Battling, Levels, and Capturing

[Nekayne]

∙Battling∙

There are things you can and cannot do when it is your turn in battling. When it is your turn, you have the following options:

• Attack
  
• Non-offensive move (growl, leer, confuse ray, etc)
  
• Dodge
  
• Use an item
  
• Switch Pokemon
  
• Use a Pokeball
  

What you cannot do is:

• Attack twice in one turn
  
• Continuously dodge
  
• Use two items
  
• Attack then switch Pokemon
  

At most, you have two things you can do in one turn, most commonly being an attack and a non-offensive move put together. You cannot use two like options in one turn (two items, two attacks, two non-offensive, etc). You may also not use an attack then switch Pokemon (unless you are using an attack that allows it) or use an item then switch.

Doubles battles can occur in the wild and the follow the same rule. Each Pokemon only gets two.

1. Keep it creative

These rules should not limit your creativity. Unlike the game, health and PP aren't ruthlessly tracked and there are other ways you can defend yourself or use your attacks. Perhaps a Squirtle hid in it's shell to take less damage from a tackle, or a Chikorita tried to cover the opponent's eyes with the leaves from it's Razor leaf. There are ways to play around with this rather than be stuck in a straight foward attacking mode.

2. Slaughter is discouraged

We would really prefer that Noctis not turn into a bloodbath. It just leaves a bad taste in our mouths, you understand? As such, aiming to kill a wild pokemon, and being successful, will earn you half the normal experience. That is, half of however much you'd get for only causing the pokemon to faint.
Killing another player's pokemon is not allowed unless agreed upon before hand.

3. Victory is NOT a guarantee!

Just like in the games, you guys. Defeat is a part of life, but it is very easily avoidable on Noctis, we like to think. If you go do a "higher level" area with low level pokemon, are you going to win? Unlikely. If you go up against a gym leader with an underleveled team, do you stand a chance? Not really. In situations like these, mods will play to win. Spend enough time on your team to be prepared for your journey!
A good rule of thumb for challenging a gym is to make sure the sum of your party's level is no less than 5 levels below the sum of the gym leader's party.

[Nekayne]

∙Leveling∙

To level your Pokemon, you need to earn Experience. Experience is gained by your word count that is added up throughout a battle. This does not include coding. To reiterate, word count is calculated strictly by your text response to a pokemon battle. Staff will calculate the total EXP that you've earned after the battle is finished. The amount of EXP gained and the level of your Pokemon will determine how many levels you gained.

Let's say you have a Pokemon that is at level 5 and you just finished a battle. Throughout the battle, you totaled 700 words.

Because you have 700 EXP, it's almost like you are going to be 'spending' it to level up. To get to level 6, you need to spend 300 of the 700, leaving you with 400. The remainder is enough to gain another level, so you become level 7 with a remainder of 100. Since 100 is not enough to reach the next level, you are left with a balance of 100/350.

To review:

TOTAL EXP - X LEVEL EXP = X AMOUNT

So, here's some more numbers following this formula:

EXAMPLE: My pokemon is at level 8. I've finished a battle with a total of 2,500 EXP.

So, as staff, I would calculate the following:

My pokemon would then be at level 11 with some change leftover. Pretty simple, right?

Staff, bear in mind: User word count is sometimes incorrect. It is suggested that staff members copy and paste the replies of a member's posts throughout the battle into a word document and to take note of the total number of words at the bottom bar in the document. Don't know what I'm talking about? Click!

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If you haven't noticed by now, level increments go by 50. Level one starts at 50, level two is 100, and so on and so forth. This is an incentive to better yourself as an RPer, for the more effort you put into your posts, the more it will pay off.

In a Double Battle, if there is two Pokemon facing against the same target, the EXP is split. If your Pokemon are also facing two other Pokemon, nothing changes. However, if you have ONE Pokemon facing against TWO, your EXP doubles.

If you lose a battle, you gain half of the EXP instead of all of it. This rule also applies to the the death of a pokemon - accidental or otherwise, you will not receive full EXP if the pokemon that you're battling dies as a result of the battle.

∙EXP Share∙

Experience Share is an item that when held by a Pokemon in your party, it will gain half of the experience that is earned by any other Pokemon.

Say for example you have a Rattata and Pidgey and the Pidgey is holding the EXP Share. If the Rattata fought and won, gaining 400 exp, then it would be split between the two Pokemon (200 each). If the Pidgey had fought on it's own, then nothing would change as there is no one to share the EXP with.

However, if this was a Double Battle, the Pidgey would gain 3/4ths of the EXP. Why? Experience share already grants it half of the experience and because it participated in battle, it earns half of what the Rattata would earn. Therefore, Pidgey would have gained 300 EXP and the Rattata only 100 EXP.

∙Lucky Egg∙

Lucky Egg is a hold item that grants the holder 1.5 times the experience.

If you won a battle using a Pokemon that is holding Lucky Egg, instead of the base amount (Let's say 500), they would get that times 1.5. 500 x 1.5 = 750.

[Nekayne]

∙Capturing∙

Capturing Pokemon is quite easy in Noctis. There are only two options for this. They are:

• Capture the Pokemon mid-way through battle
  
• Capture after it has fainted
  

While waiting for it to faint may be timely, it is also a guaranteed capture. Attempting mid-way through battle may not work and will result in the loss of a Pokeball.

When captured, a Mod will present you with the code for your Pokemon. It will already come with a level, gender, abilities, moves, and a personality. You may not alter the given traits in any form. The only thing that you may edit is the personality, and that must be something changed gradually over time and only in small proportions. Your dim-witted Pikachu can't become Einstein over night.

[Kittie]

∙Gym Battles∙

Gym battles, unlike battles against a fellow player trainer, follow set rules rather than rules as made by the player. When battling a fellow trainer or breeder, you can feel free to make the rules as you please, deciding how many pokemon are allowed and what the penalty of losing is. Gym Battles, however, have regulations.

All of the general battle rules as above obviously apply.

1. You use the same number of pokemon as the gym leader

If you have six pokemon in your party, we're sorry to say you can't use all of them. You can only use as many pokemon as the Leader you are challenging is going to use. Our Gym Battles are more like the anime than the games in this respect. If a Leader only has three pokemon - you are only allowed to use three pokemon against them. You may, however, use a pokemon more than once against an opponent.

2. If you lose, we take your money

Just like in the games folks! If you lose to a Gym Leader, a mod will detract HALF of your money from your account.
Them's the breaks!

3. Victory is NOT a guarantee!

DO NOT SHOW UP TO A GYM BATTLE WITH A LEVEL 5 MAGIKARP. Failure is a natural part of life, and it is definitely a natural part of pokemon. How many times have you gone up against Bugsy with an underleveled cyndaquil and found yourself at the mercy of his mighty scyther? Or any gym leader, for that matter? The answer, for the average player, is probably at least once. If your pokemon are thought to be underleveled, the mod will play to win. Be forewarned, and reasonable. You're not going to win with an untrained team.
A good rule of thumb for challenging a gym is to make sure the sum of your party's level is no less than 5 levels below the sum of the gym leader's party.

4. Be reasonable

This rule is running in tandem with the previous one. Just because you've got either a type or level advantage, don't assume you can beat on a Gym Leader's pokemon and eventually the mod will get tired and relent to your MIGHTAY 1337 POKEYMANZ SKILLZORZ. They won't get tired - they'll get annoyed. Make sure you're properly trained for a gym battle. Using freshly caught pokemon is not recommended either.

5. If you win you get a brand new car fabulous prizes

Winning gets you a reward of course! You will receive a small sum of money along with a badge, and a complimentary TM! Awesome!