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Focus Meter System [v20.1]

v20.1 Focus Meter System [v20.1] v1.1.2

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Overview Updates (12) Reviews (5) History Discussion
This resource pertains to version 20.1 of Pokémon Essentials.
Pokémon Essentials Version
v20.1 ➖
​
Focus Meter System for v20.1
A battle system mod that allows you to control traditionally RNG-based mechanics through building a meter instead.
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Overview
Do you dislike the heavy reliance on RNG in Pokemon battles? Looking to add a new strategic edge to your battles? Then this plugin may be just what you're looking for!
This plugin aims to overhaul the bulk of RNG-based mechanics present in Pokemon battles with a new "Focus" mechanic that removes a lot of what makes Pokemon battles often feel cheap and unpredictable, and replaces it with something that deepens the gameplay with more meaningful decision making. In particular, the Critical Hit system, Accuracy/Evasion stats, and Additional Effect chance of moves as they currently exist in the base game are radically changed to be more fair, yet still retain the fun and flavor that have made them a mainstay in the series. Gone are the days of a rogue critical hit ruining your entire strategy, relying on dice rolls as your opponent stalls you out with Evasion spam, or feeling completely cheated because of a random Ice Beam freezing you.

Instead of all of these mechanics being completely dependent on random chance, each Pokemon may now build their "Focus" in battle, which is represented as a meter. Once the meter is full, they can harness this Focus to ensure that these RNG-dependent mechanics will instead trigger when you want them to. For example, instead of critical hits having a random chance of happening with each attack, critical hits will instead ONLY happen if a Pokemon with a full focus meter spends this meter to deal critical damage. The type of effect using your focus meter will have can be set on each individual Pokemon, allowing you to use many different sorts of strategies utilizing the focus meter.

Note however, that this plugin does not eliminate all RNG altogether. Random chance is deeply built into the battle system and part of what makes battles exciting. The goal here is to simply mitigate the more egregious examples of obnoxious RNG into an improved system that can be utilized in battle for powerful combos.

Plugin Features
  • RNG overhaul for the entire battle system.
  • Introduces a new meter mechanic that builds up during battle.
  • Adds a new Pokemon property called "Focus Styles" that allows you to customize how each of your Pokemon may utilize their meter in battle.
  • Several different visual styles for displaying the focus meter that can be customized in the plugin settings.
  • A new "focus panel" pane that can be pulled up during battle to view the current focus levels of all battlers.
  • Compatible with existing save files, so starting a new game isn't required for installation.
  • Inherent compatibility with the ZUD Plugin.


Installation
  • Download and install the latest version of the Essentials Deluxe plugin. To reiterate, this is required for this plugin to work.
  • Download this plugin using the link provided and extract its contents to your root Essentials folder.
  • Use the Settings file located in this plugin's folder to adjust things to your liking.
  • IMPORTANT: If you plan on using other plugins that replaces or overwrites your entire Items, Moves, or Abilities PBS files, such as the Gen 9 Pack, then you must install this plugin AFTER installing those first. If you install this one first, then any PBS changes applied by this plugin will be overwritten the second those plugins are installed, thus rendering certain features of this plugin useless. Please keep that in mind before claiming that this plugin doesn't work.

Please refer to the PokeCommunity thread for in depth tutorials on all mechanics added by this plugin.
Credits
Lucidious89
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Author
Lucidious89
Downloads
2,429
Views
6,832
First release
Last update

Ratings

4.71 star(s) 7 ratings
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Latest updates

  1. v1.1.2 Update

    ATTENTION! Final Update! With the release of Essentials v21, this will be the final update for...

  2. v1.1.1 Update

    IMPORTANT This update requires v1.2.5 of Essentials Deluxe to be installed. That update requires...

  3. v1.1 Update

    Tweaked the midbattle triggers that check for Focus usage in a Deluxe battle. Made it so that...
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Latest reviews

Blakeline
This feels like a really cool gimmick with a lot of potential, it's so unique and can add so much to battles ! The one thing I would add is pretty much what other people have said, that being adding an option to not completely remove rng (at least the one involved with a Pokémon's focus), but even then it makes sense that if you're gonna have a way to proc these events, you shouldn't be able to both have them be random and determined at the same time.

I really hope this is brought back to 21.1 someday, as from what I've seen it doesn't seem to be planned at least for now. Still a really great plugin overall.
Lucidious89
Lucidious89
I really doubt itll come to v21. I barely have time to complete the plugins I actually want to work on, and this one is near the bottom of the priority list.

This plugin was always more of a proof of concept for me, anyway. More of a showcase of what I would do to solve Pokemon's RNG issues if I was the one in charge at Game Freak lol. The fact that I made it at all is enough for me; I made my vision a reality. That was always more of the point of this plugin for me, and less about people actually using it for their games. That's why this feels kinda "done" to me, and I feel little incentive to rehash it again with a port.
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M
This plugin is an absolute must-have to make difficult Pokemon battles so much less annoying. No need to reset battles after unlucky RNG streaks. Moreover, this plugin allows for new strategies to play around with as well!
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W
Extremely cool idea that could make battles more interesting! It feels like a regional gimmic, like style moves from Legends Arceus, and the effort and skill clearly put into this is very impressive. I would love a "lite" version that includes focus, but also includes pokemon's normal RNG. I love the idea of having these guaranteed effects, but I also don't like the idea of taking away all crits, and added effects of moves. I really like crits and the added effects of moves; some things like Poison Fang's 50% of poisoning doesn't feel particularly random to me anyway due to its extremely high effect chance, and so instead this feels like it's nerfing Poison Fang and moves like it. Same with moves like Slash, 1/24 chance to crit jumping to 1/8, then to 1/2 with Focus Energy also doesn't feel especially random to me, it feels like the added effect of the move Slash, and I don't think I'd enjoy Slash being stronger Tackle that builds a meter, instead of a distinct move with a distinct identity, and I think it would be very cool if instead Slash was a distinct move with a distinct identity that builds a meter. I'd also love to see a version where Focused Dodge isn't a guarantied miss for everything but moves like Aerial Ace, and instead maxes out evasion for the turn.
Lucidious89
Lucidious89
I appreciate the feedback. I can see the argument for keeping RNG, it's just that the mission statement of this concept was "eliminate RNG wherever possible", so that's what it ended up being built and balanced around. A happy medium could probably work too, but that wasn't the goal going in. I tried to still keep the identity of certain moves by simply having them be more effective at building meter; Poison Fang for instance will build your meter by 50% or more in one turn, compared to something like Poison Sting which would only build around a fifth of your meter. This ends up being roughly equivalent to how Poison Fang already functions, because being able to charge your meter by half with each use means you will be able to proc a Poison effect nearly every other turn, which sort of emulates that 50% rate. It's just more "fair" because this rate isn't determined by coin flips, it's just potentially guaranteed after every second use. This is especially true if you stack multiple effects on the Pokemon to boost the rate that its meter charges.

Another example is with crits. A high crit move will no longer crit, but instead rapidly fill your meter. So in practice, this means you will be able to crit far more often, making it functionally identical to how high crit moves already work. The difference again is that it's no longer based on dice rolls, you just choose which turn you can trigger that crit. So I don't really think the identity of the moves are lost exactly, they actually function nearly the same as they do normally. It's just the mechanics surrounding them are different with this plugin. Like, if you wanted to make a crit-based set on a Scyther or something, Slash would still be a far better tool for it than Tackle, because with the right build you can make Slash completely fill your meter each turn, effectively always having the ability to crit when you want to. You couldn't do that as efficiently with Tackle. Slash (and other high crit moves) still have their niche.

With all that said, I can understand how they don't feel *immediately* distinct enough. Because in the traditional system, Slash can just start dealing crits right out of the gate with no build up, whereas with this system, Slash is just a normal move if your ability to build meter is shut down somehow. It relies on the meter to give it identity, whereas before the move just had an inherent identity. So I can understand it from that angle.

I think that ultimately, this system isn't really ideal for Pokemon, because RNG is so ingrained in the DNA of Pokemon at this point. It's just part of the appeal of the games. This system would probably be better implemented in a completely different RPG entirely, maybe if someone is using Essentials to build a Pokemon-like game, not just a direct Pokemon fangame. In either case, this project was more for me to create a fun proof of concept than anything, and I think it accomplished what it sets out to do pretty well.
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SirWeibrot
The idea and execution are great, however I personally feel it is too far of a depature from the traditional battle style. I understand that that was the intention of this Plugin and I'm sure there are people who love the changes as they are, which is why I wish there was a "light" version of this that just implements the focus bar and focus styles without all the other changes to crits, added effects, evasion, accuracy, etc.
Lucidious89
Lucidious89
Im curious what a light version would even entail? Having a bar seems kinda unnecessary if everything remains unchanged.
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EzBound
I don't even need to explain why i rated this 5 stars. Simply wonderful.
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