First, I don't always play solo. I enjoy the matchmaking system in the Division and I use it for almost everything. Second, I do not do PVP in the Division, so everything contained here will be from a PVE only perspective. And third, I DO go into the DZ quite often. I just don't get involved with PVP inside of it. I enjoy the DZ because it offers the challenge of clearing Landmarks and extracting gear all while playing solo and avoiding rogues.
OK, on to the feedback:
Obviously the name of the game here is to collect loot... And obviously the loot is contained in the new caches located in the terminal. Once I became aware of this I set out to get the new currency. I did some story missions and went back to the Terminal to get a smaller loot cache. I opened it and received exactly 1 High End gun with bad perks.
1 gun I will never use... I could have obtained that from anywhere and in less than half the time it took me to obtain the required amount of currency to buy the cache. This has to change. I don't know what else to say other than doing all that work for a single weapon is not only a waste of time, but it makes me want to never play the Division ever again.
SOLUTION: Make the new vendor in the Terminal exactly the same as every other vendor. Have him cycle weekly through a very limited selection of classified gear set items which can be purchased for the new currency at a very high price. Very high. Something like 5,000+. Keep the drop rate of currency exactly the same, and keep the caches available at the same price for the same amount of currency needed to purchase them and the same drop rate. That way players feel rewarded for completing stuff and killing bosses and have an end goal to attain (the 5k+ required to buy one item). In the current system, I could grind the same content we have all done forever all week and MAYBE get one classified gear set item which is VERY UNLIKELY to be the one I actually wanted...etc... It will only make me quit playing very quickly because let's face it, at this point anyone who still plays this game just enjoys playing the game for the game...we have no desire to grind the same content forever for awful RNG.
Some other things that I'd like to mention are:
- The new system for cypher keys is somewhat confusing. When I opened the cache I wasn't sure if I received that stuff, or what... It just said 'open another cache.' I figured it out, but it's strange.
- I noticed that only certain missions show up as blue on the map during the Outbreak event, but it says it's a global event that applies to everything... So why are only certain activities highlighted in blue?
- You should be awarded the new currency for clearing landmarks in the DZ
- The head shot kill mechanic that makes the enemy NPCs head bow up looks cool, but it does nothing at all. The bleed status indicator will appear over nearby enemies, but they aren't stunned and they take like 0.04% damage...so what is the point of the mechanic?
- Matchmaking was either not working correctly,or there are just not that many people playing this PTS on PS4. I was able to matchmake only 1 time for a story mission and that's only after I was halfway through it. I tried matchmaking for everything...
Overall I'd say the same thing I've already said. I play the Division here and there because I like playing the Division. Offering some new loot is always appreciated. But locking the new loot behind a horrendous RNG based loot box is the worst thing you can do to keep players engaged in the game. Again, at this point I don't think you are trying to recruit new players...you are attempting to entertain the current ones. I don't even mind the microtransactions. Some of the skins are cool and I'd put $10 here and there to obtain them because I have money. But I can't stress this point enough: I WILL give up on this game for good if he only motivation is an awful RNG cache that gives me the same reward that I could obtain in about 5 minutes and don't even want.
Thank you.
As a solo player I also like clearing landmarks in the DZ.
I have not (as yet) in this PTS (PTS2) done so - mostly concentrated on HVT and Missions.
With that as context with the prior comment:
- I agree that the cypher keys are a little confusing - not sure why exactly they are needed vs just using some currency in the system already...
- really like the idea of awarding new currency for DZ landmark clearing
- I also have had a LOT of issues even attempting to matchmake for PTS2 on PS4!
- rewards: these are Global events - big deals - so the rewards just have to be better - I've heard this is improved in PTS3 so I'm hopeful...
Global Events:
- I've asked this before - why is it that the Level 1 event is harder than the Level 2? Level 1 includes proximity damage by enemies. Level 2 does the same and gives you 2-shot insta-kill on said enemies....so how is that harder?
- moreover, on PTS2 on PS4 LEVEL 2 was NOT ever selectable.
- and only a few missions even had Challenging available
Proximity damage:
- is FAR too high for the Solo player in some missions - when some named elite just wanders by - even on a different floor - you QUICKLY lose health to the point you either need to recover/use medkit or just get run over by some other enemy close by due to your weakened state.
- I did attempt to run missions on Challenging with just one other player and as soon as we were in a constrained area with multiple levels, we both would end up dying simply by elite enemies wandering underneath us
I understand it's supposed to be hard - but that is a bit much because it really isn't a solvable problem for the small group or solo player...