Varnell

Randy Varnell.
Chief Creative Officer of Gearbox and Gentleman Punslinger.

My opinions belong to my head and sometimes escape.

[Varnell @jythri]

@JonBecker123 @cloudighodaro 👀

[Varnell @jythri]

@PezRadar @2K @bioshock @Borderlands @mafiagame @CivGame You what now??

[Varnell @jythri]

@Hellen__TK @Helldivers_NOW Previously on Helldivers, I was the squad miscreant. Running the fire resistant heavy armor and fire everything: Flamethrower, firearm, grenades, turrets, drones, even my hell pods made fire. It was great.

[Varnell @jythri]

@Hellen__TK @Helldivers_NOW It changes how I play the game. It feels like some kind of Metalgear or stealth game. With that armor, I've walked right up to one of those medium bots. RELOADED my Senator and then one shot him in the face at point blank. It's wild.

[Varnell @jythri]

@Hellen__TK @Helldivers_NOW For Super Earth.

The new stealth armor is amazing, too, from the Redacted Warbond.

I'm running the Censor (or Scorcher), Senator, Good ol' Frag Grenade, and dropping in the Quasar. Auto-Cannon turret in a pinch.

This is probably the most fun I've had in HD2. Blitz is lit.

[Varnell @jythri]

@Hellen__TK @weakestmozemain @Ki11ersix @GearboxOfficial @EpicNNG Yeah, there's probably some influence here. Doom rocks!

[Varnell @jythri]

@Hellen__TK @GearboxOfficial I think we have a few positions that will post soon. We usually always have one or two in various disciplines.

Looking for something specific?

[Varnell @jythri]

@SilentNova___ @borderlandshub

[Varnell @jythri]

@Sloppyfish2015 @Ki11ersix @GearboxOfficial Is perf on gunplay the main bug that's holding you back here? Or what else is frustrating you?

[Varnell @jythri]

@Hellen__TK I love this passion.

** tries to turn down his 'corporate noise' volume knob**

[Varnell @jythri]

@EpicNNG @Borderlands Mancubus is great, isn't he? :)

[Varnell @jythri]

@Ki11ersix @Hellen__TK @MattGoesBuck @Byrdman Well. I appreaciate you!

[Varnell @jythri]

@Ki11ersix @Hellen__TK @MattGoesBuck @Byrdman We're actively working to pick back up the discussions. Holidsys hit and ... well. We have a lot to do. :) We've been busy.

[Varnell @jythri]

@Ccrypto5 What areas were your favorites?

[Varnell @jythri]

@SdotTheAvatar @Ki11ersix @Hellen__TK @MattGoesBuck @Byrdman Man, I hear this. A lot of folks want a real challenge. We're tuning, but there's a very wide range of what "challenge" means to players.

We're looking at some new internal ways to gauge this. I think we'll get better in the coming months here.

[Varnell @jythri]

Okay - gonna engage this one as a fellow player and not necessarily an agent of Gearbox. :) I think I have an aberrant opinion here. So, what I'm about to say does not reflect any current thinking of Graeme or what we're planning. Good? Good!

As a player with hundreds of hours in every BL we've released, I personally playing from near-start any time I swap characters. I like to feel the choices in gear and trees organically. Also, I just like the journey of play.

I think for me, I worry that allowing a full "skip to 50" option (or even the skip we have in currently) is actually damaging my replayability of the game.

For example - taking BL2 as a point of comparison -- my ideal second play of BL2 would have been to skip to the first time you get to Sanctuary and set my level to the average equivalent - like 8 to 10. It's when the game first opens up and I'm now making the most interesting choices for me. I love Claptrap, but I can only rescue his eye so many times.

It sounds like you (and maybe others here) want something optimized differently. What I think I'm hearing is that after you've consumed the early content once, you want to try different characters, but want to skip to the end-game loot chase. That sound right?

Thoughts?

[Varnell @jythri]

Thanks, killer. :)

That's a good summary! I know we're tracking numerous of those issues, Graeme especially.

Great news is that we're still very committed to working on the game! I think we will get to most of what you and others have listed.

The hard part - we ALL want changes yesterday. :) We will get them as fast as we can, but being mindful that we'd also love to keep the game stable and improving in stability.

This conversation helps set priorities!

[Varnell @jythri]

@Hellen__TK @MattGoesBuck @Byrdman Good start. We agree!

Hopefully, you'll be seeing more soon.

I've worked on Borderlands for just shy of 17 years now. There's still a bunch at Gearbox who have been Borderdevs longer than me.

We want to keep moving it forward.

[Varnell @jythri]

@MoxsyOG Whoa! This one feels significant. Congrats!

I remember that *mutters*25yearsago*mutters*.