In yesterday’s State of the Game stream on Twitch, the developers have revealed a first insight and some key aspects of Update 1.4 and a go-live date for the Public Test Server. Also new, magic tricks at its finest (seriously) at the very end of this epsiode!
Contents
Update 1.4: First Insight
While the developers are still working hard on Update 1.4, here are 3 key aspects that will hopefully improve the overall gameplay experience.
- Natural character progression: With new Gear Sets, item levels and the Gear Score mechanic, the time to kill NPCs as well as their damage output was significantly increased due to certain factors, which not only but also affected the difficulty scaling. No more will this scaling be only based on just health and damage, but they want to make sure that it feels natural to the progression of your character and the system that surrounds it.Smooth progression and a good balancing system behind it, that’s what the developers are currently looking into. Also interesting is the note that
… the gap between our most “geared” players and those that we would consider to have an average loadout is far too big. This is something that we will need to adjust as well.
- Loot Rewards: Obviously, nothing goes without loot – no loot means no progression. Besides adjusting the loot drops based on each difficulty level, also the loot weighting will be changed as you should be able to obtain that loot by playing the game and activities as you like to do.
- Shooter: The mixture of shooter and RPG is what makes The Division so interesting and strong and that’s why gunplay along with cover based elements will be improved throughout the game.
Although the points listed above are only a small portion of the upcoming update, they are probably the most import ones in addition to bugfixing to bring the game back on track.
Lockable Items
Have you ever sold an item that you regretted afterwards? Besides an already announced and confirmed buy-back option at vendors, Update 1.4 will also introduce an item-locking feature in order to prevent them from either being sold or deconstructed. This info was tweeted by @Naked_Cowboy, one of the Elite Task Force members.
Public Test Server Go-Live
We have a go-live date for the Public Test Server! The first technical test for the PTS will start on Thursday, September 15th. This first test will be used to test the infrastructure of the server and ensure its stability. Only PC players who sent in an application to the Elite Task Force will be able to participate in this first test. All other PC players will be able to join on Monday, September 19th.
Worth to note is that there will be no NDA which would allow you to create new content (videos, images, streaming) based on this test before the next update will go live somewhere in October. You can find an official FAQ about the Public Test Server here.
Elite Task Force
The Elite Task Force workshop has ended today. If you are wondering about the activities the invited community members were involved in, here is a short agenda of those things:
- Current State of the Game
- Update 1.4 discussions and the rebalancing effort
- Testing and feedback
- Discussion and workshops
Agent Intel
A new thread in the Agent Intel sub forum has also been created! It’s about sharing your opinion which ones of the 13 currently existing Gear Sets are the most mechanically interesting ones, regardless of how strong they actually are. Also Gear Sets will most likely change, so even if you like the idea of the Nomad Gear Set, let them know about it and why you do so!
Special Report
Next Tuesday, September 13th at 07:00 PM CEST, another Special Report about Update 1.4 will be hosted live on Twitch.
