[Megathread] The Division 2

[dope_danny]

So early impressions are pretty good. The weather effects are pretty great, even by the standards of the 1st they are better. You can come out of a long internal section to a deafening torrential downpour, morning sun and fog can completely blind you, denser fogs can hit later and even without the morning sun can leave you looking into fog and maybe seeing a blur and not being able to see a thing shooting at you, but they can't see you either.
Theres a buttload of items. Like constantly going through a 20 second loop of 'whats that? neat, more treasure' constantly. It rewards exploration like no other looter shooter. I've gone on 10-15 minute trips down alleys or into the sewers finding lots of items not for side quests or specific 'this is the electronics farming site' like the first but just because its so dense a map and theres all this to find if you just want to explore.
Gameplay wise the guns feel better, the sound design is much better in ways you might not even notice like entering and exiting areas, the wind picking up, grenades can do no damage but explode close enough for a high pitched whine and stuff like gun turrets are like a hammer on a steel sheet over and over. With options for headphones and cinema sound systems this is a facet that might not get as much attention as it deserves but the subtle synth soundtrack aside the sound design is a leg up from the average at best work in the last game.
Its also been nice to find 'set' stuff from lvl.5 onwards which seems to be the point where the game proper begins. Along with stuff like doing activities to unlock shields, world tiers and things like supply drops it starts off running with everything they added to the first game in patches.

So any fears of another Destiny 2 wiping the slate and starting again but worse are thankfully unfounded. So far pretty impressed.

[Tekkommo]

So early impressions are pretty good. The weather effects are pretty great, even by the standards of the 1st they are better. You can come out of a long internal section to a deafening torrential downpour, morning sun and fog can completely blind you, denser fogs can hit later and even without the morning sun can leave you looking into fog and maybe seeing a blur and not being able to see a thing shooting at you, but they can't see you either.
Theres a buttload of items. Like constantly going through a 20 second loop of 'whats that? neat, more treasure' constantly. It rewards exploration like no other looter shooter. I've gone on 10-15 minute trips down alleys or into the sewers finding lots of items not for side quests or specific 'this is the electronics farming site' like the first but just because its so dense a map and theres all this to find if you just want to explore.
Gameplay wise the guns feel better, the sound design is much better in ways you might not even notice like entering and exiting areas, the wind picking up, grenades can do no damage but explode close enough for a high pitched whine and stuff like gun turrets are like a hammer on a steel sheet over and over. With options for headphones and cinema sound systems this is a facet that might not get as much attention as it deserves but the subtle synth soundtrack aside the sound design is a leg up from the average at best work in the last game.
Its also been nice to find 'set' stuff from lvl.5 onwards which seems to be the point where the game proper begins. Along with stuff like doing activities to unlock shields, world tiers and things like supply drops it starts off running with everything they added to the first game in patches.

So any fears of another Destiny 2 wiping the slate and starting again but worse are thankfully unfounded. So far pretty impressed.

It certainly looks like they have learned their lesson from the first.

Of course it's all first impressions, we have to see how the grind is at max level, to see if it keeps you playing.

It actually makes a great single player game and just for that, I would recommend buying it. At first I was doing the main missions in a group, but if you do it that way you just rush through it and don't get to properly explore the mission, so I started doing them solo and checking everything. Some funny easter eggs they planted. I'm just going to leave the group play for end game when the farming begins. The main people I'll be playing with start tomorrow.

Totally agree with the loot, it's everywhere and makes you check every corner. Will that get tiresome? Probably, but at least when you need to farm mats, they'll easily be found.

[Usernameforforums]

Anthem deserved it though. That game at most from a friend lending it to me is a 4/10 game tops.

This exactly. Why? It(anthem)was a game developed in 6 years but looks like it was made in 2. TD2,on the other hand, had 1.5-2 years of development and it has more content and a better gear system.

[Tekkommo]

This exactly. Why? It(anthem)was a game developed in 6 years but looks like it was made in 2. TD2,on the other hand, had 1.5-2 years of development and it has more content and a better gear system.

