@stukapooka I'd be happy with Acorn/Oak being a slightly different version of the Imp/Mech and take the team play away. I do like the team idea, but it doesn't work out that well. Make the Mech like it was in GW2 where it didn't regen health since's it's a machine (although it can be healed), and make Oak able to regen as one difference between them. There's no reason they can't make a 'mech' for both teams while making them different but fun and balanced in their own ways, which is a huge point of the games in the first place!
As for the Cadet, I love her the most out of the new characters, but maybe take away the station idea entirely and replace it with the ability to call down a crater maker attack from a station in orbit like calling in an airstrike or something from other games. Then we'd only have to balance the Acorn/Oak with the Imp/Mech for the transform classes. It would certainly fix some of the ways mechs feel so meh in BfN.
I do give them credit for trying something new with the team classes, and if not for how it slammed into the Imp/Mech and pushed it aside, along with the balance issues they've given us, I do like the concepts. But as you said it's hard to make work and have needed more adjustments than almost any other character in BfN. It may be best to scrap it and move on while keeping the new characters as I love them both. I was ok with the horde characters at first, but I spent coins to max them out just so I could stop playing them. They're just not that fun and feel exactly like the filler they are. Don't bring these back in a new game!
Torchwood is pretty cool, but I love the idea of the Acorn/Oak and am happy with the Giga-Torchwood being a boss without the mini version.
If they really wanted to keep Engineer as he is in BfN, I'd say to replace the speed pad as it's not that useful anyway, separate the ammo replenishment idea from the turret and let us place an ammo crate that can be shot and has limited uses before it runs out and need to be placed again to replace the speed pad, make the turret just shoot and not refill ammo, and change the primary to not be so obnoxious to play against; it's especially bad on that first point in Turning Point. But, I'd rather go back to the GW1 or GW2 engineer or maybe use aspects of several of them. I don't feel that having a drone while the Pirate also does, really hurts anything.
The PvE zones do have the same flow, this may be why Plant Town Center is the best by a wide margin and the rest were still fun, but not as good. I'd like to see reasons to go back, more robust quests, more difference between how they flow, and other new ideas to make them more long lasting to enjoy. I do love looking for the hidden things and the puzzles in BfN.
@stukapooka For the Cadet, that's why I mentioned just taking the station away and give her that air strike like ability where she can call down a crater maker from orbit that does heavy damage and traces a path on the ground (not steered by the player, just an automatic line of damage) before going away to replace station inflation. I enjoy Cadet on her own just fine, and this way we could get that crater maker ability in a form similar to Butter Barrage from GW2, although instead of a big AoE, it would be a smaller AoE that would draw a line from the target point and then end after a short time.
My biggest complaint about Electric Slide and Rose for that matter, is they both have abilities that make them so annoying to fight against, and especially with the upgrade that makes them heal as well. Absolutely awful to deal with. I still find it crazy that they made Rose more annoying than she can be in GW2!
I'd be cool with teleporters coming back on TT maps. the BfN TT maps are too narrow so I can see why they were taken out, but the maps shouldn't be that narrow anyway, so fix that and make teleporters a thing again. I miss the big flank fights we had in GW and GW2, so much more fun than always being on the cart or the point.
For the PvE stuff, they reduced the types of AI mobs far too much; no back up dancers or vampire zombies as just 2 examples. They need to use a larger variety of AI enemies to spice the free roam regions up and get rid of the wildflowers and TV heads as they are annoying and actually ruin the normal dynamic of how the basic AI are supposed to work. They should also make the spawns less predictable and add more sudden events to add excitement to the regions.
@Iron_Guard8The space cadet idea is really fun and would give the zombie a variation of corns air strike without just ripping it off.
They somehow made rose even more aggravating to fight in bfn as combination of everything people hated about her seperate abilities and variants and I'm impressed.
Bfn maps are just really bad and too narrow to the point where flanking is pointless and the size of the maps doesn't benefit snipers. The sprinting sections also make you realize that no combat happens when moving from point to point unless a plant chooses to stay back and die.
Teleporters in gw1 maps helped reduce the chance of getting sniped on the way to the objective and some of them cut the travel time by almost 75%. In gw1 they were even in 2 of the final objectives as rewards for engineers who got through the bombardment from the ai artillery. Heck playing through pc on private play remastered and the defenders there in gw2 actually try to engage the enemy past the point by rushing to engage them head on.
I'm gonna say it: payload isn't fun and was a gimmicky ending minigame for a reason as it forces players to funnel on one objective for the entire game rather than think strategically and those matches always devolved into chili beans bombing the carts for team kills and this isn't tf2 where spies can disable enemy defenses being prepared for a push to help there teams, engineers can constantly move teles to help heavies reach tje front line faster, and being near the cart actually rewards attackers with health and ammo. (even worse since spawnables can push anyway).
Ive already explained why the lack of spawnables seriously hurts the game.
