Thank you for your comments! Yeah the level curve is not something I'm good with admittedly, at the start I thought it might have been a bit too easy. Do you mind me asking what levels your team were at around the Houndoom event so I can get an idea? I assumed player's levels might be around the 30s by that point but like I said I suck at level design so far haha. I'll take on board what you said and maybe increase a few levels here and there =)
What do you mean by 'the maps aren't helpful'? Do you mean direction-wise? There's a sign in every route that tells you exactly where you are and where your surrounding areas are, I don't know how else I could improve it =/ the maps are being completely re-done but it's mainly a graphical update.
I guess the level design fails come into the wilds thing too lol, but the Pokémon at the start of even the canon games were never particularly interesting. Plus some of it is kind of intentional in a way since you can get a pseudo-legendary at the start of the game =P I tried to make the wild types as varied as possible, like around the Jita Village surrounding area you can find fire, steel, electric, water and grass types for variety. Or did you mean something else? Any suggestions on how to improve any of the negatives are welcome =)
Edit: I realized my tone sounds super negative and that's really not my intent. I LOVE the idea you're working with here. It really looks like it will end up being an amazing and unique product.
RE: Level curve - When I got to Houndoom I think I was in the early 30s. Wilds were all in the low 10s (where I could find 'em). It's tough because the game isn't linear and I don't know if it's possible to use in-game events to modify the wilds in each area (i.e. complete a level 20 event, wilds bump up in areas you know we'll still be going through for other events), but that would be neat. Otherwise perhaps we need -some- more linear progression outside of the gyms (in terms of wilds - i.e. all events up through projected level 30 are in a few towns, the next 10 levels of events are in a few other towns). Again, not sure what's possible, but you have a GREAT foundation in place for something awesome and unique if it is.
By maps, I mean the map in the Pokemon center (town map). I had a tough time remembering where stuff was. Getting fly was massive in helping me progress through the game. The signs in the routes were definitely helpful, but the "Town Map" didn't resemble directions of where towns/routes were, for me, much at all.
As for wilds, I guess I immediately didn't use my Deino. Besides that, I had a Venonat, a bug that was useless (level 9 caterpie means missing butterfree's level 10 moves, same for the other worm->fly bugs, though i suppose there were level 7 bugs... no harden!), a Rattata, a Skitty, a Zubat, Phanpy, Electrike (cool! but didn't make my team in the end), Gilgar (took him to 25 before his moveset was too useless to continue).
I love the Vs. Seeker but didn't find myself using it as much as I needed to (if I wanted to level Porygon or Skrelp, who were both 10+ levels behind when I got them).
My team ended up: Absol (obtained at 40, level 42), Houndoom (obtained 40, level 42), Entei (obtained 50, level 52), Whiscash (Woo! I liked raising Barboach all the way to 42), Venusaur (exp shared all the way to 38, now 40), Azregadon (super squishy till he evolved... mostly exp share).
Didn't even fill up box 1.
Is any of that helpful feedback for you? Maybe I missed areas I should have hit (I didn't find Iron Hollow until near the end of the game, got my Skarmory, and fly! woo!).