Z-Power: Animations
Section 7.D.3
The Deluxe Battle Kit incorporates various animation utilities which it uses to animate Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion. This plugin utilizes these same utilities to implement new animations for both Z-Moves and Ultra Burst that are built in the same animation style.
There's a bit to explain about these animations and how they work, so I'll provide a break down of everything in this section.
Note: If you already have an existing Z-Move animation which is stored as a Common animation named "ZMove", that animation will take priority over the animation added by this plugin. The same is true for the Ultra Burst animation if a common animation named "UltraBurst" exists. This means that there's no risk of your animations being overwritten or ignored, nor do you need to change anything to make this plugin compatible.
Trainer Z-Power
Z-Moves
Z-Moves typically require a trainer with a Z-Ring and a Pokemon holding a compatible Z-Crystal. If so, the option to use the Z-Powered version of the Pokemon's moves will appear in battle. When a compatible move is selected, the Z-Move animation will play.
There will be slight differences in the animation based on which side of the field the Pokemon using the Z-Move is on. Pokemon on the player's side of the field will face right, and their trainer will slide in from off screen on the left. If the Pokemon is on the opponent's side of the field, they will face left and their trainer will slide in from off screen on the right. This helps distinguish if the Z-Move is being used by friend or foe during the animation.
Z-Move animations will always display the trainer's Z-Ring above the trainer during the animation. The trainer's item may not always be the same, however. The Z-Ring is the default item used, but it's possible to give trainers unique items that trigger Z-Power. If you create unique Z-Power items for a trainer to utilize along with the necessary sprites, then the sprite for that unique item will appear in this animation instead of the default Z-Ring.
Z-Move Titles
Each generic and exclusive Z-Move has its own title, and will display this as part of the Z-Move animation if a graphic for that Z-Move's title is available. These titles are stored in Graphics/Plugins/Deluxe Battle Kit/Z-Power/Z-Titles. The filename for each title is the same as that Z-Move's ID in its PBS data. If you design a custom Z-Move and wish to design a title for that Z-Move to appear on screen during the Z-Move animation, you may add the graphic for that title here. The animation will automatically recognize it, so no coding is required to make it appear.
Note that Z-Powered status moves do not display titles during this animation.
Ultra Burst
As with Z-Moves, triggering Ultra Burst typically requires a trainer with a Z-Ring, and a Pokemon holding an item that allows for it to Ultra Burst. If so, the option to use Ultra Burst will appear in battle. When selected, the Ultra Burst animation will play.
Unlike with the Z-Move animation however, the trainer will not appear on screen during the Ultra Burst animation. This is because the trainer is not involved in the Ultra Burst process, unlike with other mechanics such as Mega Evolution and Z-Moves. At least, that is what is implied by the Ultra Burst animation in Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, where the trainer never appears during the animation. Despite this, the Pokemon using Ultra Burst will still face either to the right or the left depending on whether they are on the player's or opponent's side, respectively.
Wild Z-Power
Typically, wild Pokemon are incapable of using Z-Power. This is because a trainer with a corresponding Z-Ring is required. However, this plugin includes a feature that allows wild Pokemon to use Z-Power on their own without a trainer, by utilizing the "wildZMove" Battle Rule to allow for Z-Moves, or "wildUltraBurst" to allow for Ultra Burst (more details on this can be found in the "Z-Power: Battle Rules" subsection). This bypasses the Z-Ring requirement, allowing the wild Pokemon to use Z-Power.
The animations for Z-Moves is mostly the same when used by wild Pokemon. The only obvious difference is that no trainer slides on screen during the animation, since no trainer exists. The wild Ultra Burst animation however is identical to the normal Ultra Burst animation, since no trainer slides on screen for that animation regardless.
Animation Utilities
Skipping Animations
You may have noticed in the examples above that during the Z-Power animations a button prompt on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen appears. This "skip" button indicates that you can cut the animation short by pressing the ACTION key. Pressing it will immediately end the animation, allowing you to get right back to the battle if you grow tired of sitting through these animations.
Turning Off Animations
If you want to turn these animations off entirely, there are two ways to accomplish this. First, you may do so by turning off battle animations completely in the Options menu.
If so, this animation will also be turned off. For Z-Moves, this will disable the entire animation the same way that all move animations are disabled. For Ultra Burst however, it will instead be replaced with a generic "quick-change" animation which happens instantaneously.
The second way to turn off the animations would be to open the settings file in this plugin. Here, you'll find the settings SHOW_ZMOVE_ANIM and SHOW_ULTRA_ANIM. If you set these to false, this will permanently shut off the animations for Z-Moves and Ultra Burst, respectively. For Ultra Burst, the quick-change animation above will still be used however, even when battle animations are turned on.
Ultra Icon
When a Pokemon is in Ultra Burst form, and icon will be displayed next to their databoxe to indicate this. This is similar to icons for other mechanics such as Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion.
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