(host issue) is it me or....?

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#1

I wonder if its a RNG issue but this one persists through various sessions and has been the “norm” for me (at least on a perception level, I dont have empirical data)

When I play coop with my wife she is usually the host simply because we get better performace when she hosts. She also has a different class then I do. We do have several pairs of characters we play together.

I often go through vendor machines in order to find an upgrade and I notice that almost ALL class mods are for her class, I do have class mods matching my own but they are usually far down and of inferior quality. Item of the day or blue/purple quality is mostly her class and I mean like 80:20 in her favor or something like that). On one of our duos we already find annoited gear and I again notice that many items I find have annoited affixes catered to HER class, not mine…

Is this a bug? Is this an experience that others share? Is it just bad luck?

It has become an issue lately when shes running around in annoited gear and I am lagging behind. I wonder if it really is chance or if the game parameters change according to whos hosting? Its especially hilarios when I check Marcus annoited vendor which again…either has “neutral” annoited affixes (usable by all classes) or again class specific ones who match my wifes class, not mine.

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#2

I think it’s a perception thing, when I play solo there’s no problem finding gear - when I play with my wife I typically see her stuff in vendors.

Thing is I host, when she plays Fl4k and I play Fl4k solo. I kinda figured the game was set up for everyone to want to play them and that’s why most of the options are Fl4ks gear. I can never find blue or better class mods for Zane outside of Golden keys mainly…

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#3

thanks man, I guess I need to go research mode on this (grabs pen and paper) :grin:

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#4

Psychology has found that we give more weight to negative experiences than we do positive ones. Generally speaking, it takes 4 positive experiences to equal 1 negative experience. Therefore, if you say, go to the new McDonald’s in your town 5 times, all it takes is for them to screw up your order 1 time for you to say “this place sucks I’m not coming here any more”. Obviously that’s a tad bit exaggerated but that’s the idea.

In your case, you only notice when the game gives you an excess of your wife’s class mods over yours, and ignore the times when you get class mods for your character or even other characters that neither of you are playing. In order to break this cycle without realizing the psychology behind it, the game would have to shower you in YOUR class mod 4 sessions for each time it showers you with HER class mod, which is statistically unlikely given how drops/RNG work.

But now that you know the psychology you can intercept this process and look at your experiences more objectively. Or I hope you can at least, it’s natural human behavior and to overcome that is actually quite difficult even when you know what’s really going on. For more details about this look up a term called conditioning, specifically as it refers to competitive gaming/sports/other hobbies. Best example I can give here is a Japanese Street Fighter player named Tokido. He was very very good at conditioning his opponent, to the point he would throw the initial rounds to condition his opponent to react in specific ways. Then once that conditioning set it, he would flip his tactics and completely crush his opponent. Even if his opponent knew what he was doing they would still fall for this trick because they were pretty much programmed to react the way he wanted. To break conditioning like that is very very difficult and only the best SF players are able to overcome it.

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#5

no I get you. Pain and negative experiences are great teachers and often used in conditioning peoples behavior and views for the rest of their lifes. First impression or my perception is of course always only the first step in forming an opinion but its not fact I realize that.

So the easy way (cuz face it, this is just a video game, doesnt really justify pulling all the stops hehe) is to compare with others to see if my initial perception is more widespread then just me. Finding others who agree with me is again, not fact.

In this instance this perception interferes with my enjoyment of the game. Not as dramatic but it becomes irritating because I feel like somethings not right.

I will of course collect more data now in order to see how far my own perception diverges from the actual fact. Changing perspective can overcome perception if I am willing to accept them even if they negate my first opinion.

But thanks for that reply…it was a good read :slight_smile:

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#6

In not sure if I can live up to your expectations but here goes:
I have seen 0 legendary Moze mods (in any play through Btw), think my wife has 1 epic mod for her in the bank - otherwise the best I’ve seen is green tier which I have one of for when I level her.
I have seen 0 legendary Zane mods, and 4 to 5 epic tier ones (all but 1 from golden keys only)
I have seen 1 legendary Amara mod, and 6 to 9 epic tier ones (only 1 of which from a golden key)
I have seen 3 legendary Fl4k mods, and the epic ones count at least 15 from either golden keys or typhon chests/boss fights.

Also I get the whole conditioning point you’re making, what I don’t get is how it applies to RNG… It’s not like the game is giving us only Fl4k mods to turn around and have none available once we reach lvl 50.

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#7

I mention conditioning to make a point about human behavior and how it can be very hard to overcome because we are just inclined to behave in certain ways, some of which are beyond our control no matter how well we understand it.

As for your stats, that’s really just the nature of RNG. I find Zane mods all the time. Amara too (my character), to the point I end up just keeping the better ones and sending the others to my friends that also play her. But at the same time, majority of the Amara class mods I find are NOT the droids I am looking for. It’s always the elemental or brawler ones, which are great don’t get me wrong, but it’s really hard to find a good Phasezerker. And I come across so many purple Amara class mods that I just try to keep the best version of one of each. Sometimes that means I have to make a tough choice between something like, increase shotgun damage a lot or increase all weapon damage a little.

I’ve also very rarely find Crossroads, but my friend seems to find them like all the time. Conversely, I’m always finding Thunderball Fist where he has found exactly 1 since the game came out.

It’s just RNG, and because of your human nature you want to see patterns where none exist. RNG is random, but then when the game drops my Thunderball fist 3 times in the span of 10 minutes it can make me think it’s not really RNG. But it is, I’m just program to find patterns. IDK if you’ve ever seen “A Beautiful Mind” but bascially that just not to that extreme.

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#8

This is where empirical data comes into play which involves effort. If I collect data from just a few hours RNG could affect the outcome considerably but the more I collect the more the results average out until I get a reliable answer.

I am just not sure if the task should fall to the players here. I already paid the full prize for the game. I mean I “could” create 4 different classes and play them with chosen different classes for hours on end all the time meticulously collecting actual facts about quality and matching available gear to present classes. With the tools at my disposal its probably gonna take me a week or two taking away from my freetime which I usually use for personal entertainment.

I am not getting paid for this. Nobody is going to thank me for proving a dissonance and chances are Gearbox doesnt even care.

I think simply voicing my perception and leaving the fact finding to people whos that actually is is a more rewarding time/reward ratio. I will of course be a little more attentive but I doubt I ll put in the effort to “prove” anything beyond question.

The RNG explanation is a valid one. Its true and scientifically documented but its not always the answer and every arising issue requires close investigation in order to give a satisfying answer. Its not a rule…its just a reason to look closer :slight_smile: