Borderlands - spawning too much?

I bought Borerlands GOTY (or similar) on a Steam sale - and it's quite fun. However, I hate the auto-save and the fact that when I come back everything seems to have re-spawned. Is this normal? I mean, even money and other resources seem to be there again for the picking. I also get teleported to places other than the last save location (those lampost doodads). Does it not keep track of which one you were at when auto-saving? I am getting increasingly annoyed - I do not have time to endlessly clear out the same regions because I had to stop playing to do something else. And also, all the money coming back makes no sense at all. I'm playing it as a single play game. I have also noticed that even on the same level, if I return to a restocking point (on the same map), monsters have a habit of re-spawing - that's just incredibly frustrating. Is there a mod or something to manage this or turn it off? The game woudl be quite fun without this.

That's the way the game plays. It's designed to let you grind endlessly, but level progression is so fast that after short time everything in a particular level (enemies, money, loot) is completely inconsequential. At least until playthrough 2.5 when everything levels with you.

Personally I found the game quite fun in co-op but horribly boring single-player; the only thing I could really stomach to do by myself is end-game loot acquisition (i.e. grinding the same loot-rich regions and enemies) because the loot system is sufficiently interesting (to me, at least) to warrant a bit of that. Plus character progression doesn't end when max level is reached due to weapon proficiencies.

Are you making use of the teleportation beacons to jump around? You can bypass some stuff that way. You only get access to it a little ways into the second part of the game, however (after beating Sledge).

@Drithius - no, haven't reached there yet. At least I know that's waiting for me.

@epithumia - I must admit that I don't see the point of endless grinding as a single player - its' irritating. I want to be able to pop in, do a few quests, kill some beasties, get some loot and move forward. Seeing all my work undone every time is kind of crap and totally destroys any sense of continuity or believability. Still, this clearly what 'people want' or they wouldn't have implemented it.

I expected this thread to have been created by Joxer when I saw the headline.

But yeah… the single-player campaign in Borderlands is pretty mediocre, and the respawning is a major reason.

Of course, there's only one campaign. It's really just a framework for co-op interaction, though, and playing it alone is liable to be not all that much fun. The whole thing relies on you going back and forth over the same terrain many times, and without the respawning it would be pretty empty. It's arguably excessive, but clearing the world of bad guys just doesn't happen in this game. It's unabashedly a grind-fest, and it's hard to believe that anyone is surprised by this at this point.

I played Diablo1/2, Dungeon Siege 1/2 (and 3, but got bored and stopped quickly), Titan Quest etc (all singe player, at least at first) - and I don't remember any re-spawning at this rate - example: I had entered the 'crystal cave', about 5-10 min earlier I killed some purple beasts. Then as I was retreating (backpedaling) from a cave of bandits, I was attacked from behind by the beats I'd killed. 5 min before. I thought 'wha..?' as they kicked the crap out of me. I should also say I had plenty of fun playing all the games I mentioned above by myself - I played them to completion. I'm not sure I have the stomach to do the same for Borderlands - fortunately I bought in on a Steam sale so I can write it off.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I expected this thread to have been created by Joxer when I saw the headline.

I did too. But then I realized the wording was FAR too mild to be Joxer.

yes, I played it just because everybody was raving about it, and felt the same thing, stupid respawn killed the game for me.