Are all those weapon variations pretty much
potentially available from the start?
Kevin: There’s definitely a level ramp, as
you’re moving in. The more rare a weapon is,
the more parts are available that the system
is going to attach to it and that’s where the
variety happens, it’s where the heart of a
player’s experience comes from. If you gave
someone everything from the very start, then
what are you aiming to get later? And you’re
not going to be surprised. And so we’ve got it
so that the variety slowly exposes itself.
Jimmy: So that the progression and that
perception of value is good – something to
hunt for and search for as you go through the
game. There’s a bit of an art to it, finding out
when you should allow something to open up
into the system so that, cool, there are some
new things that I can hunt for now; but yeah
there’s a little bit of gating in that sense but
by the time you’ve reached the full steam of
the narrative in the game you’re fully exposed
to everything the system’s got to offer.Balancing must have been quite tricky. Is
the damage balanced for the enemies or is it
possible to be massively overpowered?
Kevin: Overkill scenario is actually possible,
one of the fun things about the game is that
it is possible, but if it happens, it’s only going
to happen for a few levels, right? Eventually
that gun is going to be overpowered by the
enemies but you’ll have a hell of time during
that time where you can just god-like destroy!
Jimmy: A lot of our long-time player retention
thrives in that finding the broken builds and
finding that piece of gear somewhere that
does this thing to that thing, that gives you
this kind of ‘god build’ and you can run around
and enjoy the fruits of your labour – the fact
that you found this synergistic set of gear
and skills and abilities that all work together.
Thankfully the way our game is set up, being
PvE narrative focused, co-op or single player,
we’re not afraid of those overpowered builds.
Just have fun, let it happen!You’ve tried to outdo yourselves this time with
even more types of weapons, so how many do
you think you’ve got?
Jimmy: Because of the nature of the system,
over a billion is kind of accurate, the way the
parts play together, what we’ve taken from BL2
and the technology that we’ve moved forward,
those numbers compound and get big really
quick, so the iterations are out there.
Kevin: But in the guns that you’re going
through, and as you’re collecting the guns,
we tried to get variety on a more human
scale, and doing that by making very specific
gameplay types from all the different
manufacturers. And so finding the variety
within has been a major focus, the number
kind of came secondary, it was the result of
us doing that.
Jimmy: We definitely reached a threshold
where it doesn’t matter how big the number
is, because from a player perspective it
is unachievable. So you start to expand
sideways and up and down and left and right
and see what we could do to add depth and
variety, more than just a top line number.JIMMY BARNETT, LEAD 3D WEAPONS ARTIST, AND KEVIN DUC, LEAD VISUAL
DESIGNER (WEAPONS), ON BRINGING OVER A BILLION GUNS TO THE GAME
Borderlands enemies are very talkative when they die; sometimes they quote Shakespeare...
BELOW Lorelei is
an ally working
for the Atlas
corporation, who
helps you kick
much ass.054 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE