This is an idea I have been cooking for almost three years now. It's known Game Freak F sucks at balancing this game series. Our clauses should be enough proof of that.
And banning has always been extremely controversial. Some say it's too harsh, some say it's completely deserved and didn't even need a vote, and everything in between.
I am mostly anti banning, especially on recent times where we sometimes go a little overboard, but as a seasoned BSS player, even I admit it's the lesser of the two evils.
But, the thins is, WE HAVE A SIMULATOR. What about instead of banning the most ridiculous stuff and having to suffer in silence everything unfair that we can't restrict for a reason or another (Paralysis, Critical hits, certain moves or pokemon being excessively spammable and rewarding like Scald or Landorus, you know what I mean), what about if we instead we PATCH THEM ourselves?
I present you ladies and gentlemen, PROJECT M
You will say this sounds like the Other Metagame of The Month that upgrades some stats, and in part it is like that. But my intent is to go far beyond. As a little taste, those are the pre-filtered changes I intend to bring on play if the mods agree to implement this side metagame:
General mechanic changes:
Every time you switch, the pokemon that goes out looses one PP. The PP is always deducted of the move with the most total PP remaining. If the pokemon has no PP left, it suffers 10% damage instead. This way, combined with the changes below on some abilities, no matter what you do, the game will EVENTUALLY end.
Flying types: are now immune to terrains both ways. That means, in addition to being able to suffer priority attacks or status in the middle of Psychic or Misty Terrain, they will be able to use them against everybody regardless.
Critical hits now have a built-in Mold Breaker effect, but loose the x1,5 multiplier.
Paralysis, flinches and confusion damage can NEVER trigger twice in a row.
Paralysis, Torment and Leech Seed now wear off after 10 turns.
Sleep only lasts 1-2 turns. A woken up pokemon cannot be put to sleep the immediately next turn.
If a pokemon falls under the effects of Taunt and attacks the taunter that same turn, the move will be guaranteed to hit AND crit.
Any successfully connected attack resets the user's accuracy drops and target's evasion boosts.
The effects of trapping abilities only last two turns after you switch in the trapper or until the target takes damage from a direct attack, whatever happens first. Thus, careful use of Protect, Substitute or a charge move can allow you to escape them. All trapping abilities protect the user from being trapped in any way. Using a trapping move while trapped will also break the trapping.
Struggle now uses the highest of either Atk or Satk, and has base power of 75. The recoil damage now scales similar to toxic to prevent Funbro-style locks.
Move-specific buffs:
Will-o-Wisp and Thunder Wave: perfect accuraccy if used by a fire/ghost and an electric type pokémon respectively.
Perfect-accuraccy moves: Now hit in any semi invulnerable state similar to the effects of No Guard
Bubblebeam and Low Sweep: base power reduced to 60, and speed drop chance increased to 100%.
Rock Tomb and Icy Wind: accuraccy increased to 100%
Teleport now works as a switch-out move and evades Pursuit, allowing DryPassing to return to the metagame.
Mind Reader now targets the user, thus it works even if the opponent switches out and can be baton passed.
Lock On lasts unit the target switches out.
All base power drops from XY (Blizzard, Thunderbolt) reverted
All moves with a charge turn get power increased to 120 and 100 base accuracy. Sky Attack now grants Fly-style immunity and gets 180 base power to compensate those miserable 8 PP that mean you're boned against Protect users.
All status moves that drop enemy stats have increased effect by one stage and base 100 accuracy (yes, even Screech, Metal Sound and company).
All Wrap clones get 100 accuraccy, except Magma Storm.
SelfDestruct gets power boosted to 250 and once again halves defenses. Explosion reworked: rock and steel types loose half their health, ghost types and Sturdy users immune. Everything else OHKOed. Both moves will fail if you have less than 25% HP
Hyper Beam clones have their base power boosted to 180 and won't recharge if you get the kill, but they get accuraccy dropped to 80 and will now recharge even if it fails to connect for any reason.
Dark Void now has 80% accuraccy on singles ONLY.
Move-specific nerfs:
Glare: accuraccy dropped by 20
Transform: base PP boosted to 25.
Yawn: can now fail if used repeteadly similar to Destiny Bond and Protect, but with a separate counter from them.
OHKO moves: get a base accuracy of 100 but get a charge turn AND a recharge turn instead. This means as long as you got something immune to them or someone with Protect or Substitute, you can easily counter them while still deterring super-passive playstyles. The recharge turn means even if you don't manage to avoid them, the opponent is probably not surviving either.
Entry Hazards: Base PP halved (maybe in the future, discuss Stealth Rock's PP getting quartered). This way they are a little less spammable yet still do their job.
Haze: Base PP halved (same deal).
Encore, Torment and Taunt: fail if used on a pokemon that just broke off their effects. PP and duration of Encore and Taunt boosted to 5 turns and 24 PP.
