What do you want in Gen 6?

[Sakuraa]

I hope X and Y have a HUGE pokedex. Just like in BW2 with a large choice of Pokemon from other reigons.
I'd like a dark-type gym, but I'm not expecting it.
I hope they create more version excusive elements that make the games more different from each other. Something like the X character starting from a different town than the Y character. Different gyms between versions. Stuff like this, but once again, I don't expect it.
Character customization would be nice. Something similar to PBR where you can change your skin color and outfits, but not your overall model.

Edit: One rival who is female. Hope for a Blue/Silver peronality, but don't expect it.

 

[sonic10158]

I hope no one said this because im not reading 166 pages.
I WANT YOUR POKEMON TO FOLLOW YOU D@MN!T

Also, I agree with the person above me.

only if I can turn it off. I HATE that useless waste of a feature.

 

[Pikachu011]

A filter for the stupid gts trolls that say like, " oh I want a lvl 9 or under Zekrom for a patrat" WE CAN'T GET A LEVEL 9 or under Zekrom! No one can!

 

[Team Gaara]

Female rival. That is all.

 

[AceTogeTrainer]

I'm sorry if this has already been brought up but i dont have time to read 167 pages of posts but I just wanted to say that: WE NEEED TO GET RID OF IVS!!!!
Honestly it goes against everything pokemon stands for. Weren't we supposed to learn something from Ash and Paul?! Like, don't catch and release pokemon based on raw inner ability but train them with love and care to bring out there true potential ! I am praying that this is the new bond mechanic, so you can increase ur pokemon's IVs somehow ingame. so pokemon will still be born with certain amounts of IVs but these can be raised to the maximum with some feature. I think the key difference between this and happiness is that it won't be reset when you trade, but i dont have a clue how exactly the bonds will be grown tbh.

Honestly when I first discovered IVs i felt like a small child having my heart crushed into a million little pieces... how was it possible that my togekiss and lucario would never be as strong as Cynthia's.... did i need to find new one's ??? Perhaps im exaggerating but i still don't want any other young fans having this horrible realization.

 

[Anser]

I'm sorry if this has already been brought up but i dont have time to read 167 pages of posts but I just wanted to say that: WE NEEED TO GET RID OF IVS!!!!
Honestly it goes against everything pokemon stands for. Weren't we supposed to learn something from Ash and Paul?! Like, don't catch and release pokemon based on raw inner ability but train them with love and care to bring out there true potential ! I am praying that this is the new bond mechanic, so you can increase ur pokemon's IVs somehow ingame. so pokemon will still be born with certain amounts of IVs but these can be raised to the maximum with some feature. I think the key difference between this and happiness is that it won't be reset when you trade, but i dont have a clue how exactly the bonds will be grown tbh.

Honestly when I first discovered IVs i felt like a small child having my heart crushed into a million little pieces... how was it possible that my togekiss and lucario would never be as strong as Cynthia's.... did i need to find new one's ??? Perhaps im exaggerating but i still don't want any other young fans having this horrible realization.

Amen to this post. I've had two disappointments recently, all because of the stupid IVs. Gyarados and Arcanine have always been two of my favorite Pokémon, and recently I EV trained them. Then, I realized that their IVs weren't good enough, so they weren't as strong as I thought they were. I know it all depends, but I can't take the image off my head now. To me, now Arcanine and Gyarados appeal as weak Pokémon to me even though I'm convinced they aren't. It's strange, I know. I don't know how to explain it very well.

 

[Ninja-Mage]

Indeed ivs are the only legit reason for pokegening. I say only legit because you can ev train a Pokemon in 30 minutes with the right items. There's no excuse to not ev train your mons other then laziness. Ivs just add unnecessary complexity to an already complex and confusing system

 

[TheRealLoneRenegade]

I personally would love to see the back of IVs but we won't I don't think...

 

[Infinity Mk-II]

Get rid of them? No way. Each individual Pokémon should be unique to a degree and get a relatively unique stat growth along other things from its unique seed.

Now, rework and overhaul them, specially for balancing purposes, on the other hand? Would be nice to see.


I want a layer of complexity that isn't neither broken into simply maxing out everything nor is based on tediously punching a random generator.


IVs should be distributed. There should be a thing any and all IV spreads have over other IV spreads-- essentially boiling down on different advantages and disadvantages for having lower IVs.

EVs work really well because they are distributed: a pokémon with 252 and 128 in two stats and a pokémon with 200 and 180 are different but both are viable of following different strategies.
There IS an advantage in not having a certain stat maxed out. It's balanced and encourages strategy.

Similarly, with natures. It's as simple as one stat going up and the other going down.


But in the case of IVs, it's not that way. I am all for having pokémon with randomly determined stat growths making something like a super strong 31/31 attacker really rare... but when it becomes "this is simply better" with no kind of strategy attached to that, I don't think that's good either. The player should be given more options. Maybe optimizying stats in accordance to imperfect IVs, to have an unusually slightly higher defense than this super-attacker would have or something.

Ultimately, this would also mean that the completely optimal pokémon of that species/set would be even rarer, so everyone deviates from the strategy slightly merely by having differently arranged stats. Which makes things more interesting as then every pokémon would truly be unique instead of the same as each other but better or worse.

Or as an even better idea, low IVs increasing something else rather than the six battle stats.


But none of this is ever happening, so it's a moot point.

 

[LadySasaki]

There's no excuse to not ev train your mons other then laziness.

Or simply not wanting to.

I wouldn't mind seeing Ingo and Emmett come back as Gym Leaders/E4 members. Caitlin's opened up the door for that possibility.

 

[AceTogeTrainer]

Get rid of them? No way. Each individual Pokémon should be unique to a degree and get a relatively unique stat growth along other things from its unique seed.

Now, rework and overhaul them, specially for balancing purposes, on the other hand? Would be nice to see.

