Official Thread The Division v. 2

Andy

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Update 1.4

With the Devs hard at work on Update 1.4, we wanted to take this opportunity to provide some insight into key aspects we are looking at in order to improve the overall experience.

  • Time to kill: With recent updates, the time to kill has increased as the NPCs have gone up in level. While higher levels should bring increased difficulty and effort required to kill an NPC, it’s important that it still feels natural to your character’s progression and that we move away from just changing health and damage when scaling difficulty.
  • Difficulty scaling: Currently the progression between certain difficulties is too harsh, namely the jump between Hard and Challenging. There should be clear progression steps as you journey from being a fresh level 30 Agent to one with min-maxed gear of the highest gear score possible. To ensure smooth progression and make these steps clear, we need to look at the current scaling and resdesign the system so it feels like a more natural jump in difficulty. It’s also worth noting that the gap between our most “geared” players and those that we would consider to have an average loadout is far too big. This is something that we will need to adjust as well.
  • Loot Rewards: To continue taking steps to improve the progression systems we need to address the way loot rewards are handled. As a player, you should be able to play at your appropriate difficulty and acquire loot that allows you to progress to higher difficulties. You should also be able to obtain loot by doing the activities you enjoy doing. This isn’t supported very well in the current system and it’s important we address it.
  • Shooter: As the game has progressed, some of the core shooter elements have diminished. It’s important that you feel the impact of gun handling and that it’s factored in when you are considering which gun to use. We want to bring back and improve upon the importance of gunplay along with the cover based elements so the experience you have while leveling is consistent throughout the entire game.
The features addressed in Update 1.4 are not only limited to those listed above, of course. In order to bring a better balance to the game play experience, NPCs aren’t the only factor we need to look at. Player power comes with it’s own imbalances and we will be looking at a number of criteria that impact that like, for example, attribute scaling, skills, talents, etc. This means that while some stats may change, the end result will be a more balanced and fun experience.

They did say that on Tuesday they will be having a special stream to go into detail about the changes above.

I have to say though that the issues they are focusing on will be game changes if they manage to execute it properly. Especially Time to Kill and difficulty scaling.
 
Are they planning to level the NPCs in the city to the cap once a player reaches the level cap or do they already rebalance the entire PVE zone once you hit level cap?
 
Just watched today's state of the game, and WOW! everything they are saying about 1.4 is sounding awesome. I will post the stream video once available...and I would suggest all who still hold a modicum of interest in the game to watch it.

Here are a few things I remember.

  • Time to Kill - TTK is far less.
  • Time to be killed(as in you getting dead - Has increased significantly.
  • Open-World Free Roam - You can now set the world level between tier 1(level 30) and tier 4(level 33).
  • Open-World Roaming Named NPCs - Yep. Bullet King is back. As weel as all the other named NPCs in Open-World.
  • Loot - Loot is dropped based upon the world level you set. So tier 1 (Level 30NPCs) will drop 163 gear( including gear sets)from all enemies, even trash mobs. If your world level is Tier 4 (level 33 NPC's) then all enemies, including trash mobs(percent chance) will drop 229 gear.
  • Heroic - Has been removed from all activities except for Incursions.
  • Difficulties - A higher difficulty now drops more loot rather than better loot. So high difficulty = quantity rather than quality.
  • Elites(Gold) NPCs have better A.I
Here is the stream. Is about an hour long.

 
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I haven't played the division in months. My gear score was only in the 180s, but it just wasn't fun getting 1-2 shotted by snippets and shot gunners, but needing to dump mag after mag into them. I also got tired of hosts booting me and my friend the second we killed the last boss so we couldn't pick up the loot.

I have been keeping up on the 1.4 info. It has me excited to get back into the division again. Do we know when it's dropping?
 
I haven't played the division in months. My gear score was only in the 180s, but it just wasn't fun getting 1-2 shotted by snippets and shot gunners, but needing to dump mag after mag into them. I also got tired of hosts booting me and my friend the second we killed the last boss so we couldn't pick up the loot.

I have been keeping up on the 1.4 info. It has me excited to get back into the division again. Do we know when it's dropping?

Next week I think.
 
