Make the settings more user friendly

[Zygoat]

With the introduction of the MECHANICS_GENERATION system in the settings script, it has become much harder and more confusing to figure out what exactly is being set in each section of the settings script. The descriptions of each mechanic mention it being set as true or false, while the actual option will say for example MECHANICS_GENERATION >= 5. This is not a true or false setting, as there are many generations the mechanic could be set to, and figuring out how the mechanic works in each generation requires looking it up on Bulbapedia or some other Pokémon information site. Making it a simple true or false, following the description would be much more user friendly and would not require the use of external information sources that make the process take longer than it needs to. MECHANICS_GENERATION works fine for setting the generation style of your battle mechanics, though, as that one is pretty straightforward.

 

[-FL-]

Different from SHINY_POKEMON_CHANCE value, I don't think this was considerably harder to edit. And the currect way is easier to shift into a specific generation (like 4 by example).

MECHANICS_GENERATION >= 5

This one Just mean if the generation is equals or bigger than 5.

figuring out how the mechanic works in each generation requires looking it up on Bulbapedia or some other Pokémon information site

You don't need, these are already set on Essentials by default. Let's use as example:

BREEDING_CAN_INHERIT_MACHINE_MOVES         = (MECHANICS_GENERATION <= 5)

It mimic official games where the TMs are inherited by breeding on generation 5 and lower. There is no need to check in a wiki (maybe only for some exceptions). You can also change it into true or false.

 

[Zygoat]

You can also change it into true or false.

Really? That would pretty much solve all my issues with this system if it was implemented by default. Either that, or updating the descriptions to instead say something like this:

# Whether poisoned Pokémon will lose HP while walking around in the field.
# If this is <= 4, poisoned Pokémon will lose HP until they faint.
# If this is == 4, poisoned Pokémon will lose HP until they have 1 HP, then survive the poisoning.
# If this is >= 5, poisoned Pokémon will not lose HP while walking around in the field.

It would be nice if the descriptions were updated like above to explain what each generation relevant to a specific mechanic does with it, so you can easily change it to whatever one you want without having to look anything up.

 

[Vendily]

I don't think the addition of generation specific comments is necessary, especially as these are not numbers but booleans.
With the comments as you describe, it implies you should for instance set POISON_IN_FIELD and POISON_FAINT_IN_FIELD to the number 4 if we want poisoned mons to lose HP and survive at 1 hp. But in reality, we need to set it to true and false respectively.

As long as you know what your MECHANICS_GENERATION value is and can read inequalities (inequations?), you can see which generation has that particular effect, and thus which effect would occur in your game, assuming you didn't explicitly overwrite it with a Boolean value.