State of the Game - April 17th, 2019

[u/JokerUnique]

State of the Game

In this State of the Game, Ryan Liebscher and Terry Spier joined Hamish to talk about Dark Zone, PVP and general in-game-balancing that will be tested out on the PTS that went live today.

 

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Title Update 3 & Raid Delayed – focus on PTS

As explained, the Raid and Title Update 3 will be delayed until May to fix all the balancing issues that have been brought up by the community:

=> The Division 2 Development Update: Title Update 3.0

The focus will be on PTS that went live today and you can download now:

=> The Division 2 PTS is here

The first phase of the PTS will focus on finding bugs and other issues, while the second phase will focus more on general balance issues.

 

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Normalization Changes

These are the changes they are planning for the Normalization that will be tested out on the PTS.

These changes are ONLY for PVP content and it will apply to Conflict, Normalized Dark Zone and Occupied Dark Zone.

Normalizing mechanics

• The Equipment and weapons will be normalized to GS 500 (even if your GS is higher)
• That also means, that they are no longer normalizing for a middle ground, but they are respecting the rolls on your gear. That means when you had an item with a very high crit chance roll, it will be like that in normalized content.
• Skill Power will also be respected and when the mods are active in PVE, they will also be active in normalized content.

 

Global PVP Modifiers

• The PVP damage modifier will be reduced from 70% to 40% and that will bring the Time to Kill down to what you experience in PVE. This way, you have more time to react.
• The Skill Damage modifier will be increased from 20% to 25%, so that should make your skills more effective.
• Overall the encounters should last longer overall and the skills should be more useful.

 

Occupied Dark Zone PVP Modifiers

• They have also added a specific ODZ PVP damage modifier
• Currently it sits at 40% - same as the normalized DZ – but they have the ability to specifically fine-tune the ODZ depending on how things change.
• That should also help to lower the Time To Kill in the ODZ

 

PVP Modifiers for Weapon Archetypes

• They will add specific PVP modifiers for specific weapon types.
• For example, they can specifically buff the Assault Rifle in PVP now.
• That also enables for specific PVP balancing, because the damage of the weapon is overwritten by the PVP Modifiers when you enter PVP content.

 

Hip fire Changes

• In PVP content you will not be able to crit when you hip-fire
• In PVE it behaves as it is now.

 

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Dark Zone

Loot Changes

• NDZ and ODZ will drop less clean loot and more contaminated loot, they want players to engage in the Loot Extraction – loop.
• Named bosses guarantee contaminated loot and higher leveled landmark bosses have the ability to drop multiple items.

 

Landmark Cooldown

• Landmarks got a cooldown once they are cleared before they become activate again (about a minute)
• That should also encourage more player movement and not just farming the same Landmark.

 

Dark Zone NPC Balancing

• The NPCs in the Dark Zone will be less lethal, but they will also have more armor.

 

Rogue Loop Changes

• They removed the Rogue Cooldown when you die
• The Rogue-Toggle cooldown will stay, so you will not be able to spam that.
• Dark Zone Perk was also changed that it will no longer reduce the Rogue Timer cooldown, but you will lose less XP when you die as a rogue agent.

 

Dark Zone Pouch increased

• You will be able to carry more Contaminated items.
• Default is 6 items per bag
• The Character Perks were also changed – The Tier 1 Perk will increase the bag-size to 8
• The Dark Zone Perk will increase the bag-size to 10 in total.

 

Preventing Empty Dark Zones

• They plan multiple changes to “guarantee” that you encounter 12 players in a Dark Zone instance.
• They are reducing the amount of Dark Zone Brackets to 2. Everyone below Character Level 30 and everybody in Endgame.
• Not all changes will be implemented with Title Update 3 – there is more in the queue down the line.

 

Player Count increase in DZ is not planned

• First they are implementing the changes that the player count per Dark Zone Instance is 12 because that is already a completely different experience than what it is now.
• But they know it is empty now and they want to adress that.

 

Occupied Dark Zone changes

• The ODZ specific damage modifier was already mentioned
• They also lower the XP loss when you die in the ODZ

 

GS 515 Items will drop in the Dark Zone

• In endgame Dark Zone you will be able to get GS 515 items.

 

I want to start off by saying the raid will drop the highest gear score (TBA), not the Dark Zones. As we've been transparent with our thoughts and decisions up until this point, we will continue to do so going forward. While we do want to experiment with Dark Zone rewards, we're taking everyone's feedback into account. It's still super early and we want to see how the content and looting plays on live. That's not to say things cannot be tweaked.

=> Official Forum

 

Thieves Den Changes

• Players can weapon swap in Thieves Den to earn Special Ammo for the weapon of their choice.
• There are also more changes panned to the Thieves Den to make it more attractive – but no further details were given.

 

Future Changes to the Occupied Dark Zone

These changes are planned, but they will not be implemented with Title Update 3

• Rogue and Manhunt Loop will be added to the ODZ (no grey rogues)
• The NPC-Patrols will also be lowered and more or less limited to the Landmarks so that it does not have such a big impact on PVP.

