Ground type moves and flying targets

[TechSkylander1518]

It's commonly joked about that Flying is immune to every Ground move when not all of them require their target to be grounded, like this rarecandytreatment comic.

And on the flipside of that, there's the criticism that floating Pokemon without levitate will still be hit by those same moves- get a Weezing with Neutralizing Gas, for example, and it'll be hit by a supereffective earthquake despite hovering above it.

Essentials could have a nice solution here- a function code that checks if the BattlerAltitude of the species is greater than 0. This could be applied to grounded Ground moves, like Earthquake, Magnitude, and Fissure, while allowing projectile Ground moves like Bonemerang, Mud Bomb, and Bone Club to still hit.

But would this be worthwhile to do? The idea that Flying is immune to Ground is pretty ingrained already, and it might be confusing to have some moves with an immunity independent of typing. (plus, why stop there? Shouldn't Fire types be immune to Magnet Bomb because they'd melt it?) And it might make some Pokemon overpowered by giving them a new ability slot on top of an immunity to certain moves.

Just tossing this idea around, would love to hear any thoughts on it.

 

[Aki]

I think to make a change like this, (Which I like! Added complexities are nice when it's additions that are just making logical sense) a really important factor is gonna be some unique animations for each move. Otherwise it's not gonna be clear to the player what's happening and why certain moves work/don't work. Why move animations and not move descriptions?

Well, no one reads.

But here's a few move descriptions from Essentials:

"The user sets off an earthquake that strikes every Pokémon around it."
"The user makes the ground under the foe erupt with power."
"The user opens up a fissure in the ground and drops the foe in."
"The user looses a ground-shaking quake affecting everyone around the user."
"The user strikes everything around it by stomping on the ground."

I promise these are all different ground type moves, but they're similar enough that going by the descriptions alone leaves room for debate.


On the bright side, I think there's a lot of room to tweak how Levitate works! Almost every Pokemon that has Levitate as an ability only has Levitate. Koffing's and Bronzor's families are really the only ones...so if you made Levitate more of a passive ability, there'd be a lot of Pokemon you could add new abilities to! For example
Solrock getting a nice fire type ability like Blaze or Flame Body to set it apart from Lunatone, who could be really cute with a sleep related ability like Insomnia maybe?
Flygon has those goggles around its' eyes so something like Sand Veil or Sand Rush would be appropriate.
And poor Chimecho? So overlooked, but if it had a Cute Charm like ability referencing a Soothe Bell, or even just something like Own Tempo it could stand out a little more.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

All very good points! I feel like Earth Power and Bulldoze would be the hardest to show- Bulldoze involves stomping, and Earth Power usually shows an eruption, so it would be tricky to show that it wasn't quite reaching the flying height.

I love those ability ideas!

 

[aiyinsi]

All very good points! I feel like Earth Power and Bulldoze would be the hardest to show- Bulldoze involves stomping, and Earth Power usually shows an eruption, so it would be tricky to show that it wasn't quite reaching the flying height.

I love those ability ideas!

It might be an idea to just not have moves that are not all clear ... if you want a move with those stats ... just make a new one with a better name/animation so the player has no prejudice
btw there'S already something like this ... sand attack hit'S levitating pokemon ... not sure about flying ones ...