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.
![Focus Meter System [v20.1]](/data/resource_icons/1/1016.jpg?1660914727){kind=icon}
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.