The Unofficial Battleborn Discord channel is organizing another AMA (Ask Me Anything). They had invited Gearbox Software staff members to go in-depth on the game. The Battleborn AMA will take place on Friday, June 16. Previously you can already submit your questions at the Battleborn Discord Channel. If you missed the event no worries you can get a recap of all of the questions after the event.
GBX Staff Members
- GBX JoeK = Joe King (Community Manager)
- jythri = Randy Varnell (Creative Director)
- MereAtGBX = Meredith Hershey (Community Coördinator)
Patches + Future Content Questions
Brosagi : In a line after Reyna kills Ghalt in PvP she says “And you wonder why I left the UPR.” It’s clear that Ghalt and Reyna have some history but I want to know Reyna’s history with the UPR is. When did she join? For what reason? What did she do? How long did she fight for them? And most importantly, why did she quit?
Jythri : Oh, Reyna. We’ve not gone into much details about her time with the UPR. She is a Solus system native, and grew up among the crew of an aging flagship, The Fortune’s Favor. She had a couple of instances early on where she made a name for herself among her people, and that got a brief stint in the UPR as she was in a short “let’s be friends” period, where she believed more in diplomacy.So, not long. Some venture that Reyna joined the UPR more for intel than for any serious desire to help, but among all her traits, she’s a loyal defender of the Solus system. She and Ghalt have the same heart there, even if he’s a bit more “by the book”.
Leaddybum : In Rath’s lore picture, we see him forging Precept; in the background we see Axiom and Praxis being quenched in water (implying they’re being hardened after shaping). When were they made? Or were they included in the pic for the sake of just being included as props/exposition?
Jythri : We’ve never set a date for them, but they were forged by Rath long before Precept. In fact, in that particular image, the key is that it’s the forging of Precept. The other blades might not even be Axiom and Praxis, but other blades that look similar. I think it’s safe to venture that Axiom and Praxis were forged dozens if not hundreds of years earlier, and used by Rath as he served as Keeper of the Blade.
TL_Kasteron : Does Toby have a last name, and can we know what it is?
Jythri: “the Destroyer”, We’ve never given him any surname other than his epithet.
TL_Kasteron : What exactly happened to the dragons on Bliss? When/How did they die out?
Jythri : No one in the current universe knows. The best we have is some sort of “flash freeze”, as some of the skeletons are fossilized in dramatic poses. As far as timeline, the only thing safe to say is “before any known civilization on bliss”. So, hundreds of thousands to millions of years prior.
lowlines : What was your biggest highlight/takeaway from working on Battleborn and interacting with the community for the past year?
Jythri : For me – the amazing resilience and heart of the community. I think it’s safe to say we all have worked hard and hoped Battleborn would have more players than we do, but seeing how much the community has rallied and kept the game going has been extremely encouraging to me. Honestly, it’s what keeps our Battleborn dev team motivated to keep working on the game.
GBX JoeK : Hmmm, that’s tough because I have so many. I’d say the biggest highlights for me are always meeting the community in person. Whether it’s it at an event like PAX, or even having people by the studio, meeting you guys in person is always the best. As for my biggest takeaway, it’s easily the fact that the passion of our dev team is matched only by the passion of the community. It’s pretty amazing to work with our team everyday. Knowing that we all helped to create something that our community is equaly passionate about is pretty special.
MereAtGBX : I didn’t become Community Coordinator until long after Battleborn launched, but I can say so far that my favorite thing has been y’all! Y’all are a real community, and I love how much you care about Battleborn. And I appreciate how kind you are to new players, because I think that’s one of Battleborn’s biggest features. Having a community that cares about one another is a real plus
lowlines : If you could go back and change something (that didn’t quite go as planned), what would it be and why?
Jythri : Oh, I’ve been very public in stating that (with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight) I would go back and make several very different decisions regarding matchmaking. There’s so much effort you have to balance in the last year of the project, and we made some decisions that looked very smart at the time, and believed our matchmaking solution at launch would be alright. We were incorrect. We’ve made dozens of small changes to the system over the last year, and it’s definitely better than it was at launch, but I know many users still don’t feel that. If given the opportunity and resources, it’s the thing I want to change most.
I will say, though, that asking a designer “what would you change” – if we were ever un-muzzled by marketing, we could fill up about 48 hours with regrets. (I still think Bordelands 2 shoudl have allowed you to start at level 6 and skip to Sanctuary on subsequent playthroughs!) That one’s free.
lowlines : How did you decide on what the BL3 Easter Egg messages said and what made you decide to hide them inside Varelsi Portals in the manner that you did?
