Quoted By:
Abilities anon here. Been in the lab working on what I think is some good stuff.
>Core and Descriptor Abilities
Pokemon can now have two abilities. Each Core ability is restricted to a small group of pokemon, or just one species. Descriptor Abilities are available to a slightly larger group of pokemon, but generally are only available on Pokemon they make sense for.
>Unlocking
Abilities are made available by discovering new Pokemon species. For example, you unlock visibility of an ability for each of Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Venusaur. Abilities in a given family will typically be related / soft-linked.
Abilities revealed by a single pokemon are revealed for ALL it could be unlocked for
Core abilities must be purchased on any given Pokemon using Mastery (my stand-in for EVs), must be purchased on ANY individual that wants to use the abilities
Descriptors only need to be bought once on any pokemon again with Mastery, and are then unlocked for all pokemon in the descriptor's available pool.
Core abilities are locked once purchased, but can be reset by spending mastery (basically allowing reskilling of a pokemon after you've had a good amount of time with it).
Thoughts? I think this allows species to remain unique, incentivizes filling out the Pokedex, and rewards the player for investing time into a single Pokemon without resorting to gimmicky items like an ability capsule.
this is part of an ongoing project to make it so you can make any Pokemon you catch battle-ready, without needing to worry about finding optimal natures or IVs. I won't eat up this post discussing what else in changing, but that's just context for why I'm tooling this system so much
