Are plants at a disadvantage against zombies?

Zombies have it so easy because plants wait until they're in or around the objective to defend... instead of being on the offensive. Yes, a lot has to do with the skill of the players... but aggressive plants that don't allow the zombies to set up the teleporter and force them to keep their distance will usually come out on top. As I constantly state, G&G is no place for statpadders. Get out there, sacrifice yourself and take out a few zombies while you're at it. Respawn. Repeat. Stop worrying about kill death ratios and you can get the quick payouts.

Are they? No, not at all. No flaming intended.

If the plants just sit outside the garden and shoot in, every zombie that waltzes into the garden takes away from the meter and captures a bit of the garden. Wave after wave of zombies taking their little sliver adds up, the plants need to figure out how to play is all. Defend the teleporters, start a line of defense that's NOT in the garden so the zombies can't even get inside and if they breach your defenses get INSIDE the garden. If the number of plants inside is larger than the number of zombies, they can't make any progress towards the objective. Throw yourselves INTO the hill to outnumber them, don't allow them to capture it! Plants generally play poor defense by sitting outside the garden looking in, even when there are zombies in their territory. Zombies might seem overpowered because all they have to do is congregate in the hill while plants actually have to have half a brain between the entire team to put up a fight. Plants that go lone wolf and die over and over don't help anyone. That jerk of a Peashooter that goes and fires off a chili bean into the zombies gate at the spawn just to nab a few kills isn't the guy you want on your team because he's just going to wing it and goof off, or even cacti who stay back and plunk shot after shot at zombies, missing over and over while the zombies are in the hill taking it instead of rushing the hill, filling it with mines and fighting to keep them from outnumbering the plants.

Also as a chomper (the class with the most health) you shouldn't be getting vanquished in one hit. You need to learn to play the chomper as an assassin character, if you rush out and kill one zombie you'll be left stranded and alone, slow and you'll be killed by the rest of his teammates. Chompers have spikeweeds for a reason, you need to set them up and wait for the meals to come to you. If you burrow, hold still and your burrow meter slows down, this is done for a reason and lets you hide completely unseen and you can gobble up a zombie who'll never know you were there. Also, stick with other plants don't go out alone, chompers should stay back and protect an area where they can easily hide and has a high traffic volume so you can feast on the zombies that will never see you coming. You really should try the Hotrod chomper or Count Chompula if you haven't already, I've had success with them both but still prefer my cacti.

YOLO! Armored Zambies FTW! I've been able to not even enter the garden and take it using only my armored Army. That of course just goes to show you that the plants just aren't playing smart. What you guys/gals need to also realize, is the very fact  that there are a ton of little kids playing alot at times.

(5 yr olds & Up). I hear em all the time. My point being that they may not understand the rules of engagement. :mantongue:

What AWMaxSterling stated. get out their and vanquish those mean green monsters. G&G is a team game. You want to just vanquish, go play TVM.

My inclination has always been, that the plants are not well organized. They seem to be listless and self serving. It seems like the Keystone Cops at times. I also get the sense that the Zombies have the co-op experience from other games (GOW, COD .e.g). I have had closer games, when I disrupt the transporter as much as possible. When I find it, I try and become as much of a nuisance as possible. It seems to be a decent strategy. I need more help though. One or more shooters need to follow, defend me, give a Chomper some cover while temporarily stunned after being hit, or swallowing someone. If I lay down a few quick spikeweeds, shooter can take them out far easier. It needs to be an organized effort. Zombies are generally guarding the transporter in pairs. They sit the small, Engineer drone in a spot to pick off intruders. When resting on the ground, the drone can easily be missed at first, it might be too late by the time you notice he's lurking. It seems difficult to destroy transporters, as well.

Is there a reliable method for eliminating a transporter more efficiently, once you find them. I have yet to destroy a single one.

Zombies seem to assign at least one designated sniper. A plant needs to be assigned the job of taking on the snipers, while covering the ground and scouting the sky for drones as well. Peas Shooters and Cactus should be playing with a careful sense that Zomboss and drones need to be eliminated. Pronto !

Does someone always take the reigns of Crazy Dave. I play in games where no one does. It's really stupid to let that advantage slip through the teams collective fingers.

Careful placement of mines and spike weed are a great help. This is ever more important when the inevitable rushing onslaught is attempted by the zombies. It is one more great tool for slowing he rush.

The potted plants are not always utilized. If a potted plant can get one vanquish, it's one less zombie to worry about. Even if a potted plant gets vanquished, it has done it's duty by distracting a zombie, albeit temporarily. If a zombie's eyes are distracted from the prize, it gives a team mate a better opportunity of taking him out.

It really is about time. Lasting out, till the sands run out. I tend to think of it (sort of) as a football team running out the clock. Frustrating the other team, while the clock is ticking, is more effective than it initially seems. If I see one more session where plants lose it in overtime, I am going to have an aneurysm. I have found myself just quitting a game after witnessing a defeat within a minute of play. If those few seconds, where the plants lost, were removed from the zombies, it would be a win... not a defeat. Time is really everything. It is the judge that determines the winner every time.

