Dark Zone Stories

[Oh. daesu]

Yeah, i was tripping over a lot. Well, more than usual.

 

[ThePassionateGamer]

Those 200+ GS players must have had no clue of the mission or a REALLY bad day something like Badhairday for gamers....Badgameday maybe. :10_wink:

Sure Russian Consulate is on of the more difficuilt missions but I can't rember that I ever died that much on it with 4 players in and two of them beeing 200+ maybe they were using Exploits or  Glitches to get their gear and now they lack the personal expirience you get from grinding. I don't know but it sounded like hell of a test for your patience. :10_wink:

I do not mind if a player with a lower GS struggles in a challenge mission and has to be revived from time to time. I struggled too with low GS weapons on those missions. I have never kicked a player for his gear score when it was at least halfway reasonable (I don't think that I could carry a GS 89 player through Russian Consulate) and carried them through challenge missions if I could when I was the only "higher" GS player in the group. Too bad that Singapore is rather far away from my timezone. I could try to help you gear up otherwise. But hey with the upcoming patch each of us should have an easier time gearing up.

 

[RimBlock]

Its only 6 hours  :10_wink: .  Weekends may be possible if you are up for it.

I think the problem is that GS are not a great indication of gear level.  There is such a range of stats within the basic levels and one piece of high end 214 can sqew the average GS used by the game.  When it comes down to it, a 215 set of kneepads may not be so helpful when running with a 163 gun  :12_slight_smile: .

Me, I am 185 on all but I would class the items as bottom end of the 185 scale and generally get to re-roll 1->2 of them from the basic 182 BPs I currently have per evening to try and get something better.  Boss drops I get seem to be predominantly 163s hence trying to team up for challenging or high level DZ bosses..

For me, my weapons talents are all over the place and need something like 2300 Firearms, 1860 Stamina and 2200 tech which I am having an issue trying to reach with the equipment and mods I have.  My Armour is only giving around 50% mitigation and my health is pretty low at 33k but my tech is around 27k and my firearms is giving 120k DPS on my MP7 and 110K on my M44 (prefer my M1A due to RoF but it is only 163). 

 

[ThePassionateGamer]

Its only 6 hours  :10_wink: .  Weekends may be possible if you are up for it.

I think the problem is that GS are not a great indication of gear level.  There is such a range of stats within the basic levels and one piece of high end 214 can sqew the average GS used by the game.  When it comes down to it, a 215 set of kneepads may not be so helpful when running with a 163 gun  :12_slight_smile: .

Me, I am 185 on all but I would class the items as bottom end of the 185 scale and generally get to re-roll 1->2 of them from the basic 182 BPs I currently have per evening to try and get something better.  Boss drops I get seem to be predominantly 163s hence trying to team up for challenging or high level DZ bosses..

For me, my weapons talents are all over the place and need something like 2300 Firearms, 1860 Stamina and 2200 tech which I am having an issue trying to reach with the equipment and mods I have.  My Armour is only giving around 50% mitigation and my health is pretty low at 33k but my tech is around 27k and my firearms is giving 120k DPS on my MP7 and 110K on my M44 (prefer my M1A due to RoF but it is only 163). 

Feel free to add me: Uplay Nick = Alex4nder-1978

But I do have to be honest here. I have a steady growing friendlist since I visited an old TS3 Server which I used when I actively played BF4. Many of them also play The Division so I tend to have more and more people to play with every day. Long story short is you might find me more often then not in a full group. If that happens just text me via Uplay and I'll tell you if I can open a space for you or leave the group to form a new one with you or that I don't have the time right now. Just don't wonder if I do not react to an ingame invite. When I am doing DZ runs or challenge missions I just can't leave a group the moment I get an invite. I tend to answer via Uplay chat asap though.

 

[RimBlock]

Feel free to add me: Uplay Nick = Alex4nder-1978

But I do have to be honest here. I have a steady growing friendlist since I visited an old TS3 Server which I used when I actively played BF4. Many of them also play The Division so I tend to have more and more people to play with every day. Long story short is you might find me more often then not in a full group. If that happens just text me via Uplay and I'll tell you if I can open a space for you or leave the group to form a new one with you or that I don't have the time right now. Just don't wonder if I do not react to an ingame invite. When I am doing DZ runs or challenge missions I just can't leave a group the moment I get an invite. I tend to answer via Uplay chat asap though.

Thanks, will do.  I need to get to grips with UPlay chat I think.  Shame The Division doesn't have a better voip system to talk to individuals you are not next to and add to your friends list by using the [tab] when looking at another agent.

