***** The Official Division Thread *****

[beachBOYken]

Does anyone know the difference (in the DZ) between agents with just red health bars and the red health bars with the scull(rogue) icon above?

Isn't that just an agent with low health/armour and the others with the skull are rogue agents. I don't think the agents with just the red bars have gone rogue which makes the two look very similar. hopefully they fix that.

 

[Plainsong]

Not sure what to make of it. I liked the RPG elements of missions, levelling and crafting/upgrading but I am afraid also of rinse and repeat in different areas. I only went into the DZ once and I was solo the whole time I played and I enjoyed what there was of it. But I don't know if it's going to be enough.

I agree with ROB75 above in that it does feel really soulless. If I am in an infected city I want to be afraid of the mobs etc but I felt nothing. Maybe it'll get better in high level areas? It needs some atmosphere.

Don't think I will day one it. I will wait for more reactions before I decide.

 

[Fr0dders]

Yup. Red Health bars without a rogue icon above their head aren't rogue and will get you sent rogue if you engage them.

Its a stupid idea to have people with low health show as red. So confusing

My thoughts on the game: I have enjoyed playing this for the most part but based on the strength of the beta I may cancel my pre-order.

The setting of the game is decent (post outbreak lawless city) but the atmosphere doesn't give me any feeling that I'm in any danger from being killed by crazy people, looters or being possibly infected. It's all a bit lifeless and whilst initially nice to look at it's very dull.

I was playing with Martin and Parko on Saturday and we were running round the city messing about for ages, but we never felt in any danger despite the odd mob of NPCs. Destructive environments? Yeah ok, shoot out some lights and they turn themselves back on. Ledges you can't fall off, really? You should be able to plummet to your death from a roof if not careful, you can in Destiny... Also, in a massive city like this, why can you not enter more of the buildings and do a bit of urban exploration? Bit of a missed opportunity I think. Oh and why the hell doesn't anyone use a car? Someone must as there are tracks in the snow, but everyone is on foot?!

I wanted it to have a similar atmosphere to The Last of Us where you always feel uneasy and maybe have to navigate traps or maybe be able to set your own in the DZ. Quite a disappointment, but maybe I was expecting too much?

I do like the game mechanics for the most part and, like Destiny, the quest for mad loot, mods and upgrades is going to keep people playing, but right now I'd have to say Destiny, even at launch, was a far better and more polished game. I don't think The Division knows what it's trying to be and it's pretty soulless.

I really hope they reveal lots more in the lead up to release to capture my interest again, but I get the feeling this will be another Watchdogs. Good ideas, but no depth and ultimately disappointing.

The "random encounters" in the PVE zones are a copy and paste from Watchdogs. two or three different types of scenario which randomly spawn around the map in different locations with different NPC enemies.

I think the reason the darkzone feels so safe is due to a lack of NPCs. Reddit is of the opinnion that these have been purposefully toned down in the beta. Fingers crossed that once the NPC mobs increase that it starts to feel a bit more risky. I remember playing previous MMOs where venturing out into the wilderness PVP / PVE zones was just an absolute no-no on your own as you could come across NPCs that could wipe you out unless you were in a big group. There doesn't really seem to be that threat.

As for player movement, I think levelcap hit it on the head when he said they are trying to control and script your movement to button presses too much. Just let me control my character and move where I want how I want. Simple things like just give me a crouch button and a jump button. It doesn't need to be this tightly controlled.

 

[Robi]

Not sure what to make of it. I liked the RPG elements of missions, levelling and crafting/upgrading but I am afraid also of rinse and repeat in different areas. I only went into the DZ once and I was solo the whole time I played and I enjoyed what there was of it. But I don't know if it's going to be enough.

I agree with ROB75 above in that it does feel really soulless. If I am in an infected city I want to be afraid of the mobs etc but I felt nothing. Maybe it'll get better in high level areas? It needs some atmosphere.

Don't think I will day one it. I will wait for more reactions before I decide.

I don't mean to be rude, but you do realise most of the content wasn't in the beta? It's a beta.

Crafting, talent trees, skills etc - all excluded. Let alone the actual content - most of the map was sectioned off.

Why are people basing the content on a beta test?

 

[Fr0dders]

I don't mean to be rude, but you do realise most of the content wasn't in the beta? It's a beta.

Crafting, talent trees, skills etc - all excluded. Let alone the actual content - most of the map was sectioned off.

Why are people basing the content on a beta test?

You can tell that the PVE side of this game is going to feel very watchdogs. The "random encounter" and "side mission" aspect of the game has literally been cut and paste in terms of how they work.

 

[Zatoichi.uK]

I must admit I was quite underwhelmed. Little things like the invisible walls, large walk times, concerns over the map size etc. are all things that have made me reconsider my pre-order.

Have they also cut out large portions of the map, i.e. Brooklyn to sell as DLC or was that always their plan?

I really want a co op game to play with some friends but think this may well be sorely lacking content. I don't fancy spending hours grinding for a gun over doing interesting end game content, which we still don't seem to know anything about.

I know this is a beta but even so it was quite telling.

 

[Fr0dders]

I'm not sure Brooklyn was "cut" but they definitely had stuff to show in the earlier build of the game before it switched to Mid Town.

I suspect focus changed mid development and it never got finished. But you can bet they can re-use those assets when making DLC.

 

[Davey_Pitch]

The setting of the game is decent (post outbreak lawless city) but the atmosphere doesn't give me any feeling that I'm in any danger from being killed by crazy people, looters or being possibly infected. It's all a bit lifeless and whilst initially nice to look at it's very dull.

I agree with this. My hope is that the NPC spawns have been reduced for the beta and that there will be more random enemies roaming the streets during the full release.

I was playing with Martin and Parko on Saturday and we were running round the city messing about for ages, but we never felt in any danger despite the odd mob of NPCs. Destructive environments? Yeah ok, shoot out some lights and they turn themselves back on. Ledges you can't fall off, really? You should be able to plummet to your death from a roof if not careful, you can in Destiny... Also, in a massive city like this, why can you not enter more of the buildings and do a bit of urban exploration? Bit of a missed opportunity I think. Oh and why the hell doesn't anyone use a car? Someone must as there are tracks in the snow, but everyone is on foot?!

Consider the size of the area they are eventually trying to model (most of Manhatten by the looks of it) I can only speculate that adding a load more interiors might be more than the current consoles could handle.

I do like the game mechanics for the most part and, like Destiny, the quest for mad loot, mods and upgrades is going to keep people playing, but right now I'd have to say Destiny, even at launch, was a far better and more polished game. I don't think The Division knows what it's trying to be and it's pretty soulless.

I wouldn't say it doesn't know what it's trying to be. I think we all need to remember that we're just seeing a small slice of the game. As much fun as the DZ may be, I think the game will live or die based on the amount and variety of missions available for people who don't want to jump into PvP. That's one thing Destiny did well - even if you were on your own and had completed the story, you could easily go back and replay old missions whenever you wanted. If The Division has a load of missions that are replayable at various difficulties, giving you more chances to get great loot, I can see the game being a real success, assuming those missions are fun, obviously!

 

[Diddums]

I must agree that the level of threat / danger is very low, not once have I genuinely felt like I'm in danger. The contaminated areas are no threat at all, I just walked through them no problem. I *suspect* that this might change in the release because one of the loading screen tips said something about needing better masks, and the filters in the masks have levels, so I think there's more to that than meets the eye. I would also like to see more mutated stuff, some proper monsters which make you run if you're not in a group. At the moment the worst we have is a bunch of badly dressed rioters, they're hardly a massive threat.

Then again, this *is* a beta and we might find that once the release hits us that there is a sprawling metropolis (love that word) of bad guys, monsters, contaminated areas and other threats which keep us on our toes.

Oh and the weather system is awesome, if a little too keen to change.

 

[Davey_Pitch]

You won't see monsters. It's a viral outbreak, not a monster creating mutagen. I do hope we see more variety in enemy type though, on top of the few we've already seen.

 

[benhaha85]

I'm still torn on whether I'm going to pick this up at launch. I've really enjoyed the beta, but as a mainly PVE player I'm not sure whether to wait for some feedback about the amount of PVE stuff when the game is released.

 

[Plainsong]

I don't mean to be rude, but you do realise most of the content wasn't in the beta? It's a beta.

Crafting, talent trees, skills etc - all excluded. Let alone the actual content - most of the map was sectioned off.

