New Region with 8 gyms and an Elite 4 as usual. There's really nothing wrong with this setup.
Type based gyms are out. You have a pokemon of a certain type or a super effective move and boom, you beat the gym. That doesn't make for a particularly effective curve.
The partner trainers from Pokemon Platinum were an interesting take. Their teams all had pokemon that were strong in a particular stat. Riley had powerful attackers. Buck's pokes had high defenses. Marley was a speed demon. Etc.
My idea is that each gym would instead use a variety of types of pokemon from around the area, or even around the region. The way it would be set up is that each gym would have a team that a player would be able to have. Maybe their pokemon would have moves that the player wouldn't have, or even be evolved prematurely. This may change up in later gyms, where they would have pokemon that aren't available to the player.
The idea is that the gyms would provide a challenge that isn't centered around type to force the player to have a team that is balanced for non-type based strategies. It has an additional bonus of giving players hints on what strategies and pokemon to use.
I'm also throwing traditional leveling out of the window. If you have reached a certain point in the game, you can immediately set any pokemon you own to a certain level interval. The trainers the player would battle would be at those specific levels as well. To advance to the next level interval, you have to reach a certain point in the game (defeat a gym leader, make it through a dungeon, complete a major in story event). This complete removes grinding, allowing the player to focus more on developing the strategies that are available, then simply increasing stat numbers.
Wild pokemon would be a bit of a mixup. They will only adhere to the level limit in the losest sense, in that generally pokemon in a certain area will have a level somewhere in the range of the limit. More powerful or more valuable pokemon will be higher in level, with legendaries possibly exceeding the level limit to provide a challenge. Wild pokemon would generally have a random moveset as opposed to just having the most recent moves it can learn. That way, a player can get a general feel of what moves a wild pokemon has available by encountering it multiple times. Catching pokemon would be very much the same.
Leveling (along with many other features) would be managed in an advanced pokedex. It allows you to level the pokemon in your party up to your level limit and allows you to change your pokemon's moveset to contain any move that the pokemon can know by the level limit as well as any move it can learn from a tm you own. You would be able to freely change your pokemon's moveset anytime you can access your pokedex (so, not midbattle). This is meant to allow you complete freedom over your pokemon's moveset, in order to adapt to circumstances and try out the possibilities rather than having to jump the hoops of going to a move relearner or using up tms and whatnot.
HM's are out. Surf, Strength, and Fly and such are denigrated to being TM's. Whilst surf, and arguable strength, are useful moves, having to force the player to use up a pokemon's moveslot in order to progress the game is counter intuitive to my plans. Their purposes will instead be taken up by several key items. Instead of cut, you find some hedge clippers. Instead of surf, you get a little boat. Instead of fly,
HarryScull said:
I dont know a lot about pokemon but adding jet packs can't hurt right?
No "team". There are other ways to advance a plot or provide a conflict. Every single region having an unlawful organization calling themselves Team Whatever is just contrived. However, legendary pokemon going on a rampage is not, and though it has been done before, it effectively provides a precedent for encountering the legendary and providing a regional conflict. "Teams" provide an assortment of enemy trainers, but instead why not simply put in more opposing trainers? How about trainers on a quest to gain all 8 badges and challenge the league just like you? We never see alot of those in the actual games, with most trainers being regular ass people like bug catchers, kindergartners, businessman, fisherman, and people who swim in the ocean. As an additional source of conflict, why not trainers who want to catch the legendary pokemon, who will only stand down after being shown that you're a superior trainer? Makes for a more interesting enemy matchup than any of the teams.
Actual pokemon? Equalize overall balance. No completely useless pokemon. Or, at the very least, significantly less. One of the better ways to go about this is to have pokemon that are useful in the early areas of the game at low levels, but prove increasingly useless at later stages, and must be replaced. Examples of this include the early encountered bug types of each generation (the caterpie-metapod-butterfree line is the most famous example). Not too many, though. Ideally, a player should have a team of pokemon caught over the course of the entire journey, including one or two that have been with the player since the beginning.
At the same time, no ubers. Even the legendaries. If they're too powerful to be used along with and against other pokemon, they not balanced. A greater variety of types and moves to compliment those types. A good balance between pokemon with very specific roles(examples: Ninjask, Alakazam, Skarmory) and pokemon that can take many roles (Tyranitar, Jirachi, Gliscor). Also (this is just a little thing), weather would be nerfed. 5th gen is weather here, weather there, weather ALL UP IN DIS SHIT. Maybe make it a common strategy amongst gym leaders and trainers, all while throwing in a few pokemon with Air Lock and Cloud 9 (There's only like, Rayquaza and Altaria and shit right now). A greater variety of interesting new types (where's that fire/flying huh? Or that Ghost/Steel? Or that Normal/ALMOSTANYTHING)
Like with all generations, I would put a great deal of attention to designing starters. I've always felt that, being the face of their generations and whatnot, they should be incredibly versatile, and eternally useful. They should be balanced to be on tier with the best of the best amongst the pokemon of their generation, without being immediately broken.
The starters would be of the three usual types, Grass, Fire, and Water. But at the same time the player would get their starter, they would receive a second pokemon, chosen from a variety of types from around the region. This is what I call the "partnet" pokemon. It allows to player to actually start out with a team of pokemon, discouraging solo runs. It also introduces the idea of synergy, such as having a type that compensates from the weaknesses of the starter.
More dragon types, but at the same time, make them more mundane. Almost every dragon ends up being rare and super awesome, and it's starting to mess up balance. This means no more dragon legendaries. Too fuckin many of those.
Player character customization. We all want it. We all crave it. Give me my fedorah and/or miniskirt and/or tap dancing shoes and/or parasol. Gimme my brown/red/black/purple hair and slickback/cropped/curly hair.
A greater in story connection to the rest of the series. We go fuckin nuts over that. Like when gold battled red at the end of GS/HGSS. I'd like a finale involving a series of battles against the player characters of every previous region, of each gender, and even including their rivals. And then boom, some kind of dream sequence, where you battle the protagonist of the NEXT game.
I just blew my own mind.
That's my two cents on what I would do if I controlled the pokemon series. A game that truly changes things. For the better. Not just a "herp derp, it's all repetitive, but I wanna replay regions" and other nostalgia bull.
EDIT: I really really hope no one quotes this whole thing.