Ops pot positioning comparison: Gw2 vs Bfn
An analysis of pot positioning in gw2 and bfn. Point B from Sandy sands in gw2. Has 10 pots total. One right behind the garden which is viable for a heal flower or a close range pot like ice s...
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I have noticed that the positioning for Pots and Bots have seemed different in BFN as opposed to GW2. I find this hard to explain, but basically I find that more of the Pots and Bots are in awkward positions and are harder to utilise. I do not notice this only in Ops, but also in Turf Takeover.
For example, I notice that less Pots and Bots are located near or at the objective generally, you may see some behind, in front or to the side of the objective, but some of them are hidden and are unlikely to really ever get much use. In Peachy District in the Museum objective, there is a Pot location to the left and right side of the objective. I actually barely knew about them for a while after I started playing the game, and on top of that, I almost never remember that those locations actually exist, but it sort of makes sense as those areas of the map are quite rarely accessed overall, so it may not even be worth placing a Pot there unless you want safer healing or something.
In all modes, and not just Ops, I know for a fact that Pot and Bot positioning is important for strategy. For example, why would you place a Heal Flower or Dr. Heals at the front of an objective where enemies can easily shoot it down, or why should you place a Bonk Choy or Boxer Bot in the open where it can just be avoided or shot down? In each map, the Pot and Bot locations should be discussed before a map is released, it would help Pots or Bots to become more effective.
Also, just on a similar note, the mobile summonables and their summon piles are not really a concern, these summon piles can mostly be located close to where the attackers spawn and as long as they are easy enough to find and utilise, those summonables can find their way around, unlike the immobile Pots and Bots.
@TheSprinter85The attackers are definetly better in bfn.
In turf the positions are just so weird in bfn with how big the capture points are like in peachy district with one on the first point behind a statue that can be avoided entirely by attacking fron the other side. Compare this to zomburbia where the point has a bot placement meant for healers or airstrikes which can directly be seen by attackers yet has to be neutralized to make the point easier to capture as it cannot be easily shot from afar.
Bfn turf in general has flank routes that are almost never used as there's no real point to them and you rarely have to defend them as attackers never take them and the pots get steamrolled if you do like the museum you mentioned. Even in maps like Seeds of times first point has 2 pots on each side where ai ar programmed to go and they cover areas where teleporter flankers could come from even if I believe that point is bad.
Bfn brought back finale pots since gw1 but they're much worse. In gw1 on main street pots were put inside the final area to stop zombies from getting on the platform to place z4 and stop ai from entering the building. Compare this to the finale of preserve pastures which has two in the barns that don't even attack the main path and will hardly ever be useful as all the zombies including ai will be shoving the gargs along and wont care about the buildings insides.
BfN pots and bots have a lot of shortcomings, and positioning is a huge part of that. I do like seeing them back on the final points like back in GW, but indeed, they need better positioning to work well.
Pots and bots are vulnerable as they can't move, so even if they will be vulnerable at long range in certain spots, putting them where they are hard to shoot but also can only attack enemies that are right in their face, isn't the best idea. The addition of the Wildflower and TV Head AI that shoot as their main attack as opposed to melee or self detonation, changes the dynamic drastically and with the lack of variety of pots and bots and their accuracy problems, they are more of an afterthought rather than an important part of an integrated defense.
- @Iron_Guard8 It's nice to have them back in the finales as gw2 only had attackers in seeds of time as 2's finales mainly focused on team vs team like on moon base z.
It's insane that popcap added an ai that has range, high damage melee, and an explosive capable of one showing weaker pots and thought that was a balanced attacker in comparison to the pot defenders.@stukapooka we bring up the TV Head and Wildflower a lot, but I feel we have too. Before BfN, I had my favorites and least favorites like everyone does, but I never outright despised any character or variant, broken or not, until BfN. There's no question that the excessive number of Toxic Peas and Super Commandos in GW, and E-Pea and Toxic Brainz players in GW2 (among some others) certainly make me dislike certain types of players, but not the characters themselves. In BfN we not only have the TV Head and Wildflower AI, but also the characters based on them, and I would argue that they took Engineer from one of my favorites to one of my least favorites with how they are in BfN as well.
There's so much to love in PvZ, in every game, BfN included, but these characters are less fun to play as and against than even the most egregious playstyles and characters from the other 2 shooters, and when you add on the lack of customizations that TV Head and Wildflower suffer from, they really need to go.
