Relax the region lock on pokémon trading

[Eldudorino]

Currently, until you have all 8 badges, you cannot be traded pokémon from another region, and I think that is smart. Actually, I think we could go a little bit stricter and lock other regions until the E4 is beaten, but that's for a different post.

 

My suggestion is that once you are champion of a region, you should be able to trade for pokémon from any region. Then, when you start a new region, the normal locking rules would apply. So in other words, if I catch a Helioptile in Sinnoh, I think I should be able to trade it to the Johto champion and he can use it against Boss Lorelei or in PvP but then when he starts Hoenn it will be locked until he becomes the Hoenn champ or has 8 Hoenn badges. This way, the challenge of starting a new region is retained but trading becomes less cumbersome.

 

As things stand right now, a large number of players cannot purchase Sinnoh pokémon, even if the pokémon is something extremely basic and common like a Zubat. You have to make it clear when trading that your pokémon is from that region, and many players don't read properly so they'll agree to a trade, you go to meet them in a P.C. and then you find out that they cannot actually trade you for that mon because they haven't beaten Sinnoh yet. I think the region lock is a good idea when you start a new region but once you're the champ it becomes an unnecessary layer of frustration when dealing with traders who don't know better. I'll also admit to having once screwed up by trying to sell a pokémon often found in Kanto that I'd caught in Sinnoh because I forgot to check its region, so I've contributed to this frustration with other players as well as vice versa.

 

Short version: Make all region champs able to trade any pokémon with all other region champs, and then just apply the normal locking rules when a player starts a new region and hasn't earned their badges yet. There's no point in being unable to sell a Sinnoh Zubat just because it happened to have been caught in a region a lot of people haven't played yet.