Borderlands 3: General Notes 1

Having reached Wizard Level 777 in Gemcraft 2, I am now to write the first of MANY things for Borderlands 3. Here is the full breakdown. Please Click More to read!

UPDATE: EACH POINT COVERED IN THIS GETS ITS OWN POST - LOOK AT THE RIGHT PANEL FOR MORE DETAILS

Borderlands 3: General Notes #1

Author's Notes:
Welcome to Borderlands 3: Seasonal Warden's Blog. This is a HUGE project of ideas that forums can't ever get. Randy Pitchford may have said that "We may not have another Borderlands in us..." but... I will not accept that as a reason.

I am in the process of working on a map (to prove I have 2 things: Level Design and Creativity) and prepare for a part to be a "part of the team" perhaps. This is NOT an application. The reason for this is because I cannot move (just yet) and I am still working on a ton of goals and ideas first (such as publishing maps that honor "people" I used to have a great time with, and new blood people.)

What Is This Project?

The project is simple - Come up with ideas that will shun the community (not really) and make it a game that will top Destiny and hundreds of others. Gearbox has the talent and ideas, but it needs MORE for Borderlands 3. You've got GREAT people (i.e. Admiral Bahroo) who are out there that WANT to make Borderlands 3 a great game.

Google Slides?

It will no longer use Google Slides in this blog. I felt that I want to start putting content and ideas in a blog format, since the Gearbox forums would use TOO MANY walls of text. I do not wish to keep posting Google Slides links, instead it would be best to post ideas in Blog Posts instead. It also makes it optional to read the full post and not to have to read a giant wall of text.

Anyways...
Recap of Google Slides - General Facts

All points in bold are important
All points in green + bold are brand new points that weren't a part of the Google Slides.

• Borderlands 3 will use a refined Looting System identical to Borderlands 2, except the main difference is the option to use the Grinder in a different matter to make two methods without spending countless hours farming the same boss.
• Borderlands 3 DLC should be Episodic format and not released as DLC. Purchasing Episodes continues the Borderlands 3 Story, and also adds 10 Levels for each episode, up to a maximum of Level 200. Each episode "should" be priced at $14.99 USD (instead of $9.99 for small DLC)
• Borderlands 3 will not just be set on Pandora. It will be set on 7 different worlds and feature five worlds that are referenced in Borderlands 1 & 2, and 2 completely new worlds with an outlook of zones and plethora of content, to make your purchase well worth it!
• Mad Moxxi's Slot Machines will return. However, she also made so much money (Borderlands 2) from your constant stream of money inserts and funded 3 new Gaming Zones in the Borderlands 3 universe with a huge range of new mini-game content to play around!
• A new class idea was posted: The Elementalist. A powerful non-siren person that wields the power of the elements to dish out serious damage to its victims very harshly and powerfully.
• Weapons should have many more prefixes then Borderlands 2. If you are to advertise a game with 87 bazillion guns, you need to really make it feel that way. Guns should have many different prefixes that do different effects, like increased damage, but reduced fire rate, etc.

End-Episode Content (Between Episodes)

• The mission levels are scaled by the highest player's level. This prevents the need to boost low level characters. Bosses are always scaled 2 levels above the highest player's level, unless you enable Tower Raid Boost, which makes it up to 5 levels above the highest player's level instead for an extra challenge. Basically put, this puts the figures identical to Borderlands 2 with UVHM's system. Also, if your character is low level (such as 10 levels below the highest players level) it will A) not benefit anyone since enemies power increases as more players join, and B) you will receive a 75% EXP reduction rate to prevent farming until you are 3 or less levels from the highest level player.
• There is no "Overpower" style loot in Tower Raid Boost. This simply makes the game more challenging and more cooperative based. All of your weapons deal normal damage, and do not scale atrociously like it did in Borderlands 2 for damage numbers, health, or enemies statistics.
• Missions should not be required to fully reset the Episode or Game Progress. When you complete the Episode, you unlock Challenge Missions, which allow you to replay the mission, and get rewards for getting ranks.
• Ranks are Bronze, Silver and Gold - The factors to getting better rankings are as followed: Time elapsed to complete mission, number of Fight For Your Life times or dying times, and number of enemies killed during the mission. Each of the three factors weighs in a scoring system, which will then be used to score which medal you receive. 
• Scoring Bronze medals is a Badass rank challenge. (Bronze Achiever)
• Scoring Silver medals gives 2 things: 1) Gives you Badass Rank Challenge (Silver Surfer) and also gives you 2) Customization skins for the class you are playing.
• Scoring Gold medals gives 2 things: 1) Gives you Badass Rank Challenge (Golden Grinder) and also gives you 2) Customization skins for the Dahl's Capital Ship *COMING SOON*
• Overpower mode is not an option in Borderlands 3. However, once you complete a Tower Raid (see next section) it will unlock an option to boost the power of your enemies by 1, 2 or 3 levels. There is no option to do Overpower Level 8 anymore. The Boost is unlocked when you beat the Tower Difficulty for the first time.
• Level 1 Overpower is called the Skilled Badass Rank
• Level 2 Overpower is called the Veteran Badass Rank
• Level 3 Overpower is called the Elite Badass Rank
• Skilled Badass Rank puts enemies primary level 1 above the host level. Enemies get 5% less damage taken from your weapons and also gives enemies a 5% increase on health boost.(if they are at, or near this level)
• Veteran Badass Rank puts enemies primary level 2 above the highest players level. Enemies get 10% less damage taken from your weapons and also gives enemies a 10% increase on health boost. (standard mode bosses are at this level)
• Elite Badass Rank puts enemies primary level 3 above the highest players level. Enemies get 15% less damage taken from your weapons, and also get 15% more health overall on all enemies, this includes bosses as well.

