That'll be your iffy internet again. The only voice issues we had when playing was after loading a new area, took a few seconds for the voicechat to get it together again.
It might have been because my mum was bloody downloading some more stuff, some large file program the name of which temporarily escapes me.
Just played again for a couple of hours. I'm concentrating on machine guns, shotguns and I've begun using revolvers too. Trouble is all the weapons we've been finding recently are SMGs. I like the way you can simply buy ammo so you never have to run away due to lack of stuff to fire at enemies. I also completely wasted 7 grand on a rocket launcher. I thought it would rape but my shotgun does double the damage when up close so I haven't really used it. My mate had a weak pistol that had fire damage on it which seemed to make short work of most enemies. I want a machine gun with fire damage, that would be nice.
You should really choose a weapon appropriate to your class and specialise. Character skills really make a difference.
I'm sticking with combat rifles and shotguns. A fourth friend has bought the game now so we have a full squad, he was with us today and he shot up from level 7 to level 18, the rest of us are level 24. I finally found a use for the rocket launcher I was thinking of selling! It seems to be the easiest way to deal with those damn raiders who drive in cars, especially since I've got a rocket launcher that shoots 3 rockets at once (but only consumes one unit of ammo). In just a couple of days I've gone from thinking of selling this game to definitely buying the sequel. Great game, on multiplayer.
Which character are you using. Assault rifles and shotguns are what I usually used with Roland. Lilith was great with SMGs in particular and weapons with elemental powers. Mordecai is well suited to use sniper rifles, pistols, and revolvers. Brick is supposed to be good with rocket launchers, but they are unfortunately very weak compared to most of the other weapons. Rockets should have caused more damage because they lack critical damage of other weapons. Compared to headshots and elemental damage from Mordecai or Lilith, rockets from Brick are pathetically weak.
I'm using roland. We're all generally using the required weapon types for our classes although we're mixing it up a bit e.g. I occasionally use a revolver and rocket launcher, the guy who's lilith sometimes uses machine guns etc etc.
Roland is probably the best co-op character. I've found some really nice assault rifles for him. Lilith's elemental SMGs are probably the most savage in the game. She can do ungodly damage with them if you properly spec out the character. Also, Lilith and Mordecai can both do unbelievable single-shot damage with sniper rifles (elemental specifically in the case of Lilith and any high end sniper rifle for Mordecai).
Also, elemental damage, such as the corrosive and shock, may not seem as great as they could be right now, but they will be totally awesome later on in the game.
The PS3 version is awash with cheats nowadays. Was hosting a game with space for randoms today; must have kicked 12 out of 14 players for using modded equipment. Jebus.
So what is it that makes each character better with specific weapons? I just assumed that if you used a particular weapon a lot you'd be awesome with it regardless of which character you chose. I personally hate the assault rifles, anything with a scope, a small mag and three round burst isn't worth my consideration, I just plough through enemies with large mag high power machine guns... and shotguns
If you scroll over the individual skills in this Mordecai build... http://talent.87bazillion.com/hunter.php?550550500000005055005 ...you'll see that the left and right columns of skills on the far left tend to be related to sniper rifles and the skills on the far right column pertains to pistols. Some upgrades give substantial bonuses to specific weapon types. You also get improved stats from simply using a specific weapon type for any character, but you would have the strongest character from both the skill upgrades for your character plus the bonuses everyone gets for leveling up the weapon class from frequent use.
That's the weapon leveling you're thinking of, where you level up on each class of weapon the more xp you gain when using any weapon from that class. What makes each character better is their specific upgrades from the skill tree (suited to their specific weapon types), like roland having the scattershot (+ shotgun damage and spread) and Assault (rifle clip size and recoil reduction) as well as other abilities. The main advantages of using certain weapon types for each character comes from the Class Mods. These give you a standard effect related to the type of class mod with the option of two additional effects on top of that (higher level class mods will usually have all 3). On top of this your class mods can also add a bonus to your skill tree while equipped (like Impact for example, which would give you one extra level of bullet damage). You should be carrying around at least 3-5 class mods by now for the different situations you are in or depending on what weapon you use. When using assault rifles, switch to a Rifleman class mod for more damage and usually better accuracy or possibly larger clip sizes. For shotguns, have a Commando class mod equipped for faster fire rates, more damage etc. For general use (SMG's and misc) use the Gunman for extra damage, or on small magazine/very fast firing weapons, use the heavy gunner for larger clip sizes. Then there's the support class mods, which give team ammo, health or shield generation or extra experience. There's also shock class mods which increase electrocute damage, make you more resistant to electrocute damage and increase the chance of elemental damage occurring. As you can see the soldier only really has specified class mods for 2 weapon classes and one elemental, these being Rifles, Shotguns and Shock. As for you not liking burst fire assault rifles... wait until you upgrade your overload or assault ability a bit, or make use of the Assault or heavy gunner class mod. The main way they lack at the start of their small magazine size. Later on though when you max out things like this aren't really as necessary and it's best to use class mods that suit what you still actually need more of (ammo capacity and accuracy for example are usually already high enough for most weapons). The obvious aim for burst firing assault rifles though is accuracy, I personally love them because I know exactly where I'm shooting at. They work best outdoors, I usually only use the continuous firing rifles indoors or in close refinement. Real close up and usually shotguns are the go or the less accurate dual or quad firing SMG's. Anyhow, check out the wiki on class mods and other things: http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Class_Mod The table for soldier class mods is around half way down. Once you realise the value these can bring you'll be wanting those storage deck upgrades! You just need to know when to let go of old ones, sometimes new ones won't be better in every way so you need to decide whether it's worth the switch... eventually though you will come across something much better than whatever you have.
I've collected plenty of class mods but I treat them like weapons i.e. I'll use it until I find a better one then I'll sell it. I had one for ages that increased my teams shield regeneration by 20% (among other perks) but I swapped it out for one that gives me an extra 30% combat rifle damage. We took out a massive Rakk yesterday, it killed us quite a bit but we brought it down, we didn't realise just how big it was until it fell to Pandora. Bloody big it was! We also nailed a huge Skag, that was fun. I hope there's more huge monsters out there because we really enjoy killing them
You should keep one of each kind of class mod at hand ideally; my siren carries around every type at all times which has been incredibly useful at times. I only sell one when I get a better version of the same mod. As for big monsters, I'm sure you'll enjoy crawmerax a lot.
I've heard that name a few times but have so far resisted the urge to google it. I want the first time I see it to be in-game to avoid losing the awesome factor of seeing it for the first time with my mates.
That thing is a nightmare to take down solo. When I played Mordecai I was playing with Monsly and Chi so we did it quite easily but when I played solo as Roland I think I died a fair few times and had to grind a bit to get it down.
I must have unloaded 700 rounds from my machine gun at that bloody thing. At least when you're with other people the beast has more targets to aim at giving you some much needed shooting time. We actually got ripped off by the game because when it killed us the first time we spawned a mile away so it came to us and we took it down to half health before it flew behind a rock and literally disappeared. When we found it again near the quest marker it has respawned with full health! Needless to say I made sure I activated a much closer spawn point after that.