Commando pea buff appeal. PLEASE READ, FEEDBACK WANTED.
Ok, so this is a desperately needed change, and I'm going to be posting it on both the answer hq and the sub reddit for the most possible attention. I need everyone's support on this, so please leave a comment or your own suggestions to help get the attention of the devs.
Commando pea needs a buff. I have both Mathematical data, and the experience of using him on a regular basis in Garden warfare 1, so this isn't the kind of ill informed feedback that resulted in rose being horribly overpowered upon release.
With the introduction of corn, this little guy's niche has shrunk even further into obscurity, which is such a shame given his awesome weapon, so I want to try my hardest to help get him the power he, and anyone who has unlocked him, deserves.
First the mathematical data. While most of the popcap team probably already knows this stuff, it's important the community does too, so there are no misconceptions.
Commando pea fires at a rate that as far as I can tell, is almost exactly 6 times a second. Each pea deals 6 at range, and up to 12 at close range, leading to a dps of 72 damage per second at close range, and 36 at range.
To give you an idea of how laughable this is, here's the fire rate of similar classes/variants with fast firing full auto weapons. All these operate under the assumption that damage upgrades are used, and that they bring the damage up to what they were in garden warfare one (if they were characters in it). They were measured by using a macro that held the mouse button down for exactly one second, and counting the ammo remaining after each activation.
(It was done in backyard battleground and provides no advantage in multiplayer regardless, so don't worry, I wasn't cheating or anything 😉 )
Kernel corn fires ten times a second, for 100 DPS at close range, and 70 DPS at long
range.
Foot soldier fires ten times a second also, for 90 DPS at close range, and 70 DPS at long range.
Sky trooper fires at thirteen times a second, for 104 DPS at close range, and 65 DPS at long range.
Mechanic fires at ten times a second, for 90 DPS at close range, and 60 DPS at long range.
From this data, it is CLEAR that commando pea has an extremely lacking weapon, doing significantly less damage per second at both long AND short range, which explains why so many players have felt him to be weak ever since GW1. Commando pea is just as underpowered in practice as he is in theory, with people instead opting for the more consistent and less dropoff heavy splash peas, or the rewarding high DPS agent and law pea. He quite simply lacks the power at close range people expect him to have, making fights last awkwardly long against less skilled players, and giving you little to no hope against people of similar skill level.
The only area in which commando pea even trumps any fast fire full auto character is damage per bullet, which is barely helpful especially due to his massive dropoff and hefty recoil.
My personal suggestion for a buff is the following. I wouldn't pretend this is the only way to do it, so for others to leave their ideas or feed back would be great.
Increase the rate of fire to 8 or 9 times a second. While this may sound like an extremely drastic buff, increasing the damage output by 33-50%, it is a reasonable one when looking at the data.
This would bring his DPS to 96 DPS at close range with the 8 times a second buff, or 108 DPS with the 9 times a second buff.
His long range DPS would rise to 48 DPS with the 8 times a second buff, or 54 DPS with the 9 times a second buff.
Looking at these damages, you can see they are well in line with the rest of the characters with similar weapons. His 108 DPS may sound intimidating, but it is well in line with kernel corn's 100 and sky trooper's 104, ESPECIALLY given his still worse long range DPS.
If you've read this far, and I've convinced you that commando pea needs a buff, or you were already convinced, PLEASE help get attention toward this issue. Leave comments with feedback, or your thoughts, send tweets to the devs asking to buff him, make it known. I'm not asking for my suggestion to be the sole buff that is considered, so don't feel you have to agree with me word for word or anything, just help get commando pea some much needed attention so he can show he really is the toughest pea around.
