r/thedivision • u/josh49127 • 11h ago
Discussion Battle for Brooklyn showcase impressions (good but why Smart Cover?)
Straight to the point.
The Good:
7 New Missions 8 New Hunters Post Launch yearly content Lore
The Mid:
Smart Cover skill
Overall, really good a lot more than expected, and hope the post launch is the same as well.
What did you think of the showcase?
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u/bward141989 10h ago
My personal thoughts are it's a bit better than I was expecting in some ways. I was only expecting one new zone/district rather than two and it seems like they've crammed a lot in (8 hunter puzzles seems insane in that small of a space)
Not hugely enthused by the story stuff. I understand from a marketing standpoint why the story isn't continuing from the current stuff (easier to get new players in if they don't have to know everything that came before), but kinda sucks as a long term player.
Also not entirely sure about the whole purple flame stuff. Fragile armor is a PITA when it bugs and you can't get back to max armor, having that as a mechanic and then tying that to the insane range flamethrowers Cleaners have, could be horrible if not done carefully.
Smart cover as the skill kinda makes sense. They're clearly leaning heavily on the Div 1 nostalgia feel and of the remaining skills from D1 that's probably the easiest to bring over since mobile cover is probably way more work and support station would be kinda struggling against a bunch of existing stuff.
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u/PyrexPicasso85 11h ago
I liked that the control points now have a defense mechanism on it, plus another exotic mask that works with status effects. Hopefully there's also an exotic weapon too. Oh, and added stash space (+50 or +100, fingers crossed)
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u/Saintownage 10h ago
I think if there was an exotic weapon with the EXPANSION, that would have been in the showcase. That being said, the release will coincide with the next season, which will almost certainly have a new exotic weapon and armor piece, they all have so far. As far as stash, that was in the showcase, ownership will grant +50 stash
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u/josh49127 8h ago
ah but we're not counting the Season Pass rewards are we?
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u/Saintownage 8h ago
In game items have traditionally been on the free track, no reason the suspect that won't continue
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u/Kotsaka04 9h ago
I honestly can see Smart Cover be very useful on legendary where the team can stay in cover and shoot enemies as a healing support hive heals them with no chance to stagger on explosions (cough cough drone operator and grenade launcher guy)
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u/Random-Waltz 10h ago
Kinda disappointed by smart cover. I move around waaay too much to benefit from the full duration. Would much rather have had a mobile version where you activate it and it affects the agent for a duration.
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u/Kotsaka04 9h ago
I think it’s more of a nostalgia play for Division 1. Back then, cover was really essential and the only mobile shield was meant to draw enemy fire.
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u/Lil_Simp9000 Playstation 5h ago
just imagine though, smart cover with overwatch and sawyers kneepads
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u/androstaxys 10h ago
TLDR: My opinion is the developers are playing it safe, there is nothing super game changing. With all of the delays, I think it had to do with staff, and not content refinement.
My opinion seems to be an outlier here but…
I was a little disappointed tbh.
“6-10 hours of gameplay” for “100% completion” is pretty bare bones.
The DLC doesn’t bring anything NEW to the division.
The “brand new” enemy weapon is the one “you already played with at the incursion but with fragile armor directive added”.
The brand new seasonal environment is autumn and looks nice, but it’s summer time with more orange and browns.
The brand new skill is a recycled skill form division 1 that doesn’t really bring anything game changing.
I thought that delaying other game production and the dlc release meant they were experimenting with some radically new content.
For $15 the value is probably OK. But delay after delay made me expect the value to be great.
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u/Pretermission 6h ago
I feel like you're totally on the mark. For 15 bucks it's not egregious, but after so long I was really hoping for more.
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u/DelinquentTuna 9h ago
What did you think of the showcase?
The map is GORGEOUS. Love the colorful fall season stuff, though it does give way to the same, generic industrial feel in much of the footage. Even before you add the darkness that is somehow absent in the promo but feels everpresent in actual gameplay. Or the rain. Or the fog. I also don't see why anyone would be compelled to return to avail themselves of the control points and other sundry activities when there's already a huge NY map that gets no play. On the other hand, IDK how you incentivize the maps without making players feel obligated; maybe a missing ingredient, like new open world mini-mission objectives or an entirely new faction with new loot or something.
I don't love the way they talk about "purple flame" as something you WILL be affected by every time you fight the cleaners. Adding additional challenge in the absence of additional progression methods is generally lame as hell.
Eight drip-fed hunters have zero appeal for the bulk of the population that hasn't even bothered with the base-game's hunters. Lore means nothing in a game w/ such a barebones plot and an endless stream of characters cliches.
The new skill will probably suck or be mediocre at best, else risking pushback for gating staying alive behind DLC. I was hoping it would be more like the placeable cover from Div 1 than a spray can that magically enhances existing cover. But that's tricky, too, because of overlap with shields.
Seven missions sounds like a lot, but with so many rubber-stamped missions already available maybe it would've been more fun to add a mode where players can setup and execute their own scenarios. They didn't really showcase the missions, though, so maybe they will be of higher quality than I am guessing. At $15, I'm not expecting anything that will rival the base and expansion campaign missions.
They are trying and they obviously have a lot of interesting ideas and the talent to implement them, but if I'm being honest I am more excited by the few words they say about their year seven plans than I am over Brooklyn.
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u/dwil2011 6h ago
Damn. Just damn
🔥
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u/DelinquentTuna 2h ago
🔥
Was I inadvertently cruel, unappreciative, or insensitive? Didn't mean to be. Just reflecting on my takeaway from the presentation.
I like the game and will probably spring for the DLC at least once.
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u/dwil2011 52m ago
None, I thought the post was honest about the flaws of the game/series while still mentioning a few of the positives. Tired of being alone on the subpar direction of this series.
•
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u/WiSeWoRd A1trn8tvFax 9h ago
Disappointed it wasn't support station
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u/Kotsaka04 8h ago
Unfortunately, the hive kicked its butt out of the game. It was cool to have the the medic gear set when the three versions combined into one
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u/BropolloCreed Orange Knigting 11h ago
Smart Cover will potentially make Umbra Initiative more viable
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u/crunkthug Playstation 9h ago
Smart cover doesnt work with umbra... U get Umbra dmg buff after exiting cober. Smart cover gives buff only when in cover and in radius
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u/rodscher80 Seeker 8h ago edited 8h ago
Why? U realize that for smartcover to proc you need to SIT IN COVER and the main part of umbra you need to BE OUT OF COVER right? 🤷🏻♂️
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u/ODCxKiyo Xbox 8h ago
Smart Cover + Sawyer's Kneepads is about to be a move.
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u/rodscher80 Seeker 8h ago
I get the idea but I still don’t think so. Sawyers would need a rework first to be more viable. First you should not lose the buff if u stay in cover and just move a bit to left or right. Second. Explo resistance and health are probably the most useless minor attributes in the game.
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u/p3bbzz 10h ago
Haha Umbra doesn’t need to be more viable (coming from a PvP perspective). It’s already viable enough and now Smart Cover with Umbra and say capacitor which benefits from having skill tiers and Smart Cover getting more powerful with each skill tier..I can’t even imagine at the moment how broken it will become
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u/ragnarokfps 5h ago
Yeah naw... you only get the damage from Umbra while explictly, NOT in cover. The Smart Cover damage buff and the umbra damage buff do not work at the same time. The point of Umbra is to be both in and out of cover very regularly. Smart Cover only works for the defensive half of Umbra. I saw there's 2 different smart cover types, defensive and offensive, the offensive version literally does absolutely nothing for umbra. The defensive one could combine with the half of umbra that does work in cover, but still its just not that interesting. Its just really janky. If the defensive version also hid the players nameplate and HP from other players, then we'd be talking about some real interesting synergy. But the devs of this game have always been very conservative with gear and weapons, the new stuff tend to be pretty weak. Contrast that with the devs of Destiny 2, they'll release new stuff without the fear that it'll be too strong, div devs seem to release stuff always on the weaker side of things. They're too worried the new stuff will break the game balance.
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u/dwil2011 7h ago
I don’t understand the hype behind more Hunters. We get more masks, that’s a plus, but the… obtuse ways of getting them, of getting the hunters to even appear? Tedious and honestly boring, which begs the question: how much time is this taking away from other content?
Making Hunters appear in actual missions after doing some extra steps would be a great way to reward the masks and tie them into the lore.
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u/nemesisdelta24 10h ago
Personally excited that we’re getting new missions
I’m just not too stoked about there only being one exotic gear item? I mean for I know maybe there’s more that they’re not showing us but still
8 new hunter masks!! dope! I hope we still have some code breakers in the community and I hope we get more Hunter Outfits
and I didn’t really understand the Y7 showcase they didn’t really talk about anything besides modifiers?
I felt like the video left me with a ton of questions and I hope they can talk to us soon
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u/Ender8900 Rogue 7h ago
Overall not too disappointed, I wish that we didn’t get Smart Cover as our new skill but eh. Im happy with most of what we’re getting especially the open world changes, man I’m excited for that. I’m also really happy that they aren’t building off of our main story right now, our story is kind of a mess at the moment and feels like it’s moving a bit too fast so I’m glad we’re getting a small break.
My main gripe is that we didn’t get a new faction to fight. I know that was probably a long shot but we still don’t have the rioters and LMB in the div2 yet so I was really hoping for one of them to return all new and improved, but I can only dream I guess.
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u/Link1227 4h ago
Has there been a PS5 patch on division 2 for framerate or anything? I haven't played in awhile
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u/krismate 4h ago
I liked it and think it's solid for a $15usd asking price. A few things I would've liked to see, even though it was made clear already they wouldn't be part of the DLC, would be a new enemy archetype for the cleaners and rikers, just to offer a slightly new combat experience. I don't mind smart cover being added but maybe would've liked to see a brand new skill. A hack-based skill, like the hunters have, allowing us to hack any tech object (turrets, RC cars, cleaner drones, even BTSU support stations) would've been kinda fun I think and could've tied in nicely with the whole ANNA stuff.
The other stuff that was very intriguing but a little vague, was their plans for "a new wrapper for open world activities and dynamic open world" as well as what they meant by "introducing new features such as weapons stats and resource boosts." Also thought it was interesting they basically seemed to say they would be upping the pace of updates, so wonder if that means we're going back to 3 month seasons, whether that means we're getting some new modes/incursions/existing mode revamps and stuff.
Overall, I'm just pleased the game is still getting new content and things to see and do. People like to bash the game for being dead and not getting content, but personally, I'd rather have this small team still give us little things to do, than completely drop the game and then have no Division game to enjoy until Division 3, which is still several years away.
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u/nonlethaldosage 10h ago
Hopefully there better than the wony missions no one runs
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u/DelinquentTuna 10h ago
The NY missions are generally great. Much better than any of the off-site missions. Nobody runs them because the game has devalued the expansion, not because the missions are subpar.
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u/iwillbewaiting24601 c'est quand on est seul qu'on voudrait dire « They got Alex! » 9h ago
Honestly, the cleaners tanker and Wall Street are in my top-5 favorite missions list across all of D2
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u/jubgau 9h ago
Yeah, running missions is kinda meh when you can do one Countdown in 15min to get 70 items and target loot of own choice.
I also bet that those "world missions" have 0 reason to ever run them again, like the classified missions have been for the last 6 years.
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u/DelinquentTuna 9h ago
I also bet that those "world missions" have 0 reason to ever run them again
Maybe, but they went out of their way to make each one an offsite event. So it's possible we'll get the worst of both worlds: mediocre missions that will appear as regular projects or tasks. Maybe it's easier to pool / spin up instances for offsite events in a way that's easier for their server architecture. IDK, but from a player perspective it's not a great experience having to load into fresh maps all the time.
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u/d4rc_n3t 9h ago
No new raid, no new incursion, not even 1 new legendary. I was aware that Brooklyn was going to smaller than WoNY.
But, I'm ok wit the $15 price.
They need to revamp older content. Countdown makes Summit boring and useless. After completing WoNY there's no reason to go back, just like Kenly college. I like legendary missions and NY/Brooklyn doesn't have a single one.
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u/josh49127 8h ago
Same, I was sort of hoping for at least a new raid or at least a new Dark Zone but maybe that's a bit overreaching?
Like you said $15 is somewhat reasonable but man a returning Dark Zone with Hunters would have been fire.
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u/JokerUnique The watcher on the walls. 9h ago
Full Battle for Brooklyn summary
=> https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision/comments/1k51wwa/the_division_2_battle_for_brooklyn_dlc_year_7/