Attikus and the Thrall Rebellion (Story Ops DLC 1)

[Rivaire]

I would use those words next time as I’m writing my story.

Assuming it would get that grim.

[Whitethroat (A euclid-class anomaly)]

For what it’s worth, I think regardless of what BB does, the beginning of 4th quarter will be a rough time for it. There’s a lot of anticipated titles and DLC, and I can bet there will be plenty of events in other games for the holidays. Dark Souls 3 just recently announced its first DLC for the end of October, and boy if that isn’t going to boom its populations.

Hopefully, a myriad of fixes and other content, release of at least one DLC (preferably two) and a good discount (and face time on the front page) on the steam winter sale will help draw and retain more players for the beginning of 2017. Being optimistic of course, but then again I’ve always been far too optimistic for someone who’s creative work mainly deals in horror.

P.s: personally, I would prefer ‘dismally void of life.’

[Rivaire]

I already spoke at length about Gearbox dealing with time and how badly they have missed those critical moments. So I’ll just link you the thread where I spent most of my efforts writing in. I wrote multiple posts there, so take some time reading them if you think it’s relevant to you.

Some musings on the popularity of Battleborn

Sure, there are a lot of things I could say, but it really boils down to a few major things.

Gearbox is losing against time.

Battleborn never seemed to have done anything right at the right time -going so far as the release date. Going against Overwatch actually isn’t the primary issue. The issue is that Battleborn, although a meatier game than Overwatch by a significant margin, wasn’t meaty enough based on what I just posted before. Battleborn needed to be a much, much better game from the get go, which I believe Gearbox could have done if they spent more time in the area that would have ensured a much bigger player base on Day 1, which is PvE.

By today, Gearbox does not have a good PvE crowd to rely on as a cushion. They don’t get to reap any rewards they didn’t invest in.

Because Battleborn was merely a very good game and not a very great game, Overwatch was able to do much more damage than it otherwise could have. Battleborn began struggling but it was still possible to minimize the damage. They went with a 55% discount, an attempt to bring in more players, in which I was a part of. What they failed to do, in my opinion, is to put work in keeping the players they already have on PvP and PvE.

At this point, Battleborn needed to be desperate to hold onto the community and player base they worked so hard to attract. Each and every one of them was earned by sweat and blood. However, I don’t think they held this mentality. At the 55% discount mark, Battleborn needed to permanently increase XP gains, credit gain, amount of drops per boss, and legendary drop rate chance. Players now can earn their credits and loot packs faster to keep them interested for a much longer duration. However, Gearbox was running the ship in a manner that the game was successful when it was clearly declining. It’s a very bad followthrough in an otherwise great discount sale.

Game continues to struggle through early June, with Alani very OP, balance patches are slow to implement, gear acquisition is slow since drop rates are crap, loot pack drop rates were also crap, credits were time consuming to farm, matchmaking was a disaster on the PvP front, PvE was also affected by the lower population… and what happens then…

Microtransactions.

Who the hell asked for this?

Maybe the better question is: Why are the people in charge still operating like the game is in a healthy state? Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Battleborn is not doing well.

The whole justification that a separate team did the marketplace function and blah blah blah, look, it’s not relevant to me whatsoever. The game is in turmoil, stop treating it like it isn’t. It makes you look both tone-deaf and insane. Anything implemented that would not revive the player base is pretty much irrelevant. Players don’t have others to play with consistently, and the publishers also have no one to milk.

Somewhere in between they permanently increased legendary drop chance. A good move, perhaps a bit late.

Then Lootpocalypse came sometime in late July, if I recall, and it was the best thing ever. Coincided with Humble Bundle, if I recall. This is probably the only thing Battleborn did right with flying colours.

In August, GBX decides to reward more XP for finishing matches and missions as a means to reduce quitting and surrendering. It’s not that it’s wrong, but it’s not the correct reward to boost. What GBX needed to boost is the acquisition of credits, the only tangible reward in the game.

Then XP boosters… which costs real money to get, which also doesn’t provide any incentives for people to come back.

Did I happen to forget that Battleborn was giving us more skins and taunts at a progressively more expensive price this entire time? The microtransactions were ever so diligent to arrive on time, and yet the fixes, patches, new campaigns and stuff that will improve the player base were nowhere to be seen or heard.

I know GBX is forced to be tight-lipped with a lot of their stuff, in which I understand, but the overall perception of it when the game is struggling is hardly ideal.

Pendles was released somewhere in there, but who cares. He didn’t do much to improve the player base.

Ernest was actually a very cool character, but with the player base at about 700 on PC at the time people’s enthusiasm were greatly dampened. But Hardcore Spotlight, UPR discount pack was good, it got some people playing again.

Battleplan September 1st 2016… no events… not even a band-aid solution to retain the player base… And DLC and other PvP modes are scheduled for October 13th 2016…

Now at 300ish players on Steam as of writing and we’re going to facing a 6 week of “Content-Less”, in the context of no new content, Battleborn.

I’m trying really hard to pray that Battleborn won’t look like a desolate graveyard by then.

How many of the things I have mentioned so far actually helped boost the player base? I only saw 2. 3 if you include Pendles.

In the span of 4 months, only 3 things managed to boost the population in a noticeable way. Is this why there are only 300 players on Steam?

What’s going to happen when Paladins, Lawbreakers, and Paragon come out in full swing? What about the other AAA titles coming this holiday season? What if some massive publisher discount comes again soon? How is Battleborn going to compete against all these outside factors?

Time had been very unkind to Battleborn indeed.

[epicender584 (Ambra's Arbiter)]

Well, you say they’re not even organizing an event, but they are hosting a play with the devs event. And although that doesn’t service PVEers, that is an event. So while I agree with the rest of your post, that’s fairly erroneously used to prove a point

[epicender584 (Ambra's Arbiter)]

Bucket and pail have different names but are the same thing. He’s trying to help, and he didn’t specifically say anything sarcastic that would deserve such a response

[GreyWarden007]

I found it condescending for him to assume that I don’t know the difference between software and hardware and I don’t find stating an obvious fact as helpful.

[GreyWarden007]

There was no event the weekend following the 9/1 Battleplan. The next event is 9/17. I also would like to know when they will hold a PVE only event.

[epicender584 (Ambra's Arbiter)]

Lootpocalypse was really about PVE with a side note for PVP, but I get what you’re saying. And he (she. Idk) was claiming that there were no events for the next six weeks. Which as you just pointed out, there are

[Rivaire]

An event that doesn’t serve PvE is not what concerns me, I don’t even see how it serves PvPers.

When GBX holds an event that actually doesn’t help either side of the aisle, I don’t know why any time and energy was used to organize it.

I know that all Gearbox staff working on Battleborn or any other project are a bunch of devoted and dedicated people. I don’t question that.

But ultimately, they are nothing by strangers to the vast majority of the community. I don’t suddenly get more excited because a bunch of strangers are playing the game I play. Sure, if I ever meet them, I will ask a few questions about stuff in the game, and the developer I met last time was a pretty cool dude, yes, yet I still expected him and everyone else playing to successfully complete the mission.

We ended up failing at Saboteur, if you must know.

Same thing goes for the PvP side. It’s all cool that a dev is playing, but we gotta win, so less talking and more killing please.

None of my friends who have dropped Battleborn until further notice is bothering to come back to play with the devs. This is not an adequate incentive. That’s why I’m arguing that this play with dev event is not going to do anything that would spike up the numbers on PC.

Gearbox is better off letting those devs rest so they can continue work on the game with both a refueled body and spirit.

[epicender584 (Ambra's Arbiter)]

I agree with you, but you said they weren’t hosting an event and that was specifically wrong. I agree with the rest

[GreyWarden007]

If there are only three players in an op, if all three are Eldrid, will that complete Boldur’s Woodsworn lore?

Also, if each playthrough of an op is more difficult, will the characters really level up with permanent upgrades? Otherwise, aren’t first time through players, starting at zero, going to end up on a team with a player who’s been through multiple times and upped the difficulty. I must be missing something . . .

[tannerken24]

https://battleborn.com/en/news/view/en-dlc-plan-update-1-whats-next-for-battleborn/ Can I get a refund yet for my deluxe version? Dlc should have been out in summer time we should be on dlc 3 or 4 since its fall.

[tannerken24]

So pretty much stole all the money from everyone who bought deluxe edition and other with season pass to use on border lands 3 instead of giving us the story dlc we bought?

[juripesce]

They delayed the dlcs to work on the August patch.

[abobcolypse]

They didn’t “steal” anything.

You paid them for a future product.

As of right now, you (should) have three of the five new characters.

As for dlc story, they will be releasing them. Did they hit the deadline they were aiming for for the first dlc? No. They are tweaking the dlc based on feedback and data they have acquired based on the main game in an effort to make it better. I personally have no issue with this, but you may, which in itself is perfectly valid.

If they shut the game down without releasing any of the story dlc, then yes, I would say they promised something for money that wasn’t delivered. That is not the cases at this time.

Buying season passes before the content is released is much like pre-ordering games. You are paying for a product that is not yet finalized. Buyer beware. If you are the impatient type that gets dissapointed by delays, I’d suggest waiting for all content to be released in the future before willfully giving your money away for a season pass. There is OFTEN delays when it comes to the release of software in this industry.

TL;dr: Nobody “stole” anything.

[dantesolar (PSN:Santbech_2038)]

Yes, yes! Everything!

Damn they probably had to reprogram many of the stuff to make us happy!
New skins!
New lore!
New challenges!
New reasons to get a higher score!
New attikus with a fedora!
Short missions for those who hate pve!
Short missions for those who love pve!

Idk why you want your money back of we are getting a hq product…

[laverdieremanu (CTT | Beta | Firstborn | Founder | Savior of the Universe)]

From your own link:
“Please keep in mind that much of this content is still in development. This means we can estimate to the best of our ability to give you a timeline, and we’ll be as transparent about that as we can be, but there’s always a chance that some content may get pushed out a little later than anticipated.”

[VaultHunter101 (Flying: throwing yourself at the ground and missing)]

Can I get a refund yet for my deluxe version?

That’s between you and the place you bought the game from (Steam, XBox, or PS store, other retailer, etc.)

Dlc should have been out in summer time

We were given an estimate of “late summer” (already pretty vague), not a guaranteed date. Sometimes you get stuff later, sometimes earlier (e.g. Gaige in BL2).

So pretty much stole all the money from everyone who bought deluxe edition and other with season pass

It’s not theft if you receive the goods later than you expected - that’s called disappointment. Completely understandable that you’d be disappointed, and you’re obviously not the only one. But it’s still not theft.

[maskerader]

Dlc should have been out in summer time we should be on dlc 3 or 4 since its fall.

In USA summer is June 21 - September 22.

[GreyWarden007]

I’ve lived all over the USA and I’ve never heard anyone say September was anything other than Fall. Every kid knows that you go back to school in the Fall.