Why doesn't Game Freak add IV/EV info in the game?

[Meduza]

I wish they had an NPC that could tell a Pokemon's IVS and how much EVs they have.

 

[Astinus]

Can I get modded for calling you a moron? Because if I can't then you sir are a moron! There is no such thing as a "correct nature"!

Actually, there is. Each nature raises and lowers the rate of growth for a particular stat. For example, a Modest nature raises the growth rate for Special Attack, and slows the growth rate for Attack. If you have a Pokemon with mostly Special Attacks and no Physical Attacks, then a Modest nature would be one to look into, since the Pokemon doesn't need the boost for the Attack stat.

Going with that, one wouldn't pick the Quiet nature, which also raises Sp. Attack quickly, because the Quiet nature lowers the growth rate of Speed. Which is why for Pokemon that make full use of the Sp. Attack (for example, Lucario) to be a Special Sweeper, the Modest nature is chosen.

While I do choose attacks based on stats as well, however that is what the base stats are for.

Base stats combine with natures, attacks, and various other components to decide which Pokemon to use on a team for competitive play. Some Pokemon aren't chosen by competitive players because their base stats are so low.

And let's say you battle a someone and he/she looses, then they decide to copy your exact team, exactly how it is: stats, nature, moves, everything! Then battle you again. What happens? It becomes boring!

There's also luck involved, with Critical Hits or attacks missing. Or even which Pokemon is sent out first. Or maybe because one player has a better idea of how to use the team than the other. For the longest time, the same few Pokemon were on every competitive battler's team, but the battles were different.

Plenty of competitive battlers have shared their teams in their entirety. Moves, natures, attacks, and items held were all posted online, discussed, and used by others. But competitive battling isn't a boring activity for those that enjoy it, since it's always changing. People come up with different ideas. The game doesn't stay the same.

IMO EV training is a waste of time an IVs aren't meant to be perfect! Again IMO it's much more fun to battle with a team that you didn't use cheap tricks to get and I wish everyone else thought this way too.

That's your opinion, and I respect that you feel that way. I used to until I decided to get into competitive play. There are those out there, though, whose opinion is different from yours. Those people find IV breeding and EV training to be fun, and they shouldn't be disrespected over how they decide to play Pokemon.

(I would hazard a guess that Astinus also enjoys tactical games such as 40K or Starcraft?)

Nope. Aside from Pokemon, the only other game I'm involved in is the Sims 2. No tactical parts there, really.

I just involved myself with EV training because I enjoy the level-grinding aspect of RPGs. EV training just gives me a good excuse to spend my time doing that.

I do agree with Kirbychu on the change in EV training. It would be easier to keep track of how many EVs a Pokemon has that way, instead of the pen-and-paper method I currently use.

 

[fenyx4]

I always felt like Gamefreak doesn't want the game to be played the way most competitive players choose to play, so they don't want to make it any easier. I thought that the IVs and EVs and such weren't supposed to be taken advantage of, such as resetting the game 30 times to get the IVs you want or EV training a Pokemon, but instead gained randomly, the way you would do during normal play. Sometimes you get a bad Pokemon, and the same Pokemon by another trainer would kill you because of something entirely random, so that way even the not-perfect (or younger) trainers would have a chance at battling without being constantly destroyed.

Just my two cents :x

Interesting...you know, back when I didn't pay attention to EVs and stuff in Sapphire, it felt like every Pokemon had a fair chance against every Pokemon, whether they were legendary or not. Mix-mashed EVs FTW. You didn't have to worry about precision training. Back then, it was just pure, fun Pokemon battling.

^ This guy~
I agree completely. ;-; I do miss the old days when that stuff didn't matter, and natures were thought to only give them personality.
But I think they are starting to give into the competitive battlers...

Yeah...the high stats of several Generation V Pokemon are sure saying something in regards to the metagame(-rs)... :\

I'm pretty sure that it's because we aren't even supposed to know about the hidden stats to begin with. It's rumored that these were all discovered by hacking and it certainly sounds plausible because not a single game tells you outright that they exist or how to manipulate them. Every single reference is just a vague hint that pretty much means nothing if you aren't someone in the know.

IIRC, one of the Platinum guides was more forthcoming with the existence of EVs, though I don't know how explicitly they were mentioned...

The games have always lampshaded the hidden values subtly. NPCs often tell the player that two pokemon of the same species and level can potentially have completely different stats, an obvious reference to IVs, and some NPCs will encourage you to let your pokemon defeat as many other pokemon as possible to make them more adept fighters, an obvious reference to EVs.

GameFreak wants us to know that the concepts are in play, but probably didn't intend for us to learn enough to exploit them.

This.

One thing that always makes me smile is that despite all the EV training, despite IV resetting and all that junk, people still argue over which is the best Pokemon. I've played plenty of games where, after all the stats are stripped down to how they work, the monsters have an obvious winner and if you don't use that one, you're setting yourself at a disadvantage. In Pokemon, even though we know so much about how it works, we're still not all using the same team because it's obviously the best team.

This. 5 Generations down the road, and there still is no one, single superior team... (though my guess is that most of them include Garchomp, Kyogre, Mewtwo, Arceus, and/or Dialga >_>).

I wish they had an NPC that could tell a Pokemon's IVS and how much EVs they have.

Well, we do have the IV man in Emerald's Battle Frontier, and apparently DPPt and HGSS feature a similar character as well... And the lady in Slateport City's Energy Guru stall who awards the Effort Ribbon. I'd personally like it if we could have an IV man at the beginning of the game... I hate playing through a game with a starter, only to find out at the Battle Frontier that its IVs are actually suckish. >_> I know I can breed it, but I prefer to use the starter I met and started out with, not just a randomly high-IV bred one...

I kind of like that the IVs are the game equivalent of genes; I just hate how unfair they are when it comes down to it... If IVs were removed completely (alternatively, every Pokemon is programmed to automatically have 31 IVs in each stat) and only EVs were to remain, I might prefer that system better, as the player does have control over EVs, even if he or she doesn't even know that they exist.