Garden & Graveyards Unbalanced Gameplay

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@elkatsa wrote:
After some off hours of gameplay, I've noticed that on G&G the gameplay is unbalance in favor of zombies. It's been my experience that 8/10 zombies always win. By the same token, when Plants actually manage to win, the pay out is not as much as zombies,

On any given G&G lobby you will find that most people will be a zombie, thus making plants....of much less value. This seriously needs some balancing tweaking.

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There is truth to what you say, consider a few things though. This goes for other people posting too.

First, in terms of CPM a Plant victory is roughly the same as Zombies, at about 600 CPM. (Give or take contribution during the match) People only see the end result and jump to the idea that Zombie is better than Plants. Keep in mind when Zombie win they make between 1x and 2x the coins plants recieve, however should Plants win they get 5x to 6x the coins the Zombies get. Perfect win bonuses are equal, as is the completion bonus, and the opportunity to get coins during gameplay. The only true difference is in the capture/defend reward with Zombies getting 500 and Plants 250. The reasoning, I figure, is when a plant team stops the zombies the match also ends faster. Resulting in more coins for less overall effort. The true reason Zombies always seem to get higher coins is the 3000-3500 coins they get for capturing all gardens and the fact plants get 0 should zombies succeed. I think a balance of perhaps 125 coins (1/2 of a sucess) for a failed defend would close the gap somewhat. (Totaling 750-875 for a match played to completion) This should be reasonable as even if they lose the point, the plants still need to place effort in defending. Last on the topic of zombies, do note that engineers get a laughably large number of coins for teleporters. 12 players over the course of one capture point can easily give 300-500 coins. That however, is something that needs to be addressed specifically for the engineer. (Many of the 12k+ zombies are either very skilled or engineers)

Ok, Second, the balance of capturing is in favor of Zombies for the moment. This excludes the player bias and mentality that leads to uneven teams and players forced on plants quitting. I feel this is mostly due to the zombie summons. I understand why zombie summons are allowed, (Aside from letting plants complete challenges they allow zombies to compete with potted plants.) what is unfair is that they count towards capture. With teams of 12 v. 12 it would take every plant to defend the objective from an all out assualt, where zombies get an advantage is the summons that boost their ranks and place the capture in zombies favor. Meaning the zombies can allow snipers and drones while still outnumbering plants. If potted plants don't help the plant team, summoned zombies shouldn't help zombies. Besides, even then potted plants aren't always within the circle and summon zombies nearly always outnumber potted plants. The solution I think is to disallow summon zombies from capturing, and only using them as added vanquishing help. Especially now that the game has been out awhile and every player has a sizable surplus of spare zombie stickers.

Third, On to the plants, part of the issue plants face is a need to be within the circle to prevent capture. Many players simply wait on a rooftop and smile as they watch zombies take the point. Cacti often forgo all primary attack power for the corn strike of the drone, idoling in the sky until another can be unleashed. The reason zombies win now and always have, (even before the coin increase and unbalanced teams) is the general apathy plants have for the point. (Or for that matter strategic defending) Now a solution to this problem is much harder, since it is partially due to the player. The PvZ team already reduced the time to capture points, though this just leads to more aggressive zombies. Any further reduction will severly weaken the zombies beyond ability to win since at least some time needs to be allowed for walking to the point without a teleporter. (Which plants should be actively destroying) To this I have two possible ideas. First, increase the circle size for plants. In other words, make the range plants can be included in the circle slightly larger than the zombie version. For balance it cannot be much but, just enough to give plants better chance to defend. Alternatively, increase the circle in general for both teams, giving a larger area to fight. This way plants can use the surroundings without hindering success, while zombies would have the same opportunity to vanish those same plants.

Overall, a simple increase in coins is not a solution. Doing so would only cover up the real issues. After all even in a 12 v. 12 match zombies still have a favorable advantage. So filling the uneven teams by offering more coins would do little to make a difference.

In summary

1) Plants and Zombie payouts are nearly identical. Though perhaps a small coin reward could be added for unsuccessful defenses. It only looks like more since zombies almost always win.

2) Zombies gain the advantage to win partially due to being able to summon zombies, thus increasing their numbers to uneven proportions. Summon zombies should therefore not count toward capture.

3) The other advantage zombies gain is due to the unwillingness of plants to physically defend the objective. This could be solved by increasing the size of the objective for plants or for both teams to allow more freedom in defending. (And require the zombies take more effort eliminating foes before capturing)

As for the players unwillingness to play as plants, that isn't something that can be forced on players. Granted teams would be even if players didn't quit after being placed on plants. Though, I would also bet that winning/coins is not the only incentive to play as zombies though thats for another post.

Edit: Fixed math error in the coin calculation.