The Division 2 - March 2019

[Mario]

@Nexus18 - make no mistake - its faaaaar from reskin
Clocked 2200h+ in Div1 and i think i could see difference - videos hardly can give you real impression about Div 2,besides,even Technical Alpha was surprisingly good

Beta supposedly should be around 14th jan

 

[DarkHorizon472]

@Nexus18 - make no mistake - its faaaaar from reskin
Clocked 2200h+ in Div1 and i think i could see difference - videos hardly can give you real impression about Div 2,besides,even Technical Alpha was surprisingly good

Beta supposedly should be around 14th jan

Appreciate you can’t give too much away but is it a good progression from the original version of the division ?

 

[Mario]

Appreciate you can’t give too much away but is it a good progression from the original version of the division ?

Trying not to be a fanboy here - for me,personally,its absolutely big improvement.
Cant say to much,but 98% of people who played Alpha,said only positive things and many who was sceptical-preordered it,that says something when you preordering Ubi game
All i can say is - its 100% not reskin.
Ubi keeping it tight and PR machine will start spinning in January i believe with Beta.When you try Beta,you will understand what i mean.
I didnt wanted it to be to different from Div 1,but the difference is very surprisingly unexpectedly good
In a long time i wont feel bad i preordered Ultimate Edt. (used some Ubi Club points,so it didnt cost that much really)
Cant wait for Beta and then,hopefully,no delays in March 15th release

 

[DarkHorizon472]

Trying not to be a fanboy here - for me,personally,its absolutely big improvement.
Cant say to much,but 98% of people who played Alpha,said only positive things and many who was sceptical-preordered it,that says something when you preordering Ubi game
All i can say is - its 100% not reskin.
Ubi keeping it tight and PR machine will start spinning in January i believe with Beta.When you try Beta,you will understand what i mean.
I didnt wanted it to be to different from Div 1,but the difference is very surprisingly unexpectedly good
In a long time i wont feel bad i preordered Ultimate Edt. (used some Ubi Club points,so it didnt cost that much really)
Cant wait for Beta and then,hopefully,no delays in March 15th release

Great thanks

 

[Clairvoyant]

Im guessing it's got the forced co-op.

 

[MissChief]

Im guessing it's got the forced co-op.

D1 you could do almost everything without a group other than some of the Incursions but they're specifically designed for group play. And co-op games are way better in a group rather than solo.

 

[Calin Banc]

I'm guessing the terrible grinding-level scaling mechanics is still in? To me it was one of the biggest issues of the previous game, incredible annoying and a detriment to gameplay both in SP (and even more so) in MP. For sure I'll wait for reviews and proper gameplay videos before buying it.

 

[llamadal]

If the grind is removed, the game will exhaust its content to quickly. Destiny 2 proved that.

 

[Calin Banc]

Then the problem is the content. Relaying on a simple "fix" like grinding and level scaling, gets old quickly. It's not about gameplay anymore, it's about the grind (grindplay), a constant run after the next big thing, because there's nothing good other than that. Again, to me, that's no content, it's just lazy development.

It gets frustrating in SP where it becomes a cheap trick to guide the player through the word, giving the impression of a sandbox type of game, where he can go and do whatever, but in reality he can't. Also the suspension of disbelief goes out the window (tens of bullets in guy's empty face?!; pistol bullet doing more damage than a rifle one, etc.) and it can go even against the story itself ( like the The Witcher 3, if you don't mind mentioning another instance where this gets really bad).

In MP was even worse than War Thunder or World of Thanks. You get a bracket for the levels of players and also the items available to the player on the same level vary wildly, with the difference between base and high end stuff, from what I have, is around 2x or greater (if I remember correctly) and I've met players which have much better gear than me, at the same level, which allows them to kill me just based on DPS - no strategy, to tactics, no nothing, just runs towards you and mops the floor in about 1-2 sec. If this happens to the players on the same levels, what happens to those on the lower end? What happens when a squad of those decides "to have fun"? I've met those too, none could stand in their way.

It's adrenaline pumping when you know a single guy can take out your squad even though you have good gear, but you don't pay attention, when you actually have to plan, when you're vulnerable and the enemy is as well. To have him madly shooting at your face while you light your imaginary cigar, pull out a handgun and one shot kill him... that's no fun, that's trolling and really bad game design. They should instead really start to innovate, both in AI terms, but also advanced gameplay loops, beyond pew-pew-pew... pew.

m2c

 

[zola25]

For myself and the Mrs who played through D1 together the grind was part of the fun. I don't normally enjoy grinding, but for some reason found it appealing in D1. We later replayed with new characters after many patches and found it laughably easy as the grind had been toned down and we were showered with loot.

