Some thoughts on GW1 & GW2

@Final_Zidane

Thanks for your input. We agree on a lot of things here and I hope Popcap takes all this to heart for the next PvZ shooter. A couple of things I wanted to comment on from your post:

• I get what you mean that the Zombie controlled levels are gloomier than what we are normally used to but I also feel they have intentionally lightened the mood with humor; the disco diner in Zombopolis, the silly zoo in the park area of Zomburbia, and the various signs and funny adverts all over the zombie controlled levels add some levity while the general mood is made more zombie-like. I do agree that the plant controlled levels feel more cheerful overall though. I think more of a mix would be great. I never really found even Zombopolis to be that gloomy thanks to the game’s humor but the plant focused levels are unquestionably brighter and more cheerful.
• There were some challenges in GW1 that simply never worked. The one I’m thinking of off the top of my head was vanquish a certain number of plants after warping as a scientist without being vanquished. Even when I did it far in excess of that requirement (like vanquish 5 and getting a 12 vanquish streak after warping) it never worked. The challenge stars were almost required for ones like that. Also like you pointed out they often led to you playing in a counterproductive manner. I never liked the challenge system in GW1 much.
• It’s been 3 years but I swear GW1 launched with coin packs (at least on PC where the game launched later than consoles). GW2 it feels built in but the packs weren’t available for a couple of months. The sticker packs in GW2 are more expensive for sure; the basic reinforcement pack is 1k in GW1 and 2.5k in GW2 as a quick example. I agree that coins should have more weight. I don’t want to see basic packs cost 60k in the next game.
• I also hit on Rux and the portal grind. I love the portals and Rux is a cool idea but stringing out the content and giving us such limited access to the stickers each week is bothering many people, even as they still play but in ever decreasing numbers. Honestly announcing Frontline Fighters as the last major DLC probably made some people turn away. People are still playing even on the ‘dead’ PC community (which is annoying when people claim this as it’s far from dead but people thinking it is keeps some people from getting into the game) but knowing no new major DLC is coming has put a damper on things.
• The leveling thing I noticed too but as I play every character I didn’t really see this as a problem. I do focus on some more than others of course. I wouldn’t have an issue with a hybrid of leveling any class with any variant based on an xp instead of a challenge system. Hitting max rank wasn’t really onerous though and you get 20k coins every time you rank up a character. Your idea for GW3 is pretty cool. I do the quests from the board every time they are up already so an additional incentive would make them even more attractive to the community as a whole.
• I never really agreed with the Unicorn Chomper limitation. I have it as I maxed my rank in GW1 but my friend had issues with his account and GW1 so he only got max rank via using the unicorn chomper in events. I do like a loyalty bonus in a game series like this but perhaps something else would be better (bonus coins perhaps?)
• A common complaint has been the legendary stickers, especially the characters. I was fine with things being super rare at worst and while I love some of these legendary hats and characters, I also sympathize with people frustrated with their inability to get these stickers. People have other responsibilities and even playing as much as I do, which is quite a lot, it took me a lot of coins and Infinity Time runs to grab these. Perhaps remove legendaries from packs and have them only for sale at Rux or some other store to reduce the RNG in the new game.
• A universal sticker pack would be cool. Even if as you say it’s expensive. Holiday events are especially difficult for those that have to travel to be with family so giving those packs or at least having them available for longer would be a nice change.
• For solo play I’ve noticed that too. With normal mixed teams the AI only uses basic variants. I’d like to either be able to select or randomize the bots in these matches to give more variety and a team that more closely matches PvP. I also would love more story style quests to play and more activities in the backyard. We had some and many are funny (Grumpy Stumpy was a personal favorite), but more would be a great addition to the game.
• I like a mix of updates and giving us large and small ones give us goals to reach and to keep people playing without it being a drag or feeling too grindy. We had a couple small ones but not enough DLC overall. More stuff is good!

Some additional things that I thought about since posting the original post here:

• The potted plants in GW2 are more survivable than in GW1. This is a solid change as I burned through a ludicrous number of potted plants in those 2 ops last night AND I was healing them as a Sunflower! They simply died far too easily in GW1.
• The trials of Gnomus area is a very interesting and great looking area but it’s seriously underutilized. I haven’t been down there since unlocking both characters as I have no reason to; I opened all the chests, beat all the trials, and unlocked the characters so there’s nothing else there. I would love to have a reason to go down there now. I’ve mentioned this before but it’s obvious a lot of work went into this place and it’s a shame that I no longer have a reason to go down there.
• And this one has been mentioned many times and while only a quality of life feature is a huge one; please Popcap, make customizing and selecting characters simpler and faster. Scrolling through so much stuff as a single column is a major pain. Streamline this process in the new game!