Done Team Preview information before Gen 5

[The Official Glyx]

The recent change (namely the discussion surrounding it) to make the "Mail" item have a unique sprite in Team Preview has made me realize somewhat of an oversight in how the "Team Preview" mod works for gens older than BW. In gens before BW, Team Preview didn't exist, and as such, the item status (whether or not a pokemon has an item at all, as well as whether or not that item is Mail) of the opponent was unknown until you saw it used/Frisked/Tricked/Knocked Off/etc after the battle had already begun, though currently, the Team Preview mod for gens 2-4 results in the opponent's item status being shown to the player. With this in mind, I think it'd make more sense for items in Team Previews for these gens to act more akin to how gen 8 Team Preview works, in that it doesn't show the opponent's item status at all. I get that Team Preview existing at all in these formats is a bit of a subjective matter with how implementation works, though I feel that this would be the most faithful to how the base games operate.

Also, if this change gets approved, it would be very appreciated if it could get done quickly since the sudden Mail change drastically impacts the DPP 1v1 meta and 1v1 World Cup just started

 

[Trashuny]

So while I do agree the mail visibility should probably be patched out, and fast, we should also decide what kind of fake team preview we are going to have.

Urfgurgle looked on Pokemon Battle Revolution, which is a gen 4 based spin off similar to Pokemon Stadium. This has team preview, and shows if a poke has an item or not.

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I know this is a spin off and those are probably unimportant to smogon, but it's the closest we have to team preview in gen 4 I think. Or we could just ignore this like we ignore how U-Turn, Zoroark, and other mechanics work on cartridge compared to how they work in 1v1. This is not a big deal in gen 4, because besides Thief strats, there's really not any reason to not have an item. But still, I think we should think about whether to show items or not regardless.

 

[Zarel]

I would definitely use the Stadium-likes (which have always had Team Preview) as our measure for what to show and not show in Team Preview. Barring that, I would use the closest generation with the mechanic (in this case Gen 5) to decide how to implement it.

So I suppose Mail would be shown unless there's a game or spinoff with Team Preview that allows Mail as a held item (I'm told the Stadium-likes don't allow it).

 

[Urfgurgle]

I would definitely use the Stadium-likes (which have always had Team Preview) as our measure for what to show and not show in Team Preview. Barring that, I would use the closest generation with the mechanic (in this case Gen 5) to decide how to implement it.

So I suppose Mail would be shown unless there's a game or spinoff with Team Preview that allows Mail as a held item (I'm told the Stadium-likes don't allow it).

In the screenshots above, taken in Pokemon Battle Revolution (the gen 4 Stadium-like), you can see Uxie is holding mail but it only shows as a regular item in team preview.

 

[Marty]

Or we could just ignore this like we ignore how U-Turn, Zoroark, and other mechanics work on cartridge compared to how they work in 1v1.

Could you clarify what you mean by this? What does 1v1 do in those cases you mentioned, and what do you think happens in-game?

Meanwhile, I'm just going to implement Team Preview for Gen 4 and earlier like Gen 6 and 7 (which is like Battle Revolution).

 

[Trashuny]

Could you clarify what you mean by this? What does 1v1 do in those cases you mentioned, and what do you think happens in-game?

Meanwhile, I'm just going to implement Team Preview for Gen 4 and earlier like Gen 6 and 7 (which is like Battle Revolution).

I mean that if you were to play something like SwSh 1v1 on cartridge, and you lead off with a u-turn poke and then use the move, the entire battle would be screwed up since you have the other pokes in your party that you would need to send in. In 1v1 on PS!, you just don't switch out. I don't know exactly how Zoroark works, but I would assume that since you have 3 pokes in your party, you would pretend to be a different one if you led off with the Zoroark. In 1v1 on PS!, Zoroark's ability is useless, but I imagine it wouldn't be on cartridge.

I also don't know if the equivalent of battle revolution in gen 3 allows and shows mail at team preview, so I think it should be looked into. I would assume it doesn't, though.

 

[Marty]

I mean that if you were to play something like SwSh 1v1 on cartridge, and you lead off with a u-turn poke and then use the move, the entire battle would be screwed up since you have the other pokes in your party that you would need to send in. In 1v1 on PS!, you just don't switch out. I don't know exactly how Zoroark works, but I would assume that since you have 3 pokes in your party, you would pretend to be a different one if you led off with the Zoroark. In 1v1 on PS!, Zoroark's ability is useless, but I imagine it wouldn't be on cartridge.

As I understand it, 1v1 is bring 3 choose 1, which means you're only actually using 1 Pokemon in the battle. If you only bring 1 Pokemon into battle, U-turn won't switch you out and Zoroark won't be disguised as anything because there's only 1 Pokemon in your party. That's exactly how the game works.

Anyway, this is done and live!

 

[Zarel]

In the screenshots above, taken in Pokemon Battle Revolution (the gen 4 Stadium-like), you can see Uxie is holding mail but it only shows as a regular item in team preview.

Ah, I thought I heard someone say it didn't let you hold Mail. In that case, yeah, I would show items but not show Mail in Gen 4 and below.