Is your idea a new setting, a change to an existing setting, or something else? Please describe clearly:
It's an expansion on some existing settings: more options for how Pokemon Base Statistics are randomized. Specifically, I'd be interested in options that either allow for the BST of Pokemon to be randomized in some way, instead of it always being the same total.
Not all of these should be implemented, but to illustrate what I mean, here are some possibilities that I would be interested in:
A way to randomly scale an existing Pokemon's stats up or down without shuffling them. For example, something with base stats of 60/80/60/80/60/40 could be randomly scaled up +10% to become 66/88/66/88/66/44. This could either be done per-Pokemon, or per-family (or follow-evolutions). Alternatively, it could be applied per-stat rather than per-Pokemon (e.g. all members of the Pidgey family get +20% S.ATK but -10% DEF).
The above, but also with the existing "Shuffle" behavior as well, either before or after.
Instead of randomly scaling, you could shuffle the existing BSTs, either completely or with restrictions. For example, if there was exactly 10 Pokemon with a BST of 400, then post-randomization there would still be 10 pokemon with a BST of 400, but they would be different Pokemon. Stat blocks could either be shuffled as-is, or possibly the blocks are shuffled between different Pokemon, then the stats are shuffled within each block itself.
A stronger option than the existing Base Statistics "Random", which both generates base stats from scratch but also changes the base stat total, rather than summing to the old base stat total. It could either be completely random, or within a +-X% range of the original.
An option which flattens the BST of the dex, so there's less disparity between the good Pokemon and bad Pokemon. Perhaps it chooses a specific BST, or a random, based on what stage of evolution the Pokemon is?
I'd choose the style of option(s) that seems most achievable from a technical stand-point, and most appealing to you as a player.
What problem would this feature solve? Please describe:
Currently, the ability for Pokemon to become better or worse is partly limited by the fact that ZX (and indeed the original randomizer) insists on keeping the BST for all Pokemon the same as in vanilla. You can change their moves, types and abilities, but ultimately if they have the same BST, they'll tend to be roughly as strong or weak as they are in the vanilla games, even if the values are shuffled.
Personally, I'd really love it if Pokemon I like that aren't very competitive had a better chance in the randomizer to become stronger. It would give underappreciated Pokemon a chance to shine. It would also allow more species variance when using Similar Strength alongside.
Plus, seeing as you can already randomize almost every other aspect of what makes a particular Pokemon that Pokemon, it "makes sense" to me to also be able to randomize the BST as well. With it, I think you could confidently say that it's possible to generate a dex of entirely new Pokemon with a "vanilla-like" feel, but without any assumptions about what Pokemon will be good/bad. Butterfree could be the Garchomp of your particular playthrough. It'll be a new process of discovery every time.
Additional context:
I recognize that aside from the potential implementation difficulties, there is some decisions that would have to be made regarding its interaction with other settings. For example, it would be preferable (in my opinion) to ensure that an evolutionary family would have strictly increasing BST, including if evolutions are not randomized, but I realize that might be a complex thing to consider.
Anyway, absolutely no expectations on anything like this actually being implemented, but I think it'd be neat. Thanks for giving it a read anyway :)
Is your idea a new setting, a change to an existing setting, or something else? Please describe clearly:
I'd choose the style of option(s) that seems most achievable from a technical stand-point, and most appealing to you as a player.
What problem would this feature solve? Please describe:
Additional context:
Anyway, absolutely no expectations on anything like this actually being implemented, but I think it'd be neat. Thanks for giving it a read anyway :)