Interesting Stats
Some metrics that I've considered and heard nobody else mention. PSN trophies are very telling, sometimes. BfN has a set of trophies earned by 200 vanquishes as certain characters. Listed are ...
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@spIash_damageSome of those surprise me! I had thought Brainz was used very little at first & engineer a lot more. I think I'm right in saying though (please correct me if I'm wrong!) that the 200 vanquishes don't have to be player vanquishes? So it's also possible that the plant statistics are higher at the moment because a lot of players got a good % of their 200 vanquishes in town, which was released earlier & used characters easiest for large numbers of AIs, maybe explaining low stats for cactus for example.
It will be interesting to see if & how those stats change over time.
The top 3 tell you all you need to know about who needs nerfed, and other than the pea shooter, why they are in fact nerfing them.
My explanation for the top 4:
1. The 200 Vanquishs includes bots.
I'd guess for most of the the top 4 that the majority actually are bots.
2. The reason Peashooter is at the top is bc he is who the game starts you as. There is probably a large number of players who just don't switch to anybody else for the first day or two.
3. The first time your average player switches characters, they are probably going to pick one of the 3 new characters from either plants or zombies. This would lean more heavily towards the plants because the zombies would require a player to figure out how to switch teams. So the 3 new plants take up the 2-4 ranks. NightCap, Acorn, Snap-Dragon
4. NightCap and Acorn are above Snap-Dragon because they are easier to pick up and therefore easier for newbies to reach the 200 kills quickly.
Enjoy my rational analysis? It's not being OP that puts them at the top of this list. It's just the logical path things would follow.
Now that I'm reading back through the comments, I see @tristkiss said this exact same thing in fewer words. So bravo tristkiss.
@ToastedSarnie I thought about posting this myself. But what you just said popped into my mind before posting. It's that those 200 vanquishes don't necessarily mean that they were players.
The second thing is, town-center got released before weirding woods. And players in general, probably including yourself xD, prefer playing plants more. Perhaps they lost interest in the PvE segment, or they felt like they wanted to unlock Plants customizations more than zombies'. After all, the plants' rewards do seem more appealing for characters people will most likely play. Zombies side (All-star, Engineer skins). Both All-Star/Engineer are unpopular in general.
Proof?
People who defeated (Olds Cool) 45.2 % vs (Dreadwood) 21.9 %
What that means is, less than half the players who defeated Olds Cool decided to do weirding woods and finish the main zombies quest. Were some people unaware that they added more quests? or is it just pure un-interest in the zombies side? Or perhaps those players have quit the game altogether and moved on to other games, forgot about PvZBFN... Do you blame them? xD;
It also means that more than half of the players skipped Town Center altogether or haven't finished it. Or maybe, people who bought PvZBFN weren't aware of the game requiring PlayStation Plus. So even though they "own" the game, they were unable to play it. Or maybe they just wanted to play the game "later" when the game is actually polished.
Building (Pots) 32 % vs (Bots) 9.3 %. (I dunno what to make of that... But I assume it has to do with Town-Center's potted plants? Weirding Woods didn't have bots after all. Or the game's pre-loading lobby? I've never been there) (It also shows you how some people swear by playing plants all the time, they exist in many lobbies, they play plants, switch teams if they were zombies or just quit altogether if they can't play what they want which usually ruins matches' balance)
*Disclaimer: The % mentioned in this post reflect what I see on PS4 of the time of this post. So if you checked this 100 years later, please understand that.*
*In the link below, you have to use your mouse cursor to see the % of the game's trophies as we see it on PS4*
https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/9600-plants-vs-zombies-battle-for-neighborville
- @GammaX6 I love the disclaimer!! I can't remember who, sorry, but someone pointed out that Weirding Woods is the 2nd area & we've skipped over zombie town which is likely to be (hopefully!) a little easier. I know for me it's a combination of being stuck on wretched pirate ops & battle chests along with wishing I hadn't rushed the plant town quests because I really enjoyed them! I do play all the zombie lobbies unless I see plants has fewer players but like you say, I know plenty who'll switch to their favoured side.
Apologies @Splash_damage for deviating from the point you were making about character usage - I think the %s for zombies are particularly interesting because they're more likely to have been earned in multiplayer. As you say, it'd be useful if you could see the other characters. I'd also like to know, do you think those achievements SHOULD be for player vanquishes?
