"On speed: How a slight change in animation times can change the game"

#PokemonGO: I had this ideia on the back of my head for some time now and I finally decided to test it: what if the speed stat from the games had some influence on the attack animation of quick moves? I've seen this discussed before, but I didn't agree with the way it was done because it made Pokemon with lower-than-average speed actually move slower.This is what I used for calculating a speed modifier for the attack animation: round((speed/150)2 / 4,2)I wanted speed to have some influence, but I also didn't want everyone to get a speed boost so I squared the pokemon's speed relative to the maximum value (Electrode's 150) in order to get a curve that should make changes more noticeable for Pokémon that are actually fast. Finally I caped this modifier at 25% so the change is noticeable but (hopefully) not game breaking. Charge moves were not included and I don't think they should be.After rounding the numbers, Pokémon with speed <= 20 like Geodude or Slowpoke get a 0% modifier, Slowbro at 30 gets a 1% boost, Magneton at 70 gets 5%, Dodrio at 110 gets 13% and Electrode 25%. So, the game's fastest pokemon, Electrode, using the game's slowest move, Volt Switch, can now attack every 1725ms instead of every 2300ms (575ms less!). In comparison, Ampharos (55 speed, the slowest of all Electric types) sees only a slight decrease in the move's animation (69ms).Let's take a look at both Electrode and Ampharos attacking Venonat, which has a defense stat of 102 and no type disadvantage: Ampharos has an attack stat of 211 while Electrode's is 173. Assuming everyone's at the same level and IV=0, Ampharos' DPS is 11.3 and Electrode's is 9.56; with the speed modifier, Ampharos's DPS increases very slightly to 11.65, while Electrode's boosted to 12.75.I did this all on MySQL because although it's not the best way to share data (like spreadsheets), it is much easier analyse it and change things on the fly. So, after inputing species data, move sets and type advantages, I ran some queries pitting every pokemon against each other using their basic moves to determine the DPS for every move.Top 5 changes in DPS (attacker and defender with max IV):AttackingMoveDefendingDPSNew DPSDifferenceAerodactylSteel WingIgglybuff42.5052.479.97AlakazamConfusionIgglybuff45.6254.328.69AerodactylSteel WingJigglypuff35.0043.218.21AlakazamConfusionWeedle40.0047.627.62CrobatAir SlashIgglybuff31.6739.097.43Well, Igglybuff, Jigglypuff and Weedle are not exactly gym material, so it doesn't really matter :P Let's try the same query but restricting the defending pokemon to the ones in the top tiers on GamePress (tiers 1-3)Top 5 changes in DPS vs top defenders (attacker and defender with max IV):AttackingMoveDefendingDPSNew DPSDifferenceElectrodeSparkGyarados8.5711.432.86ElectrodeVolt SwitchGyarados7.8310.432.61ElectrodeSparkLapras7.149.522.38ElectrodeSparkVaporeon7.149.522.38JolteonThunder ShockGyarados10.0012.352.35Jolteon*Volt SwitchGyarados10.0012.352.35Aerodactyl*Steel WingRhydon10.0012.352.35Aerodactyl*Steel WingTyranitar10.0012.352.35Jolteon*Thunder ShockVaporeon10.0012.352.35Of course, Gyarados being so weak against electric moves and Electrode receiving the biggest buff in DPS, this was bound to happen. Aerodactyl got 5th place ex-aequo with Jolteon using Steel Wing versus both Rhydon and Tyranitar.I also did a comparison between the top 10 attacker/basic move pair (dps-wise) with and without any speed modification against the same top tier pokemon. http://ift.tt/2nuvuhT is not nor does it intend to be a simulation. Charge moves are not included and type disadvantage for the attacker was not considered in any way. The numbers also don't reflect instances where the defender and attacker have different levels. This is just an analysis on how speed can affect the DPS of basic moves. Legendaries were not considered though I did include them at one point.In this comparison attackers remain largely the same in the matchups, with some ordering changes, except when the defender is Gyarados where most of the list is different. Blissey remains the top defender, but at least some basic moves in the right hands would do a bit more damage to her. Top 3 remain the same in pratically every comparison but everyone does more damage than before.One thing that was interesting to see when I was doing my analysis was the influence of IVs on the defender. In my first queries I was considering a perfect attacker vs a 0-IV defender and in the case of Gyarados, Jolteon with Volt Switch was 8th with 10.43 DPS. When I changed the query to consider a perfect defender, Jolteon does 10 DPS, the same as Tyranitar, Dragonite or Sudowoodo (?). After the speed modification Jolteon is back on the list in 4th and 5th place.So, what do I conclude from this analysis? Well, it doesn't really create a whole new game, but it does make some forgotten/unused Pokemon pack a punch in some matchups (Sneasel vs Dragonite for instance, or Primeape vs anything Fighting is super-effective against), at least when compared to the current state of the game. Even Electrode would do almost as much damage to Gyarados as Dragonite does now. In the end, this would benefit faster pokemon in matchups where they have the type advantage, especially because shorter animations lead to faster energy generation and to charge moves being used more often.Another thing I get from this is that Heracross is way too good to be a regional pokemon and that Mewtwo is amazing against almost all of the top defenders...EDIT: formatting Edit2: more formatting via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2mgCVJo