Where are the dlc campaigns?

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel BL:TPS Discussion
#34

OK take Borderlands for instance and you see from Steam Global stats of all the people that purchased the game only 67.5% achieved the “Paid in Fyrestone - Completed 5 missions in the Arid Badlands” achievement. So basically 32.5% did not play it (maybe purchased it twice as part of a bundle… who knows). Of all the people who purchased the game only 22% achieved the “Destroyed the Destroyer” achievement so if we adjust that to represent the people who actually started the game to those who completed at least one playthough with one character we have 22% / .675 = 32.5%. So less than 1/3 of the people who started the game make it though the first playthough with one character once. It is a very small minority who get obsessed with the game to keep playing it over and over.

Similarly for TPS we have 85% who achieved the “Invaders must die” achievement only 40.% achieved the “Vault Hunter Superior” achievement awarded in the last story mission so that is aroung 40%/.85 = 47% of those who started the game completed one play though at least once. This quickly drops of though as not many people are going much farther as only 13% achieve the “Space Lord” achievement and that is getting to level 50 at least once with one character. The onto claptastic voyage we see that only 9% who played achieved the “Shadow of Your Former Self” badge that you get when you defeat 5H4D0W-TP in claptastic voyage.

There are similar stats you can work out for BL2 also but basically only the most loyal fans returned for TPS and from those most played it hardly at all. This can also be seen from the quick drop off of player numbers on steam charts.

The significant majority who played the Borderlands games did not complete one playthough on one character even once.

#35

You can’t really go by the stats for BL 1 because it was released outside of Steam back in '09 and there wasn’t any way to track how many people actually finished it. Also, you’re only going by the Steam stats: if you want a complete picture, you need the Xbox and Playstation stats as well. Otherwise you’re only seeing part of the picture. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but that stats can and do lie.

I bought the Season Pass for BL 1 and 2 and thought both were worth the money. I didn’t for TPS because I didn’t feel it was worth the money. I’ll buy another SP if I feel it’s worth the money, but I’ll be damned sure I know what exactly I’m getting before I do so I don’t feel shafted afterwards.

#36

Except for the fact that the season pass for TPS was the same amount of money as BL2’s season pass, and that included four full fledged campaign dlcs AND they threw in some stuff that wasn’t part of the deal.

One full fledged campaign(as amazingly epic as it is) one sub-par arena(That makes the underdome look good) and two characters is flat out ridiculous. Also there is clear evidence of at least one dlc that was planned(concept art and such).

#37

I don’t see how those stats mean anything significant in the context of our conversation. They don’t represent real gamers. Of course there are plenty of buyers affluent enough to throw money away like that. Games are meant as entertainment, not a job–so the casuals jump in, have a few jollies, then redirect their attention elsewhere. While I’ve never been a casual dabbler in the majority side of your figures, I’ve made mistakes (as has everyone) and bought games I simply couldn’t get into. I dropped those early too. But that is not the norm with me, or I suspect with any dedicated gamer. I certainly don’t think it’s the norm with any longterm member of this community.

Maybe it’s time to bring up the teapot metaphor again. Why would any dedicated Borderlands player feel shafted by TPS? The generosity may not be up to BL2 levels, but it is still there in spades.

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#38

I may be unrelenting, but I am still playing BL-TPS “STILL”… and I have probably never missed a shift code! But more anything, DLC’s, side missions, any added objective and I’d be at it.

Borderlands 1, 2, & TPS are my all-time favorites. And I definitely love the weapon grinder.

5 Likes
#39

There is no “except”. We knew that there would be four DLC and two of them would be characters. That wasn’t a secret. It was made clear what the DLC would include, likely as a response to criticism about the BL2 Headhunter Packs being sold outside the BL2 Season Pass. I wasn’t happy that there wouldn’t be four TPS campaigns, like most, but I knew that before I bought it .

But that’s not even the point of the comment to which I replied. That comment implied that we got shafted because 2k Australia shut down before they could deliver the DLC promised in the Season Pass, as if three more campaigns were expected but never delivered. There weren’t going to be three more campaigns, the Claptrap DLC was the final DLC, and that was very clear. So, no one got shafted because 2k Australia shut down before delivering the promised DLC content. All the promised content was delivered.

You might not be happy that the Season Pass was not four campaigns, but you can’t say you got ripped off, because what the Season Pass included was made clear - four DLC, two of which would be characters.