Fully understand the 'Bit busy now' point  :12_slight_smile: . 

 

[supercat]

This is a Dark Zone story from a few weeks ago. Apparently there was a Rogue learned his lesson the hard way.  :4_joy:

I teamed up with two others and we were pretty much just scavenging around. Everything went smooth until we were trying to extract at DZ01 park and struggling the respawning enemies around. A guy was stalking us and shot us from behind and stole our stuff. At first and second, it was okay. But then again he did that for the third time.

So what can we do, right? By the moment I and my friend respawned, he was still around the block and just claimed a Supply Drop. When he's trying to run, he saw me coming, so he hid behind a car. But he had a bad habit, which was never looking around (although he knew I had a team) and that resulted getting smacked by my teammate from behind.

From here on, things only got worse. We literally taught his stubborn head a lesson until he dies the next second he respawned out of DZ gate either get shot in the face or get shot by me in the back. Boy, imagine if he wasn't a hard head and join my team instead. He would have finished his session with loots in hand.

 

[RimBlock]

Good to see a rogue getting smacked now and then from good tactics.

We did some grinding in the DZ just to get the three extracts the other day and met another solo guy (GS202 or so).   Surprisingly, he joined our group and we went off killing the AI.   We quickly got an AI killing rhythm going in the lower DZ levels, going around and killing groups by the library, lower left extraction zone and Korea Town when we hit  someone who just floored myself and @Oh. daesu, snatched our stuff and ran.  The other player who joined us, 'Bear', chased  after him as we respawned but lost him.  We found him ('Par-pa' or something like that) again as three players came in to a Div tech place we had just gone in to upstairs and gunned straight for us.  I managed to get away and met the others in the safe house to find the rogue team just prowling outside.   We did the honorable thing and skipped servers :8_laughing: .  Unfortunately as Bear was not in the friends list we couldn't hook him back in but I managed to send him a friend request which he later accepted.

We did a bit more grinding trying to get through the Russian Embassy on challenge mode and had a hard time at the downstairs room with the 3 shield guys (and seeker mines flowing out the doors) and a blocker getting in to the round library. We must have been trying for an hour+ but we did get to the point where the three of us who seem to be teaming up fairly regularly plus another friend were actually talking tactics.   We ended up trying to work out roles for each of us and which talent are best and how to go about it.  Unfortunately we finally decided we needed better equipment and stats (my health was only 33k at the time) to go further.  

The next day we all found each other again and helped one person level another character they wanted to use by running hard missions with him.  He went from lvl 15 -> 19.  It was good to take some of the previous nights revenge on the lesser AI.  Felt a bit more like a run and gun and was actually quite fun.

At the end of the weekend I am now halfway on level 49 for the DZ.  I got the MP5-N blueprint and have been rolling builds of that.  I very much liked the MP7 but the MP5 has way more ammo (with extended mags) and so I can take 1 lvl 32 guys down with a single mag (2 on a good day) which was not possible with my MP7.

 The GS182 M44 from the blueprint grew on me and then I got a very nice FW M1A (GS163) from Lexington which I have been trying out (used to love the M1A due to the rapid fire rate).  It is down 10K damage per bullet on the M44 but has some great talents like brutal, a much higher fire rate and they end with the same DPS once the mods are installed.  Tried it last night but am sorta leaning back to the M44 now as it forces me to be more calm and measured with the short rather than just emptying a clip quickly.  Unfortunately I had two M44s and deconstructed one to later find out that is was the better one  :11_blush: .    Tried re-rolling after a lot of part collecting and got crap all.  I will stick with the M1A for now and keep trying to re-roll a decent M44 again or fingers crossed for one dropping.  

Oh and got the triple stat holster and a better backpack from the DZ gear vendor at the BoO.  Back up on stats again with DPS around 130 on pri and sec, health on 57k and Tech down a bit to 20k.  Damage mitigation is slowly climbing at 59%.  The build is very much sniper / support and seems to confuse others who expect everyone to run an assault type role.  It is fairly weak to being unexpectedly shot in the back by rogues in the DZ though  :10_wink: .

I may also setup a team speak server as the prox VOIP is a dead giveaway in the DZ.  Anyone else using private coms for The Division ?.

 

[Xeromaus]

@HHHope and I picked up our missing squadmates tonight, @ppr_car-1 and his friend Buzz. Planned on just doing a bit of DZ farming to see how they fit in, and then things got different.