To be fair, they had TD1 as a main base, that helps. I don't know how long it takes to develop end game missions to farm, but if you launch with only 3, you're only putting yourself in a bad place.

The game is still very similar to TD1, if you didn't like that (gameplay wise), you probably won't like TD2.

The abilities this time round are far more fun, I love my assault drone.

[stellvia]

Sewers are where you will find most of your keys for the faction chests in missions FYI. Any tunnel-system I've been in has had at least 1-2 keys, one area even had like 4-5.

[SirCowdog]

Theres a buttload of items. Like constantly going through a 20 second loop of 'whats that? neat, more treasure' constantly. It rewards exploration like no other looter shooter.

I've seen a lot of people mention this. Keep a close eye on this! If it gets nerfed later on after people have already paid their money, it's a bad sign. It's a pretty common tactic: Beef up rewards early on to get good reviews, then drop it after the scores and initial purchases roll in.

Not saying it will, just something to be aware of.

On a side note, probably going to pick up the game this weekend after I see what happens with the full release. If the servers handle the load and the hackers don't break something vital, I think it'll be a safe purchase.

[Edge-]

I've seen a lot of people mention this. Keep a close eye on this! If it gets nerfed later on after people have already paid their money, it's a bad sign. It's a pretty common tactic: Beef up rewards early on to get good reviews, then drop it after the scores and initial purchases roll in.

Not saying it will, just something to be aware of.

On a side note, probably going to pick up the game this weekend after I see what happens with the full release. If the servers handle the load and the hackers don't break something vital, I think it'll be a safe purchase.

I think it's more all the non-item relates stuff - food/water etc. that you turn in to NPC's and stuff. That's stuff that's designed to be all over the place because it's frequently being used.

[SirCowdog]

This exactly. Why? It(anthem)was a game developed in 6 years but looks like it was made in 2. TD2,on the other hand, had 1.5-2 years of development and it has more content and a better gear system.

There's no easy answer to this. We don't know how the development cycle looked for Anthem. While planning and work may have started 6 years ago, it's entirely possible teams got shuffled around, work delayed for other projects, or who knows what. Plus, I think it's safe to assume that someone(probably EA) decided to for the game to launch in order to get some sales out before The Division 2.

Which is a shame, really. If Anthem had waited until after the initial rush of The Division 2 launch, when people started to wind down, they'd have gotten a few more months to clean Anthem up, and maybe done a LOT better for themselves. I'll never understand why publishers, ESPECIALLY the huge ones like EA that can easily absorb the additional cost, sabotage games by forcing them to launch before they're ready.

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I think it's more all the non-item relates stuff - food/water etc. that you turn in to NPC's and stuff. That's stuff that's designed to be all over the place because it's frequently being used.

The general idea still applies. It's all progress.

[Tekkommo]

I've seen a lot of people mention this. Keep a close eye on this! If it gets nerfed later on after people have already paid their money, it's a bad sign. It's a pretty common tactic: Beef up rewards early on to get good reviews, then drop it after the scores and initial purchases roll in.

Not saying it will, just something to be aware of.

On a side note, probably going to pick up the game this weekend after I see what happens with the full release. If the servers handle the load and the hackers don't break something vital, I think it'll be a safe purchase.

Are you a big PVP player?

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I think it's more all the non-item relates stuff - food/water etc. that you turn in to NPC's and stuff. That's stuff that's designed to be all over the place because it's frequently being used.

A lot is crafting materials as well, and even though the loot is plenty for food/water etc. it's easy to burn it all. So imo it's definitely a design decision to have so much loot available, plus it keeps people happy.

[Edge-]

A lot is crafting materials as well, and even though the loot is plenty for food/water etc. it's easy to burn it all. So imo it's definitely a design decision to have so much loot available, plus it keeps people happy.

Yeah, that's what it seems like to me. I was pleasantly surprised that all the garbage I'd usually pick up from backpacks in the first game seemed to have a purpose during the open beta. I actually would actively be looking out for them for a change, it was nice. Because I'm the kind of sucker that loves all this shit.