Damage Resistance & Shields (Set #1)

• Some shields have a chance to fully resist any kind of damage (melee or not). These are called Portable Generators (or whatever name they are) and they work the same way as Absorb shields, except it has a chance to fully shield you immune to damage for 3 seconds.
• Amplify shields re-balanced - The Bee should work the same way as Borderlands 2 in the style of a glass cannon. It will not work with Launchers at all. Standard Amplify shields will have a short recharge rate timer and low capacity, and firing the shot while your shield is full will deal a small amount of damage higher for your next 3 shots (instead of 1) and deplete the amount of shield listed. The Bee however will retain the same effect to act like a glass cannon and have the risk over reward factor implemented.
• Resistance Shields (e.g. Anshin Elemental Shields) will also increase the elemental damage of the gun (if it is the same kind as the last resisted one) by 5%.
• more points in General Notes 2

End-Game Content: Raids & Tower Challenges

• Raid bosses will still exist
• There should be new locations called Towers (e.g. Gearbox Tower) that tests players in three things: Skill, Puzzles, and Trivia about things (all Borderlands obviously.)
• Each tower has four missions, each increasing the difficulty (and reward). 
• NOTE: ALL TOWER MISSIONS ARE ONE-LIFE ONLY (identical to Underdome and Circle of Slaughters) - IF YOU DIE you will be sent to the spectator's room. IF YOUR WHOLE PARTY dies, you will fail the mission and have to start over!
• The first mission is to beat the tower on the standard difficulty.
• Afterwards, you will get access to 4 repeatable side missions, one for each Badass Rank increase. (Standard, Skilled, Veteran and Elite)
• Complete towers on higher difficulty to receive more cash, loot holders (Veteran and Elite award Gold Dahl Weapon Chests), customization skins, more Eridium Bars and more Moonstones!
• To beat towers, work together - they can be soloable but it is not very easy due to the amount of rooms you must pass. Players need to pass a mix of 20 rooms, puzzles & waves of enemies in a time limit (30 minutes)
• Other towers will be announced but:
• Gearbox Tower is located in Natura World (World 2) just outside of River City (Major City).
• Torgue Tower is located off of the Hellfire Highway (World 5) nearby a small town called Explosivia (really Torgue. Really.)
• There will be a tower for every weapon company all loosely themed around their specialities.
• More Points in General Notes 2

Mini-Games in Borderlands 3

• Whack-A-Psycho: Smack Psychos in the face and be rewarded for it! (basically use your melee to attack.)
• Slot Machines: There are four variants now in Borderlands 3

1. Standard - Drops cash, and costs Cash to play
2. Ticket - Drops Moxxi's Prize Tickets instead of cash and costs cash to play.
3. Eridium - Costs 2 Eridium to play, drops more cash and Moxxi's Prize Tickets then standard.
4. High Stakes - Costs 4 times the amount of cash to play, but has a much higher chance to get rare items.

• The Wheel of Looters - Spin a wheel and pray you get something... unless its rigged (which it probably isn't, probably.)
• Pandora Hold-Em: Borderlands take on the classic Poker game, Texas Hold Em. Play against your friends or the computer, win tickets: OR give up your precious legendaries to your friends in a luck/skill based game.
• Survival Arena: There are 2 located in Moxxi's Game Places, they are:

1. Watertown Arena - Costs 20 Eridium Bars to fight. Can contain ANY enemy you've fought from Worlds 1, 2 and 5, and also can spawn bosses. Has the same increased statistics system that was used in Mad Moxxi's Underdome. You receive some loot (via a chest) for every Wave cleared and at the end, when all of you die, you get Prize Tickets! Beat all 25 Waves to earn an achievement and chests that guarantee Purples, with a chance to spawn Legendaries!
2. Golden Loot Palace Arena - Costs 50 Eridium Bars to fight. Contains ANY enemy from ANY of the 7 worlds and also can spawn lesser versions of raid bosses. You receive some loot (via a chest) for every Wave cleared. Beat all 50 Waves to earn an achievement and chests that guarantee Legendaries!

