[Suggestion] Massive, we have a situation in the Underground... | Forums

[tvennet]

...and you keep avoiding to talk about it. Neither Hamish, Yannick or Frederyk could give some hints about it on twitter or twitch.

See, a lot of people complain about the lack of PvE content. And they're right, we miss a lot of end game PvE content.
HVT's and Roaming bosses are way too easy to accomplish, and running the original missions over and over again, or even the incursions get's pretty boring at a certain time.
But here's the thing, you created (with the help of Ubi Reflections) a DLC that could give the biggest PvE end game people are waiting for: The Underground

I don't complain about anything in the Division, but my heart is really broken when sometimes i go to the underground.

First of, that vendor...you could easily use him as a "Forever Alone" meme. Since the release of the DLC, that guy as been useless. He sold Firecrest and B.L.I.N.D no one used at that time. Then you came with upgrade 1.4 and boom, that poor guy now sells caches. Really?! From everything you could sell, you decided he was the cache vendor. No reason to go see him.

Then, the underground itself.
During 1.3, Underground was THE activity with Dragon's nest. Matchmaking was "easy" (if you had the right gear and didn't get kicked) but since 1.4, the underground is becoming a total no man's land. People are just running it to get Rank 40, get the bling outfit and maybe a thompson. And voilà.
Why do you hate the Underground soon much? Don't you realize that if you fixed it, it would be the best PvE content possible.
I thought about it for a while now, and here's what i came up with. Yes, it's close to Diablo's experience, and IMHO it's really what we, PvE'rs, need and also it's close to what you advertised "endless random room generator".

First, get rid of the phases. You don't need it.
Instead make it infinite, with "levels".

• Every 5 Levels, get a boss, like a Light Zone or DZ Boss.
• Every 10 Levels, get a boss with one or two random directives activated.
• Every 15 Levels, get an Incursion-like boss (why not the alligator that was mentioned? or something like the 4 Horse Men?)

At each level, you can decide to get out of the underground or go deeper with the elevator.

and give it a difficulty progression:

• Level 1-10 : normal
• Level 11-20: Hard
• Level 21-30: Challenging
• Level 31-40: Heroic
• Level 41+ : Legendary (only for groups)

But give also the ability in the lobby to directly jump to a certain level, so people with a min/maxed gear and skills can directly play level 41+ but people just looking for a quick play can start at level 1 and progress that way.

Then, drop some Loot NPC. Not every run, not always, just random, with a percentage of chance to appear close to 1%.
That NPC can be everything you want, but in my opinion, it should be a hunter. Just close your eyes and imagine: hunters are aware of agents going in the underground and decide to go in, and chase you in those dark, smelly, filthy corridors. Hiding in the shadows.
Now, that hunter, overtime you hit him, will drop currency, or material. He'll be challenging to kill, hiding, running, trying to trap you. But when you finally kill him, it's loot fest.

Last but not least: More Environments.
You made a fantastic open world, and that Club mission was just amazing. Yep. But we only can play it once. That's a waste of ressources spec'd into level design.
With the level and progression i suggest, you could even reuse some assets you already have and don't need to spec too much time into making a lot of new rooms. Making a link between scenery and progression would show the player he's actually going deeper and deeper

• Level 1-10 : Open world Subway stations and that UG mall you see once in a while
• Level 11-20: Clubs + Banks
• Level 21-30: Underground Subways and rail tracks + assets from subway morgue (one of the filthiest missions ever, you definitely feel something bad happened)
• Level 31-40: Heating rooms + scenery from Warren Gate with pipes
• Level 41+ : sewers, caves

Or just make it random and let the game decide how to put these things together.
Why not having small sewer corridors, with a group of cleaners blocking you the way, and you have to blow them away? Damn, make some rooms contaminated level 5, just to challenge people and have a speed run level.
Why not a bit more things to do? like reduce the heat valve, find a specific person in one of the JTF Camps, cure the people living in the underground.
Or simply reuse what is already existing in the Open World, but with a little twist. All the encounters we had to accomplish in 1-30 are now completely wiped because with cleaned our map.

And Allow respawn or checkpoints.


I'm pretty sure the all PvE whining will stop if you give us something like that, and it doesn't need too much ressources and time. I really hope you're going to give the Underground some love because a lot of people on Reddit or Facebook groups are asking for it. Even Matt answered on Twitch that he'd love to see some love For the Underground. You made something that could've been your End Game Activity, and for no real obvious reason, you're hiding it under the carpet.

Please Hamish, Yannick, Frederyk, Matt and all other person at Massive, take some time boys to give it some love.
People deserve it since it's paid DLC. And spec'ing some time fixing it will bring back some old players or even new players that are afraid of getting bored right now.

[LANCERZzZz]

I agree. Let PvPers have the DZ, give us PvE players an expanded Underground

[S47TY_CIVILIZ3R]

Thumbs up. Very good suggestion and it seems to me (I'm not a coder or programmer) it's not too hard to realize this.

[Beppo71]

If you check the map you can see another level below and maybe even a thrird one if you take a closer look.
I guess it was originally designed to generate a full 3 level (deep) area instead of the current "we reload and generate a new one after each mission ends".

[dkolld]

First, get rid of the phases. You don't need it.
Instead make it infinite, with "levels".

• Every 5 Levels, get a boss, like a Light Zone or DZ Boss.
• Every 10 Levels, get a boss with one or two random directives activated.
• Every 15 Levels, get an Incursion-like boss (why not the alligator that was mentioned? or something like the 4 Horse Men?)

At each level, you can decide to get out of the underground or go deeper with the elevator.

This is a fantastic idea! Just add a vendor and a stash periodically (or outside each elevator) to keep inventory under control.

[Jedi.Ikigai]

/signed

[Appdude14]

I agree with everything EXCEPT for this "Level 41+ : Legendary (only for groups)"

What if I want to solo legendary?

[BmPngSprng]

*Jedihandwaving*
You don't want to solo legendary content.

I like the idea of levels.
I would also like to point out that I don't use any of the directives unless someone in the group specifically asks for them. Imho the rewards are just not worth the additional hassle.

Sadly I have no idea on how to improve them, I'm just pointing it out.

[RushLoongHammer]

A continuous underground that gets more difficult, changes environment and the end is where you can't deal with it or you wanna cal it quits. That's the best Idea I've heard. I've always said this game has massive potential, and its things like this that would make the game amazing. if they implemented this, plus a few changes to the other DLCs, I'd be so happy I bought the season pass.

I'd say, allow a solo player go as far as they want to. But, I'd like this post more than once if I could.

[MegatrawnXXX]

pretty good idea, a "horde mode" type of system where each wave, or in your case, level, gets progressively harder.
Problem is while it sounds good and is a good idea, Massive are the ones behind this game.
They have no vision outside of PVP, just like bungie, they added PVE content only to draw in specific crowd while focusing
mainly on the pvp element.
Personally I don't see this game getting better under the current designers.