I’d do that in BL2 commonly, was on PS4 and 360 before that so I’d just dashboard out and keep it all too
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Exactly. I spent some time getting M10 weaponry (and DLC specific) at the current level, and now all that will be wasted.
To add to that point, I do not even know what I would do with more skill points, and there does not seem to be a plan to add another skill tree.
“White elephant” artifact + melee skills + Facepuncher…
That combination is awesome, especially when you get the Groundbreaker Guardian Rank skill. This combo is also very effective on other characters. It also continually leads me to use only a single weapon – the facepuncher–with my fade away FL4K.
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Yeah but they don’t play the same game as everybody else. There was a discussion in another forum on exactly this and they simply do not have the farming or gear struggle as everyday players do. They are all on PC, at the minimum are using others save files or having their gear gifted.
The streamers do not farm…
The other thing they will not do, and I was told this by a couple of them, they will not show “alternatives” or give options for the build that may still work. They only want to show the “God Roll Build” and how quickly it tears things up.
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Exactly why I didn’t even bother with the events. I started with the first event and about halfway through just felt the overwhelming pointlessness of it all. I haven’t played the game since. It’s just too obnoxious finding the guns you want with the anointments and such…even with the positive changes lately making it better. I’m not sure I will ever do it again tbh but if I do it will be once there aren’t any more level increases.
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You’ve conflated time with money. Investments of both are required to play a game, and how well either has been spent needs to be judged by somewhat different criteria.
What you’re pointing out - that a $60 game provides hundreds of hours of entertainment - shows that Gearbox respects the players’ money, by charging only 60 bucks for a product that provides many hours of entertainment. You’re right to point out that this is excellent value for money.
What the OP is complaining about is utterly unrelated to your point. The OP is not begrudging the investment of $60 made to Gearbox in September 2019 - that’s been and gone, and presumably the OP is fine with it. What the OP is begrudging is that Gearbox in August 2020 is actively encouraging people to farm for items which will almost certainly become obsolete in a matter of weeks.
This benefits Gearbox, because it increases their engagement metrics, and it brings back more people to the franchise just as a new paid DLC is about to be launched, increasing their sales potential. It’s of limited benefit for the players themselves, because the hours they spend farming for weapons this week will be largely wasted when they end up refarming those same weapons at a higher level in a few weeks.
In other words, Gearbox is currently enticing players to invest more time (not money!) into their game, even though they must know that this investment will provide greater benefit to Gearbox than it will to the players. So, the OP is right. Gearbox right now is not showing much respect for our time.
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This ^
Well said. That’s what I keep thinking when people try to defend a game, based on how much it cost to buy, even if playing the game doesn’t feel rewarding.
Yes. Exactly.
Farming an exact item in B3 can require days of play, much of which can be boring and repetitive. The reward is then only useful for a limited time, if level caps keep popping up every few months. That (to me, at least) is NOT a good way to spend time.
Compare that to borderlands science. Earning specific rewards (like an XP booster) only takes a couple of hours or so, and gives a specific benefit for a specific amount of time. You know exactly what you’re getting and you feel rewarded for your time. (And, that’s not even including the potential benefit to science.)
The point is that time is worth money. Say a person earns £10/$10 an hour, and they have to farm for 8 hours to get an item, then getting that item is worth about £80/$80 of time. If I have to invest my time into a game to gain access to something, that thing should be worth the time I put in. If it isn’t, it won’t feel rewarding.
Don’t get me wrong. If I’m enjoying the gameplay in that time, or it’s part of the game that I’d be doing anyway, that’s different (like unlocking a new level by playing earlier levels). But if I have to stop playing the game the way I want to play it, and do something else for a long time, I expect the result to be an enhancement to playing the game the way I want to, and for it to be worth the time taken.
For example, say I want a Kaosan with set parts and a set anointment, and farming it takes 3 days. If I only get to use it for 6 weeks, and then I need to re-farm it to use it in the way I want to, I might decide that that time (3 days) isn’t worth the reward.
