What caused the Blind effect in this clip? Is it from the Thrall, did Caldarius hit himself, or is it from another Caldarius?
I would just like to point out that this is not PvP footage; this is footage from one of the show floor demos. The blind mechanic is available to enemy NPCs as well as players.
That’s fine, man, but I still want to know what actually triggered it here - we haven’t seen it in any other footage from other show floor demos that I’m aware of. I’m sure NPCs will have access to status effects, but the only person we know that has the ability is Caldarius, and it definitely looks like there’s a second Caldarius to the left after the blind effect ends. It’s a completely reasonable question based on the information at hand that doesn’t warrant pedantic dismissal.
I know because I’ve seen the original clip. The blind is at 7:19. Amazing what a rudimentary YouTube search can dig up.
It’s different, for sure. Can’t say I’ve seen this kind of blind effect in any other game. I do see one flaw in the design, and that’s the HUD elements. During the blind, you can still see enemy and friendly health bars, waypoints, and the radar. Since the blind doesn’t hinder movement, fire rate, abilities, or anything else, a blinded player could still be just as deadly. For example: Rath could easily activate his Spin to Win, move towards enemy nameplates he can see, and still be just as effective. Montana just needs to point his minigun in the direction of enemy nameplates and rack up kills. And that radar! A player familiar with the map could navigate the terrain via radar alone.
Just a suggestion, but I would look into having the blind effect disable HUD elements for the duration, with the exception of the aiming reticle. I understand this might be a programming nightmare, but it’s worth investigating.
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Thanks for sharing the video - amazing how easy it is to miss 2 seconds in dozens of similar 23 minute videos. You’ll note, however, that it still doesn’t answer my question: what triggers the Blind effect here?
On a larger note - being dismissive without being helpful (for other readers this is a carry-over of a Reddit discussion) is exactly how toxic communities develop around games - it’d be a really nice if Battleborn could be the competitive MOBA-ish game without that sort of environment surrounding it (which is why I deleted those Reddit comments - to not propagate that vaguely-hostile if-you-don’t-know-this-you’re-dumb attitude). What’s happening in this clip is simply unclear, and it’s really interesting - hence, multiple discussion threads speculating about it.
Self-inflicted. The Thrall’s shield redirects projectiles, clearly visible at 7:30 when Orendi fires chaos bolts at it, and Cladarius’ flash bang gets thrown back in his face.
So in closing:
This is not PvP footage
There is no second Caldairus
This is how the blind effect looks in first-person
Thralls’ shields can redirect projectiles
Certain enemies will require precision timing and flanking to get past their defenses
Any other questions I can help you with?
Thank you - that’s the only bit of information I was looking for, and it was not self-evident to me in the clip (or, even in the full video). Therefore, speculation. Even you seemed unclear about it yourself 2 days ago - “The blind was inflicted by an enemy NPC…or by himself.” - and so I moved the conversation here for a different perspective.
I’m more than happy to be wrong and set straight - that’s why a person asks questions, right? - but I’d prefer it if it didn’t come in the form of a combined 6 condescending responses - as the game release comes closer, more and more people are going to show up here and on Reddit with questions because they don’t know every single detail of how the game functions (eg. this Thrall has projectile-reflecting shields). I vote that we welcome them with patience, clarity and kindness. This game’s success is going to have a lot to do with its community, so I hope we can make sure it’s a good one.
As long as we can all agree, as a community, that I was right.
Wow, good catch @reincarN8ed. You found it. I didn’t think those thrall could blind on their own. I believe we have some enemy variants that DO blind, just not in the beta.
But yes…their shields CAN reflect projectiles (and any behaviors on the projectiles, consequently). Caldarius’ grenade has blind on it (I believe default at level 1), and effectively in this video he blinds himself. You should see it when Reyna uses her Mark Target ability. 
Oh noes…teammate marked!
To be completely fair - this is a very VERY difficult thing to catch from the video. Even I didn’t remember what was going on until you said something. Adding to the queue of “need better feedback in-game” list.
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Awesome! Thanks for clearing that up.
@Jythri I’m all for better visual/audible feedback in video games, but please for the love of god don’t put in an obnoxious tooltip that pops up every time you fight a thrall! Teach us through visual and audible cues, or trial and error, but please don’t hold our hands with these “your health is low, get to cover!” “press X to reload your weapon” “elite enemies are more dangerous” “guns fire bullets” nonsense that is so prevalent in modern AAA titles.
Borderlands was pretty good about not putting obvious tooltips in the game. When you fight stalkers for the first time, there is no pop-up that says “stalkers can turn invisible while their shields are up,” you just learned that fact from fighting them. But now I’m off topic.
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We shouldn’t be doing that. It’s not what I’m talking about with “feedback”.
Feedback, in dev terms, is a pretty broad term. It’s not limited to text pop-ups. Typically, when we say “feedback” we mean things like colored sparks to show that damage was partially reflected, screen FX to let you know you’re bleeding, audio attached to when shields are depleted…tons and tons of little touches that help guide your intuition to understand what’s going on.
Sometimes…yeah. That’s a HUD element - health, shield, cooldown, etc. But Gearbox has a philosophy of trying to keep the HUDs as simple as possible.
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It’s funny. Until I saw the posts of this thread I thought you were introducing a new character/class that was a blind mechanic.
Needless to say I did not pay attention to the actual forum in which it was posted
H
Okay. This made my day!
And now I have a new idea for a character!!
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And now I have a new idea for a character!!
Every game needs a Teemo it seems…
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I’ve noticed; BL2 is a shining example, and the pre-release footage of Battleborn shows the same minimalist approach. I was making more or less of a blanket statement, because it seems to be the norm nowadays to beat the player over the head with obvious information (lookin at you, Evolve).
Keep up the good work over at GBX.
In other words, every mechanic I’ve taken my car to…
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This!
Please make it at least disable health bars.
Lol. Don’t quote me on this, but I think blind people know if they’re being shot or stabbed and are, at the very least, vaguely aware that they’re bleeding profusely from various new holes in their sternums. XXD I think disabling bits of the HUD is a cool idea, but health is one thing I can understand sticking around.