HHHope mentioned he was in a pvp mood, and that set the tone for the night. We started hunting down rogues, but those were scarce in our phase, so we became the hunters instead. A few trivial player kills later and we had a decent (but not manhunt) timer going. The scent was in the water, and it took no time at all for other 4 man squads to show up.

The first 4man that showed up was nothing to talk about, they got wasted quickly and we ran on.

The next went quite differently...

They showed up as rogues already, and the battle was tough. We'd down one, his squadmates would pick him up. They downed one of us, we'd pick him up. Went that way for a minute or two, then some non-rogue solo players starting showing up. We mostly ignored them, but both our squads now had a two front fight going on. Back and forth some more, a few solos got wasted, then ANOTHER 4 man squad showed up and immediately went rogue, likely by hitting one of the solo guys. Now it was a three front fight, and it was just utter CHAOS. There wasn't a direction to fire in that didn't result in hitting a player.

With the screen filled with players looking to make us dead, we found another gear and took over. One by one, rogues and solos alike fell. Some got revived, but most were quickly dispatched with a follow up gun butt or sustained fire. After what seemed like forever, but in reality was likely 5 minutes or so, we were the last men standing (all four of us)...but now we were maxed out on manhunt. We took off across the map, taking no chances and gunning down anyone unlucky enough to be in our path. Finally finding a nice spot to dig in, we set up for a coming war...but it never came. No one came to try their luck, and we just ended up waiting out the manhunt status.

The rush was real, we all wanted more....it was too good to stop now.

After a quick restock, we were back out in the DZ looking for trouble. It seemed most players had changed phases or ran off to far flung corners. We barely saw anyone. Slightly despondent, we went back to a farming route, gathering 9 pieces each and looking to extract in the center of the map. As we were clearing the area, we got rushed by another group of four. Never saw em coming. We were lit and dead before anyone even called out what was going on. Now we were angry.

We took a few seconds too long getting back to the extract site to reclaim our items, but we DID catch sight of them going down the street. It was on. We caught up and slaughtered them in much the same fashion they had done us. A few boss kills later, and we were back at the center extraction. The area was cleared, the chopper was due in 20 seconds or so, and again the other 4man showed up, but we were expecting them this time. Another short fight ensued, highlighted by completing the extraction DURING the 4v4 fight, and a few extra player kills later we were on manhunt again.

We decided to go back to the same point we had dug into the previous time, but this time, shortly after arriving, there were no less than 9 agents on our tail. We fought as hard as we could, but in the end, sheer numbers under the cover of a security link or three took us out..but it was far from over...

Being close to a checkpoint when we died, we decided to take the fight right back to them. Unfortunately, the crowd had grown slightly. Undeterred, we pushed into them anyway, downing agent after agent...but they were close to the respawn as well now. It was a 4 man rez train versus what seemed no less than a ten man rez train. After most of us had died twice however, we were the only ones with sigs available. Again we dove into the pile, and this time they knew they were toast. The pile temporarily scattered, and that was all we needed. We dealt with the smaller pile that remained, then took off after the runners. One by one, they started to fall. Unfortunately, so did I. My three remaining squadmates pushed back to our dig in, and my idiot self rezzed across the map instead of near them. Now I had 1000 feet to run, but at least my squad made it back in time...just before the cluster reformed and they were holding off 6-8 agents at a time again. When I finally got back within sight of them, it looked grim. My squad was being pushed as hard as possible, grenades everywhere, flashbang stickys going off like clockwork, healing dust all over... but at least I just looked like I was coming to join the pile against my squadmates now.

A few shots and an airburst seeker later, I was on rogue and in with my team, though I was downed in the process. They quickly picked me up, and for the next 5-10 minutes, we slaughtered a constantly respawning flood of agents. Every now and again, one or two in the pile would realize how much XP they were losing to us, and just wander off. It wasn't long before the entire pile had come to their senses and left us be. By then, the entire phase knew that the 4 manhunts were not to be messed with, and we were happy to just wait out the timer and take the xp/currency.

The rest of the night went by pretty uneventfully, mostly due to our phase being REALLY low on agents after those fights. We packed in our last few items to cap our stashes at 30, and finally left the DZ...but what a night it was. Again like an idiot, I forgot to save the video from any of the fights...I PRAY HHHope, Buzz, or Car got at least one of them on film to post here or send me.

 

[RimBlock]

Whilst I am not a fan of groups running around the DZ shooting down solos for the lolz, sounds like the retaliation battles were truly epic.  This is something I have not seen when I play as people tend to go rogue when my back is turned and then just run.  The servers do not seem to be populated enough to have a large battle.  Would be good if  agents in the DZ got calls for assistance against rogues when other agents engage.  Would lead to more situations like this as solos know they are not piling in alone against a rogue squad.

The other downside is one you mention about loosing XP with no cap on the amount you loose.  If you would loose XP down to the start of your current level rather than it knocking you down levels as well, I think a lot more people would be happy to stick around and have a longer attempt.

Sounds like an awesome night for your team   :1_grinning: .

 

[Oh. daesu]

We did a bit more grinding trying to get through the Russian Embassy on challenge mode and had a hard time at the downstairs room with the 3 shield guys (and seeker mines flowing out the doors) and a blocker getting in to the round library. We must have been trying for an hour+ but we did get to the point where the three of us who seem to be teaming up fairly regularly plus another friend were actually talking tactics.   We ended up trying to work out roles for each of us and which talent are best and how to go about it.  Unfortunately we finally decided we needed better equipment and stats (my health was only 33k at the time) to go further.  

Whilst we failed at the challenge, it was awesome fun. 

Normally, the Russian Consulate is quite doable for the squad we had. Gear was good enough, we communicated, worked together, and tried to problem solve with varying tactics. Yet that challenge mode just wanted to bust our balls. And unfortunately left us hobbling off into the sunset (or sunrise) in defeat.

The other times I've done RC on challenge didn't involve such spamming of seeker mines. On point on the library stairs, while I was waiting for a revive, I occupied my time using push-to-talk to give seeker mine warnings as they went up the stairs, "seeker mine"... "seeker mine"... "another seeker mine".

And hacked seeker mines coming back were  down right OP'ed.

Whilst I am not a fan of groups running around the DZ shooting down solos for the lolz, ..

Have you tried it?  :1_grinning:

 

[Xeromaus]

Whilst I am not a fan of groups running around the DZ shooting down solos for the lolz, sounds like the retaliation battles were truly epic.  This is something I have not seen when I play as people tend to go rogue when my back is turned and then just run.  The servers do not seem to be populated enough to have a large battle.  Would be good if  agents in the DZ got calls for assistance against rogues when other agents engage.  Would lead to more situations like this as solos know they are not piling in alone against a rogue squad.

The other downside is one you mention about loosing XP with no cap on the amount you loose.  If you would loose XP down to the start of your current level rather than it knocking you down levels as well, I think a lot more people would be happy to stick around and have a longer attempt.

Sounds like an awesome night for your team   :1_grinning: .

This was the first time we REALLY hunted as rogues at all, but in our defense:

Very few dropped items

We didn't really have time to run out and grab their stuff (so they were just trading keys/currency with each other or getting their own back)

Every kill past "manhunt" they were coming at US (or we couldn't risk them firing first if we were running lol)

...but yeah, it was AMAZINGLY fun to have a battle royale like that. I wish we could do it more often, but so few want to fight back. It was a special kind of night.

 

[Xeromaus]

Whilst I am not a fan of groups running around the DZ shooting down solos for the lolz, sounds like the retaliation battles were truly epic. 

Have you tried it?  :1_grinning:

Daesu makes a GREAT point, but so does Rim. I've personally NEVER seen a DZ phase with that much PvP action going on, even just on the map. 12+ rogues going at it for 5-10 minutes, or even more non-hostiles banding together to fight a group pf rogues?? Not even once.

@g1nt3r we should find a way to organize DZ battle nights or something. No idea how it would be done, but how much traffic would THAT generate here?!? Even if it was just one night a month/week we all agreed to just go nuts in the DZ with no hard feelings the next day.

 

[RimBlock]

Not tried as I feel the pain and the 'treat others...' mantra kicks in.

Having said that, I would happily team up to go after that 'Par-Pa' and 'The guy in the red jacket' team cos they deserve it  :8_laughing:   .

 

[RimBlock]

Whilst we failed at the challenge, it was awesome fun. 

Yep, fully agree, great fun.  

 

[RimBlock]

@g1nt3r we should find a way to organize DZ battle nights or something. No idea how it would be done, but how much traffic would THAT generate here?!? Even if it was just one night a month/week we all agreed to just go nuts in the DZ with no hard feelings the next day.

Sounds like a pretty good plan.  Would have to make it globally time zone friendly though  :10_wink: .  Getting everyone in to a single phase would be interesting.  Maybe have two 4 man teams enter the dark zone, once they were all in together have them disband and then pull in 3 other friends each and then, if needed, do the same again until everyone was in.

