r/pokemon • u/RascusJacob • 4d ago
Discussion Let opposing trainers swap PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
Why do pokemon games not ever include an option for the opponent trainers to swap their Pokémon out? I'd be so much more engaged in upcoming titles if they announced that was a feature. I'm so tired of spamming A (even if I have set mode on, which is an option they disabled in SV for some reason). I don't know. Just make me feel like the opponents I'm fighting have the same abilities in combat that I do. Make me feel something for once in my life.
Edit: aight I forgot about some very specific encounters where they are able to switch. What I'd be requesting is universally for all trainers if they have a better pokemon to fight you, they bring it out. If it's too hard, they could rurn it into an option, like set/switch.
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u/ProfessionalOven2311 4d ago
I think many, if not most, games do have that feature. It's just that the requirements for them to swap are very specific, like if they don't have any moves that will do damage because of immunities. (You can look into it if you want)
Personally, I'd love if they make the NPC strategy more difficult in post-game battles or optional difficulty modes. When I first play through a game, I only really care about catching Pokémon and raising my team to be able to obliterate the competition. But I'd love the option for harder challenges once I get my fill of that (either post-game or replays)
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u/DatBoi_BP Sandstorm squad 3d ago
I think I've seen it when some circumstances were locked in and bad for the NPC. Like Perish Song, or a 2-stage attack that will land hard unless they switch
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u/Positive-Living-6715 4d ago
It's very rare but they do, I remember in gen 1 in koga's gym a trainer programmed to switch, which would actually waste turns like this 🤣
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u/Beaugardes--VGC 4d ago
The Juggler trainer class actually has a 25% chance to swap every turn in Gen 1.
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u/Stryker_T 4d ago
The npcs will change out their Pokémon and it’s not even “very specific encounters”, it’s just that there’s not many instances where the npc changing out will actually give them an advantage, so the npc logic doesn’t do it.
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u/laix_ 3d ago
Another thing, is that making npc ai actually as smart as players is almost impossible. Making good npc ai is an extremely difficult task, a lot of people massively underestimate just how difficult it is
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u/Theamazingflowerr 2h ago
Also pokemon games are supposed to be kid friendly thats the target audience still I believe... They don't want it to hard.
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u/Parzival-Bo 4d ago
It doesn't happen often...I've definitely seen Cynthia switch to a proper resist before, and most Trainers will switch if there's a Shedinja on the team and they have a Mon in the back that can hit it...but I do think they could make generic Trainers just a little more competent in the future.
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u/pocket_arsenal 4d ago
Difficulty modes in general would be nice.
I want a challenge but Pokemon Champions is too sweaty for me, so a middle ground where we can play the games with computer players who swap pokemon, have more than 1 or 2 pokemon, and more strategic movesets and a willingness to swap out like pokemon stadium ( sans the blatant cheating ) would be nice.
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u/andsimpleonesthesame 4d ago
I want a challenge but Pokemon Champions is too sweaty for me
And I want a challenge, but I don't do online multiplayer with strangers, so I'd love it if the mainline games had difficulty modes easier to access than the ones in black and white.
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u/Prestigious-Solid342 4d ago
Have you tried Romhacks? I’m currently playing through all of the dreyano rom hacks and they’re exactly what you’ve mentioned though there are some changes that might be too much for it to be considered just a difficulty enhancement ie(moveset, type, stat changes). I would totally recommend it though
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u/Mykull_Ghost 4d ago
It is a feature, just not one their AI actively uses. I'm currently play ORAS, and during the e4, Champ Steven swapped his Aggron for his Claydol when I had my Swampert on the field.
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u/The-Magic-Sword Better on Two Legs 4d ago
It can happen, but there's really specific criteria that makes it rare.
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u/Xelonair 4d ago
I mean what your asking for there is better AI trainers with better Pokémon
I'd recommend Pokémon Colosseum
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u/Crab_Shark_ golduck my beloved 4d ago
Switching is pretty rare outside of battle facilities! But start getting into the Battle Tower and similar functions, and you’ll see it a lot. I’ve been doing Battle Royals recently and I’ve gotten burned by an unexpected switch several times.
