I think a possible set of improvements they could make would be taking a bit from both iterations for the objective collection, and then bring back the Vehicle objective with some significant changes to its kit and playstyle.
First off, slow down the Seed spawn rate. Currently, it is way too fast, barely giving enough time after each fight for the losing team to respawn, depush lanes, and get to the next Seed. This is part of what makes the map so snowbally, because you’re always so time-crunched to make up lost ground. Slow it down a whole lot.
Second, weaken the Shamblers that guard the Seeds and make 3 Seeds spawn at once. Collecting 3 Seeds gets you a Garden Terror (Vehicle), and because there’s 6 Seeds total in the first 2 rounds, it’s possible for both teams to have Terrors at the same time, just like before the rework.
Garden Terrors should be modified so the “Chase the Terror” game, just running away from altercations when you’re piloting the Terror, isn’t a viable strategy.
- Terrors should lose Sprint. No more throwing down a Queen’s Curse (the Polymorph) in a chokepoint and just hightailing it out of there. You’re big and slow, stand and fight.
Perhaps as compensation for losing Sprint, Terrors could gain a short burst of movement speed from attacking enemies, to make them more aggressive?
- Terrors’ health should decay over time, probably at about 0.83% of its max health per second (which would take 2:00 minutes to decay if it takes no other damage). Overgrowths (the potted plants) tie into this.
- Overgrowths should go dormant if the Terror that planted them leaves their radius, though their health will continue to decay while dormant. This means that throwing down a plant and then bailing no longer gives any value. If you aren’t staying with the Overgrowth, it’s basically good for nothing more than blocking skillshots.
From there, either bring back Overgrowth’s damage or cause it to reduce buildings’ armor while strangling them. Additionally, Overgrowths should halt the health decay of allied Terrors within their radius, meaning you’re further encouraged to stick close to and defend your Overgrowth instead of bailing on it.