‘Borderlands 2’ Backpack, Bank And Claptrap's Stash Limited Sizes Explained

In a lengthy forum post on Friday, a programmer from Gearbox Software going by the handle on “botman” provided a lengthy explanation regarding the limited storage sizes of the backpack, bank and Claptrap's secret stash in the recently released multiplatform title, “Borderlands 2.”

[BiggCMan]

I don't believe that one bit, sorry. I still say it's because they want to charge us in the future to increase that limit.

[Nightfallen]

So far Gearbox haven't sold any small piece of downloadable content that increases storage. In the first Borderlands a storage bank was included with Moxxi's Underdome DLC. Pretty sure if they were to expand it would be packed with another piece of content, along with level cap increase.

[Muffins1223]

That is still bad, there just including it with the dlc.Just like what fallout 3 did,they increased the level cap ONLY if you paid them money which was with the dlc only...

[dumahim]

IIRC, didn't each DLC have another busted claptrap unit which expanded the inventory?

I thought that's what would happen this time, except you'd find Crazy Earl and would have to spend a crazy amount of Eridium each time to get the next level of inventory space.

[MizTv]

I'm fine with what is is.

[feraldrgn]

I haven't gotten to the Storage yet (taking my time), but I do understand the frustration "Legendary" collectors could have, considering they're unique.

[hulk_bash1987]

I think they should increase the back pack capacity, as i like to pick up and store guns i think are worthwile during missions and random drops. Then when i complete all my active quests I like to sort trough everything and clean house.

[whiteyjuice]

Why should advanced players be limited to smaller item caches due to the inability of new players to comprehend the system?

[WolfLeBlack]

That argument works both ways, though: why should new or casual gamers be penalised with a cluttered UI so that advanced players can go stat mad?

Before anybody jumps at me, I'm not taking a side either way, simply saying that such arguments can work both ways.

Anyway, for me I think the option would have been to allow a much larger amount of backpack slots available for purchase with Eridium, that way new gamers can keep the backpack limit small and advanced players could increase it.

Or perhaps they could have had the backpack limit increase in the second playthrough, and then again on the third?

[vickers500]

"That argument works both ways, though: why should new or casual gamers be penalised with a cluttered UI so that advanced players can go stat mad?"

You basically just answered your own question with your following paragraphs. If casual gamers don't want cluttered AI, then they can simply dump what they have until the AI looks how they want it to look. In that scenario, casual gamers have options. In the situation that exists now, the core gamers have almost no options other than creating new characters to store things on(or using the infinite bank storage glitch, which I hope hasn't been patched).

So that particular argument does not work both ways in this case. It should be about providing options for BOTH the core and casuals, and in the case of weapon/gear storage, they only have options for the casuals.

[TriangleOffense]

Despite what that guys says there is in fact a TL DR and it was just proven. Read only the last 2 paragraphs and one of the last sentences to see it doesnt matter what he says, it was done to increase it in the future for more money

[Detoxx]

They should increase sniper ammo capacity

[iamgoatman]

Shotgun needs a bump more than anything. Max ammo is something like 140, I can't remember off the top of my head, but when a lot of shotguns shoot 3 rounds at a time with a high fire rate, you're empty in no time.

[Detoxx]

I have an orange sniper that shoots 4 rounds at a time. But yeah, they should increase both

[kingPoS]

They've seen that many people like collecting gear. Why would they still limit the amount you can store. What's the point of there being millions of gear if you can't even hold onto a good chunk of it.

It's like being told you can't upgrade your 80gb ps3 after you just bought 2 years of PSN Plus.

Or being told that 160gb is enough to really enjoy Steam or Origin.

Or being told that Netflix has concluded that most people don't need a queue larger than 25 titles and that they were making that the new limit effective immediately.

[Blank]

Wow well after reading that I see what they are saying I dont like it and this constant word "accessibility" sure it shouldnt be hard for new comers to pick up and play but after they get addicted to borderlands like most gamers do they will eventually start thinking like the rest of us and complain bout the storage and backpack size being too small and either way we expand it with eridium one by one and collecting that stuff takes a bit of time at first but a player can stop upgrading the slots to not clutter with that said an efficient gamer is efficient but for my sole situation a hoarding gamer is a hoarding gamer and lack of space makes me sad and yes I read him saying that the design option was not about collecting guns but to constantly upgrade I respect their choice but seriously I feel the borderlands gameplay and style shouldnt be limiting as the way they choose to limit the experience but for now I still love borderlands and ill make do here is to hoping we get the overall increases we want! I still love my borderlands!

[Tetsujin]

(From the article)

"Designers felt that the number of backpack slots in Borderlands 1 made it more difficult for new players to decide if a new item was better or worse than things the player already had. UI designers were concered about not being able to sort and display a large number of item in an efficient manner in the UI (this becomes even more of an issue in split-screen on consoles). BTest stats indicated that people tend to carry around weapons that weren't used much. Borderlands is not a game about collecting a large number of items and keeping them forever."

In 1 people kept guns to trade with others like they do now, it wasn't just to "hoard" weapons and shields it was to get what others wanted and trade with whoever wanted something. I can't recall how many times one person can get items within 2-3 tries while others spend days to have nothing to show for it. Also it made testing easier for players to know exactly what guns they want for their character; yes I had 5-6 of one type of Hydra pistol however I was able to test each one out to find out which one fit my play style and needs.

"They wanted each new character to spend time playing through the game, exploring and finding new loot on their own, and not just getting "hand me downs" from a previous character. Again, I think this is not the way that some people want to play the game, but it is the way that the game was designed. You can agree or disagree with that decision, but designers are happy with things the way they are."