Why are people basing the content on a beta test?

Which is why I wasn't being critical. At least I tried not to be. I enjoyed what I played of it but I'm not sure if it'll be enough in the end. So I will wait for people's opinions of the final game before I commit.

 

[Diddums]

You won't see monsters. It's a viral outbreak, not a monster creating mutagen. I do hope we see more variety in enemy type though, on top of the few we've already seen.

There is definitely a demand for more variety in bad guys. I'd love to see monsters, but as you say this is probably the wrong game for it.

Maybe some IFVs, dunno.

 

[Robi]

Which is why I wasn't being critical. At least I tried not to be. I enjoyed what I played of it but I'm not sure if it'll be enough in the end. So I will wait for people's opinions of the final game before I commit.

That's my point. You're not sure if it'll be enough in the end? What are you basing that on? If all the content was present, then I could understand your opinion. But it wasn't, so I don't understand you at all.

 

[Greboth]

I know it was only a beta but it has not convinced me this is a day 1 purchase. There were many things I liked about it - the movement and cover system, HUD was well layed out, the controls were mapped well to a controller and I can see the upgrading and loot system being good. My main problem is content / stuff to do - it just seemed a lot of time was spent walking round trying to find something to do. This especially applies in the darkzone where I spent more time going rogue / killing rogues than fighting bots. Which as a 'save NYC from anarchy' RPG you would think there would be more anarchy, more NPC's / Bots running riot etc.

It was a beta though so maybe they really restricted content as purely a server load test etc. rather than a "beta" that is actually more a demo. However it concerns me and making me doubt a day 1 purchase in case the full game is actually like the beta.

 

[davisdavid]

I know it was only a beta but it has not convinced me this is a day 1 purchase. There were many things I liked about it - the movement and cover system, HUD was well layed out, the controls were mapped well to a controller and I can see the upgrading and loot system being good. My main problem is content / stuff to do - it just seemed a lot of time was spent walking round trying to find something to do. This especially applies in the darkzone where I spent more time going rogue / killing rogues than fighting bots. Which as a 'save NYC from anarchy' RPG you would think there would be more anarchy, more NPC's / Bots running riot etc.

It was a beta though so maybe they really restricted content as purely a server load test etc. rather than a "beta" that is actually more a demo. However it concerns me and making me doubt a day 1 purchase in case the full game is actually like the beta.

I'm hoping the Beta was just used to demonstrate the dark zone and that when it does release there'll be a load more NPC stuff to do. Hopefully it just gave people a taste of - if you go rogue you will more than likely be killed and lose the loot you stole. Hopefully there is some form of mechanism to protect people from always being killed by rogue players who are purely there to steal.

 

[Diddums]

No thanks. I like that element, it's the only real danger currently in the game. People should be aware of the risks of going in to the dark zone, that's the whole point it. By allowing players immunity from rogues you may as well remove the dark zone completely. And killing rogues is immense fun.

 

[antijoke]

It's great tension walking through the dark zone and coming across some other players and you don't know if they are going to just walk by or start attacking you.

 

[shorttricky]

This especially applies in the darkzone where I spent more time going rogue / killing rogues than fighting bots. Which as a 'save NYC from anarchy' RPG you would think there would be more anarchy, more NPC's / Bots running riot etc.

I forget where it says it, but it mentions that all the DZ vendors have missions for you - I assume they're just not in the beta.

Might have been in the messages while you're loading a fast travel?

 

[jimferno]

The Dark Zone is awesome.

Had a great stand off in the corner of the map yesterday. Our group of 4 survived our Rogue status but the 5 following players still chased us and boxed us in to a defensive position in the corner of the map.

Everyone took up positions in cover, tension was in the air, nobody wanted to be the first to fire or go Rogue but we all knew someone would have an itchy trigger finger.

We all had clear shots lined but we're happy to let the opposing players back off and carry on their business. Suddenly one of them fires a sticky bomb in our direction and all hell breaks loose.

We slaughtered 4 right off the bat, the fifth guy makes a run but has no chance with all four of us chasing him down. Never, ever turn your back on players in the DZ. Love it!

There's some minor niggles in the beta but I believe there's going to be more & better loot available, more encounters and the teleportation zones will obviously not be in. Can't wait for March to roll around.