Jythri : It’s very collaborative. We knew we wanted to tease some things, but that with an unannounced game, we had to be really careful. But if they’re “too careful”, they’re disappointing. We worked with some can’t-admit-they-exist-mythical-narrative-people to come up with a few key ideas. then, our mission designers on Battleborn worked with our audio team to unleash the viscious processed, reversed morse code PUZZLES that they did.
chromerino : Are Varelsimasks filled cookies an actual sweet in the BB universe?
Jythri : HA! Chock full of battle goodness! You know, we’ve never talked about Varelsi masks before, have we. whistles innocently
lowlines: Is Alani capable of waterbending ice cream with her nanites? And if so, would that ability extend to other fluid-based substances?
Jythri: Okay. You’re going to get a copy/paste from our internal lore bible for this one. Ready?
Through meditation, intense focus, and warranty-breaking misuse of a water-soluble nanotech virus, the Emula monks learned to manipulate low-viscosity fluids at close range. Or, in case you grew up on a planet with more than old physics textbooks for entertainment, they could control water with their minds.
The Emula were obsessed with water, both inside and out. To be like water, their tenets read, was to be perfection. Therefore, a significant portion of an Emula’s training focused on manipulating the liquid structure of their own bodies. Disease and injury were simply perturbations in the self-sea to be smoothed out.
TL_Kasteron : Beyond those members of the battleborn, enemies, and others we have heard of through their lore or story missions, are there still potentially other races not yet described who are still out there and alive in this universe?
Jythri: Absolutely. There are definitely more races even in the Solus system than we’ve gotten to. I think between the characters and lore we describe arond 30 different races. But Battleborn absolutely has a refugee story at it’s heart. Peacekeepers, Eldrid and Rogues especially would have nearly welcomed “all takers” to their homes. I suspect we could eventually describe thousands, if not tens ofthousands of races and sub-races. It’s a big universe.
chromerino : Could it be that there are savage like tribes of any kind of races living in the already darkened world’s that survive solely on a kill varelsi basis?
Jythri: Sure. Not all races (especially AI robotic ones like in the LLC) require light and heat to exist. We started exploring that some through Dante’s recent lore serial piece, but I think if we were ever to continue the story in a major way, that would be one of the themes we would want to explore.
Kitru : How are planets in darkspace not freezing cold? Akopos is explained as having extreme amounts of bioluminescence because the planet was located so far from the light of their home star. However, as light decreases, so too would the heat provided by the star itself. As such, the surface of Akopos (and, in fact, the surface of any planet with its home star veiled) would be completely frozen and inhospitable without adequate precautions. Is there an explanation for this or are the writers just bad at science?
Jythri: Akopos, internally, is described as having some odd high heat radiation in it’s core, making it self-warming to a degree. Most planets in darkspace WOULD be freezing cold, though.
Kitru : How in the verse do you reconcile Akopos as being a completely fresh-water planet while simultaneously requiring that it have a rocky core with visible surface land (according to Alani’s own lore, which references a cove, which isn’t possible underwater)? It’s the rocky core of the planet itself that causes the water in oceans to be saline. Is this another case of writers who know more about “awesome” than “science” (not that they’re mutually exclusive, which is kind of my perturbation considering the thought that went into how Tempest would react to being tidally locked)?
Jythri: Actually, not going to answer this question. Let’s just call it “science fiction in a far far future universe” and go from there. I think I said as much to Kitru earlier on the forums.
beya : Although the question was asked right at the beginning of the Heart of Ekkunar intro we never got an answer during playthroughs. What arcane breaches of natural law are keeping Ekkunar’s pieces together?
Jythri: Good question. We never fully explain it as most of the knowledge presented to the player is through what Phoebe and Beatrix learn during the expedition. To add just a bit to that: Ekkunar was both broken and held together by the Aztanti portal experiments that make up the “heart” of the Heart of Ekkunar. While mostly this was set in place far before the Aztanti “vanished”, the navite Ekkuni dwarves took on the caretaking of some of those humongous artifacts, and actually maintain them to a degree.
cosmicgayces : Are we ever going to find out how Ghalt and Mellka met as well as what caused them to become friends?
Jythri: That might be worth exploring at some point. Internally, we haven’t developed the details of that much beyond “they met at a join operation with the UPR and Eldrid”. They served together for years in a number of battles and rescue ops. Ghalt was always a little disenfranchized by UPR bureaucracy. Mellka is very rebellious for a typical card-carrying Eldrid. They found a really common middle ground and learned to work well together years ago. Truth be told, those two are probably a STRONG reason that the UPR and Elrdid rekindled alliances after that whole Bliss debacle.
