During episode 6 of Nerdvana Live, Randy Pitchford got the question about how Gearbox Software balances their characters. Because in Borderlands the Vault Hunters have so many different skills and abilities. How difficult is it to balance those heroes?
PvE Versus PvP Balance
Randy answers the question that balancing a character is never done and it’s never perfect.
At Gearbox, there is this philosophy that they rather go for fun and have things into the game, than go the religious route and go for the perfect balance. But with that said there does go a lot of effort into balancing the game.
There have been certain character builds that are overpowered and Gearbox is okay with that in a PvE (Person versus Environment) setup. If people find a powerful setup and get enjoyment out of the game then let them have fun.
However, with a game like Battleborn, where you also have a variety of characters with each having their own unique skills, there is a PvP (Person versus Person) component to the game and balance is very important there.
Randy thinks that they have become better at balancing characters over the course of time.
Future Projects
Randy also hinted a bit about the skill sets of upcoming characters. This may or may not be for Borderlands 3, but Randy mentions that the new characters will have a wider range of skills and abilities.
These will be more interesting than anything you have seen in their previous games because he thinks they are getting better at it.
Personally having played the Project 1v1 closed technical test, I don’t think this hint from Randy Pitchford is related to that. Because that game lets you create your own skill sets by creating presets of various weapons and skills.
Kenny Howlett
over the past 8 years I’m used to the unbalanced games gearbox puts out I don’t expect anything more or less