1 Like
#40

That’s exactly the point I was trying to make. Thank you for making my point. :dukeaffirmative:

#41

Im pretty sure gearbox was involved with the development as well, it wasnt all 2k aus. And gearbox still supports tps with patches and such. And im sure if gearbox really wanted to they could develop some head hunter packs or something.

#42

I never said they weren’t, but it was 2k Aus who did the majority of the work here and it’s 2k who’ll decide whether or not there will be additional content since they’re the publisher and GBX is the developer. So, again, I blame everything “bad” about TPS on 2k’s doorstep because it was their decision to go with a different developer and a different feel. Even if it wasn’t, they had the final say as to what was included and what wasn’t.

#43

Are sure it was 2ks decision to go with another developer? I could of swore i heard randy or someone else from gearbox say in interviews they had there hands full with everything, battleborn, homeworld, etc and didnt have the man power. So they asked 2k aus help out. I could be wrong but i just remember something said along those lines.

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#44

True, but it was still 2k’s (not 2k Aus) call as to what went in and what was left out. They also decided what the Season Pass would include, so I’m still blaming them for what was released. Not that I wasn’t entertained, but I have over 2k hours in BL 2 compared to ~ 400 in TPS.

#45

TPS was presented/advertised/sold as a game bigger than BL and smaller than BL2 and there was also a season pass. From this we expected the season pass to be of comparable value to BL2 (and also the DLC of the BL) as it was priced the same as the second game. There may have only been one area expansion but it should have been twice as large as it was to provide the value position of the season pass.

The game we got was far shorter than BL and the season pass was magnificanly short in content/value comparison to the first two. We got shafted first on the games size and second on the value the DLC adds to the game. This is embarrasing really, when a company doesn’t provide a game that is in a good faith comparable value to previous games costing the same.

Overall it was disgusting even with 2K Aus closing that effort from within 2K and Gearbox was to completely shun further commitment to the game that is part of their core franchise in order to work on lesser games. This to me is bad form.

Again they burned a lot of good will doing this and iit is going to cost them huge to get it back in BL3.

#46

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Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

Carry on.

#47

lol typo

2 Likes
#48

I decided to embrace that and just play all missions and reset at level 70 if I wanted. It also helps that I was bringing all 6 characters to level 70. Because chances are at least one of them would be able to still get the mission reward I’d be looking for.

#49

That seems irresponsible to make a list like that. I know you personally will make your own decision but who knows who this will influence/confuse. The only thing anyone has to go on about Battleborn is a closed technical test. At the very least I would think that a game should be in that month or so before release when reviewers get to preview the game before anyone could make an absurd statement like that. I know they said, “may” suck, but still.

1 Like
#50

I think it will still appeal to people who don’t like PvP or Moba style games. It’s got a co-op or solo campaign and some diablo like experiences (choosing skills to use and using dropped gear).

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#51

Got to say that my ears perked up on the “solo/co-op campaign” item. I will be watching for more details when the beta goes live, for sure!

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#52

How do you account for people that only play online and get powerleveled and perhaps typcially play with their friends? They might reach level 70 without even beating the first mission in their first playthrough. Sure they are less likely to how as many gaming hours in it as a solo to 70 player, but it’s an interesting segment of the player population. There are TONS of people who ask me to powerlevel them to 70. Of the people who join my game or want to play it with me, 90% of them want to powerlevel.

Which to me is interesting, because it makes me think that something like Battleborn is a good idea then. A bunch of players seem more interested in playing a character at max level as soon as possible rather than taking the time to get to level 70 over a more expected speed.

#53

I agree that I too expected the season pass/DLC structure to be more similar to the DLC structure we have seen before in Borderlands 1 and 2. I think that Gearbox should be a little more clear in the future (ie. if a season pass is going to only have 2 characters, an arena and a story campaign, there are very explicit ways of saying that, that don’t leave us hanging thinking that there’s more on the way. If they had decided to also make additional content and throw it in for free into the season pass, that would be bonus, but nobody should expect it. The season pass description for TPS said something like “and more” that left me wondering.).

Mostly I think that people just expected more story campaigns for TPS because we are used to it. We’ve come to expect a lot of additional story DLCs for Borderlands games. Borderlands 3 could get away with less story DLCs if

a) the game is long enough on its own without it, TPS didn’t have quite enough content for that. I do think the side missions in TPS do help though. I recently tried to go through them all again and it was taking longer than I expected.

b) the season pass is clear on expectations/description. If they are only going to plan to do one story DLC we should know. But they could always do more if they felt it was worth it. They should underpromise and overdeliver, I think.