Kitru : If Kelvin’s skeleton is an Aztanti skeleton and, going by the appearance of the Ancient Aztanti Bonecrusher the Phoebe ops, the Aztanti looked pretty much identical to the Thrall, is there a lore reason why is Kelvin’s right arm larger than his left? It’s not just difference in the growth of the ice because you can see the skeleton in his right and left arms.
Jythri: could be. We’ve never explained more about which pieces of Aztanti stuff Kelvin has inside him.
Eldritch Arcana : Recently, in one of the Battleplans it was mentioned that Attikus may be receiving some balance adjustments. What are some of the changes that Gearbox has planned out/is considering for him? Edit: Are there any more changes planned after the current patch? (Question was asked before the patch).
Jythri: We’re looking at all the characters after the last update. Most of last week and this week have been handling the more obvious bugs and big balance issues. We’re listening to what people are feeling, and investigating.
For Attikus – I don’t think he’s far of where we’d like at the moment. He’s very strong right now, and I’m not altogether disappointed that he’s seeing some dominance in play, and that I’m afraid of him again. We might tweak him if needed, but there’s nothing in the immediate future.
ZercR | COO of HGL: Is Kelvin going to be reworked?
Jythri: Reworked? Probably not. As a Initiator / Defender, with strong control, he’s definitely doing that. Maybe a bit too much, but I wouldn’t expect anything on him that looks like a “rework”.
By the way, bonus for the AMA. I worked at home today, and I’m doing the AMA from my personal “PC Desk of Clutter”. If I can post a pic, here, I’ll share my nerd clutter with you.
Jythri’s Nerd Clutter (with Maximus)
MereAtGBX: I see Star Wars stufffff
ElisaRockDoc: DOGGO. PUPPER.
GBX JoeK: #AwesomeGamer A WILD @ElisaRockDoc APPEARS
Jythri: Heh. That’s almost like a Where’s Waldo image.
MereAtGBX: She’s been lurking, but like, glamorously lurking
GBX JoeK: My kingdom to whoever switches the heads in PS
Davekillerish : Are there any plans on releasing (i.e. made publicly for free) voice lines for the characters? If there are plans to release it would it be more likely to be in the form of DLC to have access to the voice line files?
Jythri: We’ve talked here and there about voice lines. I think it’s far more likely that you’ll get them in new taunts or premium skins, rather than in anything systemic. Request noted though!
cosmicgayces : Is there gonna be anything in the future involving Mellka? Will she also get anymore skins and taunts?
Jythri: That’s a broad question. All characters will probably get more skins and taunts, as long as it’s profitable for us to do so. As far as other things for Mellka, not sure what you’re asking for. Any character might be the target of balance adjustment or tuning.
PvE + PvP Questions
Davekillerish : Are there any plans for PC tournaments sponsored by GBX? If not, is the potential there for PC sponsored tournaments in the future?
Jythri: We’d love to see more of this, but there’s no details we can talk about at the moment.
Davekillerish : Is there a possibility of replacing the matchmaking system with a lobby where players wait in a server with objectives disabled, while other players joined the server instead of a matchmaker trying to pair 10 players together at once?
Jythri: I love the “is it possible” question. Anything is possible. To answer the implied questions here, though – “Easy?” Not even close to. “Soon?” No. “Desired?” Yeah, some flavor of this.
Lattiamatto : Would it be possible to have a “ready” button in character select, so we don’t have to wait for 30 seconds after selecting a character when playing PvE?
Jythri: That’s an idea we’ve discussed. I want it. It’s something I would like to see us change to, as I think could save a LOT of pain in waiting.
Again, though…not soon.
Kitru : Is there any plan to increase experience provided in certain PvE maps (Montana Ops being the most egregious example) and PvP modes so that players are liable to actually reach level 10 before the end? Montana Ops is pretty famous for putting you into the final boss fight before or right at level 7 and, due to the efforts to shorten many PvP maps, it’s extremely common to barely reach level 5.
Jythri: It’s something we could look into. We spot check those every so often, though data, and occasionally tune them.
It’s most games, in fact. Did you know, statistically, with most campaign games most players don’t play more than 15 minutes? There’s a threshold of commitment for the bulk audience that once you pass it, you tend to play the rest of the experience. So, every game developer puts the biggest investment in time at the beginning, and the end, and maybe one or two key points in between. That’s just how it works on limited budget, staff, and time.
