Asking for ideas: how to fix Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#1

Hello everyone,

I think most people here agree that the game is a bit of a mess right now. Instead of whining and complaining which isn’t very productive I would like to offer you this:

We collect the best ideas of the community on how to make the game better!

Here’s summarization of comments with many upvotes or suggestions that were mentioned by multiple people all over the forum.

People dislike Mayhem 2.0.

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  • The Mayhem 2.0 scaling is a mess, it’s totally unbalanced and only a handful of weapons are viable. Grenades, melee, damage shields (nova, roider, spike…) and action skills don’t scale accordingly and are not viable either. Remove the Mayhem 2.0 weapon scaling and return to Mayhem 1.0, the game was much more balanced then. Eliminate the need for weapon scaling and everything that makes damage fluctuate too much. This comes from a good baseline and balance design. Keep the new Mayhem levels 4 - 6 for higher difficulty, they will pose a real challenge without the Mayhem 2.0 weapon scaling. As we get more powercreep, level cap increases and potentially a 4th skill tree… we will eventually “grow” into those difficulty levels.

  • Speaking of difficulty… instead of turning enemies into Bullet Sponges increase difficulty by changing the play loop instead. Make enemies more evasive, increase mob sizes, increase badass+ spawns, mix different enemy types, increase enemy accuracy, introduce “upgraded” enemies that are overall tougher (Elemental weapons rather than normal). Special gear that they have access to i.e some enemies in Mayhem 2 will have Spike shields, some Mayhem 3 enemies will have Nova Shields, Mayhem 4 enemies could have a shield that does both spike & nova. Improve the AI- have it call for reinforcements (like the Cartel did), try to flank the player, call in air support (Racks, jet pack troopers etc). The point is that any new threat added to a normal play loop would be an increase in difficulty without an increase in enemy health.

  • People dislike the Mayhem 2.0 modifier system. Keep the new Mayhem 2.0 modifiers, but let us specifically pick or disable them. Add a reward system to the modifiers (special drops, increased droprate, cash, eridium, what ever). Disabling modifiers will remove those rewards and increase HP/Shield/Armor of enemies. Having the option to switch on/off modifiers and then having benefits to equipping modifiers wouldn’t necessarily be imbalanced because the mods will generally slow down your killing so the non-modifier version would have a natural advantage as it is. In general, the higher the Mayhem level, the better loot + exp should be.

  • Some anointments are 5x stronger than skills and gear… they are ridiculous and make everything much harder to balance. How do you scale enemies properly when Player A makes 100% more damage than Player B due to an anointment? Anointments should give a 10-30% bonus, not 100-300%. If their DMG bonus was around 10-30%, other anointments (that nobody is using right now) would suddenly become viable. Bottom line: Gear should be the exciting part and the anointment should be a bonus that doesn’t ruin the effectivity of the weapon if you don’t have the right one. Either nerf all anointments to a point where they are bonuses and not the sole focus of this entire game or make them rerollable.

  • RNG has too many layers with all the different stats, anointments, elements. Add a system to reroll or salvage -> forge anointments/secondary stats/weapon parts from one weapon/gear to another. Okay, we know that Gearbox is major against that… so here’s an alternative: make anointments drop seperately from weapons so we still have to farm for it BUT we can apply the anointment on our weapon of choice = everyone is happy. I don’t see why anointments can’t just come as separate loot items like trinkets for example. Right now with all the RNG it’s too much of a grind to find the right weapon with the right anointment. As we go into the future the increasing number of anointments makes it exponentially harder to get any particular anointment. At a certain point the rarity of items and the combination of anointments just makes farming gear completely insane. That’s why people mod and dupe weapons or download save games filled with godrolls instead. That’s why many people get frustrated and quit playing the game altogether.

  • The matchmaker isn’t very effective and needs forever to find players. Trash the current matchmaker and just give us a session browser. Let hosts edit the title so they can advertise the content they want to run and you instantly have a more effective matchmaking system than what exists now.

  • Quest or event exclusive weapons have always been a problem because you cannot refarm them. After a level cap increase there’s no way to obtain them again with the new Max Level. I think the “veteran machine” was already mentioned by Gearbox as a solution for this.

  • Slide/Airborne anointments are “bad” and people would rather have literally anything else. Make them fun and viable! Just like you did with the “Slam” mechanic, create “Guardian perks” that enable or enhance the Slide/Airborne mechanic’s use. That can be done with a Double Jump guardian perk or Low-Gravity guardian perk for Airborne anoints. This would also further increase the viability of the Slam mechanic. Change the sliding anointment so that enemies get knocked over on impact and we don’t find ourselves stuck in front of their barrel asking to die.

