List of unaddressed bugs in Couch Co-op

[zetasiete]

TL;DR: Opened a ticket with a list of bugs, after all this time none resolved and piling up.

I opened a support ticket four months ago (early January) with a list of bugs affecting player 2. After all this time not only have they not been addressed, but there are even some more problems. This is the original list of problems reported in the ticket:

When playing local co-op in split screen there are several problems with player 2:

• The life bar of the pet/clone does not appear.
• Texts are too small and unreadable.
• There is no vertical split-screen option.
• The current mission objectives only appears in the screen of player 1 (and it’s not visible when player 1 opens the menu, is in fight for your life, etc).
• The same happens with the life bar of bosses.
• If both players use the bank at the same time, incorrect icons are shown.
• Area messages (entering and discovered) for player 2, and mission completed messages all appear in the screen of player 1.
• Experience bar and mayhem level information is not visible (for either player).
• In-game mail notifications of player 2 are not shown.
• Preview of the item of the day does not work for player 2.
• End credits appear in the screen of player 1 while player 2 can roam freely.
• During cutscenes subtitles for player 2 appear duplicated at the top left corner of the screen.

I’m not even mentioning the performance when playing co-op.

Now, after the release of DLC2 and latest hotfix, in addition to all of the above:

• The game crashes every two hours (with luck).
• Player 1 gains significantly more experience than Player 2 even with P2 wearing a Moxxi’s Endowment artifact.
• Subtitles for ECHO recordings and some cutscenes are not split in sentences, so the whole text of the conversation appears in the screen at once in a tiny (really tiny) font size.
• When P2 re-enters the game, the skill tree is wrong showing the previous character class tree, so it is not possible to re-spec, change active skill, etc.

With regard of the Science Hotfix:

• When one player enters in the arcade machine, the game switches back to full screen, so the other player is forced to play with you, even if only the player who activated the machine is the only one scoring points to purchase boosts.

Lastly, I would add that the layout of the menus is terrible in horizontal split screen, you cannot see the whole equipment, the whole skill tree nor anything, leading to a terrible user experience.

Can we get some sort of official response from the devs to acknowledge that they are aware of these issues and will be addressed? My P2 feels frustrated and mistreated.

[renfried]

@zetasiete

During cutscenes subtitles for player 2 appear duplicated at the top left corner of the screen.

This one was supposed to be resolved … I believe in the last patch. (at least it was mentioned in the patch notes, I haven’t tested).

Also in regards to on screen captions. Player 2 cannot change their CC settings. They have to load in as player one, set the CC settings, and then they will keep when they load in as Player two.

[j_r_hicks87]

I play lots of couch co-op and while none of what you’ve said is wrong, I suspect some of the things mentioned may be intentional - choices gearbox made in order to reduce screen clutter during split-screen.

For instance, mail notifications, XP bar, and boss life bars.

I also really hope some of the problems get addressed (the crashing…) but it is likely that some of them are here to stay.

[zetasiete]

@j_r_hicks87

I suspect some of the things mentioned may be intentional

I fear that’s sadly the case with some things, but you could say I’m “spoiled” after hundreds of hours playing BL2 in vertical split screen and none of that was ever a problem. We were expecting a similar experience in BL3, instead we got headaches

At the very least for that kind of stuff they could add options to show/hide them. My impression is that everyhing related with the UI has been plagued by a lot of bad decisions and player 2 in split screen has been ignored for the most part.

[j_r_hicks87]

I played a lot of BL2 couch co-op too, so I know how you feel.

BL3 does have a host of problems in couch co-op that weren’t issues in BL2. And I’m in agreement about the show/hide options. With all the new (to the BL series) features for streamers and online players, one would have thought that at least the couch co-op wouldn’t go backwards. But in many ways it did. Here’s hoping we split-screeners get some love in future hot fixes/next patch.