ZercR | COO of HGL: I replayed the prologue yesterday and couldn’t get over the fact that it was so much more immersive than the rest of the story. The dialogue felt more real. The environment was much more alive and interactive. Why was that not seen in the rest of the story missions? Will there be a rework of the story missions in order to give the feel that there prologue did?
Jythri: a rework of currently existing missions is highly unlikely. We would much prefer to make new missions, and hit a quality bar closer to the Operations than tweak the existing missions.
ZercR | COO of HGL: Have there been considerations to adding role notifiers in character select? Some heroes can be played as multiple roles, e.g. Miko can be a healer and damage dealer. This would help if someone wanted to play a character a different way than usual so that the rest of the team would know what role to fill
Jythri: Role notifiers in character select – We’ve talked about a lot of different ways to communicate better, but you have to balance good communication with over-communication. there are protoypes we’ve tried that just overwhelms users with information. So, we try to keep it simple and clean.
cosmicgayces : Would there be a way to help discourage spawn-camping as well as pushing into the base within the beginning of the match (such as altering the damage of or the placement of turrets, particularly on the Meltdown – Paradise map)?
Jythri: We’ve seen some problems with this, but not to overwhelming levels. Usually, spawn camping is more a result of imbalance in team matching rather than current exploits in the map/mode. That said, if there are specific problems, we could evaluate them and work on it.
beya : Is it possible to put all five DLC queues into one? Additionally, is there a possibility for multiqueuing?
Jythri: Uh. I think that went live yesterday, right?
Kaleidodemon: Multiqueing is being able to queue for multiple queues and then the game puts you in the first game available out of the available queues.
Jythri: @Kaleidodemon Oh. Multiqueing is something that would require a matchmaking rework. I want it, but it’s not close.
Open Questions
nekoJadey: I’m so sorry if this has been asked. I’m still kinda new. Will we ever see new battleborn be added?
Jythri: @nekoJadey I hope so!
chromerino: @Jythri my question is : will the ever be different balancing in pve and pvp since some characters are pretty weak currently in pve
Jythri: @chromerino There already is some. We need to do another PvE pass soon, as we do every so often after tuning updates
chromerino: Will we get a glitter-princess Attikus skin someday?
.Jythri: @chromerino Request noted.
beya: Are we eventually going to have a dance taunt for every Battleborn?
Also why didn’t Ambra receive a taunt from Attikus and the Thrall Rebellion like Oscar Mike, Attikus and Deande did?
Jythri: @beya – Ambra taunt and not Attikus – Huh. Can’t remember. Probably had more to do with the number of taunts that had already been produced per character, or which character was seeing more play at the time.
chromerino: Are there any general Easter Eggs and references in the game left that weren’t pointed out somewhere?(as far as you noticed)
Jythri: @chromerino Easter Eggs – There are lots of references and such throughout the game. I’m sure there are still one or two worth finding, but nothing as big an clever as the BL3 easter eggs.
Davekillerish: I was hoping that 3rd question would get asked before the other dev’s went home ;-;
I was mainly asking about influences from existing things, like BL and Mad Max
Jythri: @Davekillerish On influences – Borderlands had a huge influence, of course. Thematically, we used to talk about the game early on as “Heroscape meets Ender’s Game”. Then, “Game of Thrones In Space”. It evolved from there, but those themes still exist. Fighting Games and anime were both influential in the art styles. MOBAs were absolutely influential in game design.
nekoJadey: Oh is it intentional that not all taunts are previewable in command? Will the unlockables be added to preview without needing the dojo?
Jythri: @nekoJadey Good question. At one point, we held some taunts back to let the surprise happen when unlocked. With the Dojo change, we might need to re-think that.
Qmzn: Hm. I’ll bite on one. @Jythri , Are the themes in Battleborn – keeping the lights on in a darkening universe, misfits from different ideologies banding together, Rendain keeping a pocket universe of mementos, rather than trying to fight back — a metaphor for any of the developers personal experiences? Is the whole narrative an allegory for some struggle in our universe?
Or is it just a fun-time narrative?
Jythri: @Qmzn it’s defintiely felt like we’ve been all fighting to keep the star alive this year. Though, I think anything that close is purely coincidental. Themes of overcoming odds, winning versus a desperate struggle, light and dark — all of those are pretty universal, and were definitely intentional.
Joes0s: @Jythri Will the special modes all rotate daily/weekly, or will the new modes (I.e. Tank Yankers) with unique maps always be available (a 3v3 queue)? Will they be available in private matches?
