I've Played My Last Game

[TheDivisionNowSucks]

I've just played my last game of of The Division.  

It has become BORING!!!!!!  What with the repetitive nature of the game outside (and in the underground) and the plague of rogues in the DZ.  

What is it with rogues?  Are you just a bunch of pre-pubescent boys looking for something to do whilst your waiting for your testicles to drop?  The DZ is just plagued with bored little school boys wandering around shooting others from behind to get stuff they don't even need.  In between times squeezing their pimples and talking in high pitched strained voices about what a great job they did killing someone who had their back turned to them.This game used to be fun but isn't any more and it's mostly about bored little rogues.

Here's an idea, make the rogues fight in their own area, or if not, when they die, clear their stash and inventory out.  Because with high risk would have to come high skill....something that is sadly lacking amongst that bunch of pre-pubescent dishcloths.

Great job by Ubisoft to start with an entertaining concept and turn it into something that has become just plain dull and unimaginative..

Now, I know that some of the bored little school boy rogues will be reading this and will let loose with some of their low IQ style of sarcasm and all the others little 'girls' will just snicker away whilst they tentatively scratch their crotches in the hope that at least one of the two missing testicles may have made a miraculous appearance....but alas, they have nothing to find so they gleefully seek out each other because they are incapable of being in the DZ without someone to hold their hand whilst they look for another unsuspecting target with their back turned.

Me, well I'm trading this piece of crud game tomorrow and get something that Ubisoft didn't have any involvement in because they have a long way to go before their software becomes entertaining again.

0/10 for effort Ubisoft.

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

Well, that's too bad you feel that way.   While the rant is understandable and maybe warranted, this is just a fan site so all we can do is commiserate together.  If you're looking to share you're frustrations with Ubi, you should head over to their official forums:

http://forums.ubi.com/forumdisplay.php/498-The-Division

 

[nonzer0 sum]

-1 for screed

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

-1 for screed

I like to think of myself as being a well edumacated kid, but screed is a new one for me.  I agree that it fits.  

+1 for dun lernin me a new wurd.

 

[quinch1199]

It has become BORING!!!!!

Unfortunately, I can't argue with this. Mainly its a lack of real character progression or improvement PLUS absolutely zero external activities to maintain any Open World investment. By external activities I mean things you can see some longer term value in within the environment. Sure you have HVT's but except Pheonix credits...what do you get out of them?? Another bunch of gear you'll break for materials....they don't improve the game at all or give you a feeling of accomplishing anything. 

 

[ZombieTech]

Fully agreed OP, and amen!

I originally got the game when it first launched, played it for about a month, and was having a lot of fun... but that end-game, as in the Dark Zone, ugh!  At least, if I recall, they lowered the penalties, but it still blows.

After a month I shelfed the game, and just went back to it a few days ago, finishing up the few side-missions I had left, the went on to Search and Destroy (hadn't even realized at the time that I had to finish the side missions for it, so it worked out well).  Even though I missed having a post-apocalyptic open-world to gun around in, and S-and-D is fun and all... I tried going back into the Dark Zone tonight, now that I'm in all high-end gear, and my DPS seemed a lot more "uber" than the last time I went in.  Fighting the NPCs in the DZ and getting loot is a lot of fun when you can melt the NPCs relatively well, at least in DZ01 and DZ02, even a bit of DZ03.  (Gearscore == 159; but already see there being a HUGE issue with gearscore in this game, much like in WoW... seems everything of whatever "quality" is the same exact gearscore... so people could be fully decked out in gear, but it could be adding puny amounts to each area, could have all just scavenging, ammo-capacity, and increased healing with no real damage modifiers, etc.)

I figured with the poor reception this game got (and very much rightfully so), I figured there might not be that many rogues now and they'd have gotten bored and moved onto something else, as many toxic-PvP types tend to do.  For the most part that turned out to be true.  I played in the DZ all night tonight, got tons of drops (183% scavenging), and had a blast.  Then right as I was finishing up and went to leave the DZ, I run to the checkpoint, and low and behold, there was one of the "types of players" as you mentioned it, and spot on, camping right by the checkpoint, that ran up behind me and shotgunned me in the back, causing me to respawn in the checkpoint, but with lost XP, which knocked me down to DZ-19, when I was DZ-20.  (Now even though it's a plus that there's not that many rogues, the downside is, there's not that many high-end players left to hunt them down... so we may as well be sheep to the slaughter!)

