Borderlands 3 - Mask of Mayhem

[Midwayman]

I will be waiting for a Steam release as well but I did see Borderlands 3 for $45 on Amazon if anyone is interested.

-KeithP

That listing looks so sketch. Looks like they're shipping you a physical box from somewhere in asia by delivery times.

 

[Midwayman]

FWIW GMG has a 10% off code that works on BL3 right now.

 

[KeithP]

That listing looks so sketch. Looks like they're shipping you a physical box from somewhere in asia by delivery times.

You are right. Thanks for catching that. Looking more closely if I was going to buy I wouldn't purchase it through that seller.

-KeithP

 

[Worthington]

Don't forget to hit F4 and check your in-game mail. I didn't even know that was a thing until level 12'ish. Of course sitting unused in my mailbox were all sort of decent guns and shield mods i had either gotten from pre-ordering, or from completing in-game challenges (Kill 100 enemies using a Torgue sniper rifle and Torgue will send you a new gun as a general example).

 

[ondma]

Don't forget to hit F4 and check your in-game mail. I didn't even know that was a thing until level 12'ish. Of course sitting unused in my mailbox were all sort of decent guns and shield mods i had either gotten from pre-ordering, or from completing in-game challenges (Kill 100 enemies using a Torgue sniper rifle and Torgue will send you a new gun as a general example).

Yea, it's quite annoying that you have to check your mail to get rewards, especially since you have to be "in game" to check your mail. The devs just want to force you to use the social network, which I am not interested at all. Would be much simpler if they just put the rewards directly into your inventory.

 

[zinfamous]

you punks, I couldn't wait. opened stupid Epic account for this. signed up for paypal "credit" and got 20 bucks off, lol. ...guess I now have a credit line boost that I will never use, but at least it's an extra point or two on my credit score by boosting my total credit, haha.

the 21:9 bug is terrible. will play a bit with Fidelity FX off to see if that helps. My shift account won't work...it actually doesn't let me activate the "sign in" button when trying to enter, anyway. ...no idea what the deal is there...do I have to create a new shift account, just for BL3? makes no sense.

my Logitech G mouse settings software stuff doesn't work. can't get custom buttons to work on mouse with profile, estabilshed as I usually do with games. ...no idea why that isn't working. This is one of those games where I need at least 3--and it looks like 5 in this one--mouse buttons to play it properly (action skill, mele, crouch/slide, now weapon mode switch...)

only like 10 minutes in. will see.

 

[sze5003]

I don't even know what a shift account is. The game never told me I needed to create one. I'm still at the same area where I have to go beat the boss mouthpiece but im not doing it as I haven't got better guns yet. I guess I'll try doing some more side quests.

My username in the game is sze5003 for anyone that's on PC and may want to join.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Shift was available for Borderlands 2 and allowed you to get in-game rewards (skins, weapons, golden keys, etc.) by inputting codes the developers would post in various places. It appears they kept it in with Borderlands 3, but I don't have the game so I don't know the extent of how it's used.

Edit: It looks like the Orcz website was just updated recently. Since I'll be getting this game in a few months, I might as well leave this here for you Epic players.

Borderlands 3: Shift Codes - Orcz.com, The Video Games Wiki

orcz.com

Be sure to check that site often, especially since the game just came out. BL2 had a ton of codes that were only good for a few hours or a few days. Bookmark that site and good luck with whatever that diamond chest gives you.

 

[zinfamous]

^right. the purpose of Shift is just to hound the internet (mostly twitter, for that drunken Pitchford dude and his random loot releases after a heavy night at the bar), but Orcz always seemed to do all that work for you. You just register Shift keys for as long as they are active. Each key gives you an in-game...key that allows you to access the main-hub loot chest for rando good gear. That's pretty much it. It's actually great for leveling up, and not the best for endgame stuff if you stick around and max everything. Not sure if it's the same way it works in BL3 yet (each shift key = 1 epic chest access), but it's still worth it, I imagine.