Now that i think about i do like the aspect of each pokemon being unique... IMHO a system would be ideal if all pokes had the same total amount of IVs and they were just distributed evenly, but i know that it would make backwards compatability impossible so im not really hoping for it. I'll just be fine if we're given a way to increase IVs, even if it is a monotonous method cause tbh i cant RNG to save my life, ive tried and i just suck. I can breed pretty sucessfully and get 2 to 3 perfect IVs, and thats oky for glass cannons cause they only need speed and attack/spattack but even thats not too good if ur trying to raise a bulky poke
who needs perfect HP, defense, sp.defense, and attack/spatack. But im really getting off topic, I think including a way to raise IVs would enforce that theme of "if you try hard enough anything is possible". Whatever system they hypothetically introduce just needs to be unique from the EV system.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Actually, now that I think about it, there's a ton more stuff I'd like to see. I'll try to keep it to stuff that's not covered in other threads to keep it from being too long:

Key Items/Features:

Spoiler

-Keep Easy and Challenge Mode, but make both available from the start, no strings attached.
-Return of Vs. Seeker, now with the ability to be used literally anywhere (caves, gyms, other buildings where trainers gather).
-For the love of Arceus, remove that annoying restriction on nicknames where you can't change them unless the Pokemon's OT is yours. It's extremely annoying if you get one with a stupid name, and even more so when you want to change the nickname of a Pokemon that was transferred from a past gen game, because then you're screwed. I have a Blastoise that I started out with in FireRed and I thought up a great nickname for it after I transferred it to 4th gen, but now I can't give it that nickname.
-Bring back the ability to plant berries in the main game. I don't care if it's through Berry Pots, through some designated garden area, or throughout the entire region, just as long as it's there in the main game (not just the DW, that's stupid).
-I'm really hoping the Roller Skates don't completely replace the Bike, that'd be stupid. They should make it like a Mach Bike/Acro Bike sort of deal where you can have different vehicles that have different overworld effects (except unlike the Mach and Acro Bikes, you wouldn't have to swap one for the other, just get off one and get on the other). Here's some things they could do:

Bike: Scales cliffs like Acro Bike/Rock Climb
Roller Skates: Glide across crumbling floors like the Mach Bike in RSE
Skateboard (they intended to add this in GSC, actually, so why not?): Jump off ramps

-A new gadget like Pokegear/Pokenav/Poketch. I'm thinking the next one will be based on a tablet computer (like iPad), and when opened, it would fit comfortably in the touch screen and you would use the stylus to control it (kind of like the Poketch). It could have the following apps, maybe more:

-Clock
-Calendar: now with the ability to write reminders within certain dates (for instance, when a new download event is announced, you can mark when it starts and when it ends so you can better plan for it)
-Map
-C Gear
-Dowsing Machine
-Day Care Checker
-Berry Checker
-Pedometer
-Happiness Checker
-Type Chart
-possibly Vs. Seeker and Vs. Recorder would be integrated into this device
-some sort of communication feature like phone, e-mail, or Xtransceiver. You would only be able to register important characters for important events, though, no pointless calls to say something stupid like "My Rattata is in the top percentage of Rattatas".
-Video streaming. It would function mainly like the TV, except it could be viewed anywhere. There would be several channels that give you gameplay tips as usual, but it would also have some important uses such as swarms, department store clearance sales, and weather)

-Fix the GTS so it's more fair. They could take the following measure to accomplish this:

-Ban illegal trade requests (you know, the Lv. 9 and under legendaries you see all of the time that can't actually be caught without hacking).
-Clear completed trades from the trade list after the trade is complete. I can't even believe I have to say that, it should be a given.
-Increase the number of results displayed. 7 is too few, especially when the trade lists are cluttered with hacks, illegal trade requests, and noobs who think their Lv. 5 Com Mons are worth a Lv. 100 something (with the possible exception of Magikarp/Gyarados, since you can catch those easily enough in Nature Preserve). They should make it so it feels more like an actual search engine, the results would be split up into "pages" with about 15-20 per "page".
-Allow the ability to view an offered Pokemon's Summary screen. This would be helpful for people who might be looking at something more specific in a trade offer, like stats, natures, abilities, and movesets. It would also allow you to detect hacks easier, as location data, stats, abilities, and movesets are all telltale signs of whether or not a Pokemon is hacked (for instance, I once got a shiny Rhyperior off the GTS, only to find its location data said it was caught at the Pokemon League at Lv. 55. Yeah, no).
-In tandem with the ability to detect hacks using the Pokemon's Summary screen, you can also report hacked offers directly to Nintendo so appropriate actions can be taken against the offender (removal of the trade offer, temp bans and permabans from the GTS after a certain number of offenses)

-Bring back the ability to have your Pokemon follow you around like in HGSS (unlikely given what we've seen in the trailer, but still possible if the feature can be turned off in this game).
-As a solution to the "stupid kids are getting lost" excuse for making Unova horribly short and linear, I propose the following new key item, which I am currently calling the Memory Reminder (I literally just made up that name on the spot, I know that's probably a stupid name for it, though). It would function similarly to the Fame Checker from FRLG, except instead of recalling conversation and tidbits of information on important characters (which is a very useless feature), it would recall conversations on certain objectives throughout the game. Whenever you talk to someone that gives you a hint of where you're supposed to go, it would be recorded here, so that if you ever get lost, you can use the Memory Reminder as a hint to get you started in the right direction. In addition, if you need to progress to a new area that you have yet to go there, it can point it out for you on the Map. Let me give an example of how this would work: Let's say you're in BW2 and you made your way to Lentimas Town. When you get here, Professor Juniper asks you to go see Drayden in Opelucid City to inquire about the legendary Dragons. Now, if you weren't paying attention to the conversation or forgot it or something, you'd be able to open up your Memory Reminder, and it would play back your conversation with Professor Juniper so you remember you're supposed to go there. Furthermore, let's say you have no idea where Opelucid City is or how you might get there. It would point out Opelucid City on your map, and you can plan out your route to get there (so you would think to yourself, "Hm, Twist Mountain's closed (assuming you already went there), so the only way forward is to head through Reversal Mountain to Undella Town. From there, it looks like there's a straight path that runs up to Lacunosa Town and eventually to Opelucid City, so let's try that", and see if it pans out. If not, open up the map and try a different route until you find one that works). They could also use this for sidequests, and they would be marked as such so you don't get confused and try to complete a sidequest hoping to continue the main storyline.
-Keep the Key system for Black City/White Forest type situations, that could prove very useful when used on areas that have different appearances and wild Pokemon distributions in the game. For instance, you could get a key for Rt. 4 in BW2, and if you have the key for White 2 Rt. 4 (regardless of what version you're playing), you would have the White 2 version of Rt. 4 with the desert ruins houses, and you would be able to catch Mincinno in the sand, Braviary on Monday, and Gorebyss through fishing spots.

Region:

Spoiler

-Basically, do the opposite of what they did with Unova, that region's design is the worst we've had since Johto, but in particular:

-Large region, at least 20-25 cities and 30-40 routes total. Several cities and routes can and should be made post game, but the storyline path needs to be decent sized.
-Tons of exploration, this was one thing Unova's design really lacked. No storyline paths that are basically straight lines through the region, put in plenty of optional paths (Unova was actually okay about this, but could've done a bit better), multiple ways to progress through the region, and backtracking to keep things interesting. The Pokemon League is more of a journey than a destination, the region design should reflect it.
-Route design should be similar to Unova Rt. 23 in the sense that the main path is somewhat long, but quite simple and easy to follow, but are chock full of secrets for the more experienced player to look for. HM obstacles should be used similarly to 5th gen, not many that you're required to go through (like, maybe use each HM about once or twice), but plenty more if you intend to go off the beaten path. Many of Unova's routes are too short and simplistic, I'd like to see less of those routes throughout the game.
-Tone down the number of healing spots, it's getting kind of ridiculous. I'm fine with having the occasional Nurse or Doctor (or some other nice person who wants to heal your Pokemon) in the middle of a long dungeon or route, but 5th gen takes this too far. I mean, you've got a Pokemon Center in Mistralton, some lady in a house on Rt. 7 heals your Pokemon, and then there's a Nurse halfway up Celestial Tower, that's kind of redundant. And don't even get me started on the Rt. 4 area, they take it to a ridiculous extreme there. You've got Pokemon Centers not too far away in Castelia and Nimbasa, and a lady in the house near Desert Resort will also heal your Pokemon. And then there's a Nurse in Desert Resort itself, and one which comes to work for you in Join Avenue when you reach Rank 4. That's 5 healing spots less than one area away from a relatively short route. Do we really need that many?

-This one might be pushing it a little, but it'd be nice to see them take version differences to the next level with version exclusive storyline paths. For instance, you might do certain gyms in a different order between versions, or they might require you to visit certain areas at different times. For instance, if Xerneas and Yveltal inhabit completely different areas like they appear to, you would visit Xerneas' habitat near the end of the game in X and post game in Y, and Yveltal's would be near the end of the game in Y and post game in X. Actually, come to think of it, that's exactly what they did in GS and HGSS, but it'd be nice to see them do this for other areas as well.
-Weather now affects the region instead of seasons. Seasons are a nice, innovative idea, and I love how they affected the overworld. There's just one small problem with them: they last way too long. Seriously, having to wait 3 months IRL (or change your clock settings, which tends to lead to a ton of problems like a 24 hour ban from the DW and removal of all items from Join Avenue shops) is absolutely ridiculous, that's a huge chunk of the typical lifespan of a Pokemon game (about a year or so depending on how invested your are in the game after completing the storyline), so to have to sit and wait through that timespan just to get a particular Pokemon or access a particular area is ridiculous. A better alternative would be to tie this to weather. Some of the seasonal changes could translate very well into weather, Winter matches up perfectly with Hail, Sun and Rain could do such things as affect the water level, as well as other affects such as creating mud pits or puddles throughout the routes, and Sandstorm could function similarly to Rt. 20 in Autumn, where sand could pile up in certain areas to allow you to progress in certain areas. And like with seasons, the Pokemon distribution would be affected by weather, you could see more Grass and Fire types in the Sun, more Water and Electric types during the rain, more Rock, Ground and Steel types in sandstorms, and more Ice types in hail. Best of all, weather would last a reasonable amount of time, too, it'd only last about a day or two, and would follow weekly patterns.
-In regards to HMs and field moves, they need to make a few changes to make them more useful for exploration, but at the same time, less intrusive to the storyline. Here's what I was thinking:

-Have field moves take up a seperate moveset slot from your battle moves (for instance, you would still have 4 moves to use in battle, but could have an additional 2-4 to use in the overworld). You could, of course, have a move appear in both movesets if you want. Also, deletion restrictions would now affect the entire field movesets instead of HMs (to prevent yourself from being trapped).
-The HMs ideally need to be useful field moves, not just random obstacles. They need to add something in terms of puzzle solving or progression. For instance, Surf and (RSE) Dive add completely new modes of transporation and also allow you new ways of catching wild Pokemon, Strength is useful for boulder puzzles as well as (in its current implementation) creating a temporary roadblock that can be removed at a later point in the game (example: in BW2, there is a boulder preventing you from going to Giant Chasm from Rt. 13 that cannot be removed until you come from Rt. 22, but once you push it in, you can move to and from there at will).
-The HM list needs to be diverse, there's too many Normal and Water type HMs, and that makes life difficult for you if you do not having one of those Pokemon.

With all of this in mind, here is my ideas for HMs and field moves:
-Cut: TBH, IDK what to do with them, but they need to be doing more with this than just random trees, that's not useful enough.
-Fly: Having a glorified warp move is nice, but there's more that could be done with this. What if you could use it to explore the skies, kind of like Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs? Here's how it would work: On the ground, you can use it like you would normally, and just go to certain cities. But in certain spots, you can use it to physically go up and explore the sky. You can use this to reach land areas that are otherwise inacessible, and while you're up there, you can also warp to other cities like normal, as well as catch wild Flying types in cloud patches.
-Surf: No changes need to be made to this one, it's easily the most useful HM in the game.
-Strength: Keep this one the same as well.
-Dive: Bring it back to its former glory as a way to fully explore underwater environments. None of this ridiculous nonsense of only using it to explore a limited step maze for Vendor Trash.
-Dig: Make this an HM, it could be really useful in ways other than a free Escape Rope. In the overworld, it could be used to dig through loose dirt to create new paths, which could either exist in the floor (allowing you to dig a hole and fall down to the next floor), or through walls to create new paths through otherwise solid rock.
-Waterfall: Downgrade this to TM. For one, 3 Water HMs is too many, and Surf and Dive are infinitely more useful here. Also, it's another generic obstacle, and with careful design, it's one that you can easily not trap yourself with (make it so no area requires you to go up a Waterfall in order to get back to a Pokemon Center).
-Whirlpool: You know what? While normally this would be another generic obstacle, but this one actually does have some use based on how it works in HGSS (which unfortunately, they never really took advantage of). The fact that you simply pass through it to the other side is useful for water mazes, since it means you can have two perpendicular paths run through each other without being able to jump from one to the other, and it would make maze design slightly easier. Outside of that, however, it's still another generic obstacle, so it's one that we shouldn't really see too much of, nor is it HM worthy.
-Rock Smash: Pretty much in the same boat as Cut, I want this to be an HM, but it's just not that useful right now. I did like how it was handled in HGSS with being able to find random Pokemon and items, but aside from that, not really seeing too much use here.

