my question. What are my options when it comes to battling solo on PS? I haven't run across any rules against it, but I know one cannot register multiple accounts to avoid a ban so playing against yourself would appear prohibited. When considering my options I found one cannot play unrated randbats via challenging. Which means challenging yourself would essentially be considered rank inflating.(I wouldn't mind if my rank were made -X or 0 indefinitely.)

I remember reading somewhere about users bots you can play. Are those still in use? What are their names?

I'm wanting to simply return to PS and practice randbats without being rushed. To take my time and get acquainted again with all the move sets, types, teams, and meta. Thanks for your time.
Games started by directly challenging another player (not through the battle button on the left side) are considered unrated and won't change your ranking. So if you want to play against yourself, simply open two Showdown windowns, pick two different names, and challenge yourself as much as you'd like.
 
Games started by directly challenging another player (not through the battle button on the left side) are considered unrated and won't change your ranking. So if you want to play against yourself, simply open two Showdown windowns, pick two different names, and challenge yourself as much as you'd like.
Great. Thank you. ^.^
 

Ivy

resident enigma
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I'm wondering if moves like grass knot and electro ball solely depend on weight and speed or is special attack involved as well
Yeah they aren't like Seismic Toss (set damage); these moves change their base power based on those conditions. Grass Knot against a heavy opponent gives the user 120BP for the move, simply the same as using a normal 120BP move.
 
I'm wondering if moves like grass knot and electro ball solely depend on weight and speed or is special attack involved as well
Special Attack is involved as well. Grass Knot and Electro Ball both have formulas that determine their base power against a given target, and that base power is fed into the regular damage calculation formula:

Where Level is the level of the attacker, Power is the base power of the move being used, A is the relevant offensive stat of the attacker, D is the relevant defensive stat of the target, and Modifier is stuff like weather and stat changes.

AAAAND I got greninja'd.
 
I'm wondering if moves like grass knot and electro ball solely depend on weight and speed or is special attack involved as well
The base power depends on weightmass (anything measured in kg is mass) and speed, and the damage that the moves ends up doing depends on both the base power (and indirectly depends on the mass or speed) and the special attack stat. It's like how gusts's base power is always 40 but can deal different amounts of damage if the user's special attack is different.
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I also got ninja'd.
 
Another question, still trying to learn more about competitive pokemon: I heard you want a special wall and a physical wall, why is it that smogon suggests some pokemon to build physical defense when the special defense is stronger?
 
Another question, still trying to learn more about competitive pokemon: I heard you want a special wall and a physical wall, why is it that smogon suggests some pokemon to build physical defense when the special defense is stronger?
It's not always a good idea to put EVs in the strongest stats. Put EVs wherever they make the biggest difference in your Pokemon's performance. What stats most improve a Pokemon's performance all depends on the format you're playing and the Pokemon that opponents often use in that format. I don't play very many formats myself, but I know that in USM OU, one very common attack is Landorus's earthquake, so being able to survive the earthquake is very useful. Let's say you're using a Chansey with no physical defense investment.

148 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 244 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Chansey: 564-664 (80.3 - 94.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

If you switched this Chansey into an earthquake, then your opponent can just knock out Chansey the next turn. If you switch it in safely, then the opponent will still be able to spam earthquake and out-damage your softboiled. However, if you give it max physical defense...

148 Atk Landorus-Therian Earthquake vs. 244 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 220-259 (31.3 - 36.8%) -- 76.3% chance to 3HKO

Your Chansey suddenly becomes able to wall Landorus. It's more useful than the zero-physical-defense Chansey.
 
Greetings! I have a question when it comes to writing posts here in the site.
How can I put any other word in these kind of "tabs" (not sure if that's the correct name) that isn't hide?
 
i'd ask a mod to get help with that
thats the thing tho, I apealed the ban, they immediate block me from making tickets or chatting directly with mods.
Are there mods from that site on this site?

Heres what happened:

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-833768399

I want room public, opp wants room private. After I win we both stay in the room and /ioo on and off for a long time. Eventually mod comes in and shuts down the room.

Then this conversation.
ronquavious tabo: hello
ronquavious tabo: i have a question....?
&HoeenHero: hi
&HoeenHero: if someone wants it private they can have it private
ronquavious tabo: HoeenHero did you delete my room?
&HoeenHero: yes
ronquavious tabo: why did you delete it?
&HoeenHero: to prevent it from being made public again
ronquavious tabo: butI wanted it public
ronquavious tabo: way does his opinion matter more?
ronquavious tabo: im just wondering
&HoeenHero: you can still link your friends the replay if you want
ronquavious tabo: i know
ronquavious tabo: but why are yall catering to his wants?
ronquavious tabo: and not mine?
&HoeenHero: and technically the code should prevent one side from overriding the other's private status
ronquavious tabo: theres nothing in Global Rules
ronquavious tabo: this kinda smacks of favoritism towards that guy
&HoeenHero: thats my call on it, based on the code and you can still link the replay anywways
ronquavious tabo: that was a good win for me and Iwant it public.
&HoeenHero: so, drop it
ronquavious tabo: why does his wants matter more than mine?
&HoeenHero: i explained it already im not doing it again
ronquavious tabo: he wants it private to be difficult, I want it public cause it was a milestone
&HoeenHero: drop the issue or your getting locked
ronquavious tabo: I just think my reason is more valid
ronquavious tabo: youve never answred my question, you beiing totalitarian, just like that guy bayb
ronquavious tabo: why favor one user over the other?


Then immediately banned, I appeal, double secret probabtion, boom, now Im here. Are there any mods on this site who are also mods over there? I really feel like my appeal should at least not be a sham half seccond fake appeal.
 

Merritt

no comment
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Head TD
well its a long story, but its ends with me being banned. :( Unfairly I believe.
Here's the Pokemon Showdown SQSA thread.

If you're specifically looking to appeal your ban then don't use that thread. Follow the instructions below.

If it was a room specific punishment then you need to contact the roomstaff of that room to appeal. Use /roomauth [ROOMNAME] to find who are the staff in that room.

If it was a server wide punishment (AND NOT A ROOM PUNISHMENT) then read this post and follow the instructions there to make an appeal. Again. Read the entire post. Don't skip right to making the appeal without reading the entire post.
 

Quite Quiet

I need a kitchen knife that doesn't whisper to me
is a Site Content Manageris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
TFP Leader
...what

The original reason was cleared up in the appeal that was posted in the PS forum. I've gone ahead and deleted all the posts that kept on pressing this, and also for some reason brought up sex?? Continuing this is pointless, and might get you infracted on the forums too, so please don't.
 

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