  • The majority of the community doesn’t like nerfs. Try to avoid nerfs if possible (and rely more on buffing to keep the game balanced). Afterall this is not a competitive shooter, this is not a PvP game. Nerfs always feel like you’re taking something away from us. If a weapon is a little bit overpowered then so be it, let us have fun! However, avoid extremely overpowered stuff like the Pipe Bomb, Yellow Cake or 300/90 anointment… playtest them and make the right adjustments before release = no insane nerfs needed later on = no negative community feedback.

  • The game is unstable which is resulting in lags, crashes etc. Alot of people have been unable to play since day 1 and some of the issues remain. Especially on consoles that happens a lot. Get the game stable.

Please stop adding new content before you fixed the already existing issues mentioned above. You keep building on a weak foundation. We would much rather have you fix the game than giving us a new Takedown that is only causing more issues. Please remember: we criticize the game because we love the game. We want this game to be as good as possible and we see room for improvement :+1:

14 Likes
The annointed post and poll
Dev’s need specifics!
#2

problem: mayhem2.0 is splitting the community, freaks people out with the modifiers and completely broke balance
solution: return to the mayhem 1.0 style but without random modifiers
keep the new kind of modifiers optional for everyone with rewards of any kind (special drops, droprate, cash, eridium, what ever) while 4-5 difficulty levels only increase enemy stats and drop rates/xp

problem: quest or event exlusive weapons have always been a problem because in this kind of game you have to be able to refarm any kind of gear
solution: i think the “veteran machine” was already mentioned by gearbox. but i would simply add all unique and event guns to the world drops. who would it hurt?

problem: RNG has too many layers with all the different stats, anointments, elements
solution: add a system to reroll or salavage -> forge anointments/secondary stats/weapon parts from one weapon/gear to another

10 Likes
#3

problem: mayhem2.0 is splitting the community, freaks people out with the modifiers and completely broke balance

solution: Go back to Mayhem 1.0, but keep Mayhem 5 + 6. Remove the Mayhem 2.0 weapon scaling completely. Rebalance weapons, grenades, shields and action skills if necessary. Keep the modifiers BUT make them optional and selective. We can turn them on and off and we can choose which modifiers exactly are applied if any.

In order to reroll anointments we could pay with Eridium. I have 9k Eridium in the bank, a usage for it would be nice.

3 Likes
#4

yea
i would use eridium for anointments and maybe com/relic stats
and cash for weapon parts since it would fit the fantasy better

4 Likes
#5

To start with, stop releasing new content until the crashing issues have been worked out. Alot of people have been unable to play since day 1 and some of the issues remain. Get the game stable.

Remake MH2.0 into a hybrid of MH 1.0. Seriously, listen to the people on why they did not like the old M3. Why in the world would you present something that is even more intrusive and exactly what people did not want?

The modifiers should not add to the problems. One thing the Cartel event showed me, a couple of the modifiers could simply be spawning in an increasing number of enemies. One adds the number of badasses.
This is good difficulty increase.

The entire weapon scaling is a plain disaster. Eliminate the need for weapon scaling. This comes from a good baseline and balance design.

I could go on but these are a good start.

10 Likes
#6

Trash the current matchmaker and just give us a session browser. Let hosts edit the title so they can advertise the content they want to run and you instantly have a more effective matchmaking system than what exists now.

9 Likes
#7

I wish you luck I really do problem is people have been making threads like this since before the game came out when gearbox previewed the skill trees yet here we are

1 Like
#8

Problem: Slide/Airborne anointments are “bad” and people would rather have literally anything else.
Solution: Just like they did with the “Slam” mechanic, create “Guardian perks” that would enable or enhance the slide/airborne mechanic’s use. That can be done with a Double Jump guardian perk or Low-Grav guardian perk for Airborne anoints and for Slide I’m not too sure but the issue (at least for me) is being able to properly shoot/aim while sliding, so maybe a perk that increases Slide duration and “controllability” or a perk that greatly increases accuracy/reduces recoil?

Problem: More difficulty to GBX = Bullet Sponges
Solution: Increase difficulty by changing the play loop instead. Make enemies more evasive, increase mob sizes, increase badass+ spawns, increase enemy accuracy, introduce “upgraded” enemies that are overall tougher (Elemental weapons rather than normal. Special gear that they have access to i.e some enemies in Mayhem 2 will have Spike shields, some Mayhem 3 enemies will have Nova Shields, Mayhem 4 enemies could have a shield that does both spike & nova. Enemies with Roid shield mechanics. The point is that any new threat added to a normal play loop would be an increase in difficulty without an increase in enemy health. Hope that makes sense.

Problem: Only a handful of weapons are viable.
Solution: Make weapons that are in a category have similar DPS should you execute their play loops correctly. That means modify fire rate, reload, damage, etc so that the weapons within a weapon category and rarity will do damage within the same ballpark as each other. The difference will come from how the damage is delivered. i.e All Rocket Launchers of the same rarity should have a similar damage output - A Yellowcake that you shoot and get it to split and the maximum projectiles hit a target should do similar damage to a fully charged ION CANNON, should do similar damage to a Scourge that hits all projectiles etc. Also similar =/= identical so obviously some will have higher damage or DPS than others but it shouldn’t be where Launcher A does 10,000dmg on a single target and Launcher B does 80,000 on a single target (assuming both Launcher A and B are meant for single targets and don’t have crazy DoTs to compensate)

3 Likes
#9

Let us kill Ava.

