Embarrassingly Confused by Borderlands

Maybe it's because my generation missed the cutoff date of people who have tried Grand Theft Auto and as a result none of my friends are gamers so I have to play Borderlands with pick-up groups...but I get sooo confused by Borderlands multiplayer. I need your help on the points below please.

* Lately the multiplayer isn't requiring me to upgrade to the latest patch. Yesterday I manually did it and I am still having these problems....

* My text messages that I write after pressing "Y" don't show up. I don't use chat either so I can't communicate with my teammates. Again, I believe I uploaded the latest patch yesterday and it didn't help. When I'm playing solo and don't need chat, however, my words DID show up that I typed. At first I thought I fixed it but, no, then I tried it in multiplayer and...no.

* I STILL can't turn in a quest to Dr. Zed or whoever where you upgrade your equipment from a vending machine or something.

* Yesterday I was in ARid badlands or Stahl badlands or whatever, I think it's the first map, and I couldn't select quests from the bounty board at least in Fyrestone. I turned in a quest but when I sought to choose some interesting quests in the Fyrestone for my pickupgroup, specifically the one where you go down a mineral cave in fyrestone, it wouldn't let me. The button on the bounty board was red.

* Some times it seems that what happened above happens on other quests to or it seems I will b e locked out of certain parts of the map. I check to see if I have quests to turn in that I haven't or something and I don't think that's it. This is the biggest problem here.

Also, if it helps, I'm playing as a level 53 siren on my 2nd playthrough. Honestly, I don't feel like making a 2nd character until I figure out multiplayer a little better and I'm into my 2nd or 3rd year of having the game. Needless to say if I don't make a 2nd or 3rd character I probably won't get Borderlands 2. What's the point?

Any tips on making my experience better? Are the above things bugs or is it playing like it should? I suppose I could just uninstall and reinstall. I got the game retail and not on Steam so verifying files isn't an option.

The irony is some times I used to corral 8 players of different classes to strategically take on task forces that would some times last 3 days and require precise login times from different players playing around the world while playing City of Heroes. And yet, I am utterly baffled by this multiplayer shooting gallery. [/facepalm]

Any tips on making my experience better? Are the above things bugs or is it playing like it should? I suppose I could just uninstall and reinstall. I got the game retail and not on Steam so verifying files isn't an option.

Fire_Wa11

Several months ago Borderlands shifted towards fully integrating itself with the Steam framework. You can register your retail key with steam and get the steam version of the game (uninstalling your retail copy first is probably not a bad idea). Once your game is the Steam version, that might improve your overall chances of finding some folks to play online with - as I imagine many may have also done this. I haven't fired up Borderlands in a while so I don't know how thriving the MP environment is right now.

Also, bear in mind that you'll need some of the DLCs to match what the host has, lest you get unceremoniously booted from the MP game if it shifts to one of the add-on areas.

Guild Wars 2.

1)* Lately the multiplayer isn't requiring me to upgrade to the latest patch. Yesterday I manually did it and I am still having these problems....

- It is integrated to steam, google it and enjoy pc gaming significantly more.

* My text messages that I write after pressing "Y" don't show up. I don't use chat either so I can't communicate with my teammates. Again, I believe I uploaded the latest patch yesterday and it didn't help. When I'm playing solo and don't need chat, however, my words DID show up that I typed. At first I thought I fixed it but, no, then I tried it in multiplayer and...no.

- Likely lag or you changed your bind. Open up the options menu and check your key bindings.

* I STILL can't turn in a quest to Dr. Zed or whoever where you upgrade your equipment from a vending machine or something.

- Quests are based on whoever started the game first, if you join someone elses game and they are past you your boned. If it doesn't work in singleplayer then im not really sure what to say.

* Yesterday I was in ARid badlands or Stahl badlands or whatever, I think it's the first map, and I couldn't select quests from the bounty board at least in Fyrestone. I turned in a quest but when I sought to choose some interesting quests in the Fyrestone for my pickupgroup, specifically the one where you go down a mineral cave in fyrestone, it wouldn't let me. The button on the bounty board was red.

- Same about quests based on whom started.

* Some times it seems that what happened above happens on other quests to or it seems I will b e locked out of certain parts of the map. I check to see if I have quests to turn in that I haven't or something and I don't think that's it. This is the biggest problem here.

- Same about quests based on whom started.

Any tips on making my experience better? Are the above things bugs or is it playing like it should? I suppose I could just uninstall and reinstall. I got the game retail and not on Steam so verifying files isn't an option.

- Start a new game with friends or players who will always play around the same time you will, the experience is infinetly better.

The irony is some times I used to corral 8 players of different classes to strategically take on task forces that would some times last 3 days and require precise login times from different players playing around the world while playing City of Heroes. And yet, I am utterly baffled by this multiplayer shooting gallery. [/facepalm]

- lol.

@ Chefkw. Hmmm. If Steam fixes things, that'd be great but it's not just finding people to play with at this point it's just wondering if I'm doing something wrong? Am I supposed to be accessing these fyrestone missions from the first map? Do I need to turn in something somwhere? Is it a bug? Anyone else experience this? Anyone get it fixed? Did Steam fix it? Why is the bounty board button red? Also, it sucks when you can't text the problems you are having to your team because texting doesn't work. It's confusing, stressful and not what you want from a dumbed-down-for-funs-sake shooting gallery like Borderlands.

Borderlands is suppose to be a first person shooter with RPG elements. Right now it's more like, "All the shallowness of a button-masher but with all the glitches and headaches of a very complicated, steep-learning curve MMO! Who wouldn't want that?!"

I'm not bagging on Borderlands. Of late though those last sentences of the preceding paragraph as snarky as they may sound, sum up my experience with Borderlands recently. I'll try moving things over to Steam and see if that helps. Borderlands will look kewl sitting in my games library, yo.

@Hyperwarlock - Yes, pie is good. Have some.

Thanks, Timma. I will try to move it over to Steam. I imagine starting a new game and playing with friends from the get-go is the way to go and I imagine would make a lot of problems go away with quest access, etc. I just like my level 53 siren; she's so meta compared to all these gun-toting simpletons. ;-)

HyperWarlock...pie.

The game advertises having zillions of guns but I'm far better finding one I like and then sticking with it. If the game is full of gun toteing idiots, i'm not one of them.