Recent Discussions
[Feedback] Community Problems With PvZ 3
This post is designed to highlight, and inform the reader about the critical flaws present in Plants vs. Zombies 3: Welcome to Zomburbia, and for convenience, this is split into multiple sections. GAMEPLAY Strategy Strategy - “a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.” Choosing Your Seeds Strategy is not present in PvZ3, and is caused by denying the player to choose their seeds. The reason strategy worked in PvZ1 and PvZ2 was because the player learnt and adapted to new threats at a consistent rate. (New plant after every level) For example, Balloon Zombie is first encountered in level 4-3. The player isn’t left defenseless, because they receive Cactus when level 4-2 is completed. The player already knows what to expect from Cactus with the small almanac description that was visible when they were collected, but the player is still allowed to experiment with Cactus and how they function. In PvZ2, strategy is present even more with the player adapting to zombies and brand new world gimmicks, like dinosaurs in Jurassic Marsh for example. Level objectives were a factor in how a player would strategize certain levels, which are also missing from PvZ3. Endangered plants, mold colonies, etc., these involved changing your loadouts in account, and created a more diverse gameplay loop that wasn’t too repetitive. Locked & Loaded (A PvZ2 mini-game that had your plants pre-selected, identical to PvZ3) had strategy to it because it forced the player out of their comfort zone to try a different play-style, or try a plant you haven’t unlocked yet. It didn’t punish the player when it came to losing, and losing is part of life. You don’t win every level, and the player can always try again without punishment in Adventure Mode. In PvZ3, the game actively punishes the player for losing with the 5 life system (this has its own section, covered in more detail), which can result in players being afraid to experiment with trying anything new. Difficulty Difficulty is subjective, and this will not highlight balancing, but rather how PvZ3 attempts to challenge the player’s skill. PvZ3 holds the player’s hand throughout the majority of the levels, not allowing them to experiment with any of the tools provided to them, and is instead forced to play how the level designer wanted them to, which creates a lack-luster and uninteresting experience. Multiple times throughout PvZ3, a level can feel unfair. Zombies will be spawned repeatedly in the same lane, making it impossible for plants to deal with them, thus they overwhelm your defenses, which makes the player: Spend coins to blow the zombies away and regrow their defenses. Use a power-up Give Up & Retry 1) This makes PvZ3 pay to win. If you can pay in-game currency for ALL zombies on the board to be sent back to the beginning, that is an advantage. Additionally, this feature was available for free in PvZ2 with the plant Thyme Warp. 2) Power-ups should not be required for completing levels, but rather as a crutch if the player is struggling, similarly to how PvZ2’s power-ups function. Power-ups in PvZ2 are occasionally handed out to the player through Piñata Parties and gift boxes, which let the player confidently use it, without the worry of trying to preserve it, and were cheap to buy if the player desperately needed to use one mid-level. Power-Ups PvZ3 has Cherry Bomb, Jalapeño, and Chilly Pepper behind a “power-up” system, and you’re only able to use them a limited amount of times. This ruins the consideration of what instant-use plants the player needs to bring to the level. In PvZ2, there are many instant use plants that all perform different things, and you can’t bring them all. With there being no instant use plants available, this layer of strategy is gone. Level Design PvZ3’s levels forget what made PvZ1 and PvZ2’s enjoyable, and it’s due to those games giving you time. In PvZ3, multiple zombies can spawn at the start of the level, and rush the player into having to make sudden reactions to deal with these threats. This isn’t fun, it’s annoying. One of the enjoyable parts of PvZ is seeing your defenses grow, considering it takes time and effort to manage the single zombies that slowly show up, coming in more numbers as time goes on. I can only imagine the levels are designed like this to retain low player attention spans. Players might not stick around during levels, and that’s fine. PvZ2 (Used to) let you save mid-level to do something else and return another time. Trying to make hyper-fast levels doesn’t work when PvZ1 (and to some degree, PvZ2) was a fairly slow but not snail-paced game. Monetization This isn’t ridiculing PopCap for having monetization in a mobile game, as they’re a business and you have to make a profit in some way, but how PvZ3 does it is astoundingly bad. Though, microtransactions should not be in a soft-launch that is designed for feedback. It gives the impression that feedback isn’t your main priority, but to profit off the game as soon as possible. I’m not a business major, but I’m trying to come to a middle ground to what feels fair to the consumer (players) and producers (PopCap). Why PvZ2's (Initial) Monetization Method Worked To put this in easy to understand terms, let me describe PvZ2’s Adventure Mode plants and Premium plants as Skylanders figures. The ones available from the start are capable of beating the game, but you can go out of your way to purchase additional figures if you want more toys to use in-game. If the player wanted a premium plant but were unsure of how it functioned, they could play the Premium Plant Quest to experiment. My point here is that PvZ2 offered unique content at a relatively low price, which was a motivator and reason to purchase. PvZ3 doesn’t have any motivators to its microtransactions, due to it offering nothing substantial. Coins & Power-Ups The only thing the player can purchase directly are coins and limited time offers, which is a major problem. Coins can only be used to purchase power-ups and blow zombies away if you lose. For players that are stingy with their power-ups or intend to not use them to have an organic experience, PopCap is unable to market to those players. There isn't a real incentive to buy these due them ONLY being power-ups, there isn't any content behind them unlike PvZ2's premium plants, which was new content. 5 Health Mechanic The 5 life mechanic is one of the worst features in the game. Even if you made it paid to regain lives, it’s still not worth it. This game doesn’t offer enough for the player to spend coins OR real money in exchange for lives. This is the worst mechanic in gaming history, why would you purposely take away the ability for your players to play your game? This feature ruins the casual aspect of the game as players that struggle are unable to make mistakes without suffering drastic consequences, unlike PvZ1 and PvZ2 which were incredibly forgiving by allowing you to try again at no cost. Story This isn’t a critique about the story, but aspects surrounding it. Priorities PvZ games always had a story that wasn’t directly present to the player. Crazy Dave goes back in time to eat a taco again, Dr. Zomboss captures Suburbia, and renames it to Zomburbia, they weren’t extensive stories but a small setting to ease the player into the places they visit. PvZ3’s main marketing focus is on the story, which is not a bad thing on paper, but it seems to take PopCap’s priority over the gameplay. Every Beta since September 7th, 2021 has had similar gameplay identical to the previous beta, but with different characters and dialogue. PopCap needs to change their priorities to focus the gameplay instead of the story if they want to make a game that feels fun to play. Taco Tickets Taco Tickets are a reward you receive when you complete a level, and are used to progress through the story. It’s identical to the progression system of Gardenscapes’, and it’s not needed in a PvZ game. PvZ2 had a story that was conveyed through dialogue between and before levels. Taco Tickets only complicates this, and should be handled differently to serve an actual purpose. Furniture For some reason, PopCap really wants to push the furniture aspect seen in Gardenscapes in this game. PvZ1 and PvZ2 have never focused on decorating, so it's very out of place in marketing. We're not against the decorating concept, but it appears to be one of PopCap's main priorities considering it appeared consistently throughout old feedback surveys instead of questions about what we think of the gameplay. Conclusion We want PvZ3 to succeed. We want this game to push the franchise to new heights and allow for more, bigger opportunities, but this will only happen if PopCap accepts that this version is greatly flawed, and makes a product people want. Written by Hey1mJay, and members of the Plants vs. Zombies community.zombies that pvz 3 should add
solar eclipse zombie: holds his wand out and after 15 seconds slowly starts draining sunlight causing less sun to fall and less to collect and to make it permanently dark if not defeated in time(if defeated during the sun stealing it comes back slowly) (only 1 can be on the field at a time) cannon zombie: uses a cannon to shoot cannonballs at plants (Has 6 shots) lasso zombie: uses his lasso to pull himself to whatever plant he grabs onto drunk zombie: at half health runs towards your house and ignores all plants rage gargantuar: gains movement speed whenever a zombie is defeated metal suit zombie: wears extremely heavy armour but is extremely slow whistle zombie: spawns a wave of zombies every 15-20 seconds overlord zombie: every 20 seconds restarts a random plants seed cool down elemental zombie: uses random elements like fire and ice to damage plants2025 Blog Post #1 - January
Shaping the Future of PvZ3 Together! Happy New Year Neighborville residents! This year, we want to take you on a journey with us as we re-imagine Plants vs. Zombies 3 and let you in on what’s going on behind the scenes! We're highly focused on something fundamental to the Plants vs. Zombies series: the art style and direction! This is what ultimately brings life to the characters of the game and has inspired so many of you all throughout the years! While the team continues to work hard on new systems and features, we’ve also been reflecting on the direction of our visuals to ensure that we’re creating a game that resonates with you, our players. We ran some external tests to gather insight into which art styles sparked interest among participants in our focus groups! We’re actively gathering that data, but we also know that there’s no better feedback than yours - the passionate PvZ community. That’s why today we’re excited to share some of the potential art styles that the team has been exploring! So what’s next? How can you help? We would love to hear your voice! Here’s how you can help us: Check out the three images below! Share your thoughts about which Image # you prefer on social media using the hashtag #PvZ3 Tell us which style speaks to you the most and why! Your feedback is incredibly important to us and can help us shape the game. While we continue to improve the experience, we’ll keep the community informed along the way and ask for your thoughts. Your input helps us ensure that the game looks as good as it is fun to play! Thank you for coming along on this journey with us - we’re excited to hear what you think! As always, stay tuned for more updates, and don’t forget to use hashtag #PvZ3 on social media to share your thoughts! Let’s work together to shape the future of PvZ! Until next time… Plant on! The PvZ3 Team