• Pandoran Darts - Throw darts - the closer you are to the center, the more prize tickets you'll get. Cost is $500 x Level to play a round! Score more then 50 points after 5 throws to get free throws!
• And many more to be thrown out (Watch for Thread #2!)

General Concepts

• A Quick Change Station also having the ability to swap characters without having to go back to the main menu. This also removes character specific story progress, and instead (since Borderlands 3 is the big one) will be linked to your profile, or your ShiFT profile.
• Making Claptrap's Secret Stash 8 slots or removing it (if account-centralized banks occur)
• Banks are not character specific, but account specific. Access the bank from Sanctuary, Watertown, Golden Loot Palace, or the Dahl Capital Ship.
• More community events such as Community Races, or #TheLootHunt6. Also Gearbox Developers should participate and award players who registered with ShiFT at the end with Golden Keys for defeating Developers. This will make the Borderlands 3 community far more competitive (not in the aspect of PvP, primarily)

Inventory Management

• Claptrap's Secret Stash upped to 8 slots or removed (if Account-Centralized Banks happen).
• Bank's Initial Capacity is 16 slots. 
• Inventory's Initial Capacity is 16 slots.
• Trading removes the 3 second timer when both players confirm.
• You can see Legendary items a little more frequently in Borderlands 3 vendors. They will still be rare, however.
• SDU Kits Start as followed:

1. Pistols - 240 
2. SMG - 360
3. Assault Rifle - 240
4. Launcher - 12
5. Sniper Rifle - 36
6. Laser - 240
7. Shotgun - 80
8. Fuel - 240
9. Jetpack Fuel - 60

• SDU Upgrades cost Eridium Bars. There are 15 Tiers for Ammunition SDU's and 25 Tiers for Inventory SDUs (Bank & Inventory)

SDU Kits Priced as followed:

• Purchase them at: Crazy Earl's Black Market (Sanctuary), Watertown Marketplace (Watertown), or Golden Sundries (Golden Loot Palace - Plaza).

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SDU Tiers

• 1 & 2: (White Quality) - Cost: 4/8 Eridium Bars
• 3 & 4: (Green Quality) - Cost: 12/24 Eridium Bars
• 5 & 6: (Blue Quality) - Cost: 36/48 Eridium Bars
• 7 & 8: (Purple Quality) - Cost: 60/75 Eridium Bars
• 9 & 10: (Orange Quality) - Cost: 100/125 Eridium Bars
• 11 & 12 (Pink Quality) - Cost: 150/200 Eridium Bars
• 13 & 14 (Light Blue Quality) - Cost: 250/300 Eridium Bars
• 15 (Gold Quality) - Win at any Moxxi's Gaming Place (Item of the Day, 1,337 Prize Tickets)
• 16-25 (Gold Quality) - Cost: 500 Eridium Bars (Each) - Only applies to Inventory and Bank SDU upgrades.

SDU Effects

• All Weapon SDUs can only be upgraded 15 times.
• Pistols, Assault Rifles, Lasers, Fuel Weapons, and SMGs share the same effect. Each SDU upgrade increases the maximum ammo capacity for those weapons by 60 for each tier.
• Shotguns increase maximum ammo capacity for those weapons by 20 for each tier.
• Sniper Rifles increase maximum ammo capacity for those weapons by 12 for each tier.
• Launchers increase maximum ammo capacity for those weapons by 3 for each tier.
• Jetpack Fuel increases maximum fuel capacity for your Jetpack by 15 for each tier.
• All Inventory and Bank SDUs can be upgraded up to 25 times.
• Inventory Upgrades increase your inventory capacity by 3 for each tier, until you get to Tier 15, where it will double in capacity increase to 6 for each tier past 15.
• Bank Upgrades increase your bank capacity by 5 for each tier, until you get to Tier 15, where it will double in capacity increase to 10 for each tier past 15.
• Bank Upgrades have greater effect then inventory, in order to make it so you have to visit Major Cities more often, or your Capital Ship (to switch planets)

