wings
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Post by wings on Jul 30, 2014 13:01:36 GMT -5
Nope, because 1: old gen console. 2: Destiny. 3: Destiny. Still not getting TPS because of Destiny then? vI think I'll get both, Destiny at launch and TPS a while after launch because it won't be worth its asking price when paid level cap raisers kick in etc.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 14:35:07 GMT -5
Personally I'm not getting BL:TPS. From what I've seen it looks and plays exactly like BL2 with a few new trinkets scattered here and there; it may as well be an expansion. I know how to work my way around UVHM, I hate it, and if that's coming back I'm not even going to get it when it's on sale.
I think Destiny looks pretty cool, but I'm not sinking several hundred dollars into a console just to play one game. Until then, Killing Floor modded lobbies ahoy!
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wings
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Post by wings on Jul 31, 2014 14:40:33 GMT -5
You're nearly in the same boat as me. I'd have got a current gen console if there were actually more games I'd be interested in that were current gen only. Only game I remember from E3 that I would be interested in is Rainbow Six: Siege. I assume that would be current gen only.
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mannon
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Post by mannon on Jul 31, 2014 15:40:48 GMT -5
Destiny has an entry in the Steam database strongly suggesting an eventual PC port, rumors say March. Take with much salt, but it does look like PC is likely at some point, of course with no official announcement it could get pushed or cancelled or who knows, but still. There is hope.
Personally I'm playing on PS4 because it has some other games I wanted it for as well, but if Destiny comes to PC I'll probably get it there too. heh
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 15:49:07 GMT -5
You're nearly in the same boat as me. I'd have got a current gen console if there were actually more games I'd be interested in that were current gen only. Only game I remember from E3 that I would be interested in is Rainbow Six: Siege. I assume that would be current gen only. I'm psyched for that; I want to stay guarded because Ubisoft and Uplay, but the concept is pretty cool.
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wings
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Post by wings on Aug 1, 2014 14:23:22 GMT -5
You're nearly in the same boat as me. I'd have got a current gen console if there were actually more games I'd be interested in that were current gen only. Only game I remember from E3 that I would be interested in is Rainbow Six: Siege. I assume that would be current gen only. I'm psyched for that; I want to stay guarded because Ubisoft and Uplay, but the concept is pretty cool. Yeah I heard about the uPlay stuff but it appears to be dying. Time Rainbow Six: Siege comes out may be uPlay will be insignificant to be concerned about. Also, you can play Destiny on the 360.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2017 17:37:46 GMT -5
It wasn't like I had much of a choice, either. I stopped at level 53 because of Wilhelm. I ran out of ammo mid-battle for all 4 of my weapons because the RNG gods hated me and I was stuck with all the hack-drop legendary weapons from level 50 that don't really help me now. "Oh, but buy more ammo" I was told; obviously the best decision. All I need to do is ask Wilhelm to lift me back over the cliff to run back to the start of the level to buy more ammo so I can finish him off. It's like the game assumes that I'll always be in a party of 4 players all the time or solo with all the pearlescent guns all throughout the higher levels. I'm not very optimistic about BL:tPS if awful situations like that are going to keep happening. I went back to that same Wilhelm battle in UVHM as Maya. It turns out Wihelm is mechanical, yet his health bar was red. Mech enemies are supposed to have yellow bars, not red ones. After slagging him with phaselock and using the most powerful acid weapon I had- I turned a 15-minute battle into a 15-second brawl. Wilhelm MELTED.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2018 6:23:57 GMT -5
