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  1. #1
    PaulOaktree's Avatar Member
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    The game needs "Optimization", to make most content revelant again

    I've made a post about this issue before, but on that one I focused on the "grind" for better gear/weapons, and how Optimization would value our time in game.

    Now, I want to approach this from a diferent angle. The fact that Optimization, DONE RIGHT, would revitalize the already existing content, that rarely gets played.

    I keep hearing/Reading that the game needs more contente, and specialy, REPLAYABLE content. I believe the game has more then enough content, but the main issue is there's "no reason" to play it.

    Who plays the Pentagon missions regularly, or Manning National Zoo, or Cam White Oak, or many other missions on the game…? Maybe people play those missions when there's "good" target loot in there, and that's it. And even when that happens, most people just wait for the target loot to change to farm easier/quicker missions.

    Same thing goes for the Invaded missions, or the Leagues and Global Events. I don't remembre the last time I played Tigal Basin, and same thing happens with the majority of my friends. No one cares about those activities, because the rewards are terrible.

    On TD1, the Global Events would gives the BEST gear in the game, so we would grind that week, get the gear we wanted, and then farmed for Div Tech to optimize it.
    The way they did it was bad, in my opinion, but the fact is that players would actively engage with Global Events.

    I think the only way to make players engage with less played missions and activities, is to make them give us a currancy, Div Tech, that would allow us to Optimize our Gear/Weapons.
    We would use the Div Tech to "buy" more recalibrations on Gear/Weapons, but, unlike TD1, we would have a limited ammount of Div Tech that we could get every week, so we wouldn't optimize everything in a couple of weeks.


    This is how I think the system should work:

    Each extra recalibration would cost 10.000 Div Tech, and we could recalibrate how many stats/talents we want on any Gear/Weapons, but every week we could get Div Tech to make only TWO extra recalibrations.
    Then the Manhunt, the Leagues and the Global Events would each reward 10.000 Div Tech.

    The Ivaded Missions would give a total of 10.000 Div Tech each week (One extra recalibration).
    Each mission would gives us a maximum of 1.500 Div Tech (4.500 in Total). Each run on Heroic 750 DT, Challenging 500 DT, Hard 250 DT, Normal 125 DT. We could choose to play those missions twice on Heroic, or more times on lower dificulties.
    The Stronghold would give us a maximum of 2.000 Div Tech. Again, Each run on Heroic 1.000 DT, Challenging 750 DT, Hard 500 DT, Normal 250 DT.
    Tidal Basim would gives us a maximum of 3.500 Div Tech. Each run on Heroic 1.750 DT, Challenging 1.250 DT, Hard 750 DT, Normal 500 DT.
    We could choose to play those missions twice on Heroic, or more times on lower dificulties.

    Weekly Projects. To "make" us play other missions, and do Open World activities on all avaiable areas, we could get a "weekly project" with similar objectivs to the current weekly projects, but more focused on missins/activities. The rewards would be similar to the Invaded missions.
    Every week we would have five diferent missions, and one Stronghold to play. The ammount of Div Tech that we would get would be 1.000 for each mission, and like the Invaded missions, we would get 500 Div Tech for each mission on Heroic, 250 DT on Challenging, 125 DT on Hard and 75 DT on Normal. The total would be 5.000 Div Tech.
    As to the Open world activities, two diferent areas every week, and each area would give us 2.500 DT, for a total of 5.000 DT.
    We would have to clear Control Points AND do activities.
    Each Heroic CP would give 250 DT, Challenging 125 DT, Hard 75 DT, Normal 50 DT. The maximum for CPs would be 1.000 DT.
    Each Activitie on Heroic 250 DT, Challenging 125 DT, Hard 75 DT, Normal 50 DT. The maximum for Activities would be 1.500 DT.