8 Likes
#10

Abandon this mess. Learn from your mistakes. Start Borderlands 4.

3 Likes
#11

Like this ?

2 Likes
#12

Problem 1 - Mayhem 2.0:
Almost nobody likes it. Release Mayhem 3.0 with a smaller increase of enemy health (something like M1 +100%, M2 +250%, M3 +500%…M6 +2000%) and increasing numbers of enemies and harder enemies. Remove the weapon scaling. Seriously. It sucks. M1 weapons has to be the same like M6 weapons. And remove all modifiers from the game. It isn’t fun at all. Higher Mayhem increases the Drop Rates.

Problem 2 - Items, drops and anointments:
A legendary should feel like a legendary. The world drop rate is way too high. Remove all anointments from the game. They are way too powerful and the system adds an unsatisfying layer of RNG. A legendary should be worth keeping without anointments. Give us an opportunity to modify our weapons. (Details in Problem 3 - Endgame)

Problem 3 - Endgame:
Give us something to do. And give us the feeling that it is worth our time. Let us farm materials in Proving Grounds and Circle of Slaughter to modify our weapons. Changing the Element or adding Burst Fire. Something like that. Or a token to increase weapon damage by 1% permanently or fire rate etc. Like that you can boost your weapons you like. So more mayhem levels can be added in the future.
Add hard raid bosses for multiplayer. Which leads to problem 4.

Problem 4 - Multiplayer:
Matchmaking is not working. There has to be another way to find people. I have no BL3 friends. I have to play alone because of this mess.

2 Likes
#13

Keep NVHM as it is, change TVHM as M4 was and make a single mayhem mode as m8 or maybe m10 is. All, without weapon scaling depending on mayhem level.

#14

My main wish is to make mutators fully optional.

But I’d also like a session browser, a bit more replay factor to proving grounds (with better loot tables), a way to farm stuff without savequitting, some long term purpose for currency, and RNG mitigation (mainly in terms of anoints)

3 Likes
#15

Very much agree.

#16

I think that’s an excellent idea.It would make the airborn anointments much more viable and fun to use. Imo this is the perfect solution. Much better than simply buffing their damage into oblivion.

I completely agree. It feels like a legendary bargain sale in BL3 they get thrown at you everywhere, they should tone it down.

I think they should nerf all anointments to a point where they are bonuses and not the sole focus of this entire game. BUT make them rerollable. You have to pay Eridium to reroll anointments so there would still be a tradeoff.

1 Like
#18

an actual response you want though I would say have every single dev read every topic in the forums all of them then invite a certain amount of players from each group from hard core to casual and so on to a discussion not a short one either than have them take dedicated notes make sure the people they gather can agree on subjects but have a posing opinions and take their time also no public test servers this may sound stupid but pay for actual testers you know like back in the old days when a buggy mess of a game was mainly just a Bethesda thing I joke but that way people get jobs the American economy gets a small boost and we get a properly tested patch or hot fix

1 Like
#19

As long as damage values range as much as they do now with anointments, balancing a difficulty level will be impossible.
Let’s say you want to create content completable in 20 minutes. What do you base enemy health pools on? The player with perfect rolled items with the best anointments or the ones with the base items with random anointments?
In the first case casual players will call the content too difficult or tedious, in the second case people who have a lot of time to farm or that have a good network of traded (or crafted…) items will clear it in 5 minutes and call it easy.

I say eliminate everything that makes damage fluctuate so much and work from there in creating gameplay mechanics that are fun and require thought while playing.

1 Like
#20

@Tramonto Do you think this could be fixed if anointments were A. re-rollable or B. less powerful than they’re right now?

I think if they were re-rollable everyone would run around with his perfect anointments and you could create a baseline on that.

If anointments were less powerful the gap between players with perfect anointments and peeps with non-optimal anointments would be more narrow making it easier to determine how strong opponents need to be. Everything would be more balanced.

1 Like
#21

My ideas I like which it would keep me playing

  • Gun Grinder & recipes (rng stays to make the chase worth it)
  • Anointed Grinder & recipes (rng stays to make the chase worth it)
  • No insane nerfs. This is not a PvP. Let people use what they want to have fun
  • Shields and Grenades needs to be bit more fun. (why isn’t a legendary rarity of “Cloning Maddening Tracker” exist yet?)
  • Action Skills needs to be powerful. I wouldn’t mind if AS has a longer cooldown for all in exchange of better strength. Just so AS can be used when it’s needed

That just my things that I like to see that obviously would help. Of course this game needs important fixes ever since this game release

2 Likes