Alright, this has been annoying the crap out of me as of late. I need somewhere to vent. I've thought about the design of all the Borderlands games, and have been trying to root out where their design works and doesn't work. I think people unanimously agree that the skill tree system is dull, and I think it's obvious why. Let's look at Axton's skill tree. It's divided up into three sections: Guerilla, Gunpowder, and Survival. Survival is themed properly, everything in that skill tree is either focused on keeping your character alive or letting you profit from having low health. Disregard how those two things are anti-synergistic, this branch of the skill tree is following a cohesive theme. Gunpowder is too, and clearly states the tree's intent- ignoring the fact that Impact offers extra melee damage. Guerilla is even more confusing. You have Sentry, Laser Sight, Scorched Earth, and Double Up to improve your turret. Ready, Grenadier, Crisis Management, and Onslaught are all abilities that could go on the Gunpowder tree, and Willing/Able the Survival tree. Where's the cohesion in this branch? These skills don't really make Axton very interesting as a character or vary his playstyle. You could argue that's the point, but why bother with classes if it doesn't teach you to play a certain way? What's the point of these skill trees if they don't evolve your playstyle as you level up? Why not take the classes out of Borderlands altogether? None of these branches really define Axton beyond "just a guy with a gun", and that part infuriates me. So what else is crucial to defining him and his many playstyles? Maybe his Class Mod would help! No. Borderlands 2 screwed up here, too -Engineer offers Turret cooldown rate. Okay... I guess if you need your turret's slag bullets that badly in UVHM you can use this. It's just here if you rely on your ability more. -Grenadier. Bonus grenade damage and explosive resist. This does not alter how you play, namely because you're relying on grenades more. -Gunner has extra team fire rate. You can... MAYBE get away with guns that have bigger magazines? However, Bandit weapons suck in general, and magazine size is heavily tied to a weapon's rarity. I don't think this really changes your playstyle. -Pointman is all about extra health topped with extra health regen. I guess it's useful since it makes you slightly more willing to exploit health-gating more, but beyond that not much of a gameplay change. -Rifleman makes your combat rifles more deadly. Unfortunately you can't get your ammo back and applies solely to one ammo type, so you're not allowed to have fun. -Specialist makes your SMGs more accurate. SMGs in this game don't have an accuracy problem, rather a DPS problem. So that's pointless. -Tactician amps recharge rate and lowers recharge delay on your team's shields. Again, literally the same function as Pointman. -Legendary Soldier essentially made all the aforementioned Class Mods useless to give you bigger numbers everywhere and make you feel good I know I'm taking the piss out on Axton, but he's the most flawed character in the game insofar as he really doesn't have an identity compared to everyone else. But don't get me wrong, everyone else has some pretty harsh flaws. Maya's elemental capacity is flawed because her character is built around her phaselock, but she has this awkward healer and elemental pathways to go down in her skill tree. Zer0 is the sniper guy whose ability doesn't really seem to help his ability to snipe, and only really synergistic with his melee playstyle. Salvador is arguably the best character in the game because ammo regen is outrageously scarce, his ability is all-in on CQC, and that's invaluable because no weapon manufacturers deal with CQC weapons in particular. Sal is not only the best character in the game but the most well-designed in that his strengths simply fit together better than anyone else in the game. TL;DR BL2/BL:tPS failed BL1 in that it might as well be Path of Exile where only the Scion was playable. It's not terrible, and the gunplay among many things are still fantastic, but dedicating yourself to a playstyle is what makes the ARTS part of this game so enjoyable.
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Jan 21, 2018 13:57:33 GMT -5
Prior to The Bee nerf Gaige was absolutely better than Sal, and the synergy between her anarchy tree and Close Enough skill was incredibly good design I thought (the interaction between Blood Soaked Shields and The Bee seemed intentional too, I think they just nerfed it in response to shitty community outcry). The only time Sal was ever a consideration over Gaige is against bosses who don't spawn any additional mobs to feed your BSS. In the entire rest of the game (pre-nerf) Gaige trivialized everything with zero ability use (or aim); literally shoot the ground with a Conference Call and everything nearby dies.
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Den
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Post by Den on Jan 21, 2018 15:46:33 GMT -5
I recently got my hands on both BL2 and Pre-Sequel, last Steam Autumn Sale and Christmas respectively.
I've developed a loathing hatred for any Skill System where you have to put 5/5 into a skill to make it worth it, let alone any points just to get to the next tier of Skills. Diablo 2, Grim Dawn, Torchlight, Borderlands, etc. Skill trees like that are always limiting in extremely poor ways, resulting in you specializing in a very narrow few skills that only sort of synergize with one another. Borderlands' single Active Skill per character is not fun. Most characters' Active Skills are not fun, sometimes not even helpful.