I suspect we may cause a few issues for the servers though as it gets popular and some are likely to hit the "server is full, transitioning..."  message so we would have to work out how many per server is possible.

 

[Xeromaus]

Sounds like a pretty good plan.  Would have to make it globally time zone friendly though  :10_wink: .  Getting everyone in to a single phase would be interesting.  Maybe have two 4 man teams enter the dark zone, once they were all in together have them disband and then pull in 3 other friends each and then, if needed, do the same again until everyone was in.

I suspect we may cause a few issues for the servers though as it gets popular and some are likely to hit the "server is full, transitioning..."  message so we would have to work out how many per server is possible.

True. What I see as the "endgame" of this though is everyone just knowing that, say Wednesday, is the day you either skip DZ farming, or go in ready to fight EVERYONE.

 

[Oh. daesu]

Not tried as I feel the pain and the 'treat others...' mantra kicks in.

Having said that, I would happily team up to go after that 'Par-Pa' and 'The guy in the red jacket' team cos they deserve it  :8_laughing:   .

You can enjoy the rush, without being a dick about it (as they say).

they werent so bad. Though you two exchange comments in Chinese.

@g1nt3r we should find a way to organize DZ battle nights or something. No idea how it would be done, but how much traffic would THAT generate here?!? Even if it was just one night a month/week we all agreed to just go nuts in the DZ with no hard feelings the next day.

This.

Sounds like a pretty good plan.  Would have to make it globally time zone friendly though  :10_wink: .  Getting everyone in to a single phase would be interesting.  Maybe have two 4 man teams enter the dark zone, once they were all in together have them disband and then pull in 3 other friends each and then, if needed, do the same again until everyone was in.

I suspect we may cause a few issues for the servers though as it gets popular and some are likely to hit the "server is full, transitioning..."  message so we would have to work out how many per server is possible.

Yeah tz can be a disappointment, but i like the thought of others pulling it off.

The rest, practical suggestion  :10_wink:

 

[RimBlock]

You can enjoy the rush, without being a dick about it (as they say).

they werent so bad. Though you two exchange comments in Chinese.

3 on 1 twice (when I was on my own) and then when we were teamed up a couple of times.  They always attacked when they were not rogue.  Not so good really  :10_wink: .   I don't speak Chinese (even after 10 years in Singapore).  Have to leave that for my wife and kids.  Any speaking I would have done to them would have been in English but not with the kids around  :11_blush: .  

They were just playing the game from a pretty low risk position (pretty well equipped) and then magnifying that with the 'in the back' style of the coward it just seems a bit disappointing.  TBH I have no problems with that really as long as they are fine with others also doing the same to them and giving them the same chance when they are solo.  The fact is that many players, like most bullies, tend to only play up when in a position of power.

 At least when we got wrecked by "TheAussie" we could see him coming and we knew he was a rogue.  We chose to fight and die  :8_laughing: . 

Had an interesting encounter with another 3 person team a few days ago.  They went to walk past me then must have spotted me and decided to attack. I preempt them, pop survivor link and run.  Down the road (get tagged) in to an alley and up over a fence, straight and then left and over another fence and then see the safe house in front.  "Cannot enter whilst in combat' and turn to see 3 of them rushing at me.  One pops survivor (mine is still recharging) and mow me down.

 Whilst the chase was good, not being able to easily look back is a major issue.  I guess the smarter money may have been to run through a building of AI, and get them aggro'd so when the pursuers come through they may get slowed down by an unexpected fight.  That is if I don't get killed first  :8_laughing: .

 

[HHHope]

Do what we did last night and try and tell me it's not the most fun you'll have in a video game. The rush is so real. We were shooting innocent bystander farming it didn't matter. 

 

[RimBlock]

Do what we did last night and try and tell me it's not the most fun you'll have in a video game. The rush is so real. We were shooting innocent bystander farming it didn't matter. 

Sure, I can understand it but I am concerned that the desire to sate the need for short term gratification may result in the game dying an early death as people get sick and tired of being shot in the back by people they have no chance of killing.

By all means, fighting people of your own level and have a challenging and rewarding battle is a core part of what I also think the DZ should be.  Fighting teams of players ganging up on you after you go rogue sounds fantastic but Sucker punching those much weaker than yourself is just no challenge.

Me, I like a challenge, hence spending a lot of time pounding away with others to complete various challenging missions we have not finished yet.  I like the rush from finally accomplishing the task through working hard and coming out with a working tactic :10_wink: .  I do understand that some people like the cheap thrills though.