Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted - What you missed at PAX

In the interview, the developers mentioned how this remaster has a heavy emphasis on preserving the gameplay fans loved in the original. And for the single player campaigns this is a very smart strategy. But for VS mode specifically there is one thing I’m hoping they’ll bend the rules of this approach on. Doom Shroom is banned virtually universally in competitive play of this mode due to how many zombies can be wiped out for such little sun cost; in even mildly competent hands this plant can screen wipe the zombie team with very little weaknesses. In fact, Doom Shroom is often banned even in casual circles that play this mode. Please consider raising the VS sun cost for this plant substantially, it’s an easy fix that can only help the game by making the nuke plant a much bigger commitment for the plant team while allowing the zombie team some much needed breathing room to get their strategies rolling. Many other plants in this mode already have sun prices that greatly differ from what they have in adventure mode so these types of balance adjustments were commonplace even early back in the game’s lifespan. 

There are other units I believe that could use sun price adjustments in VS mode, but I have outlined those in my own forum post here for Replanted and I believe Doom Shroom is by far the most in need of an adjustment out of them all. Thank you for the work you do for this game and have a nice week.

Please, don't start on the Nerf/Balance sheet, on this one! It's not an MMO, but a fun game, meant to be enjoyed at casual players' leisure.

If the compulsive-obsessive Multiplayer/pvp peeps take issue with an in-game feature or mechanism, they can perfectly reach a consensus for avoid using it, much like "superweapons" in certain "C&C titles"; or the "limited/ban" lists in "Yugi-oh tournaments".

It's not okay for a small part of the community, ie the consolekids and the PVPmongers, to drag down everybody else, just because they lack "copium" or self-restraint, to abide by community rules; *made up ones*, at that!

Let us all enjoy the game, as it was originally intended, please. There are few things worse in the entire gaming scene, other than NERF this, NERF that, BALANCE this, RUIN that etc.

Imagine thinking that MMOs are the only genre of videogame that needs balance. If anyone lacks “copium” here it’s you, because you’re unwilling to give up the tiniest and most insignificant slice of your past to let the game reach even greater heights. The community doesn’t reach decisions lightly, there’s a lot of thought and trial and error behind every suggestion. Saying that it’s compulsory to merely want every unit to be legal in the PvP mode lacks any sort of vision or self-awareness. It ever occur to you that the original VS had nerfs and buffs for balancing reasons too? Why do you think some units have different prices than in adventure mode? Because it wouldn’t be as fun if it were 100% true to the original at the cost of the balance. Truth is, the casual side would be just as happy with a Doom price hike as the hardcores, and that’s because no one likes having to play around Doom, not even casuals. The “casuals” you mentioned who would get upset over this are completely imaginary because if they get angry at such a specific and beneficial change then they are in fact not really casuals. No one, casual or not, actually consistently plays VS mode with Doom-Shroom enabled because it becomes apparent to them so incredibly quickly that using such an overpowered unit is unfun for both sides. It makes victory feel cheap for plants and it’s a complete headache for the zombies. 

So yes, I do in fact think that the PvP community knows what’s best for the PvP mode. Changing prices in VS has zero effect on the classic single player experience that fans fell in love with, which is where authenticity should actually be the highest priority like you say. VS requires a much finer comb when remastering due to being centered around two human minds strategizing against each other, and the meta evolving in a way the original developers could have never accounted for. Doom price hike in this mode is a very minor change that helps everyone. Hardcores. Casuals. The only people it doesn’t help are the sorry select few whose nostalgia goggles are so incredibly thick that they’ve ironically lost sight of the give and take between the two factions that made the original release so great in the first place. There’s nothing to be nostalgic about when it comes to tweaking a single unit who ruined the entire mode when left unchecked. This extended to random as well, it’s not something that a mere community rule can entirely account for.

Please make Doom-Shroom more expensive. Those who want it to stay too cheap are few and greatly mistaken. If you put it to a poll, the overwhelming majority of fans would be in favor of the change. Try the unit out for yourself in the mode if necessary. The zombies can never get a word in edgewise with it around. Changing this one small thing in the one mode doesn’t remove fun, it adds it. 

Please, don't change the game! Remain true to its initial vision and gameplay implementation of it, thereof! Not only for nostalgia 's sake, but also for authenticity and preservation.

Exactly as devs stated, "it's a remaster, not a remake"! Just don't change any gameplay elements of it whatsoever, unless it is something extra in the form of added content/bonus and whatnot!

Those who want changes, they can perfectly fine decide on something by themselves; while those who wish to play the game as is, without any changes though, won't be able to be serviced, if the first group ultimately gets what they demand.

There is no need to destroy one group's fun, only to secure the other's! This is a CASUAL game, first and foremost, from an era that people didn't care for such notorious nonsense, such as BALANCE or NERF. 

**Or even better, you can add an OPTION that can please both groups, like the sliders with selected values on how many starting units you begin with, at C&C! Let the players manually decide between original values and "modified" ones (the co-op or pvp hotseat host to control).**

Once more, one change to a unit’s price is not destroying anyone’s enjoyment of the game for the reasons I outlined in my previous response. The group of people who would be outraged at this like you’re claiming is nonexistent. Balance is not some scary four-letter-word, it’s an integral part of game design and it has been for as long as game design has existed; it’s nothing new. Casuals would love this change just as much as hardcores, they hate dealing with Doom in this mode too.

But with that said, I am fine with the compromise of the player being able to adjust unit’s prices. Although again, if it can only be one way or the other for simplicity’s sake, bumping Doom-Shroom’s cost up hurts no one and is one of the most heavily requested adjustments to a mode in which the meta has ALWAYS been far removed from the developers’ original intentions, as that is simply how all multiplayer modes tend to develop. 

Great. Finding some middle ground is always the ideal solution, to almost any matter applicable whatsoever.

Everybody would be serviced this way, if the host could set an option (change pricing) right before starting the session! And this mechanism, is a staple to strategy games everywhere, too!

Being able to choose, is always a wonderful thing.