Gearbox has to consider how much time people want to invest, before they play the way they want, NOT assume players will keep investing time indefinitely for any shiny new bauble they offer.
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Same about fixing aonints. Nothing worse than getting a nice drop but the wrong anointment (i.e., Moze getting an ASA anoint).
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I suggest the Borderlands reddit and discord channels. There are channels dedicated to trading. Just join and ask around as someone may have what you’re after, or something very close to it. And honestly, you don’t need the exact gear. I’m a Moze main. I’m running gear that has ASA nova anoints with Moze and killing everything in sight. I have a radiation Infinity in a slot and can take out mobs and some bosses (looking at you Traunt). But that’s because I learned how things (skills, anoints, etc.) interact in the game (thanks to Nootmad, Prismatic, Moze Militia discord).
Sorry, got sidetracked. My point is you don’t need the exact gear. Most of the gear that drops is useable. The trick is learning skill tree interaction, etc. That’s where these reddit and discord channels help. There are lots of people there willing to help with gear and tips/tricks.
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Why don’t you understand my answer?
“Because it takes a couple of hours to get the new skill points, and then days/weeks/months to re-farm your gear.”
It’s time consuming and boring.
This agree with to a point. Some weapons age better than others. Some that are already weak simply can’t keep up after a couple of levels.
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But hear me out, you’re choosing to farm. A level cap with the DLC just gives you incentive to play through the DLC with your existing character. With this existing character, you get to use new weapons as you out level your current gear and obtain new gear.
See, this whole “takes hours to farm muh god roll” doesn’t work because you don’t need to do it. You’re choosing to. If that’s what you like, that’s what you’ve signed up for.
Most people play for content, and not to run on a hamster wheel.
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I don’t understand because this has happened in Borderlands every single time there was a level cap increase. It’s what happens in Borderlands. We’re not even a year past release, yeah? The game is still in active support, with sizeable content still being delivered.
If your issue is that it happens too often, I understand that, but I just don’t share that opinion. In my opinion the smaller jumps means weapons are less likely to be invalidated by the level cap increase, reducing the need for farming. It’s a good compromise - again, just my opinion - between increasing the level cap and invalidating players’ farmed weapon caches.
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The low retention rate for thus game shows they are doing lots of things wrong. It is likely too late to turn it around too.
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I’m not sure what you mean by this. It’s a co-op RPG with the majority of folks playing it single player.
You buy it, complete the content, and leave, like with any other game. If you enjoy it, you come back. If new content comes out, you come back. If you own it, you can come play it any time you’d like.
What’s this ‘retention’ you have in mind? It’s not an MMO, ya know? We aren’t paying a subscription to play it. They have sold a lot of copies. They already have the money. Retention isn’t the angle gearbox is focused on. That’s why content updates are far and few between. And that’s why the game surges when those updates come out. And that’s why it dies back down after people complete the content.
They are clearly aiming for retention with these events, free updates and such.
I think they’re more focused on trying to get new players rather than retention.
I think a bit of both, actually. I think their main focus is on new players, but I do think they worry about retention, too, because I’m sure there are many players like myself who tend to never get back on a game if I take too long of a break. I never dug into OP levels on BL2 because I took too long of a break, and never got back in until new content (Commander Lilith dlc) came out, and I’ve got a stack of games that I never got around to playing the DLCs because I took a break. This game has managed to keep me focused so if and when they do come out with more content, I’ll be more likely to buy it.
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This. If the RNG weren’t so bad with all of the options that makes it so difficult to get the right gear, then farming wouldn’t be so bad. But overall, I hate farming. I’d prefer grinding, where even making a small bit of progress is desirable over a RNG-filled mess that has to be navigated every level increase.
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Retention can mean keeping your player base playing your game.
This gives the obvious economic advantage of your player base not playing your competitor’s game.
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But you already bought the game so they aren’t making money off of you playing it.