The Division 2

[mgoblue]

Re: The Division 2

Because I like to explore. I've put in probably 12-15 hours into my character and I have only cleared the White House and East Downtown districts. I only just entered the Federal Triangle district, or whatever the hell it's called, last night. I like to explore buildings, I like to go through parking garages and down alleys. I do far more exploring than I do actual combat and missions.

So that pretty much kills matchmaking with randoms for me because I doubt many randoms are going to want to explore down alleys instead of fighting groups of enemies and doing missions.

I will run with groups if I have friends on. ODogg can testify to that, we were constantly in groups together in the first game, either ruling the Dark Zone or getting our asses handed to us on Challenging Difficulty in the Russian Consulate.

But when it comes to progressing through the story, I am extremely slow and methodical in my exploring between missions and points on the map. It can take me an hour to go 0.3km on the map from a safe house to a mission because I'm constantly stopping and exploring, checking out buildings or alleys I've never been down before, engaging a random group of enemies or a random activity (hostage rescue is always fun), etc.

So matchmaking with randoms or running with a group of friends through the game other than in missions, the dark zone or specific scenarios like control points or something, it likely wouldn't work because I'd want to to slowly explore while everyone else would want to go run off and do this activity or that mission.

If you are completely cool with spending literally hours doing nothing but exploring back alleys and random buildings for loot and goodies, occasional random activities like control points, public executions, etc, and MAYBE completing 1-3 missions/side missions in a real life 24 hour day, then by all means, let's team up and roll!

Otherwise, that's why I largely roll solo and only occasionally team up with friends and completely ignore teaming up with randoms. Also the reason why I largely play solo in other co-op games like Ghost Recon Wildlands and State of Decay.

So I can play this solo similar to those games you mentioned (something I also do, I cleared every mission in Wildlands solo)? It's still fun and not impossible or something? Games like Anthem or Destiny I feel are heavily group driven and thought this was sort of similar, but now it's seeming like I might like it....got me thinking.

[Smooth Pancakes]

Re: The Division 2

So I can play this solo similar to those games you mentioned (something I also do, I cleared every mission in Wildlands solo)? It's still fun and not impossible or something? Games like Anthem or Destiny I feel are heavily group driven and thought this was sort of similar, but now it's seeming like I might like it....got me thinking.

You can play this solo, I've been 100% solo so far since I first created my character,m and have reached level 10 and nearly cleared out the first three districts. Just be prepared as this game is definitely harder than the first one.

The biggest thing, the enemies are far more mobile and more tactical than the first game. You will have enemies (multiple enemies) try to flank you during a firefight to either get an open shot at you even if you're hiding behind cover, or they'll try to basically surround and encircle you and make you a sitting duck. That and unlike the first game, where the grenadiers only threw grenades at you, this time, those bastards have a grenade launcher, so they can fire those things a much longer distance and far more accurately than in the first game.

So if you do go solo, be prepared when you enter firefights the do a lot of diving from cover to cover to avoid grenades and don't hesitate to back up, retreat to cover further behind you and put more space between you and the enemies in front of you if they start advancing or you start to get overwhelmed.

And don't be surprised if you die a number of times simply because you lost track of one or two guys who took cover and then advanced on you behind a row of cars, successfully flanked you and now you find yourself being unloaded on by three different guys from three different directions and your armor and health is melting away before you can even respond.

So yes, you can go about things solo in the game, just be warned that the enemies will be far more mobile and tactical than the first game and that could give you some headaches and/or deaths early on until you learn to anticipate their various movements. Some missions may still be better off finding anyone, even a random, to team up with. There have been a couple missions that took me a long time to complete because I had to advance and fight through groups of enemies slowly to avoid getting overrun, flanked or killed, whereas if I had even just a second person with me, we could have split up side of a room and cut off any way for the enemies to flank us and force them to take us head on, where we would just be able to mow them down. Especially some of those elite named bosses at the end of missions, there's been a couple I wish I had a second or third person with me to help take the pressure and focus off of just me. But those are the only times I've felt I potentially needed to team up with someone, otherwise I've had no issues going solo.

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[Smooth Pancakes]

Re: The Division 2

The lighting is over of the biggest issues I have. You either go blind you and you can't see or it's so dark you can't see. Can't even set the brightness to help as it helps one way but hurts the other lol

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I've been hesitant to up my brightness level, because the sun especially can already be blinding in the early morning or late evening. There was one moment, I was walking down a street during the sunrise, and I couldn't see a thing because the entire street and buildings in front of me were completely hidden by the bright sunrise coming up in the middle of that exact road directly in my face.

And good luck taking cover somewhere inside a dark or dimly lit building and trying to see outside to shoot someone. All I see half the time is just whiteness and nothing else outside.

Yes a flashlight ! Would do wonders for those real dark areas. I know I have missed loot because of it.

Yeah, I really hope maybe it's something they can add in a patch, or maybe just go back and boost the light levels in some of those ridiculously dark areas.

The dynamic events are great. It’s one of the things that takes this a step above the first game. The city feels alive. You don’t really have to worry about them except for what you have to do for projects. They are essentially optional and once you take a district they seem to happen less. They get even cooler once endgame hits imo.

Agreed! I'm really loving these dynamic events. This is exactly what the first game was missing. Instead of a billion go restart the water or go reboot the equipment on this roof that was basically copied and pasted into every district in the first game and essentially was just filler stuff to do, the dynamic events keep things interesting.