Screw BL2 for removing all of the Ammo Regen Mods. It was bad enough having so little ammo before the enemies became bullet sponges. I main Gunzerker just because of that; for any other character, first thing I do is farm Doc Mercy for an Infinity Pistol. Speaking of bullet sponges, BL2 was horrid when it came to level scaling and that ridiculous damage reduction if the enemy is two or more levels higher than you. Levels became so important, both on your character and your guns that shooting devolved to unfun tedium.
Pre-Sequel only slightly alleviated BL2's issues with less scaling between levels (but still massively bloated compared to BL1). At least Aurelia has (pitifully slow) Sniper regen anbd a good Active Skill. I've not actually used Fragtrap even though he's the ammo regen guy.
Borderlands 1 staying in the 100s to 1000s when it came to numbers was great. It's very shallow scaling from level to level allowed me to use a level 20-something Atlus AR I liked the look of all the way up to 50+ General Knoxx. Bloating it to crap in BL2 and PS going from 90 health at Level 1 to 250,000 at max level (as if it mattered, enemies at equal level would take off your entire health bar in a single hit anyway) is hideous and devalued you finding any gun you liked and wanted to hang on to.
Really, it's the whole level up system that ruins it at its core.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2018 19:15:08 GMT -5
In regards to the action skill system, I'd argue there's two sins you can make when designing an action skill in this game. 1) It's a sin to take focus away from your guns in a game with a bajillion guns. Roland's endgame turret fired pebbles, but that's a good thing. The focus stayed on your guns, and the turret resupplied you passively. That's why Gaige and Axton suck- their turrets do all the work for you sometimes. 2) It's a sin for the action skill to not deal with all enemies alike. Maya's Phaselock "just didn't work on certain targets". Lilith's phasewalk and Sal's Gunzerking always works.
I'd argue universal ammo regen should only go to the heavy gunner, but only because SMG/ARs are harder to resupply otherwise. Some single-weapon regen perks like Lilith's SMG class mod made sense because Maya having to juggle up to 8 guns in 4 slots at once is painful. Sniper ammo regen is ideal- dealing with bosses is a pain in the butt without it. I hate shifting through 4 weapon types- all the classes just mesh too close together for it.
I agree with your point about the level scaling being too strong in BL2. Items and health scale by 13.0% compounded per level in BL2/BL:tPS. A weapon half-life of 5.67 levels is brutal. Ten levels (≤7.2% / Lvl) should be the minimum half-life to prevent griding and Gibbed IMO. I prefer exponential growth in the loot grind because 20-level-old weapons seem a bit weird, just not 13%. If BL1 didn't scale linearly it would sit closer to a compounding value of 6% per level should you compare level 1 and 69 gear, and that's perfectly fine by me.
Overall I just think a lot of things would improve if the game had a bottom-up approach to design to things. Maybe there's a skill tree where the sniper guy blows off heads from the hip, one that emphasizes scoped weaponry, and a third for passive combat tricks that keeps enemies from getting in his face. Maybe he has balls of steel and has no ways to recover health without picking up health vials. That's how I'd design it, anyway.
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wings
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Post by wings on Jan 22, 2018 8:23:52 GMT -5
Unfortunately Borderlands 2 is 'balanced' for TVHM from what I've read from the Gearbox Forums until they changed the site's layout. And yeah, Axton sucks. I only have one build for him for UVHM. I started off playing as Zer0 but I have probably spent the most time playing as Maya. Phaselocking mobs and sniping them with a Jakobs Hawk Eye felt nice even though I can output more damage using the Pimpernel with Zer0. Gibbed is awesome. I have so many perfectly rolled items.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2018 5:44:24 GMT -5
Yeah, Mordecai/Zer0 have never really been THAT good in their respective games. As far as I can tell it's because: 1) No flinch reduction perks- certainly in BL1 where scope zoom beyond 4x was rare 2) Not all enemies have their crit spots showing at all times- if any 3) Many enemies spawn in fairly close quarters- sniper fights aren't as necessary
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