Is Tier 1 mode trying to do the right things the wrong way? | Forums

[topeira1980]

Tier 1, in a sense and in my opinion, is trying to do something nice with as little as possible effort from UBI and it could have been.... better, because I think, This is not how the community would have wanted T1 to be.

I have read many posts on these forums from members wanting more challenge in the game. a harder difficulty setting. in a sense - T1 is doing that... but in all the wrong ways. at least IMO and from what i read here, on these forums.

Many ideas were dropped on how to make the game harder - Give us only one primary weapon, Only allow switching weapons in ammo crates, Make the AI not die in 1 hit in stealth, allow us to not have a AI squad with us, Disable regenerating health during combat, longer cooldowns on Rebel assistance, less god-like sync-shots with our AIs, not assured revival by the AI, less ammo gained in ammo crates, finite drones that need refilling in ammo crates etc etc etc.

I have not read a SINGLE POST talking about making the enemy AI more accurate, more psychic or more bullet spongy. NOT. ONE.
no one on these boards ever complained about the AI being not accurate or deadly enough. IN ANY POST. EVER.
The ONLY complaint i read about the AIs is that they have an unnatural ability to know where you are whenever they go on HUNTED mode, even if there is no reason for them to have any hint on you. You make a disturbance and after a few seconds you hear the sicarios saying "There are more of us than them. charge!" and they go looking for you right where you are.
so in fact - the only complained about the enemy AI is that they are too good.

Then UBI comes with their own idea on how to make the game harder and tweak all the wrong mechanics.

Maybe im alone at this, but i am at tier 40, played on Extreme until Tier 44 or so and then switched to ADVANCED, because i find the type of challenge T1 grants isnt fun nor fair. The AI is indeed harder, but for all the wrong reasons. They are super accurate, do more damage (and extreme's damage was already fine), take more bullets (And the amount they took before was already fine) and that on top of their unnatural ability to sense where you are, no matter how stealthy you're being.

Is that how you, the community, would have liked the game to increase in difficulty? Well, for one, it's not how I would have liked it. maybe if their spidey senses that sniff you out every time would have been toned down or turned off (in every OTHER game, like Sniper Elite 4, like Mafia 3, like Shadow of mordor, even UBI's own Far cry or WD games they AI does NOT know where you are if they head an explosion or see a friend dies by a silenced shot), but that's not the case.

i think that the enemy AI should have gotten rid of their 6th sense and act like any other AI in any other game and every few tiers a restriction on the player should have been made, like any of the community's ideas and requests. I know that some of these ideas go against the leveling up system but it would have resulted, IMO, as a much more balanced T1 game.

What do you guys think? are you on the same boat or are you plain happy with how Tier 1 makes the game harder?

[AI BLUEFOX]

I'm abstaining. I do like your suggestions, but I'm also finding Tier 1 enjoyable so far. If you add an option that says at certain Tiers you do start to lose these things, like the second weapon and revives and so on then I'd vote for that.

[Flaw3dGenius23]

I think your bang on the money pal, I also dont think these updates are for the hardcore community that sit on these forums. The god vision AI is one of the biggest complaints so what do they do? Give them even better God vision. As i say i dont think the game is aimed at this community.

[topeira1980]

I'm abstaining. I do like your suggestions, but I'm also finding Tier 1 enjoyable so far. If you add an option that says at certain Tiers you do start to lose these things, like the second weapon and revives and so on then I'd vote for that.

that is exactly what i thought should have been done. just like in certain tiers you lose the ability to chose certain difficulty settings. instead - you lose gameplay crutches.

but Flaw3dGenius23 is probably right - this update isnt for the community, i guess. its for the division fans.

thing is - i find the added challenge of T1 (again - im only at lvl40) frustrating. not fun. yes , its harder, but not for the right reasons. it isnt balanced and doesnt make the game more tactical.

the game was balanced in a certain way, giving the AI a certain accuracy and health and damage that is pretty nicely balanced.
then UBI goes and ruins that balance to create a bigger challenge but that challenge goes against the balance of the game.

i would have also accepted if every 5 tiers or so the game would duplicate certain AIs and make bases have more enemies, or make backup vehicles bring in more vehicles or something that keeps the balance of the game, only adds to it in ways that dont break it. and as i told Blue - every few tiers - change something about the crutches the player relies on. there are so many of those things to gradually eliminate.
so many better ways to make T1 viable and fun than what they did, which just seems like the lazies most simplistic way possible, with the laziest rewards possible. every modder can tell how little time and effort it takes to make a texture for a bandana or a tatoo or a face paint. its nothing. no new meshes. no new UV spreads. no new models. just new textures.

the community can spot laziness. not all of us are stupid.
so if the rewards are cheap, at least make the way there good.

[Kean_1]

I'm abstaining. I do like your suggestions, but I'm also finding Tier 1 enjoyable so far. If you add an option that says at certain Tiers you do start to lose these things, like the second weapon and revives and so on then I'd vote for that.

I second this but I also don't agree with the one idea listed regarding enemies taking more than one shot in stealth. I don't think that is the right path either. HOWEVER, I do believe body armor, ammunition, physiology and some random chance should play a bigger role in the damage mechanics. For example, a shot to the leg should make a hostile buckle but not kill them (and they should still be able to alert others, shoot after a brief time, etc.). A bullet to center mass to an unarmored target in stealth should incapacitate them. .....one who is already alerted may or may not go down right away depending on the caliber of the weapon used and perhaps some random chance factoring in adrenaline for someone who is already on alert and under the stress of combat. .....etc., etc.

IMO, I would prefer a more "realistic" approach to increasing the difficulty level up to and including reducing some "skill" sets. .....and yeah, I agree with pretty much everything else especially the laser-like ability of enemies to spot you. I believe soft cover, camo, movement, etc. should make more of a difference than it does now. I don't mind that I can go down with just 1-2 shots from a burst but (and I've said this before) when it happens at the hands of a drug crazed narco wielding an uzi in each hand from 50+ meters, it's a stretch to say the least. The enemy AI accuracy in general is simply unrealistic.

As for drones, I don't like to use them personally. I prefer to use just binoculars and scopes for recon.

[darkchild130]

I agree with the majority of your points, in particular I would like to remove my AI buddies and rock only 1 primary.
I also want less ammo availability, and rearming at boxes should totally be a thing.

[Gmoneymozart]

I'm not even playing this tier crap. I'm trying to beat the game without falling to enemy fire once. No resurrections from AI. Extreme markers off and minimap off. That's challenging enough. I can barely get out of the second territory. Made it to a third once. Every time I fall I delete my slot and start again.

[Kean_1]

I agree with the majority of your points, in particular I would like to remove my AI buddies and rock only 1 primary.
I also want less ammo availability, and rearming at boxes should totally be a thing.

Putting more choices/options in the hands of the player is where I think this game could really improve. The improvement to the HUD menu was a good step forward IMO.

[SERPENT 1333]

I don't really see the point of this new "tier" system. It just means that I have to get tons of resources again to build up my weapons, and quite frankly that's just boring. It's much easier just to raise the difficulty in the game instead.

If they want to fix something, how about fixing how the enemy automatically spots me after someone else on my team gets detected... even when I am nowhere near them and completely concealed in the brush. It's silly, and it does nothing but discourage you from playing with strangers who are not as stealthy as you are.

[Flanker1Six]

Good post, OP! Great comments from FG23 and Kean! The other thing that irked me in my very brief "fling" with T1 was the concept of magically buffing weapons performance by pouring 2500 in fuel etc. on them.

Upgrading the weapon? Not a bad concept, but why not use an in game mechanism in tune with GRW's tactical and game world themes; instead of a weak RPG cliche like applying magic runes (disguised as 2500 fuel) to the weapon? How about a barter system where you could use 2500 fuel (or whatever) to gain a caliber upgrade from some sketchy arms dealer, double dealing cartel guy, or entrepreneurial UNIDAD supply Sergeant; you'd been referred to by Karen Bowman, Pac Katari or some other intel source. i.e. convert 5.56 x 45mm ARs to fire 6.8 SPC, 6.5 Grendel..............get an MP5 caliber upgrade to 10mm auto....................that sort of thing.

It would have added some flavorful content to the story/game, and allow for real world weapon upgrades that didn't rely on ju ju, magic runes, or Mom's secret pizza sauce.

It's all in the execution; isn't it?