The Division

[Deleted]

In all honesty, the more I played this game, the more I realized that the "but it's an RPG" reason was just a lame excuse for covering up their shitty combat systems. Sorry, but most RPGs I've played don't have the simplest of grunts being huge bullet sponges and doing insane amounts of damage from all distances and being deadly accurate with weapons and tactics that never should be.

There is honestly absolutely *nothing* wrong with bullet sponges. The reason why this game is not working is because it's *not* a typical RPG with a holy trinity system.
The game has a threat mechanic, which means you are actually supposed to be able to "tank". Supressors and Vent Brakes are useless right now and the video I linked is the reason why.

The Ballistic shields adds "threat" but you can't tank with it (they would have to buff it by around... 1000%? supressors aren't needed either because NPCs don't "aggro" like in WoW.

Bullet sponges would be alot cooler to defeat if you have to work around something like that.

Tank lines up the targets, you use cover to cover to flank them, you use supressors so that they won't aggro you while you empty 2 magazines.
Stability and accuracy becomes much more important because you want all your bullets to hit while you unload your magazine. SMGs become Burst weapons, ARs DPS weapon and MMRs Long range Support weapons. Shotguns/LMGs/Pistoles become Tank weapons.
And you can *clearly* see that this is exactly how they tried to design the game, but they failed to do it.

LMGs supress enemies, so they deal less damage to you, it won't affect DPS because they are supposed to flank targets behind cover and unload their bullets from the sides. Supports need to be everywhere at once, Heal the tank, support the DPS, this is why they could use MMRs, all the abilities have a rather high range after all.


Due to how the maps are designed, they could actually add something like "+% dmg if you use a elevation" (as a sniper for example)
ARs can have balanced and are extremely accurate. SMGs could burst down "smaller" adds (Purp-"elites" for example), or they could benefit from the +% damage after the cover to cover move more so than ARs and be some kind of a weapon for a player that likes to be "mobile" while doing his dps.

LMGs could also help pinning down a target that is being flanked, so that it doesn't switch positions and your DPS can keep shooting at him

In the end you could have had a group of 1 DPS, 1 Support, 1 Tank, 1 DPS/LMGsupport.
Instead of 4x DPS with SMGs, or 3xDPS + 1x Support/DPS with SMGS/MMRs

that would have been so - much - better and actually the way I thought the game would play out after the Beta.
"Oh man, I'm going to use this ballistic shield, with a really good pistole and tank (with threat management) everything while you will use your LMG to support me and you two guys will flank them and wipe them. I can only imagine how cool the talents will be that'll help me tanking"

That was pretty much the impression we had about the game when we left the Beta.
Look at the "pulse targets that shoot the ballistic shield" perk... I thought "Wow, I can buff DPS damage while tanking everything - thats how playing a tank should be!"
Turned out it's flipping useless.

edit: Oh man... just thinking about all the possibilities.

Imagine if CMS only had like 3-5 Elites per encounter, which need to be tanked by the tank. Additional adds are low dmg + relatively (but not absurd) high HP purples that need to be dealt with so that they don't use grenades / abilities / buffs that will annihilate the tank (flame grenades, first wave agents, riker "leaders" that rile up the elites to deal more damage)

These 3-5 elites however could deal so much damage, that you *need* a tank or you will end up like in the short video I linked and tanks should actually be able to hold their own against them.
Once you cleared all the small fry you will then proceed to kill the Elites, one at a time, or sometimes 2 with AoE (grenades, sticky bomb) abilities. You have your LMG guy supress a single target so that it doesn't move, your DPS will then deal damage to it, rinse + repeat.
Sometimes the elite will break supression, move somewhere else and have some kind of "aggro reset". In fact they could announce it somehow (similiar to DA:I where they scream "FOCUS THAT WARRIOR") they will then move around and supressions just makes it so that they will do so a lot less frequently, the tank will then try to grab it's attention again and so on and so forth.
The tank won't do all that tanking by just standing around, he has to move around too so that the elites need to have a proper line of sights, the arena is always pretty big, there is a lot of cover everywhere, he would "kite" them around while managing threat or disabling one of them so that he can move closer to where he wants to be etc.
It would give the "rusher"type-enemy a new purpose too, he would constantly force the tank out of cover and is very hard to pin down by a LMG so that you don't want to focus him first or something like that.

All that is impossible or rather a extremely stupid thing to do, because they decided to make content more difficult by increasing NPC damgae and not allowing you to increase your own survivability.
Why would you use anything but a glass canon with high DPS, when going full tank will only make you last 0,5s longer.


TL;DR

game is worse than it could've been

[Jtbrig7390]

Battleborn and overwatch are two very different shooters and I enjoyed them both but with uncharted 4 coming out this month I decided on of those can wait and obviously that one will be overwatch.

