The Division

I think we're just gonna be having a hard time cutting through the Gameplay and Story Segregation.

Are these nobodies guarding some god forsaken outpost supposed to be armed to the teeth with last generation Russian gear? My experience with Tom Clancy settings and listening to background chatter tells me no and that there are some major fucking red flags here.

But my RPG experiences tell me that they're probably just scaled to my level and to the zone I'm exploring. And that their loot drops and reward chests are randomized and mean absolutely nothing in relation to the plot and game at large.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

edited 2nd Feb '16 4:25:06 PM by LeGarcon

The devs mentioned briefly during one of their talks that there is some sort of conspiracy behind the disease outbreak and other things at play. I think there will be a reason for those thugs to be better armed. The random street thugs all still seem to have nothing more then hand guns. Of course full launch game could change that.

Your instinct that we are not quite doing the good work as we fully believe is likely spot on and might be a point further into the story as we start to uncover what happened.

edited 2nd Feb '16 4:31:01 PM by TuefelHundenIV

A possible open beta in February, you say? Count me in, if it's actually happening.

That could be interesting indeed. We shall see. I am largely happy to wait for launch day as I have other games to wrap up.

What happened is the Italian Xbox LIVE Marketplace showed an ad for an upcoming open beta and that Xbox One owners had 24 hour early access.

There were also some tweets about it.

But it was all taken down almost immediately so only screenshots remain.

Think the date was like 18th to 21st or something. I'd have to check and go fetch the screens.

And lo, the leak was true.

Xbox One people get to play on the 18th and everyone else starts on the 19th. It ends on the 21st.

This beta is going to be open and will have more content than the closed beta so those of us who've already played it have reason to play this one. Plus there's gonna be goodies for those who participate. I hope it's a hat.

Also there will be a small patch that lets you use the old beta launcher so no need to redownload anything.

edited 9th Feb '16 11:08:31 AM by LeGarcon

And there was much rejoicing.

Well, okay, probably not much, but I'm happy.

But mooooom, I dont want to download 30gb again. :c

Yeah, I really regret deleting the old launcher.

I'm redownloading it now.

Will the old one still work?

Yes, they said there will be a small patch that will let it work when the open beta starts.

Errrruuhhhh, 30gb. Hope it doesn't dick me around like the last large download I did.

How long will this 2nd beta last? Because if it's only for 2 days then I'll just pass.

EDIT: NVM, I just read Garcon's post, it does end in 2 days. Well, crap.

edited 9th Feb '16 2:58:06 PM by SgtRicko

They extended the last one, there's a good chance they'll extend this one.

It's not a lot of time, no, and I won't even have as much time as I normally would to play on those couple of days,but I'll still be having a go. I don't really want to buy this without trying it first.

More opened up content. I am in to see what they share. I want to see if they open up the skill trees and we can expand security and tech.

I was a clever monkey and kept the beta client :P I was going to hold on to it until launch just in case something like this popped up.

They said there's a new story mission and while they didn't mention it in this beta they admitted to cranking down the NPC spawns during the last one in free roam by a lot for PVP server testing reasons.

Hopefully they'll have restored them to normal.

edited 9th Feb '16 4:44:27 PM by LeGarcon

I want to see customization be in this time.

No word on customization but we've got a new trailer about some of the factions.

Rioters are your basic looters and people out looking to survive by any means necessary.

Rikers are inmates from Riker's Island which is about the nastiest prison in the US. These are the career criminals and murderers and the like. Nasty nasty guys.

Cleaners are this weird fire death cult largely made of blue collar nobodies. They think they have to cleanse everything with fire to save the city from the virus.

And the Last Man Battalion seem to be made up of soldiers who take the whole martial law thing way too far. I get the feeling they aren't acting in any official capacity especially considering that The Division is explicitly opposing them.

I also get the feeling these aren't the only factions we'll see.

Although to be entirely honest I'm posting this because I'm mildly drunk and the Cleaner's stereotypical garbage man voice makes me laugh for some reason.

edited 10th Feb '16 2:56:39 AM by LeGarcon

Neat. I am betting last man is more crazy militia and ex military types.

Yeah this looks post apocalypse and thus would justify the run and gun stuff if it turns out we're not "gov't mandated" per se.

Still find the whole real world / gun it all down thing a little bit jarring, but then again the character isn't a uniformed, clearly identifiable member of the military / authorities, thus Law of Armed Conflict and all that jazz is fuzzy. Still, got the whole self defence thing down pat.

I'll probably grab a copy at some stage, see what you guys make of it first as the plot could be interesting and the factions seem fairly varied.

As for weaponry... well, you'd be surprised. Northern Ireland regularly turns up large armourie's of smuggled weapons, some WW 2 legacy and some last gen Russian assault weaponry. And NI doesn't have the same attitude to gun ownership as the USA. But yeah, agree that the game should be more hand guns and shotguns, at least in terms of common gear.

Still getting quite the Alpha Protocol gunplay vibe from this - not entirely bad but still a tad jarring.

Looks good though and will see what crazy sci fi / modern messing of Realpolitik is involved here.

Could always try out the beta if you're not certain.

I know I wasn't sold until I played it for myself.

My PS 4 is damn near out of memory... may try it though.

The thing is New York, USA is not Ireland and that kind of weaponry is very uncommon in the US outside of the military, police, museums, and a handful of collectors. We are seeing bad guys with not only full automatics but full automatic highly uncommon weapons to begin with. Like RPK 74's or TMP's, or full auto pistols.

Their really isn't much gray area here as none of the bad guys go beyond the typical shoot player/random stranger on sight pattern of behavior. The closest we get to any sort of gray is the rioters and even then they are shooting at just about everything. Everyone else makes it pretty clear they are unapologetic asshats, lunatics, and what looks like paramilitary SOF readers.

edited 10th Feb '16 3:54:45 AM by TuefelHundenIV

There's clear indications that baddies have looted NYPD and National Guard armories. That's plenty of M4s, MP5s, sniper rifles, DMRs and assorted other handguns and shotguns. Plus body armor and grenades.

This is also New York, Brighton Beach is here. i.e. the biggest foothold the Russian mob has in the US. It's more than possible they've been moving last generation RGF surplus into the city.

Not to mention the domestic illegal arms trade. Take it from me how easy it is to steal a Glock or an AR, file the serial numbers off, and then convert it to full auto. Those end up in cities all the time.

And then of course there is the strong possibility that some of the crims are being supported by a foreign actor. Don't forget that a Russian expat is believed to be behind the outbreak and that the Russian Consulate is suspiciously well fortified and unaffected.

Honestly all things considered I'd say everyone's about as armed as I'd expect them to be in the post apocalypse.

edited 10th Feb '16 4:12:29 AM by LeGarcon