Jythri: @joesOs Special Modes (like Tank yankers and Rocket Brawl) will likely only appear occasionally as weekend modes. We’d like to get them all in Private Matches sometime, too. New modes, like Supercharge and Face-Off — we’ll try to keep them always available because they have challenges associated with them.
Enceladus: I really try to keep up here and I’m not sure at what point this talk is, so i’m going to throw in my question: With the announced “supercharge”, I was asking myself if it is planed to add even more multiplayer modes in the future or if there is some non-mentioned upper limit for that? Of course asking because I could imagine at least one thing that would probably work as a new mode :X
Jythri: @Enceladus The only real limit for multiplayer modes is demand (which justifies time and money). I would love to add more, or more maps. Though, we need to justify the cost.
Zarnias : I’ve seen people throw around the idea of borderlands themed skins for battle born. Is that something you guys have reconsidered? (And is it coming?)
Jythri: @Zarnias it’s defintely something we’ve considered
cosmicgayces: @Jythri Do the Varelsi have a hierarchy? And, if so, what is it like?
Jythri: @cosmicgayces The Varelsi absolutely have a heirarchy and organization. But I’m going to leave further elaboration for the future, as I think that would be the main topic for a future foray into Battleborn media or expansions.
Kitru : Would it be possible for legendaries with stack and temp duration effects to have those durations listed on the items themselves? It’s not like you’re hurting for space and it would be useful for many people to actually see what the item does (or rather, is supposed to do) rather than having to experiment or research it.
Jythri: @Kitru Legendaries – we ARE actually hurting for space, very often. But correct information is something we would love. I think this, though, would come after some update to show what stacks of what you have affecting you, on the HUD.
Mark Legroom: @Jythri was Farhallim a world of UPR faction and Penarch of Jennerits (in second motion comic there is typical Jennerit architecture)?
and were Ooran and Mikollopria discovered by Eldrids durring Darkening, so, uh they were independent?
[also: you da best]
Jythri: @Mark Legroom Guh. You’re making me remember the dark corners of details here! Penarch was definitely Jennerit settled. Farhallim was probably shepherded by the UPR, but it might just be an independent world. I’d have to dig back through old emails to find that one.
nekoJadey: What’s your favourite episode of Arrested Development? (When I first saw Benedict’s taunts I lost it at the references)
Jythri: @nekoJadey I personally haven’t watched Arrested Development.
Kaleidodemon: @Jythri You know the dead fish finisher? Ever think of making a variant with gummy bears just as a sort of Easter Egg of sorts?
Jythri: @Kaleidodemon A gummy bear finisher should happen. That’s a great idea!
Qmzn: @Jythri If you could address the quieter players, the ones that don’t come to Discord AMAs, and don’t socialize over social media, or even the Friends systems of their 1st party platforms — i.e. the ones that just play the game, and love the game, with their heads down — what would you say?
Jythri: @Qmzn For the silent mass – Thank you. We think about them all the time, because they are actually the majority. It’s one of the reasons we watch data and statistics of play carefully, because loud voices on forums aren’t always right.
ClawMacKain: @Jythri Three questions.
1) I noticed some people having problem with the flairs, accidentally selling them, I mean, becuase they overlook them. Are there any plans to change the text color so it’s not so easily overlooked?
2) Some people like the platinum from the dailies, but feel like sometimes it’s not enough. Would you guys ever consider adding something like match contracts where people have 3 objectives to do in a match to get a larger platinum pay out, like maybe for 100 plat?
3) If you ever do decide to get more Battleborn added, would you guys have the design team make them or would you give an open invitation for the fans to have a chance to design their own for the game?
Jythri: @chromerino Yes, we would like to make gear with Flair more obvious in the bank, and add some kind of sorting mechanic there.
Platinum award on daily quests – we’ll evaluate it. But as this competes with our ability to monetize the game, we have to be very precise in how much you get there. It could probably stand a small bump. Player input on battleborn – the next few that we want to do are absolutely community influenced. Opening it up beyond that starts to get into some legal issues, but I love the community. We’ll definitely explore something there.
chromerino: @Jythri will it ever be possible to 100% the challenges since many are bugged? Or the drone kills are way too enormous
Jythri: @chromerino We want you to 100% challenges. We’re tracking bugs there now, and trying to get them all fixed. If you know of specific once you haven’t heard me talk about, feel free to PM me on the forums or Discord.
