Special Report for Update 1.2: Conflict
This is the Special Report for the 1.2 Conflict update that will be released on May 24th.
The main topics were of course – as touched in the last three State of the Game streams - the new Incursion Clear Sky, the new loot system, the Dark Zone changes and of course the new PVE activities. These are the notes from the stream categorized in the different topics:
Incursion
Lead level designer Magnus Jonsson introduced the new incursion
What is Clear Sky all about:
In Columbus Circle, Rikers have seized one of the anti-aircraft sites abandoned by the Last Man Battalion. Now, they control the entire Manhattan airspace, and are taking possession of the supply drops. It is now your job, to neutralize this new threat and get these weapons back under the control of The Division.
Features and facts from Clear Sky:
•It is outside and can have different weather (big difference from Falcon Lost)
•It appears to be a more a classic mission
•The weather is toned down, so you won´t get the worst weather like blizzard, where you can only see a few meters.
•The weather is random, so you can´t choose that.
•The main enemy is the Rikers, so it is a more nightmarish encounter than with the LMBs
•Gear Score recommendation for hard is 160
•There is an open street at the beginning, you need to recover explosives from mobs and blast your way into Columbus Circle
•You need to be more mobile than Falcon Lost, you can´t camp out in a pit
•The way to Columbus Circle is a DPS check, that gives you an impression, if you can handle the rest
•There is a checkpoint once you have reached Columbus Circle.
•Clear Sky supports the different roles – more tank, distance DPS and healers.
•The map is almost a replica of the real thing
•You can pickup Med-Packs from the Restock Crate at the checkpoint, so you don´t have to attempt the second part of the mission with only 2 Med-Packs after you died.
•Challenge mode will come out one week after 1.2 is deployed (exact dates will be revealed)
New open-world activities
Search and Destroy missions
•Search and Destroy (S&D) missions can be accepted from the Situation Board in the different Safe Houses.
•You can only accept S&D missions, once you have cleared all Encounters and Sidemissions of a District.
•There is an exclamation point next to the Save House, when new missions are available
•S&D missions are random events that spawn on the map and your mission is to kill a group of mobs.
•Each time you clear the S&D missions, you get an Intel Token. When you have cleared every mission of a District, you get additional two Intel Tokens.
High Value Target Missions
•In the Base of Operations there are 2 new NPCs, where you can accept daily and weekly High Value Target Missions. Dailies are cheap 5 – 15 Intel Tokens, weeklies are more expensive and can cost up to 60 Intel Tokens
•There are 6 daily and 4 weekly High Value Target missions
•High Value Target missions have a timer on them that starts as soon as you accept the mission.
•Normal High Value Target missions can be done as many times as it takes to complete them, High Risk Missions can only be attempted once.
•The most difficult High Value Target missions have up to level 32 NPCs
•High Value Target missions have different difficulties and the highest difficulty can drop 240 gear items
You can read the full explanation about these missions in the new Intelligence Annex #10: Spice it up
Balancing / Changes
•They want to move away from the crafting to be the best source of loot – in-game activities should be the primary source of loot
•There should be multiple sources to get the best loot
•1.2 will be more generous, better loot and it will have a clear progression
•Nomad Set will still be designated to the Dark Zone, but it can also drop in other activities
•No weapon balancing, but there will be changes to the combat mechanics
•Talents will be changed (for example Brutal and Balanced) and with the new gear sets, they will buff other weapons that are not really popular right now (LMG / Shotgun / Assault Rifle)
•Sentry´s Call will be changed, so that the debuff-mark can only be applied with semi-automatic weapons. That should make it a more of a support / sniper set
•The armor cap is increased to 75% Damage Mitigation. That should give the players more survivability against the most dangerous enemies
Loot
•New loot System - read the full explanation here
•There are new level 32 weapon mods
Dark Zone
•New Dark Zone 200+ gear score bracket
•200+ should separate the low geared players from the maxed out and min/maxed players
•200+ Bracket enemies will go from 32 up to level 34
•200+ Will have only High End Division Tech
•Supply Drops will give you high ends items and they can also drop one of the 8 gear sets
•A Stash was added to each Checkpoint
Hijack Extractions
•It made no sense that you can just attach the loot to the cable and then run away
•After 1.2 the loot is no longer safe once it is attached to the cable
•You have to protect the loot as long as the helicopter has not departed
•The items will drop when the rope is cut and can be picked up from everybody
•Once the rope is cut, the extraction is canceled and you have to call a new one
•The items will not drop in one big pile it will be scattered all over the extraction area (lootsplosion)
•When a player tries to cut the rope, they will go Rogue immediately, so you won´t be punished when you protect your loot.
•The cutting of the rope takes longer when the player is hit by bullets and with constant damage, the player won´t be able to cut the rope.
•They will keep track on the feedback about this new feature, because in the end, a game should be fun.
Sealed Caches
Image
•Can drop from all NPC in different rarities
•Only Named NPCs will drop High End Sealed Caches
•They contain High End Division Tech / Dark Zone Funds / Gear Items / Weapons and Mods
•They need to be extracted
•You won´t know the exact content until you have extracted and opened them
New Gear Sets
•The New Gear Set are and play different
•The should not just improve your stats, but they should change they way you play
Final Measure is a new defensive set.
•2) 50% Exotic Damage Resilience
•3) 15% Protection from Elites
•4) When you you damage a player or an NPC with a grenade, you get a defuse buff, that allows you to defuse enemy grenades. When you defuse an enemy grenade it also gives you a grenade. (Also works with mortars in Falcon Lost)
Hunter’s Faith is a new long range set.
•2) 20% Marksmen Rifle critical hit damage
•3) 20% Damage to elite
•4) Every time you land a shot depending on the distance to the target, it will give you Damage Resistance against enemy weapon damage – you can go above 75% Damage Mitigation. The additional armor disappears after one bullet hits you.
Predator’s Mark new support set.
•2) 20% Optimal Range
•3) 800 Assault Rifle Damage
•3) 700 Pistol Damage
•4) Every time you hit 10 Bullets without switching the target, will apply bleed to the target. The bleed damage will be 100% of the damage already done by the bullets.
Lone Star is a DPS (damage per second) gear set.
•2) 100% Ammo Capacity
•3) 1000 LMG Damage
•3) 1000 Shotgun Damage
•4) Every time you holster a weapon it will automatically be reloaded
Screenshots
Patch Notes and release time
•Patch notes will be released on Monday
•Conflict will be deployed in the 3 hour maintenance on may 24th starting at 9:01 CEST / 00:01am PDT / 03:01am EDT.
1.2 Preparations
•Clear all Encounters and Sidemissions in the Districts, so you can access the Search and Destroy missions when 1.2 is released.
without rogues it would get boring.
) lol