Customizations

• All characters receive 108 character skin customization options. (up from 72)
• All characters can acquire unique armor pieces which allow you to cover up the flesh and make you look like a true badass.
• Slot machines can drop ANY customization item (instead of the standard ones). The 777 Combo is rarer to acquire in Borderlands 3 (~7% Chance) instead of Borderlands 2 (~13% Chance)
• Vehicle skins have 108 different skins (up from 69). (identical to character customization)
• You can also acquire vehicle skins through the Slot Machines.
• White/Green quality skins will appear far more frequently (~70% of the time), then Blue/Purple skins (~29.5% of the time), but you may acquire your Legendary Skin (~0.5% Chance with 777 combo)
• All characters have 5 Legendary Skins.
• All 5 Legendary skins also have a small chance to drop from raid bosses. One of the legendary skins is a Badass Rank Challenge.
• You unlock 8 Skins at the start of Borderlands 3, for your character class you select.
• You unlock 6 Vehicle Skins at the start of Borderlands 3, for every vehicle you can drive via Scooter's Catch-A-Ride.
• About half of the skins you acquire come from Badass Rank Challenges. These CAN be acquired through Slot Machines also!
• The other half of the skins are random drops from any enemy, and also can be acquired via Moxxi Slots.
• Premium skins are also available for purchase. $0.99 USD for 2 premium skins - these don't count towards the 108 skins you can acquire.
• 50 Skins are white quality.
• 25 Skins are green quality.
• 12 Skins are blue quality.
• 8 Skins are purple quality.
• 5 Skins are orange quality.

Currencies

• Cash: Maximum: $99,999,999. Used for the Grinder, Purchasing Capital Ship upgrades and playing Moxxi's Minigames of Mayhem.
• Eridium: Maximum: 999. Used to purchase SDU upgrades.
• Moonstone: Maximum: 999. Used to Moonstone Enhance weapons and required to be able to enter raid boss zones. (20 is required for each raid boss entry. Raid Boss entry does not close until the boss is killed.) (This will be in General Notes #2)
• Mad Moxxi Tickets: Maximum: 5,000. When acquiring Tickets, anyone who is in the lobby with you gets tickets also for playing the mini-games.
• Seraph Crystals (or raid boss currency): Maximum: 999. Used to purchase Pink quality items.

Used to purchase the following:

• 50 Prize Tickets - 1 Supply Box (Contains 10 Eridium Bars and 10 Moonstone)
• 100-200 Prize Tickets - Any random blue quality weapon - this scales with the highest player's level in the game.
• 250-500 Prize Tickets - Any random purple quality weapon - this scales with the highest player's level in the game.
• 750 Prize Tickets - Unique Moxxi Weapons - this can be any of the ones, including exclusive ones she made herself.
• 1,337 Prize Tickets - A Tier 15 SDU Unit. For inventory and bank, it is required to have this in order to be able to purchase Tier 16-25 Units with 500 Eridium Bars. The Tier 15 SDU Unit is an item of the day.
• 2,222 Prize Tickets - A random legendary quality weapon. This is an item of the day.
• 5,000 Prize Tickets - A random pearlescent/supreme quality weapon. This is very rare to see. This is an item of the day.

Each Mad Moxxi's Gaming Place has 3 vendors with an assortment of the loot described above. It will ALWAYS contain 1 Supply Box and at least a mix of the other items listed above. There will always be 6 items in one vendor, and they change every 20 minutes (like the standard vendors do)

There are more mini-game ideas (e.g. Moxxi's Mad Golf) and more that will be detailed further in other General Note Threads!

The Dahl's Capital Ship

• Earned after completion of Episode 1. This allows you to travel across worlds, and also serves as a home base for your character. Contains a bank, mini gaming place (not with all attractions though) and more! Upgrade your buildings to have further utility with blueprints and using your hard-earned cash to do it!

MORE OF THIS FEATURE WILL BE DOCUMENTED IN GENERAL THREAD #3

Conclusion:

Borderlands 3 is the big one. Big one means it will be hyped with tons of content. This is why I chose to write a blog instead of another wall of text. That way, when I complete gaming milestones, it will be looked at forward to come up with even more ideas and more concept arts. Other General Threads will feature drawing and artworks as well.

It needs to be the best one, after all, critics loved Borderlands 2 (not so much Pre-Sequel) and we (community members) and Gearbox praises that we all hope for the best.

Also, this is not an application for me to work at Gearbox. I have MANY more ideas to list but it is not time to do all of them. I do have experience in level design (I have made Counter-Strike maps) and heavy experience in creativity. If you Private Message me on the Gearbox Forums (my ID is seasonalwardens) we can work something out.

Thank you for reading this giant General Notes thread! Hope to see you at the next one... whenever I complete all my milestones.
~Seasonal Wardens