REBOOT IN PVZ 3 LORE
Everyone can be sure that the “pink version” will be the winner of the poll, for simple reasons: this style is so beautiful and reminiscent of comics that it would be crazy not to wear it! without forgetting that currently those who have given the most feedback and support to the PvZ franchise are its long-time fans who are already young adults, something like the “Green” and “Purple” versions will not attract everyone's attention. With that in mind, the “Pink” concept brings me good thoughts with an emphasis on something more adventurous in the plot so that the direction of the story can go beyond the confines of Zumburbia, based on this, I had some ideas such as a reboot of the PvZ 3 story. In PvZ 2 Crazy Dave and Dr. Zomboss made numerous trips to different times in history, leaving behind plants and zombies after leaving these worlds, which created several ramifications in space and time, thus creating new realities in which these two races have been part of these worlds since the past! one of them being from Garden Wafare. - "What does all this have to do with PvZ 3?" You see, this raises doubts as to whether “welcome to zomburbia” was really part of the original PvZ continuity line, as we could see that Dave's personality had a drastic change compared to that of PvZ 2 and there is nothing about what happened to Penny after these events, leading us to believe that it wasn't. This is just the tip of the iceberg that emerges when you dig deeper, but don't get me wrong, I don't hate that the theme is about the city's surroundings, on the contrary! It's beautiful and brings a new air of adventure that the franchise needed to bring after PvZ Adventures and I want it to continue. But is it really necessary to involve this? In my opinion yes and no, because neighborville is cool, but it would open doors so you don't get stuck in a limited standard like the second one. I know it won't be simple to bring together the two distinct themes into a single story, but I have the solution! In fact, the “pink” version may be the most interesting solution because the art style is reminiscent of the comics, and we know that all series have several editions with different story cores. My ideas for putting this in the game are: the story mode would be represented as comic book editions, you only have the first edition and when you finish one, another new story would be acquired at the end of your efforts or even two, one of them being a parallel alternative to the one we saw! with around 25 to 30 levels because this is an easier tactic than stretching the story out over 500 levels. This first edition could tell the story of Patricia and Nate at the Lost Keys Lake camp, where they were attacked by hordes of zombies and throughout the levels she tried to find out what was going on and find more plants in that environment like Lily Pad. As the story takes place without Dave, Patrícia only has common seeds at the beginning. Depending on the team's choices, the consequences of PvZ 2 could be better addressed in the future, regardless of whether this world is part of the continuity or not, as it would not be impossible to bring the concept of parallel universes that would make it possible to meet the original Dave and Penny or even meet versions of characters like those from the Spinnoffs, making this a direct continuation even if elsewhere. My reasons for writing these crazy things are with the intention of not letting such good things from the franchise be lost, just imagine seeing so many cool things with enormous potential being thrown away, isn't it sad? anyway, that's all. I hope it was useful! Goodbye!Plants that PvZ 3 could add
Toffee-pult 5 sun launches caramel Kernels and blobs that damage and slow zombies in a 3x3 area podfather: 5 sun gives all pea plants extra damage speedflower: 3 sun produces 1 sun and occasional speeds up plants around it over time metalflower: 4 sun high health and produces sun recharge lily: 4 sun all plants except for itself has it cooldown finished King shroom; 8 sun shoots piercing poisonous spores and occasional spawns puff shrooms Dark flower: shoots flaming sun at zombies and does damage based on how much sun you haveGeneral Ideas if old PvZ3 makes a comeback
Title it as a spinoff (that's what everyone says anyways) Upgrade the zombie models to make it more similar to the concept art from the portrait cards (image attachments related) Completely adjust or remove the Damage Types system so that it's fair so you can actually make strategies Remove plant level requirements when it comes to Devour Tower Actually make the textures a slightly higher quality so that you can actually see the pupils of the zombies