Now yes, it's technically still just copy and paste as I've only seen public executions, territory control, hostage rescues, enemy supply drops and propaganda broadcasts as the only option so far for the dynamic events, but they still feel different enough because they're in different streets or buildings or areas. One hostage rescue I did in East Downtown was inside a below street parking garage. Another hostage rescue in Federal Triangle was in a book store. Each required different approaches and felt like completely different challenges despite ultimately just being a hostage rescue event.

But now instead of just meeting a random group of enemies walking down the street as my only real interaction with factions outside of missions and side missions, like in the first game, I feel like I'm truly in a district that is being controlled and overrun by the Hyenas or True Sons. I feel like I'm fighting to try and take back and secure the district and fight the Hyenas out of it by trying to take over the control point, by rescuing hostages when I come across them, by completing the tasks at the safe house and drawing out the district boss. It gives you a feeling that you're actually making a difference in each district.

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[peter42O]

Re: The Division 2

Thanks Ricky for the info. I don't remember gaining XP in the first game at launch after hitting level 30. All I remember was it being 30 and that's it.

The world feels alive and I agree with all of that. I'm simply not a fan of random events. Never have been and never will be but I am interested to see how they change once the Black Tusk takes over.

Like I said though, few minor nitpicks. Outside of always sticking to cover when rolling out of cover, it's the special ammo being automatic that im not a fan of at all. Also, I realized that the perks from water, etc. is gone. Always thought that the water and food from the original game should have been made to regain set amounts of health.

Lighting wise, except for once or twice, haven't had any problems with the lighting in the game. The once or twice was mainly the sun shining in my face while trying to shoot so I had to find a different spot. Darkness wise, I don't recall having this issue at all and a flashlight would be cool but I would rarely use it because I would think that the enemies would see you coming from a mile away.

Excellent game though overall. Will get back to playing on Thursday night or more likely, Friday afternoon.

[johnnyg713]

Re: The Division 2

quick question. Are you supposed to use higher level weapons even though their damage may be less than older weapons? For example, Im level 6 but using the lullaby shotgun 2.2k damage level 1.

[87Birdman]

Re: The Division 2

quick question. Are you supposed to use higher level weapons even though their damage may be less than older weapons? For example, Im level 6 but using the lullaby shotgun 2.2k damage level 1.

I think I was using the lullaby till level 6 or 7 before I changed to a different gun. It depends on the type of gun you want to use. I'm at level 22 and I just switched to a burst fire rifle because it was high end and will probably go back to my pink/ purple season instead. I like having the full automatic of my assault rifle or SMG. Plus I pair them with a high damage marksman rifle.

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[NoleFan]

Re: The Division 2

I like this one so far though I’ve only made it to the White House and went to unlock the theatre settlement.

Felt like I should go ahead and finish the Division 1 story before continuing. I know they aren’t related but still.


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[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: The Division 2

quick question. Are you supposed to use higher level weapons even though their damage may be less than older weapons? For example, Im level 6 but using the lullaby shotgun 2.2k damage level 1.

Not necessarily, but there's more to it than simply damage.

A shotgun putting out 2,000 damage with an RPM of like 200 isn't going to put out as much damage as an machine gun that does 1,000 damage with an RPM of 500 for example.

Also obviously depends on the style you're going for. I'm at level 12 now and am still using the lullaby as my second gun when people get up close to me. With my friends being higher levels than me, when I join their squad, it bumps my level up and increases the strength of the lullaby with it, so for example, when I'm playing with my level 20 friend, the lullaby's damage increases to 8-10,000, and in the Dark Zone, it jumps up to 67,000.

I've been running with the lullaby and an LMG for suppression so far while 1 or 2 of my squad mates generally sit in the back with marksman rifles and the other tries to flank while I'm suppressing.

[ricky24]

Re: The Division 2

Does the armor also scale when joining players above you? Last I knew that was bugged and you could do damage with guns but you would get one shotted.

[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: The Division 2

Does the armor also scale when joining players above you? Last I knew that was bugged and you could do damage with guns but you would get one shotted.

I can't say for sure but it seems like it might be kinda hit or miss with the armor. There's been times where I've been one-shotted (though it may have been a sniper in those instances; I'm not entirely sure) and there's been times where I've felt totally fine taking on level 19 AI with my level 10 or 11 at the time self.

[mestevo]

Re: The Division 2

I think they're are issues with this that they need to iron out for sure. Except for the extremes I actually really appreciate the difficulty.

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[Yeah...THAT Guy]

Re: The Division 2

I think they're are issues with this that they need to iron out for sure. Except for the extremes I actually really appreciate the difficulty.

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Yeah, they've made the missions take some serious thought and effort to beat which I definitely prefer over the usual

[Mabster]

Re: The Division 2

With the difficulty of the AI now it'd be so awesome if this game had the nemisis systems from Shadow of War and Diablo 3. Any baddie who kills you gets upgraded a color or turns into a named miniboss after a couple kills. Then there's a chance he will cross over into a friend's game world where they can get extra xp and drops for avenging your death. Could work it into the bounties somehow.

[canes21]

Re: The Division 2

Got to play more today since my buddy finally got it. Had so much fun. Very very very good looking game that is optimized well. Looking forward to playing some more. Already got to level 6 tonight.

[cfiore99]

Re: The Division 2

Dumb question alert! So I have just started and I was about to rescue someone in a hotel, I killed Saint and right after I had to pause because of one of my kids, I went back and I had to hit continue, when I did I was back at the theater??? So now I have to go through that whole thing again. Is there no way to save my progress mid mission I guess?