I can't imagine the kind of work it takes to make a game like this! but yeah, its much better than the phone games i get stuck on and i love pokemon. all the little items that there are in the game make it perfect for merging, but i see what you mean about pokemon being hard to integrate.
i do really like how the web version is working right now with the water and fire starters. For specifically starters, i think its fine to go down the generation line like that.
im definitely not a game designer by any means! but i do think pokemon for battle tasks makes a lot of sense.
Id also say I could see a pokemon themselves becoming a generator for more pokemon, like how pokemon can create eggs in game. maybe eggs is also something you could add? it would at least add one more stage to pokemon merge lines.
definitely items to evolve as a mini-task makes a lot of sense and sounds fun to me!
the only thing I can think of to get around having so many pokemon taking up space is if there were different boards for different regions? But as I type it out that sounds like way more work! lol
I guess you could also add a chance mechanic? If pokemon are awarded from battles maybe its not a 100% kind of thing, but a chance every time you complete the battle.
but thanks for making the game! and its cool to hear its still rattling around in your head even if an official update doesn't come for a long while! :)