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>the EV discussions are back
Excellent. I thought of a system I think could work better.
>individual mastery / Species mastery / type mastery
>Individual mastery takes the most direct role of EVs - time spent with a specific individual pokemon, gauged through total experience gained, turn participation in a given battle, or other factors that are just routine gameplay that can be quantified and summed
>Species mastery is individual mastery dialed up, and is grown by using a given species in important battles, breeding, and filling out portions of the Pokedex (including level up moves, evolution requirements, and all locations of the given species in the world).
>Type mastery is cumulative individual and species mastery of a given type
This way you have a three-tiered system with each level feeding nicely into the next, and giving clear-cut rewards for meeting milestones of each. For example, maximizing individual knowledge should allow you to manipulate something similar to EVs directly with your pokemon, allowing you to reinvest those points into particular features or stats in a transparent manner. Or reaching a milestone in type mastery grants you a TM for that type that is otherwise unobtainable.
Still working on it but allowing you to do some wild stuff like stacking a team with one species to max species mastery to open some new team comp ideas, or making mono-type challenges actually have a benefit to earn while imposing your challenge.
Am I dumb, or would this be better than EVs? It's a little more deliberate, but since EVs in many hacks are now a deliberate choice anyways I think it's inoffensive to make the system a little more intuitive and interactive.