So, very useful for a lot of the game and if you want to run multiple toons, but there is a cutoff for hoarding them...just ask the people like (totally not me?) that have a couple hundred in their BL games....eh. anyway, it's useful. I don't know why my registered BL2 shift account doesn't work here. ...though that isn't accurate. Game won't even let me activate the "enter" icon when I try to login, no matter what. real, fake password, it just doesn't work. (go into "social" option in menu, Shift, that's how it works, or is supposed to)

so the Fidelity FX definitely fixes the cropping issue for cutscenes at 21:9...still hate that they are only rendered at 10:9 or whatever that standard is...with the black bars on the side. Devs aren't allowing this for their games this day, which is weird, imo. UW displays are more and more common in gaming, so I don't know why they don't do it. AC Origins did it and it was fine. Strangely, AC Odyssey doesn't do it, but I did find the forums where you simply patch the game .exe file with the proper data (Takes 8 seconds, every time they update the game) and it works flawlessly. I don't get it...it's the same data, same code, every single time. Why don't devs simply have the various resolution display options as part of the main game file, and it never has to change? What's hard about just including all of them as default, and it never has to change? I don't get it.

Oh, also fixed my mouse issues by doing that, uh, update software thing through Logitech. seems there is a new download for 10/18, if no one has updated since then. ...I was probably a year older than that.

I'm running the setting from the linked HUB video earlier, and everything seems fine so far (two toons through the intro sequence so far). Though I'm only 3440x1440, and not 4k, Sapphire Vega 64 (on god-know's how old drivers--will check later; did not update for this release yet), it's running like a top. well, 2 hitches in about 2 hours so far.

 

[sze5003]

Yea perhaps I'll try one of those shift codes once I make an account. I had to do some side quests tonight that were a level above my character's level. Still haven't gotten any better weapons. I did get a few that have unlimited ammo but will break eventually. Then 3 others I need to be level 7 to use. So I guess I'll do more side quests tomorrow so I can use those weapons.

I also have the fidelity fx setting off because I found out about it from Reddit. I don't get why they don't include 21:9 by default scaling in all games. For games like a plague take innocense I had to use a hex editor to set the resolution to my 3440x1440 native for cutscenes; each time there is an update.

I know gearbox mentioned they are working on a performance optimisation fix for pc and it should be out eventually. Maybe that will also patch the resolution?

 

[zinfamous]

Yea perhaps I'll try one of those shift codes once I make an account. I had to do some side quests tonight that were a level above my character's level. Still haven't gotten any better weapons. I did get a few that have unlimited ammo but will break eventually. Then 3 others I need to be level 7 to use. So I guess I'll do more side quests tomorrow so I can use those weapons.

I also have the fidelity fx setting off because I found out about it from Reddit. I don't get why they don't include 21:9 by default scaling in all games. For games like a plague take innocense I had to use a hex editor to set the resolution to my 3440x1440 native for cutscenes; each time there is an update.

I know gearbox mentioned they are working on a performance optimisation fix for pc and it should be out eventually. Maybe that will also patch the resolution?

Hex editor, yeah. I have HxD sitting on my desktop. every time AC Odyssey updates, it was a quick upload the .exe file to HxD, copy paste the very same hex values in 2 fields, save, and done.

...it's mind-boggling that devs don't make these options default, never have to be updated when they update whatever it is they are updating...because nothing ever changes with those hex values and it never breaks anything, at least on whatever engine AC runs on...isn't it Unreal? I don't know, honestly.