After playing the D2 alpha I can't say much, but will certainly be buying

 

[Tombstone]

For myself and the Mrs who played through D1 together the grind was part of the fun. I don't normally enjoy grinding, but for some reason found it appealing in D1. We later replayed with new characters after many patches and found it laughably easy as the grind had been toned down and we were showered with loot.

After playing the D2 alpha I can't say much, but will certainly be buying

Exactly the same here. Myself and the Mrs played through D1 about 4 or 5 times, had an absolute blast each time. Its one of her favourite games. We've both got several hundred hours in Division 1 and had a ton of fun in multiplayer on it. Both very much looking forward to more of the same in D2

 

[llamadal]

The problem is making it rewarding/long lasting to both casual players and the hardcore. I don't think they relied on a simple fix, they implemented it pretty well for that type of game, but it's not for everyone nor is it perfect.

I don't like the whole bullet sponge thing but I accept that it needs it, so I won't let that ruin my experience. If someone took the time to optimise their loadout and I didn't then I expect them to hold an advantage. It's how the game is and i expect TD2 to be an expanded polished version of the first.

TD was highly enjoyable levelling, the original endgame was a bit meh but they put a lot of effort to address that, so i have high hopes for this and will be definite purchase.

 

[Rroff]

I don't like the whole bullet sponge thing but I accept that it needs it, so I won't let that ruin my experience. If someone took the time to optimise their loadout and I didn't then I expect them to hold an advantage. It's how the game is and i expect TD2 to be an expanded polished version of the first.

I've never found the PVP very fun in TD1 - I've got most stuff min/maxed and have all the gear for most setups and still find a lot of players who seemingly never die while handing out insane damage - even if I'm running like a 9K striker with near 700K toughness and over 400K DPS straight out the box.

 

[Mario]

Apparently embargo lifts on 17th Jan

As for PvP - "secret" is keeping Strikers stacks always,which can be hard if playing "normal mode on",basically most of the time you need to go rogue for that aka catch 22 - with good team its not really hard tbf

 

[eclap]

Then the problem is the content. Relaying on a simple "fix" like grinding and level scaling, gets old quickly. It's not about gameplay anymore, it's about the grind (grindplay), a constant run after the next big thing, because there's nothing good other than that. Again, to me, that's no content, it's just lazy development.

It gets frustrating in SP where it becomes a cheap trick to guide the player through the word, giving the impression of a sandbox type of game, where he can go and do whatever, but in reality he can't. Also the suspension of disbelief goes out the window (tens of bullets in guy's empty face?!; pistol bullet doing more damage than a rifle one, etc.) and it can go even against the story itself ( like the The Witcher 3, if you don't mind mentioning another instance where this gets really bad).

In MP was even worse than War Thunder or World of Thanks. You get a bracket for the levels of players and also the items available to the player on the same level vary wildly, with the difference between base and high end stuff, from what I have, is around 2x or greater (if I remember correctly) and I've met players which have much better gear than me, at the same level, which allows them to kill me just based on DPS - no strategy, to tactics, no nothing, just runs towards you and mops the floor in about 1-2 sec. If this happens to the players on the same levels, what happens to those on the lower end? What happens when a squad of those decides "to have fun"? I've met those too, none could stand in their way.

It's adrenaline pumping when you know a single guy can take out your squad even though you have good gear, but you don't pay attention, when you actually have to plan, when you're vulnerable and the enemy is as well. To have him madly shooting at your face while you light your imaginary cigar, pull out a handgun and one shot kill him... that's no fun, that's trolling and really bad game design. They should instead really start to innovate, both in AI terms, but also advanced gameplay loops, beyond pew-pew-pew... pew.

m2c

People will sink hundreds and thousands of hours into TD2, like they did with the original. You can't expect the devs to deliver 1000+ hours of non repetitive content. The gamer is a gear grind and it's made for and appreciated by the people who love a shooter looter.

 

[eclap]

I've never found the PVP very fun in TD1 - I've got most stuff min/maxed and have all the gear for most setups and still find a lot of players who seemingly never die while handing out insane damage - even if I'm running like a 9K striker with near 700K toughness and over 400K DPS straight out the box.

DZ in a group with voice coms (via Discord for the game) was one of the best online experiences I've had in years. Log into Discord, join a group and actually talk to people as you go from landmark to landmark. Then you extract and it's always awkward because you could have just found the one piece you need but you saw some other players around just down the street.

The fact that you don't know what those players' intentions are makes it super tense and makes for some of the best fun I've had in a game this side of year 2000.

 

[JediFragger]

DZ in a group with voice coms (via Discord for the game) was one of the best online experiences I've had in years. Log into Discord, join a group and actually talk to people as you go from landmark to landmark. Then you extract and it's always awkward because you could have just found the one piece you need but you saw some other players around just down the street.

The fact that you don't know what those players' intentions are makes it super tense and makes for some of the best fun I've had in a game this side of year 2000.

