# Borderlands **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 20, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438 "2009-10-20T03:54:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/61 "2009-11-02T22:51:26Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > So I’m wondering… is there a way to balance out level indifferences in coop groups? There are a lot of people I want to play coop with, but if we’re all at different levels and vastly different ability/power levels I don’t see how that would work unless the game has some coop normalization feature. > > “Hey, let’s play!” > “Ok, I have a level 37, 22, and 9” “Well, uh, I have a level 46, 31, and 15…”… is there any way those people could play together meaningfully? > > Me and 3 friends are going to probably start new level 1 characters and only play together so we’re at the same part of the storyline, but then I can’t go off and play with any 2 or 3 of them when not all 4 of us are around… and I’d have a hard time playing with people outside that group. The only way to balance things out is if your higher level players kill everything and the lower level players don’t/pick the goodies up. Your best bet is to start new characters with your buddies and play co-op only with that character with that party of folks. It’s really the best (and most fair) way to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Claptree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Claptree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claptree)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/62 "2009-11-03T07:33:58Z")
> [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](#): > > I think you’ll start to see the loot get noticeably better in New Haven. Also, do you play by yourself? Well, I’m in/around New Haven, and still holding on. Been adding a couple of gadgets and doodads, but still using the same weapons. I did swap my Eridian Thunder Storm for a higher level version. Yeah, I’m playing alone. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/63 "2009-11-03T13:57:44Z")
> [@Claptree](#): > > Well, I’m in/around New Haven, and still holding on. Been adding a couple of gadgets and doodads, but still using the same weapons. I did swap my Eridian Thunder Storm for a higher level version. > > Yeah, I’m playing alone. Play with others. You’ll get better stuff. ---
**Author:** ![MJinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@MJinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MJinks)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/64 "2009-11-03T15:21:44Z")
I can’t believe they released the game with such a glaringly obvious bug. I am referring to the fact that item descriptions don’t show more than 4 lines of attributes. The fantastic player-base has found a solution to show 5 lines but it seems to be hard-coded and impossible to show more without a patch. I also hate that they went with the ‘fake’ wide-screen option. Again the player-base has found a temporary solution to change the FOV but it’s not ideal and has problems. I’m shocked companies think they can still get away with that. More player-base discovered tweaks include skipping the initial videos/logos, and disabling ‘mouse smoothing’. I’m still enjoying the game but damn… I thought it was delayed to allow for better optimization? I wont have any problem dedicating my full attention to DA:O when it comes out on Friday. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/65 "2009-11-03T17:57:21Z")
Bought the game over the weekend and played through until level 15. It’s…ok. Possibly it’s a bit more fun if you play with others. The single player game is just…ok. Is there any way to auto-run in the game? I’ve looked through the manual, but I don’t see any key for it. Will probably get the new Mothership DLC for Fallout 3 and DA when it ships and this game will most likely collect dust along side TR and Hellgate London. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/66 "2009-11-03T18:02:22Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Is there any way to auto-run in the game? I’ve looked through the manual, but I don’t see any key for it. Shift, if you have it for PC, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Roulette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8dc957/32.png) [@Roulette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roulette)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/67 "2009-11-03T18:11:06Z")
> [@MJinks](#): > > … > More player-base discovered tweaks include skipping the initial videos/logos, and disabling ‘mouse smoothing’. Do those tweaks work with steam? I’d kill to skip those videos, but I’m not really in the mood to have my steam account flagged. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/68 "2009-11-03T18:20:28Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] Shift, if you have it for PC, anyway. [/QUOTE] Yes, I have a PC. However, shift seems to make me sprint, not autorun. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Roulette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8dc957/32.png) [@Roulette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roulette)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/69 "2009-11-03T18:33:50Z")
There isn’t really a difference between sprinting and running. Shift is a toggle, so you’ll run until you toggle it off, walk sideways, or jump. You’re movement speed options are basically walk, or run. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/70 "2009-11-03T18:42:00Z")
I’m missing something here. When I hit shift my character sprints…if I stop pushing the ‘W’ key he stops moving. If I push the ‘W’ key again then he returns to normal speed. Correct? Or are you saying when I hit the shift key the character will continue to sprint even if my hands are off the keys? Because when I tried it, it was the latter…which isn’t autorun. Maybe I’m doing something wrong here. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Roulette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8dc957/32.png) [@Roulette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roulette)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/71 "2009-11-03T18:48:40Z")
Sorry, I don’t recall ever having a fps game do that sort of autorun. Maybe some RPGs like KOTOR. But that’s just me. AFAIK, there is no such setting in borderlands. You have to press the direction you’re intending on moving. The shift key is a just toggle to dictate the speed of movement forward. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/72 "2009-11-03T19:11:24Z")
In Fallout 3 it’s the Q key. Most MMORPG games have something similar as well. It’s not important…I didn’t think there was one, reading the documentation at least. -XT ---
**Author:** ![MJinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@MJinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MJinks)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/73 "2009-11-03T19:47:30Z")
I forgot to mention that I had to forward about 10 ports on my router and firewall in order to host an online game and invite friends… > [@Roulette](#): > > Do those tweaks work with steam? I’d kill to skip those videos, but I’m not really in the mood to have my steam account flagged. I have the Steam version too, the only difference is the directory some files are located in. To disable the intro movies all you have to do is add some semi-colons to a text file. Go to: Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config Open WillowEngine.ini Find “FullScreenMovie” Add a semicolon at the start to each of the 8 lines underneath. It should look like this: [FullScreenMovie] ;StartupMovies=2K\_logo ;StartupMovies=Gearbox\_logo ;StartupMovies=NVidia ;StartupMovies=Loading ;SkippableMovies=2K\_logo ;SkippableMovies=Gearbox\_logo ;SkippableMovies=Attract ;SkippableMovies=NVidia [Here](http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=79043) is the link to the PC Tweaks thread on the official forums. ---
**Author:** ![Roulette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8dc957/32.png) [@Roulette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roulette)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/74 "2009-11-03T19:55:56Z")
Ah, that’s why I’m not as familiar with it. Borderlands seems more like an fps with a sprinkling of RPG elements. And even in fallout I ran myself or I used the map to jump to the location. Btw, on a slightly different subject, is anyone actually following the story? I mean, beyond the fact that I’m looking for some ancient vault thing, I could barely tell you what is going on in the world. We go, we grab missions, we sort them by location, then we seek and destroy. Then scour the carnage for glowing mission items, take them back and turn them in for profit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’m having a field day with my friends. We left the world of high tension clan matches for more fluff when we went to left 4 dead, and this continues in the same vein. I just noticed that 99% of the time, I don’t even really read the mission briefing beyond ‘Get item X’ or whatever. edit: Thanks for the tweaks. I’ll definitely use them. Stupid nvidia robot thing drives me up a wall. Also, the ports are a little crazy too. We had a ton of trouble setting up our home PCs in order to get this game to work. It was really annoying to have to set that up, even among people that have a good technical background. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/75 "2009-11-03T20:46:37Z")
> [@Miltonyz](#): > > I like it a lot so far. The first hour or two dragged but I got really into it after my first boss battle. I hear it’s the most fun in an online co-op mode but I wanna become competent at the game before I jump into those waters. I’m running Mordecai (sniper) leaning towards making him a pure sniper build. I use an assault rifle as my backup. Just started the first driving mission and the cart controls are not as intuitive as I would like. > > Part of my excitement is that this game comes one step closer to my dream game, a FPS MMORPG. Sheesh… WWII Online. Been out for years. ---
**Author:** ![Mekhazzio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b38774/32.png) [@Mekhazzio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mekhazzio)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/76 "2009-11-04T16:15:58Z")
If you’re on the PC, the MMO-style autorun button you desire could be constructed using the Unreal engine’s bind and alias commands. I’m not familiar enough with the engine myself to be able to build that offhand though. But yeah, I considered the narrow field of view to be a gamebreaker, fortunately that can at least be half-ass fixed by adding FOV 90 to the strafe binds. This still leaves the problems of the insufficient loot descriptions, the way that some skills and class mods are nonfunctional, or the many ways in which the game can eat your character save. Even above the increasingly common plague of console infection in cross-platform games, it reeks of being pushed to release too early. That said, I’m still having fun with it. It makes a =great= co-op game, although the problem with having characters at a spread of levels (or worse, story progression, since the game is jackbooted about that…) is a fairly serious one, since any difference in levels at all results in enormous changes in combat effectiveness. There’s console commands for “balance me to this zone” and “balance my party to this zone” which is supposed to adjust your level, but I haven’t used it yet and that’s an awfully drastic solution anyway. In any event, the character file is extremely easy to modify, so before long I’m sure the real answer will simply be “generate a new character of your desired level and story progression”. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/77 "2009-11-04T21:50:22Z")
> [@Mekhazzio](#): > > In any event, the character file is extremely easy to modify, so before long I’m sure the real answer will simply be “generate a new character of your desired level and story progression”. Well, that’s dissapointing. I was hoping the game would lock away and encrypt character files or something. If things are that open, it sounds like it could be lke diablo 2 with hacked items circulating around. Then again I probably will only play with friends anyway and I can count on them not to cheat. I’m having a hard time evaluating weapons in this game. Looking at the stats, I’ll say “hmm, this weapon seems to be better than that one” and then I’ll actually use it and it feels worse. My main character is level 19 and I’m still using a (green quality) weapon with a level 7 requirement because even though I’ve picked up several weapons that seem like they’re designed to be better, they haven’t been. Even recently, I’ve gotten a weapon with nearly the same stats - they’re both weird combat rifles that fire fast and hit hard but have a very short magazine so you end up firing 2 or 3 little bursts and reloading - but the one that has a level 16 requirement actually has less damage (28 vs 23 IIRC) than the level 7 required version, the same fire rate, the same accuracy, and the same magazine size - but a 1x elemental effect. So is it better? Probably. But 9 level requirements better? I’m kind of confused about the whole elemental thing actually. What does the 1x through 4x thing mean? Is that the chance of the elemental chance going off, or the degree of the effect if it does? ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/78 "2009-11-04T21:57:16Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Well, that’s dissapointing. I was hoping the game would lock away and encrypt character files or something. If things are that open, it sounds like it could be lke diablo 2 with hacked items circulating around. Then again I probably will only play with friends anyway and I can count on them not to cheat. > I’m having a hard time evaluating weapons in this game. Looking at the stats, I’ll say “hmm, this weapon seems to be better than that one” and then I’ll actually use it and it feels worse. My main character is level 19 and I’m still using a (green quality) weapon with a level 7 requirement because even though I’ve picked up several weapons that seem like they’re designed to be better, they haven’t been. > > Even recently, I’ve gotten a weapon with nearly the same stats - they’re both weird combat rifles that fire fast and hit hard but have a very short magazine so you end up firing 2 or 3 little bursts and reloading - but the one that has a level 16 requirement actually has less damage (28 vs 23 IIRC) than the level 7 required version, the same fire rate, the same accuracy, and the same magazine size - but a 1x elemental effect. So is it better? Probably. But 9 level requirements better? > > I’m kind of confused about the whole elemental thing actually. What does the 1x through 4x thing mean? Is that the chance of the elemental chance going off, or the degree of the effect if it does? Your proficiency with that type of weapon might be lower than the proficiency with another type of weapon, hence, a difference in damage output. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/79 "2009-11-04T21:59:42Z")
In this case I’m a soldier trying to find a combat rifle upgrade, so I’ve been comparing apples to apples. It just seems like certain weapons outperform their stats somehow, and you can’t replace them with weapons that seem to be better. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438/80 "2009-11-04T22:00:31Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > In this case I’m a soldier trying to find a combat rifle upgrade, so I’ve been comparing apples to apples. It just seems like certain weapons outperform their stats somehow, and you can’t replace them with weapons that seem to be better. You’re also relatively low in levels. Soon, there will be better weapons. Green weapons are the second-most common of weapons. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borderlands/514438.md?page=5)