>>57500310>he uses the damage calculatorWell… if this works for you, good. But I couldn’t fathom ever doing this, personally. I’ll have to go back and reread some of your works to check how you handle this in practice, but I feel like this opens up a lot of problems that probably wouldn’t make fights immersive, but rather robotic.
First of all, the average Showdown interaction between two attacking Pokémon that both hit each other neutrally would maybe end with a 3HKO. How does that make fights exciting to read? A fight is an exchange, a conversation. It ebbs and flows. Advantages are traded like a pendulum’s swing. You’re basically gonna end up with very short fights where the rhythm isn’t used narratively to its full effect, which is a shame. Creative fights should be kinda like puzzles, at the same time as conversations. Think of JoJo and how the main characters have to solve the problem of the enemy of the week. There’s moments where the heroes are cornered, and there’s also moments where the villain is on the ropes. Heck, think about what makes watching WWE fun! Realistically, the Undertaker should be able to knock out Mick Foley with ease. But he doesn’t! They sell the punches, blows, throws and submissions because the STRUGGLE is what makes it fun. Not knowing who’s gonna end up the winner, wanting to believe in the good guys and cheer them on, celebrating when they win, and also feeling bad for them when they lose — but at the same time, expecting their comeback with excitement.
I feel like (and please don’t take this criticism personally) you read and write these stories and calc out all these battles in your head, and if a clearly improbable scenario IN THE GAMES happens in the story to make it more exciting, it takes you out of it because you’re calcing it all out. And I’m sorry to say this, but that’s YOUR problem. You just write that way. That’s fine.