Now to hope my former Ubisoft-employed buddy can get me a copy, because if so I'm totally playing at launch. Otherwise as long as things are looking good 2-3 weeks out from launch I'll totally pick it up anyways.

[SirCowdog]

Are you a big PVP player?

That depends. In The Division? Nope. PVP in that game was garbo. Too many hackers, too badly balanced, too much lag.

Maybe in TD2 since I understand things are normalized. But really, if I wanted to PVP in a shooter, I'd play Call of Duty or Battlefield or something 100% dedicated to PVP. I think trying to put PVP in a looter shooter is a mistake and dilutes the point of the game.

I'm assuming that question leads somewhere, though?

[Tekkommo]

That depends. In The Division? Nope. PVP in that game was garbo. Too many hackers, too badly balanced, too much lag.

Maybe in TD2 since I understand things are normalized. But really, if I wanted to PVP in a shooter, I'd play Call of Duty or Battlefield or something 100% dedicated to PVP. I think trying to put PVP in a looter shooter is a mistake and dilutes the point of the game.

I'm assuming that question leads somewhere, though?

Was about people abusing the game. If you solely do PVE, it doesn't affect you.

Don't get me wrong, people who hack games piss me off, but it happens in all games. What TD1 lacked was quick punishment, they let it go on for a long time, sometimes with no repercussions.

I'm fully expecting people to abuse the game, it's a given, it's how quickly they are punished is what I am interested in.

Anyway, I've came across my first big bug. When I use the Striker Drone in a group, they all disconnect. Pretty bad since I love this ability. Tested it multiple times now, sometimes my whole group dc's, sometimes only one. Never me.

[I Push Buttons]

A lot is crafting materials as well, and even though the loot is plenty for food/water etc. it's easy to burn it all. So imo it's definitely a design decision to have so much loot available, plus it keeps people happy.

Cosmetics as well. I have been capped on crafting materials, control point resources, etc., for a while now, but I still search everything because I have gotten like a dozen or so cosmetic drops from random containers thus far.

[Tekkommo]

Cosmetics as well. I have been capped on crafting materials, control point resources, etc., for a while now, but I still search everything because I have gotten like a dozen or so cosmetic drops from random containers thus far.

Yup, I've had set piece cosmetic pieces drop, for example I've got the Biker Shirt and Rider Hat.

[SirCowdog]

Was about people abusing the game. If you solely do PVE, it doesn't affect you.

Don't get me wrong, people who hack games piss me off, but it happens in all games. What TD1 lacked was quick punishment, they let it go on for a long time, sometimes with no repercussions.

I'm fully expecting people to abuse the game, it's a given, it's how quickly they are punished is what I am interested in.
.

This might just be me, but I think it's important to draw a distinction between PvE and single-player. The claim that "it doesn't effect me" because it's PVE isn't as clean as it appears on the surface, because eventually you do end up playing with other people. This can make it too hard to find groups if you're too weak because you didn't cheat, or lead to feelings of frustration as you watch other people cruise through content you're struggling with.

And warping progression using exploits or hacks easily leads to power creep and complaints of the game being too short or too easy, which can cause the devs to feel forced to change the game in unintended ways.

Even banning large numbers of players can hurt the pool of available people to group with.

All in all, a single player game it doesn't matter. If you want to cheat it's your fun to determine. But even in a purely PVE game, as long as there's a multiplayer element, then hacks/exploits can mess with the game. And since The Division 2 has direct PVP elements, this is even more important.

But you're right that how Massive handles cheaters is super important. It's one more thing to pay close attention to.

[Tekkommo]

This might just be me, but I think it's important to draw a distinction between PvE and single-player. The claim that "it doesn't effect me" because it's PVE isn't as clean as it appears on the surface, because eventually you do end up playing with other people. This can make it too hard to find groups if you're too weak because you didn't cheat, or lead to feelings of frustration as you watch other people cruise through content you're struggling with.