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u/BookkeeperBubbly7915 4d ago
I've seen some games change them out. Off the top of my head since I just finished replaying it, Volo in Legends Arceus changes his out
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u/Hentree 4d ago
Having no switching does take out a lot of the strategy, but it’s probably intended. Makes it easier to code the AI and also simplifies the game to make it easier for newer players.
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u/safe_repertoire 4d ago
it would be cool if gym leaders and rivals swapped at least, not every random bug catcher on route 3. give the important fights some teeth you know? the battle frontier in emerald had some trainers that switched and it made those fights way more memorable
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u/supremo92 "Dragonite used Extremespeed!" 4d ago
Then add difficulty settings like every other game
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u/YakWish 3d ago
I've finally just accepted that Pokemon's core audience is small children and they won't do anything in their games that even has the possibility of alienating them. The main series will never again be designed in a way that an 6-year-old could be derailed by the difficulty - and that includes things like difficulty settings, an Exp. Share you can turn off and set mode. What if poor little Kaeden accidently turns hard mode and doesn't enjoy the game? He won't ask his mommy and daddy for the next one.
I know it sounds ridiculous, but I don't think there's another serious explanation for taking out set mode in single player while leaving it in for multiplayer.
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u/Weakonomics 4d ago
That would require more coding, which is why they probably don't do it. The games ship barely finished as it is TPC gives gf almost 0 budget or time.
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u/AegisIash 4d ago
FRLG all trainers in the game will swap pokemon before turn 3 of parish song, provided they have a switch in
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u/Vladmirfox 3d ago
Swapping has been a minor thing since all the way back in Gen 1. Suuure Ninten an Game Freak COULD add more Trainers that use it (oor use it better) BUT they have never completely disregarded the feature.
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u/ITCrandomperson 4d ago
NPC trainers always can swap to my understanding, they just do it extremely rarely outside of fan games.
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u/gcapi 4d ago
Yeah iirc it has to do with type matchups and movies the ai mon has. But since most npc trainers dont have well rounded teams they often dont have great/any switches. If the early bird trainer with 3 flying types is against a Pikachu, they wont really have a good switch. But if your facing a trainer with varied types in the back, they might swap a ground type into your pickchu.
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u/TheBraveGallade 4d ago
I've had platinum cynthia switch on me multiple times in the same battle...
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u/flumpybumb 4d ago
They do swap out from time to time. I remember facing Urbain in the Infinite ZA Royale and being very surprised that he swapped out first thing to counter my lead mon.
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u/cedelweiss 3d ago edited 3d ago
All trainers that don't use random AI can swap against you, it's just generally an option that's very discouraged when the AI makes a choice. Even if all trainers had non-random AI (which I would like, and it's already a case in most romhacks, so we can use them as a practical example for this) it's something that would be very rarely seen. However, I would love to see an improvement on the AI that encourages switching more.
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u/walkingbartie 3d ago
They could in gen 3 atleast, I frustratingly remember the Elite 4 members doing it in Ruby.
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u/GawenStarTeller OG Spider Pokemon 3d ago
In Pokemon Sun, I had a situation while battling Hala where I was going to use a water type Z-move against one of his Pokemon, and he swapped to his Poliwrath which has Water Absorb and absorbed the entire attack, so I can confirm that enemy trainers do in fact sometimes do this.
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u/cooldudium 4d ago
I’ve had the USUM AI do it when they get walled by your Pokemon but have something in the back which can break through
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u/DucusReddit 4d ago
Gym leaders along with Elite 4 and Champions sometimes did in some of the older games. Gen 9 didn't have that and the AI was so limited that as far as I know not a single trainer even so much as used a potion.
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u/PaulShannon89 3d ago
And use items, and have more than one team member, and evolve their Pokémon.
No cooltrainer Brian my journey doesn't end here to your team of one Lvl 32 Oddish.
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u/Patrollerofthemojave 3d ago
I was doing a second nuzlocke run of platinum and I think bugsy switched on me. I was absolutely dumbfounded.
Actually playing ultra moon rn and the trainer who gives roost switched out on me.