Figuring they probably ran off, I went to kill a couple NPCs to get my DZ level 20 back; as soon as I exit the checkpoint, they're right there, charging at me... this time, looking at them, I figure I'll fight back, since they had rogue status, and figured with my new "uber-er" DPS, I might stand a decent chance.  So I aimed my high-end Police MK4 assault-rifle at them, opened fire, and watched as their health-bar barely budged, if at all... then with one shotgun blast, I was dead, again.

I waited a bit, then went back out... they were gone.  I killed a dozen or so NPCs to make sure I had enough XP into level 20 for "padding", and did a couple extractions.  On the last one, some NPCs showed up, as they kept doing throughout the night, and gunned them down.  One dropped a blue item, so figured I'd extract it to sell or break-down.  Low and behold, during that last extraction, the same person that killed me twice before comes up and guns me down from behind, didn't even realize they were there until the camera panned around... this time it sounded like they used an LMG point blank.

With their gear, they should clearly be playing in DZ03 and above... especially since they'd get much better loot for their efforts.  This time after I respawned, still with level 20 in tact, I chose to just ditch the blue item and leave.

When the game first launched, I kept trying to say in the official forums that they need something similar to the DZ that's PvE-only... but so many laughed it off, and said that it was for diaper-wearing types, etc.  Guess their massive drop in players speaks volumes!  I even said that often times it's forced PvP in games that ruin them, especially when the toxic-PvP types show up and want to make everything all about killing each other "for lulz", and shouting for more PvP-centric game-design.  Massive listened to the cries, and have been gearing most of their "content" and "updates" for either PvP or hardcore-grind... even after claiming there'd be something for everybody... which is odd, since I tend to like playing solo, and outside of Search and Destroy, one-shotting open-world NPCs (outside of S-and-D), replaying some missions, and a tiny handful of high-value targets, there's just nothing really to do at this point that's actually enjoyable, nor really that fun!

Still seems to be okay exploring around here and there, and trying to see if I can up my loot anymore... but the next step up, outside of tiny hop high-end gold items, is teal... and I really doubt I have the patience for it... especially considering the Phoenix Credit grind involved; and yes, I know there are missions and HVTs that can drop said gear, but as even Massive has stated, there's a problem when the gear you need to be able to take on that content is found as drops within said content!  (Hopefully they'll balance it well in 1.4, but not getting my hopes up at this point!!!)  I mean, even the Challenging-Mode dailies (which I tried one in the lowbie areas earlier today, (haha, yeah, talk about Die Hard... die REALLY hard!), tend to give 10-20 Phoenix Credits, and just for one items or recipe a person is typically looking at 200-300pc easy!  That's some seriously insane grind... there's grindy f2p MMOs that aren't even that grindy!!!

So once a person is in all high-end gold gear, and everything is either super easy, or super difficult, there's not much middle-ground, and it may as well be player limbo (especially since the highest I'd get out of the DZ areas I was in was a gold but only for a names boss or a gold cache).  I'm hoping patch 1.4 might deliver as it promises to, but we already saw where the original promises and hype led this game to!

Even though this article is from a 6 months ago, almost to the day, it's rather spot on, even back then: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/03/18/the-division-has-not-convinced-me-losing-loot-and-progress-is-fun/#16ea6066e670

(As the article states, the rogue-system is just silly and sucks, and the whole "negative reinforcement" really sucks too!  No matter how good you think you've gotten your character to, no matter how good you think you are, no matter how good you think you've gotten... either the game's insane-difficulty-grind or the rogues will make all the hard-work and progress seem pointless and futile!)

PS - I would voice my issues with this on the official Ubisoft forums, but I was one of many, post-launch, that got perma-banned from the Ubi Division forums for voicing "too much criticism"... not long after launch, most that didn't praise the game were finding themselves being banned in waves for not falling in line and drinking the DZ kool-aid! >_<

PPS - Anxiously waiting for Ghost Recon: Wildlands to launch, so I can safely toss The Division in the trash, and completely forget this broken "social-experiement" (as the devs love to call it like typical dippy hipsters) ever happened! xD

 

[quinch1199]

Fully agreed OP, and amen!

I originally got the game when it first launched, played it for about a month, and was having a lot of fun... but that end-game, as in the Dark Zone, ugh!  At least, if I recall, they lowered the penalties, but it still blows.

After a month I shelfed the game, and just went back to it a few days ago, finishing up the few side-missions I had left, the went on to Search and Destroy (hadn't even realized at the time that I had to finish the side missions for it, so it worked out well).  Even though I missed having a post-apocalyptic open-world to gun around in, and S-and-D is fun and all... I tried going back into the Dark Zone tonight, now that I'm in all high-end gear, and my DPS seemed a lot more "uber" than the last time I went in.  Fighting the NPCs in the DZ and getting loot is a lot of fun when you can melt the NPCs relatively well, at least in DZ01 and DZ02, even a bit of DZ03.  (Gearscore == 159; but already see there being a HUGE issue with gearscore in this game, much like in WoW... seems everything of whatever "quality" is the same exact gearscore... so people could be fully decked out in gear, but it could be adding puny amounts to each area, could have all just scavenging, ammo-capacity, and increased healing with no real damage modifiers, etc.)

I figured with the poor reception this game got (and very much rightfully so), I figured there might not be that many rogues now and they'd have gotten bored and moved onto something else, as many toxic-PvP types tend to do.  For the most part that turned out to be true.  I played in the DZ all night tonight, got tons of drops (183% scavenging), and had a blast.  Then right as I was finishing up and went to leave the DZ, I run to the checkpoint, and low and behold, there was one of the "types of players" as you mentioned it, and spot on, camping right by the checkpoint, that ran up behind me and shotgunned me in the back, causing me to respawn in the checkpoint, but with lost XP, which knocked me down to DZ-19, when I was DZ-20.  (Now even though it's a plus that there's not that many rogues, the downside is, there's not that many high-end players left to hunt them down... so we may as well be sheep to the slaughter!)

Figuring they probably ran off, I went to kill a couple NPCs to get my DZ level 20 back; as soon as I exit the checkpoint, they're right there, charging at me... this time, looking at them, I figure I'll fight back, since they had rogue status, and figured with my new "uber-er" DPS, I might stand a decent chance.  So I aimed my high-end Police MK4 assault-rifle at them, opened fire, and watched as their health-bar barely budged, if at all... then with one shotgun blast, I was dead, again.

I waited a bit, then went back out... they were gone.  I killed a dozen or so NPCs to make sure I had enough XP into level 20 for "padding", and did a couple extractions.  On the last one, some NPCs showed up, as they kept doing throughout the night, and gunned them down.  One dropped a blue item, so figured I'd extract it to sell or break-down.  Low and behold, during that last extraction, the same person that killed me twice before comes up and guns me down from behind, didn't even realize they were there until the camera panned around... this time it sounded like they used an LMG point blank.

With their gear, they should clearly be playing in DZ03 and above... especially since they'd get much better loot for their efforts.  This time after I respawned, still with level 20 in tact, I chose to just ditch the blue item and leave.

When the game first launched, I kept trying to say in the official forums that they need something similar to the DZ that's PvE-only... but so many laughed it off, and said that it was for diaper-wearing types, etc.  Guess their massive drop in players speaks volumes!  I even said that often times it's forced PvP in games that ruin them, especially when the toxic-PvP types show up and want to make everything all about killing each other "for lulz", and shouting for more PvP-centric game-design.  Massive listened to the cries, and have been gearing most of their "content" and "updates" for either PvP or hardcore-grind... even after claiming there'd be something for everybody... which is odd, since I tend to like playing solo, and outside of Search and Destroy, one-shotting open-world NPCs (outside of S-and-D), replaying some missions, and a tiny handful of high-value targets, there's just nothing really to do at this point that's actually enjoyable, nor really that fun!

Still seems to be okay exploring around here and there, and trying to see if I can up my loot anymore... but the next step up, outside of tiny hop high-end gold items, is teal... and I really doubt I have the patience for it... especially considering the Phoenix Credit grind involved; and yes, I know there are missions and HVTs that can drop said gear, but as even Massive has stated, there's a problem when the gear you need to be able to take on that content is found as drops within said content!  (Hopefully they'll balance it well in 1.4, but not getting my hopes up at this point!!!)  I mean, even the Challenging-Mode dailies (which I tried one in the lowbie areas earlier today, (haha, yeah, talk about Die Hard... die REALLY hard!), tend to give 10-20 Phoenix Credits, and just for one items or recipe a person is typically looking at 200-300pc easy!  That's some seriously insane grind... there's grindy f2p MMOs that aren't even that grindy!!!

So once a person is in all high-end gold gear, and everything is either super easy, or super difficult, there's not much middle-ground, and it may as well be player limbo (especially since the highest I'd get out of the DZ areas I was in was a gold but only for a names boss or a gold cache).  I'm hoping patch 1.4 might deliver as it promises to, but we already saw where the original promises and hype led this game to!

Even though this article is from a 6 months ago, almost to the day, it's rather spot on, even back then: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/03/18/the-division-has-not-convinced-me-losing-loot-and-progress-is-fun/#16ea6066e670

(As the article states, the rogue-system is just silly and sucks, and the whole "negative reinforcement" really sucks too!  No matter how good you think you've gotten your character to, no matter how good you think you are, no matter how good you think you've gotten... either the game's insane-difficulty-grind or the rogues will make all the hard-work and progress seem pointless and futile!)

PS - I would voice my issues with this on the official Ubisoft forums, but I was one of many, post-launch, that got perma-banned from the Ubi Division forums for voicing "too much criticism"... not long after launch, most that didn't praise the game were finding themselves being banned in waves for not falling in line and drinking the DZ kool-aid! >_<

PPS - Anxiously waiting for Ghost Recon: Wildlands to launch, so I can safely toss The Division in the trash, and completely forget this broken "social-experiement" (as the devs love to call it like typical dippy hipsters) ever happened! xD

Some points to make and agree with here:

“Gear Score” has never worked as a tiering system, especially in PvP. Not only that but often…and due to LOW server populations it seems…the matchmaker gets desperate to pit you against another player and forces higher tiers in with you. I’ve gone into the DZ at level 12 and faced GS200+ Rogues before!

I appreciate that they (Massive) wanted PvP and I’m not a huge fan of watering it down (as long as the matchmaker works!) So I can understand why calls for a PvE style DZ might not have gone down well in the other forums. All that said I believe that’s what Underground is meant to be, and in recent updates including making it able to give you DZ loot…its clearly aimed at being that.

The Rogue system and the PvP system all just appear to have been implemented by people with absolutely NO IDEA OR EXPERIENCE in MMO PvP Arena games! IF a developer wants to know how these things go they only have to log into a PvP survival Arma3 server, or buy a copy of DayZ!!

Games like WoW have successful PvP because they FORCE players into factions…meaning its not so much PvP but the enemy become almost like PvE and where players on both sides work towards “empowering” aims, usually only partly selfish in nature and I really think Massive missed a trick by not allowing players to have full-time Rogue characters and allowing the player base to develop a “Rogue” league/faction/camp.

Rogue needs to be a dedicated choice, not a button you can switch on or off.

I will, however, point out that Pheonix Credits are not difficult to obtain. Stay away from the harder daily missions…Challenging isn’t something you do for Px Creds! Stick to the HVT missions…after an hour or less you can have 100+ Px Creds easy, faster if you run with a group. Gear drops are meant to be even within Underground meaning you can collect drops normally only available from the DZ etc within there.

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

Yeah, GS is garbage, especially since they use the ninja formula for DZ, which many casual players aren't aware of.  

 

[ZombieTech]

Some points to make and agree with here:

“Gear Score” has never worked as a tiering system, especially in PvP. Not only that but often…and due to LOW server populations it seems…the matchmaker gets desperate to pit you against another player and forces higher tiers in with you. I’ve gone into the DZ at level 12 and faced GS200+ Rogues before!

I appreciate that they (Massive) wanted PvP and I’m not a huge fan of watering it down (as long as the matchmaker works!) So I can understand why calls for a PvE style DZ might not have gone down well in the other forums. All that said I believe that’s what Underground is meant to be, and in recent updates including making it able to give you DZ loot…its clearly aimed at being that.

The Rogue system and the PvP system all just appear to have been implemented by people with absolutely NO IDEA OR EXPERIENCE in MMO PvP Arena games! IF a developer wants to know how these things go they only have to log into a PvP survival Arma3 server, or buy a copy of DayZ!!

Games like WoW have successful PvP because they FORCE players into factions…meaning its not so much PvP but the enemy become almost like PvE and where players on both sides work towards “empowering” aims, usually only partly selfish in nature and I really think Massive missed a trick by not allowing players to have full-time Rogue characters and allowing the player base to develop a “Rogue” league/faction/camp.

Rogue needs to be a dedicated choice, not a button you can switch on or off.

I will, however, point out that Pheonix Credits are not difficult to obtain. Stay away from the harder daily missions…Challenging isn’t something you do for Px Creds! Stick to the HVT missions…after an hour or less you can have 100+ Px Creds easy, faster if you run with a group. Gear drops are meant to be even within Underground meaning you can collect drops normally only available from the DZ etc within there.