-Add in some more diverse environments and ones that we haven't seen before, such as:

-A jungle (the vine swinging section would make a great one)
-A section of the region inspired by the Alps (I'm thinking this is going to be our token snowy area of the game, but the question is when will we go there. Hopefully sooner than usual, I'm sick of going to snowy areas the exact same time in each game).
-I'd actually like to see another bridge area, but done right (not just some empty road taking you from A to B). The way it would work is that the main road would be blocked your first time through (but accessible later if you need to pass through), and you would have to progress through the bridge's underside, along girders and such to reach the end. Along the way, there'd be wild Pokemon, trainers, and items, so it would have more of a dungeon feel.
-An underground mining city, kind of like The Under in Pokemon Colloseum, except less shady.
-A haunted castle.
-Also, either in addition to this or connected to it, another haunted area based on the Paris catacombs that everyone keeps throwing around (I cannot agree more to the point that the typical haunted tower trope that we've seen in practically every game is getting stale, I was sick of it ever since 4th gen).
-More diverse underwater areas, there's a lot of neat things they could do with that. They could do ruins, an underwater city, a sunken ship, or even a sea lab.

Pokedex/Pokemon distribution:

Spoiler

-The Pokedex would function much like it does in Pokedex 3D (Pro), Pokedex pages would now display more important details such as movesets, abilities, and evolutions, possible filling some of those things in as you go along so as not to spoil anything (for instance, they could indicate to you that a certain Pokemon has an evolution, but would not tell you how until you actually evolve it). It would also be voiced, so each Pokemon's name pronunciation is clear.
-Add about 110-130 new Pokemon to the game, giving us a total of about 760-780some Pokemon in the National Dex.
-In regards to the amount of new families vs. new evolutions in the dex, I would like to see a reasonable balance of both. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see lots of new evolutions, but I'm sick of this pattern of "odd numbered gens have more new families, even numbered gens have more new evolutions", it limits the game too much. It was very grating, for example, to see BW1 give us no new evolutions because there are several Pokemon that could use new evolutions, and they are forced to wait until now (also because that whole "fresh start" thing they were going for was a load of crap, but that's a different story), and if they go the "tons of new evolutions" route that 2nd and 4th gen went, there will be too few new families in the game and it won't feel very balanced (and we'd need to rely on past gen Pokemon too much to establish that balance). So no, I finally want to see a game that's something in between, so about 10 new evolutions is pretty reasonable, and then the rest can be completely new Pokemon (I will post what kinds exactly in the "Ideas for Gen VI Pokemon" thread, I'm just going over the basic structure of what I think the Pokedex should look like here).
-Keep legendaries down to about 3rd/5th gen levels, they shouldn't overload this game with them.
-Take better advantage of Double Grass and Shaking Spot distribution. As great as these ideas are in 5th gen, the implementation is quite frankly very poor. The only thing it's really done for us is allow us to catch evolved Pokemon on the same routes as their predecessors, and that's kind of pointless in most cases (not to mention that some of these Pokemon shouldn't even be catchable in the first place, most notably the fact that several fully evolved pseudo legends are catchable via Shaking Spot). There's a lot of untapped potential in this idea to allow for more Pokemon to be catchable in a particular area. One thing we do see occasionally, is when you can reach a new section of the area later on that has fully evolved Pokemon and some new, stronger species that could reasonably inhabit the area (example: Rt. 1 in BW1 has Bidoof and Lillipup, but since you can't reach the west side of it without Surf, the Double Grass Pokemon are evolved versions of those two, plus Scraggy). So depending on when the Double Grass is accessible, new evolutions or species could be made catchable here. But there's another thing they could do that I don't think anyone's taken into consideration, and that's introduce completely different species to the area based on environment. Here's an example: on Rt. 13 in Unova, you might notice that the only place that Double Grass is found is on an island just off the cost. So why not put some more beachlike Pokemon there, like Crustle and Shuckle? The full context should be taken into consideration when designing the Double Grass distribution, not just the when, but the where as well. Shaking Spots are a bit trickier, since the only thing it really does for us is give us a separate list of Pokemon that are supposed to be "rarer" than normal ones. But it doesn't seem like they have a solid grasp on which ones, since you usually see the same 5 Pokemon appear in every Shaking Spot list, plus more evolutions. In the end, they might have to axe the Shaking Spots, aside from having a bunch of designated "rare" Pokemon and some "rare" evolutions, I don't think there's much that can be done to improve them.

 

[LadySasaki]

Now that i think about i do like the aspect of each pokemon being unique... IMHO a system would be ideal if all pokes had the same total amount of IVs and they were just distributed evenly, but i know that it would make backwards compatability impossible so im not really hoping for it. I'll just be fine if we're given a way to increase IVs, even if it is a monotonous method cause tbh i cant RNG to save my life, ive tried and i just suck. I can breed pretty sucessfully and get 2 to 3 perfect IVs, and thats oky for glass cannons cause they only need speed and attack/spattack but even thats not too good if ur trying to raise a bulky poke
who needs perfect HP, defense, sp.defense, and attack/spatack. But im really getting off topic, I think including a way to raise IVs would enforce that theme of "if you try hard enough anything is possible". Whatever system they hypothetically introduce just needs to be unique from the EV system.

Being able to change/improve IVs throughout gameplay rather than having them pre-set would be great...mostly because having a pokemon's 'talents' pre-set sort of goes against what GF are always hammering into our heads about all 'mons having equal potential...but then again if they aren't preset, IVs might as well be EVs, right? There probably is a system that'd work...

I do hope this 'friendship/bond' thing has something to do with it; it sounds so intriguing. I just hope it's some kind of additional way to play with already existing mechanics (e.g. changing IVS) rather than a whole other new mechanic. It's taken me long enough to master IV breeding, EV training and what each nature does ^^;

 

[AceTogeTrainer]

I do hope this 'friendship/bond' thing has something to do with it; it sounds so intriguing. I just hope it's some kind of additional way to play with already existing mechanics (e.g. changing IVS) rather than a whole other new mechanic. It's taken me long enough to master IV breeding, EV training and what each nature does ^^;

I've been so dead set on "bonds" changing up the IV system i havnt even thought about if its a completely new mechanic. If they make me spend hours playing some minigame to raise bonds i will not be a happy camper. Usually a bunch of crazy ideas flood into my brain when GF teases us with info like this but this time theres just nothing. we already have happiness and evs so what could bonds possibly be!!! the frustration whithin me is building!! why must they torture me like this!!

On a slightly related note Sylveon seems likely to evolve by bonding so its probably wont be anything crazy to attain because they wouldnt make sylveon crazy hard to obtain.

 

[Bolt Strike]

but then again if they aren't preset, IVs might as well be EVs, right? There probably is a system that'd work...

I was just about to bring this up, actually. As annoying as it is to have to constantly SR or RNG for them, they don't really need to be changed all that much. If we have a way to change them after the Pokemon is obtained, it defeats the purpose.

The bond mechanic should affect EVs, not IVs.

 

[Akromatic]

Actually, now that I think about it, there's a ton more stuff I'd like to see. I'll try to keep it to stuff that's not covered in other threads to keep it from being too long:

Key Items/Features:

Spoiler

-Keep Easy and Challenge Mode, but make both available from the start, no strings attached.
-Return of Vs. Seeker, now with the ability to be used literally anywhere (caves, gyms, other buildings where trainers gather).
-For the love of Arceus, remove that annoying restriction on nicknames where you can't change them unless the Pokemon's OT is yours. It's extremely annoying if you get one with a stupid name, and even more so when you want to change the nickname of a Pokemon that was transferred from a past gen game, because then you're screwed. I have a Blastoise that I started out with in FireRed and I thought up a great nickname for it after I transferred it to 4th gen, but now I can't give it that nickname.
-Bring back the ability to plant berries in the main game. I don't care if it's through Berry Pots, through some designated garden area, or throughout the entire region, just as long as it's there in the main game (not just the DW, that's stupid).
-I'm really hoping the Roller Skates don't completely replace the Bike, that'd be stupid. They should make it like a Mach Bike/Acro Bike sort of deal where you can have different vehicles that have different overworld effects (except unlike the Mach and Acro Bikes, you wouldn't have to swap one for the other, just get off one and get on the other). Here's some things they could do:

Bike: Scales cliffs like Acro Bike/Rock Climb
Roller Skates: Glide across crumbling floors like the Mach Bike in RSE
Skateboard (they intended to add this in GSC, actually, so why not?): Jump off ramps

-A new gadget like Pokegear/Pokenav/Poketch. I'm thinking the next one will be based on a tablet computer (like iPad), and when opened, it would fit comfortably in the touch screen and you would use the stylus to control it (kind of like the Poketch). It could have the following apps, maybe more:

-Clock
-Calendar: now with the ability to write reminders within certain dates (for instance, when a new download event is announced, you can mark when it starts and when it ends so you can better plan for it)
-Map
-C Gear
-Dowsing Machine
-Day Care Checker
-Berry Checker
-Pedometer
-Happiness Checker
-Type Chart
-possibly Vs. Seeker and Vs. Recorder would be integrated into this device
-some sort of communication feature like phone, e-mail, or Xtransceiver. You would only be able to register important characters for important events, though, no pointless calls to say something stupid like "My Rattata is in the top percentage of Rattatas".
-Video streaming. It would function mainly like the TV, except it could be viewed anywhere. There would be several channels that give you gameplay tips as usual, but it would also have some important uses such as swarms, department store clearance sales, and weather)

-Fix the GTS so it's more fair. They could take the following measure to accomplish this:

-Ban illegal trade requests (you know, the Lv. 9 and under legendaries you see all of the time that can't actually be caught without hacking).
-Clear completed trades from the trade list after the trade is complete. I can't even believe I have to say that, it should be a given.
-Increase the number of results displayed. 7 is too few, especially when the trade lists are cluttered with hacks, illegal trade requests, and noobs who think their Lv. 5 Com Mons are worth a Lv. 100 something (with the possible exception of Magikarp/Gyarados, since you can catch those easily enough in Nature Preserve). They should make it so it feels more like an actual search engine, the results would be split up into "pages" with about 15-20 per "page".
-Allow the ability to view an offered Pokemon's Summary screen. This would be helpful for people who might be looking at something more specific in a trade offer, like stats, natures, abilities, and movesets. It would also allow you to detect hacks easier, as location data, stats, abilities, and movesets are all telltale signs of whether or not a Pokemon is hacked (for instance, I once got a shiny Rhyperior off the GTS, only to find its location data said it was caught at the Pokemon League at Lv. 55. Yeah, no).
-In tandem with the ability to detect hacks using the Pokemon's Summary screen, you can also report hacked offers directly to Nintendo so appropriate actions can be taken against the offender (removal of the trade offer, temp bans and permabans from the GTS after a certain number of offenses)

-Bring back the ability to have your Pokemon follow you around like in HGSS (unlikely given what we've seen in the trailer, but still possible if the feature can be turned off in this game).
-As a solution to the "stupid kids are getting lost" excuse for making Unova horribly short and linear, I propose the following new key item, which I am currently calling the Memory Reminder (I literally just made up that name on the spot, I know that's probably a stupid name for it, though). It would function similarly to the Fame Checker from FRLG, except instead of recalling conversation and tidbits of information on important characters (which is a very useless feature), it would recall conversations on certain objectives throughout the game. Whenever you talk to someone that gives you a hint of where you're supposed to go, it would be recorded here, so that if you ever get lost, you can use the Memory Reminder as a hint to get you started in the right direction. In addition, if you need to progress to a new area that you have yet to go there, it can point it out for you on the Map. Let me give an example of how this would work: Let's say you're in BW2 and you made your way to Lentimas Town. When you get here, Professor Juniper asks you to go see Drayden in Opelucid City to inquire about the legendary Dragons. Now, if you weren't paying attention to the conversation or forgot it or something, you'd be able to open up your Memory Reminder, and it would play back your conversation with Professor Juniper so you remember you're supposed to go there. Furthermore, let's say you have no idea where Opelucid City is or how you might get there. It would point out Opelucid City on your map, and you can plan out your route to get there (so you would think to yourself, "Hm, Twist Mountain's closed (assuming you already went there), so the only way forward is to head through Reversal Mountain to Undella Town. From there, it looks like there's a straight path that runs up to Lacunosa Town and eventually to Opelucid City, so let's try that", and see if it pans out. If not, open up the map and try a different route until you find one that works). They could also use this for sidequests, and they would be marked as such so you don't get confused and try to complete a sidequest hoping to continue the main storyline.
-Keep the Key system for Black City/White Forest type situations, that could prove very useful when used on areas that have different appearances and wild Pokemon distributions in the game. For instance, you could get a key for Rt. 4 in BW2, and if you have the key for White 2 Rt. 4 (regardless of what version you're playing), you would have the White 2 version of Rt. 4 with the desert ruins houses, and you would be able to catch Mincinno in the sand, Braviary on Monday, and Gorebyss through fishing spots.