There are other things that can be done too. Reviving a team mate without risking your self, is a great help. Revival is a great tool. I have seen team mates go ignored when vanquished. They lay there like a dead fish on the beach, waiting for revival. What makes it really frustrating is to see a team mate go un-revived when there is little to no immediate threat. Points are gained by reviving a team mate. If that's how you need to justify it, now you have a reason. Again, it comes down to time. Once vanquished, it's far better to be revived, then to hustle back to the fight from wherever the game places you.It's time consuming.

*** Don't just lay vanquished, pressing the self revive button as quick as you can. Give a team mate a chance to get to you. This is really important, especially in "Team Vanquish". Is anyone reading the tips?

BTW EA/Pop Cap... It's time for more tips, if you got 'em. Some people do read them, just not enough it seems.

*** BTW, I don't understand where the OVERTIME comes from. I do in soccer/football, but not in PVZGW.

To win a session requires cooperation and an understanding of time. I know I am beating a dead horse. It's hard to win when everyone, or half the team, is running around, looking for points and self preservation. Does no one care about winning? Isn't that the point of any game, be it checkers, badminton or PVZGW? It defeats the whole concept of "multi-player" and "co-op". It's what makes the game fun and interesting. I never played any of the "murder games", but it doesn't take a PhD to figure out that a team working together is a winning team. In real world combat, survival depends on cooperation, watching your buddies back, and assigning jobs. It doesn't make a lick of sense to play for every achievement in the game only. Once you have gained that, does playing the proper way FINALLY become an option? Once a player attains max achievements, do they sell the game on EBAY or wait till PVZGW 2 ?

I would love to organize some plant squads for those interested in actually winning. I know there are plenty. They just have to be organized and be on the same team. If anyone is interested, look me up. Gamer TAG... "THE SQWEET MEAT".

I sound obsessed and crazy, right?

One other interesting observation. The tactics of the Zombies seems to be spreading amongst them. It appears to be seeping into the Zombie nations collective consciousness. They are all becoming aware of the same set of general winning tactics. Random Zombies thrown together into a game, those not even knowing each other, are playing using, the ever spreading common knowledge... "How To Defeat the Stoopid Plants". Perhaps, that's why its spray painted on a wall in Chomp Town (I think that's where it's at). If there are a set of zombies guarding the transporter, others move on till they find a job that isn't filled yet.

It's standard operating procedure, "conforming to the rules of engagement, by osmosis".

Where is that in the plant kingdom?

I actually disagree with a lot of what you said.

First off, most of the good players and higher ranked players will choose to be zombies over plants. Let's face it, the longer the game lasts... the better the payout for zombies. Zombies aren't usually more organized, either. It's just that there's 2-3 self-centered players who will always pick off plants from a distance and worry about their kill/death and since the plants usually like to wait for the zombies come to them, they often hide and don't start shooting back until it's too late.

Potted plants may kill an occasional player, but there's way too few pots available and the placement is horrible. I often find it a waste to even place one... and I have 300+ of every peashooter variant. Summoned zombies will often beat potted plants, so why bother other than to provide a distraction for summoned zombies?

Crazy Dave is a waste of a body. Get out of the Winnebago and shoot somebody. In the time it takes for one cherry bomb assault, they can plant mines or shoot someone and be more useful to me.

Reviving is for the most part, useless in G&G. There are only 2 instances where I'll accept a revive as a plant. First, we just lost an objective and we're behind the zombies. Anything to slow down their advance is beneficial. Second, if my special abilities are nearly recharged. Any other time it's just better to respawn and regain your abilities. As a zombie, it's better to just respawn if you already have the teleporter up. Only time I want to be revivied is due to time constraints or if I'm in the objective. Also, there is no option to self-revive in G&G... and if you're playing a higher difficulty level in Garden Ops, you never want to waste self-revives early on. Wait until the timer is about to run out and try to save those self-revives until as late as possible.

As long as players earn coins for getting kills, they're gonna keep trying to get more kills. If they want players to play the objective, then they need to change the payout structure to reward the objective and not kills. 

I've got to agree about the boss mode thing, it is completely useless. Dropping a heal station or a revive here or there does basically nothing for the team. If you spend the entire game as a "boss" you're just shortchanging your team, having one more able bodied player to defend/attack is MUCH more helpful than a random airstrike that hardly ever gets a kill.

I agree that most plants have no idea that you need to take the fight to the zombies, and that results in a lot of zombie wins.  I'm almost exclusively a plant player, but it's tough to deal with.  A good sunflower is essential to holding the garden so the plants don't waste time respawning and running back to the garden.

However, the potted plants vs summoned zombies thing irks me.  As has been mentioned, the potted plants are almost worthless.  I rarely waste time planting them.  But the summoned zombies can move around AND they count when capturing the garden.  The zombies could theoretically win without one player ever setting foot in the garden.  To me, that seems unfair.

The most annoying thing:  Stupid cacti planting tallnuts in front of the plant spawn areas.  It's most likely a little kid that has no idea what is going on, but it still ticks me off to no end.