The Format for All Moves

[Ket Shi]

This is the comprehensive layout for all moves to show what variables can apply, whether defensive or offensive. For more detail, please check out Fluo's layout in the post below. You don't have to use this format, as most moves don't apply to every thing listed. Here's all the possible factors:


REQUIRED FOR EVERY MOVE

1. Name
2. Description
3. Base PP
4. Element Type
5. Contest Type
6. Physical/Special/Other
7. Pokemon that would have this move

IF REQUIRED BY THE EFFECT

1. Power Base
2. Accuracy
3. Side effect accuracy
4. Touch

OPTIONAL FIELDS

1. Target
2. Priority
3. Soundproof-negated

"DON'T FILL THESE IN YOURSELF UNLESS YOU HAVE A REALLY GOOD REASON TO" FIELDS

1. Can miss
2. Can be snatched
3. Can be MAGIC coated
4. King's Rock, Brightpowder
5. Others
6. Counter or Mirror Coat

Remember, only include Touch if, by using the attack, the Pokémon needs to touch an opponent to hit it with the move in question. Sound is only for moves that rely completely on sound for their effect such as Growl and Uproar.

[Fluo]

Aye, aye, aye...

If I expected my brief explanation of a move's internal definition to be used integrally like that I'd have put more thought into it.

Anyhow, I'll fix:

REQUIRED

Name The name of the move. It must be between 1 and 12 letters long and only use alphanumeric characters.
Type Type of the move. Physical types are, in the following numeral order: normal, fighting, flying, poison, ground, rock, bug, ghost, steel, crystal. Special types are: fire, water, grass, electric, psychic, ice, dragon, dark, light, wind. The ??? type also exists as a physical type, but it shouldn't really be used.
Description This is the description of your move. It's the text that appears in the bottom of the screen when you select a move in one of your pokemons' learnset.
Effect Screw what I said about effects. Effect is what the move does, period. I'll post a complete list of all available effects, (I'll just rip it off rsbot's data)
Base PP This is the amount of PP that the move will have before any PP Ups are used to raise it. 1 for moves like Sketch, 5 for very strong moves, 10~15 for strong moves, 15~30 for normal moves or stat uppers, more for weak moves.

IF REQUIRED BY THE EFFECT

Power Base power of the move. It ranges from 0 to 255, but it should not go over 100 unless there are drawbacks. The power does not need to be precised if the move does not deal damage. In this case, the power is zero.
Accuracy Chance of the move happening. If the effect explicitely states that the accuracy is perfect, or precises other means to calculate accuracy that do not require this field, then the accuracy is zero.
Side accuracy If the effect states that the attack has a side effect, this number will be used to know whether said effect will happen or not. For example, body slam has a 30% chance of paralysis, thus this field must be equal to 30. If the effect states that no side effect is to be executed, or if the side effect is sure to happen, the value of this field shall be zero.
Touch If the move touches the foe when it is used, the value of this field shall be YES. Else, or if it is not specified, or if it does not matter in regard to the effect, the value of this field shall be NO.

OPTIONAL FIELDS

Target This field is used to know what is the target of the move. It can either be ONE OPPONENT, TWO OPPONENTS, EVERYONE, SELF, RANDOM OPPONENT, LAST WHO MOVED, and perhaps one or two others, depending on what you intend to do. If this field is not filled in, common sense will have to be used.
Priority Priority of the move. 0 is the neutral priority. A move will always go before a move of higher priority, before a move of lower priority, and if two moves have equal priority, the SPEED statistic of the users will be used to set an order. If this field is not filled, the value is automatically zero. Technically, priority should always range from -6 to 6. For reference: quick attack has a priority of 1, snatch 4, protect 6, vital throw -1, counter -5, roar -6.
Sound Does the move make a sound when it is used? If it does, the value of this field shall be YES. If it doesn't, or if the field is omitted, the value shall be NO. Used for the Soundproof trait.

"DON'T FILL THESE IN YOURSELF UNLESS YOU HAVE A REALLY GOOD REASON TO" FIELDS

Can miss This field exists, for whatever reason I am unaware of. It mainly concerns the use of protect - if the target uses protect, will the move miss? Usually yes. Don't bother with it.
Can be snatched Can the move be snatched, i.e. if the foe uses Snatch, can it steal the move? Usually, all moves that have the target SELF can be snatched, with some exceptions. Moves that do not have SELF as the target, except one or two exceptions (psych-up), cannot be snatched. Don't bother with it.
Can be MAGIC coated Not mirror coated, MAGIC coated. This is for moves that can be mirrored with the move MAGIC COAT. Status inflicting moves and stat lowering moves, such as toxic, will-o-wisp, confuse ray, swagger, tail whip, will have YES in this field, others will have NO. Don't bother with it, it's extremely straightforward to set this one.
King's rock, Brightpowder These fields exist for whatever reason, I don't recall how they are filled in, but don't bother with them.
Others Don't bother. Whatever you would put in there technically belongs to the effect field.

This is the general pattern, as I know it, as it is implemented into rsbot, and as it can be found in the data string in the ROM. Now, most of the misc fields are dependant on the implementation - it's likely that you would find an implementation that would automatically fill some fields in, such as the magic coat field for example. For that reason, you would better not fill them in.

Also, this is technical jargon. If you define a move in this fashion:

"Ultrabeam: This attack uses the pokemon's ears to unleash an extremely powerful beam of purple love juice. Powerful normal attack, 5 pp, 200 power, 50% accuracy and can paralyze (10%)."

That's sufficient. A beam doesn't touch, typically doesn't make a sound, and since there's no mention of it, the target must be one single opponent. The rest can also be deduced fairly easily. The complete layout is only used to tell you what you need and what you MAY need, but for clarity, it's better to omit fields.

Oh yeah, and if you plan to make contests you need to fill in other variables. I don't remember what they are, unfortunately, but they exist.

Edit: smelly smileys

Edit2: I can't believe I forgot about priority.

[Ket Shi]

Ah, thank you, Fluo. I'll change the format to your setup, as it makes more sense to me than the current one.