One thing that I thought was interesting in Pitchford's Q&A session was that it sounds like they're practically blowing through the DLC creation process. At least from what he was saying (I forget his exact words), it sounds like we may have the first DLC far sooner than we ever expected, and the Mechromancer is due in only 25 days.
"In Borderlands 2, there is such a thing as a class specific item - but the vast bulk of the haul is universal. It’s a shooter; shooters gonna shoot. And that means comparing and prioritizing five stats plus corollary features every. five. minutes. If that long.
I understand exactly what he’s saying. It’s the reverse of Eddie’s Dilemma; virtually everything pertains to you. I have my own ways of trying to manage it; when I can’t make a decision, I choose based on sale price. That is to say, even if I don’t know everything exactly, I keep or equip the one that the game mechanism itself values. I have a pistol which, inexplicably, costs as much as everything else in my inventory. It stats are alright, but I kept it because it was so expensive. It turns out that this gun never runs out of bullets."
I understand where this is coming from, but I'm not sure if I entirely agree with it. I do think that there's definitely a bit of experimentation that almost
has to occur in the beginning for the player to find weapons that really tailor to their playstyle. What really throws people off -- including the Borderlands veterans -- is that there are just so many different and unique weapon styles that it can take awhile. For example, I found this Assault Rifle that actually shot grenade-like explosives out (expended quite a bit of ammo with each shot too). It's definitely very unique, but I also found that I didn't care for it much. That's just one unique type... imagine how many weapons I would need to go through to really determine what I want to use. I think it can truly be a daunting task.
Although, I do think it's possible to easily weed out weapons that just don't mesh with your playstyle. For example, if a gun has less than 90% accuracy, there's a really low chance that I'm going to use it. I'm all about high accuracy, high rate of fire, automatic weapons. Sometimes I enjoy elemental tech, but they can be a trade-off if you start running into enemies that will resist it.
Overall, it can be a really daunting task, but I think complaining about the arrows is a little silly. If I remember correctly, Borderlands 1 didn't even have indicators like that, which meant that you had to do everything yourself! I do wish that Gearbox would have been smarter in some ways. For example, why do I have to press 'e' to compare an item. Just show the currently equipped item card next to the one that I'm hovering over! You're already giving me the arrows... might as well go all the way. Also, put the zoom stat back.
EDIT:
I here its a BEECH on high (Resource hog) I am going medium.
I just dont get low is OFF..... thats just bull.
I'm running on high, and it's fine.