    The Manhunts, the Leagues and the Global Events would give us 10.000 DT each, and the reward would be something like this.
    On the Manhunts, we would simply get the 10.000 Div Tech when we kill the target.
    On Leages, and Global Events, we would get Div Tech with the other rewards from each level. Something like this:
    Tier 1 NO Div Tech, Tier 2: 100 DT, Tier 3: 150 DT, Tier 4: 250 DT, Tier 5: 350 DT, Tier 6: 500 DT, Tier 7: 750 DT, Tier 8: 1.400 DT, Tier 9: 2.500 DT, Tier 10: 4.000 DT.

    This values are just exemples that I was able to think of without to much efford, so they obviously could be adjusted, but I really feel that this is type of rewards that would make people play more, and play diferent missions/activities.


    On other discussions that I had with other players, we kind of came to the conclusion that it's kind of easy to farm for good, or even very good rolls on gear/weapons, but then it becomes a nightmare to farm for those God rolls, and the diference in power between a very good buld and a fully optimized build is not that big, so, knowing that it's VERY hard to get that optimized build, and if we get it, it doesn't make us that much stronger, most players just farm to get some very good builds, do the content, and then don't bother to farm anymore, because it's mostly pointless.
    With na Optimazation sysstem like I prupose, that would be a reason to play diferent content every week, and actually keep improving our builds…


    On a "side note", we should get a Loot Chest at end of every mission (like the ones on CPs), that only open when we kill the boss and complete the mission, and the NUMBER of items inside that box should be diferent on EVERY mission, so that Lincoln Memorial is not clearly the best mission to farm/grind because it's so fast and has so many bosses.
    And also, the XP for every mission should be diferent, and the longer missions should give more XP then the slower ones, so that the "xp per minute" is the same, or close to that, on all missions.
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  2. #2
    Sircowdog1's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by PaulOaktree Go to original post

    Each extra recalibration would cost 10.000 Div Tech, and we could recalibrate how many stats/talents we want on any Gear/Weapons, but every week we could get Div Tech to make only TWO extra recalibrations.

    What's the purpose behind limiting how often a person can recalibrate? This isn't wow. We aren't paying by the month. Why not just let people play as much or as little as they want?
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  3. #3
    PaulOaktree's Avatar Member
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    Originally Posted by Sircowdog1 Go to original post
    What's the purpose behind limiting how often a person can recalibrate? This isn't wow. We aren't paying by the month. Why not just let people play as much or as little as they want?
    If we could earn as much Div Tech as we want, and do it like on TD1, for ME, it would be great, but I'm sure we would get to the point were the hardcore grinders would get fully optimized builds VERY quickly, and leave the game immediatly, and we would have the same issue we have now, VERY few people still playing, and a really hard time to find people with match making in some missions...
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  4. #4
    Merphee's Avatar Volunteer Moderator
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    Currently, the optimization station would kill all engagement with the game, because the frequency in which new items and new end game destinations that would reward those items are added to the game, is severely low. In other words, you'd have no place to take your new fully maxed build to stress test, and thus, have no new items to obtain that would then bring you back to the optimization station.
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  5. #5
    Optimization station only came out when Div2 was nearing release. The WHOLE point to keep you playing the game is to hunt for the gear. Its a Looter. Its the design of a looter type game. Content can't be put out fast enough to keep people playing alone, its not possible esp when you dont have power resets. So the gear grind is the main "Carrot" to keep people playing (like most other looters are). You introduce an optimization station, people will have god rolled items and have really zero reason to play since you've now taking the looter portion away and the game is fully clearable without even having the best gear.
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  6. #6
    Oatiecrumble's Avatar Senior Member
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  7. #7
    PaulOaktree's Avatar Member
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    Originally Posted by Merphee Go to original post
    Currently, the optimization station would kill all engagement with the game, because the frequency in which new items and new end game destinations that would reward those items are added to the game, is severely low. In other words, you'd have no place to take your new fully maxed build to stress test, and thus, have no new items to obtain that would then bring you back to the optimization station.
    You think that having THREE extra recalibrations every week would kill all engagement…?

    From MY experience (me playing and talking to other people), what's killing player engagements is not being able to improve our builds, or have those improvments be so rare and small, that it just doesn't makes a diference, and people just stop playing.

    I belong to a "Clan" that more then 400 members, with waiting list to get in, and allaways having A LOT of people to play ANYTHING. Now, we have a bit over 300, and the HUGE majority rarely logs in.

    When I try to match make, everything that is not the community "favorite" missios with the favorite target loot, it takes ages to get a full group.

    I believe that an Optimazation system, with limit access to the currency needed to use it, wold be the best way to have people play ALL the content, regularly.

    But that's MY OPINION, and I know is something that won't happen any time soon...
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  8. #8
    Sircowdog1's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by PaulOaktree Go to original post
    If we could earn as much Div Tech as we want, and do it like on TD1, for ME, it would be great, but I'm sure we would get to the point were the hardcore grinders would get fully optimized builds VERY quickly, and leave the game immediatly, and we would have the same issue we have now, VERY few people still playing, and a really hard time to find people with match making in some missions...
    This logic never makes sense to me.

    Do you know what happens under your suggestion? The "hardcore" just do their divtech runs then quit for the rest of the week. Or get irritated at being artificially limited and leave the game entirely anyway.

    What is with this obsession with stopping people from having fun? There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with people finishing a game and moving on to something else. Just release new content and people will come back. Telling players "Sorry, but you've had too much fun this week, so f*ck off until next week" is complete and total bullllllllllllsh*t.

    The only reason to do stuff like this is to pad the subscription model so you make more money each month. And guess what? Division isn't a subscription model.
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  9. #9
    PaulOaktree's Avatar Member
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    Originally Posted by Dragonmaster083 Go to original post
    Optimization station only came out when Div2 was nearing release. The WHOLE point to keep you playing the game is to hunt for the gear. Its a Looter. Its the design of a looter type game. Content can't be put out fast enough to keep people playing alone, its not possible esp when you dont have power resets. So the gear grind is the main "Carrot" to keep people playing (like most other looters are). You introduce an optimization station, people will have god rolled items and have really zero reason to play since you've now taking the looter portion away and the game is fully clearable without even having the best gear.
    As soon as someone mentions "Optimization table", everybody immediatly thinks of TD1. I was very clear that the system used in there was a BAD one, because it made everything GOD rolled in a week or so.

    A system that requires us to play A LOT, every week, and gives us a limited ammount of resources, would NOT Grant us with GOD rolled items very quickly.

    Me, and the HUGE majority of players that I speak to, rarely play the game, because there's really nothing left to do, except optimize our builds, but since it's EXTREMLY dificult to find exactly what we want, we just get bored/angry, and stop playing. We all have AMAZING builds, but it's SO hard to get that optimized pieces, that we just can't do it.

    If the majority of the (remaining) players prefer a system almost 100% based on RNG, then great for you all. Maybe the playerbase will drop so much that Ubisoft just pulls the plug on the franchise, and then we all "loose"...

    My main dificulty right now, is to find players for some missions, that I love to play, but don't like to play solo...
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  10. #10
    PaulOaktree's Avatar Member
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    Originally Posted by Sircowdog1 Go to original post
    This logic never makes sense to me.

    Do you know what happens under your suggestion? The "hardcore" just do their divtech runs then quit for the rest of the week. Or get irritated at being artificially limited and leave the game entirely anyway.

    What is with this obsession with stopping people from having fun? There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with people finishing a game and moving on to something else. Just release new content and people will come back. Telling players "Sorry, but you've had too much fun this week, so f*ck off until next week" is complete and total bullllllllllllsh*t.

    The only reason to do stuff like this is to pad the subscription model so you make more money each month. And guess what? Division isn't a subscription model.
    Well, right now we have NOTHING. We can't optimize builds, rellying on RNG just doesn't do it anymore, and there's less and less people playing the game.

    My sugestion is to give us a clear path to achieve what we want, have more players log in and play every week, but keep a limit so that the people that love to chase carrots don't flip their heads.

    Apperantly what I achieved with this sugestion, was to angry the people that want everything right now, like you, and the "other people" that love to chase to carrot, and think this is how the game should be...
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