The Division 2’s next big update is drawing closer, and the second phase of Public Test Server (PTS) feedback for Title Update 10 is about to begin. With Associate Creative Director Yannick Banchereau and Game Designer Bruce Kelly on board, this week’s State of the Game livestream looked into some of the reactions from players to Title Update 10 so far, as well as what’s in store for the next round of testing. Some highlights:
- Phase 1 of the PTS ends tomorrow; Phase 2 begins this Friday at 4 AM PT.
- The Guardians Global Event is live now, inviting players to earn rewards by facing down fire teams that are mostly immune to damage until one of them – the designated Guardian – is taken down.
- Banchereau addressed unannounced content that was discovered in Phase 1 of the PTS.
State of the Game streams on Twitch, Mixer, and YouTube. (To find out what was covered in the last episode, make sure to check out the previous State of the Game Recap.
PRIORITY ALERTS
Regular maintenance was performed yesterday.
- Fixed an issue that prevented players in a group from earning progress on Global Event Challenges from their allies in-game.
- Fixed an issue that caused the doors during "Break Through the Black Tusk Forces" to not open during the DARPA Research Lab Main Mission.
- Fixed an issue that could allow players to instantly reset cooldowns of Skills. This change means players will no longer be able to swap out Skills or Loadouts when charge-based Skills are on cooldown.
Delta Errors:
- The developers are still seeing some reports of Delta errors during Raids and are investigating further.
- The team is seeing reports from players outside of Raids also suffering from Deltas and considers these to be top priority issues.
- Players are encouraged to provide as much information as possible, so the team can try to identify the underlying cause. This includes the exact error code, the time it happens, where players are playing from, their ISP, their Division 2 account name, whether playing in a group or solo, whether they used match-making or are playing with friends, and anything else that might be relevant.
TITLE UPDATE 10 PUBLIC TEST SERVERS
- Phase 1 is soon ending, and the team is planning to take the PTS down to deploy Phase 2.
- The PTS is scheduled to shut down on Thursday at 1 PM CET / 7 AM ET / 4 AM PT.
- PTS Phase 2 is scheduled to go live on Friday at 1 PM CET / 7 AM ET / 4 AM PT.
- Exact times for the PTS shut down and reopening are subject to change, and up-to-date information will be relayed via social media, so players are encouraged to keep an eye on @TheDivisionGame on Twitter.
- Players will not have to re-download the PTS client to play Phase 2, but will need a patch.
PHASE 1 REACTIONS
Foundry Bulwark Gear Set feedback:
- There were some issues with the Gear Set in PVP that made it too powerful.
- The set repairs 40% of any damage to its wearer or their shield over 10 seconds. Wearing the chest piece and the backpack make that 60% over six seconds.
- In PVP, the damage players do to each other is reduced. The Bulwark set was not taking that damage reduction into account, was repairing 100% of damage, and could result in unkillable Agents.
- The developers are planning to make adjustments in PVE as well, but the set is intended to be very tanky.
Rifle feedback:
- There have been reports from players concerned that Rifles are too weak now.
- The developers don’t think Rifles are in a bad place after the adjustments, and would like players to give more specific feedback on Rifles during Phase 2.
Walker, Harris & Co Brand Set feedback:
- Some players reported that they didn’t think the set was strong enough.
- The developers feel it’s in a good place, and potentially one of the strongest sets.
- Players have reported that the set is outshined by a combination of Named Items, and the team is looking for more granular feedback in Phase 2 of the PTS.
Game difficulty:
- Some players have expressed feelings that the game feels too easy in the PTS.
- As player power is being significantly increased in Title Update 10, it was expected that some content would feel easier.
- Heroic difficulty should still be a challenge for players who are not fully optimized.
- Legendary difficulty should always be a challenge.
- Players are encouraged to provide more feedback on this topic during Phase 2.
PVP time-to-kill (TTK):
- Some players have stated that the TTK has gone down, and kills are faster now.
- Developers have not been able to confirm this in their findings while testing internally.
- The team therefore would like to see more specific feedback, to find out under what circumstances players feel that the TTK is lower than before.
- Adjustments made in Phase 2 will have an impact on this, e.g. balance adjustments to Marksman Rifles (which are receiving a 12.5% damage boost, as well as a new exotic Marksman Rifle called Mantis and a new Talent called Headhunter, which are very powerful when put together) and bug fixes for the Bulwark set.
On the topic of loot and generosity, Senior Game Designer Nikki Kuppens has provided some info on Phase 2 changes:
- Updated the spread of item power between minimum and maximum rolls (result is mostly fewer rolls at the minimum).
- Increased the minimum item power for all caches.
- All containers in missions now scale their regular and targeted loot with difficulty (no more purples on Challenging difficulty or higher).
- Increased the minimum and maximum crafting results, with weighting added for a better spread between them.
Phase 2 is coming on Friday. Full patch notes will be available when the PTS goes live, and players will be asked to focus on:
- New gear and Exotics balance
- Weapon damage
- Overall balance
- Loot Generosity
SEASON 1 – SHADOW TIDE
Season 1 Update
- As mentioned last week, Season 1 has been extended to June 15.
- More information can be found on the forums.
Global Event: Guardians
- Every time a hostile fire team spawns, one member of that team is the Guardian. All other NPCs are immune to damage until players eliminate the Guardian.
- During the event, players can complete challenges to earn rewards, including an arm patch, Crafting Caches, Season Caches, an Exotic Cache at Rank 9, and a Backpack Trophy at Rank 10.
- The even runs for one week, until June 2.
Season Pass clarification
- All Seasons will be free for Warlords of New York owners.
- There is a Premium Pass that unlocks additional season rewards.
- It was free in Season 1, and players can currently still claim it.
- In future Seasons, it will be a premium item.
- All Seasonal gear can be earned in the game; the premium track gives out more caches and cosmetic items.
Season 2 will be discussed further in next week’s State of the Game.
UNANNOUNCED CONTENT CLARIFICATION
Following online discussions around datamined content, the team wanted to briefly talk about two topics:
Narrative content:
- The team knows that the PTS might come with data that is not going to be part of the next live phase, but this time it included more than the developers intended.
- The developers strongly encourage players who want to avoid narrative spoilers to stay away from any discussions or speculation about datamined content.
- The narrative is also still in development, and anything from the datamined content should be taken with a grain of salt as it is subject to change.
Skyscraper:
- The team is working on a new PVE mode that is meant to tackle requests for more replayable content from players.
- It is not meant to be Underground 2.0, but a new experience with a different look and feel and a fresh spin.
The Division 2 is available now on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and is included in a UPLAY+ subscription. For more The Division 2, check out our previous coverage.
