What kind of research do you want to see done first?

[RBG]

Item tables don't tell what they do (to my knowledge, it is a check in game later when the item's effect would happen). But Life Orb's boost has been tested (as everything in the damage formula has been) to verify that 1.3 is in fact the boost it gives.

 

[Jiggy]

If base stats, abilities, moves, and movepools are no issue, then honestly all I'm really interested in is:

1. How the IV system was changed
2. How the EV system was changed, if it was
3. New held items

 

[Upstart]

Also I am interested to see if the damage formula changed. Though I doubt it will change much or at all it would be nice to know. Also the IV and EV system is very important to know

 

[ANinyMouse]

1. BST - Old generation Pokes and New Poke I'd like to see if GF makes any old Pokes viable that weren't before. Then How the new IV/EV system is going to work.

2. Moves - testing of new moves complete movepools on new and old Pokes

3. New Abilities - New Abilities on new and old pokes then testing on auto sand beacause the new auto atk and auto speed abilities might make it overpowered

4. Battle Mechanics - if it changes at all... probally will...

5. New items - viability of new items

6. Multiple battles and anything associated like combo moves

7. everything else

This is my preferred order. Base Stats first, followed by moves & movepools, abilities, and then the new battle mechanics, with miscellaneous things like items an so on in the later weeks.

Honestly, I think the uncertainty surrounding the "true" effects of the new abilities was a huge factor in how WRONG we were about how Gen 4 was gonna be from the start. It's gonna take a lot of work, make no mistake, so starting on abilities early would be good, instead of leaving them until later.

 

[Andy Snype]

1. New items
2. Complete Movepool.
3. New Abilities
4. BST and Typing
5. Everything Else

 

[pikaachi]

1. Base Stat Totals
2. Complete Movepools
3. Ability descriptions and distribution
4. New Moves
5. New Items
6. Everything else

In that order preferebly.

The first 3 sounds good. 4 & 5 falls under #2.

 

[DDRMaster]

Well if a lot of the stuff will be found almost instantly, then I'll go with this:

1. General Mechanics changes
2. How new Abilities work
3. How new Moves work
4. How new items work
4. Move combinations
5. Triple Battle Mechanics
6. Other competetive stuff (I don't see why we need to reaserch things like Musicals)

 

[WarriorPrince]

Well if a lot of the stuff will be found almost instantly, then I'll go with this:

1. General Mechanics changes
2. How new Abilities work
3. How new Moves work
4. How new items work
4. New Pokemon Base Stats
5. Move Combinations
6. Other competetive stuff (I don't see why we need to reaserch things like Musicals)

I think a lot of people will look for this as well.

 

[Jats605]

RNG

 

[rainbows]

any new mechanic changes (IVs, EVs, etc.) new moves, BSTs, items.

 

[DDRMaster]

I think a lot of people will look for this as well.

Acording to RBG, all the Base stats and movepools for the Pokemon are located in a table in the game's code, which will be found and extracted quickly.

 

[blasphemy1]

Acording to RBG, all the Base stats and movepools for the Pokemon are located in a table in the game's code, which will be found and extracted quickly.

Yep, I remember this from DP, Pt, as well as HGSS.

 

[mattj]

1. Base Stat Totals
2. Complete Movepools
3. Ability descriptions and distribution
4. New Moves
5. New Items
6. Everything else

In that order preferebly.

But Game Mechanics too.

 

[3.14159]

The Basestats, Movepools ... won't need the smogon resources but I'd like to know the RNGchanges, the way the new moves/abilities/items work and if old moves/abilities/items were changed.

Then it would be nice to know the rulesets of the wi-fi handicap battles to speculate about the VGC 2011 rules. If there are rules for tripplebattles their mechanics would be interesting.

 

[Auraknight]

In order to simulate and thus play Pokemon Black and white on Shoddy, the absolute first thing we must prioritize researching here at Smogon are the core mechanics changes. Its useless to know everything about the Pokemon and be unable to battle them due to not knowing the core mechanics. Other information can be obtained from sites such as Serebii, but core mechanics are something that only a competitive community needs to know, and thus we need to research them ourselves.

 

[Firestorm]

Then it would be nice to know the rulesets of the wi-fi handicap battles to speculate about the VGC 2011 rules. If there are rules for tripplebattles their mechanics would be interesting.

Now that you bring it up, I'd love a quick translation of the WiFi battling modes that are available. Maybe we can get someone like jumpluff to translate for us as that's less testing and more just a quick scribe.

Unless she's too busy playing Audiosurf which I wouldn't be able to blame her for =)

 

[RacingFerret]

If other websites do do things like base stats and movepools straight away then I would like to see:

1. Built in battle modes & rules (as the new gen won't be updated into shoddy for a long time, so this is the only way people will be battling)
2. EV/IV/Breeding Changes
3. Changes to battling mechanics (including combination moves)

If not then stick these in front of that list:

1. Base stats distribution (not just totals)
2. Exact functions of new abilities
3. Complete movepools
4. New items & uses

 

[mattj]

Now that you bring it up, I'd love a quick translation of the WiFi battling modes that are available. Maybe we can get someone like jumpluff to translate for us as that's less testing and more just a quick scribe.

Unless she's too busy playing Audiosurf which I wouldn't be able to blame her for =)

GAWDPLZYES

I'm really not looking forward to blindly trying each option and figuring out what each one does x_x

 

[Blood Tears]

The things that interest me the most are new movepool and trait. Oh, and obviously new items. I'm shivering lol

 

[Death Phenomeno]

Oh crap, how could I forget about the combination moves?

Unless of course it turns out to be exclusive for the 3 Oaths.


Changes to Doubles and whatever for Triples would also be nice.

 

[Tucker]

Now that you bring it up, I'd love a quick translation of the WiFi battling modes that are available. Maybe we can get someone like jumpluff to translate for us as that's less testing and more just a quick scribe.

Unless she's too busy playing Audiosurf which I wouldn't be able to blame her for =)

I'm really hoping Random battles are like PBR.

 

[billymills]

I think LonelyNess's list was fine.

I'm wondering though if we do have some sort of process here for discovering the side effects of moves. Basic things (power, accuracy) are obvious can can be spreadsheet-ed, but are we going to have different threads for movepool/move effects/ability effects etc?

Not so much as what are we looking for, but how exactly are we going to go after it. (Can anyone participate?)

 

[drevan]

I would like moveset lists to be prioritized, since it'll be extremely important for discussions on individual Pokémon. Next would be abilties and the moves themselves, since people are prone to make incorrect assumptions about them before being properly tested.

I have to wonder, how long did it take to figure out the damage formula for gen 4? Since I feel that this may be more important than abilties and moves, but Im not sure how long that will take.

I agree with this, moves should come first, then abilities and how thy interact with moves.
Damage formula could take a while, and I'm far too lazy to read all that, so movesets are more interesting for me.

Edit: @ Tucker, that would make me so happy I would cry. I hate having to get friend codes, just randomly battling on my ds would make it as good as shoddy (or better. More people would be on, plus animations).

 

[Random Rider]

I would like moveset lists to be prioritized, since it'll be extremely important for discussions on individual Pokémon. Next would be abilties and the moves themselves, since people are prone to make incorrect assumptions about them before being properly tested.

I completely agree with this.

 

[SHUCKLE MAN]

I also want to know the base stats the most. Especially the stat totals, as it's the base 600s that are usually the most influential Pokemon. It's the base 600s that we spend months debating over whether they're Uber or OU (although hopefully we'll speed up the process a bit this time, now that we know what we're doing).