Okay, so I must have misunderstood something regarding switching. My understanding is that switching should take a turn. You should not be able to switch and then attack before the foe even gets a turn.
Example: say I have Ursinerator out against Volanteril. I want to switch, because poor Ursinearator is gonna die. So I do. I bring in, say, Reflorin. Both Reflorin and Ursinearator are faster than Volanteril. When I switch Reflorin in, Volanteril should be guaranteed an attack against it. Now, whether that attack is worthwhile or not? Different story, given the type matchup.
The issue comes because after I've switched to Reflorin, even if you get a hit off, you won't get a chance to switch before you're hit back. You won't get to bring in, say, Sirenea against my Reflorin. You'll have to either sacrifice your Volanteril outright, or at least take a big hit from Reflorin.
So as I said in a previous post, this seriously, seriously prioritizes speed and is going to be the main reason your online battle system never gets rolling. Because here's what's going to happen.
Ursinearator vs. Volanteril
Ursinearator switches to Reflorin, takes a hit
Reflorin hits Volanteril for big damage
Volanteril either switches out or tries another hit on Reflorin; if it switches, it's dead meat because it's slow; if it doesn't switch, it's dead meat because Reflorin's next hit will kill it
Either way, the next thing that comes out will hopefully counter Reflorin, and the cycle will repeat
And given the hyper-offensive nature of your meta, the game will devolve into an eight-round slug-fest where switching is just...not done. I'm having trouble understanding how anybody thought this setup was a good idea. There is an insanely good reason why pokemon prioritizes the switch, and lets a person switch reactively. Basically it just means that making a team with type advantages and coverage and high speed is the best idea. Low-speed mons are just revenge bait.
If I bring in my Mightauras to sponge a hit from your Sacraloon, you can not only switch to your Ursinearator while I'm helpless (in reaction to my switch) but you can hit me right away before I can counter-switch or do anything else. Blaze Punch. Dead Mightauras. GG.
So yeah. Going to have to remember that if I want to battle online it's high speed and wide coverage that'll win the day. My lovely slightly slower mons will just let you switch and hit for free, especially if your hit is a one-shot kill.
Nah, this isn't really strategy. This is just development that doesn't work. Unfortunately, this is just showing inexperience at this point. Pokémon does it a different way because it works. Pokémon avoids doing it this way because this way doesn't work. You're going to tell me "no no no, this is what RPGs do, this is just different, I'm not trying to be a pokemon clone". That's a plea; it's not an argument with any logical merit. I'm not asking you to be slavishly attached to the game's ultimate derivative source. I'm asking you to maintain conventions that work instead of hamstringing yourself.
And why in the nine hells would you want to -further de-incentivize switching? Switching is going to be a large part of what makes your meta work. If you don't understand that your game's battle mechanics are a really, really complicated game of rock-paper-scissors that can change on every turn, and must do so if it wants to remain interesting, there is nothing in the world that I can do for you. This game's meta will die, even if the single-player experience is fun. Largely it's fun because in-game you at least have puzzles and story and whatnot. tamers are not intelligent though, so if the only real testing you've done has to do with tamer AI, that explains an awful lot.
The tl.dr version is simple. This is broken, and it probably won't ever change. I am very put off online battling for the foreseeable future. Sad stuff.
Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1