New Free Roam Region Ideas

This post will be focused on me presenting ideas for free roam regions for the next game. Also, despite the lack of activity here these days, barring a few of us (I do most of my stuff for the forums at work from my lab desk XD), if other folks have ideas, please post away! I don’t post as much to the Reddit, although I do watch there a lot, as it can be hard to get much done there with all the memes and such. Most of the bashing over the games has died down thankfully, although it’s still a thing, which isn’t helpful at all. I want EA to see we want a new game and the more united we are on this the better! None of the games are perfect, but as someone who tries to point out the good and the bad of anything, even stuff I love like GW2 (which is not flawless, regardless of how much I enjoy it), it can feel odd when people act like any game is perfect. You can enjoy something and still realize its flaws while conversely admitting when something you aren’t a fan of has some merit.

The idea I have for the new free roam regions was partially covered before, but to go into more detail:

• Both sides will have one terminal to visit these; Penny in the plants base, Zomblimp in the zombie base. I like the separate methods to get to the regions in BfN but if the game lasts a long time and gets a lot of regions, it could get cluttered in a hurry!
• A simple menu will let you scroll through the currently available free roam zones from a list, using keyboard and mouse or controller. One button will launch that region, another will let you look at your current stats for that region, and other info, so you can decide if you want to go there before committing to launch.
• When a region is added, it will have plant and zombie versions of that region. However, unlike Town Center from BfN, it will have a different layout, and no shared progress; only the theme is shared. This is largely so the art department can work on a consistent style to make it easier to add, and also so both sides can get that theme going for new cosmetics, stuff for their personal neighborhood, and summonables.
• Each region will have unique currency for each side that is only for that region. It will be used to purchase the customizations and building s from that region, and to unlock the regions unique summonables as well. Note: if using the crafting idea to make summonables, free roam regions will drop general purpose material as well as their own unique material used only for their summonables. May also be used to unlock themed variants or new characters as well; most will be sold directly from Rux.
• You will be able to exchange coins for regional currencies and vice-versa. If crafting is a thing, you’d be able to exchange coins and regional currency for those as well, but not vise-versa.
• To have longer and more engaging story lines but without making them feel grindy or tedious.
• To use ideas from all PvZ games, but especially PvZ2 as that’s the longest running and still actively supported game of the franchise, for the settings.
• There will be matchmaking available so you can help or be helped by other players. You can set yourself to invite only, friends only, or open if you host a session, or can search for them just like Ops in GW and GW2. This will be especially useful for the boss hunts you open later on. You’ll be able to set these up for specific regions or any, just like GW and GW2 ops again.

New region ideas:

Ancient Zgypt. Sent back in time to deal with the other side sending their minions back in time, you will explore the danger and grandeur of Ancient Zgypt! Work for Doctor Zomboss to awaken the power of the mummies to help fight those pesky plants for brainz, or as an elite L.E.A.F. agent, Crazy Dave has dispatched you to stop those zombies! Both sides will explore the shifting sands, delve into pyramids, avoid traps, discover that the gnomes have always been watching us, find hidden treasure, solve the riddle of the Sphinx and other puzzles, and unlock Zgypt themed rewards.

The zombies work from their ‘zecret hidden baze’ that is rather obvious and out in the open, to advance Dr. Zomboss’s plan to awaken all the mummies. You’ll have to deal with plants that are trying to stop you to prove your worthy of the ancient Zgyptian mummies (zombies) help in your fight against the plants for brainz. Eventually, you will have to take on the Sun Pharaoh and her court in the final boss fight of the region! You will earn mummy wrappings as currency (if crafting is used, there will be some kind of obvious difference between the currency and any crafting material so they are easy to differentiate), to unlock the Zgyptian version of summonable zombies, Zgypian themed customizations, and the Archeologist Scientist variant (note, this could change to a different zombie variant as we already have this one in GW and GW2, but it fits the theme). Once you feel prepared and have assembled a team, spend those wrappings or some other special item to summon the Divine Sun Pharaoh, which is a variant of the sunflower queen, in a boss hunt for extra rewards!

The L.E.A.F. agents work with the ancient plants of the region from their garden base on the Nile to thwart Dr. Zomboss and keep those mummies sleeping. Keep those tombs sealed by keeping the zombies out and away from the plant bases that protect the landmarks and the Zyptians themselves. Some of the mummies are of course already roaming the sands and beyond and the plants have to deal with them. Earning scarabs as the regional currency for their work, and acquiring any crafting material if used, the plants will unlock some leafy allies, and of course the Sun Pharaoh variant as well (same notes as for the zombie archeologist). Finally, the plants will have to face off with the mummified gargantuar boss to bring the region’s story to an end. For their boss hunt they have to deal with the zombified Sphinx!

Prehistoric Peril. Why is Crazy Dave so interested in a time before tacos? Dr. Zomboss must know! Dinosaurs roam the Earth, a danger for both plants and zombies, and yes, even back in the age when no one even knew what a taco was, the gnomes leave their mark on the landscape. Explore jungles, swamps, and caves and unlock those themed rewards while doing so!

As an agent of L.E.A.F., your goal is simple, stop the first zombies from spreading beyond the caves they spawned in way back in time so they never can threaten Suburbia in the first place! Seeking out a cure from various ancient plants that dwell back in this time, you will earn amber to spend on primal consumables, unlock the Primal Sunflower variant, and of course, customizations. You will take on the first zombie as the final boss fight and realize that things aren’t always as they seem…(maybe gnomes are involved, or maybe it’s something else). Take on the massive zombie-saurus Rex for the boss hunt, but be prepared before taking the massive undead lizard on!

Dr. Zomboss sends his zombies to gather intel (kind of an oxymoron I know) on what Dave is up too. As a zombie, you will gather the dinosaur scales currency to unlock new consumables, customizations, and unlock the Paleontologist Scientist variant. Once you have gathered enough info on what Dave is up too, attack his base that is making a cure for zombies, where you must defeat the Primal plant bosses (several powerful but not boss level plants together as a boss fight). Somewhere deep in the jungle, the zombies can awaken and defeat the dreaded Prehistoric Palm tree in a boss hunt!

I’ll have other regions to add to this post as future posts as well, but wanted to set a kind of ground floor. Note that both sides play the same basic story arc in each zone, but from the opposite angle, and I intentionally made Dave the instigator in the prehistoric zone to avoid the typical plots of ‘bad guys act, good guys react’ kind of thing, as it helps mix things up, and add some different dynamics.

With new free roam regions would come new maps for the other modes too. Quite likely based on the situation in these regions, to add that extra connection for more immersion, and so all those cool new art assets and AI for Ops could be used thematically at the same time!