Ingrain: recovery increased to 25% of HP each turn. It no longer prevents Roar and Whirlwind from taking out the pokemon of the field.
Baton Pass: faints the user. The big problem of this move was the lack of opportunity cost, and there is really no other way to nerf it without reworking it entirely.
Scald, Lava Plume, Sludge Bomb and Discharge: status chance reduced by 10.
Ability-specific buffs:
Gale Wings: HP theresold removed. Now it instead disables the user's item including Z-crystals (debatable).
Sniper: x3 damage multiplier restored.
Unburden: now works as long as you have no item equipped.
Run Away, Wimp Out and Emergency Exit: now grant immunity to trapping.
Sturdy: the user won't get damaged by the OHKO moves, SelfDestruct or Explosion, but the moves will successfully execute, thus triggering the recharge turn or the self-KO.
Clones of Swarm: now increase damage by x2 if below 25% HP and by x1,5 if between 25 and 50% HP
Ability-specific nerfs:
Speed boost now triggers a permanent separate x2 speed modifier, similar to Swift Swim and Unburden's boosts.
Natural Cure and Regenerator: to prevent indefinite stalling, they won't trigger unless the user successfully used an attack and damaged the target DIRECTLY, that means hitting substitutes or immune targets won't count.
Clones of Flame Body including Cursed Body: Won't trigger if the user is KOed by the attack.
Parental Bond: Second hit now deals 35% of the damage from the first, but it no longer triggers any kind of secondary effects, including recoil damage or self-user stat penalties (otherwise it would be essentially a worse version of Sheer Force). Fixed damage moves only hit once.
Item-specific buffs:
Shed Shell and Safety Googles : now prevent secondary effects from enemy attacks from proccing.
Metal and Quick Powder: now work on any pokemon under the Transformed status.
Magic Bounce: no longer blocks pseudo-hazing moves and entry hazards.
Choice Items: Allows the user to select a different move if the locked move is disabled or runs out of PP. Also applies to Encore and Imprison
Pokemon-specific buffs:
Unown: ability swapped to Wonder Guard (still completely useless but for the lolz...).
Pokemon-specific nerfs:
Salamence: post-mega ability swapped to Battle Armor
Gengar: pre-mega ability restored to Levitate. Post-Mega ability swapped to Cursed Body
Lucario: post-mega ability swapped to Aura Force (fighting type clone of Overgrow and Torrent)
And banning has always been extremely controversial. Some say it's too harsh, some say it's completely deserved and didn't even need a vote, and everything in between.
I am mostly anti banning, especially on recent times where we sometimes go a little overboard, but as a seasoned BSS player, even I admit it's the lesser of the two evils.
But, the thins is, WE HAVE A SIMULATOR. What about instead of banning the most ridiculous stuff and having to suffer in silence everything unfair that we can't restrict for a reason or another (Paralysis, Critical hits, certain moves or pokemon being excessively spammable and rewarding like Scald or Landorus, you know what I mean), what about if we instead we PATCH THEM ourselves?
I present you ladies and gentlemen, PROJECT M
You will say this sounds like the Other Metagame of The Month that upgrades some stats, and in part it is like that. But my intent is to go far beyond. As a little taste, those are the pre-filtered changes I intend to bring on play if the mods agree to implement this side metagame:
General mechanic changes:
Every time you switch, the pokemon that goes out looses one PP. The PP is always deducted of the move with the most total PP remaining. If the pokemon has no PP left, it suffers 10% damage instead. This way, combined with the changes below on some abilities, no matter what you do, the game will EVENTUALLY end.
Flying types: are now immune to terrains both ways. That means, in addition to being able to suffer priority attacks or status in the middle of Psychic or Misty Terrain, they will be able to use them against everybody regardless.
Critical hits now have a built-in Mold Breaker effect, but loose the x1,5 multiplier.
Paralysis, flinches and confusion damage can NEVER trigger twice in a row.
Paralysis, Torment and Leech Seed now wear off after 10 turns.
Sleep only lasts 1-2 turns. A woken up pokemon cannot be put to sleep the immediately next turn.
If a pokemon falls under the effects of Taunt and attacks the taunter that same turn, the move will be guaranteed to hit AND crit.
Any successfully connected attack resets the user's accuracy drops and target's evasion boosts.
The effects of trapping abilities only last two turns after you switch in the trapper or until the target takes damage from a direct attack, whatever happens first. Thus, careful use of Protect, Substitute or a charge move can allow you to escape them. All trapping abilities protect the user from being trapped in any way. Using a trapping move while trapped will also break the trapping.
Struggle now uses the highest of either Atk or Satk, and has base power of 75. The recoil damage now scales similar to toxic to prevent Funbro-style locks.
Move-specific buffs:
Will-o-Wisp and Thunder Wave: perfect accuraccy if used by a fire/ghost and an electric type pokémon respectively.
Perfect-accuraccy moves: Now hit in any semi invulnerable state similar to the effects of No Guard
Bubblebeam and Low Sweep: base power reduced to 60, and speed drop chance increased to 100%.
Rock Tomb and Icy Wind: accuraccy increased to 100%
Teleport now works as a switch-out move and evades Pursuit, allowing DryPassing to return to the metagame.
Mind Reader now targets the user, thus it works even if the opponent switches out and can be baton passed.
Lock On lasts unit the target switches out.
All base power drops from XY (Blizzard, Thunderbolt) reverted
All moves with a charge turn get power increased to 120 and 100 base accuracy. Sky Attack now grants Fly-style immunity and gets 180 base power to compensate those miserable 8 PP that mean you're boned against Protect users.
All status moves that drop enemy stats have increased effect by one stage and base 100 accuracy (yes, even Screech, Metal Sound and company).
All Wrap clones get 100 accuraccy, except Magma Storm.
SelfDestruct gets power boosted to 250 and once again halves defenses. Explosion reworked: rock and steel types loose half their health, ghost types and Sturdy users immune. Everything else OHKOed. Both moves will fail if you have less than 25% HP
Hyper Beam clones have their base power boosted to 180 and won't recharge if you get the kill, but they get accuraccy dropped to 80 and will now recharge even if it fails to connect for any reason.
Dark Void now has 80% accuraccy on singles ONLY.
Move-specific nerfs:
Glare: accuraccy dropped by 20
Transform: base PP boosted to 25.
Yawn: can now fail if used repeteadly similar to Destiny Bond and Protect, but with a separate counter from them.
OHKO moves: get a base accuracy of 100 but get a charge turn AND a recharge turn instead. This means as long as you got something immune to them or someone with Protect or Substitute, you can easily counter them while still deterring super-passive playstyles. The recharge turn means even if you don't manage to avoid them, the opponent is probably not surviving either.
Entry Hazards: Base PP halved (maybe in the future, discuss Stealth Rock's PP getting quartered). This way they are a little less spammable yet still do their job.
Haze: Base PP halved (same deal).
Encore, Torment and Taunt: fail if used on a pokemon that just broke off their effects. PP and duration of Encore and Taunt boosted to 5 turns and 24 PP.
Ingrain: recovery increased to 25% of HP each turn. It no longer prevents Roar and Whirlwind from taking out the pokemon of the field.
Baton Pass: faints the user. The big problem of this move was the lack of opportunity cost, and there is really no other way to nerf it without reworking it entirely.
Scald, Lava Plume, Sludge Bomb and Discharge: status chance reduced by 10.
Ability-specific buffs:
Gale Wings: HP theresold removed. Now it instead disables the user's item including Z-crystals (debatable).
Sniper: x3 damage multiplier restored.
Unburden: now works as long as you have no item equipped.
Run Away, Wimp Out and Emergency Exit: now grant immunity to trapping.
Sturdy: the user won't get damaged by the OHKO moves, SelfDestruct or Explosion, but the moves will successfully execute, thus triggering the recharge turn or the self-KO.
Clones of Swarm: now increase damage by x2 if below 25% HP and by x1,5 if between 25 and 50% HP
Ability-specific nerfs:
Speed boost now triggers a permanent separate x2 speed modifier, similar to Swift Swim and Unburden's boosts.
Natural Cure and Regenerator: to prevent indefinite stalling, they won't trigger unless the user successfully used an attack and damaged the target DIRECTLY, that means hitting substitutes or immune targets won't count.
Clones of Flame Body including Cursed Body: Won't trigger if the user is KOed by the attack.
Parental Bond: Second hit now deals 35% of the damage from the first, but it no longer triggers any kind of secondary effects, including recoil damage or self-user stat penalties (otherwise it would be essentially a worse version of Sheer Force). Fixed damage moves only hit once.
Item-specific buffs:
Shed Shell and Safety Googles : now prevent secondary effects from enemy attacks from proccing.
Metal and Quick Powder: now work on any pokemon under the Transformed status.
Magic Bounce: no longer blocks pseudo-hazing moves and entry hazards.
Choice Items: Allows the user to select a different move if the locked move is disabled or runs out of PP. Also applies to Encore and Imprison
Pokemon-specific buffs:
Unown: ability swapped to Wonder Guard (still completely useless but for the lolz...).
Pokemon-specific nerfs:
Salamence: post-mega ability swapped to Battle Armor
Gengar: pre-mega ability restored to Levitate. Post-Mega ability swapped to Cursed Body
Lucario: post-mega ability swapped to Aura Force (fighting type clone of Overgrow and Torrent)
Last edited:
