Pokemon Black & White, aka Gen 5. Coming to Japan in Fall 2010.

[Naxte]

maybe flying types will finally be immune to electric, i mean, come on, lightning can only hit grounded targets...

Um, what? Cloud-to-cloud lightning, much? Lighting's just the transmission of electrons from an extremely neagtive point (an object with excessive electrons) to a positive one (an object with a lack (comparatively or actually) of electrons). As for the logic being used by Game Freak, it is faulty nonetheless, yes (I believe in this case, it's simply that "birds fly high in the sky. Objects higher in the sky are more likely to be struck. Therefore, birds are particularly vulnerable to lightning. This is obviously faulty due to how birds also tend to be small and thus don't have as much electric potential as something like a tree or building might), but it has nothing to do with that.

and on the same line of reasoning, electric should hit ground and grass super effective

No. Ground's immune because of just that: their grounded. It simply goes through them and is dissipated throughout the ground.

Grass, I never really understood, though... But in any case, I severely doubt Game Freak will be changing the Type Chart as of this point.

 

[lordkira]

I was wondering why some of teh moves' secondary effects weren't being activated when they missed. I am talking about moves, such as Draco Meteor, where I believe the metagame maybe become a little more stabilized with -two stages to the pokemon even if its attack missed.

I'd personally start sporting protect quite often just to deal with the move that is arguably considered the most "broken".

 

[CasMat]

I think the EV change could be interesting but I unfortunately don't see them making it easier. Let's say they changed EVs to be like skill points in other RPGs. Once you gain a level you gain a certain amount of EVs, for illustrative purposes let's say 6. You then choose which stats to place those 6 EVs in. The would make EV training more obvious but it wouldn't be any faster which is what more people seem to want.

I would see it as a positive change more for the fact that it would open up the playing field of competitive pokemon to the people who don't necessarily know you can play it as a competitive game. As it is, the game doesn't explicitly explain to you why your pokemon gets the stats it does, so many just assume the game was meant to be centered on grinding levels. But if the game were to place more focus on stats, then the players usually ignorant to stuff like that would probably pay more attention to them. I personally think it would be the biggest step toward establishing the game as competitive to the populace that could be made, despite not actually having any competitive consequences.

 

[kiryu3000]

What I would like to see is to be able to EV train at level 100. Instead of gaining EV off battles that give you experience, make it so that you get EV off of ALL battles regardless of whether or not you gain experience (maybe except for Battle Tower and such). In this case, they should also include a method to refresh a Pokemon's stats, for example, with a PC.

 

[Engineer Pikachu]

It'd certainly be nice if the EV cap was higher than 510. Maybe, say, 756? (If you understand why 756, then good for you.)

 

[kiryu3000]

It'd certainly be nice if the EV cap was higher than 510. Maybe, say, 756? (If you understand why 756, then good for you.)

756 because then you can max EV in 3 different stats. I think the EV system is fine the way it is because then you'd actually have to be resourceful with your EV's. Though it won't be horribly bad if they did increase the cap.

 

[Aminar]

756 EV's would be terrible. In essence it would make the game overdefensive. The ability to max out HP, Def, and Spc Def would make walls rediculously hard to break. Imagine taking on a Cresselia with stats like that. meanwhile it would only benefit mixed attackers offensively, purely Physical and Special attackers would max HP, the right attack stat, and speed. Making everything super bulky. Everything ever would max HP, the game would slow to a crawl. healing would be broken.

 

[kiryu3000]

What I don't understand is, why make the max EV cap 510 instead of 508? Leaving 2 useless EV's doesn't make sense and I think they should make the EV cap to 508 to keep track of a Pokemon's exact EV's easier. Also, when a Ghost type uses Curse, the cost for the move should be at most a quarter of its maximum health (or even a quarter of its current health); that way, it can actually be useful and ruin some walls with high HP.

 

[deluge]

There are a bunch of RS unusables that deserve an evolution: Spinda, Sableye, Corsola and Delcatty all have BSTs below 400.
I especially want a Sableye evolution as Spiritomb proved that Ghost/Darks can have good stats without being unbeatable.
[Random useless point: Mawile could be Grass/Steel]

Altaria could use an evolution as well; which fully evolved non-legendary Dragon has a BST below 500 and has a two-stage line?
I would bet cash money that Altaria will evolve in a future game.
She would be a nice excuse for an Electric/Dragon if the cloud becomes a thundercloud. :P

 

[FlareBlitz]

It's a memory issue. 255 is the maximum value held by an unsigned 8-bit byte. If GF uses two of those to store integer data regarding EVs, it would make sense for them to cap EVs at 510 (255 + 255).

 

[kiryu3000]

It's a memory issue. 255 is the maximum value held by an unsigned 8-bit byte. If GF uses two of those to store integer data regarding EVs, it would make sense for them to cap EVs at 510 (255 + 255).

Sorry to be off-topic, but wouldn't 16-bits be 511 starting from 0 (each 8-bit goes from 0 to 255, which is 2^8 numbers), thus 512 numbers? But I do understand your point and makes sense; just never thought of it that way.

 

[FlareBlitz]

Well yes, there's 256 values total, but '0' counts as a value. 255 is actually the maximum value that can be represented. So if you add the two highest possible values from two 8-bit bytes, you'd get 510, not 512.

 

[Aminar]

On the other hand, that issue is entirely bypassable if they did want to change it. I just like the way it balances out now. What I'd like to see is easy free EV removal and a note of what EV's are obtained after every battle(when exp is shown) Give Gamers the data in a visible format, it teaches kids. Put the EV's out in the open.

 

[kiryu3000]

Well yes, there's 256 values total, but '0' counts as a value. 255 is actually the maximum value that can be represented. So if you add the two highest possible values from two 8-bit bytes, you'd get 510, not 512.

Oh, right, sorry I'm not remembering my computer science correctly (forgot that they are separate 8-bit integers >.<). But yeah, level 100 Pokemon should be re-EV trainable so that a level 100 won't be doomed to its current EV state.

@Aminar: I doubt that kids (Pokemon's main target audience) would want to EV train given the fact that it is VERY tedious. I personally like keeping the EV's subtle because then it truly makes you truly grasp how unique each Pokemon can be (provided that you have no knowledge of the EV and IV mechanics).

 

[Aminar]

You'd be surprised how perfectionistic some kids are. I work with kids, and the ones that play Pokemon love the idea of EV training. I don't like the subtlety, it feels like they're dumbing down the game, and I can never find something to write on when I want to EV train :)

 

[deluge]

You'd be surprised how perfectionistic some kids are. I work with kids, and the ones that play Pokemon love the idea of EV training. I don't like the subtlety, it feels like they're dumbing down the game, and I can never find something to write on when I want to EV train :)

Yeah, it's a deliberate dumbing down to make things more approachable.
It's also weird that there is no in-game encyclopaedia of egg moves, egg groups etc.
I wouldn't know what egg moves were learnable and who the parents could be if it weren't for fansites that aggregate this info.

 

[kiryu3000]

Well, we all have different views; kids I know don't know what EV's are (hell, they don't even know what natures do). On a different note, what do you think about my Curse idea?

 

[Aminar]

Most kids don't know, I tell them because it's a conversation topic and I have no attention span.

Curse could be usable that way, I'm not a fan of it in general(on ghosts) I doubt they'll do anything with it, they haven't touched it since gen 2.

 

[FlareBlitz]

Curse on ghosts would be way more useful if it either trapped the opposing Pokemon or automatically Cursed any Pokemon that switches in as long as the Pokemon that used Curse stays on field.

 

[Cosmic Jeff]

maybe flying types will finally be immune to electric, i mean, come on, lightning can only hit grounded targets...
and on the same line of reasoning, electric should hit ground and grass super effective

You are interpreting the term 'grounding an electrical charge' far to literally. Lighting can strike objects that are not on the ground, and the consequences are far more dire, which is why the game has Electric super-effective against Flying.

Lighting tends to strike the ground because the mass of the earth itself is usually the easiest way to disperse charged particles that have built up. If you are sitting in a tree and you get struck by lightning, the chances of fatality are far greater than if you are standing on the ground because less particles will pass through you to the smaller mass of a tree than into the greater mass of the ground. Therefor, the more particles that remain within you will result in greater heat being generated within you, frying your insides.

I just wanted to add that for clarification, in addition to the fact that it is extremely unlikely any alterations will be made to the type chart.

 

[Chou Toshio]

@Grass Pokes-- How about Grass/Steel with Thick Fat? A guy can dream right?

Resists/Immunes Water, Ice, Electric, Rock, Dragon, Ghost, Dark, Steel, Normal, Grass, Poison, and Psychic. Weak 2x to fire and 2x to Fighting.

The key being it resists the Water/Ice/Electric or Grass water types like to rely on (and inherently, bolt-beam as well). It also is immune to Tentacruel's Sludge Bomb. While it couldn't switch into repetitive earthquakes from Gyarados/Swampert, it would be able to handle all the special-based water types with ease.

Grass/Electric could also work fairly well as an offensive pokemon (not so sure about using that as a tank).

 

[FlareBlitz]

It would be funny if Gamefreak gave a Dragon type Thick Fat (you know, like they should have done for Dragonite >_>)...especially if it were a Dragon/Ground type. I'm also hoping for some unique secondary abilities for legendary Pokemon. I mean, these are supposed to be unique, special Pokemon, and half of them end up with Pressure slapped on them. I thought they handled Rayquaza/Groudon/Kyogre really well in this regard, so I'm looking forward to them doing that with future legendaries and also hopefully retconning some new abilities into old legendaries (can you imagine Berserk Gene as an ability on Mewtwo?)

 

[Chinese Dood]

Haha, Dragonite with Thick Fat would be kind of cute. I'd definitely use that chubby dragon a lot more.

Curse on ghosts would be way more useful if it either trapped the opposing Pokemon or automatically Cursed any Pokemon that switches in as long as the Pokemon that used Curse stays on field.

Maybe it'd be cool if Curse could be some sort of status that doesn't go away even after switching out. That'd be like a burn that inflicts twice as much damage each turn, but at the cost of half the curse user's HP, and also burn's attack reducing effect is not present. Not sure if that would make it balanced. it'd be somewhat interesting.

 

[deluge]

@Grass Pokes-- How about Grass/Steel with Thick Fat? A guy can dream right?

Resists/Immunes Water, Ice, Electric, Rock, Dragon, Ghost, Dark, Steel, Normal, Grass, Poison, and Psychic. Weak 2x to fire and 2x to Fighting.

The key being it resists the Water/Ice/Electric or Grass water types like to rely on (and inherently, bolt-beam as well). It also is immune to Tentacruel's Sludge Bomb. While it couldn't switch into repetitive earthquakes from Gyarados/Swampert, it would be able to handle all the special-based water types with ease.

Grass/Electric could also work fairly well as an offensive pokemon (not so sure about using that as a tank).

Interestingly, Abomasnow has those key resistances as well (Water/Ice/Electric/Grass and Ground).
It's not a bad grass type but the steel/rock/fighting/fire weaknesses really hurt it in this metagame.

In addition, Snow-Warning imposes some restrictions on his teammates.
One thing I would like to see is a few non-ice pokemon that can function well in a snowstorm.

It would be funny if Gamefreak gave a Dragon type Thick Fat

A shiny new ability would be nice for Dragonite.
Inner Focus has its uses but it pales in comparison to the excellent abilities the other Dragons have.
Some old Pokemon were seriously bolstered in DPPt by new abilities/moves (eg Scizor) so we can hope.

 

[deluge]

BTW, any chance of any info on the upcoming Pokemon Sunday?
If anything it might only be a teaser about the information promised the following week.
But it seems kind of pointless seeing that coro-coro has already revealed what the silhouetted pokemon looks like.