>>41189276This.
Intelligent planning when it comes to available wilds, and what those pokemon mean in terms of both immediate benefit and long term gain, and how this information can be used to build gym leaders and such now and into the future are crucial for difficulty balance.
Say, for example. You put Noibat in the beginning of the game. Noibat is pretty goddamn trash, and it's quite a long haul until you get Noivern.
You might consider this when it comes time to plan out your rock and grass gym leaders, depending on the difficulty curve and reward system you want to enforce.
Maybe you put your grass gym "right" around the level Noibat evolves, so someone who was patient gets rewarded with an easier gym leader, or maybe you put your grass gym right after you put Noibat, to give it immediate utility, but then put the rock and maybe ice leaders right around that level, to encourage more of a pump-and-dump mindset (Kind of a long term to teach that lesson, but just pretend for now)
Obviously, there's more to it that just this fucking noibat, but at least this amount of thought needs to go into every pokemon you make available, unless you're just sprinkling for flavor.