1. YES. I really need Easy Mode and Challenge Mode at the start of the game, because it's really time-consuming to level grind, because my Pokemon are usually gaining really little EXP or too weak.
2. I don't use the VS Seeker, so no comment.
3. Not being able to nickname traded Pokemon is supposed to show that the Pokemon originally belonged to another Trainer and its nickname is supposed to represent that and blah blah blah.
4. I know! ...wait, can't Berries be easily replaced by other items?
5. I think that's what everyone is expecting, but Game Freak doesn't like to do the expected, so who knows? (you know, besides Game Freak).
6. Those ideas don't make sense.
7. I actually really want that, but it looks like we're getting a wristwatch from the trailer. Then again, he doesn't have the watch later on, so maybe it's just an accessory.
8. The GTS will never be fair.
I'm going to skip that huge block of text and move to the bottom paragraph.
10. So you're expecting there to be a Black City/White Forest type mechanic to be in X and Y? I don't want another one of those with a different theme. That'd ruin the uniqueness of it.

Region:

Spoiler

-Basically, do the opposite of what they did with Unova, that region's design is the worst we've had since Johto, but in particular:

-Large region, at least 20-25 cities and 30-40 routes total. Several cities and routes can and should be made post game, but the storyline path needs to be decent sized.
-Tons of exploration, this was one thing Unova's design really lacked. No storyline paths that are basically straight lines through the region, put in plenty of optional paths (Unova was actually okay about this, but could've done a bit better), multiple ways to progress through the region, and backtracking to keep things interesting. The Pokemon League is more of a journey than a destination, the region design should reflect it.
-Route design should be similar to Unova Rt. 23 in the sense that the main path is somewhat long, but quite simple and easy to follow, but are chock full of secrets for the more experienced player to look for. HM obstacles should be used similarly to 5th gen, not many that you're required to go through (like, maybe use each HM about once or twice), but plenty more if you intend to go off the beaten path. Many of Unova's routes are too short and simplistic, I'd like to see less of those routes throughout the game.
-Tone down the number of healing spots, it's getting kind of ridiculous. I'm fine with having the occasional Nurse or Doctor (or some other nice person who wants to heal your Pokemon) in the middle of a long dungeon or route, but 5th gen takes this too far. I mean, you've got a Pokemon Center in Mistralton, some lady in a house on Rt. 7 heals your Pokemon, and then there's a Nurse halfway up Celestial Tower, that's kind of redundant. And don't even get me started on the Rt. 4 area, they take it to a ridiculous extreme there. You've got Pokemon Centers not too far away in Castelia and Nimbasa, and a lady in the house near Desert Resort will also heal your Pokemon. And then there's a Nurse in Desert Resort itself, and one which comes to work for you in Join Avenue when you reach Rank 4. That's 5 healing spots less than one area away from a relatively short route. Do we really need that many?

-This one might be pushing it a little, but it'd be nice to see them take version differences to the next level with version exclusive storyline paths. For instance, you might do certain gyms in a different order between versions, or they might require you to visit certain areas at different times. For instance, if Xerneas and Yveltal inhabit completely different areas like they appear to, you would visit Xerneas' habitat near the end of the game in X and post game in Y, and Yveltal's would be near the end of the game in Y and post game in X. Actually, come to think of it, that's exactly what they did in GS and HGSS, but it'd be nice to see them do this for other areas as well.
-Weather now affects the region instead of seasons. Seasons are a nice, innovative idea, and I love how they affected the overworld. There's just one small problem with them: they last way too long. Seriously, having to wait 3 months IRL (or change your clock settings, which tends to lead to a ton of problems like a 24 hour ban from the DW and removal of all items from Join Avenue shops) is absolutely ridiculous, that's a huge chunk of the typical lifespan of a Pokemon game (about a year or so depending on how invested your are in the game after completing the storyline), so to have to sit and wait through that timespan just to get a particular Pokemon or access a particular area is ridiculous. A better alternative would be to tie this to weather. Some of the seasonal changes could translate very well into weather, Winter matches up perfectly with Hail, Sun and Rain could do such things as affect the water level, as well as other affects such as creating mud pits or puddles throughout the routes, and Sandstorm could function similarly to Rt. 20 in Autumn, where sand could pile up in certain areas to allow you to progress in certain areas. And like with seasons, the Pokemon distribution would be affected by weather, you could see more Grass and Fire types in the Sun, more Water and Electric types during the rain, more Rock, Ground and Steel types in sandstorms, and more Ice types in hail. Best of all, weather would last a reasonable amount of time, too, it'd only last about a day or two, and would follow weekly patterns.
-In regards to HMs and field moves, they need to make a few changes to make them more useful for exploration, but at the same time, less intrusive to the storyline. Here's what I was thinking:

-Have field moves take up a seperate moveset slot from your battle moves (for instance, you would still have 4 moves to use in battle, but could have an additional 2-4 to use in the overworld). You could, of course, have a move appear in both movesets if you want. Also, deletion restrictions would now affect the entire field movesets instead of HMs (to prevent yourself from being trapped).
-The HMs ideally need to be useful field moves, not just random obstacles. They need to add something in terms of puzzle solving or progression. For instance, Surf and (RSE) Dive add completely new modes of transporation and also allow you new ways of catching wild Pokemon, Strength is useful for boulder puzzles as well as (in its current implementation) creating a temporary roadblock that can be removed at a later point in the game (example: in BW2, there is a boulder preventing you from going to Giant Chasm from Rt. 13 that cannot be removed until you come from Rt. 22, but once you push it in, you can move to and from there at will).
-The HM list needs to be diverse, there's too many Normal and Water type HMs, and that makes life difficult for you if you do not having one of those Pokemon.