I haven't played the division in months. My gear score was only in the 180s, but it just wasn't fun getting 1-2 shotted by snippets and shot gunners, but needing to dump mag after mag into them. I also got tired of hosts booting me and my friend the second we killed the last boss so we couldn't pick up the loot.

I have been keeping up on the 1.4 info. It has me excited to get back into the division again. Do we know when it's dropping?

Next week I think.

Nope. Not next week.

1.4 will be out in October. There is no specifc date yet, but considering the scope of the changes I would expect it mid October at the earliest...but most likely will be nearer the end of the month.
 
Same here. Hopefully it'll still have the same draw for me, however, when I did last it was rough going...

It should be a lot more fun once this update hits. You won't be dying in 2 seconds flat and you won't spend 5 minutes killing one mob enemy. Plus, you will be able to set the world relevant to the gear you need and get that level of gear from everything you do.

It should be sweet...but it is The Division and their updates in the past haven't been exactly stellar.
 
Ok. It seems Ubi have finally put up the written report of the last stream with all the 1.4 info.

http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.co....aspx?c=tcm:154-267742-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32

Check out the current Time to Kill scaling...LOLZ!
TimeToKillDiagram2_267757.png

I love the world tier idea. Its great that they went back to changed the entire mechanic rather than constantly tweaking abilities. It's nice to see on a graph how I felt when getting killed. Pumping round after round into a player only to be one shotted with a pistol. I'm glad to see the back of level 34/35 enemies as well.
 
This update sounds substantial. I'm really excited for the for the open world being used again as a sort of PvE Darkzone. And no more loot drops being weighted to certain activities is huge. But the most important thing I want more information about is Gear Sets. Many of the Gears Sets need fine tuning to make them usable. If Massive can sort that out things will get a lot better. We need more build options badly.
 
This update sounds substantial. I'm really excited for the for the open world being used again as a sort of PvE Darkzone. And no more loot drops being weighted to certain activities is huge. But the most important thing I want more information about is Gear Sets. Many of the Gears Sets need fine tuning to make them usable. If Massive can sort that out things will get a lot better. We need more build options badly.

I would think some gear sets will have to be changed to fit the new changes to scaling anyway. Sets like like Sentry's Call would simply obliterate NPCs in its current state.

I would imagine all gear and weapons will receive a balancing pass in 1.4.
 
Many of these changes sound awesome. I especially like the change that will lower Gears Set items score to 229 and bring up the effectiveness of high-end 229 gear. This in theory will open up a lot more builds. We can either use Gear Sets /high-end or a combination of both. The mixing and matching potential is huge. It still needs to be tested but I think Massive might have a very good chance at redeeming themselves if they get most of this stuff right. However, Massive doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to releasing bug-free updates so lets see how this all goes. I can't wait to hear more specifics on changes to Gear Set bonuses.
 
So what does that Gear Set that has 100% scavaging get now that it's out of the game ?

There are so many changes there it's hard to know what to think. Smart Cover nerf might annoy me. As might all the mods and gear rerolls. Guess we'll have to wait and see after it comes out.

I think that within the context of what they are trying to do all these changes sound good. You say you are annoyed at the Smart Cover nerf, but the nerf to damage mitigation had to happen. The taking away the damage increase would also make sense, and the increase in weapon handling could prove to be just as big a perk as the damage increase was.

But yeah, the changes are so vast and big that it is hard to really judge the positive or negative impact. But theyare going to stream the latest build being tested on the PTS server, so seeing it action should give us a better idea of what these changes truly mean. I believe the first stream was today...I will have a looksy for it in the morning and see what is up.
 
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Many of these changes sound awesome. I especially like the change that will lower Gears Set items score to 229 and bring up the effectiveness of high-end 229 gear. This in theory will open up a lot more builds. We can either use Gear Sets /high-end or a combination of both. The mixing and matching potential is huge. It still needs to be tested but I think Massive might have a very good chance at redeeming themselves if they get most of this stuff right. However, Massive doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to releasing bug-free updates so lets see how this all goes. I can't wait to hear more specifics on changes to Gear Set bonuses.


All their previous stuff was rushed, just like the main game was. They seem to be taking their time with this one. While It likely won;t be perfect, I do have higher expectations this time round.

My only issue really is that it took them this long to do this. The community was telling them all this stuff many months a go.

I guess better late than never, though, and everything they are saying seems good and shows they are going down the right path this time round. I have to say, in light of the last 2 updates on 1.4, I am actually excited to play the game again.
 
Ok. It seems their PTS stream has finished. I haven't watched it yet, but it should be gameplay with some of the talked about changes in place.

Is a long one at 4 1/2 hours.

 
My concern now is weapon handling. At low levels weapons handle like crap because you don't have mods. I know this because I just started a new character which I want ready for 1.4. And with Massive removing the damage buff from Smart Cover and replacing it with a weapon handling perk while also reducing the effect mods have on weapons. I fear we may still be pushed to using Smart Cover. My hope is Massive has taken this into account and don't reduce weapon handling to the point where I'm fighting the recoil because I'm not using Smart Cover.

These changes Massive will be implementing are game changing and it seems like I'll need to relearn how to play this game all over again. That's not necessarily a bad thing because it could breath new life into the game. I can't wait for this update. I just hope it turns out well because I really like The Division and see a lot of potential for it going forward if 1.4 delivers in a positive way.
 
My concern now is weapon handling. At low levels weapons handle like crap because you don't have mods. I know this because I just started a new character which I want ready for 1.4. And with Massive removing the damage buff from Smart Cover and replacing it with a weapon handling perk while also reducing the effect mods have on weapons. I fear we may still be pushed to using Smart Cover. My hope is Massive has taken this into account and don't reduce weapon handling to the point where I'm fighting the recoil because I'm not using Smart Cover.

These changes Massive will be implementing are game changing and it seems like I'll need to relearn how to play this game all over again. That's not necessarily a bad thing because it could breath new life into the game. I can't wait for this update. I just hope it turns out well because I really like The Division and see a lot of potential for it going forward if 1.4 delivers in a positive way.

The weapon handling in 1 to 30 is awesome. All the guns feel different....and you have to actually try and shoot s***. Unlike the lazer beam weapons in endgame.

Also, they do say in that article that you can still spec for recoil and what not, but it comes at a cost. "Or if you prefer, you can build a weapon that is incredibly stable and precise, but you’ll have to sacrifice raw damage."
 
A few other things not mentioned that I noticed while watching yesterday's stream.
  • Weapon Skins - No longer take inventory space, and 1 skin can be used on all weapons and is account wide.
  • Falcon Lost - Now has checkpoints.
  • Field Proficiency - basically earning XP fills a bar and gives you a field proficiency cache. Which gives high-end gear and/or gear sets.
  • Daily Assignments - Rewards a cache....think it is for each assignment.
  • Purple Caches - Previously only seen in Dark Zone, but seems they drop in PvE open-world now too.
  • Final Measure 4 piece talent - Automatically defuses grenades now. No need to get grenade damage and build up the buff.
  • Tacticians Authority 4 piece talent - Now has 0.2% electronics for every 60K damage dealt by team, and has a 30% cap now.
  • Sentry's Call 4 piece talent - Huge nerf, as expected. Each mark gives 5% damage increase now, but each mark last for 30 seconds.

Only got about 60 minutes into the gameplay. Will watch some more later.
 
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I'm not surprised they are nerfing Sentry. That set was too powerful. I'd like Massive to increase the damage over time from Predator's Mark. I also wouldn't mind if they lowered stat requirements to activate weapon talents for better use of Alpha Bridge. And if Sentry/Striker are back to needing 4 pieces to activate all set bonuses I can go back to the savage gloves/reckless build which was awesome. Well probably not as awesome anymore with the changes but should still be a great combo.
 
I'm not surprised they are nerfing Sentry. That set was too powerful. I'd like Massive to increase the damage over time from Predator's Mark. I also wouldn't mind if they lowered stat requirements to activate weapon talents for better use of Alpha Bridge. And if Sentry/Striker are back to needing 4 pieces to activate all set bonuses I can go back to the savage gloves/reckless build which was awesome. Well probably not as awesome anymore with the changes but should still be a great combo.

Reckless has changed, it now has 15% extra damage and 15% extra incoming damage. So depending how you view it, it is a buff or nerf. Lol.