A bit of Character Ideas

[voidlistener]

Inspired by latest suggestions of @Iron_Guard8, I have decided to share some of mine.

Garden Warfare 2 has variants, some of which are interesting but most of them consist of "add elemental damage" or "trade damage for rate of fire/zoom/gimmick" . There are also unlockable versions of abilities which I miss in BfN. Balancing is relatively fine.

BfN has perk system which I like since I can use different aspects of the same character like very mobile Peashooter or  "Run them over" Engineer. Adding new characters would continue to work with actual game support. Balancing is also fine now, although there are some disputable mechanics like lack of drop-off or sprinting.

Honestly, I would like to see a merge of two systems. Variants that have perks and modified version of their abilities. For example, Fire Peashooter would have options of weaker Chili Bean Bombs that put enemies on fire/leave scorched ground, contact fire damage or being berserker. Chemist would have options of random status effect primary, tricked oud heal station or slower explosive warp. Petrified Cactus would have even more durable Wall-Nuts, knockback Potato Mines or damage reduction. Roadie Z would have damaging Sonic Grenades,  boosts to allies or even more range. Mystic Flower would give a weak Legendary Mode through Heal Beam, make one-use spawn point at Heal Flower or regen health with charge.Goalie would create Frozen Dummies with spawnables inside, launch a Yeti Imp or leave an icy trail with Tackle to move faster. That way variants would feel as good as new characters and AI waves/squads are more engaging.

[Iron_Guard8]

Nice stuff!

I'm one of those that like variants and new characters so am fine with a hybrid system like this. I feel that the upgrades in BfN were on the right track, as some in GW2 were only used until you unlocked better ones (why use 'regen health out of combat slightly faster' when you can have extra damage, more shots in a clip, or reload faster?), and giving them costs based on how good they are is a really solid idea.

A lot of folks really want variants back and the poll I put on Reddit last year reinforces that. That being said, the idea of using upgrades to tailor make variants is a good one and I'd like to see more completely new characters over variants, with a lot more upgrades that let us really tweak how they play and of course more slots to store them!

[TheSprinter85]

At first when I started playing BfN, I really did not like the idea of character variants being removed. However, after I had played BfN for a while, I got used to having no variants and I really came to enjoy the upgrade system, as they were so many cool upgrades to choose from. Because I still play both of these shooters (with variants and the upgrade system, but in seperate games), I still like both of these mechanics. BfN had planned on gaining lots of new characters (which are really cool as the new characters play really differently), which did not end up happening particularly because of the game's cancellation (we got some though). If a new shooter added plenty of new characters over time (which they could use some of the planned and unreleased characters in BfN, like Iceberg Lettuce) and included plenty of upgrades with varying costs, including possibly Legendary Upgrades which would be expensive, I feel that a lot of the community would like that. Perhaps, if also variants were introduced in some way, such as adding elemental character upgrades, for example.