This is really more a question for the Data Audit Thread.
Something I feel rather strongly on, and that I believe merits some serious discussion here: RolePlay slots. The fact remains that, as the amount of RPs we have increases, the number of RPs that each person is in will increase, thereby increasing the amount of work that our refs have to do. If we limit the amount of RolePlays that any given player can participate in, we reduce the load on our refs and make it possible for ASB's roleplays to expand without requiring exorbitant amounts of work.
TL;DR we need to regulate RPs somehow, a la the three-match limit.
I love this idea. The fact of the matter is, when something has 4 or 5 out of Protect/Detect/Double Team/Substitute/Fly/Dig/Dive/Counter/Mirror Coat/Bide/Agility (and keep in mind that 99% of Pokemon are guaranteed to have Protect/Double Team/Substitute and that there's other evasion/fuck you up for doing something moves that I'm likely forgetting) 2 subs simply isn't enough to avoid getting screwed over. While I do agree that punishing someone for buying useless moves is unfair, there should be some sort of good/very good move distinction that determines subs. They do it for CAP, I don't see why we can't do it here (especially since we could just use their list with a few ASB-centric changes)Huh, could this be balanced with something like the CAP movepool requirements? IE, some moves are useful and some are not? And only useful ones count? I think it would be more complicated, but more fair as well. alsoitsyourfaultforbuyingfuckingsludgeonswampert
Rock Slide: The Pokemon summons a wide swath of boulders from the ground to fall on the foe. The suddenness of the impact can cause the opponent to flinch. This move targets up to three (3) adjacent opponents in a multi-battle.
Rock Slide can target up to three adjacent opponents in a multiple battle.
Hmm. Game theory time.
Why can't I sub against Protect and Detect in the same substitution? Or against both Night Slash and Crunch, or against both Glare and Thunder Wave? It seems like it makes sense at first glance, you're basically saying "If he falls back on his non-conditional mid-range physical Dark moves, do X."
Way to strawman, friend."If he uses a physical move, use Counter; if he uses a special move, use Mirror Coat"
Seems legit.Neutral: No Benefits to any type.
A bit underwhelming, but I suppose boosting such moves as Crustle's Rock Blast and Parasect's Bullet Seed isn't totally out of the question. This really doesn't do anything for "real" Bugs, such as Heracross, Yanmega, Scizor, Volcarona, Galvantula, etc. Maybe boost the effect chance of their moves? There really isn't a one-size-fits-all answer for the Bug-type.Bug: Always wins Speed ties. +1 BAP on Multi-Hit Moves.
Immunity to Accuracy fuckery is excellent, I'll give it that. It also opens the floor for arenas shrouded in fogs and shadows, which is appropriate flavor-wise. The boost to flinch rates is somewhat pointless, though. Friends like Houndoom appreciate the 30% flinch rate, but it pales compared to other arena effects. I think Dark-type status moves are what should get the love here - after all, such staples as Taunt, Torment, Snatch, and Embargo are hallmarks of the type.Dark: Immune to Accuracy Stat reduction. +10% added to Bite and Dark Pulse flinch chance.
Dragons live in some very densely populated Speed tiers, so the tiebreaking effect is very welcome in this instance. The reduction to Ice BAP isn't very fun - it's either -1.5 or -2.25 damage on Ice moves, which only serves to suppress creative ways around common weaknesses. Adding is always more fun than subtracting; I think boosting moves with "Dragon" in their name (e.g. everything except Outrage and Draco Meteor, wink wink) is the way to go here. What manner of boost is up to you.Dragon: Always wins Speed ties. -1BAP on Ice Moves aimed at Dragon-type Pokemon.
Again, reducing the BAP of a weakness is boring - mono-type arenas are more exciting if they result in an alteration of tactics. (Almost every Electric-type gets Magnet Rise, anyway.) Half of all Electric move feature a paralysis chance - including the non-damaging moves - so perhaps bumping of the resulting paralysis to full 25% strength or boosting the effect chance would be in order.Electric: Always wins Speed ties. -1BAP on Ground Moves aimed at Electric-type Pokemon.
No particular complaints here; this leads to the boosting of the Fighting-types often threatening coverage, e.g. Blaziken's Blaze Kick, elemental Punches, Mach Punch, HJK, etc.Fighting: Immune to Attack Stat reduction. +1BAP on "Punch" and "Kick" moves.
Again with the "speed ties/weakness reduction" spiel. Fire types almost always carry Sunny Day, even, and it doesn't help against SE Rock- or Ground-type attacks. A Fire arena should be offensive, causing contact with a Fire-type to cause a point of damage, or something to that effect.Fire: Always wins Speed ties. -1BAP on Water Moves aimed at Fire-type Pokemon.
Speed stat protection is pretty cool here, considering a lot of Flyers break 100 Speed naturally. It'd be cool if Paralysis had less of a reduction in a Flying arena, but oh well. The accuracy boost is sort of welcome (Sky Attack/Air Slash/Hurricane), but it really only shines on very specific mons' moves, e.g. Staraptor's Sky Attack, Dragonite's Hurricane, or Togekiss' Air Slash). HOWEVER, considering the Flying-type's sheer diversity, this probably isn't a problem.Flying: Immune to Speed Stat reduction (paralysis still lowers speed). +10 Base Accuracy on Flying-type moves.
This is an excellent boost, at least in terms of the BAP boost. All of the common Ghosts share the same speed tier (110) and they share the tier with little else (Archeops, Tauros, Espeon, and Jumpluff are all rarely seen), meaning for the most part these Speed ties are getting rolled anyway. (If gastly is considered, then tying in the base 80 tier is a concern; which perhaps justifies the tiebreaker boost.) Maybe consider boosting the accuracy of direct-status moves, in the same vein as Mean Look (if not the same boost)?Ghost: Always wins Speed ties. +1 BAP on "Shadow" Moves (e.g. Shadow Ball, Shadow Sneak, Shadow Punch).
The GrassWhistle buff here is incredible and it's difficult to ask for more, really. HOWEVER, the three moves you listed are the only moves subject to the buff. Of those, only GrassWhistle isn't 100% accurate normally. Just something to consider.Grass: Immune to Special Defense Stat Reduction. No Accuracy check on "Grass" Moves. (E.g. Grass Knot, Grass Pledge, GrassWhistle)
The evasion buff synergizes well with Sandstorm abuse, but the accuracy is likely to go underused - all of the main Ground-type attacks (Earthquake, Earth Power, Dig) enjoy 100% accuracy. The benefit applies to Drill Run, Bonemerang, and Fissure for the most part. If that's fine, then that's fine I suppose; just something to mention.Ground: Immune to Evasion Stat reduction. +10 Base Accuracy on Ground-type moves.
This has much the same issue as the Ground-type accuracy buff. The main (non-Blizzard) Ice-type attacks enjoy 100% accuracy, being Ice Beam, Icicle Spear, Ice Shard, Ice Punch, and Avalanche. The only attack that would be able to abuse this buff effectively, Blizzard, is already being abused with perfect accuracy under Hail conditions. Ice Pokemon are often fairly defensive, so this is one type that would enjoy a BAP reduction to their weaknesses.Ice: Always win Speed ties. +10 Base Accuracy on Ice-type moves.
Okay, I will concede that there's really no room for experimentation here. Normal-type Pokémon are too diverse to all enjoy a benefit from anything more specific.Normal: -1BAP on Fighting Moves aimed at Normal-type Pokemon. +10 Base Accuracy on Normal-type moves.
This is disappointing, but understandable - Poison-typing appears on some of the most powerful Pokémon in ASB (oh no not geeennngarrrr again, ~oooooo~), but even then the Poison-type STAB will almost never see use, even with a BAP increase. Now, if these moves had a higher chance to inflict Poison, inflicted Bad Poison, or both, I could see quite a few mons falling back on their oft-forgotten "other" STAB...Poison: Always wins Speed ties. +1BAP on all moves with a Poison-inflicting effect.
The Sp. Atk. protection would be wholly welcome if more things reduced the stat (they don't, really). I'll second the suggestion to extend the Room moves, Screens, and/or other nonstandard effects (Telekinesis, Gravity, Role Play, Miracle Eye) that the Psychic-type so obviously excels at.Psychic: Immune to Special Attack Stat reduction. +10 Base Accuracy on Psychic-type moves.
I'd perhaps protect both Defense stats, and maybe increase the BAP of "Stone" moves too. I don't really know, there's not a whole lot to the Rock-type beyond "take hits and deal them." Maybe buffering a few of those weaknesses...?Rock: Immune to Defense Stat reduction. +1 BAP on "Rock" Moves (E.g. Rock Throw, Rock Tomb, Rock Wrecker).
The users of Acid moves are rather rare, and most Steel-types can rapidly dispatch them with Ground moves anyway. What I'd look in to is the frequency of Steel-type damaging moves that modify a stat - Meteor Mash can raise Attack, Steel Wing can raise Defense, Mirror Shot can lower Accuracy, and so on. Either increasing the effect chance of stat-changing Steel-type attacks, or increasing the stage boost of Steel-type moves might be a welcome buff. +3/+2 Shift Gear, anyone?Steel: Immune to the corrosive effects of Acid and Acid Spray. +1BAP on "Iron" and "Steel" Moves (E.g. Iron Head, Iron Tail, Steel Wing)
Again with tiebreakers and weakness buffering. Most mono-water arenas will be used by at least one Water/Ground anyway. This is probably the most difficult to assess, as both Water Pokémon and Water moves are extremely diverse. Activation of Rain abilities is a step in the right direction, but is probably far too overpowering. Maybe guaranteeing the presence of deep, swimmable water sources (at the expense of land-based Pokémon, maybe) could be a welcome change with very strong anime precedent, even!Water: Always wins speed ties. -1BAP on Electric moves aimed at Water-type Pokemon.
Way to strawman, friend.
No, I said what I said because that's what allowing substitutions against groups of moves would allow, unless you can suggest completely objective ways of defining very small groups of moves. "Extremely similar moves" is still too subjective. "Moves that have exactly the same effect" might work, though I don't think there are any two attacking moves with exactly the same effect when you consider that, unlike most non-attacking moves, typing makes a world of difference with attacking moves.
It wasn't a straw man, it was a logical extension of your proposal and your lack of specific, objective definition.