actually, chess field is good now (Patreon)

this'll probably get posted publicly in a week or two but y'all get early access

so chess field is boring. it doesn't really do that much, in part because it was one of the earliest field effects added before i really got into a groove with them. also like, what do you do with chess field even conceptually lol

as it turns out, there was a pretty good answer for that. i can't take full credit for it-- the base concept was passed along to us as a rework of the field from Bazaro, and tested on their own... I forget the details, their own game? their own online league bit? something like that. It's been so long. And Bazaro's done so much for and around the community anwyay.

Anyway, we took the concept and changed some of details for our purposes so it's not exactly what they were running with, but big shoutout to him and his crew for the idea and giving us the go-ahead to run with it.  It sounded cool in concept... and frankly, it's been pretty lit in practice too. I think Chess might be one of the best fields now. 

Let's peep the changes. 

• Boosts Sucker Punch, Shadow Sneak, Smart Strike, First Impression
• King's Shield now lowers Sp.Atk as well as Atk, and protects from status moves.
• Secret Power and Shattered Psyche are now Chess Attacks

....yeah okay that's a thing but none of that shit matters at all, let's peep the real changes.

Battlers are assigned as a certain Piece depending on team composition:

• Pawn: If the Pokemon is sent out on the first turn of battle, it becomes a pawn!
• Queen: If the Pokemon is in the last slot of your party, it's your Queen!
• King: If the mon has the lowest HP in the team (and is not a Pawn or Queen), or is holding a King's Rock
• Rook: Highest stat is Def or Sp.Def
• Bishop: Highest stat is Atk or Sp.Atk
• Knight: Highest stat is Speed

you can only have one king or queen, and only one pawn if it's singles, or two if doubles. The priority of pawns and queens means that even if you don't have a king's rock, you still get a bit of customizability just by swapping team order around! 

And now, the effects--
Each Piece gains the following bonuses:

• Pawn: Gains Sturdy
• Queen: When sent out, boosts both defenses. Attacks deal x1.5 damage.
• King: +1 Priority on all moves
• Rook: When sent out, boosts defenses
• Bishop: When sent out, boost offenses
• Knight: Deal double damage to Queens

big shout out to perry for yeeting all this stuff into the game suddenly~

It seems to have been pretty fun for the team playing through stuff! Also, not gonna like, it's been one of the most fun fields to team build for too now. There's probably some really... really busted stuff on this field that we haven't even touched yet. And that's fine! 

I look forward to seeing what everyone does with it, and I hope you will all look forward to playing on it. The nature of a "Chess Arena" means it still doesn't appear that much, but you will have at least one or two opportunities in postgame to give it a spin too~