Update: Interview with the Creative Director on Crafting
Creative Director Randy Varnell is teasing us on the Gearbox Forums about the loot system that’s featured in Battleborn. He wants to discuss it, but can’t tell it at the moment. The team behind the game researched what kind of loot system they could implement into the game. They also asked on the forums what kind of loot system we wanted to see.
During this conversation, some fans gave feedback on the subject. And Randy himself responded to the feedback. He let us know that he is also a fan of some elements, and one of those elements is crafting. Letting other people know that you personally like crafting is something else than confirming that crafting is in the game. So this is some speculation on my part. But why wouldn’t the creative director put some in “his game” that he likes? Okay, it’s a team effort, but for the sake of the discussion, why not? Borderlands has the whole random loot mechanic. But some gamers want to see crafting inside a Borderlands game. This creates some heated discussions. So why not create a new franchise that satisfies the other x amount of players?
Loot
To be able to craft things you need some kind of loot. Building blocks to create new and exciting stuff. During the gameplay footage, you could see some of the Battleborn pick-up Shards. These are precious minerals that the heroes can use to finance different kinds of stuff.
As seen in the gameplay footage one of the players builds a turret that aids in the battle. But what if the game has more types of minerals that drop like loot? Minerals that you need to gather, to be able to construct different kinds of upgrades. Each upgrade requires specific types of minerals that can only be found on specific planets. Even Bosses can drop special items that you must gather to unlock certain (special/legendary) upgrades.
Think about it; Battleborn has a consistent loot mechanic. So loot has to be present in the co-op campaign and in the online multiplayer. Do you want to look at the ground checking out a weapon and its part during the middle of a 5 vs 5 multiplayer sessions? The answer is of course not and if you do I’ll kick you off my team because we have a battle to win. Another problem in Borderlands online was that someone could ninja loot “your” stuff. You know that one special class mod you have been dying to get your hands on. The one that is being ripped before your own eyes. One thing you knew you could count on was, money or moonshine/eridium. Those currencies are shared, if someone picks it up, all players get the same amount. This can be the same with the minerals in Battleborn. No more fighting over who gets what, everyone gets the same amount of loot/minerals. As the multiplayer session is over you can spend your loot in the menu.
Replay
Because certain minerals are only dropped on certain maps players will come back to those places. Therefore gamers will play on every multiplayer map instead of just the one they know the best. Because they need that mineral that drops on map x in order to gain that next perk. And if Bosses respawn just like with Borderlands, and they drop a special mineral, call it a legendary item. This is something that makes you want to go back to that one boss. To fight him over and over again to gather enough stuff for those upgrades.
And while you’re at it, why not unlock some medals/badges on the way. Randy Varnell also said he likes titles. So let’s add challenges like in Borderlands: Kill Boss X 50 times. This will for example grant you the title of “Boss X Slayer”. Once unlocked you can manually select this title to set beside your character name for you and your friends/foes to see. I’m thinking something like the mechanics in Gears of War 3. There you had to perform certain actions like kill 50,100,200 or 500 enemies with a shotgun. Giving you some crazy titles for your profile for every tier you managed to get. Getting multiple challenges done would also result in special titles.
Upgrades
So back on spending those minerals. Where do we spend it on? With Battleborn you have to level up your character in every match. Every battle you will start at zero. But unlike Borderlands you level up real quick. And with every level you get to choose between 2 skills. This will give your hero special abilities. You will reach your final skill at level 10.
But leveling doesn’t stop there. There is a continuous leveling aspect to your character profile. This is where the minerals can come into place. Maybe it’s something like the badass rank from Borderlands. This gives you little percentages of boost to a specific mechanic, fire rate, gun damage, reload speed, and so on.
This could also be done with Battleborn, but in the way it’s presented in Borderlands, it’s not something I would want to grind for. The development team should make it a bit more interesting. It could work like a skill tree giving your hero boost to certain stats.
Gearbox can give those boosts to the different skills like, faster cooldown, longer duration, etc. Making your skills more powerful and more meaningful. But where there is offense there is also defense. As your heroes get more attack power they also gain more defense buffs. This way players of the same level are matched to one another, keeping a balance.
So spend 1500 Shard, 100 Opal & 5 Boss X item for your upgrade.
Reward, Progress & Balance.
Do you think Battleborn will have crafting and would you like to go on a mineral hunting session? Well, let me know in the comments or just let me know on social media. Thanks and take care!
BTW. What would this all mean for character customization ?
Headsh0t
interesting theory on the whole loot and crafting mechanic. if battleborn will implement such a thing i hope they don’t force the grinding to must. although i like my borderlands lootdrops. great site btw