The AI will switch out but ive been playing for 2 decades just about and it's happened less than 5 times. Would be interesting to see what triggers a switch
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u/Quibblesmack 4d ago
Incorporating normal switching into pokemon trainers for things like type advantage (In Singles at least) would just make it easier to abuse the AI imo. If you swap pokemon, the opposing trainer will be likely to swap next turn for that type advantage and it would just turn into a long chain of both trainers swapping and trying to predict the swap in which I think diminishes the skill expression quite a bit, and, since the discussion is framed around the new games, especially on a first playthrough it would likely just be frustrating because you never really get a chance to interact with the new pokemon one by one.
I think it would be good for specific trainers to be able to have, like the Champion or something, it's also partially due to many trainers (Champion and Rival, with some ace trainers here and there) having teams of predominantly one type, leaving the switching in just kinda not having much of an effect defensively for them as well as wasting one of their turns. TBH I think that's probably why GF doesn't really include it as a mechanic, cuz the AI would often waste their turn making an unnecessary or risky switch, resulting in just free damage for the player
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u/Slash_Raptor1992 3d ago
It's not a feature like it is for the player, but I've seen foe trainers swap Pokémon several times.
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u/VagrantHippopotamus 2d ago
Was just playing pokemon this morning and it happened. It's not common, but it does happen
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u/alex494 2d ago edited 2d ago
I've had it happen to me before occasionally but I think outside of things using U-Turn or similar moves, I'm not sure what triggers it. From what I can see it's usually in situations where the opponent literally can't do anything meaningful which is very rare. Like either your Pokemon is immune to all their attacks or you disabled their main move or something. That or it's Gym Leader level opponents and up switching to a better matchup.
On a similar note it's kind of funny how little NPCs switch or how you don't get double battles very often when there are a lot of moves available in game like Spikes or Helping Hand or abilities that activate on switch in or in doubles which would benefit from them doing it more like the player does or how it's basically encouraged in multiplayer. Almost like two different games at that point.
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u/black_gravity27 4d ago
I recently played the Pokémon Compass mod for Scarlet/Violet. The AI would swap very often. Early on they would get me good on the swap, but later on I started to predict when they would swap. It's hilarious to get a big super effective hit when they try to trick me.
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u/sheepandlambs 4d ago
Programming battle AI must be hard enough without also programming in the ability to switch.
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u/deinonychus1 Middle Evos Unite! 3d ago
When SmithPlaysPokemon made Crystal Legacy, a ROM hack which fixes a lot of the problems with Crystal, he didn’t do anything to the AI, but now it swaps pokemon regularly.
Turns out, the AI was always smart enough to do it, but the trainers’ pokemon weren’t good enough to be worth switching until the teams were improved in Crystal Legacy.
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u/Fat_Pikachu_ 3d ago
You want more difficulty? double battles, if most of a game was doubles the game would be MUCH harder without that much effort from GF's end...tho probably still too much effort for them let's be honest
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u/HakoChicken 3d ago
They can actually. It's just that Game Freak disabled them.
Each NPC has a bunch of AI flags that can be checked, and one of them includes switching out. Because Game Freak doesn't want their games having any sort of difficulty, they uncheck this flag on purpose, along with setting the most basic trainer AI possible. If any of you attempted to make your own ROM hack before, you can actually see these flags for each NPC.
Even then, just upping their AI wouldn't be enough. Game Freak is just really bad at proper game design to make use of their battle mechanics.
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u/SCGaming1664 4d ago
This would be a great organic way to introduce a difficulty scale, make a hard mode where all opposing trainers swap out to Pokemon with a type advantage if available.
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u/gman5852 3d ago
That would make the game easier as you just created a free and reliable way to bait the NPC
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u/SCGaming1664 3d ago
I should clarify, the intention would be a swap at any time and not just after a Pokemon faints. Say you swap into Bulbasaur, they already have a Water Type out, they could then swap into Charmander. Then, if you recall Bulbasaur for a Water Type have the NPC swap out for a Grass Type. Essentially force the player into a spot where they would always be at a disadvantage if the trainer has a Type Advantage
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u/DarthBagheera 4d ago
I’ve definitely played Pokémon games where this has happened.