Class Discussion: Acorn/Oak
On to the first new BfN plant, the Acorn and the Oak! My favorite new plant to be sure and again, despite the fact that I sometimes feel like there’s a lot of bashing on BfN, the devs making a living mech for the plants is a great idea that I really like. Despite their small size I think 75 health is fine. As I’ve posted elsewhere, I just can’t see a character with less health being able to survive in the environment, even a tiny, agile character like Acorn. The Hardened upgrade got nerfed but it really needs to just go. It’s not that big of a deal on the Oak (maybe keep it for a new game but only for tree form), but giving such a tiny character that much health is a problem.
Acorn’s voice is so good, the yodeling makes them even more charming and adorable than they already are! Their sprint animation is a great too, regardless of my own feelings on sprinting. And the Oak looks great too, only real negative I have about it, is how the main log cannon doesn’t change with customizations, and that’s a lost opportunity. Some of the costumes are brilliant though, in spite of that limitation. I also have a love for the Oak’s reloading sound, not sure why, but I do.
The Acorn’s main weapon; the shell shot is very effective, especially at range with no drop off (which could be a powerful balancing tool), and paired with such a tiny target. It needs to be looked at in a new game, but maybe just fixing the drop off and perhaps reducing its magazine would fix this one. Acorns are so small that you often can’t tell what’s hitting you, and this weapon can really hurt with its high RoF and large magazine, especially at range where the little guys can be very hard to deal with.
I really like the team idea for Oak and Acorns as like the Space Cadet and the station, the team show that they have some great and creative ideas. That being said, it’s never been all that satisfying to play the Acorns riding on top, even if I love the idea. After removing their armor, they’re so vulnerable up there that you almost never see an Acorns do it anymore, barring AI. You can easily be sniped out, you take full damage from AoE, and Acorns are best when they can move and take advantage of their small size and their dashes, which you can’t do up top of an Oak. As I posted in Space Cadet, remove the team play ideas and in the case of Acorn/Oak, it becomes the plant’s version of the Imp/Mech. They could also remove the flat top requirement if they removed this team idea which allows them to make versions with pointy tops like an Evergreen variant.
Sap trap (and Super Sap Trap) is a bit buggy right now as it often does no damage when detonated and is used more often as a direct attack or to give yourself a big jump. It really needs to be changed a bit so that it’s more of a trap instead of a slight delay directed attack like it is now, fix it doing no damage, keep the jump bonus as I don’t see a real issue with that, increase the time it takes to set it off so when it does work, it’s not just a slightly different version of Imp Punt, give it more health to balance it out a bit since it’s meant to be launched somewhere and detonated later, and let you see it on the map so you can recall where it is to manually set it off. This would make both versions of the ability remote mines as opposed to the Cacti’s proximity mines (manual detonation as opposed to passive), and therefore more like actual traps.
Acorn Dash currently has 2 charges. It was one for quite a while and I’m not sure why they got this 2nd charge. It feels a bit like Scientist warp although Acorns don’t really want to get into close range in BfN as you can snipe with these little guys easily so whereas Scientist’s usually warp in, get some vanquishes, and then warp out, Acorns tend to use this to get out of there in a hurry. Having 2 dashes lets them get out of battle very far and very fast. There’s no animation build up to use it, much like BfN’s Scientist warp, and I don’t feel it needs one as badly as the Scientist’s does since Acorns can’t heal themselves and Oak takes a while to invoke (you can’t dash and then immediately Invoke Oak), so I don’t have an issue with the lack of animation, but I don’t think they need 2 charges.
Speaking of Oak, the ability for the tiny Acorn becoming the mighty Oak is a brilliant presentation and one of my favorite things added to BfN. One thing I find very interesting here too is that while the Imp’s mech explosion is lackluster in animation in BfN, the Oak breaking apart when vanquished or changing back into an Acorn looks quite good. Not sure why the disparity exists but it’s there. Oak’s are just so well done, from their thundering root steps, the sound of reloading and firing its Wood Grief weapon, and the deep voice that stands in stark contrast to the Acorn’s voice, which I really like too. Oak’s default health is fine and one way to balance Oak with Mech is to make the mech not regen health as a machine like the bots and the GW2 mech, but that Oak does as it’s a living plant. I’d like Mech and Oak to fill a similar role but to be as different as possible as fits the theme of all 3 games. With some exceptions, I feel the PopCap team has done a good job with this idea.
Roll for Damage is a personal favorite ability and love the tabletop game reference (especially with the Natural 20 upgrade). This one never feels OP to me as a zombie as it’s not that hard to avoid usually and usually isn’t an instant vanquish. This is another one of those new abilities where I really like how it looks and animates. It also fits the Oak thematically very well. It’s very satisfying to use too, especially in PvE when you strike several zombies at once with it. No complaints I can think of here.
As for those treetop riders, I feel that while they can be useful, it’s usually just free XP for the zombies these days. It can be fun as a group of friends to have one drive while the rest ride around, healing and shooting, but the risk is not worth it. Adding the overheal when the armor was removed never really felt right and getting rid of the riders and leaving the character as an organic mech would work better.
Comparing the Mech and the Oak. This matchup has to be looked at for a new game. Assuming the treetop riders are gone, that would make the Acorn/Oak and Imp/Mech the closest thing we would have to mirror classes, but as always in the PvZ shooters, we want things to be different and not just ‘The plant and zombie versions of the same character’. If the mech functions like in GW2: timer before it can be called down, lasts till fuel runs out, Imp is vanquished when it’s destroyed but can eject and explode early, no health regen, armor like GW2, and BfN upgrades may modify this a bit, Oak should indeed be different. Does Oak need a timer like the Mech’s fuel system? Currently the Oak can be summoned after only a short cooldown, even after being vanquished as one the cooldown isn’t very long, whereas even with mech hunter it can take awhile to get your mech back as an Imp. I would remove the Mech’s sprint and the Imp surviving the mech being vanquished in BfN, but this would weaken the mech compared to the Oak. To counter that, the Oak has health relative to how much you had as an Acorn when calling it, it doesn’t explode when the Acorn uses treeject, and it can’t sprint and lacks armor. All things being equal, the biggest issue is that you can remain an Oak with no limit while the mech can only do that with certain upgrades to extend duration. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to have the Oak require a fuel gage as it’s a living thing, although an argument could be made that the Acorn can’t stay in its later life stage of a tree for too long in such a manner, and has to return to its Acorn form after it runs out of stored sunlight or something like that, but regardless of how they approach it, I’d like these 2 classes to be balanced against each other while also being different to maintain that unique flavor that makes the GW2 shooters stand out in such a crowded market, especially both GW games.
For a new game, balance the Acorn/Oak and Imp/Mech dynamic as previously mentioned. Get rid of hardened or make it apply only to the tree form. Make the sap traps more like actual traps and fix their problems where they cause no damage. Balance Acorns damage, dashes, and anything else as needed. And of course, variants! Poison Oak may not be an actual tree in real life, but it’s the perfect name for a toxic variant! Evergreen could be the frost variant and fire a pinecone shotgun, Redwoods could have extra health and be a bit slower than the others, and so on. Acorn/Oak can work just fine in a new game with only a few fixes and balance checks, and I’d love to see them back.