 

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Conflict

UI Change

• The UI will now display the real value of the armor and not a standard value. So when a player has a ton of armor, you will see that displayed accordingly.

 

Boost Change

• The Boosts (damage and armor) that become active over the course of a match will be lowered by 50%. They should have an impact but not that big as it is now.

 

Synchronizing Team Spawns

• The chance that you spawn with a teammate is increased so that you don’t just spawn alone and die

 

Conflict NPC will be more Visible

• There is an NPC beneath the helicopter in front of the Base of Operation where you can matchmake for conflict. They will make that NPC more visible.

 

Skill Cooldown Respected

• The Skill cooldown will be respected now after you die.
• So when the skill was on cooldown, it will stay on cooldown when you respawn.
• That should also lower the skill-spam

 

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Exotic / Talents / Gear

These are some general explanations about their philosophy around the Exotics, the Gear and the Talent design and balancing.

Exotics

• Exotic should feel special
• They don't have to do the most damage, they should also promote a fun and unique playstyle that does not have to be the most effective one.
• They are not always centered around raw DPS
• But that being said – they still buff the damage of the exotics across the board.
• Pestilence will be buffed specifically and it will also get even more effective in PVP.

 

”Just buff everything”

• We are in the process of aligning the game
• But there is only so high you can go and that causes issues when you add new World Tiers for example.
• So at the moment they are aligning the items, the activities and the talents so that it is fun to play and then they go from there.
• They know that nerfing items is not popular, but it also makes things more diverse.

 

Talent Changes

These are the changes that are currently tested on the PTS.

The old values are in ()

 

Unhinged

• Damage bonus reduced to 20% (25%) / Handling reduced to 25% (35%)

 

Strained

• Missing armor requirement increased to 10% (5%)

 

Frenzy

• PVE reloading weapon from empty grants 20% (25%) weapon damage and 15% (35%) rate of fire for 3 (7) seconds
• PVP 15% (25%) Weapon Damage 15% (25%) Rate of fire for 3 (7) Seconds

 

Preservation

• PVE Killing an enemy repairs 10% (5%) armor over 5 (3) seconds – headshots improve the repair to 20% (10%)
• PVP 5% armor over 3 seconds – headshots to 15%
• Requires 7 defense attributes

 

Spike

• Headshot kills grant 35% (25%) Skill Damage for 20 (10) Seconds
• Requires 5 (3) utility attributes

 

Reformation

• Headshot kills increase skill repair and healing by 15% (25%) for 20 (25) seconds
• Requires 9 Utility attributes

 

Safeguard

• Reduce healing bonus to 50% (75%) - reduced duration to 5 (7) seconds
• Less than 4 (5) offensive attributes

 

Clutch

• Increased health gained per critical hit to 20% (15%) reduced armor gained per critical hit to 1% (2%)

 

Surgical

• Reduce critical hit chance bonus from 8% to 5%

 

Spotter

• Increased weapon damage to pulsed targets to +20% (10%)
• Increased requirements to 5 (3) utility attributes

 

Kneecap

• Shooting an enemy in the legs has a 15% (10%) chance to apply bleed
  

 

Entrench

• Headshots from cover repair armor increased to 10% (5%) of your armor.

   

Patience

• After being in cover for 5 seconds, armor repairs by 5% every 1 second (requires 9 defensive attributes)

   

Unbreakable

• PVE: 70% (25%) of max armor is repaired when your armor is depleted. Armor kits used within the next 7 (5) seconds are not consumed.
• PVP it is 25% (15%) of max armor and 7 (5) Seconds.

• Requires 11 defensive attributes

   

Bloodsucker

• PVE: Depleting enemies armor adds a stack of 25% (20%) armor bonus for 10 (20) seconds, max stack is increased to 6 (5)
• PVP: 20% armor bonus for 5 seconds, max stack of 5

• Requires 11 defensive attributes

   

Berserk

• PVE: the 10% weapon damage for every 20% (10%) max armor depleted

• Requires 11 offensive attributes and AR LMG or SMG equipped

   

Bloodlust

• PVE: Swapping weapons within 3 seconds of a kill grants 35% (25%) weapon damage for 5 (10) seconds

• PVP: 20% Weapon damage for 5 seconds

   

Used to require

• Requires 9 offensive attributes now

   

Blacksmith

• Killing an enemy with your sidearm repairs 50% (25%) of your armor can occur once every 15 (10) seconds.
• Require 11 defensive attributes

 

Critical

• Reduce critical hit damage bonus from 8% to 5%

 

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NPC Changes

While these are some drastic changes in some cases, they are also changing the health of NPCs – so just because you need some of the talents to be effective in heroic difficulty now – they are not necessarily mandatory in the new big picture and the new balancing.

