Make Borderlands 2 better

[Brendan Stepladder]

Borderlands 2 is the best game I've played this year. Just wanted to get that out of the way. However, it suffers the same fatal flaw that the first does, and does most RPG games: the moment you max out your level, the games ceases to be fun the moment your dopamine calms down. There needs to be a system in place for players who have all of the best specs and weapons to continue to use their godly Commando and have fun with him. While I am more than open to hear any of your suggestions, and would love to hear them, I have a proposal of my own.

Borderlands 2 needs a survival PvE mode similar to Nazi Zombies, GoW's Horde, or Halo's Firefight. Four players walking into the Slaughterdome and don't leave until they are all splattered on the ground. However, Borderlands can take advantage of its RPG elements to give a slight riff on the usual formula. First of all, all enemies will be scaled to player levels. When you start a game, your foes will be slightly below your level, then scale upward as you progress. Also, enemy levels will scale according to all players present. What this means is that if a level 34 and a 50 walk into the arena, level 34 and 50 enemies will fight them side by side, but lower-leveled foes will rapidly stop showing up as time goes on.

There can be two main modes, each using the loot system in a different way. The main mode will be the most simple; players can take all weapons they have from the main game with them. The second is more creative: players lose their entire inventory for the duration of the fight. They are all given a crappy pistol and a paltry shield to compensate. All players must gather loot dropped by the foes they fight in order to upgrade their arsenal.

So, that was my rant. Do you have any suggestions about what can improve Borderlands?

 

[Doclector]

For one thing, if at all possible, I'd make it less lengthy to get to another level of a skill tree. It's about five skill points to get to the next level at the moment, and that's a little slow for my liking, especially when it comes to actually making a choice about skills. Also, we could do with a higher level cap than 50, methinks.

Also...flame shield up here...zombies.

Goddammit, I just loved the zombie island of dr ned so damn much. Particularly its use of slow, hard to kill romero zombies. Sounds ridiculously nerdy, even for here, but I really geeked out, following the sort of combat doctrine described in the zombie survival guide and the latter parts of world war z.

But of course, they couldn't really get away with doing zombie island again. Especially not now that people are starting to get a little fed up of zombies. I suggest a full on hammer horror DLC. Yeah, zombie island included some classic hammer horror stuff, but I mean going the whole hog. Wolf-man (or the return of skag-men) frankenstien creations, some lovecraftian tentacle beasts for good measure, perhaps even including some nods to more recent horror franchises such as the 90s/80s slasher films.

Hell, why not expand it further, make it a tribute to the entire b-movie genre. Giant bugs, flying saucers, the evil dead, the whole thing. I could really geek out to that.

 

[Launcelot111]

Banish pyro threshers and wormhole threshers to the tenth circle of hell.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

For one thing, if at all possible, I'd make it less lengthy to get to another level of a skill tree. It's about five skill points to get to the next level at the moment, and that's a little slow for my liking, especially when it comes to actually making a choice about skills. Also, we could do with a higher level cap than 50, methinks.

Yeah, I gotta agree with the skill points thing.

There's not much build variation if you have to spend so many points to get to the end of a tree.

 

[Doclector]

For one thing, if at all possible, I'd make it less lengthy to get to another level of a skill tree. It's about five skill points to get to the next level at the moment, and that's a little slow for my liking, especially when it comes to actually making a choice about skills. Also, we could do with a higher level cap than 50, methinks.

Yeah, I gotta agree with the skill points thing.

There's not much build variation if you have to spend so many points to get to the end of a tree.

I want extra guns on my turret, and I also want a small nuke to go off when I deploy it, and I also need some stuff from the survival tree...GAAAAH!

 

[Ravinoff]

Banish pyro threshers and wormhole threshers to the tenth circle of hell.

Second. Stalkers too, hate those things. You don't know irritating until you've taken on a Rabid Stalker. And nerf the hell out of Rats, they're insufferable. Personally, I'd like to get rid of Varkids entirely and replace them with spiderants, since they're the same exact thing.

The big things I'd do are improve the loot and make certain areas less bullshit. For example, the ascent to Angel Core felt awesome because you had support, and it made sense for the place to be crawling with defenders. But some random bandit camp spawning a dozen guys out of nowhere? That just feels like work.

Oh, and fix the save system.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

This thread here is what others are currently asking for http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=160189

The first thing I would change is I would remove Eridium from ALL boss loot pools. I cannot stress how aggravating it is to be farming for a rare drop and to see all these purple drops that end up being useless trash. I long ago got all the Eriduim I could carry, and I don't need 1-5 to drop from everything I kill anymore.

I would make it so if you watch carefully you can see threshers burrowing around an area BEFORE you are walking through it. Usually I had just killed a horde of enemies in a spot, then I'm walking away and BOOM 8 threshers burst from the ground all around me and I'm already dead in TVHM.

I literally have 3 guns equipped that are IDENTICAL other than element. The only variation I've seen in ANY guns is that occasionally a sniper will have extra crit damage or a pistol will have a silly stock attachment. Slightly different sights withstanding.

I used to look for sub types like Stingers and Mashers, and clip vs cylinder shottys/snipers.

There also used to be AMMO REGEN guns/mods. I haven't seen anything like that browsing the gearbox forums every day. Aside from the Rapid Infinity which is the new Dove.

I would also have added more chests to loot, the classic red kind, and put one in each area like there used to be. Currently if you want anything good you have to kill farm every boss an average of 60 times. I liked that you used to get good things sometimes in chests and bosses weren't loot lotteries. I'd rather a boss be really hard and have a good chance to drop something decent rather than killable every 2 minutes for hours and hours with no drop.

Seriously how is knowing that you will either need to devote days of your life to absolutely no purpose, or get someone to dupe them for you, fun?

In my life I've dealt with low drop rates in various games, but at least they were fun the rest of the time and had the courtesy to have a quick load option. Farming Bunker, Warrior, or Henry in BL2 is a form or torture you inflict upon yourself.

The best thing I got loot wise since I got the game was Azure wave/Skullsmasher from Son of Mothrak after about 30 runs. It might have taken less but most of the time all his drops fall through the floor.

Best thing from a chest was a Fire Bee grenade mod from a god-liath loot goon. That thing is the most awesome grenade mod ever, its like something out of Ratchet and Clank!

 

[SajuukKhar]

-Manual saves

-Remove Threshers

-More inventory and bank Space

-Make badass enemies in true vault hunter Mode not insane bullet sponges, I mean some bullet sponginess is ok but dear lord some of them are just like "drain all your ammo" and it isn't fun.

I would also have added more chests to loot, the classic red kind, and put one in each area like there used to be. Currently if you want anything good you have to kill farm every boss an average of 60 times. I liked that you used to get good things sometimes in chests and bosses weren't loot lotteries. I'd rather a boss be really hard and have a good chance to drop something decent rather than killable every 2 minutes for hours and hours with no drop.

there are Red Chests in every map, they are just hidden.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Make the stash bigger than four spaces. Man oh man do I spend a lot of logins moving stuff around.

Remove Rats, especially midget Rats. They're so small, you can put them in the exact center of your shotgun reticle, pull the trigger, and get no hits.

The super-tough enemies bug me. I've never been keen on the notion of unarmored humans who can have half a dozen clips emptied into them at point-blank range and not die. I guess the same eldritch forces that mutate the unlucky half of the population into Midgets and Psychos turns the lucky half into the Juggernaut....?

Where are the decent assault rifles? Every single assault rifle I've found has had some unforgivable flaw. For starters, most of them only have twelve-round clips. Twelve rounds in an assault rifle?? Freaking handguns hold more than that in the real world.

Make sniper rifles wtfbbqpwnzor just a little bit less. In BL1 you could line up your shot perfectly and still miss due to weapon inaccuracy. In BL2, wherever you put the dot is where the bullet goes, every time. The other weapon types don't get 100% accuracy, sniper rifles shouldn't either!

