Hopefully this one will have the modular weapon system that they cut from the first one.
Also, it would be nice if the beasties took incremental damage, especially in multiplayer. Not for difficulty or game balance, just to make them seem more like monsters less like like arbitrary hitpoint containers.
and while I'm at it I'm hoping they give more thought to the mix of weapon drops. I would pass over five awesome pistols, two great snipers, a slew of good SMG's and shotties before I found one decent assault rifle.
Something like what they had in Dead Island would be perfect because I really hated not being able to play with people unless we where the same or damn close level.
I don't know how Dead Island did it, but yeah the forced level parity was a Problem. Having to keep a special character save to maintain sync with each friend who wants to play was a royal pain.
Dead Island: The enemies all scale to your level when you join a game, but only to you.
That "easy zombie" hits like a L4 zombie to the L7 guy, like an L24 zombie to the L27 guy, and like an L50 zombie to the L52 guy. Everyone does full damage, but the target's HP are pro-rated based on your level - so I might do 500 of his 1000 HP in a hit, and you'll see his health bar drop by 50%. You then hit him for 25 of his 50 remaining HP, and I see his HP drop to 25%. I then hit him for 250 of his remaining 250, and he dies.
Quest rewards are given, in full, to all people in the game when the quest is completed. If you're on a second playthrough, you get second-playthrough quest rewards even if the host is on his first playthrough. If the quest is a valid one for you to finish, you get credit for it and it's marked in your record. If not (you're ahead of the host, or too far behind the host) you still get all the rewards, it just doesn't count as completed for your playthrough.
Oh, and it's difficult to harm allies. Like, normal attacks do nothing. Explosions and the like are scaled to the damage-recipient's level - and getting killed just costs money. And money is *cheap*. So there's no incentive to grief.
There is basically zero reason to EVER not play Dead Island multiplayer. Even if your L60 character joins a noob game full of noobs who are L1, you get rewards and you don't inherently dominate - you've got more options, but you're facing reasonable threats.
Oh, and: The game is constantly searching for players who are near you in quest progression and near you in terms of network speed. If you let it, it will tell you "gamertag is near you and eligible - press 'J' to join now!". That one click joins the game, and if there's a problem, puts you right back where you were in your original game with no lost data. You can enable or disallow strangers from joining your game, or set a limit on how many strangers can join your game, or open it wide and take all comers.
The game also saves all progress for everyone every time *anyone* joins or leaves a game.
Yeah, the cartoony graphics from Borderlands are distinctive and really quite awesome.
If you haven't played the original, you should. It's currently $30 on Steam for the "Game Of The Year" edition will all the DLC (you want all the DLC), but it regularly goes on sale for ~$10.
Question 1: Did you guys fix the terrible UI from the last game? Question 2: Are the different baddies we see in the trailer, indeed, different, so that we're not just shooting four variations of the guy in the hockey mask? Question 3: Is Patricia Tannis still the most adorkable, lovably insane NPC that ever broke up with a tape recorder?
If the answer to these is all "yes," then game of the fucking year and don't you dare tell me differently.
Hmmm. That seems to address all the problems with Borderlands' multiplayer, but... doesn't that make leveling utterly pointless? As you progress in level, you end up doing the same damage proportional damage amount no matter what level you are. If you're going to do X percent damage to the beastie no matter what level you are, then why not just get rid of the leveling mechanic altogether?
Of course, all character-levelling mechanics are thin veneers over a red queen's race. This seems to make it especially pointless, though.
You'll be doing more damage in different ways, with different options. A high-level character will do 50% of a wimpy zombie's HP with a favoured weapon, whereas a low-level character (or a high-level character with a disfavoured weapon) will do 25%. You'll be much *tougher* - while the zombie damage is scaled to you, your perks might then knock a bunch of that off the top. Or you might not be tougher, you're faster. Or harder for zombies to locate. Or you might *attract* more attacks because you took that perk with that character and now your allies get hit less. You'll have access to different attacks to use - multi-hits, or a knockdown attack, or even just a "stomp the stunned zombie's brains out for an instant-kill" move.
There's advantages to levelling up, and you'll be at an advantage compared to the lower-level characters. You just won't *dominate*, and their contributions won't be meaningless and you won't breeze through ignoring enemies completely, which are the two "big level disparity" issues in Borderlands.
Would swap you my hunter's stock of ARs for those great SRs, but I sold them all to afford a Volcano that popped up in a shop. Poor hunter kept using the elephant rifle up into his 30s.
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-22 04:55 pm (UTC)Also, it would be nice if the beasties took incremental damage, especially in multiplayer. Not for difficulty or game balance, just to make them seem more like monsters less like like arbitrary hitpoint containers.
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Date: 2012-02-22 04:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-02-23 12:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 01:46 am (UTC)That "easy zombie" hits like a L4 zombie to the L7 guy, like an L24 zombie to the L27 guy, and like an L50 zombie to the L52 guy. Everyone does full damage, but the target's HP are pro-rated based on your level - so I might do 500 of his 1000 HP in a hit, and you'll see his health bar drop by 50%. You then hit him for 25 of his 50 remaining HP, and I see his HP drop to 25%. I then hit him for 250 of his remaining 250, and he dies.
Quest rewards are given, in full, to all people in the game when the quest is completed. If you're on a second playthrough, you get second-playthrough quest rewards even if the host is on his first playthrough. If the quest is a valid one for you to finish, you get credit for it and it's marked in your record. If not (you're ahead of the host, or too far behind the host) you still get all the rewards, it just doesn't count as completed for your playthrough.
Oh, and it's difficult to harm allies. Like, normal attacks do nothing. Explosions and the like are scaled to the damage-recipient's level - and getting killed just costs money. And money is *cheap*. So there's no incentive to grief.
There is basically zero reason to EVER not play Dead Island multiplayer. Even if your L60 character joins a noob game full of noobs who are L1, you get rewards and you don't inherently dominate - you've got more options, but you're facing reasonable threats.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 01:50 am (UTC)The game also saves all progress for everyone every time *anyone* joins or leaves a game.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 01:52 am (UTC)Pre-Ordered off Amazon!
Date: 2012-02-23 01:59 am (UTC)And Kevin will need a copy, too.
Which I promptly listen to twice after watching this vid
Date: 2012-02-23 02:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 02:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 08:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 01:46 pm (UTC)If you haven't played the original, you should. It's currently $30 on Steam for the "Game Of The Year" edition will all the DLC (you want all the DLC), but it regularly goes on sale for ~$10.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 03:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 04:19 pm (UTC)Question 2: Are the different baddies we see in the trailer, indeed, different, so that we're not just shooting four variations of the guy in the hockey mask?
Question 3: Is Patricia Tannis still the most adorkable, lovably insane NPC that ever broke up with a tape recorder?
If the answer to these is all "yes," then game of the fucking year and don't you dare tell me differently.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 04:56 pm (UTC)Of course, all character-levelling mechanics are thin veneers over a red queen's race. This seems to make it especially pointless, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-23 05:36 pm (UTC)There's advantages to levelling up, and you'll be at an advantage compared to the lower-level characters. You just won't *dominate*, and their contributions won't be meaningless and you won't breeze through ignoring enemies completely, which are the two "big level disparity" issues in Borderlands.
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Date: 2012-03-01 02:40 pm (UTC)