This post is a slight divergence from the single subject posts I’ve been making about the next PvZ shooter, and is instead what I would make if I was able to make it with very little restrictions. The only exception is that I present what I would like for the business model and some other options. This will not go into heavy detail as it’s a broad post, and I’m already a verbose poster, so I’ll just post in generalities.
Important Caveat: These are for my ideal game and opinions will obviously differ. I’m mostly interested in having a game that takes the best of the current games, and continues the success of GW and GW2 more than BfN, but BfN has merits we will use too. Also note that all prices (in game and real money costs) I give are rough estimates and are not meant to be final costs for things.
Game Title: Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 3: Garden Warfare Reborn. The reborn subtitle is to indicate the fact that it’s bringing back the GW style and the old maps and ideas, and to attempt to attract veterans back to the series. It will be more like GW and GW2 than BfN, but will use some of BfN’s better ideas.
Live time. I want the game to be fully supported and getting new content for at least 5 years. Support would not be cut off, unless and until a new game comes after it.
Business models
- My Ideal Business Model. 40/60 box price for standard and deluxe edition and that’s it. But I realize this won’t work for a game with full support (new characters, maps, variant, special events, and so on) for several years, with just a box price, so next are some options. The deluxe edition will just be a leg up (extra consumables and free sticker packs), and possibly some minor cosmetic items, but nothing like the Z7 Imp/Mech.
- Optional business model 1. Same box price with coin packs for sale. Coins are still earned from playing so like GW1, this is just to speed things up and to show support.
- Optional business model 2. Same box price with coin packs and various special packs for sale like in GW2. May include stuff like new free roam zones you can purchase as well. It must not include PvP maps so we don’t split the community, those will be free as always.
- Optional business model 3. Same box price with a paid currency (like rainbow stars in BfN), but it won’t have FOMO like BfN does. Items would cost either a certain amount of paid currency or available for coins earned in game, ex: A costume for a character would cost either 50 rainbow stars or 50,000 coins, or whatever value that isn’t too onerous to earn in game so you may want to buy the paid currency, but can just earn it in a reasonable amount of time just for playing. Players should not feel forced to spend, but may want to do so to show support and/or to get certain things faster.
- Other business models. Free to play could work but I worry about a plethora of microtransactions in such an environment, and it’s been a bit weird for me in other games. Regardless of how they do it, they have to keep things fair for those that do and do not spend money. Money should be used for convenience and customization, never for power.
Prize Map. These will be quarterly and you will earn these via getting XP on any character. It won’t be separate from your normal play time and won’t require an extra currency. I’d have them so you can earn the entire thing in the 3 months allotted to it without having to grind like mad. Anything on the map you missed will be sold at Rux permanently so new players can grab old stuff, and players who do miss things can still get the stuff they missed at any time. A three month window also means that the devs have more time to make stuff for the map as well. It would include customizations, new buildings and paint schemes for your personal neighborhood, and so on.
Currency. Coins will always be rewarding and earned in game. Depending on business model, you can buy coin packs the GW games, or a paid currency. Free roam regions will have their own currency used for that particular region, just like BfN, but they will always be useful and can unlock that region’s unique consumables as well as costumes, and other customizations. If the game has a paid currency, I don’t want coins to be ignored or useless, coins must always be a good thing to have and can always be used for things.
Rux, characters/variants, consumables, and various customizations. There will be no sticker packs or reward-o-tron here. Instead, you will start with certain basic consumables unlocked, and given a few freebies when you get the game, the rest are unlocked via Rux, the prize map, or the free roam zones. For example if you wanted to summon Ra Zombies at the dirt piles, you’d visit Zgypt and unlock them for that realms currency (lapis lazuli scarabs perhaps), and once unlocked, you could then buy copies of them to use, just like getting them out of sticker packs in GW and GW2 right now, but with greater control over what you get and with costs adjusted accordingly (i.e. more powerful things will cost more). All current consumables from all 3 games (barring the Wildflower and TV Head that will be removed) are available in the new game and with more added as well.
For all things you wish to acquire; customizations, new characters and variants, victory slabs, punchers, neighborhood buildings and paint schemes, team retries, self-revives, and all other consumables; you will get them from 4 main sources; Rux for coins (and possibly paid currency), free roam vendors for that realm’s currency, leveling up the prize map, and seasonal events.
You can always purchase copies of consumables you have unlocked from Rux, who is present in both bases in your personal neighborhood and the public battlefield, and possibly also the free roam zones, the cost will reflect their power so for example, a single basic browncoat zombie may cost 500 coins while a coffin zombie costs 5000; so you could get 10 browncoats you can summon for the same cost as a single coffin zombie. This also means that you won’t have thousands of self-revives and team retries when you only want a few as you can buy as many as you want and can afford.
The goal here is to avoid how dependent we’ve been on the RNG before. Partly from the complaints we’ve had about the randomness and partly because governments are cracking down more and more on the randomness in games and even if we can earn all the currency to buy packs by playing, they still may see the ability to spend real money on coins and such and may come after the game for it, so wanted to avoid that.
Rux’s inventory will be large to start with and will grow over time, although when you buy one time items like a new variant or hat, those can disappear from his store or be moved to a ‘purchased’ section in his store UI. I’d like his inventory to be in several sections to make it easy to shop, something like; ‘Universal items’, ‘Plant only items’, ‘Zombie only items’, and then for each character so ‘Space Cadet items’, ‘Sunflower items’, then variant items (like zombie weapon customizations),’Camo Ranger items’, ‘AC Perry items’, then consumables for each side and type; ‘Bots’, ‘Pot’, ‘Zombie walkers’, ‘Plant walkers’, then other stuff; ‘Victory slabs’, ‘Punchers’, ‘Gestures’, ‘Neighborhood items’, ‘Emotes’, and so on. And you’d be able to search with various filters too, to make it as user friendly as possible.
The region stores would be similar but as they have far less inventory, they would be easier to use.
Veteran Rewards. For those that own the prior 3 games and also for reaching max rank in each, you’d get some kind of bonuses. Not an exclusive character like the Unicorn Chomper though, I’m thinking more along the line of coins, more consumables to start with, or other stuff that doesn’t put new folks at a disadvantage. I also want to attempt to get some of those that love GW/GW2 to come back and try the new game after they were unhappy with BfN, but also to not ignore those that play BfN (I know many of us play all 3). I don’t feel this 100% required but would be a nice way to thank those that bought and played the current games as well.
Crossplay. This is a must and across all platforms. Powerful anti-cheat must be present and anyone who is still hacking or cheating in some other fashion must be dealt with quickly. As far as controller vs. keyboard and mouse; I can’t really say, but if there needs to be some kind of changes to balance this out, then let’s do it.
Personal Neighborhood and Public Battlefield. The Backyard Battleground is one of the best things I’ve ever seen in game, PvZ or not. But it never reached its full potential so the Personal Neighborhood will be larger and have a lot more customization options to the point you can really make it your own. I would also like it to be playable by more than 4 people so YouTubers and other players can have some crazy private matches in their neighborhood. You’ll be able to get all kinds of PvZ style buildings and paint them with special schemes you can get as well to change their default color scheme, add new mini games, and special spawners. Not only is it your home base for when you login or to exit/enter the other activities, but I want it to be your personal playground with a ton of options with more being available as the game continues on.
The Public Battlefield is more like Giddy Park, but the map will change every month or so (this can be more or less often and may or may not be tied to the quarterly prize map), will have tools in place to prevent or at least minimize spawn camping, and will have objectives that pop up, but you can always just jump in and fight the other players and wide variety of AI that pop up; from weeds and browncoats to bosses. The bases will also have Rux available to purchase things and hang out with other players of the same side, and other amenities. The lobbies would likely be 12v12 and between balancing systems and all the AI, should be kept as fair as possible. You can jump into the fray at almost any time and even when waiting for a match queue to pop! You’ll get XP and coins for participating with bonuses for the objectives (win or lose, although winning gives more rewards).
Maps for PvP and Ops. All the old GW and GW2 maps (yes, even Time Park), with any needed adjustments for big characters like mechs and oaks and any needed balancing. We would have both Garden and Aqua Centers. BfN TT maps would need some adjustments to work as they’re too narrow, need teleporters and turret spaces, and the spawn points need to be adjusted. No payloads will be used either, at least not for TT so that will need adjusting too. The other BfN maps may be ok to bring in, with any needed adjustments to account for balancing and other needed changes.
Free Roam Zones. Start with at least 2 and have separate versions for both sides, so we don’t get the Town Center for plants and zombies overlap we have in BfN. More events, more diverse spawns, longer quest lines, more reasons to return, and cool unlocks will be available. The basic ideas for them in BfN are great, but once you 100% them, they lose a lot of their value, just like the Gnomiverse in GW2, so I want to see them get more use and for longer. More would be released later, and you’d access them all via your personal neighborhood.
Like Ops, you’d be able to go in alone, with friends only, invite only, or set your group to open or join open groups to explore and battle in the free roam regions. These largely replace Infinity Time from GW2 as the end game PvE content, and I’d like people to be able to join and host open groups as well as friends so they can get stuff done and help people out.
Characters and variants. Back to GW/GW2 style here, with the characters from BfN as well, barring TV Head and Wildflower which will be removed along with their AI variants. Characters with elemental themes as their baseline may keep an elemental base and vary it from there (Snapdragon for example), while others would have their base classes changes and the base line class moved to a variant (Electric Slide as an example). Team play characters will become regular characters and changed as needed. New characters and variants are highly desirable and will be added over the game’s life cycle. I’d like to keep Torchwood and Hovergoat-3000, but with Oak variants, Torchwood may be redundant, and they may replace the Hovergoat with a zombie that fills that role. As far as each character’s kit, I’d prefer a return to GW/GW2 over the Bfn style, especially for classes like Engineer and Rose, but some may need further shaking up, like Chomper and their interaction with stuns.
XP and leveling. There is no level cap and no character ranks. Whenever you level a character you get some coins and every 10 levels can customize their name plate with more options you unlock to replace the GW2 system. The levels will be per variant just like in GW2. Your account rank plate will be more customizable as far as looks as you level up, but your rank will be obvious with its value.
XP and coins will always be useful at all times and I want to encourage people to keep playing. While XP will unlock the prize maps every 3 months, finishing it early doesn’t have any extra benefits, but I never want any XP to go to waste, something I didn’t like in GW2 or in BfN once they stopped making new prize maps. You will be rewarded for getting XP for as long as you play.
The cost to level up may go up over time, but we have to avoid it becoming extremely tedious to level up at higher levels. We don’t want level 3 to cost 5000 XP, while 100 costs 5,000,000,000 XP. I’d personally be fine with the XP for every level on every variant always be the same.
Upgrade System. Will use the BfN style value weighted system for your loadouts but when you have access to a character, whether starting with it or acquiring it later, you have all upgrades immediately available for use, leveling up will be for bragging rights, customizations, and account ranks. Upgrades available for each character and variant are based on that character and variant type.
Under and over powered upgrades will be adjusted or purged. Legendary upgrades will be turned into variants or removed entirely.
Save slots. You will have at least 5 slots per variant and can purchase more, up to 10 each. These are like their BfN save slots but can be named so you can more easily keep track, and will feature the ability to save a victory slab and up to 2 punchers for each slot as well as upgrades and customizations. This would be a lot of slots but 3 is just not enough, and it’s a personal favorite idea from BfN.
Balancing and other key game play elements. Sprinting is gone. Characters will have their movement speeds based on size, weight, and so on as balance factor like it is in the GW games. Damage attenuation (drop off) is in and used to help balance characters and variants. Any overperforming characters/variants will be brought down, underperforming ones will be brought up, to a median balance zone. Like all games of this nature, balancing will likely be a continuous process, but getting it as close as possible early on will go a long way towards avoiding serious problems that still plague all 3 games.
HUD. The GW2 HUD will be used with the extra fine touches from BfN like overheat and ammo remaining visual indicators and upgrade effects. Maybe add a little flair based on which team you’re playing on to add some plant or zombie flavor to your HUD as well.
Ops. Will return to GW2 flavor (difficulty setting, team retires and self-revives, multiple locations, enchanted Gardens and Graveyards, etc.) with additional challenge wave types. An option to play casual, i.e. 5 wave Ops like BfN without evacuations would exist as well. The cutscenes and special super boss theme music from GW1 will return and expand for new bosses. You will be able to pick which side to play along with the option to play as either side like in BfN if you wish to just play and don’t care what side you’re on.
Boss Hunts and other big events. The Free Roam regions need good reasons to return to them and special events and boss hunts like in GW2 would rank high here. I’d like boss hunts to be always available and open to anyone that wishes to start them in that boss’s free roam zone by paying some realm currency and then battling them, winning getting you some nice rewards, and losing would give at least some kind of consolation prize. I’d prefer this to have no lockout timer, but it depends on how much it costs (in realm currency) and how long it takes.
The other option for Boss Hunts is to have them linked to the portal like in the town hall in GW2, but make them more commonly available and preferably, seasonally tuned.
Seasonal Events and items. Much like we used to get in GW and GW2; quest givers, customizations and consumables, and even buildings for the neighborhood would be available based on the seasons. Want a Santa’s Workshop, giant chocolate chomper, or an escaped turkey sanctuary in your personal neighborhood? You will be able to with these events!
Stickerbook/almanac. This will return, even if the stickers are no longer random, and also have things like details on how to fight the various boss hunt bosses, little facts about PvZ, and other fun tidbits. It will be updated for new content as needed.
Graphic style. More like GW and GW2 than BfN. I actually like all 3 games’ looks, but BfN while having some gorgeous graphics, is a little odd with how certain things like buildings and vehicles look more realistic while the characters look more cartoony. Things ‘fit’ better in the GW games, and Rose looks more like a tulip in BfN as Zero points out.
Marketing, testing, and promotion. This needs to be much better than BfN was. It was dropped on top of us with almost no warning and very little promotion in stark contrast to GW and GW2. It also wasn’t tested enough prior to release so we had to test it in Founders. Get the word out there early, get some videos going, and get it tested like crazy before we do any public betas or anything like that. We used to get videos for GW and GW2 on so many things, big and small, and we got so little for BfN.
GW launched later on PC compared to Xbox’s launch so I didn’t notice massive issues there barring the open mic problem that thankfully got fixed early. GW2’s launch had serious issues like the Rose plague and the capture points not working properly at first, but most of these were fixed. BfN was far worse and even today I still encounter stuff that can be game breaking like getting kicked out of a match at random, people glitching through terrain a lot, and other stuff that may exist in the others, but it really comes out in BfN. The next game has got to launch in solid state from day one, even though it will almost certainly need some fixes, let’s avoid the GW2 and BfN launch blues with the new one.
Spotting. Use icons for showing friendly players and AI instead of generic blue triangles but otherwise I prefer BfN’s spotting system that uses abilities to locate opposing forces as it’s too easy to see enemy players in the GW/GW2 games. In PvE, it can use spotting icons as normal.
Extra little touches.
- Battle Arena will stay and be possibly expanded.
- Netcode will be improved to avoid the hit registration and other related issues.
- The post game celebrations and individualized TT maps will return to GW1 style.
- There will be expanded underground areas in your personal neighborhood beyond the sewers and chamber of gnomes that are under the Backyard Battleground.
- When Crazy Dave, Zomboss, or some other character is speaking to you, it will be animated like in GW2.
- Zomboss will return to his GW2 attitude.
- Some kind of quest/challenge system will exist, but unsure of the details at this time.
Despite how long this, I’m sure I missed something, and of course feedback is welcome!
