Time to deal some area of effect damage with these Pots and Bots!
Introduction
The Pea Cannon and Rocket Bot are summonable variants that can deal splash damage to enemies, but have a relatively slow fire rate. Out of all of the Pots and Bots, these would be considered as the most basic variants. The Pea Cannon shoots out a single pea at a time, while the Rocket Bot shoots out a burst of 3 rockets at a time. However, the direct damage of the Pea Cannon is higher than its splash damage, while the Rocket Bot deals the same amount of damage regardless of if it deals splash damage or not.
My Thoughts
These summonables perform quite well as they are, being quite effective against enemy groups and being able to deal some good damage, while also being the basic summonables so they are not meant to be too powerful. I would recommend either providing some more damage at the cost of a lower fire rate, or a slight health buff as they do not have that much health as of currently, and can be taken out quickly by opponents.
I would give these summonable variants an Easy difficulty to defeat. They do not have a high fire rate and they should barely pose a threat to you unless your health is already low from any source. The summonables benefit by dealing damage in groups, so when taking it out, try and keep your distance from your allies (similar with COVID) before taking it out to reduce the damage it can do to your team.
The Pea Cannon and Rocket Bot both appear in Battle for Neighborville, which I really like, and they currently have no cooldown in game. I would actually prefer the cooldown to remain that way as they are the most basic summonables. This way, it always gives players an option to place a summonable at any given time. The other reason I suggest this is because these summonables seem to have been nerfed in this game and never seem to perform that well, so they need all the help that they can get.
In A Future Shooter
I would recommend these summonable variants being in a future shooter and having a low cost, due to being the weakest Pot and Bot summonables. They could cost about 1,000 Coins each to obtain and there could be a promotion where you gain bonus Pea Cannons or Rocket Bots if you buy them in a bundle, for example, you could buy 10 for 10,000 Coins and you gain an extra 3 for free, since they are not too powerful on their own. I would not suggest any unlock cost for these summonables as they are the basic variants, and it should be quite easy to get hold of them if players desire.
Overall
Due to them being the most basic summonable variants, I would suggest making them easy to obtain in a future shooter with no unlock cost and bundle offers. They perform quite well as they are now, but I would recommend giving them more damage (but at the cost of a slower fire rate to compensate) and maybe some more health, as they do not have much health currently.
@stukapooka as for the next game. Things do look dark right now, and having heard nothing doesn't inspire confidence. BfN's fate reminds me of another fairly recent EA title: Anthem. Both games had a lot of problems, both games had massive potential despite their problems, and both were abandoned before they could reach that potential.
The fact that we have no information on a new game by now is worrying, but PvZ has been a very successful IP for years, it's why EA bought PopCap in the first place. And all 3 shooters are still playable on all platforms, even PC, which apparently has the lowest population, I can get multiplayer matches on all 3, even if it's just TT. While the bigger YouTubers have largely moved on with the lack of new content for the shooters, you can still find smaller channels like Redhead Gaming and BobBox still putting out the videos and getting views. Not as many as Zack Scott who has millions of views on many of his PvZ shooter videos, but there is an audience there. Add to that, the Reddit with several posts a day, many of which are current game play footage, and they have to know people are hungry for a new game.
They really need to get it right though, maybe they are already in progress but put the hammer down on leaks, maybe they aren't working on one right now but will do so in the future, maybe BfN was the final game, I certainly hope it isn't the last one. Despite BfN not doing all that well compared to GW and GW2, I doubt it actually lost money. The way it was handled certainly irked a lot of people though, so they need a good game and it has to be handled well. I'd hate for the series to end with BfN.
@stukapooka I'm going to guess and say yes, BfN did make money. Obviously not enough money, or it'd have lasted longer and gotten more stuff added and fixed, but I'd be surprised if it didn't make at least some profit.
As someone who loved the first 2 Dungeon Keeper games, I'm well aware of how many IPs have fared poorly here. But to my knowledge, none have comics, toys, and are still healthy money makers like PvZ2. PvZ3 was quiet for a long time before the recent re-release, and that was a good thing for the IP for sure.
I'm normally quite the pessimist, that glass is not only half empty, whatever that is in there is likely toxic, but with over 4k hours between all 3 shooters, I'm not giving up on PvZ shooters yet. Most of that is in GW2, as I like lots of PvE content so GW lags behind the other 2, but no other series, barring a couple MMOs, even come close as far as hours played and my investment and engagement is very high.
We've got off topic here a bit, but this is about the only game series I'd actively fight for like this. Normally I'd just move on into my massive Steam library or boot up GZDoom and play some old school FPS goodness, but until I know things are done here, I'm going to keep active and ready for a new PvZ shooter.
@Iron_Guard8I'm with you in hoping for another game but it's hard to when a series you genuinely enjoy ***** up so badly to the point where they may not be able to recover.
Pvz 3 thankfully got delayed but it only got delayed in the first place because fans were so adamant about their disapproval of it. Before that they had actually thought the system they were going for was ok! The early build seemed to also share bfn's problem of reworking a proven system rather than refine it. Even now the marketing for pvz3's return is very weak and popcaps twitter doesn't even acknowledge it.
Even than after pvz3 the main question is what now? Do they milk it for years down the line like pvz 2 or do they try amd bramch out the series again like the did with the shooters and heroes.
