Why do mods nerf instead of buff?

Pvz1 modding takes the exact opposite approach. (As a viewer of RCCH I've seen brutal mode, brutal mode EX, and brutal mode EX+). The buffs for plants are HEAVILY compensated by the extreme buffs given to zombies. Since the game has a much more limited set of plants and mechanics, people had to be very creative.

Its crazy how most nerfs make me like plants more, like how eletric blueberry went from a boring broken plant to more fun in eclise. Also most nerfs imo make plants more fair

It's easier to nerf 5 plants than buff 105.

I've been thinking a lot, and I figured out the best option for everyone. It's a win-win solution that I'm surprised no one has thought of. buff only the plants I like

While I agree that super strong plants like Winter Melon need nerfs in mods, I feel like sometimes it just gets taken way too far, to the point where the plant becomes useless and you might as well not have it in the game at all.

“ 8:30 Mods are played by people familiar with the base game” Me, who has never played the base game but has tried multiple mods because I don’t like the existence of premium plants:

Even PvZ1 mods nerf plants too. Scaredy Shroom and partially Jalapeño got slightly nerfed in Hard Mode. Scaredy Shrooms are no longer vulnerable when hiding, and Jalapeño’s damage was slightly decreased. Those “nerfs” can actually have their advantages. A major example of a nerf in a PvZ1 mod with absolutely no advantage is Puff Shroom and Sea Shroom in PvZ Brutal Mode. They disappear after a while, and cannot be replenished unlike PvZ2. Although they can drop sun upon dying.

One thing I don't like about this kind of balancing is the price, if you are going to make it expensive its because you know its strong enough to be worth the price, if you're going to keep the original/cheaper price, you must nerf it so isn't just broken due to being strong and cheap, but if you are making it expensive and nerf it you are making the plant bad and not worth it Edit: with some exceptions

It's hard to say what should or shouldn't be buffed or nerfed and it comes down to the way the creators wish to make something and what people enjoy. The binding of isaac had many changes to a bunch of different items in repentance and they are still being changed. I think it comes down to what the creator wants the game to be like and what the players enjoy. The best way to go about it is just communicating to find out what should be changed.

Also if you have to buff 70+ plants instead of nerfing 9 to 5 plants it lessens the workload.

It's more tolerable when a mod nerfs a plant you don't want nerfed than if the devs do it since it is a lot easier to just ignore a mod you don't like,

I feel like the simple truth about nerfs are that they usually feel bad. If there’s a thing you really like using, that’s really powerful, and you can’t use it anymore, a player that still wants to use that option is going to be disappointed by it. Not to say that nerfs are bad, but that players complaining about them simply don’t like their favorites being made worse.

Poor little Timmy, dude. He just wanted to use wintermelons

As someone working on a mod team; it’s so much simpler for people. You recognize why say in third strike, for an example of a very unbalanced game, why Chun li having a kick that’s incontestable, unpunishable and combos into a super that does half your health while being able to have 2 of those supers ready is op. But if you literally delete her from the game then you’re still not making anyone pick Sean more who’s so bad you can combo him when he hits you. It’s a lot easier to say what’s not allowed to have in a game than what you can, but the problem is most of the time the problem is the bottom tiers. The klobbs always gonna be atrocious even if you could quad wield it, bowser in melee has 3 moves that aren’t considered atrocious while being way too slow etc. When a game is very imbalanced its 9/10 the lower half. And usually if you’re to cut them from the select screen you’d get a very balanced game. Melee realistically has 14 viable characters out of 23 for example. So that’s…bad. Only about half the roster is viable. But if the bad characters didn’t exist you’d just have a roster of 14 with one guy lingering in viability. Which that’s a very good statistic. People just see the common stuff and want it to be less common and the less common stuff to be more common. But it’s so much better to find someone or something in the top 5 and draw the line there and ensure everything is at least around that level. That way you’re ok with something being a little better than average or worse but won’t deal with something really bad or op. People will make the underdogs popular if they’re under picked if they’re at least viable.

I would say to nerf AND buff, because nerfing alone isn't gonna make me wanna use garbage plants like pea-nut. Also nerfing everything to the ground (like making banana launcher cost 1000) isn't gonna make me creative either. It's gonna make me pick the most boring option (that being repeater) because it's consistent. plants that needs buffs are for an example grave buster, and peanut (which's both a bad wall and a bad attacker.) Also the issue isn't with the sun producers, it's with the sun costs. There are plants, which are WAY to cheap for what they do like witch hazel. (Like literally how is witch hazel and hocus crocus even in the same league?)

Rest In Peace little timmy 😔 Press F to pay respects

i'm not opposed to most nerfs but one trend i've noticed(personally i have only played altverz but this seems to be present in other mods as well) is when plants get a significant price increase while the sun meta changes to 25 sun without significant changes anywhere else. i feel like a big victim of this is altverz laser bean, which i have kind of just never used. it's just too expensive and does too little unless there is a huge number of zombies, which there usually isn't. and since one laser bean alone can barely handle a regular zombie, i just prefer to use bloomerang. it's faster to get on the field and does more in the early game while usually doing well enough in the late game.

I'm pretty casual, I'd say, and to me, levels are most fun when I don't need to run the perfect strategy. That's why Eclise alienates me, when there are levels where you need to bait Octos into throwing their ammo just to dig up the plant at the right moment, things are not fun anymore, at least IMO.

F in the chat for Gloom Vine and Missile Toe on RFL

God I love playing Reflourished so much, but some of the nerfs darn make some plants just seem really not... worth using. Being someone who's not the most expert-y at the game (I'm more into PvZ1), It's pretty weird to have Winter Melon have a slower recharge and attack speed, alongside the cost raise, making it way less reliable to use for chill damage, and honestly kinda outclassed by Cold Snapdragon (Haven't reached Snow Pea, but I've heard it was buffed from PvZ1 to have spread chill).