The Division 2 General Discussion

Two weeks and you can be reunited once again

 

Reposting to drop it in on a new page

Alright folks, I'm going to forewarn you that this will be a wall of text, but this is a post I've been meaning to make for a week or two. My hope is to illustrate that Division 2 looks to have learned much from their three years with the first game, and I think it really shows in their initial offerings at launch (as well as their 2019 roadmap).

With the Open beta underway, and launch being about 2 weeks out at this point, I want to take some time to highlight some of the features of the game and why I am excited for this. I think that, if the gameplay of a 3rd person looter-shooter appeals to you, this game has something to offer- not in three months...not in a two years- at launch.

Here are some of the confirmed features available at launch:

PvE offering​

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• The story campaign is estimated to around 40 hours of gameplay of cavorting around a ravaged DC wasteland
  
• For those that don't know already, the map is built on a 1:1 scale of central DC and is about 20% larger than the original
  
• A 50-person clan system that uses a clan contribution system to offer players bonus gear and customization options
  
• The open world features things like:
  • Settlements to be upgraded and expanded with resource gathering missions, bounties, and optional quests
  • Spontaneous events such as supply drops that can be raided, public executions to disrupt, and propaganda broadcasts
  • Enemy control points that can both be captured by your forces and reclaimed by enemy forces
  • Multiple enemy factions with unique mechanics (drug-induced overhealing, medics that revive killed combatants, suicide bombers that charge you to give you a hug with a c4 vest among them)
• Crafting and mod mechanics
  • Weapons and armor can be crafted with materials scrounged in the open world
  • Weapons can be tailored to fit your playstyle with various equipment swaps such as different sights (with different zoom ranges), barrels and muzzles, handrests, and magazines. Each part will impact some aspect of the gun's performance such as accuracy, clip size, stability while firing, accuracy, fire rate, etc

End game PvE:​

• A fourth faction enters the game with different mechanics, tactics, and heavier firepower (for example they have literal drone tanks) and will:
  • Occupy missions and one of the three dark zones
  • Set up mobile command centers randomly that can cut off settlements and fast travel to parts of the map
  • Attempt to usurp territorial control of other factions
• World Tiers
  • Returning from Division 1- world tiers come into play once you hit max level. At that point rather than looking at an item's level you'll look at Gear score. World Tiers can be raised t0 increase both the gear score of dropped loot in the world and improve the drop chances of higher tier loot but result in higher level enemies.
• Occupied missions
  • Missions invaded by the black tusk with altered objectives and encounters from the nonoccupied version
• Daily mission and combat bounties
  • While not confirmed yet, I anticipate this will mirror Division 1 and also include weekly bounties in a variety of areas
• Enemy faction strongholds
• Specialization trees:
  • Three offered at launch: Demolitionist (explosions), Survivalist (status damage and healing), Sharpshooter (sniper)
  • Each specialization will offer a skill tree that unlocks unique:
    • grenade type, gear mods, weapon perks, skill variants, team buffs, self-heal variant perks, signature ammo for you and for the party, and a specialization weapon

PvP offerings:

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• Majority of PvP will occur in a normalized environment- meaning your item levels, base health, armor, and weapon damage will be the same regardless of your level or the item's level.
  • The exception to this is one of the three Dark Zones each week being "occupied" by the black tusk. More on that shortly.
• Options between standard 4v4 player combat happening in Conflict mode (think similar to an arena with king of the hill/capture mechanics) and the iconic PvPvE Dark Zone experience
• Dark Zone
  • In the Dark Zone you kill high-level NPC enemies for the chance to get "contaminated loot," which generally is of higher quality than other gear in its same tier, and must be extracted by signaling a chopper to come pick it up. If you die, your contaminated loot drops on the ground and can be claimed by another player.
    
  • While all players start as allied one of the core mechanics of the Dark Zone is that players can self-elect to "go rogue" and kill other players for their contaminated loot. I've always found it to introduce this really cool dynamic where you aren't quite sure of who you can trust. Standoffs happen as people stare each other down at the extraction and you always worry whether or not that player that's nearby will give into temptation and pounce on you when your health gets a little too low after a battle with a boss.
  • Three Dark zones:
    • Each is built to cater to a different combat style- CQC, mid-range, or long range combat
    • Two of the three Dark Zones will have normalized gear and levels in place each week, but a third will be "occupied"
    • The Occupied Dark Zone will feature higher level enemies, and better loot but feature some differences such as:
      • No player nameplates at any range
      • Friendly fire on at all times
      • Non-normalization of gear and levels

2019 Roadmap:​

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This is a tricky one for me. I did enjoy the first game and it looks like i would enjoy this aswell. However there are alot of other interesting games getting released around it, so i'm not sure i have the time to fit it in. If it's something we start playing during our run and gun nights then yeah, i will most likely pick it up. Otherwise it's only a maybe, atleast not at release but i would potentially pick it up later.

 

Pulled the trigger as well. Between the open and closed beta I got 30 hours of playtime out of it. When the fucking betas are fleshed out and fun enough that I can do that, I have no doubt I will have a blast with this. Even though I literally repeated the same couple of missions in the open beta as I did in closed, I still enjoyed the hell out of it and can't wait to do it again and actually get more into it.

 

Launch is around the corner, and I am excited. I'm on most nights at my normal hours (8 or 9 pst until between midnight and 1 am) playing Division atm. If you want to go Shield hunting I am happy to help.

 

Preloading is up

 

Very befitting.

 

More Endgame content was discussed in the most recent devstream. Here's a synthesis



I am pretty stoked

 

hm now I kinda wish I'd tried the beta

 

I get the sense that at least a handful of us will be playing to offer some impressions, but there is plenty of youtube gameplay up if you want to get a feel for it.

Between the two betas I am sure I will have a blast with the game, and it looks pretty fleshed out for launch. Truth be told, I think this could be fun for us as a group.

 

Character creation is a dramatic improvement this time around: