Arms race... or arms Beta

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#1

Is arms race REALLY a new game mode… or just another way for gearbox to get its player base to test the game and their new weapon ideas to see how they perform so they don’t have to do the testing themselves?

Considering that free events with limited time loot was always a test for new weapons in the following DLC. (Example: Wedding invitation to the skull masher/unseen threat)

Considering how they did mayhem 1-3… then Mayhem 4… then mayhem 2.0 we have all been their testers. I now realize how i will enjoy borderlands in the future… the same way i enjoyed BL2 and Pre-sequal. Wait for the bundle to go onsale like the handsome jack collection… then i get to play the fully tested game with all content released. No refarming of gear at level caps… no refarming of gear because of nerfs/buffs… no new DLCs bringing out the best weapons behind a paywall… nosurprise second season passes hiding more stuff they eluded too at launch behind another paywall…
… just what games should be. I buy a game… i get to play the WHOLE/complete/finished game…

14 Likes
#3

Did you purchase after Fight For Sanctuary? Cause waiting 7 years is pretty rough. I came in 2 years late and got hit with 2 major patches and 8 new levels and 2 OP levels 5 years later so don’t count your chickens.

Jokes aside, I did wait for steam release and didn’t play until just before DLC three to spare my level cap experience being annoying, and two months later, five more levels.

At least the game hasn’t been mothballed, nor will it be until the next gen consoles are likely out and readily available for a full fiscal year.

1 Like
#4

I mean, it’s $15 for the 1st dlc. Not really gonna break the bank there

#5

Must be nice living that 1%.

1 Like
#6

What? Lol. I’m far from the ‘1%’, maybe 50%. For a luxury product, which all video games are, $15 is not very much…

2 Likes
#7

yea tru, Guess my daughters wedding is gonna have to wait :frowning:

1 Like
#8

it does feel like they’re trying to test how to fix the damn game doesn’t it :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

3 Likes
#9

garfield1283Kick the Bukkit
it does feel like they’re trying to test how to fix the damn game doesn’t it :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I would also say, It does feel like they’re trying to get us to pay again to test how to fix the game. :crazy_face: :crazy_face: :crazy_face:

13 Likes
#10

yep… and still they haven’t even fixed the stuff that we beta tested so far hahaha

8 Likes
#11

well… with Battleborn GBX testing the game mode for more than a year. They received more data from the CTT than they put in. While QA testers try and do everything to break a game. There is always somewhere out there that will find something.

While I like the idea of rare spawns in BL3, a lot of ppl didn’t enjoy them. So I can see how a game design idea isn’t well received.

#12

With all due respect, you are talking about QA testing a player preference issue, but the kind of “game design idea” you are talking about testing through QA is not really the primary thing that QA is supposed to test anyway - QA is supposed to test the game’s functionality, as it is designed and presented to the player.

It’s one thing for QA to reveal playerbase dislikes (which is the kind of thing you pointed out), and another thing completely for it to bring to light broken systems or interactions. The game functionality testing role of QA is the primary purpose of QA (at least IMO), and the playerbase preference testing role of QA is the secondary purpose. Most of the things that are/were broken about the VH’s skill trees, were readily identifiable issues that were identified early, early on in the game’s life cycle, and still have not been addressed appropriately.

This is the issue people are upset about. They are not talking about playerbase preference or QOL issues here - these are basic game functionality issues that people are upset about not having been fixed. They may be complex issues or interactions from the devs’ perspective, but they are at the most basic type of problem - game code does not work correctly, or at least as the devs appear to have intended it to work.

Regarding the specific issue of rare spawns, the issue there is that they assigned dedicated drops to those rare spawns. While I personally kind of liked the idea of rare spawns, you know what is never cool? Save/quitting, running to a spot, and discovering the rare spawn enemy - which is the only drop source in the game for the item you are seeking (Redline or Unleash the Dragon are great examples) - did not spawn. If the rare spawn enemies did not have exclusive dedicated drops, I think fan response would have been way different. Again, you don’t really need QA testing to tell you this though - just a little forethought would lead you to this conclusion.

6 Likes
#13

Wait … what?

What’s the point of having a season 2 pass if it costs exactly the same as buying the DLC individually?

My brain hurts…

6 Likes
#14

Asked myself the same and I think the devil is in the detail. If you unlikely don’t have the Season 1 pass already and you are just now ONLY buying the base game + season 2 than I think you get the Multiverse Skin packs free?

In other words if you have been a “supporting” Borderlands 3 fan till now, you gain zero benefit from buying the pass instead of individualy.

4 Likes
#15

Fight for sanctuary was an OPTIONAL DLC you could CHOOSE to download for free (or later buy).

The level bumps for BL3 auto uploaded and you’d have to play offline without other patches if you didn’t want them.

Being able to make that choice is all the difference.

5 Likes
#16

That’s not entirely accurate - even if you didn’t purchase the Lilith DLC, you still got the level 80 upgrade, but could no longer play Digistruct Peak. So that was handled poorly as well.

EDIT : to add that the above is my understanding of how it works if you do not have the Lilith DLC, because I personally DO have it.

#17

Really?!!? Didn’t know that.

Agreed. Handled poorly.

#18

The way things have been handled by GBX with this release you can be rest assured that this will be in beta form. I haven’t played in months now because the game still crashed my console so I am guessing that matchmaking is still a mess not to mention other issues that have plagued this game since release.

Lesson learned with GBX sadly.

6 Likes
#19

Right - and this starts to diminish the argument you are making.

Also, out of curiosity - are your problems 100% (or at least easily) reproducible on another XB1X? Because if they are not, then a) excellent chance that support/developers are closing your bug reports as “can’t reproduce, won’t fix now” and b) might point the finger at your specific console as the main reason, be it hardware or some other thing.

2 Likes
#20

Ah hah. Makes sense kinda. So there is no point in paying for the Director’s Cut now since we have no clue what it will include if we already have season pass 1 and get the new models free already. Also, on that note, there’s no price for DLC6 yet either. That could very well be over $15 making the season pass still the better option.

Almost, but not quite. If you do not get the Lilith DLC then you do NOT get the level cap raise to 80 and that’s why you can’t progress in Digistruct Peak since the game gets the update regardless and thinks you are now underleveled at 72.

Really bad rollout on that one. Particularly when the Epic and Switch releases came out without the Lilith DLC and could not go into OP levels initially. I think it took something like 2 months before it was available on those platforms? (I know because I got the handsome collection free on epic and was stuck at 72).

2 Likes
#21

I’m going to wait for the Developer’s Cut and buy the season pass then.
Or Distributor’s Cut.