It is true that nobody plays Survival for the rewards, although they are better than most people know. There is a 20% chance to have a classy piece in a Survival Cache. You can extract with eight Survival Caches (two for completing the match and six from bosses in DZ landmarks). Often, I get 3 classy pieces from one Survival match. Above that, there are plenty of other options in Div to advance your character. Survival is a mini-game and I play it for fun. Normally, this should be reason for playing at all.
Adding as well that once a character is leveled up to max, the game becomes pretty boring and losing interest settles in quite quickly. I was once devoted to PVP only so my buddies and I used to go rogue, die rogues, go last stand and all but at the end, having to do it was repeatedly boring. All I got from playing DZ and LS was only frustration for the reason that Every patches release force you to adapt your gearset to match a specific need or requirement, this is where I was losing the all fun of playingOriginally Posted by rosch15 Go to original post
With all the classified gearset in the game and all the way to acquire them, a dedicated player would be able to optimize the said gearset within the same day (I did that with striker when they made the Div Tech looting easier.
All to say that even though Survival does not add any progress to your character at least you are playing relying on your situational thinking of the game environment not some gearset talents.
@thepingguy ,Originally Posted by thepingguy Go to original post
What type of improvements would you make to enhance the gaming experience of Survival mode? (Anyone, feel free to answer this question.)
What we would have loved is a "new game +" mode, i.e. to restart the whole main story but with added Survival elements (all except sepsis, or sepsis disabled while in safe house...). This would really have been a great addition.Originally Posted by UbiSc0ttie Go to original post
The pros of Survival are to deal with cold, the process to gear-up again, you visit Manhattan again (instead of fast traveling to legendary missions)
The cons are the unability to "pause" or "save", and as far as the mini-game is concerned the fixed loot locations are bad.
More loot is not the solution, imo.. You get already too much crappy loot in Division. After one hour of playing, I have to waste 10 min to sell/dismantle all the loot I don't need. Randomly changing loot locations in Survival, for example, would make it more interesting.. However, the biggest problem is the long waiting time in matchmaking and game finding, especially in PVP. Not many players left in Survival. Only new Survival comms or new interesting loot would be able to motivate more agents to play this DLC..
Only really one thing which has been the issue since the mode was released.Originally Posted by UbiSc0ttie Go to original post
A more dynamic and randomised world. I.e. Changing positions of crates, boxes etc so that you cant memorise exact locations of where resources are. Having some containers actually be empty. Thus the need for a few more containers located around the world.
Randomised locations for landmarks...... i.e. not the same ones in the same places. Expand the number of possible landmarks. Only generate x-y landmarks for a particular session.
Change the number of mobs and bosses in landmarks. So that players can be surprised. In a good way as well as a bad way.
Vary the temperature conditions across the map. Allow for temperature spikes so players need to seek shelter completely and for longer if they are in a certain part of the map. Which can change as fast as it came or keep a player trapped there for alot longer than they would otherwise have wanted.
Im sure your game designers already thought of these but for whatever reason decided against it. Prolly cause it would be a more hardcore experience. Which is what players who have played this mode 100x probably want/need now. Vs those that dont enjoy playing it, who want a simpler mode.
Also....
Alter PvP mode so that pvp occurs in the DZ and not the LZ.
-- Personally I hope they put mini survival mode on the main map as mini GEs for the sequel. Stretching between an hour or a day long.
Originally Posted by UbiSc0ttie Go to original postThis is along the lines of what would make it better for me. Many people who already love Survival seem to love it because it's a one-off mode where they start fresh every time. For me that's the biggest downside. I'm not sure you could make a version of Survival that would make both sides happy though. I'm also not a fan of the Dark Zone, and as such, the PvP version of Survival does not interest me at all.Originally Posted by MonsterOfMyOwn Go to original post
It's a tough call between sticking to a winning formula, and giving us something different for variety. The 1 to 30 climb in this game is the best thing about this game. A Survival mode that milks that for all it's worth would be good for me. I like Last Stand as a distraction, I can go in there and get my teeth kicked in and come out of it a short while later and decide what to do next. Survival has a much higher time commitment, and the further in you get the more it hurts when you die and leave the challenge. If the chances of something being a waste of time are high, then the time commitment for it should be low. Those that enjoy Survival now feel like it's not a waste of time to spend an hour achieving nothing, they enjoy the experience, and that's great. But that's not me. I want something to show for it, or I want it to be short and sweet.