MeatShield d : I’m a bit of a newer player to Battleborn, and I’ve found a bunch of SHiFT codes that have expired. My 2 questions are
1. Will there be another Battleborn Day?
2. If there is, could all Battleborn SHiFT codes be valid that day, or re-released for only that day?
Jythri: @MeatShield Another Battleborn Day? That’s the communities decision. We support it, but it originates from you.
Joes0s: My second, and final question. Thank you again for your time, @Jythri ️! Are any new maps for existing PvP modes currently in development, or have already been developed, but not released?
Jythri: @Joes0s We have some thoughts on new maps. I’d love to explore some more there. But that’s about all I have for an answer, currently.
Qmzn: Oh! I remembered my real question. Ha. @Jythri Has there ever been discussion of the addition of a Gear crafting system for the game? I do understand the difficulty in adding such a huge feature., but with the current implementation of Flair, it seems having a way to transfer it via sacrificial crafting would be ideal.
lowlines: @Qmzn, @MentalMars did a video on it a while back.
Jythri: @Qmzn Yes, we’ve discussed gear crafting. We almost released it at launch. It’s mostly just a matter of time and priority. We might come back to it in the future. I think there are some neat things you could there, like you mention.
LucFal : I love playing this game, however at this current time I find myself unable to play it as the game requires internet connection in order to play it at all. Is there any way things could be changed so that Private bots battles, story, and Ops can be done without requiring internet connection?
Jythri: @LucFal Playing offline – this isn’t likely to happen. the more game simulation we move to the client (aka offline) the more information we give cheaters and hackers. Generally, we’d like to avoid that.
dead demon: @Jythri Why do some Varelsi have a name? i.e Mi’gizi && Mu’sklati
Jythri: @dead demon There are some Varelsi that are big, recognized, important and special. While they don’t talk, it’s safe to say those who have encountered them before have recognized patterns in the sounds they make, and have given them names to help demark them.
Mark Legroom: @Jythri sorry, but don’t you know who was Ambra’s concept artist? :v
Jythri: @Mark Legroom Ambra’s concept artist – Just checked. That was originaly done by Mattias Tapia, who did a lot of or pre-project early exploration concept.
Solus Scientist : I have a question about Kelvin. Chomp is easy to use against minor enemies because it’s a one-hit KO which yields a permanent max health increase. However, Chomp does not have the same effectiveness when used against major enemies. Regardless of skill activation style, the one second opening and instant close make it harder to effectively KO a major enemy, especially when used in tandem with a melee combo, because you have to essentially “lead” your target’s health bar and the one second it takes to open the mouth is often when the target is eliminated. Would it be possible to change Chomp to a one-press instant-open-instant-close to lleviate this problem? It will have no effect on minor enemy KOs and will make major enemy KOs more consistently possible. Thank you!
Jythri: @Solus Scientist On the Kelvin Chomp – interesting suggestion. I’ll pass it to the balance designers for consideration.
nbrownlie237: Was Galilea inspired in any way by Knight Artorias from Dark Souls?
Jythri: @nbrownlie237 Galilea definitely had a small bit of Dark Souls in her. And a little Samus, too.
TL_Kasteron: @Jythri Just a quick yes or no here if you can confirm- is the white little fluffy-looking (adorable) animal in one of the post-CR-100 titles (I believe it’s the one you get at rank 120?) a Harresbura?
Jythri: @TL_Kasteron Yes. Yes it is.
Joes0s: @Jythri I lied. One more. How tempted were you to rename Maximus to Constable Cuddles, and give him a little sheriff star dog tag?
Jythri: @Joes0s Maximus would not tolerate re-naming, especially to anything cute. He is very VERY serious.
MentalMars: So Maximus is basically Toby 😀
nbrownlie237 : Are there any plans to look into mod support?
Jythri: @nbrownlie237 Mod support – very unlikely. It’s something we’ve never done as Gearbox. We’d like it, but we haven’t gone there yet.
Qmzn: @Jythri For those of us that have spent a lot of time in the game, and have fallen back to occasional play to avoid burn-out, do you have any recommendations on what we should do as players to help Battleborn continue to be actively developed, besides recommending the game and fostering a positive opinion on social media?
Jythri: @Qmzn Keeping the lights on? Honestly, getting word of mouth out, and participating in these communities regularly is the most I can think of. At the end of the day, it’s a business. If it makes good money, we can keep going. If it doesn’t, we have to change to something that does. It’s sad, hard truth, but it is truth.
Mark Legroom: @Jythri are all Helicians purple or it’s just side effect on Gali?
Jythri: @Mark Legroom Helicians vary in skin tones, but reds and purples are definitely common among them.
Amateratsu: any thoughts on changing ernest rank 20 title to ruffled jimmies? asking for a friend
Jythri: @Amateratsu Heh. that’s funny.Haven’t heard that before.
beya: Could there be a way to color code Orendi’s Shadowfire Pillars by team color, like Ambra’s Sunspot and ultimate are, so it would be easier to tell which Pillar to avoid?
Jythri: @beya Shadowfire pillar colors – there’s a way. Not sure why we didn’t do it when we colored sunspot. I’ll poke that again.
chromerino: will there be unique shift code flair effects?
Do the flair things have a hitbox or to be more specific: can you hit enemy battleborn by hitting their crowns etc.?
Will you expand the commandrank someday again so you can reach even higher levels?
Jythri: @chromerino Shift code flair – maybe! We could do it. I’ll have to see.
Flair things have no hitbox on their own.
@chromerino Command Rank – possibly, though we’d want to be sure there were rewards up there worth getting.
Davekillerish: Are there any plans to add particle effects to the flair’s for even higher rarity?
Jythri: @Davekillerish We’ve talked about it, and I believe particle effects on flair is technically possible. We are trying to be cautious about adding too much visual spam to the game, since that’s been a criticism by some.
Silk: one more question. Will players, who like making cool and nice screenshots or videos, get a possibility to toggle/hide hud?
Jythri: @Silk Toggle hud is a good suggestion, though. I’ll ask about it.
dead demon: @Jythri if the varelsi were able to eat/drink, would mu’sklati like chocolate milk? this is very important to me
Jythri: @dead demon Mu’sklati’s second favorite food is chocolate milk. His first is the souls of your ancestors.
Heroine Nisa: Hmm. I’d like to ask the team about the character visual designs actually (Personality-wise, visual clothes/armor/nakedness/whatever’s, skills). I know they got inspired by Gundam, Tengen Toppa, DC Comics, Marvel and other games and stuff to make the characters, but I’d like to know which character was the hardest to design and which one the easiest time-wise? Also which one is the favorite overall. If this was already answered sorry~
Jythri: @Heroine Nisa Hardest character to design: Shayne and Aurox, technically. The two-in-one character required a LOT of special considerations from every conceivable angle. We almost didn’t do them for that reason.
@Heroine Nisa Easiest? Probably Montana or Oscar Mike. They took a lot of tuning, but their concepts were very straightforward.
MereAtGBX: @Jythri which would have been sad because I love Shayne and Aurox!
ClawMacKain: @Jythri Just realized something I meant to ask as well… Since not all Battleborn have gold skins or champion skins is there a plan to someday give all Battleborn gold skins and champion skins, including the DLC characters?
Jythri: color skins – like those – we tend to make in series, for all existing characters.
I”m working on a Chrome & Black series now. I’ve wanted (shhh) “cylon Mike” since he was first created.
Snekva Prime: I want a white/pink/red (white and pink being the master while red is accents) scheme :v
Jythri: @Snekva Prime white pink suggestion noted
DigitalSarcasm: Are the AUS and NZ queues merged for matchmaking?
Could we please get the health bars of teammates on the side of the screen? This would make healing so much more pleasant.
Jythri: @DigitalSarcasm Aus and Nz queues – I’m pretty sure, but haven’t asked recently.
Team bars on the side – we used to have it, long ago. I hate they’re gone. I keep trying to make them come back. So…hopefully.
pendles-is-friendles: What about attaching flair to character legendaries? So, if you put the character legendary on a different character, instead of the extra benefit you get flair? Like tossing Attikus’ horns on Beatrix or Pendles’ hood/sneakers on Marquis?
Jythri: @pendles-is-friendles I don’t think we would put flair on character legendaries, but we have discussed making more character-specific gear or character-specific flair.
Pysiozaur: Good evening. Since I just joined it might be a bad question, but is there a chance for cross-platform accounts, like in Paragon?
Jythri: @Pysiozaur Cross-platofrm accounts: not any time soon. I’ve commented on this in detail a few times on the forum and reddit, i believe. There are lots of reasons this is very hard for most projects, and most of it relates to restrictions put upon us by Microsoft and Sony. The winds are changing there, so it’s more possible than it used to be.
Snekva Prime: Pendles is by far my favourite, may I ask what inspired you to make a snake seeing as they’re not popular at all in games (except Snake ).
Jythri: @Snekva Prime Our artists have a flair for the weird. Snakes and crocodiles appeared several times in early concepts. I think with Pendles, though, we knew first we wanted a rogue full-on stealth character. The snake concept seemed to fit that really well.
ItsRedDot: Are there any plans to increase the functionality and responsiveness of Miko’s healing beam in order to make it more easily target the person you want or to give it a lock of so you can look places other than your Attikus’s butt crack (not that anyone want want to)?
When balancing characters what makes you decide to nerf certain characters as opposed to buffing characters that share a similar role as them? For example, in the recent update Alani’s healing received a massive nerf, why not buff characters like Miko or Reyna instead?
Jythri: @ItsRedDot We talk a lot about Miko’s healing beam, and hope to get to it in a future quality-of-life update.
Nerf or Buff decisions are often made based on what general rules we have for the archetype they’re in. Alani’s nerf, for example, was because she was out-damaging many of our attackers, so it made sense to pull her damage back down to moderate. We’re looking at some bigger changes now where we do some WIDE re-tuning of many characters to make them fit better towards their archetypes, and that update will very likely have both buffs and nerfs, broadly.
cosmicgayces: @Jythri What’s the deal with Mellka’s 8 overdue library books?
Also: are they history/science fiction?
Jythri: @cosmicgayces Ha. You’d probably have to ask Thorn. I think Thorn is the book club master
Qmzn: @Jythri How many of Battleborn’s taunts were created with the assitance of motion capture? Notably, was S&A’s jazz dance actually performed in the motion capture studio?
Not expecting exact numbers or anything… generalizations are fine, of course.
Jythri: @Qmzn I don’t believe we used any motion capture for Battleborn, or at least not much. Our animators decided to go all hand-animated for what it does for style.
WrathOfNiel: @Jythri Is Oscar Mike a good cook ?
Jythri: And whoever asked: I’m pretty sure Oscar Mike is a TERRIBLE cook. he’s happy eating UPR rations. WTF, though…he’s not bad.
Mark Legroom: @Jythri I’m afraid that was asked sometimes before but
Thorn’s accent w/ “Teshka”, “Kreshek” and her ancestors’ names gives a lot feels that there was some Slavic (or especially Polish?), uh, inspiration (sounds silly, I’m sorry) on her characters, and then – which was on Boldur?
Jythri: @Mark Legroom Thorn definitely has some slavic in her. We didn’t want to do “typical elf”, and we found that pushing both Thorn and Bolder there gave them a slightly different foreign tint that we liked.
LucFal: First off – Thank you so much on all of your hard work in balancing Galilea with this recent rework. I feel that I need to point something out though: As of now her tanking is quite balanced but it’s only situational(ie only after the 30% DR in Desecrate). Earlier nerfs have all but driven her DPS to the ground. As of now she is highly outclassed by almost every other defender in the game in terms of both tanking and presenting a threat in damage. I believe the solution to this could be a small rework on her passive. Right now the corruption dot does almost nothing for her and is quite negligible. I was wondering if it may be possible to change it so that her attack damage and attack speed stack with corruption stacks. From there her Anti-hero mutation could be changed to life-steal. This would make more sense in that the corruption makes it so she becomes more bloodthirsty and the mutation will set her apart from the rest of the UPR as the “corrupted” one. The right numbers for this is something that would be up for debate but if done I think she will finally be in a well-balanced position with the rest of her casted role.
Jythri: @LucFal Thanks for the feedback on Galilea. We’re definitely watching where she’s landing.
Mahaga: Just wondering if you guys have considered doing some lets plays on twitch every couple of weeks where the community could gather up and watch you developers play Battleborn and just have a good time?
Jythri: @Mahaga We did this a few times last year. I’d be up for another!
geoff: Are there any plans to have a day where you just take a look at helices that are constantly overlooked or underpowered, compared to the other options at that level? Like Pellet Party vs Barrier for Ghalt.
Jythri: @geoff That’s actually a part of the weekly report cards we get for characters, so we look at that data all the time. We try to do some rebalance with that data for 2-3 characters every time we do a major patch.
cosmicgayces: If there are anymore characters in the future, would there potentially be an openly nonbinary character who uses they/them pronouns?
Jythri: @cosmicgayces Always possible
Qmzn: @Jythri I have a friend that loved going through Story and Ops, and dropping the Space Laser on the boss with OM. Unfortunately, the Winter Update put him in a place where she feels really underpowered, so she stopped playing. Are there any plans to revisit OMs balance, or put strength back into everyone for PvE?
Jythri: @Qmzn Yes. I think OM needs some love. I think several attackers have lost their abiltiy to feel like Attackers. We want to fix that, and also fix it systemically.