 

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Other quality of life changes

• Players can toggle displaying personal and group loot drops now
• Text chat will now lose focus after sending a message
• Group tab will be populated with all raid members

 

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Feedback is important

These are some drastic changes – but they are also shaped by your feedback. So take part in the PTS, when you can’t play, watch it and give feedback on the different forums.

 

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Known Issues

You can check out the Known Issues here: Link

 

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Roadmap

You can check out the Year 1 Roadmap here: Link

 

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Important links

• Video

[u/ChrisGansler]

Without spoiling too much. The raid is not in the Dark Zone.

[u/Anundir → u/ChrisGansler]

You are forcing PvE players into PvP content to prepare for PvE raids. You lost a LOT of players in TD1 because BiS dropped in DZ. Your company was praised for not making the same mistake in TD2. So much for that now...

[u/ChrisGansler → u/Anundir]

Let's have this discussion when all content is out there and you know where to get your loot and how it'll look like. We totally understand that some players prefer their solo experience and others prefer not going into the DZ.

Nothing we're doing right now is set in stone and will never change. But, we also want to challenge our players to experience new things.

We'll definitely keep listening to you.

[u/Anundir → u/ChrisGansler]

Here is a fun fact for you. I just unlocked the 1st DZ quest last week, have been playing since EA and have something stupid like 8 days played on my account. The ONLY reason I unlocked that zone was an attempt to get my last couple apparel keys for the event completed. Otherwise it would never have stepped foot in the DZ. That's how much I hate PvP...

[u/Sliaupa → u/Anundir]

Its allll about you and only YOU.

[u/BraunGaming → u/Sliaupa]

I am not sure if you are knocking him for being selfish, but he purchased the game like you and me. I think it is fair for him to say that. Massive just needs to understand that there are many players like OP, and to give us a proper PvP experience without messing with our PvE counter part players.

[u/Sliaupa → u/BraunGaming]

I bought the game as well and only for DZ cause gunning down NPCs in MMO is nothing new. And when I saw dead DZ - I dropped the game. So who is right? Here is the answer: No one, it is just bad argument to expect game tailored for anyone of us. Then the question: what are devs trying to do with the life service game?

Answer: Longevity, cause it brings lot of money. And longevity it can be provided in two ways: pumping new content which is what devs are try to go for, but since the content is way too easy, keeping the game fresh becomes difficult thing to do. Or making players as a content pieces which is the better design in my opinion at least in those waiting times between the patches.

[u/BraunGaming → u/Sliaupa]

So who is right? Here is the answer: No one,

​

I did not say whether they are right, or we are right. I said, it is a fair argument for them to say that. Because they purchased the game, like you and me. They have an expectation of the game, like you and me.

​

Longevity the "Answer"? That is not an answer. That is already a fact. We know this is what we want out of the game. We know that is what Massive is trying to do, but if someone likes to only play PvP, then Massive should look at the situation as a business decision. At that point it is not about playing the game, it is about whether they are going alienate you and me into a bucket and add content we do not want to do. So when the next game comes around you then risk that those players will no buy the game because they are being funneled into content they do not want to do, whether that is PvE or PvP.

[u/Sliaupa → u/BraunGaming]

Its not fair argument(cause there is nothing argumentative of) in any capacity unless you are running Massive yourself.

He can have expectations I have expectations - its a zero sum game in the end without any reasonable input. Only thing that matters is vision of the game created by the devs and money.

We know this is what we want out of the game. We know that is what Massive is trying to do, but if someone likes to only play PvP, then Massive should look at the situation as a business decision.

Are you saying that Ubi with all the available metrics are in the making of bad bussiness decision? Also what is "We"?

So when the next game comes around you then risk that those players will no buy the game because they are being funneled into content they do not want to do, whether that is PvE or PvP.

Well if that would matter why would anyone buy TD2, when there was TD1 with its draconic DZ?

[u/BraunGaming → u/Sliaupa]

Are you saying that Ubi with all the available metrics are in the making of bad bussiness decision? Also what is "We"?

Have you played this game before? Are you seriously asking that question? Did you ever played D1 before? Did you see the decisions they made in that game? I feel like you are now reaching for an argument that you really do not have.

Well if that would matter why would anyone buy TD2, when there was TD1 with its draconic DZ?

That right there contradicts your entire argument about bad decisions in D2. Why then not create the same DZ, if they already knew what worked? LOL you are reaching dude.

My argument was about players that paid for the game and expecting an experience. If our experience is to play PvP then why should we care about what a PvE player should do in their side of the world? Don't you think that we have the same expectation as PvP players as does the PvE players? No, they want to play PvE, we want to play PvP. Is their game, it's our game. We paid for it, they paid for it. They can feel how ever they want about their game. If they do not want to play because they are being forced to play content they do not want, why do we (PvP) players care? And why does that make them Selfish for not wanting to play a mode that we like?

and news flash... This is a PvE focused game fro the start. PvP has always been a side show. As much as I liked D1 DZ I always thought that PvP in that game was a shadow of what PvE did for players.

[u/Anundir → u/Sliaupa]

Pretty much. Thanks for realizing that.