Gearbox Can't Increase Borderlands 2's Level Cap (Without Breaking It)

[Th37thTrump3t]

I understand people's frustration with this, I too was looking forward to some more level progression with my Gunzerker, but people are acting like Gearbox was just leading us on and then going "SYKE" when in reality they were actually trying but realized that they couldn't in the middle of doing so without making the game extremely unbalanced and potentially breaking the game. At least they had the courtesy of telling us so rather than going along with it and us ending up with a broken game

 

[Vigormortis]

Meanwhile, hitting level 50 gives you an achievement called "Max level ... for now."

Exactly my problem with this whole affair.

Chalk this up to yet another reason I'm still regretting paying sixty bucks for the game. I've yet to even finish my first play-through. And frankly, I'm not even sure I ever will.

I had high hopes, given how much I enjoyed Borderlands (after, annoyingly, having to turn to the community for patches and fixes), that Borderlands 2 would be better. Especially given the promises and hype Gearbox peddled leading up to the release; like saying they were improving the writing.

So, imagine my surprise when I learned that by "better writing" they meant coming up with such pearls of creativeness as "boner fart" and "butt stallion".

Christ I wish I could get my $60 back...

 

[Eggsnham]

I personally like making new characters once I have hit the apex of a previous character's potential. Is this something the player base is really adamant about? Sounds kind of silly to me.

I would have agreed with you had I seen this article a month ago, but since I've hit 50 with my main character in BL2, I realized that being high level was when the game really started. There are all sorts of "raid bosses" (not really worthy of the distinction, being that they're so easy to kill by oneself, but whatever, I'll humor them) and hidden challenges that you can find at higher levels; not to mention the awesome loot you find.

Going from a level 50 character to a level 10 character is a bit of a buzzkill. To me it is, anyways.

Slightly more on topic; I really hope they think up some way to raise the level cap in a way that's satisfactory to them; I don't want to shelf BL2 quite yet, but I'm running out of reasons to keep myself interested in it.

 

[atallishgiraffe]

Honestly, though, if they do manage to find someway to raise the level cap, the enemies are going to level with us.
Why do you guys think that things will be any different at level 61 vs 50?
If they find a way to do it, I'm pretty sure the power balance will be kept the same.

So really, all a level raise will do is make all the legendaries we've farmed for useless....

I'd be much more interested in something else in place of a level cap-raise.

 

[Headsprouter]

Right. Can I see a show of hands for who wants to farm for LEVEL 60 legendary guns?

....

Exactly. We leave the cap as is. Otherwise most of our hard work going for these things has been pointless in the wider scope of things.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

What the fuck does game balance have to with anything? It's a Singleplayer/Co-op RPG. Breaking the game is half the point of progression!

As I've said before, I won't be buying any BL2 DLC until they give a backpack increase and raise the level cap.

 

[GonzoGamer]

That's bull. Anyone played the most recent DLC and agree with this? I've got multiple level 50 characters and some of the new Level 53 enemies are crazy hard even with a good skills combo and full loadout of legendary weapons. Current endgame design basically requires good co-op partners, an increased level cap may strain an xbox's hardware but no way would it break the game for 95% of players. Regardless, they could have let people know this from the start instead of letting us expect the cap raise for 6 months. Very poor form Gearbox, I expected more from you.

Did you even read the article? This obviously isn't something they anticipated. Also, the end game isn't THAT hard. With the right loadouts for each area/raid boss you can solo anything. Sure it may be challenging but what the fuck is the point of playing if you can just roll over everything like in the first game?

Actually, after reading the article, some of the issues seem like things they should've anticipated: like how certain perks might clash or make the character OP. They should've seen that coming at least. It seems like they put a lot of thought into the perks and how they could cap off at 50...just not beyond?
Still, not the biggest deal in the world. At this point I have three characters to completely play through the game with and some really bitchin lv 50 hardware.

 

[RedDeadFred]

That's bull. Anyone played the most recent DLC and agree with this? I've got multiple level 50 characters and some of the new Level 53 enemies are crazy hard even with a good skills combo and full loadout of legendary weapons. Current endgame design basically requires good co-op partners, an increased level cap may strain an xbox's hardware but no way would it break the game for 95% of players. Regardless, they could have let people know this from the start instead of letting us expect the cap raise for 6 months. Very poor form Gearbox, I expected more from you.

Did you even read the article? This obviously isn't something they anticipated. Also, the end game isn't THAT hard. With the right loadouts for each area/raid boss you can solo anything. Sure it may be challenging but what the fuck is the point of playing if you can just roll over everything like in the first game?

Actually, after reading the article, some of the issues seem like things they should've anticipated: like how certain perks might clash or make the character OP. They should've seen that coming at least. It seems like they put a lot of thought into the perks and how they could cap off at 50...just not beyond?
Still, not the biggest deal in the world. At this point I have three characters to completely play through the game with and some really bitchin lv 50 hardware.

The guy I quoted replied to me with the same thing. While I agree that they seem to have realized the balance issues, that doesn't seem to be the major thing preventing them from increasing the level cap. The unanticipated issue is that it could literally break the game. That's what I was referring to. Balance issues can be adjusted by nerfing certain skills when used in combination with others. That doesn't seem to be the major issue.

 

[GonzoGamer]

That's bull. Anyone played the most recent DLC and agree with this? I've got multiple level 50 characters and some of the new Level 53 enemies are crazy hard even with a good skills combo and full loadout of legendary weapons. Current endgame design basically requires good co-op partners, an increased level cap may strain an xbox's hardware but no way would it break the game for 95% of players. Regardless, they could have let people know this from the start instead of letting us expect the cap raise for 6 months. Very poor form Gearbox, I expected more from you.

Did you even read the article? This obviously isn't something they anticipated. Also, the end game isn't THAT hard. With the right loadouts for each area/raid boss you can solo anything. Sure it may be challenging but what the fuck is the point of playing if you can just roll over everything like in the first game?

Actually, after reading the article, some of the issues seem like things they should've anticipated: like how certain perks might clash or make the character OP. They should've seen that coming at least. It seems like they put a lot of thought into the perks and how they could cap off at 50...just not beyond?
Still, not the biggest deal in the world. At this point I have three characters to completely play through the game with and some really bitchin lv 50 hardware.

The guy I quoted replied to me with the same thing. While I agree that they seem to have realized the balance issues, that doesn't seem to be the major thing preventing them from increasing the level cap. The unanticipated issue is that it could literally break the game. That's what I was referring to. Balance issues can be adjusted by nerfing certain skills when used in combination with others. That doesn't seem to be the major issue.

Sorry.
Also, the same thing (re, perks & guns) happened with B1 when General Knoxx came out and few seemed to mind.
It does seem like there would be issues "under the hood" to raise the cap. Still, it seems like they should've tested for this kind of thing in the initial development...especially considering the level 50 achievement/trophy is something like "capped off...for now" isn't it.

 

[Kopikatsu]

If I'd known they had no intention of increasing the level cap, I wouldn't have bought the Season Pass in the first place.

 

[Therumancer]

Sounds like an excuse to me.

My initial thought here is that they never should have released the game with the intent of creating 4 DLC packs if they knew their game balance was wonky enough where they could never have the game progress in a way that would justify that content, given that an RPG like this is all about leveling up and accumulating bigger and better loot.

He's good at articulating problems, but at this point it's a situation where Gearbox should be looking for solutions, and if it doesn't find them with this reveal, it will kind of be deserving of any scorn it gets from this point on. To me doing this kind of DLC right from the beginning, selling season passes, and then saying "oh hey, we can't really have you advance any more than we set up initially, because of the way we designed and balanced the game... our bad" is the kind of garbage that makes me hate the game industry.

One day I am waiting for a game developer to release a pack of Level 51 weapons for an RPG in a game capped at level 50. People will download it, find they can't equip them (since they still require level 51, as opposed to just giving you weapons 1 level higher), complain, and then after enough glorious QQing come out and saying "thanks for your $$$, the weapons are working as intended, and we have no intention of raising the level cap since it would unbalance our game, the content does nothing for your advancement or character progression, but boy do we love money! The proceeds to this DLC are going towards mink toilet-seat covers for our studio labs...."

Gearbox is nothing quite so bad here, but that's the next level up, and I am indeed waiting for something spiritually similar to happen... and have been since before this article. The sad thing is, if done with the right franchise people would still fanatically support it for installments to come.

 

[felixader]

Um, destroy the balance, Too powerfull?

Yes please, since the game comes to a goddamn grind courtesy of the fact that i need thousand of bullets for every enemy making every battle a chore.

At least to me it is no fun to shoot and shoot and have nearly every little character nearly destroy you becaue they just shrug of most of the bullets and abilitys and walk up to us shooting all the time and destroying your shield in an instant.
We are as far as waiting for our main ability to cool down and then to throw them at the enemy cause that is the only thing that actually has any effect.

Weapons are just useless at level 50. If you find ne that has some effect it is most likely not of the type one personally likes to use.

I don not really think this games "endgame" is really well balanced.

Don't know why we go back into it every weekend, though.

 

[Ham Blitz]

I kept telling my friend that but he said that couldn't be the reason. I knew it, after playing all 5 characters to at least 10 levels started to see that, reading all the skill trees.

 

[duchaked]

Ok this is just silly.

First..only 16% of players hit the current cap of lvl 50? So only 16% of players like the game basically?

This is what confuses me a little.

I love the game. I've put 50 hours into it, finishing the main quest and the first two DLCs along with a bunch of side quests. I still have not reached the level cap with my single character. Am I doing it wrong? I keep seeing people talk about how easy it is to hit the cap, and I'm really not all that close after 50 hours of one character...

lol I'm the same way. not even that close to 50, but I guess I've come nowhere near the number of hours my friends online have put in...

 

[xdiesp]

They are actually right, in that it would ruin the game's challenge when backtracking to old areas. It was basically impossible to stay at the right dungeon level in all B1 expansions with a single character, you had to reroll and take a completely different path.

I bet player would just be content with having an on-screen level number going up with no gameplay consequences whatsoever, aka filling up a bar.

 

[hermes]

Ok this is just silly.

First..only 16% of players hit the current cap of lvl 50? So only 16% of players like the game basically?

That is a strawman... That is like saying "people that don't prestige don't play Call of Duty".

Even counting only those that completed the game, most people finished it at about level 35. To reach level 50 after that would require a commitment most people don't do, including replaying the campaign in true vault until about halfway to the finish.

 

[hermes]

Ok this is just silly.

First..only 16% of players hit the current cap of lvl 50? So only 16% of players like the game basically?

This is what confuses me a little.

I love the game. I've put 50 hours into it, finishing the main quest and the first two DLCs along with a bunch of side quests. I still have not reached the level cap with my single character. Am I doing it wrong? I keep seeing people talk about how easy it is to hit the cap, and I'm really not all that close after 50 hours of one character...

lol I'm the same way. not even that close to 50, but I guess I've come nowhere near the number of hours my friends online have put in...

The most common way is to reach 35 during the normal campaign. Once you reached the end game and replay it on true vault hunter mode, its fairly fast to reach level 50, especially if you play with higher level players, since that affect how much XP your team gets from normal enemies.

 

[Rad Party God]

I personally like making new characters once I have hit the apex of a previous character's potential. Is this something the player base is really adamant about? Sounds kind of silly to me.

You and I my friend, but you'll be surprised at how many people just want to keep leveling, instead of even bothering to create a brand new character. Personally I don't mind, better know ahead of time that the level cap will be kept at 50, better than having to deal with the dreaded Power Creep.

 

[krisboats]

Its such a load of rubbish. If you spend 10 minutes on google and have a usb pen you can unlock the entire skill tree on xbox for each character. One of my characters has the entire skill tree along with over 500% on each badass rank bonus. You can even donwload profiles that have all tge legendary items and skins and play through with those. Upon telling my friends we played a 4 player game with these super characters and guess what. Nobodies xbox blew up. No massive amounts of lag, just a bit of stutter and nothing more than can happen in the game normally without a super character. I know it doesnt represent that it wont ever do that, but after a good 20+ hrs of 4 player with these characters we havent had any issues that are out of the norm.

But hey, if they raise the level cap before this season pass runs out nobody will pay more. Wonder if they'll find the miracle fix after the 4th content comes out and release iy as an add on to get more money?

 

[krisboats]

Its such a load of rubbish. If you spend 10 minutes on google and have a usb pen you can unlock the entire skill tree on xbox for each character. One of my characters has the entire skill tree along with over 500% on each badass rank bonus. You can even donwload profiles that have all tge legendary items and skins and play through with those. Upon telling my friends we played a 4 player game with these super characters and guess what. Nobodies xbox blew up. No massive amounts of lag, just a bit of stutter and nothing more than can happen in the game normally without a super character. I know it doesnt represent that it wont ever do that, but after a good 20+ hrs of 4 player with these characters we havent had any issues that are out of the norm.

But hey, if they raise the level cap before this season pass runs out nobody will pay more. Wonder if they'll find the miracle fix after the 4th content comes out and release iy as an add on to get more money?