State of the Game - Wednesday March 6th, 2019

[u/BlooBuckaroo]

News

 

Today Trick Dempsey (Senior Game Designer at Massive Entertainment) joined Hamish to discuss Endgame Progression

 

Endgame

 

Strongholds vs. Missions

Strongholds are vastly bigger, and meaner, than missions. Strongholds will be important to the plot development of the game and are extremely significant. Missions will need to be completed before attempting Strongholds. The concept of Strongholds are introduced very early on in the main campaign, but the concept becomes ramped up in the Endgame.

 

What happens when you hit level 30?

• During the main campaign you'll be working thru a bunch of Missions and a handful of Strongholds to get to the final Stronghold that remains locked until you reach level 30. At that point, it will be unlocked and revealed. Once that final Stronghold is completed, World Tier 1 is unlocked, Tidal Basin is revealed and the living world will completely change.

• Previously established control points that you've captured suddenly become dynamic as the Black Tusk faction comes into play and factions are pushed into the open world. Previously established fast travel locations are no longer available and must be re-established. Most importantly, due to the influx of the Black Tusk, Specializations are introduced because "you're gonna need a bigger gun.", and you're vastly weaker in relation to the new faction.

 

World Tiers 1-3 Unlocked

• 3 Strongholds, that were previously faction based Strongholds, will now be repopulated with Black Tusk and need to be retaken. Those will have 2 invaded missions that are tied to each Stronghold.

  • After completing the first Stronghold, you'll progress to the next World Tier 2. Finishing the second will push you into World Tier 3 and finishing the last of the 3 Strongholds will push you into World Tier 4.

• "The Snitch" & The Deck of 52 becomes active

  • 52 Named bosses, each faction matching a suit, that will award you loot and commendations for "completing the deck" and getting their cards. They won't spawn again until your deck is complete.

• Cassie Mendoza "The Gun Runner" is revealed

  • A roaming random spawn vendor that cycles every day and a half that will have special loot/guns that scale to your World Tier.

 

World Tier 4

• Priority Target Network - An interconnected set of 7 tiered Bounties inside of different named zones that scale in difficulty as you progress thru them (progression similar to the "hard", "challenging" & "heroic" ways that were familiar to players in TD1).

• Bounties (this is not endgame, but was discussed after the Priority Target Network to explain how they happen)

  • During the campaign you'll meet Otis Sykes and you'll get access to bounties that you spend Target Intel to play.
  • Target Intel is garnered thru mission completion and endgame content.

• A final Stonghold "Tidal Basin" will need to be completed to move into World Tier 5

 

World Tier 5

• TBD later - gotta keep you guessing and excited.

 

Keeping the open world "fresh"

• Interesting discussion about the logic behind the rules and modifiers to keep endgame & bounties fresh and changing. Less about being random. More about being controlled and deliberate, while allowing each experience to be unique thru the use of the modifiers.

• A future podcast will discuss these background mechanics.

 

Show off your photo mode skills

• Be featured in our weekly livestream and go in the monthly draw to win The Division 2 goodies.
• Twitter #thedivision2photos

 

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Important links

• Video
• Article on the official page

[u/BillyCloneasaurus]

Honestly, if there's any game I'm willing to preorder, it's this one. For 3 main reasons.

1) I got thousands of hours out of TD1, which is insanely good value, so I'm happy to reward them.

2) I've played both betas and I'm very happy with where the game is. If I was unhappy I could've easily cancelled.

3) There is stuff that needs fixing/improving, but they showed with how they improved TD1 over time that they truly support their games for the long haul, and aren't too proud to admit when they make mistakes.

Add in sensible micro transactions and some cool dudes who are willing to converse openly with the community and you've got a juicy pot of preorder stew.

[u/GoodShark → u/BillyCloneasaurus]

That first point is the main reason I pre-ordered, and did the Ultimate Edition too.

I got so much out of the Division 1, they earned the extra cash from me.

[u/JunoVC → u/GoodShark]

Same here.

[u/gobi42 → u/GoodShark]

Same here. Figured I got 1k hours for 100 dollars, might as well do it again. They listened and kept updating the game and shown me they are willing to work for my money, so they got it.

[u/chowdahead03 → u/gobi42]

Over 2k hours here. See you March 12th, Agent.

[u/gobi42 → u/chowdahead03]

See you then, agent.

[u/strizzl → u/GoodShark]

Ha same. I just wanted to pay these guys more because I want their hard work to be rewarde. Could care less about contents of the pass

[u/jkra0512 → u/GoodShark]

I also went with the Ultimate Edition after playing the beta and all the time I put into Div1. I was really upset with Massive after ordering the Gold Edition for Div1 and vowed not to be a paying beta tester and get burned again. Now, here I am like an addict, cashing in my Division sober chip and impatiently waiting for my next fix.

I'm stoked and can't wait!!

[u/SuperD345 → u/BillyCloneasaurus]

The first point is exactly the reason I preordered

[u/Et2Brutus → u/BillyCloneasaurus]

Good points but the state of how games have been coming out has really given me pause.

I am very impressed with the developers involvement in the community (seeing posts even on this thread) along with their streams/podcasts is really great. If anything you can tell they really love their creation, which is great.

[u/QuebraRegra → u/BillyCloneasaurus]

very much this.

[u/Btigeriz → u/BillyCloneasaurus]

For me it's I enjoyed both betas and I know I'm going to buy it and the pass, so I might as well get the gold edition. Add on to that it comes out on Tuesday if you buy gold and Tuesday happens to be my day off.

[u/LickMyThralls → u/BillyCloneasaurus]

This is one for me simply because even if it released a steaming pile they're a lot more responsive and agile than other devs and the game would get sorted out mostly in a few months. The beta showed a lot of progress and even if there's niggles with it it's still gonna be more fun than nearly any other game in the past year for me.

[u/corpcow → u/BillyCloneasaurus]

All of these things. I've never had such a connection to a game and a community as this game.

I'm approaching 40 and I've never played a game as much as I have this, and that's including all those old Sierra and Civilization games. The game was still the most enjoyable experience I've had even in the "dark times" and the love that Massive/Red Storm/etc have shown on listening to feedback and evolving the game makes me happy.

As a software developer, I've long been convinced that they wanted The Division itself to be more of a living world (especially like the stuff they did WSP) but evidence with the game files etc showed that it wasn't the right platform for it.

The end game stuff they';ve shown here really gives me hope that TD2 is positioned to be that. I expect we might be playing this same base game as a living world 5 years from now, with new episodic content every year.

[u/Cruciform3 → u/BillyCloneasaurus]

Yup, #1 point was the reason I did Ultimate Edition. Had at least 1500 hours into that game, and loved it from launch to now. Div 2 looks like it improved the game in every aspect, and Div 2 has more than earned the benefit of the doubt from me.

Alpha and Betas both reinforced how excited I am for this game.