That heart starts pounding when you've got something good on the rope and you see other people doesn't it? Especially @Raiden85

Fantastic, love it

 

[eclap]

That heart starts pounding when you've got something good on the rope and you see other people doesn't it? Especially @Raiden85

Fantastic, love it

Yeah, 100%

 

[Calin Banc]

People will sink hundreds and thousands of hours into TD2, like they did with the original. You can't expect the devs to deliver 1000+ hours of non repetitive content. The gamer is a gear grind and it's made for and appreciated by the people who love a shooter looter.

Level based "shooter looter" may be great in SP for those who enjoy that type of endless grind, however with matchmaking in MP is a different thing (problematic in other games as well, like War Thunder for instance). From the top of my head, the difference between items from standard to high end is about 2x within the same level. It's not fun at all to be trolled by players 3-4 levels up, which have the best gear of their levels. Even if all the people in that area were fighting against those 2, there was no win, just a steamroll. Solve this and it may be fun.

DZ in a group with voice coms (via Discord for the game) was one of the best online experiences I've had in years. Log into Discord, join a group and actually talk to people as you go from landmark to landmark. Then you extract and it's always awkward because you could have just found the one piece you need but you saw some other players around just down the street.

The fact that you don't know what those players' intentions are makes it super tense and makes for some of the best fun I've had in a game this side of year 2000.

I played about a week, maybe a bit more during the holidays. Almost all players that were on the same level as me when I've stop with the leveling at 29, attacked either right away or some minutes after, even though I had no loot. The only ones who didn't attacked were lower level players, most likely intimidated by my level nr, nothing more (one time only, 2 level 28 players attacked, but it wasn't a problem to defeat them). There was no tension, it was a given to be attacked if another player saw you just like is in Day Z. Also those top level players with top level loot seem to enjoy trolling and killing everyone exclusively in the low level areas. I was playing days without a single player (no pun intended) in sight on the higher level areas (29 and a bit of the 30th from the DZ). Equipment and AI were around my level there, so it was a somewhat action RPGish pew-pew lovely experience. With the loot I've gathered, I was going north for extraction, because I knew there was no one there to bother me except the AI.

And to be honest, the only real need to cooperate was in the higher end areas for supplies drop where there was a time limit (lol, guns to expire?) and just one guy can't really make it against all the AIs, but... the loot wasn't that spectacular, most of it could be found doing Landmarks and other stuff. So in the end I've got lots of DZ and normal area credits, with nothing good to spend them on...

 

[eclap]

Level based "shooter looter" may be great in SP for those who enjoy that type of endless grind, however with matchmaking in MP is a different thing (problematic in other games as well, like War Thunder for instance). From the top of my head, the difference between items from standard to high end is about 2x within the same level. It's not fun at all to be trolled by players 3-4 levels up, which have the best gear of their levels. Even if all the people in that area were fighting against those 2, there was no win, just a steamroll. Solve this and it may be fun.

What do you mean "level based shooter looter"? BTW, you can stay single player all the way and get BiS gear, I played everything solo, only went MP in DZ.

I played about a week, maybe a bit more during the holidays. Almost all players that were on the same level as me when I've stop with the leveling at 29, attacked either right away or some minutes after, even though I had no loot. The only ones who didn't attacked were lower level players, most likely intimidated by my level nr, nothing more (one time only, 2 level 28 players attacked, but it wasn't a problem to defeat them). There was no tension, it was a given to be attacked if another player saw you just like is in Day Z. Also those top level players with top level loot seem to enjoy trolling and killing everyone exclusively in the low level areas. I was playing days without a single player (no pun intended) in sight on the higher level areas (29 and a bit of the 30th from the DZ). Equipment and AI were around my level there, so it was a somewhat action RPGish pew-pew lovely experience. With the loot I've gathered, I was going north for extraction, because I knew there was no one there to bother me except the AI.

And to be honest, the only real need to cooperate was in the higher end areas for supplies drop where there was a time limit (lol, guns to expire?) and just one guy can't really make it against all the AIs, but... the loot wasn't that spectacular, most of it could be found doing Landmarks and other stuff. So in the end I've got lots of DZ and normal area credits, with nothing good to spend them on...

Your experience is skewed because you hardly played the game. There's no telling how geared someone is in DZ if you just see them on the street. I'm talking WT5 end game play, not while leveling. And you come across a lot of people who will see you and not attack, which on your side makes you wonder what they're after. There's definitely suspense and it's not true that it's a team deathmatch, like you're trying to make it look. Oh, and you probably didn't see anyone in DZ because you were lvl 29, go get lvl 30 and WT5 and go in again.

You definitely want to group up in DZ to give yourself a chance. Going in solo can be a suicide, unless you have BiS gear and are good at the game. Your overall experience is that of a player who was leveling in an old game where everyone is playing something completely different to you. Your experience doesn't reflect what most players do in TD.