 

[ondma]

Very excited about the game when it came out. I still like it, but am becoming frustrated with some of the controls. Fast travel is strange, cant really travel from a fast travel station, but have to do it by zooming out the map. Also annoying that you have to open your mail in game (why not from the title screen) and use it to redeem rewards (why not just put them in your inventory?) And the map zooms in to a close up view every time I close it and re-open it, and it is very slow to scroll out to wider view. None of these are game-breakers, but added up, they are getting frustrating in a game that has had seven years to be developed. I have a pretty powerful PC and only play singe player at 1080p, so have not really noticed the poor performance a lot of users are complaining about. It does seem that the guns are not very powerful though. I am level 9 and still dont have any guns that are even close to a one hit kill. Even though I am playing as an operative and deal a lot of damage with the drone and clone, still seem to be continuously running out of ammo because it takes so many shots for a kill.

 

[Worthington]

I finally found one of those sticky Torgue shotties the same day they nerfed it with a hotfix. Oh well, such is life.

 

[ondma]

Well, it is still Borderlands, and I like it. Just seems like for the controls and interface they have taken a page from Microsoft's book and decided to take things that already work, make them less intuitive, and add extra clicks just to do the same thing.

 

[zinfamous]

^The slow map zooming is very annoying, and also the need to switch views to travel from one map to the next...that actually took me a little while to figure out. I also don't like that the map isn't fixed. It's very confusing...but I guess once I get to playing this like the other games (a bajillion playthroughs), I'll never need to worry about figuring out where I am.

Funny bug with weapon icons switching around in my inventory menu. I go to swap out a Vladof pistol from my bag into a slot, and either mouse hovering over my shield, or just because, the pistol icon switches to the shield. then I have a pistol seemingly slotted in my grenade. I got all confused, then realized it was just the icons were switching, but it still is a pistol.

Not sure I'm feeling Amara right now. Probably need to switch builds already because I'm going with Rush, but that seems to not do much for you until you have at least 15-20 points to spend. Feels very much like nothing through 7 levels now. Might move onto Fl4k, which I started through the opening bit, because his style actually feels more like what I'm looking for--A bit Lilith and also high crit.

 

[ondma]

^The slow map zooming is very annoying, and also the need to switch views to travel from one map to the next...that actually took me a little while to figure out. I also don't like that the map isn't fixed. It's very confusing...but I guess once I get to playing this like the other games (a bajillion playthroughs), I'll never need to worry about figuring out where I am.

Funny bug with weapon icons switching around in my inventory menu. I go to swap out a Vladof pistol from my bag into a slot, and either mouse hovering over my shield, or just because, the pistol icon switches to the shield. then I have a pistol seemingly slotted in my grenade. I got all confused, then realized it was just the icons were switching, but it still is a pistol.

Not sure I'm feeling Amara right now. Probably need to switch builds already because I'm going with Rush, but that seems to not do much for you until you have at least 15-20 points to spend. Feels very much like nothing through 7 levels now. Might move onto Fl4k, which I started through the opening bit, because his style actually feels more like what I'm looking for--A bit Lilith and also high crit.

I am liking the operative and just started Fl4K which seems good also. Siren was my favorite in the first game, but the Siren in this game has a different playstyle, which is not my favorite. Tried playing as the mech and doesn't fit my style either. So far I would rate the classes: operative/beastmaster, siren, and mech.

And I totally agree with you about the map zooming and fast travel. It is not bad enough that it is so annoying to zoom out on the map, but every time you reopen it it is zoomed in. And I thought at first fast travel was broken because trying to interact with the travel station (as would seem logical) does not work. Took me awhile to figure you have the do it from the map view.

 

[sze5003]

^The slow map zooming is very annoying, and also the need to switch views to travel from one map to the next...that actually took me a little while to figure out. I also don't like that the map isn't fixed. It's very confusing...but I guess once I get to playing this like the other games (a bajillion playthroughs), I'll never need to worry about figuring out where I am.

Funny bug with weapon icons switching around in my inventory menu. I go to swap out a Vladof pistol from my bag into a slot, and either mouse hovering over my shield, or just because, the pistol icon switches to the shield. then I have a pistol seemingly slotted in my grenade. I got all confused, then realized it was just the icons were switching, but it still is a pistol.

