I have seen mention that Level Sorting would be a requirement for having Level Down-scaling: a system where you'd send Pokemon to battles below their Level "as that Level"; excluding any moves from higher Levels.
In short, this is true. We certainly will never force approvers to approve each send-in to a facility that is down-scaled for movepool correctness, nor would we force the referee to do so. We especially would never force approvers to approve one
full movepool "per level" of each Pokemon, like some users have suggested. Imagine such a thing with, say, Gallade or Clefable or Mew. Their profile could easy contain several hundred moves (with each Level's movepool containing the moves of prior Levels) if we did this! We are insistent that each Pokemon's profile list their movepool no more than once, for the sake of keeping approval workload healthy.
That said,
Level Down-scaling isn't a mandatory feature for Generation 9's progression system.
There have been some concerns voiced that mustering a team of three whole Pokemon, on-Level to challenge a facility, would be difficult and create weird staggers in progression while you waited for members of a "Level group" to "catch up" to one another. Or that is to say, that Pokemon would be forced to Level in lock-step with other Pokemon to stand a chance at earning their Levels efficiently. The intention is, instead, that teambuilding for progression facilities be somewhat more flexible in terms of each teammate's Level.
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Refer to
this sheet for both general Move Level information, and for two examples of movepool growth:
Tyranitar and
Gallade. (
Which are highly preliminary!! Gen 9 altered some of the functions of these moves, which has ramifications for their Level placement.)
What I want to emphasize here is their growth:
- Tyranitar's movepool is concentrated mainly in Level 0; meaning it starts with more than half of its moves. Furthermore, those moves are the most core moves to Tyranitar's viability. Namely, its vast suite of high-powered STAB and coverage moves. As it levels, Tyranitar gains certain key tricks, such as Dig and Block, but its function is almost entirely intact right out of the box. This makes Tyranitar an excellent example of an early bloomer, or a Pokemon whose power growth from Levels is relatively shallow. With Tyranitar, you can conceivably "punch up", or take on Pokemon that are a Level or two higher, quite comfortably.
- Gallade's movepool is rather bare at Level 0, featuring only 28 of its final 133 moves. That is, Gallade starts with less than 30% of the moves it will ever learn! Each new Level offers Gallade a slew of important new options it needs to go toe-to-toe with other Pokemon of its Level. Gallade is the flagship example of a late bloomer, or a Pokemon who cannot effectively take on higher-Level Pokemon.
I point out this property mainly to emphasize: It seems that
the majority of Pokemon (
though not a vast majority)
are early bloomers, movepool-wise. It's entirely feasible, then, to back up a late bloomer like a Level 2 Gallade, with one or more Level 1 early-blooming Pokemon, to challenge a Level 2 Facility. In this scenario, success would promote your Gallade to Level 3 and your backup Pokemon to Level 2, where they could conceivably continue supporting Gallade in promotion or partner up with another Level 2 Pokemon you've been working on. The design intention is that there be a comfortable degree leeway, about
one level up or down on average, of viability when challenging content.
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So with that in mind, please consider movepool sorting options primarily for how convenient they are for approvers. The more additional tools, sorters, filters, and so on a sorting method requires from approvers; the more slowly approvals will happen. This is the main drive behind unifying movepool sorting overall regardless of the method chosen, with each method offering its own additional benefit.
Level Down-scaling should be thought of as perk offered by Level Sorting, and not a mandatory requirement for the next progression system to function. Likewise, simplicity is a perk of Alphabetical Sorting, and speed is (mostly) a perk of Category Sorting.
We'll monitor this conversion up to full Launch, but we will probably go with a single agreed-upon sorting method. Specifically, if no sorting method is found to be the favorite of the majority of players, we'll go with the one found least objectionable to players on average.