With all of this in mind, here is my ideas for HMs and field moves:
-Cut: TBH, IDK what to do with them, but they need to be doing more with this than just random trees, that's not useful enough.
-Fly: Having a glorified warp move is nice, but there's more that could be done with this. What if you could use it to explore the skies, kind of like Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs? Here's how it would work: On the ground, you can use it like you would normally, and just go to certain cities. But in certain spots, you can use it to physically go up and explore the sky. You can use this to reach land areas that are otherwise inacessible, and while you're up there, you can also warp to other cities like normal, as well as catch wild Flying types in cloud patches.
-Surf: No changes need to be made to this one, it's easily the most useful HM in the game.
-Strength: Keep this one the same as well.
-Dive: Bring it back to its former glory as a way to fully explore underwater environments. None of this ridiculous nonsense of only using it to explore a limited step maze for Vendor Trash.
-Dig: Make this an HM, it could be really useful in ways other than a free Escape Rope. In the overworld, it could be used to dig through loose dirt to create new paths, which could either exist in the floor (allowing you to dig a hole and fall down to the next floor), or through walls to create new paths through otherwise solid rock.
-Waterfall: Downgrade this to TM. For one, 3 Water HMs is too many, and Surf and Dive are infinitely more useful here. Also, it's another generic obstacle, and with careful design, it's one that you can easily not trap yourself with (make it so no area requires you to go up a Waterfall in order to get back to a Pokemon Center).
-Whirlpool: You know what? While normally this would be another generic obstacle, but this one actually does have some use based on how it works in HGSS (which unfortunately, they never really took advantage of). The fact that you simply pass through it to the other side is useful for water mazes, since it means you can have two perpendicular paths run through each other without being able to jump from one to the other, and it would make maze design slightly easier. Outside of that, however, it's still another generic obstacle, so it's one that we shouldn't really see too much of, nor is it HM worthy.
-Rock Smash: Pretty much in the same boat as Cut, I want this to be an HM, but it's just not that useful right now. I did like how it was handled in HGSS with being able to find random Pokemon and items, but aside from that, not really seeing too much use here.

-Add in some more diverse environments and ones that we haven't seen before, such as:

-A jungle (the vine swinging section would make a great one)
-A section of the region inspired by the Alps (I'm thinking this is going to be our token snowy area of the game, but the question is when will we go there. Hopefully sooner than usual, I'm sick of going to snowy areas the exact same time in each game).
-I'd actually like to see another bridge area, but done right (not just some empty road taking you from A to B). The way it would work is that the main road would be blocked your first time through (but accessible later if you need to pass through), and you would have to progress through the bridge's underside, along girders and such to reach the end. Along the way, there'd be wild Pokemon, trainers, and items, so it would have more of a dungeon feel.
-An underground mining city, kind of like The Under in Pokemon Colloseum, except less shady.
-A haunted castle.
-Also, either in addition to this or connected to it, another haunted area based on the Paris catacombs that everyone keeps throwing around (I cannot agree more to the point that the typical haunted tower trope that we've seen in practically every game is getting stale, I was sick of it ever since 4th gen).
-More diverse underwater areas, there's a lot of neat things they could do with that. They could do ruins, an underwater city, a sunken ship, or even a sea lab.

1. UNOVA AND JOHTO ARE AWESOME. Well, in my opinion.
2. I agree with the first three, but Nurses and Doctors aren't an inconvenience. They're a bonus.
3. I agree with the next 2.
4. I agree with the HM things, especially the Fly idea, but not with Waterfall not being an HM.
5. The rest I like, but the vine-swinging thing is probably just a Gym. Notice the footprints.

Pokedex/Pokemon distribution:

Spoiler

-The Pokedex would function much like it does in Pokedex 3D (Pro), Pokedex pages would now display more important details such as movesets, abilities, and evolutions, possible filling some of those things in as you go along so as not to spoil anything (for instance, they could indicate to you that a certain Pokemon has an evolution, but would not tell you how until you actually evolve it). It would also be voiced, so each Pokemon's name pronunciation is clear.
-Add about 110-130 new Pokemon to the game, giving us a total of about 760-780some Pokemon in the National Dex.
-In regards to the amount of new families vs. new evolutions in the dex, I would like to see a reasonable balance of both. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see lots of new evolutions, but I'm sick of this pattern of "odd numbered gens have more new families, even numbered gens have more new evolutions", it limits the game too much. It was very grating, for example, to see BW1 give us no new evolutions because there are several Pokemon that could use new evolutions, and they are forced to wait until now (also because that whole "fresh start" thing they were going for was a load of crap, but that's a different story), and if they go the "tons of new evolutions" route that 2nd and 4th gen went, there will be too few new families in the game and it won't feel very balanced (and we'd need to rely on past gen Pokemon too much to establish that balance). So no, I finally want to see a game that's something in between, so about 10 new evolutions is pretty reasonable, and then the rest can be completely new Pokemon (I will post what kinds exactly in the "Ideas for Gen VI Pokemon" thread, I'm just going over the basic structure of what I think the Pokedex should look like here).
-Keep legendaries down to about 3rd/5th gen levels, they shouldn't overload this game with them.
-Take better advantage of Double Grass and Shaking Spot distribution. As great as these ideas are in 5th gen, the implementation is quite frankly very poor. The only thing it's really done for us is allow us to catch evolved Pokemon on the same routes as their predecessors, and that's kind of pointless in most cases (not to mention that some of these Pokemon shouldn't even be catchable in the first place, most notably the fact that several fully evolved pseudo legends are catchable via Shaking Spot). There's a lot of untapped potential in this idea to allow for more Pokemon to be catchable in a particular area. One thing we do see occasionally, is when you can reach a new section of the area later on that has fully evolved Pokemon and some new, stronger species that could reasonably inhabit the area (example: Rt. 1 in BW1 has Bidoof and Lillipup, but since you can't reach the west side of it without Surf, the Double Grass Pokemon are evolved versions of those two, plus Scraggy). So depending on when the Double Grass is accessible, new evolutions or species could be made catchable here. But there's another thing they could do that I don't think anyone's taken into consideration, and that's introduce completely different species to the area based on environment. Here's an example: on Rt. 13 in Unova, you might notice that the only place that Double Grass is found is on an island just off the cost. So why not put some more beachlike Pokemon there, like Crustle and Shuckle? The full context should be taken into consideration when designing the Double Grass distribution, not just the when, but the where as well. Shaking Spots are a bit trickier, since the only thing it really does for us is give us a separate list of Pokemon that are supposed to be "rarer" than normal ones. But it doesn't seem like they have a solid grasp on which ones, since you usually see the same 5 Pokemon appear in every Shaking Spot list, plus more evolutions. In the end, they might have to axe the Shaking Spots, aside from having a bunch of designated "rare" Pokemon and some "rare" evolutions, I don't think there's much that can be done to improve them.

EDIT: Forgot to put my thoughts on this last one. :sweatlol:
I like everything here.

 

[ShadowDRGN]

An evolution to Dunsparce, that is all

 

[Bolt Strike]

3. Not being able to nickname traded Pokemon is supposed to show that the Pokemon originally belonged to another Trainer and its nickname is supposed to represent that and blah blah blah.

It's still stupid and pointless regardless of the "nickname represents the trainer's feelings" excuse. It's too much of an inconvenience for traded Pokemon if you hate their nicknames, and if the Pokemon was transferred from a past generation, it's impossible to change the nickname. This restriction needs to go.

8. The GTS will never be fair.

That may be, but that doesn't mean we can't make it more accessible. As it is right now, it's pretty much a waste of time and effort for nearly everyone involved.

I'm going to skip that huge block of text and move to the bottom paragraph.

I'll summarize it for you. Basically I'm saying that if new players getting lost in the region is really that big a problem (IMO, it's a pathetic excuse for bad region design), they should include a key item that basically serves as a Metroidvania style objective system.

10. So you're expecting there to be a Black City/White Forest type mechanic to be in X and Y? I don't want another one of those with a different theme. That'd ruin the uniqueness of it.

It was kind of useless with Black City/White Forest, though, aside from getting the shiny dragon opposite of your version (which IDK if that's even possible, I've heard different people say different things about that) or liking the aethestics of one vs. the other, there's absolutely no reason to want to switch. If they do it with other areas like Rt. 4 and Reversal Mountain, which have completely different designs, Pokemon distribution, and so on, it's a lot more useful. Maybe they don't have to do it for every version different area, but if they're going to pick one, make it something where the differences are meaningful.

5. The rest I like, but the vine-swinging thing is probably just a Gym. Notice the footprints.

I'm sick of people instantly assuming this thing is a gym. Manmade, gimmicky area =/= gym, it could easily be something completely different. But that's beside the point. Regardless of whether or not this thing actually is some sort of jungle area, I'd still like to see one. We have never gotten an area in the main games that remotely resembles a jungle, and it'd be an interesting environment to see.

 

[Akromatic]

3. Not being able to nickname traded Pokemon is supposed to show that the Pokemon originally belonged to another Trainer and its nickname is supposed to represent that and blah blah blah.

It's still stupid and pointless regardless of the "nickname represents the trainer's feelings" excuse. It's too much of an inconvenience for traded Pokemon if you hate their nicknames, and if the Pokemon was transferred from a past generation, it's impossible to change the nickname. This restriction needs to go.

8. The GTS will never be fair.

That may be, but that doesn't mean we can't make it more accessible. As it is right now, it's pretty much a waste of time and effort for nearly everyone involved.

I'm going to skip that huge block of text and move to the bottom paragraph.

I'll summarize it for you. Basically I'm saying that if new players getting lost in the region is really that big a problem (IMO, it's a pathetic excuse for bad region design), they should include a key item that basically serves as a Metroidvania style objective system.

10. So you're expecting there to be a Black City/White Forest type mechanic to be in X and Y? I don't want another one of those with a different theme. That'd ruin the uniqueness of it.

It was kind of useless with Black City/White Forest, though, aside from getting the shiny dragon opposite of your version (which IDK if that's even possible, I've heard different people say different things about that) or liking the aethestics of one vs. the other, there's absolutely no reason to want to switch. If they do it with other areas like Rt. 4 and Reversal Mountain, which have completely different designs, Pokemon distribution, and so on, it's a lot more useful. Maybe they don't have to do it for every version different area, but if they're going to pick one, make it something where the differences are meaningful.

5. The rest I like, but the vine-swinging thing is probably just a Gym. Notice the footprints.

I'm sick of people instantly assuming this thing is a gym. Manmade, gimmicky area =/= gym, it could easily be something completely different. But that's beside the point. Regardless of whether or not this thing actually is some sort of jungle area, I'd still like to see one. We have never gotten an area in the main games that remotely resembles a jungle, and it'd be an interesting environment to see.

1. I hate the "not being able to nickname traded Pokemon" thing too. But, if Pokemon wants to keep the whole "bonding" theme, maybe if a traded Pokemon is at max friendship, you can rename it, as your bond to it is close enough for you to rename it.

2. Illegal requests have to go. We both agree on that. I really want more search results, too. The summary thing is a pretty good idea, if you're into battling at real life Pokemon Leagues and Contests. I don't think Nintendo will waste time and money on hiring people to ban people from the GTS, but it's a good idea nonetheless.

3. Isn't there a map for that? They can just make the map more detailed. Boom.

4. That's a pretty good idea. It would motivate more Forever Alones to buy both versions.

5. Maybe it's a passageway to get to a secret area? Maybe an old man lives in a secluded area because he has a treetop farm filled with rare and starter Pokemon and you can battle an amount of trainers and if you get a 50 Trainer streak you get a rare Pokemon and if you get a 100 Trainer streak you can get 1 starter Pokemon from each region, or at least 1 starter? Actually, that would be awesome, aside from the battling-100-trainers part.

EDIT: Added spaces between paragraphs. Yes, I do this whenever I edit my quotes.

 

[BigBadButterfree]

In regards to nicknames, I do think it would be a good idea to reassign the "parental guardian," if you will, of a pokemon upon being transferred. Like, if my pokemon's OT in Black is Monty, then any pkmn sent to my Gen VI game with that same OT can be renamed. It'd be like connecting different generations to the same person playing them...