And warping progression using exploits or hacks easily leads to power creep and complaints of the game being too short or too easy, which can cause the devs to feel forced to change the game in unintended ways.

Even banning large numbers of players can hurt the pool of available people to group with.

All in all, a single player game it doesn't matter. If you want to cheat it's your fun to determine. But even in a purely PVE game, as long as there's a multiplayer element, then hacks/exploits can mess with the game. And since The Division 2 has direct PVP elements, this is even more important.

But you're right that how Massive handles cheaters is super important. It's one more thing to pay close attention to.

Nothing wrong with what you said.

It really doesn't effect you, if you play at your pace. Plenty of players in your bracket. You can auto match make all content (at least you could in TD1). If others cruise through content, so what? Does it bother you that Method clear a Mythic raid in week one?

I can see players boosting friends easily with gear, I expect that from Angry Joe, he'll get Del to boost him, feed him gear and he'll judge his review from that.

If people cheat, ban them, in large amounts, just don't ban innocents. You'll still have plenty of people to play with.

We both agree being able to cheat in a game is bad and if a game allows it, it's terrible.

[GoKs]

Yoh. Lost 28hours to that game so far.... and it is worth every minute. Hit lvl30, but still have allot of side missions to do, so will finish them off before starting the strongholds. Not too many glitches/bugs so far. Only had one where I got stuck on a crane I should probably never been on in the first place, so not their fault for me trying to bypass the system to get to loot. I love how they made you look for ways to get to certain SHD tech, not just run and loot, you have to find the gates, shoot locks from different location, run back to open the gate and then loot. They did realy well to make it interesting.

They should nerf that bloody sledgehammer bosses. Man they are so frustrating to deal with, and fucking relentless, they are like flies to a heap of shit. The one bounty boss killed me with one hit, from full armor and health to zero in 1 sec flat. I didnt do any group content yet, but they should be better to handle if you are more then one, they are killable, just a bit difficult if they follow you so closely.

And man the civilians is a nice addition, them fighting back is better then in TD1 where they just did nothing. But they should do something to make them a bit smarter though, since they tend to go looking for shit, had a couple of times where they were fighting a pack of enemies, then you help them out and kill all, just for them to turn around and shoot at a new group that was barely visable from where we were standing.... I felt like shooting the civilian myself after the 3 time lol. The civilians should also learn to throw grenades, because man they suck lol. They are not really smart or good, but I think that is deliberate since they technically dont have any training and that should show. Taking over a hostile controle point I just call them for a distraction, so not every enemy in 5mile radius focuses on me.

I still have allot to do before I want to go to WT1, want to finish all the zones, get all the SHD tech and finish all the projects and the side missions, only then will I do the strongholds to advance. I am having a real blast so far, will see how the end game group content turns out once I get there, but I have high hopes.

Edit: Found this little piece of gem, for those who are interested. https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision...p_ios_android/

[SirCowdog]

Heads up for all you guys already playing: Random vid popped up on my youtube feed on how to get a WW1 outfit cosmetic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqkr3-Ge63I

I know we're not normally supposed to post videos or whatever, but this seems kind of interesting and useful. This isn't my video. Minor spoilers if you watch the entire video, so don't click if you want to absolutely figure everything out yourself.

Any other semi-secrets or unique appearances you guys have run across? Maybe we oughta start a line of posts documenting all the ways to get special outfits or appearances? I know there's also a full face-mask you can get by killing a specific hunter, although I can't find the video now.

[GoKs]

Any clans here looking for a stray? I dont have any friends and feel lonely. PC version EU region.

[dope_danny]

I highly recommend hitting supply drops as soon as possible. I've been getting blues and purples constantly, took this screenshot after my first where i got a machine gun that shreds even elites at my current level and while they can be a bit tough to solo in some locations depending on enemy spawns they are totally worth it compared to stuff like hostage or conflict events that seem to be less xp by at least half and no good rewards for the early game.