Yep:
- Max Gear Score will be 229, so Gear Sets have the same as the highest possible high-end
- High-End items will be more important now, since they are at the same level as Gear Sets
Gaming Tom Clancy's - The Division | Division 2 announced
- Thread starter iSparky
- Start date
INTRODUCING WORLD TIERS
15/09/2016 05:00 PM
Hello Agents,
One of the major aspects of The Division we want to take a closer look at in Update 1.4 is the difficulty scaling of the various activities in the game. It has been one of the most talked about topics in our community and one of the most pressing balancing issues we need to face. In order to get it right, we’ve had to take a step back and do a major overhaul of the current system, instead of just tweaking it here and there. It’s been a huge undertaking, but one we believe to be the correct one and the best for the game, improving several other parts of The Division in the process. After a lot of work on our side, and after long discussions with the Elite Taskforce, we’re ready to share more details about how the new system will work.
THE CURRENT PROBLEMS
1. Time To Kill
As it stands right now, with player power in The Division, the difference between an average character and a well optimized one can increase off the charts. In our internal testing, we found that at level 30 damage fluctuation in certain situations can be as high as +/- 264% between players and damage mitigation can reach +/- 250%, a difference of five times in power. This is only talking about level 30 and 163 Gear Score items, without skill power, talents or stat optimization taken into account - this difference gets much, much bigger in the live game. The gap between the “best” and the “worst” is simply too big, and with the current exponential nature of progression, that gap becomes bigger and bigger with every increase in power level.
Comparing level 30 characters with level 12 characters, for example, show that at level 30 gear mods can increase damage output by 40%, while at level 12 it’s only 6%. In other words, mods at level 30 is 6,5 times more powerful compared to how they were at level 12! Same goes for damage mitigation, which can be up to 7 times more powerful at level 30 compared to how effective it was at level 12. Other sources also contribute to this huge exponential gap, such as skills and attributes.
If we look at enemy levels, at endgame killing a level 35 enemy tends to take two times longer than killing a level 17 would do at level 12, and that’s only considering a “normal” enemy, we’re not even talking about veterans and elites. This turns enemies into “bullet sponges”, where they simply take too long to kill and you waste magazine after magazine of bullets just to take down a few of them. The time to be killed is also incredibly short and if you’re not geared well you risk being one-shotted by these over tuned enemies – level 35 enemies kill you 1,5 - 5 times faster than a level 17 enemy would take to kill a level 12 player. Comparing the two levels is important, as many would agree that the 1-30 game is one of the most – if not the most – satisfying part of The Division right now. That’s the feeling we want to return to even at endgame.
Since the endgame is primarily balanced towards the higher echelons of gear, this creates a situation where much of the content is too difficult for many players to complete. Enemies with a greater level than the players are simply too powerful, take too long to kill and deal way too much damage. At the same time, mods and skills can be overpowered as well, creating an arms race between the player and the NPCs – leaving more casual players in the dust and creating a place where large parts of the game don’t feel fun and rewarding.
2. Difficulty Scaling
The Division simply doesn’t have a granular difficulty right now. There are big jumps between hard, challenging and heroic difficulty and every jump makes the game much, much harder than you might be used to, instead of smoothing you into the higher difficulty levels. It can be incredibly hard for a group and even worse for solo players. There’s also no real coherence to the difficulty levels – challenging Underground, for example, is much harder than a challenge mode mission.
On top of that, some activities scale to the amount of players present while others don’t, something the game is bad at communicating to the player.
3. Rewards
Currently, the gear you need to complete a harder activity drops from the activity itself, which makes it very hard for players to gear up and feel like they are actually progressing. The difficulty versus reward isn’t really where it should be either and often the pure quantity of rewards given to you after a difficult activity is simply underwhelming. With rewards often given after the activity is finished, failure can be extremely frustrating and punishing. At the same time, activities that are not very punishing or difficult tend to give out unsatisfying rewards with low Gear Score.
All in all, this leads to a situation where activities that are not really fun to experience, most of the time provide underwhelming rewards.
In summary, we have identified the following three major issues:
There are of course other issues that impact the core experience, but most of them are consequences of those mentioned above and should be addressed by fixing these three.
- Enemies with a greater level than the player are too powerful after level 30
- The gap between the “worst” and “best” players grows too large at level 30
- Lack of granularity in difficulty, preventing players from acquiring appropriate rewards
So what are we doing about these problems?
THE SOLUTION
1. Gear Score
In order to add more granularity to the difficulty scaling, we need to find a way to measure the player’s power better than we can right now. In order to do that, we’ve decided to tweak the way Gear Score is calculated in order to be able to use it as a basis. We’re introducing clear Gear Score milestones –reaching a point where you’re fully decked out in 163, 182, 204 or 229 gear. 229 will be the highest available Gear Score a player can reach. Gear Sets will now match High-End Gear Score, in other words Gear Sets will now have 163, 182, 204 and 229 Gear Score.
2. Introducing World Tiers
In Update 1.4, you will gain the ability to choose between World Tiers based on your Gear Score:
This selection scales the level of all the enemies in your world – 163 corresponds to level 30, 182 to level 31 and so on. We’ve also rescaled the power of the enemies completely in terms of health and damage to bring a more linear power progression between levels, and removed level 34 and 35 enemies – the highest you will face after this change is level 33 at World Tier 4.
- Tier 1 = 0 to 163
- Tier 2 = 164-182
- Tier 3 = 183-204
- Tier 4 = 205-229
All activities scale with the World Tier you have selected: you will be able to mix missions, Open World, HVTs, Underground, Incursions and Dark Zone in order to receive rewards that improves your Gear Score. On your way to the various activities, you will run into suitably challenging enemies in the Open World that will also provide meaningful rewards. Enemies and named bosses in the Open World will now respawn on a regular basis, making roaming around Manhattan viable again! A pack of enemies won’t just be a distraction standing in your way to a HVT – it will actually be a source of possible useful loot.
Just as before, you are able to select the difficulty of your activity from normal to challenging (Heroic difficulty is saved for Incursions). This does not change the actual World Tier, which still defines the enemy level. Difficulty will only impact the roles of the enemies in the activity.
Challenging difficulty will now also scale according to group size and will therefore become beatable by solo players and smaller groups. Incursions will be the only content always scaled for 4 players groups.
- Normal = Mostly normal enemies
- Hard = Normal enemies become Veteran, Veterans become Elite
- Challenging = All enemies are Elite, and changes of fire teams and enemy archetypes
Continued:
- The Division Dev Team
http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.co....aspx?c=tcm:154-267742-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32
- The Division Dev Team
http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.co....aspx?c=tcm:154-267742-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32
Sounds really good changes - they really do seem to be addressing the key issues players have - and certainly the issues I personally have with the game in its current state.
I have always said that I really like the core game - but that it falls apart above level 30 and turns into a hunt for better gear that is totally dependent on RNG - with the vast majority of what you find being of zero use.
These updates seem as though it will bring the fun back into the game - really looking forward to it!
I have always said that I really like the core game - but that it falls apart above level 30 and turns into a hunt for better gear that is totally dependent on RNG - with the vast majority of what you find being of zero use.
These updates seem as though it will bring the fun back into the game - really looking forward to it!
Was a great game, but had so much more to offer but it just didn't deliver.
It was also frustrating that to have a good chance in this game, you really had to play with a group of friends....None of my friends played it
It was also frustrating that to have a good chance in this game, you really had to play with a group of friends....None of my friends played it
World tier is fantastic, doesn't matter what level you do, Normal - Horoic you will still get 229 gear (Teir 4)
Being able to replay any mission and know you will ONLY get 229 weapons and gear is huge. Especially since you will be able to share that amongst your team as well. Will hopefully make it much more rewarding, and much easier to find the pieces you are looking for.
So if you complete a challenging mission in Tier world 4, then you will get 4x229 items.
Also the fact that challenging missions etc now scale to number of players means there is more scope for solo players. That and the fact that all NPCs can drop loot - even those in the open world.
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The 1 and only change I don't like is no heroic Underground, only incursion have the option for heroic & I can't remember the last time I've done an incursion
Some big changes, Sentry Call is now 5% damage bonus for 30 sec each can get up to 3 marks, Blind and Reclaimer 4th bonus is unknown ATM, at L30 you get an XP box, each time it fills up you get a loot box, like when you level up in Underground
http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.co....aspx?c=tcm:154-268296-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32
http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.co....aspx?c=tcm:154-268296-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32
They're basically re-balancing everything.
All that they have said sounds good - they want the game ot get back to how it felt when going from levels 1-29 - and am all for that.
Really looking forward to these changes!
Also you need to keep your gear on for ammo and med kits,
For example you have 1200 ammo put on 2 loan star for 2400, then if you take off loan star your ammo goes back to 1200. Which makes the police backpack useless
@Damien can you add me back to group chat, accidentally left. Was trying to get my mic to work
@swooshboy @Levo are you two up for doing some HVT later
@swooshboy @Levo are you two up for doing some HVT later
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Picked it up earlier for £15...not sure when I'll get a chance to play it though.
Yeah I'm up for it Lucas.
Yep will be on later
Possibly but I won't be on until late.
Not sure - feel like I'm losing my will to play this game.
It seems that Massive have adjusted the loot drops in the PTS for 1.4. People are complaining now that loot drops are both less frequent, and much more purple items being dropped, instead of HE items. Also, the chest at the end of an UG mission no longer guarantees a HE item - you can get purples there as well. Apparently it was "too rewarding" before...
If they improve the quantity and quality of loot, then I am happy to play. If it is going to revert to a RNG grind, then not really interested anymore.
So any items you get now will have their stats re-rolled once 1.4 drops - so even this feels like a timewaste.
It seems that Massive have adjusted the loot drops in the PTS for 1.4. People are complaining now that loot drops are both less frequent, and much more purple items being dropped, instead of HE items. Also, the chest at the end of an UG mission no longer guarantees a HE item - you can get purples there as well. Apparently it was "too rewarding" before...
If they improve the quantity and quality of loot, then I am happy to play. If it is going to revert to a RNG grind, then not really interested anymore.
So any items you get now will have their stats re-rolled once 1.4 drops - so even this feels like a timewaste.
Thought they be modified as some stats won't be in the game, like scavenging so if you get a chest piece with max Stamina and Armor it will be scaled to 1.4 keeping Stamina and Armor at max also adding the 148 Firearms and Electronics.
Also Named weapons will be in all worlds so a chance of a 229 Caduceus (said it will be modified, so how great it will be is anyone guess)
The whole 1.4 stuff sounds good. Though knowing this game, they will mess it up anyway. Either back to hardly any loot dropping, or just creating more glitches. This patch though, I feel that it is to little to late for the game now. The majority of players like myself ended up getting fed up with the end game and moving on to other things. And it is unlikely that most of these players will actually come back, particularly as we will have to purchase DLC and such if we want to start playing again
1.4 will be released on Tuesday
I'm up for it.
Are there many still playing? Just picked it up again after a few months away and really enjoying the new Underground stuff.
Not done any HVT stuff. Just a few of the Intel missions. Never tried any of the Incursions, barring the first one, either.
Not done any HVT stuff. Just a few of the Intel missions. Never tried any of the Incursions, barring the first one, either.
I'm still about, as is Lucas an swoosh.
Has the 1.4 patch improved stuff? I was playing this for months but since Destiny and Battlefield has come back I haven't touched it.
I assume the shotgun 1 shotters have died down? that's what really killed the game for me.
I assume the shotgun 1 shotters have died down? that's what really killed the game for me.
Cool. Send me an invite, if you're on.
Where's do I get blueprints from now? Just checked a couple of the DZ vendors and it seems they're not selling any.
It has massively improved things. The weapons have been balanced - it seems as though most are now viable, so there are no must have weapons.
The biggest changes for me have been making the enemies less like bullet-sponges - your bullets do more damage now so it is quicker / easier to kill them, and then improving the loot drops. The open world now has named enemies roaming around and the loot they drop is related to the world level you are in. If you set the world level to 4, then the enemies are level 33 and they drop 229 rated items. It used to be that, outside of the DZ, you had to do missions etc on Challenging to get level 229 items. They also featured level 34 and level 35 enemies that took an age to kill. Those two level of enemies have been removed, so 33 is the highest. Also the 268 gear set level has been removed - so 229 is the highest level of item.
So it is now much easier to get the highest rated gear, and more enjoyable to actually play as your weapons cause more damage. I haven't tried any missions etc since the update - have just been going round the city taking out the named bosses! Much more fun and much more rewarding than it has ever been.
