Battleplan 42: 3/8/17 -- WEDNESDAY EDITION!

Battleborn News
#114

I wish I had the avid gaming spirit of my youth. I haven’t touched anything non-GBX (aside from fighting games) in a looooong time. BL1, BL2, BL:TPS, TftBL…that’s all the games I’ve played recently not including Battleborn. OH! Maybe Pokemon X back in 2012, if that counts?

Yeah, I get your point though. I’m probably just Battleworn out.

#115

So did I, once upon a time. Oh, those innocent days. :disappointed:

3 Likes
#116

Yeah, back in the day you would wake up every Thursday (was it Friday for you Kangaroos?) as if it were a Christmas morning and you were 10yro again. You’d literally THROW yourself out of bed and scramble wildly to turn on the computer/phone and eagerly wait for ~12:00pm to see the tell-tale “new” next to a “Battleplan:” topic.

Alas. Those were simpler times.

1 Like
#117

You know, I took the weekend off for the Winter Update. Even bought another copy of BB so my girlfriend could play on her PS4. Woke up early and excited… then found I had a zillion forum notifications, and PSN and Discord messages to the effect of “What do you think of what they just did to Mellka?” and “Are they trying to stop people playing her ever again?”

then I read the last Battleplan I ever woke up early for.

I can laugh about it now :stuck_out_tongue:

Oh, and yeah, we kangaroos got ours at 2am on a Friday. Much peering at my phone through squinty sleepy eyes.

2 Likes
#118

A lot of Gearbox fans would have tuned in (with unrealistic expectations) to watch the stream, so giving people a recap of what might seem like old news to us is actually a smart move (and something I suspect was decided late in the pre-planning for PAX East). Handing out free copies is also another smart move to get more people at the very least to TRY the game, because if they like it, they will tell their friends and then they will tell their friends and that means more players.

I’ll also point out, that Gearbox made it very clear in all their social media announcements that the main topic of the panel was going to be promoting Bulletstorm and their new Gearbox Publishing brand. The GDC demo (which they never once called a Borderlands 3 Tech Demo at GDC, I missed the part of the PAX Panel stream where it was talked about) made people think there was more to it than that, when really that was more intended for other developers to see what Gearbox has been working on with Unreal Engine 4.

I’ve watched a couple of their PAX Panels now, and I honestly tuned in for pretty much most of what actually happened in it. Getting announcements would have been the icing on the cake, but definitely not something I was expecting. I would love it if @jythri @dante_d_silva @JoeKGBX were able to somehow get live readings of Battleborn scripts like what they’ve been doing with Borderlands at the last few PAXs. I’m sure Jim Foronda would be up for it, and getting some of the other voice actors onboard would be sweet!

I remember… I was chatting to you the night before, and I distinctly remember how excited you were for it! :broken_heart: The whole weekend I crashed at your place was like Mellka breakup damage control. :sweat_smile:

Squinty sleepy kangaroo eyes.

6 Likes
#119

This is EXACTLY where i am; and Horizon: Zero Dawn must ALSO take a back seat to Mass Effect: Andromeda. Woe is me…

3 Likes
#120

March has been a poor month for Battleborn, but a very good month for gaming in general.

#121

About the Pax panel, you say “A lot of Gearbox fans would have tuned in (with unrealistic expectations).” I don’t think it is unrealistic to expect new information about Battleborn from a panel highlighted in a Battleborn Battleplan.

3 Likes
#122

I second this! It wasn’t so much that my expectations were too far fetched but with phobe’s dlc ending and getting highlighted I expected some sort of news for a season 2 or maybe an announcement of tales from The borderlands season 2. But alas we were denied by Mr.Pitchford…hopefully @Jythri has the hookup for us soon though

2 Likes
#123

I think GBX don’t needed to show what was to come in a second season, but at least say IF there will be a second season.

#124

Gearbox is handing out free copies of Battleborn and Season Pass at PAX.

#125

For pc only. They are trying hard to increase pc population, i hope they support it with some solo/duo queue and a couple of guides or something for new players.

image

Best of luck to the PC community.

7 Likes
#126

If they want to keep them playing, I would hope so too. New players will find PC PvP extremely unforgiving given only the die hard BB fans are left playing there which usually equates to teams with players who have hundreds of hours (500+) or more invested. (I’ve seen a few over the 1500 hour range now).
At least the solo/duo has done a good job of mixing the vets with the newbies.

#127

Somebody needs to inject that message DIRECTLY into @Jythri’s brain because he/GBX just doesn’t seem to be getting it! They blew a fantastic opportunity for player retention on PC when they released the Winter Update w/o it and they continue to piss away the opportunity by not making solo/duo queue a permanent queue on PC these many weeks later. I know new players show up on PC after sales elsewhere on the web because I see a handful from time to time in Bots (which I use to farm platinum currency via the daily quests), but I never see those same new names show up in Quick Match or even worst Draft mode. I’ve managed to get a few (call it 3) to stick around long enough to get double digit CR by inviting them to 10 mans doing mostly non try-hard private PvP matches. As a matter of fact I took 2 of them into public PvP last night and they quit playing after a lot of waiting and two matches. During private matches those same two stick around for hours.

Let me spell it out for you @Jythri. The public PvP meta on PC is stomp or be stomped and 5 person premade teams. There is no middle ground. So without solo/duo queue:

  • It takes a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, long time to find a match. This, again, is because the PC meta is that of premades. And it’s not because the PC players are a**holes, it’s because of the way matchmaking algorithm works coupled w/ the low player base. On PC in order to get a match in a reasonable amount of time (less than 30 minutes; and I’m not exaggerating ) you HAVE to be in a premade. This is because there simply aren’t enough solo players in the Quick match queue to form full teams. Your only hope as a solo queuer is that you run into a premade team that consists of less than 5 people. Which is rare because all PC vets know that in order to not spend all your game time queuing you MUST be in a premade. Essentially, it’s a negative feedback loop that has an adverse effect on new player retention.
  • New players are going to get stomped and getting stomped is a disincentive to sticking around. Let me be clear, the stomping of n00bs is inevitable because even if you are not a try-hard squad you are going to end up stomping the new players because they don’t yet know how to play or what to do. Part of this is GBX’s fault because even though they now have the training and dojo options they still made public PvP the first clickable/interactive option in the main menu. So if you are playing BB for the first time what are the chances that you are not going to interact with the first thing you can interact with? Thus your first playing experience is one of waiting a really long time to get a match and then getting your teeth kicked in. Put yourself into a new player’s shoes, what are the chances you’ll be sticking around for more of that?

So @Jythri just make solo/duo queue a permanent queue on PC. If you think about it in terms of on boarding new players it’s the next logical step after the Bots Battle queue. In summary, the queues on PC should be Bots, Solo/Duo, and Quick Match; and in that order on the menu. This way peoples’ tendency to interact w/ the first thing they can interact w/ will not result in a foot-gun experience.

6 Likes
Solo/duo que suggestions and rant
Battleplan 48: 04/27/17
#128

Is… Is that an Aristocats reference? Oh man… I TOTALLY forgot that movie existed!

1 Like
#129

id change qm to draft at that point, or drop it entirely. whenever the extra q rolls around everyone always swaps q’s to whichever is more alive- usually qm.

had a good solo q match saturday night but took quite a while to find everyone…and only had time for one match at that point.

im trying to wrap up my lore on pc nowadays so i can go to enjoy ps4 as the casual option. its put a fire under my pc profile, lol.

#130

Draft instead of Quick Match is okay w/ me; just so long as Bots and Solo/Duo queues are permanent.

So am I. Once I’ve reached 100% Steam achievements I may just call it quits. I think +2300 hours is more than enough time invested.

#131

and as i say this just got killing on rails on ps4. feelsgoodman. but all that lore left on pc…

#132

New: Battleborn Youtube channel

3 Likes
#133

Note that when @jythri drops one of his trademark puns, you can hear the audience groan XD

1 Like