There's items I've received on one character that's made for another, and I'm not about to "play again" just to "try" and find them again. They did the split screen for a reason outside playing with friends online/offline because they knew that claptrap stash was BS.

One thing I do want to say to Gearbox if they're reading this; While Borderlands 2 is fun and is a game I do put some time in, I'm thinking twice before I buy a 3 if they ever announce it because there's some things that made 1 feel fresh, new, and different, while 2 seems more like an expansion than an actual sequel. I've put more time into 1 than I did 2, and up until recently I've played 2 at least 6+ hours a day; however due to being borderline burned out I've slowed down so I'm not completely burned out and end up wasting the rest of my season pass.

The whole backpack storage while it is explained (poorly) I don't like the idea that your basically limiting people based on what YOU think is appropriate; I hate the idea of making multiple characters to have for storage purposes because you want players to find better weapons; how can we test multiple weapons to fit how we play if you limit what we can carry? You talk of "finding the best for your character" yet most of the "good" equipment is found on another character that's not even made for your current one (I found countless mods and weapons for a Soldier and I play Assassin and Gunzerker); so according to your logic, I should dump whatever I don't need for my character (because of the backpack/storage limitations), use claptraps stash for that "1 or 2" items" then fight the same enemies again for a "chance" at a better drop? I hope you can actually say that with a straight face, because I can't.

[dumahim]

I can understand his point about keeping multiple versions of the same type of weapon, but I don't think he's considering people keeping, or "collecting" the legendary weapons. Sometimes it's not so simple as "is this better than what I have?" A lot of those weapons are novelties and have no practical use, but I'd still like to hold on to them, you know, for the novelty of it.

[Megaton]

It's asinine to advertise "87 bazillion" guns, and then leave you with 27 weapon slots. You push a collector mentality and then don't deliver a collector's game. At the very least you should have 48 - 51, the max of Borderlands.

[vickers500]

This is an infuriating response. I was hoping it would be something like "it was a drain on ram" or some technical crap like that.

Turns out they just made it that way so the kiddie moron casuals wouldn't get overwhelmed by all the options.

"Something that I've seen over and over is people saying that Borderlands is a game about collecting loot. But it's not."

Oh really? Then why the hell are 90% of the unique flavor text guns absolute SH*T when you get ones that are at your exact level, hmm? Example:the talking guns. The talking shotgun, sniper, and smg are all TERRIBLE (the smg has decent stats, but the negative effects outweigh the positive by a lot). What are we supposed to do with these piece of crap weapons other than collect them? They suck worse than a lot of white rarity weapons (the shotgun especially, which is an entertaining weapon, but not at all built for practical use).

Then you have the other weapons with unique effects or designs that either suck or are highly mediocre like most of the quest reward moxxi weapons or mordecais sniper(not the invader, the other one), or Rolands assault rifle. Those weapons (in addition to the talking ones) all suck, EVEN FOR THEIR LEVEL, so the bs excuse they have where they say "you're supposed to collect new loot, not inherit hand-me-downs" is crap, and don't even get me started on the GOD AWFUL drop rates for this game.

Borderlands has been my favorite franchise this gen, but if they keep this moronic "sacrifice core features to make the game more visually pleasing to idiot casuals" mentality that they have in the post, then I'll just hold off on their games until they've released the GoTY edition.

Ugh, I just lost quite a lot of respect for you, Gearbox.

[dumahim]

Oh how dare you! The talking sniper rifle is pretty badass at the point in the game that you can get it.

[madjedi]

I only bought 2 dlcs for bl1, one was general knox's armory the other robot revolution(didn't play it too much) i have 42 slots on bl1.

27 slots could work if you didn't have to walk halfway across the map to find a fucking vendor machine to sell the excess items at.

If borderlands 2 is too complicated for your, just stick to run and gun shooters, or hello kitty games.

You aren't going to be doing much looting if your at almost half the inventory of the first game.

I seriously doubt the majority of sales for this game, came for casuals thst never touched part 1.

This could have been patched already, i personally thought the dlc was coming out at too fast of a rate. 2 major dlcs in 3 months ouch.

[ElementX]

I don't understand the point in collecting weapons. I carry a sniper rifle, shotgun, pistol, and rocket launcher. I may carry around an SMG but I rarely use them. I get rid of old weapons as soon as I find something better.

[Tetsujin]

(Not sure if you played 1 so I'll assume you didn't for what I'm about to say)

In 1 the extra storage helped because a player can decide what weapons they needed for certain situations; as well as keeping certain items around for trade purposes. I remember plenty of times I was able to get hydra guns however others couldn't; so I'd trade with other people and they had certain guns I didn't even knew existed and that was better than what I had over time (Mainly the Pearl weapons).

Now that 2 is out they limit what you can carry because Gearbox feels like "hoarding" is a bad thing; it's not. If there's players who keep certain weapons and never use em, at least find out why (holding for someone, trade purposes, sentimental values, quest-related, etc.); they just assume "Oh people are holding weapons just because so we're gonna limit your backpack and storage so you HAVE to get better items and discard the rest." There's some weapons I keep around because certain situations call for certain weapons as well as elemental properties, and having 27 slots does hamper my character build because I have to now limit what I can do instead of playing how I want. More slots = longer play time and better situational weapons without having to run back and forth to storage. And since the recent update basically killed certain weapons/shields now it's going to take even more testing just to find out what works and what's "junk;" which also requires room to actually test weapons and shields that were once used "sparingly."

I know it's a long explanation however that should clear up your answer; I know people who only use maybe 10 slots at most, there's people like me who need at minimum 30+ just to be able to play at our own pace without running back and forth every few minutes.