New idea for Sun & Moon to make every individual Pokemon you encounter even more unique?

[rarmstar]

Hi everyone,

I've been thinking about ways that the Pokemon 'formula' could be adapted in certain ways in order to help make every single Pokemon you encounter unique in a special and different way. I know that every individual Pokemon has its own mix of IVs, a pick of natures, one of two/three abilities, can be shiny, etc., but with competitive battling being the way it is, weaker Pokemon are always tossed aside in favour of those with the right IVs and nature. I was thinking of something that could help give every individual Pokemon of every single species a unique advantage in battling.

What if there was a new slot for every individual Pokemon, separate from nature, ability, etc., which gave that Pokemon a unique benefit when fighting other Pokemon?
I'm thinking like in the anime, where frequently you come across Pokemon who are, for some reason, stronger against the type their species is meant to be weak against, or are really, really good at using a certain move.

Using an example to try and show what I mean, let's take the Pokemon Froakie:

Any Froakie you find can have any nature. It's ability can be Torrent or Protean.
Currently, these are the only things that can separate each Froakie apart, with the result that only the Froakie with the best nature, IVs, ability will be used competitively.

• But what if one Froakie is really, really good at Ice Beam. In its unique battle slot, it could have the ability to have Ice Beam boosted 10/20% every time it used it.
  
• What if another Froakie is specially trained to combat grass-types, so only receives normal damage instead of super effective?
  
• What if another Froakie has trained specifically again dragon-types, so receives 10% less damage from any move used by a dragon-type Pokemon?

These are just some examples, which would need to be refined to fit into a competitive battle system, but I feel if each individual Pokemon species could have one of many of these 'unique battle slots', it would really help make every single Pokemon you encounter have something truly unique about it.

I'd love to know what you think about this idea. :pink_love:
Does it make any sense?
Is it a stupid idea?
Is there a nugget of a good idea in there somewhere?

Have a good Monday!! :t001: :t004: :t007:

 

[MarioManH]

I like it, but I feel like breeding would get 100x more annoying trying to get the right "fit"

 

[OuterTsuchinoko]

I like the idea, I always love anything that makes a pokemon even more different than someone else's. That's why I love shinies, nicknames, natures, and the little personality description. Anything to make a pokemon more unique is good in my book.

 

[DandyClaudius]

This is a super unique and cool concept I hope and pray will be implemented at some point in time in a main series Pokemon game or something similar.
My hat is off to you my friend.

Cin cin

 

[Xander Olivieri]

The only problems with these ideas are:
1) as MarioManH stated, it would be too complicated and make Breeding a bit more of a hassle to get that specific one.

2) No matter what, someone somewhere will have the "absolute best" version to use for specific Pokemon that everyone will end up using making the idea redundant. The same basic principle is why EV training exists. It was made to make the Pokemon be more unique and give you more room for strategies. What was meant to improve weaknesses became a game of minmaxing to the best potential.

If you had a programmed limitation to this, let's say maximum 30% boost to damage for Icebeam. This would only appear of Pokemon who already gain benefits from using Icebeam.

I can't ever see them messing with the type chart because that's a whole different can of worms that we shouldn't get into. I mean look at making Dragon types lose their weakness to Fairy, that would become the staple effect for all heavy hitting Dragons. Suddenly any effort made to "fix" the meta is gone.

The idea itself is creative. Something that could work, but not in traditional Pokemon games. This would be more for spinoffs like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, or something completely new.

 

[Ho-Oh]

It is interesting, definitely.

BUT!

I think it's better off not happening entirely as described.

Training like this could probably happen in-game, that's not unlikely and probably not too far of a scope. It's just encountering/breeding that's the problem here. Finding that one perfect Pokemon is even harder, and it also complicates competitive battling. If it was usable in-game only (stats reset during any competitive play online through battle spot, etc) then I'd be all for it. It'd be a cool way to give your Pokemon an advantage.

One way it could happen is it could cost money each time you train, and stats would raise like super training. So say your Froakie is heading to Butterfly City (cool name, I know) and the leader uses Grass-type Pokemon. You get some type training in Grass there and you can handle the gym leader a bit better. Obviously it would only be usable on one Pokemon a time, and more expensive as the gyms go on, I think, so that it's not too broken.

Any other changes to weaknesses, etc permanently would throw off competitive battling and breeding way too much.

 

[rarmstar]

What if there was a way to change the slot in-game, so that it didn't rely solely on breeding? So like, depending on the Pokemon you train against, the moves you use, and other things that happen throughout your journey, your unique battle slot changes to fit in with you and your Pokemon's individual relationship?

Then it wouldn't change the breeding/super-training/EV/nature formula that is in place already. Rather, depending on the unique way that you interact and training with your Pokemon, you can get access to one of many of these battle advantages. It would still help make competitive battling more varied as you can never predict what unique battle slot the Pokemon you are facing will have.

Would a mechanic like that help refine the idea in any way?

 

[Jacrad]

I'm not so sure an idea along the lines of what you're talking about would add anything meaningful to the games. It seems to me more like an exaggeration of the systems already in place to add variety to Pokemon.

I don't really think either competitive players or casual players would get much out of the specializations you're suggesting.
Like these this:

What if another Froakie is specially trained to combat grass-types, so only receives normal damage instead of super effective?

Wouldn't a player who is new to the series have a very warped sense of the typing chart if there was something like this?

And for competitive players, there needs to be a certain degree of predictability. Remove that and you basically have no way to properly strategize because there's too many possibilities to consider. If Froakie, or all other Pokemon, could be specially trained against one specific type then on the first turn your opponent sends out their Pokemon the type chart is basically useless because there's the possibility that the opposing Pokemon could have a resistance to any one of the types. You wouldn't be able to know until you test it.

 

[Purist of Black Water]

You mean like "buffs" for your pokemon?
As said, this idea would be better suited for
games like pokken or mystery dungeon.

It's a nice idea, but much too confusing
and the combinations would be legit endless...
which is good, but also bad.

Final fantasy had this idea implemented well.

 

[Hikamaru]

I agree with most of MarioManH and Xander's points. This would be way too complicated to see implemented in a franchise like Pokemon, and it would cause breeding to be overcomplicated even further, especially when you consider how much the system already is.

Altering the type chart would also be a no-no, especially since we already just got a new type and we've only had this new type chart for what has been three years now. And besides, we already have the IV and EV system to make each Pokemon "unique".

 

[illumine]

There might be certain problems with this, for example that it risks making opposition too random, and in general people trying to catch Pokémon with certain traits of that kind might make the process a bit unnecessary. Without much variation in a given type, of course, you distract from one of the central points of the Pokémon games, namely that different Pokémon are nonetheless similar in certain ways, and this might result in something more like the TCG, where Pokémon are more restricted to doing certain things. In addition, they might not want to prescribe how players should use a given Pokémon. Generally, it might be better that their use in battle come about organically.

Adjusting to a trainer's patterns is a different thing, and generally a good idea.

 

[MarinoKadame]

They will probably fix the IV calculation to get a Fairy HP.

 

[Spinosaurus]

There will always be an optimal moveset for competitive play no matter what.

IVs are already stupid as is.