 

[Paradoxrifts]

-Give every type of weapon category a special action. Sniper rifles could allow you to knock down enemies with your rifle stock, assault rifles could have an underslung grenade launcher, pistols could allow you to stun an enemy by meleeing them in the face with it, rocket launchers allow you to either rocket jump or use a mortar attack, shotguns could allow you to empty both barrels point-blank into an enemy with a melee attack for extra damage and I have absolutely no idea what they could do with SMGs.

-Give psychos the ability to crash tackle. That would make bandit encounters a little more difficult.

-I'd like them to put more rare weapons in the hands of bad guys. Not only does it not make sense that bandits would be keeping the best weaponry stored in treasure chests, but I'd like more chances of wresting dangerous weaponry out of the cold dead hands of my fallen enemies.

-Include much more variety amongst the white-blue gear. The guns are always the same standardised crap, so I don't even bother looking at them anymore I just collect and sell.

 

[romanator0]

-Make pistols 2 different weapon types again. With revolvers and repeaters mashed together we have pistols that have the power of revolvers and the accuracy and fire-rate of repeaters.

-Allow every manufacturer to make every weapon type again. Right now every manufacturer makes pistols and a few other weapon types. Doing this will balance pistols so that aren't so good compared to rifles and smgs and will make other weapon types as numerous when dropped as pistols are. This will also allow for more unique and varied weapons such as Vladof spini-shotguns and Torgue gyrojet smgs.

 

[Netrigan]

I would love to see Skyrim style "endless content" that scales up to your current level, as there's quite a number of not-terribly-well-traveled areas which could support a good boss fight or siege. Yeah, it's fun to roll over the boss which once gave you fits, but there's simply no challenge in it.

 

[NinjaSniperAssassin]

-No more Threshers and Rat Thieves.

-Higher level cap. The badass level is cool but the rewards aren't significant enough to make that a motivation after hitting character level 50.

-Have enemies who use unique guns drop them when killed. In BL1, when a Crimson Raider came at me firing fire bullets I could look forward to having a rare weapon in the loot pile.

-Ammo Regen mods. Especially given how bullet spongy some enemies are.

-Give Goliaths a weak point that can be hit before shooting their helmets off.

-No more "Each shot uses X bullets". Gets annoying when I pick up a great-looking rifle with a 20 bullet clip, only to realize that it uses 3 bullets per shot.

-Moar gunz!

 

[taciturnCandid]

I was getting a little bored of borderlands 2, but then I found an editor. I made a maxed out siren and gave myself a ton of golden keys. Is it cheating? Yeah. It is. But am I having fun? Hell yeah!

Take away the grind and give yourself a challenge by fighting enemies way above your level and the game becomes fresh again.

Of course, when i play with my friends i keep a character that isn't cheated and use standard drops and not the chest. I have lots of fun playing with friends

But playing with myself it just got blah.

 

[xPixelatedx]

I heard if the Mechromancer goes over well they will add more characters for DLC. They need to add in more strange characters that are noticeably different, to encourage more playthroughs.

I'd like to play as an adult/medium sized Skag that runs around holding a gun in it's mouth. It's special skill is barfing, and you can change the elemental effect and damage of the barf through it's skill tree. Also, you can eat the bodies laying around (before they disappear) for health, and increase the amount of health they give you back by leveling that up to.

Hear that Gearbox? That one's free.

 

[Saulkar]

I heard if the Mechromancer goes over well they will add more characters for DLC. They need to add in more strange characters that are noticeably different, to encourage more playthroughs.

I'd like to play as an adult/medium sized Skag that runs around holding a gun in it's mouth. It's special skill is barfing, and you can change the elemental effect and damage of the barf through it's skill tree. Also, you can eat the bodies laying around (before they disappear) for health, and increase the amount of health they give you back by leveling that up to.

Hear that Gearbox? That one's free.

And his name would be!!!

DUKINO!

 

[TheMann]

I think the main thing that bums me out about Borderlands 2, is that you can't go back and listen to old ECHO recordings and transmissions like you could in the first game. In Borderlands, I used to replay to Patricia Tannis' diaries and have a little chuckle, and almost everything General Knoxx says in the DLC is hilarious and warrants another playback.