Oh I know they are, My ass is just slightly broke atm thanks to getting a new car LOL.

If I get ether I got to trade in to do it. Atm only getting games I know will be massive time killers. Uncharted 4 looks awesome, I just need to play the first 3.

[RuneDK]

Oh I know they are, My ass is just slightly broke atm thanks to getting a new car LOL.

If I get ether I got to trade in to do it. Atm only getting games I know will be massive time killers. Uncharted 4 looks awesome, I just need to play the first 3.

I am honestly most likely holding off on uncharted initially to see reviews...played the mp at pax east and it wasn't that fun. So I want to see what reviews say about it. May wait til it goes on sale especially due to overwatch. That's mostly due to just getting the taken king though. so I'll have my loot grind game and my more normalized shooter and then come back to the division when/if they fix the mess they've created.

[Kathandira]

Well. I broke away from playing The Division, and went back to Destiny. Can't say i'm having too much more fun there. Constantly having to wait to find groups. Then when the group is together, it is a gamble whether the players are good or horrible. And then you have to wait for constant AFK's from people. All in all, content that takes all but an hour, takes upwards of 2 to 3 hours because of all the waiting.

I think I am going to go a completely different direction and try out a game I have wanted to play for quite some time (Starbound). I loved Terraria, so I think I should give this one a try as it is very similar.

I'll keep an eye on The Division still to see if things change. But until they do, i'll have to put the disk back in the case.

[Inay]

It seems that 1.2 would actually bring the game more on the right tracks but I would say that I have to wait and see if it actually works out.

1.2 Updates
These are general bullet-points that have been stated about the 1.2 update, more detailed information about fixes and loot are further down.

• No Date on that yet, but it is in the testing phase
• There will be a new Daily Mission system that will fix the current problem with the missing dailies
• Testing is very important to not repeat the 1.1 problems and that it is rock-solid this time
• New Dark Zone 200 Bracket for Gear Score 200 players with higher-level enemies and better loot
• Dark Zone 200 Bracket has the best quality loot and good chance to get 204 items and 240 Gear Sets
• There will be 3 Dark Zone Brackets: -160 / 160+ / 200+
• Dark Zone 200 Bracket will only have High End Division Tech
• Dark Zone 200 Bracket will have 32 – 34 NPCs
• Open World / PVE will also get an update with more activities (currently unknown)
• New Dark Zone Activities (still unknown)

1.2 Confirmed Fixes

• Reckless fixed
• One is None
• Mission Doors not Opening after Matchmaking
• Base of Operation Wings not activating

Sometimes bug fixes need a client-side update, and while all fixes that can be done server side are pursued when they are possible, sometimes it just needs a client-side patch. This is why they put so many fixes in the 1.2 update.

1.2 Loot

• They made some changes to get people away from crafting but as of now, they are only half-way there
• High ends drops are more common now but the quality is still low and it is still difficult to get good quality loot - especially in the Dark Zone
• The whole Idea behind 1.2 is to be more generous with loot in terms of quality and quantity
• Looting should become the main-source of your equipment and not crafting
• There will also be less Gear-Mod drops
• Better and more weapons drops (because they can't be recalibrated)
• Hard Mode / Challenge Missions and Incursions will drop better loot, so that the activity is more rewarding
• All Dark Zone Brackets get better loot, so that you can gear up your char better
• More Gear Set drops from the Supply Drops in the Dark Zone

1.2 Balancing

• No Nerfs / just buffs
• Balance Weapon Talent is broken – It should only give you a buff when you switch from hip-fire to shoulder. Right now you get always the balance buff – but this will be fixed. This way it will be most useful with bolt-action-rifles
• more details are unknown at this point.

Link to source: https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision...otes_state_of/

[RuneDK]

Well it's definitely a step in the right direction for sure.

[Idoru]

I had super high hopes for the game, played with friends at release+. But the combination of Dark Zone being a gathering point of the worst people on the face of the earth, exploits, bullet sponge supermen NPCs, and nothing super engaging at max has just completely killed it for us.

Actually for me personally it was mostly the Dark Zone mechanics. Having a 3rd+ of your loot based shooter revolve around an area that encourages people to shoot each other in the back with wtfsupershotguns at 10 seconds left to extract, corpse camp, etc... I expected it, but I didn't quite understand exactly how infuriating that would be when I bought the game.

Well anyways, rant over. We've all since migrated back to Destiny.

And those of us who predicted this on the beta forums were ridiculed (and worse)...

[grandpab]

You know it's just going to cause more bugs and glitches anyway.

[Zephyr Storm]

Yeah, it's pretty much guaranteed that they'll break the game again and introduce a ton more glitches and bugs. Although they're starting to go in the right direction with some of those ideas, I still have zero faith that Massive will pull the patch off successfully. Their track record so far doesn't make it look promising.

[everydaygamer]

Yeah, it's pretty much guaranteed that they'll break the game again and introduce a ton more glitches and bugs. Although they're starting to go in the right direction with some of those ideas, I still have zero faith that Massive will pull the patch off successfully. Their track record so far doesn't make it look promising.

You mean the one major patch they have done? Then yeah I guess the track record doesn't look promising lol. How about you give them the benefit of the doubt until the patch hits.

I'm interesting in the stuff being added to the open world. One of the reasons I didn't return for 1.1 is because I don't care for the darkzone and incursions turned out to be disappointing. Hopefully they add something good.

[Edge-]

You mean the one major patch they have done? Then yeah I guess the track record doesn't look promising lol. How about you give them the benefit of the doubt until the patch hits.

I'm interesting in the stuff being added to the open world. One of the reasons I didn't return for 1.1 is because I don't care for the darkzone and incursions turned out to be disappointing. Hopefully they add something good.

To be fair, haven't all their minor patches introduced tons of glitches and bugs, not to mention some new exploits?

[Jtbrig7390]

How about you give them the benefit of the doubt until the patch hits.

Ummmmm NO.

Every patch they have done has made the game worse in many ways. There is still a ton of systems broke and will be broken after this patch. I am tired of people defending devs. If they can't do there job then find someone who can.

The game is in a poor state now and while the patch looks decent its still going to be a mess after. Enough with (Give the devs the benefit of the doubt) as I said ether do there jobs or find someone who can.

- - - Updated - - -

To be fair, haven't all their minor patches introduced tons of glitches and bugs, not to mention some new exploits?

Yes each choice they have made has somehow broke the game even more.

[Zephyr Storm]

To be fair, haven't all their minor patches introduced tons of glitches and bugs, not to mention some new exploits?

Pretty much this ^.

People saying "give them the benefit of the doubt" are being really naive.

- - - Updated - - -

Yes each choice they have made has somehow broke the game even more.

Broke it or made it more grindy than before.

[Jtbrig7390]

Broke it or made it more grindy than before.

In my opinion both.

[Tekkommo]

Is there a release date for the May update yet? Or are they going down the route of every other MMOish game in history? Promise fast content at release, realise that means lots of bugs, then result in releasing slow content.

[RuneDK]

Is there a release date for the May update yet? Or are they going down the route of every other MMOish game in history? Promise fast content at release, realise that means lots of bugs, then result in releasing slow content.

I think it's more in line with they don't want to give a release date and not test it out properly...I feel it will be the 24th or 31st.

[Zephyr Storm]

I think it's more in line with they don't want to give a release date and not test it out properly...I feel it will be the 24th or 31st.

Lol, might as well not even call it May content then. :P

[Nutri]

• Dark Zone 200 Bracket will have 32 – 34 NPCs
• Open World / PVE will also get an update with more activities (currently unknown)
• New Dark Zone Activities (still unknown)
  
• Looting should become the main-source of your equipment and not crafting
• There will also be less Gear-Mod drops
• Hard Mode / Challenge Missions and Incursions will drop better loot, so that the activity is more rewarding

Looking forward for these changes the most.
Right now I only do the daily challenge to cap out my Phoenix credits in case a nice weapon shows up (like the AUG PARA from last week). I had 2 set pieces drop in the dark zone, the rest is all just 163 crap and mods mods mods and mods (/sigh) I just extract for the sake of getting materials which is also quite annoying atm.

Doing the cargo drop is not really worth it besides tapping a boss if you're alone in there. He has better loot than the Purple Drop.
Since I'm ilvl 203 I'm looking forward to the new bracket and the improved loot that comes from there. Current bracket starts to feel a bit easy even when soloing. Taking down DZ06 bosses by yourself with relative ease shows the need for a higher bracket.

I'm still not giving up on this game! I have never and will never use an exploit/glitch so all I gained and gathered is all done legit and that feels rewarding. Sure it has quite a list of things that need improving but the above list is a good step in the right direction.

If they fine-tune world drops and crafting, bump up the number of challenge missions, add a ton of content in the pve zone then this game will be played for a long long time. I have faith :P

[Appelgren]

If they fine-tune world drops and crafting, bump up the number of challenge missions, add a ton of content in the pve zone then this game will be played for a long long time. I have faith :P

Other than fixing all that you mentioned they need to punish cheaters/glitchers way harder. Perhaps 1 warning before permban or something like that.
Reset characters or whatever. Something needs to be done. Temp suspension is a joke.

[Nutri]

Other than fixing all that you mentioned they need to punish cheaters/glitchers way harder. Perhaps 1 warning before permban or something like that.
Reset characters or whatever. Something needs to be done. Temp suspension is a joke.

Well they changed it to a 14 day ban on first offenders and perma on the 2nd. So that's a step in the right direction :-)