Resistance update was kind of a failure for me. I don't want to get too deep into it other than to say I think solo scaling for Resistance is poorly thought out. NPC spawns /aggro in WSP feel more like horde mode than an open world story.
Underground, however has always scaled well for solo play. It's even more outstanding since the 1.8 update.
Random Level Generation Design.
I would like to see it again in future content. I can't help wondering what it would have been like to use this type of design rather than what we see with WSP. Imagine if the Intrepid was build with RLG taking you through areas of the ship from the deck to the engines and mess halls. Pier 93 could have been docks, cargo ship, warehouses, cargo containers, customs offices all with dynamic time and weather effects.
The potential for Story development is end-less and could be easily updated with many sets of phone recordings, NPCs telling a story and searching for clues. One of my favorite parts of the Division is the leveling process. It wasn't just about the over arching 'dollar flu story'. There were tons of smaller stories and missions.
There could be mini-stories related to the GEs with new video files on phones in the Underground / new RLGC. Remember the Operation ISAC stuff? It was a great idea, the problem was that it wasn't 'in game'. It also needed to be NPC based cut scenes - real people hurt immersion. Small tidbits of continually updated story material is key to the longevity of this type of content. You could even add vanity loot as a players complete the stories.
What I would like the DT to consider is the full potential of RLG in future content in addition to the new Central Park open world we know is coming.
There are many options for making content similar to Underground, the cool thing is that some parts could have weather events and time of day, if they are outside.
Apartment & Office build Structures.
Under construction Condo, parking garage.
The Piers / Intrepid concepts I mentioned before.
Shopping Mall / retail plazas
Factories/ manufacturing/ industrial park
Junkyard / train yard & stations
with JTF / National Guard depot (?).
Airport Facilities, terminal, hangers, parking garage, warehouses and runways with JTF / National Guard depot.
Hospital / CERA / quarantine zone, parking lot.
I agree 100% on the Resistance scaling. It looks like the old approach of "spawn less enemies" has just been slapped on and it's been left at that. That approach doesn't really work very well when you're trying to secure the data breach or are subject to the contamination effects. Add in the teleporting NPCs and it can get really tough to plan a level. It really needs a little more consideration.
That said, I'm not sure that they really considered the 10 wave cache runs that seem to be 95% of Resistance these days.
As for all the other bits, they look great but I think you'll be disappointed.
I don't think that there is much more to come in this iteration of the game. I strongly suspect that Division 2 is in the planning or actually being worked on. The reason I suspect this is that there are currently 25 vacancies advertised on the Massive website that mention the Division, either exclusively or as a joint role across Avatar/The Division. It may well be for a raft of year 3 content but I doubt it. Massive and Ubisoft probably want the cash from a new game sale. I hope I'm pleasantly surprised but, if Division 2 is in the works, let's hope that they learned the lessons from this game and it comes with better net code and is not so damn open to cheats. Prevent cheats rather than ban them after they've cheated.
Personally I'm less against the spawning around WSP than I was initially - liberal use of turret, pulse and/or support station makes it pretty manageable - the area needs some serious work in general though to really leverage its potential - it should be a far more dynamic area responsive to the overall gameplay of agents within the zone in terms of opportunities and rewards scaling up and down.
Resistance is pretty doable with 1-2 people for that 10 wave 2x reward cache run.
I'm not really for more random generated content in the game partly because there are massive amounts of existing areas in the LZ and even DZ that aren't properly utilised - agreed with the second part of your post though there is a lot of scope for mini stories and mini arcs with some interesting locations all over like you listed that could be used or re-used for those. A lot of it wouldn't take much work beyond fairly simple scripting of progression, NPC placement and a bit of play testing - most of the groundwork has already been done and exists in the game.
I went to WSP just to toy around last night and started an alert. Did 2 of the checkpoints and all of a sudden it was non stop NPCs, I got to a point when I just being swarmed by enemies from every direction. I tried it twice where out of nowhere I would just be swarmed and was ok done with that. I remember finding the phones and not encountering that static and I ran into the enemies back then looking for a fight.
This would be cool and it would make the LZ more robust. A great suggestion. I hope the CMs pass this suggestion to the dev team.Originally Posted by Mad-Cap Go to original post
I don't think they are going abandon this version of the game in 2018. And TD2 would be Q4 2019 at best. They can easily repackage 'The Division+ Season pass along with a brand new DLC pack for new players.Originally Posted by Demonic66666 Go to original post
These are awesome ideas. However, unless there is an announcement on March 8 confirming ANY new content, the game is just going to enter its final downhill path. The only ones playing are going to be new players who picked up the game for dirt cheap, or those 7k hour players who can't seem to put the game down and find a g...damn real life. "Division is life"? LOL!!
If (and that's a big IF) D2 ever releases, it's going to be at least spring 2020, and that would be rushing things. Anything sooner than that would mean Ubi will be releasing the same buggy engine we already got...Originally Posted by Mad-Cap Go to original post
As do I but, if the CMs do pass this along, the devs will just ignore it.Originally Posted by Demiz3r Go to original post
Well it worked for the AC series for years.Originally Posted by vvhorus Go to original post