When they changed The Underground so that you could continue if you got past a certain point, that was huge for me. I liked TU, but would get frustrated when trying things near or above my gear/ability level. Dying on the last fight and coming out with nothing just wasn't fun for me. Now I'll try just about anything in TU, and just keep trying and trying until I win or know I have to give up. I hate giving up, but at least now I can try as many different things as I want before I give up. It still can end up being time wasted, but experimenting is fun for me, and so it's not as bad as it used to be.
@UbiScottie
I must admit that I only started playing Survival because of the Shield and it quickly became one of my favourite modes. I run Survival at least twice every day and here are some of my thoughts on the mode:
1. Drop the medicine/pills/infection thing - unrealistic, cheesy and promotes speed runs- supposed to be a mode on how long can you survive not how fast can you extract
2. Make food and drinks matter- hunger/thirst kick in and if you do not eat/drink you slowly lose health.
3.Keep the injured scenario when starting off but change it to finding a med-kit to heal the injury.
4. The end game will have to change as the need for the anti-virals is no longer applicable in Washington DC. Perhaps you spawn on one side of the map and you have to get to the White House to deliver a document/info or something along those lines.
5. Introduce a ranking system similar to that of the Underground - as you get better(rank up) at surviving new areas of the Survival map become available to you. Very much like the first couple of times you run Survival - learn the mode, where can I find what, what NPC's to attack which to avoid etc. And as you get better at the mode so reaching the DZ becomes easier then its the DZ part you need to learn and so on. Something similar to the Division 1 level 1 -30 experience but without the BoO and ammo boxes. Perhaps as your level improves you spawn further away from the target location?
6. Retain both modes (PvP and PvE) - i do not PvP and therefore will never ever complete the current Survival Commendation- so on this note please on all Commendations split them according to PvP and PvE so that those not interested in PvP can actually complete a targeted commendation achievement.
7.PvP players have a slightly different scenario to play out and spawn n the DZ - their target is to get out of the DZ. On this note some people have pointed at Roosevelt Island and said - Survival - I think this is the DZ area - isolated and perfect for quarantine I think were Julian Gerighty's words
8. Randomize loot spawn areas - will also stop speed runs
9. Remove bloody green gear/weapons from loot crates- noting more frustrating than eventually finding a gear item that has not been looted by a speed runner (who knows every loot point) only to find a green item that is worse than the one you have.
10. Or better yet remove gear/weapon loot boxes - have to craft your gear/weapons from materials you find. Safe houses have blueprints for the next level of progression. This will also promote a Survival atmosphere
11. I am a bit torn on this - Team PvE Survival - no other teams basically a private game mode - loot is drastically reduced based on the size of the team, so the more players you have the less the loot or should it be the other way round - not sure but something to ponder on I'm sure.
Anyway that is my 2 cents.
Agent YodaMan 3D would have some very good insights here I am sure.
For me, and I have been a beta player and a day 1 player with 2400 hours time, would've loved the whole Survival game-style in the actual openworld. Where the snow storms are truly bad, where the cold has a real effect on you when outside, where food and water plays an important part.Originally Posted by UbiSc0ttie Go to original post
In the options, you can turn on/off the sepsis virus so that you are not worried about that part but everything else should've been in the openworld and the DZ.
For TD2, now that it is the summertime, food/water is an issue as well as the heat?? When you are in the BoO (White House is where I think it will be) or any safe house then food/water/heat doesn't apply. Using food/water then could be applied to your kills for commendations as well.