Will be on over the weekend evenings so would be good to get a few on together. I assume we could share any loot that we get from the named bosses - so would be even easier to get the items people may need.
You can get blueprints from one of the vendors in the HUB - to be honest with the increased drop rate of level 229 items, you might not even need to worry about blueprints.
Like the sound of that. Will be getting back into it soon once I am bored of battlefield/destiny.
You on PS4 or Xbox? As PS4 users will have to wait 30 days after Xbox and PC players for Survival still get the 1.5 update at the same time
The update sounds interesting. To little too late though maybe. I've not touched this in about 4 months.
I was only thinking about this game last night.
If I'm honest, this is a game that I actually really miss. It got a lot right. The map was great, it had a bit of an eery feel to it. Levelling was spot on, trying a mission a few levels above recommendation was difficult.
Without realising, I racked up so many hours on this game. I just loved jumping in the DZ whether on my own or with @Mr Anderson. What sort of lost me was the heavy reliability to play with people in teams. I'm not really one to talk on mics to people I don't know, and my friends either didn't get this game or gave up on it early.
I'd definitely give a Division 2 a go if it was made, but it needs to offer more. Collecting all that loot was almost pointless. It needed game modes. 6vs6 TDM, or some sort of hostage rescue mission. The DZ map had a lot of potential to have some fun aspects that you could just jump into.
I was only thinking about this game last night.
If I'm honest, this is a game that I actually really miss. It got a lot right. The map was great, it had a bit of an eery feel to it. Levelling was spot on, trying a mission a few levels above recommendation was difficult.
Without realising, I racked up so many hours on this game. I just loved jumping in the DZ whether on my own or with @Mr Anderson. What sort of lost me was the heavy reliability to play with people in teams. I'm not really one to talk on mics to people I don't know, and my friends either didn't get this game or gave up on it early.
I'd definitely give a Division 2 a go if it was made, but it needs to offer more. Collecting all that loot was almost pointless. It needed game modes. 6vs6 TDM, or some sort of hostage rescue mission. The DZ map had a lot of potential to have some fun aspects that you could just jump into.
I agree it needs some more game modes.
The open world is now actually rewarding - the fact that all loot dropped is 229 in world 4 (plus the enemies are level 33) means that it has hit the right balance. It is no longer frustrating to get decent gear. The enemies are no longer bullet sponges. They are a bit more aggressive - which is actually welcome. But it means that you actually feel powerful and able to inflict damage - which is what I want.
I am surprised they have said for the 1.5 update they are adding a new world tear, a higher gear score and level 34 enemies. If they get this wrong, then all the good they have done with 1.4 will be in vain.
But I would rather they added new game modes and things to do, rather than just adding better gear, so that you have to work towards the best sets yet again.
Patch 1.5 confirmed for tomorrow for PS4:
http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.co...6/the-division-update-15-survival-patch-notes
For those who haven't played recently - patch 1.4 really got the game back on track - is so much more enjoyable afterwards. Looking forward to the new patch
http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.co...6/the-division-update-15-survival-patch-notes
For those who haven't played recently - patch 1.4 really got the game back on track - is so much more enjoyable afterwards. Looking forward to the new patch
Been trying to get Barrett’s chestpeace but no luck so far
Survival is actually quite fun. Feels like a new game.
Am liking the update - was worried that with the higher level enemies they would be moving back to how things were in 1.3 - but thankfully they didn't. You can comfortably take down the enemies in Tier 5 with all 229 gear and weapons and they all drop 256 gear, so easy to get items. Obviously still dependent on RNG to get the items you want, but in 1.3 it was RNG to get the item you wanted, and then RNG to determine the gear score of it. Now you know that all drops are the highest level gear / mods.
Have just been going through the LZ killing the bosses. Would be good to do that with a few others so we could share loot - more chance of getting what you are after that way.
Haven't tried Lexington yet for Barrett's chestpiece - that seams like one of the better items so might give that a go this eve.
Have just been going through the LZ killing the bosses. Would be good to do that with a few others so we could share loot - more chance of getting what you are after that way.
Haven't tried Lexington yet for Barrett's chestpiece - that seams like one of the better items so might give that a go this eve.
Probably not on tonight because of the game but I'll be on tomorrow, up for a good session.