Not sure I'm feeling Amara right now. Probably need to switch builds already because I'm going with Rush, but that seems to not do much for you until you have at least 15-20 points to spend. Feels very much like nothing through 7 levels now. Might move onto Fl4k, which I started through the opening bit, because his style actually feels more like what I'm looking for--A bit Lilith and also high crit.

I'm playing Amara right now and the rush ability does get more powerful if you open up the first three slots. I mainly used her green action and spent some points in there. It's the one where you jump up and slam on the ground. That one actually does more damage. But I've seen rush become very powerful in some people's videos.

I'm level 7 right now and need to go to the arena to get the map. I know there is a boss fight there. I've done all the side quests except the one that's in your base which is level 8. I'm still not enjoying the damage most of the guns are doing and I've sold all my level 4 and below weapons. I guess I haven't found one I like the best.

 

[ondma]

Zinfamous, regarding the map: I found that using the arrow keys is much faster to scroll vertically or horizontally than trying to drag the map with the mouse. Haven't figured out how to solve the painfully slow zooming in/out though. And I haven't even tried the 3d function. May have to try to now, since I just got on Sanctuary and it is very confusing with all the different floors.

 

[zinfamous]

I'm playing Amara right now and the rush ability does get more powerful if you open up the first three slots. I mainly used her green action and spent some points in there. It's the one where you jump up and slam on the ground. That one actually does more damage. But I've seen rush become very powerful in some people's videos.

I'm level 7 right now and need to go to the arena to get the map. I know there is a boss fight there. I've done all the side quests except the one that's in your base which is level 8. I'm still not enjoying the damage most of the guns are doing and I've sold all my level 4 and below weapons. I guess I haven't found one I like the best.

I definitely plan to go back into Rush after a couple more levels. I switched to ground slam and that skill tree, which makes a little more sense...but then of course I realized that I can pick whatever action skill and then whatever tree. Also, the recoil and sway on noob level is a bit worse than I recall from earlier BL games, so I find investing some points into those early skills kinda necessary...at least until one unlocks the guardian token stuff after 1 playthrough...assuming that is an account-wide thing and not just for each character? I don't really know how those work, I am sure there are many videos, but I'll just wait until they unlock to figure it out.

I guess I just don't won't the Siren to be mele-focused, and it seems like one of her major builds is mele heavy. I might try the grasp thing soon, as in the end I eventually really liked Maya's ...very same skill, but then it's just the same skill. The Slam is cool, but it seems to me that most of the passive skills that work well with it are mele-focused, even though you can spec it ranged. I'll probably go back to charge once I can spec the Proc skill later down that spreads your elemental effects everywhere.

I think I'm right where you are--just killed that dude to get the map, at level 8. I agree a lot of gun damage is pretty weak early on. I'm liking the new Cor(?) guns so far, they seem to hit a bit harder than the rest, with the drawback of constantly needing to swap so that they don't overheat and explode. I like the return of (hopefully proper) Jakobs revolvers, but not liking the few I have picked up (mainly because the sway and recoil is so lolterrible right now). ...hopefully a Defiler exists.

Zinfamous, regarding the map: I found that using the arrow keys is much faster to scroll vertically or horizontally than trying to drag the map with the mouse. Haven't figured out how to solve the painfully slow zooming in/out though. And I haven't even tried the 3d function. May have to try to now, since I just got on Sanctuary and it is very confusing with all the different floors.

Ah, I'll try that, thanks! If the map would default to zoomed out, it wouldn't be a problem. Or at least have a quick zoom in/out button

 

[bguile]

So I finished this..and I can't say I liked it very much. The story and the NPC's really started to get to me at the end. I didn't care at all about Troy and Tyreen COV storyline, and the side quests were so bad I was avoiding doing them if I could. If you like poop jokes then maybe they are ok I guess. By the 2nd to last planet, I was just rushing through to finish it.

The guns are great, the enemy AI seems improved, and the way skills are handled is awesome. Legendary's were falling all over the place which was also a huge positive. You can find them everywhere, even in lockers. That was the way I remember it being in BL1. I am not one for having to farm weapons. I heard they changed the drop rates, which if true sucks.

It seems like to me that there were less variety of enemies this go around? I felt like I was just fighting endless waves of bandits/cov/maliwan. Really all the same thing with different skins. Occasionally you would see some varkids or ratches but the bulk of it was endless swarms of human mobs. The map variety was also disappointing. I like the way they did the new maps, but that leaves you with only a handful of environments to fight in. BL2 was better in this regard, or maybe I am mis-rembering it.

For now I will wait to see what they are going to do for DLC before I pick it up on steam. It's a decent game, but the story and dialogue just didn't work for me.

 

[rivethead]

I'm relatively new to the Borderlands franchise having bought the Handsome Jack collection during a Steam sale over the summer. One thing I will say about those Shift keys is.....they're (sadly) almost a necessity to progress in BL2. I learned (the hard way....dying many, many, many times) that you can't really progress with weapons more than 2-3 levels below your character. And I've got crap for drops....only three legendary items have dropped for me after 105 hours of play. So the only way to remain competitive (at least for me) was to use a key and get some purple items at my current level. It made a huge difference.

I've got hundreds of keys (thanks to Zinfamous and Stg-Flame for posting about this in another thread and a link to Orcz), so there is no problem there.

But honestly, I don't think that's good game design. I shouldn't have to rely on something outside of the game to help me progress in the game. It just feels gimicky/cheap to me.

 

[Midwayman]

I learned (the hard way....dying many, many, many times) that you can't really progress with weapons more than 2-3 levels below your character.

Is weapon level straight up figured into damage output? Just looking at stats there shouldn't be that much of a difference with 2-3 levels. However there seems to be a hidden level damage multiplier on character level vs enemy level at least. You can really feel it with the vehicle weapons.

 

[zinfamous]

I honestly never had much trouble with non-legendaries in most of the games. ...yeah, it was better in BL1, because most guns of any color were very useful. Legendaries were very rare, but also not "necessary" for end-game UVHM, like with BL2.

The legendaries in BL3 are dropping like crazy, but I think that's because they also now have the "anointed" feature, which is yet another "maybe necessary" thing that makes their actual drop rate exceedingly rare, maybe worse than with BL2, because it can be an entire new RNG stat line for each gun, that isn't limited to the unique item.

I found some very useful, early-on legendaries that have carried me well through normal mode--a level 6 Jacobs Sniper that I slotted up until ~level 13 or 15. Still slotting a level 9 Torgue, uh, something pistol that is basically the Unkempt Harold from BL2, while at level 23 now. ...this thing is bonkers. It does corrosive, but it doesn't seem to care about shields or flesh..well, any non-armor. It melts everything. improper element damage is supposed to suffer huge penalties against the wrong type of target, but this thing doesn't care. ...I also suspect the element is broken on this. It only says corrosive, but I'm getting corrosive and incendiary damage credits when using it; unless incendiary is an inherent, un-named modifier for Torgue, now that they've removed explosive from the game? ...this is on the normal fire mode. I know they nerfed the Torgue shotguns last week with the sticky pellets, but this pistol only shoots one sticky pellet in alternate fire mode. Normal fire shoots about a dozen pellets, and it wrecks face if you keep proper range to make sure your victims are getting a proper complement of all the pellets. It also kills me fast if I shoot it straight at a window, right where I'm standing (I'm currently running samsara/infusion/tempest Siren right now--so yes, it's very easy for me to kill myself with splash damage because my elemental procs are really high)

I'm not liking Maliwan right now. I don't like their lack of bullets in all their guns. Yeah, it makes sense for them to be more like ray guns or whatever, but I miss the bullet impact, and charging is really annoying--this makes their snipers (the ones that I have found) pretty much inviable. Sucks, because Siren = Maliwan, and those guns just don't feel right.