In Borderlands 2, the writing is even better which makes this even more of a shame. Things that Handsome Jack, Tiny Tina, and even Lilith say are downright outrageous, but I couldn't hear much of it over all the gunfire and other noise. Now you have to co-op that quest again and listen more closely if you want to get it all. Even worse is when you're getting a transmission and it cuts out in favor of a random NPC that happens to be near you. It's a pretty minor thing, I don't know why they'd leave it out.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Well, we're probably stuck with the fact that some idiot thought that what Blands needed was a super dramatic story (Hint: It didn't and the story only harms Blands 2), but the biggest change needed is:


Vastly reduce enemy HP.

This is probably supposed to be "challenge", but it's not interesting. It is dull to have to chew through tens of thousands of hitpoints for every damn enemy. It was dull in Blands 1, and it's dull in Blands 2.

 

[VeryOddGamer]

I think Borderlands 2 could be heavily improved if it was given free to all individuals with the first name: "Valtteri" and the last name "Rantamäki".

What? In my eyes, the game would be vastly better that way.

 

[unstabLized]

-No more Threshers and Rat Thieves.

-Higher level cap. The badass level is cool but the rewards aren't significant enough to make that a motivation after hitting character level 50.

-Have enemies who use unique guns drop them when killed. In BL1, when a Crimson Raider came at me firing fire bullets I could look forward to having a rare weapon in the loot pile.

-Ammo Regen mods. Especially given how bullet spongy some enemies are.

-Give Goliaths a weak point that can be hit before shooting their helmets off.

-No more "Each shot uses X bullets". Gets annoying when I pick up a great-looking rifle with a 20 bullet clip, only to realize that it uses 3 bullets per shot.

-Moar gunz!

This thread here is what others are currently asking for http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=160189

The first thing I would change is I would remove Eridium from ALL boss loot pools. I cannot stress how aggravating it is to be farming for a rare drop and to see all these purple drops that end up being useless trash. I long ago got all the Eriduim I could carry, and I don't need 1-5 to drop from everything I kill anymore.

I would make it so if you watch carefully you can see threshers burrowing around an area BEFORE you are walking through it. Usually I had just killed a horde of enemies in a spot, then I'm walking away and BOOM 8 threshers burst from the ground all around me and I'm already dead in TVHM.

I literally have 3 guns equipped that are IDENTICAL other than element. The only variation I've seen in ANY guns is that occasionally a sniper will have extra crit damage or a pistol will have a silly stock attachment. Slightly different sights withstanding.

I used to look for sub types like Stingers and Mashers, and clip vs cylinder shottys/snipers.

There also used to be AMMO REGEN guns/mods. I haven't seen anything like that browsing the gearbox forums every day. Aside from the Rapid Infinity which is the new Dove.

I would also have added more chests to loot, the classic red kind, and put one in each area like there used to be. Currently if you want anything good you have to kill farm every boss an average of 60 times. I liked that you used to get good things sometimes in chests and bosses weren't loot lotteries. I'd rather a boss be really hard and have a good chance to drop something decent rather than killable every 2 minutes for hours and hours with no drop.

Seriously how is knowing that you will either need to devote days of your life to absolutely no purpose, or get someone to dupe them for you, fun?

In my life I've dealt with low drop rates in various games, but at least they were fun the rest of the time and had the courtesy to have a quick load option. Farming Bunker, Warrior, or Henry in BL2 is a form or torture you inflict upon yourself.

The best thing I got loot wise since I got the game was Azure wave/Skullsmasher from Son of Mothrak after about 30 runs. It might have taken less but most of the time all his drops fall through the floor.

Best thing from a chest was a Fire Bee grenade mod from a god-liath loot goon. That thing is the most awesome grenade mod ever, its like something out of Ratchet and Clank!

Just wanted to make a quick mention that there is at least Team Bullet Regen that the gunzerker can equip. I`m not sure if there is independent bullet regen, but there is a Team Regen.