Possible Borderlands 1 remaster/patch favorable improvements/bug fixes

Borderlands General Discussion
#1

This is my first post in the official gearbox forums. I can say despite not being active much in the community, I have roughly 1900 hours in all 3 main games on PC alone, and have spent hundreds buying the 3 main games and DLC for me, friends, and siblings over steam. I say this because I really care about this franchise, and I at least want a chance for gearbox to hear me out. I have spent a few months on and off compiling a list of possible bug fixes/improvements that people seem to think would make Borderlands 1 a better experience for everyone if an HD re-release on current gen systems were to happen, and a patch for PC, and maybe even last generation consoles were to complement it. This thread shouldn’t be seen as a list of demands, but rather a tool for the developers of a possible remaster to see what we want most. I would never in a million years expect every single thing in this thread to be implemented, but having just a few of these improvements applied would really improve the game for everyone.

I’ve split this list into two basic sections. The first will be bugs, or easy improvements. The second part is mostly a list of improvements that the 2nd game incorporated that never made it in any patches, but might be financially viable if gearbox plans to re-release the game.

BUG FIXES:
• Level 69 guns can only be obtained as an item of the day when you are level 69. Being level 69, it would be nice to have world drops that have a chance to be level 69, and not level 66.
• Equipped guns show a lower level on their card than their actual level.
• On PC you can’t select your sniper rifle proficiency with your mouse.
• You can sometimes not save on exit when you leave too early. This seems like a bug because I’ve never had it happen in BL2.
• You cannot scroll to read a quest when you are looking at it in the menu of the bounty board, or a quest giving NPC. Maybe also include a font size option?
• 2 legendary guns that i know of (draco and penetrator) are glitched to not be legendary.
• At least one gun (reaper) has a bugged legendary effect. This never seemed to happen in borderlands 2.
• Some class mods are bugged, and have a broken secondary effect, like the hunter class mod’s cooldown rate effect. Also, the gunslinger class mod has a sniper rifle skill, which I imagine was a mistake. What might not be a bug is class mods only going to 55, but it would be nice if higher levels were possible.
• The out rider’s health seems too low, but the regeneration rate of its health definitely needs a fix, especially at the later levels. This was done for the non DLC cars in the 2nd game on the last patch for BL2.
• Machine gun style combat rifles cannot spawn in the gun vendor.
• In the Jackobs cove DLC, there is a Jackobs vending machine you can activate, however its only active as long as you don’t leave the area, or game. You could just fix this to make it permenant after completing the quest, but i think it would be cool to make it an actual jackobs only vending machine.
• Some unique enemies do not re-spawn. I believe they all should, especially if DLC fast travel stations were ever added. Here is a list of them, however I didn’t check all of the uniques in knoxx.
9 toes’ skags
Mad Mel
King Wee Wee
Jaynis Kobb
The Destroyer
Dr. Ned
Zombie Dr. Ned
Hyperion Super-Bad Trooper
D-Fault
Cluck-Trap
Rack Hive-Trap

POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS:
• The knoxx armory quest seems like it was meant to, and should be repeatable because you can do it 3 times.
• Players get really annoyed at the repetitious claptrap mission callouts, so adding the yellow exclamation point system to every quest, and getting rid of the callouts would make finding and doing quests less annoying.
• The main story quests feel like they should have the different vault symbol thumbnail as Borderlands 2’s main story quests, including the DLC main quests.
• Fall damage should go.
• I really enjoy Borderlands 2’s close up gun view because it lets people who know parts easily figure them out. It would be great if we were able to do the same thing in the 1st game.
• Having class mods show the number of skill points it increased, and the effects on the skill was a very welcomed edition to the 2nd game that seems like a minimal effort improvement.
• Grenades don’t show an accurate damage value like they do in the 2nd game.
• It would be nice to have the ability to reset your playthrough 2.5 once you finish the 2nd playthrough. It would obviously be even better if we also got overpower levels, but that might be too much effort.
• Auto collecting ammo and money when you walk over it. Maybe even a bit bigger of a diagonal and horizontal reach than the 2nd game and pre-sequel.
• Not being able to crawl in fight for your life is a hard thing to come back to if you’re used to it from the 2nd game.
• Many people seem to want a mini map like the one in Borderlands 2, however id like to point out it should be DYNAMICALLY TURNING like the one in Borderlands 2, unlike the default one in Battleborn.
• Many people also want fast travel stations in the DLC’s. I agree and also think the 2nd game’s ability to load you into an entrance that isn’t technically a fast travel is a bit overlooked. It would be above and beyond, yet completely awesome to make a clickable fast travel world map for all of the locations in the first game.
• 4 player splitscreen seems like a given, since it happened for the handsome collection. However, even though PC is usually a single player platform, there still is no reason not to include a splitscreen option for people who might have big monitors they could use for it. Also, being able to change the orientation of splitscreen, especially 2 player, would be a nice touch.
• One of the best additions to the Borderlands 2 was a swap stash, so it only makes sense it would be just as useful in the first game. This would also make splitscreen on PC less of a priority.
• Field of view slider for both consoles and PC.
• Everybody at this point wants a buy all ammo button for borderlands 3, but it would do wonders for the first game considering you have to confirm EVERY. PURCHASE. If that wouldn’t be feasible, at least get rid of the confirmation.
• I feel like the third game should have a mechanic that allows virtually infinite backpack and storage space to compliment the near infinite combinations of guns. The amount of space you get in Borderlands 2 and the Pre-sequel was disappointing. I think it would be fun (for me at least) to not only guarantee the backpack SDU’s you could only have a chance of getting before, but making it so every broken claptrap in both playthroughs, including the DLC’s (and maybe even the 1st one?) will always give you an SDU, even after completing playthrough 2.5.

I really feel like i’m not alone when I say that most would prefer gearbox to focus on these kinds of fixes and improvements, rather than patching guns, mechanics, and skills to “balance” them. I would rather gearbox never touch the first borderlands again if they felt like they would also have to add “gimmicks”, or “balance over powered characters”, even though PvP has never been a major part of borderlands. So please gearbox, show us you can re-visit a game that we all love in a positive way, and change things everyone can agree were worth changing. If a remaster and patch do come out, things changing for the worst could dissuade many people, including me from buying the 3rd installment. Post improvements you think would be good for everyone who plays Borderlands 1.

Update

If my posts in this thread are a bit too long winded, here is an abridged list i made that i also update

6 Likes
Where is the Borderlands patch you promised?
What the remaster fixed (improvements/bugs abridged)
A thesis on elemental resistance and bosses
BL1 on PS4/XB1? Randy says [s]maybe[/s] CONFIRMED!
Borderlands Community Patch - Latest Revision: 07/01/2020
#2

Great list, however I would add to this:

Make it an option:

when crippled:
–“crawl” (easy-ish (?) );
–“lock on” (medium);
–“die instanly” (hard);

2 Likes
#3

Thanks, that would be a good option by itself, hopefully not lumped into some general difficulty setting if there were to be one. Another thing i forgot to adress was some dialouge stuff. Fixing the bug where echologs sometimes cut out the audio would be for the first list, but adding lip animations, and keeping dialouge audible after you leave a room through your echo would go in the second. Also, maybe giving the first med vendor the default sound would be good because its Dr. Zed actually talking to you, and he leaves eventually.

#4

By having those gun views means they had to load those guns and that took up much more ram, limiting how many guns you could have. You can’t have both sadly.

2 Likes
#5

Well, i dont see why it wouldnt be possible to generate a thumbnail only preview of the gun for the inventory like whats already done, then loading it into a theoretical 5th equip slot for inspection. Honestly now your’e making me think the 2nd game did gun displaying and inspection sort of inefficiently. So now im contemplating the probability of a scenario where the first borderlands gets released, and an update would apply for pc, but not last gen consoles, sort of like how bethesda is doing the new skyrim remaster. Most PC’s, and the next gen consoles have 16x the ram the last gen consoles have, so it could be viable on those platforms. That is, unless you are strictly talking about the game engine’s ram limits, which seem apparent when looking at large areas in borderlands 2 and the pre sequel. This really just depends on how gearbox would go about releasing a remaster of the first game. They could go the lazy route with an outsourced port, or they could put actual company man hours and money into genuinely improving the game. Most likely somewhere in between.

#6

The ability to reset your playthrough would be so awesome. I’ve wanted that for so long. Adding a ‘playthrough 3’/UVHM type mode would be great too. (Also overpower levels like mentioned in the OP.)

Adding a melee proficiency would be great (esp for Brick.) Feel like that was an oversight.

2 Likes
#7

I like the idea of overpower levels because they would just work with a natural mechanism already in a game, however anything similar to UVHM seems like it would just be a bit much for me. Besides, they might do that thing where the difficulty gets around 4x harder like in 2, which id rather not have a chance of. It could end up making people complain that their characters and gear arnt strong enough, which might make gearbox consider skill and item changes, which im totally against.

Thats a really good idea, especially if youve ever punched the destroyer to death on playthrough 2. It does feel like an oversight now that you mention it.

#8

The UVHM scaling was much better managed in TPS, so it’s possible to make it work.

1 Like
#9

Just thought id update the list with some other slight bugs ive noticed during gameplay that ive jotted down since making the initial list.

• Missions and rewards dont scale to your level on playthrough 2.5.
• Most skills that arnt kill skills have no icon on the bottom of the screen to let you know if it is active. There are skills that could use this in all 3 games, however its most prevelant in BL1.
• I dont think anyone benefits from baron flynt’s excavator having a death wall.
• The knoxx dlc only scales to level 55 in playthrough 2, rather before you recieve crawmerax’s quest, or before you kill knoxx.
• Eridian rifles have a crooked sight if they dont have a scope.
• Every setting returns to default when daylight savings happens. Especially annoying if you modify your .ini files for field of view.
• I did cover the field of view slider, however there are features built into the game’s .ini files that you cant change in game, like v-sync, or high quality bloom. Also would like if there was an option to get rid of texture fade-in like the 2nd game has.
• Idk how many people this affects, but the voice chat is always on by default whenever i join a friend’s game, even though it says its default is off.
• The area to turn in the mission Catch-A-Ride! is confusingly small for a lot of people.
• It would be nice if the money counter displayed to the actual money cap, or atleast had a few more zeroes at its disposal. Also there is a glitch if you have the money cap and you load into the game, it will display a very specific number with a spinning character, and say you dont have enough to buy anything. You go back to the cap if you sell something.
• There is a sort of visual trailing in this game that doesnt affect the 2nd game, most notable in cutscenes and right in front of brown rocks or mountains.
• If a FOV slider does get introduced, some existing glitches include resetting when you get into a car, after you leave a game, and temporarily reset when you melee attack. Some people also say it resets after you die or fast travel, but i havent seen that. It also seems the higher you set it, the greater the fov is between walking, and running.
• I think the first games health vials and kits are bad compared to the 2nd game because they arnt based on percentage. That would be a nice improvement.
• Not a glitch, but id like to have an option on pc for foliage and certain objects (vendors) to load from much farther away.
• The beginning areas like fyrestone and skag gully have enemies that spawn far too often. This was most likely intentional, but it gets really annoying, especially when you are way past their levels.
• At this point im just listing small design problems, but id like it if more quests became available for areas before you are done with them. I dont like going to treachers landing 3 separate times, and i dont like not being able to do the last 2 arid badlands quests until after sledge is dead and im already leveled past them.
• Very rarely, on PC when you load into an area, your mouse sensitivity will be extremely small. You can leave the game, fast travel again, or alt tab to fix it though.
• When you melee attack a little too soon, it always sucks because it adds like a second before your next one. Its like when you talk to any main npc like zed in new haven, if you do it too soon after he finishes one dialouge line, you cant activate his next dialouge until you wait a bit.
• Cant believe I just remembered this one, why is reload also bound to your activate key? It gets really annoying when you are trying to pick up ammo in the middle of a fight.

Idk why im doing this, i honestly dont believe any of these will ever be implemented, let alone will borderlands ever be as polished as a nintendo game. I just feel a need to catalog them in hopes of something happening someday. Besides, i dont think there is a comprehensive list of the game’s bugs anywere else on the internet.

3 Likes
#10

Agreed on more fast travels being added to a remastered edition. Unique drops would have a similar system as BL2 or improved. And absolutely, the claptraps not giving you a sdu when you do their side mission is annoying. I’d like to add the two lieutenants in Payback is a bitch respawning. When this finally releases I do plan to get a flash drive to upload my save from older console onto the newer one.

1 Like
#11

Also I notice stats change from your inventory to when you equip them, that needs to be addressed.

1 Like
#12

I get why that might be appealing to think about it, but im of the philosophy that if they were to re do BL1, they should not touch the loot system other than blatant bugs like the draco, some defective class mods, and eridian gun sights not working. Honestly, i dont trust them to touch the loot system because i still dont think they even realize why we like the first game in the first place, they kind of just got lucky. If they understood why so many people liked borderlands in the first place, they woudnt have spent as much time as they did in the 2nd game and pre sequel nerfing guns and skills (evil smasher was understandable though)

#13

That doesn’t seem to to me like solid reasoning, sorry. Because you don’t trust them? Look there are definite problems with the drop rates, farming something around 150 to 200 times is excessive. Im not saying make it easy but it could use adjustments. But this is one of my main quirks with it.

#14

And to top it off there was so many legendaries, and pearls in 1 it kept the game interesting. To me it was the variety of loot available to get your hands on. BL1 will always be one of my favorite games.

1 Like
#15

The fact of the matter is to me that they have done just as much harm to 2 and the pre sequel as good with updates, and they have a history of not listening to the community because it doesnt fit with the “vision” they have for their game. They said mods were gonna be a part of the 2nd game, which would have made it a lot bigger. They ended up putting sanity checks on the engine for guns so even if you could mod without a dev kit, modded guns wouldnt work after a certain update because you are just a dirty cheater. They spend more time nerfing and balancing than fixing guns for the same reason, they live in a bubble. So no, i dont trust them with the first games loot system at all.

They said it themselves in the inside the box article about loot, the first game doesnt have the capability to demand specific drops from specific enemies, the loot engine doesnt work the same way the 2nd one does. The only way they could make enemies in the first game drop a specific weapon in BL1 was to make the enemy actually use that weapon. For what you are suggesting, they would have to scrap the entire loot system and re make the BL2 loot system in BL1 to get specific drops for unique enemies. This comes back to why i dont trust them with the loot system, because do you remember how rare legendaries were to get from random world drops as opposed to their scripted enemy in BL2? I dont want to see that in the first game, because yes, finding a specific legendary might be annoying sometimes, but finding legendaries was so much easier in general. And furthermore, if you actually like borderlands so much, why would you want to change its loot system, because most people like BL1 so much BECAUSE of the loot system. Many people think it did loot better than the 2nd game, which is why there are still so many people playing it.

#16

Apart from super high rarity weapons(hybrids and perfect parts weapons), I can’t really imagine when you’d be farming something for 100+ runs.

That’s certainly not standard gameplay. At least, I don’t enter most activities looking to get a specific weapon, rather than better overall gear.

2 Likes
#17

Yes I am after ultra rares, bone shredder with the ammo regeneration, and numerous others. And there’s plenty others I’ve farmed a lot.

1 Like
#18

So many changes there to make it more like BL2.

No just no, bugs like “Keep your insides inside” are fair enough fixes but just to change things to bring it in line with BL2 would imo diminish what made the Original what it is.

5 Likes
#19

Im sorry, im not sure which ones youre talking about. I consider myself to be pretty keen on keeping the game’s original integrity with this list, i mean, did you see my last post on this thread before this one? So im curious, which ones in my list do you think would diminish the experience? Im totally against gearbox changing any aspects of the loot aside from bug fixes, but i wouldnt consider having to pick up ammo/money, not moving in fight for your life, or no fast travels in DLC to be things that made BL1 into BL1, i just consider them oversights that they fixed in the 2nd game that they could have fixed in this game if it was financially viable. Its not like im asking for color pallete changes or gun gimmicks.

#20

You have to understand that hybrid guns arnt something the devs actively designed for players, they just can happen because the loot system is so awesome. Not being able to get perfectly parted hybrids is hardly a reason to overhaul an entire games loot system. Infact, i think the fact they can happen in the first place shows one reason why the loot system is so important to preserve.

3 Likes