 

[rivethead]

Is weapon level straight up figured into damage output? Just looking at stats there shouldn't be that much of a difference with 2-3 levels. However there seems to be a hidden level damage multiplier on character level vs enemy level at least. You can really feel it with the vehicle weapons.

I don't know the answer to that. But (in my experience) something must be going on. I just couldn't progress unless I kept my guns within 2-3 levels of my character. And white/green weapons still struggled. Thus, I went the route of using keys and getting current level purple weapons.

 

[zinfamous]

I think the damage range and potential modifier range is definitely tied to weapon level.

However, when you get into TVHM and beyond, there is usually a flat buff to all enemies--larger HP pool/ % damage absorbance modifier that goes beyond general character and item level for calculating effectiveness in making big red numbers over your targets. BL2 and UVHM was notoriously, universally unpopular for this because it made the slag element mandatory if you hoped to do any damage to anything. The whole point of that stupid element was really to just remove that flat % armor buff for whatever period of time slag debuff was active. It was very stupid.

But yeah, if you are greens and whites, those don't seem to carry through as long. Some blues and certainly purples can last many levels, and some just don't. Some have accuracy problems, or bad recoil, or just weird bullet mechanics that you either like or don't like.

Rule of thumb in these games is to stick to the 2 or 3 weapon classes that you prefer, especially if they sync well with your build, and try out most of what you pick up. fire some rounds at a wall to check out the bullet spread. accuracy is a big deal here, so it could be that the damage is fine, but you aren't hitting what you think you are hitting. Comparing bullet spread on a wall across several guns is a good quick way to check out how well a gun might work for you.

I definitely switch guns out a lot while leveling. Truth is, probably 90% of the guns in these games are just trash. Even the good ones have some trashy stat drops, so you really need to spend some time testing them out, and when you notice that the damage isn't keeping up anymore, you really need to replace it. So far, I'm liking ARs more than I ever have before, and I'm back to liking Jacobs to the quality they were in BL1. Actually, TPS had that really great Jacobs revolver (a couple of them). Nisha was my primary in that, and well just because she was a class, there would have to be some great revolvers.

I was really excited to pick up a purple Masher this morning (reward on the first side mission for Eden-6, or whatever it's called). That was one of my favorite guns from BL1 (TPS had them, sorta...but I think they were called something else), but the damage so far looks pretty terrible. It was right at proper level, but needed 2-3 shots to blow off just about any head, didn't seem to matter how close I was. I need to go fire it at some walls or something to see what kind of spread it is doing, or maybe the damage just isn't as good as it seems? Those things used to blast heads off very effectively in BL1, and with pretty decent medium range. They were like shotguns with handgun range.


--I'm not having too many performance issues, except for some very annoying hitch/CTD. I updated to most current Radeon drivers (I have a Vega 64--the Sapphire 3-fan fancy thing). Most of yesterday it was fine after the driver update, but it crashed again this morning. Otherwise, performance seems "pretty good." I'm 60fps+ @3440 x 1440 using those suggested settings in the HUB video posted earlier...so still DX11. I haven't even tried DX12 yet, so not sure if that still has issues? I saw that there is supposed to be a big update this week....but hey, at least they found the time to "balance" the game ahead of fixing the actual broken things.

And I'm really digging this Samsara build for Amara. I'm not there yet with enough skill points, but the idea is that you have Samsara up near-permanent (only 1 second gap while in a fight), on top of all the ele tree goodies, like Tempest and of course Rush. Not enough points yet, for 50 levels, to get the Rush-based capstone in that tree, but you get half Rush effectiveness, which is pretty good. Samsara seems like the better damage output anyway, and is also tanky.