[Brain]

Originally Posted by Fat Time Mage

I also agree. Competitive pokémon should be the focus, leaving the "flavor" aspects as a secondary decision after the role. And speaking of that, and although this probably fits better in the guidelines workshop topic, I think the first thing that should be decided for each pokémon is the role. typing affects greatly the roles the pokémon can play, so the role should be first, or we could find ourselves with a Fire/Flying pokémon, and people wanting a spinner, for example.

Flavor is more important than you think. If the first generation of pokemon wasn't so darn likeable (and wasn't backed by a large corporation), next to nobody would give a shit about competitive pokemon. The competitive aspect may be very important to the project, deep down it is flavor that reels people in and makes them care. Note that competitive worth and flavor are not mutually exclusive, just complementary. I suggest making all pokemon fit in some sort of pattern or story that doesn't have strong implications about their competitive worth but can help people like the new pokemon and care about them. Things that can make people care more about the project: evolutionary lines (even if only the full evo will ever be used), weird type combinations, fantasy pokemon like ditto/smeargle/castform, multiple evolution paths, starters, legends, background stories. You don't have to do all that, but just adding individual competitive pokemon will make the new metagame bland and you want to avoid that just as much as you want to avoid only caring about making a new set of starters, a new set of legends, etc.

Originally Posted by Fat Time Mage

A) Is what we are doing now and what I consider the wisest solution. Both ways might lead to a better metagame, but the first one will be much more accepted by the community, and the community is vital for this things to succeed. Not to mention that is much easier to make one pokémon at a time than to make everything from scratch, of course.

Obviously that is what you are doing now, I said that verbatim ;)

I don't think B) as I described it would be less "accepted". Basically, and you have the right thinking there, changes like small modifications to the type chart are bad ideas because they break familiarity and hence people will be less likely to accept them. People dislike changes. But they don't shun new things. If you make everything from scratch, you're making something new and as with everything new the only criterion is that it has to be fun.

Still, I agree with you. There's no reason to go radical about this. B) is a lot of work and honestly it would work best as a dictatorship. Ideally, make pokemon one (evolutionary line or small group) at a time, don't touch the type chart, add very few new moves, do add new abilities, do add new type combinations but not systematically. Do try to give each pokemon a unique flavor to motivate people to care about them. The key is to add motivating and enjoyable elements without changing what's already there.