Fixed Pokemon but with Grinding Removed and Improved Battling Overhaul for Hardcore Balance
4No more grinding. No more EXP variability. If you beat a foe equal to your level or below it you gain 0 EXP. If you beat a foe above your level, you gain enough EXP to immediately reach that foe's level. If you catch a level 20 Pokemon and your foes are at level 60 it will only take one battle to get him ready to compete with the big boys. I don't believe in holding the speed up turbo button and grinding EXP from wild Pokemon encounters to complete 10 hours of grinding in just one hour. I don't believe in it. I'm a man with responsibilities. I cannot spend 300 hours playing Starfield. I didn't buy it. I don't have time for grindy slow-paced filler content. I also accelerated the level-gaining process by removing redundant information and you can skip the level-gaining process and move-learning prompts by holding CTRL.
In Wild Pokemon battles, you can press the Cancel button on the FIGHT/BAG/SWITCH/RUN menu to attempt to flee. The Bag cannot be opened during battle. Wild Pokemon and Shadow Pokemon can only be caught once defeated in battle. Join the evil team and you can steal non-Shadow Pokemon!
Wild Pokemon have 1.5x offense and 2x defense. Shadow Pokemon have 2x offense and 3x defense. Shadow Pokemon are immediately purified when caught. There are no Shadow-Type Pokemon that resist everything and have powerful Shadow-type moves that are super effective against everything because that would be broken.
Stats matter too much in Pokemon Battles. But every Pokemon has one or more types and should be able to shine because of these types. Type should matter more to your teambuilding than stats. My goal is to make a battle system where what you do during the battle is more important than what power you bring to the battle and whether the Pokemon has some absurdly busted move or not. To give more Pokemon good movesets, any Normal-type move not used by Normal-type Pokemon will match the user's first type.
Same-Type Attack Bonus or "STAB" is gone. Now there is there is OATH: Other Attack Type Handicap. A handicap for when your attack is some other type, not your Pokemon's type. If your Pokemon performs a move that doesn't match its type, the damage is quartered.
If your Pokemon performs a Super Effective attack that matches its user's type, that's a Super Effective Critical Strike. That's right, SECS! A guaranteed Critical Hit. If you want to win, believe in SECS.
Moves will never randomly miss or crit or deal randomized damage, and RNG-based optional move effects are guaranteed to trigger if you perform a Super Effective Critical Strike and never trigger otherwise. The outcome of battles should never be swayed by luck.
If a Pokemon's two types are weak to an attack, causing a Hyper Effective attack, the Pokemon will take 3x damage from the attack, not 4x damage.
If a Super Effective attack matches the user's type, it will inflict a Super Effective Critical Strike, making the foe Flinch for a turn and further doubling the attack's damage.
Therefore, a Super Effective attack that matches your type inflicts 4x damage, and a Hyper Effective attack that matches your type inflicts 6x damage.
A Super Effective Critical Strike will also knock the target down. If the opponent has not yet moved, it cannot move that turn.
In the canon Pokemon games, say a 100bp move is used, and it gets STAB bonus for 1.5x, so that's 150bp, and it hits super-effectively, so that's 300bp. If you get lucky it's a critical hit, that's another 1.5x damage for 450bp.
In this game, if a 100bp move is used, its power is reduced to 25bp if it doesn't match your type. If it does match your type, and it's Super Effective, this Super Effective Critical Strike deals 4x damage. A consistent 400bp nuke that can stop your foe from doing anything, and all you had to do was get the type matchup right. If both of your foe's types are weak to the attack, that Super Effective Critical Strike deals 6x damage instead for 600bp.
When Poison is inflicted, Toxic Poison will be inflicted by Poison-type Pokemon. Standard Poison will be inflicted by everyone else.
Poisoned and Toxic Poisoned Pokemon cannot be healed, and deal halved damage to Poison-type Pokemon.
There are other changes, but you'll find out about them later.