I haven't gotten Underground, but many of the reviews of it I've read and seen stated that it's not really geared up for solo-play... so even though it's more of a PvE-style DZ, guessing it won't function all that well for lone-wolf style players.

EDIT: I did just find this - https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision/comments/4vq7fq/underground_solo/ - which sounds like it might be promising; Underground does intrigue me, as I love the idea of being a tunnel-rat and working through underground areas (as it is, I love to run along the subway lines when possible in the main world)...even better that it seems there's no free/open PvP/PKing/Ganking/KoSing...  just hoping that solo-play is possible with 159 GS.  Have stuff modded pretty well, and my Police M4 high-end not only heals per kill (also have a couple armor pieces set to heal per kill as well... between healing-station and first-aid kits, can stay alive fairly well with 2400-ish stamina), it blows armor off veterans and elites pretty easily in DZ01 and DZ02... does somewhere around 110-120k DPS or some such.  My backup LMG does around 80-90k DPS, but no healing per kill (might try to recalibrate a skill on for that maybe; also have a fully-modded really-good high-end shotgun I carry with me that I think does healing and armor-penetration), and pistol is a purple/superior (really hoping to get the gold/high-end version) First Wave x-45 that after mods does about 100-110k damage, and has skill to do 15% more damage or whatever to armor. ^_^

As for the Px Creds... still seems grindy that it'd take an hour or more to get 100+, when one piece of gear and/or recipe tends to run 200-300Px Creds easy.  Working towards a full set of decent gear, and decent weapons by means of Px Creds could take quite some time, heh.  With 100ish per hour, would be a good 2-3 hours per armor-piece, so to get the 6 armor slots, looking at 12-18 hours (which might not be that bad I guess), but then 3 guns + mods, could be another good 30-45 hours.  Which for top-tier end-game stuff I guess isn't too bad... just seems awkward when comparing to the amount of drops one can get from taking out mobs and such directly... in the time I played last night in the DZ, even though everything was blue or purple, with the occasional gold from named-boss or gold cache, guess I'm just a bit old-school and wishing that there would be more content that's a bit more solo-able like in Diablo-style dungeon-crawlers.  Where you can fight big bosses that actually have a chance to be soloed without instantly melting your face off, heh.

As for a PvE-style DZ; I had pitched out ideas where the DZ as it is now remains the same, and the PvE-style DZ-alike could be smaller... even stuff like to the right of the higher-level neighborhoods on the right side of the map (or thinking about it, even to the left of the lowbie neighborhoods could be fun/interesting and work too), perhaps make a story/cutscene where after end-game/final-mission, the JTF decide to work further into the city to expand their territory, deciding to blow open some of the blocked tunnels, or walls/gates/fences, or even backs of buildings that border the area, etc (could even make the areas when you go into them randomy/procedurally-generated like Diablo, so  whenever you go into them, the layout is completely different and so are the enemies you might run into),... only to find chaos akin to the DZ, horridly chaotic versions of what they'd already seen, working it up to be edge-of-your seat "OMG" style, then have it be open-world PvE neighborhoods with difficulties and drops akin to the DZ, but only accessible upon beating the main story.  Perhaps even have it so once you've gotten high enough gear/skill to proceed further on, same happens again to expand territory to the east, so on, and so forth.  Or heck, use the concept as a means of expanding the map in all directions... north, east, south, and west.  There was so much potential for expanding upon this game, and Massive are "massively" squandering it.

PS - It is scary just what a grind this game is when you stop and think about it.  In most games, there's usually an explainable means of progressio in the end-game... and even though The Division has multiple "options", many are for when a person is super-geared up around 190+ GS or so... for the whole, say, 125-190GS, you're kind of left grasping at straws, and really having to hunt around for what you're supposed to do in order to progress farther -- I guess perhaps HVTs and Search and Destroy while praying for decent drops, but still.  Unless it's going to still be the dreaded Px Creds grind as it was inthe early days, and having to craft everything with the horrible RnG generation upon crafting. -_-

 

[ZombieTech]

Btw, just to clarify on my post above (can't edit it anymore), usually I love crafting in games, crafting in a lot of games is fun... but in this game, it's just way too much grind to finally boil down to an ultimate slot-machine that determines if you get something even half-way decent.  :76_ghost: :92_thumbsdown:   (RNG sometimes if utilized properly can work out well... in this game, RNG is a nightmare.)

 

[quinch1199]

Btw, just to clarify on my post above (can't edit it anymore), usually I love crafting in games, crafting in a lot of games is fun... but in this game, it's just way too much grind to finally boil down to an ultimate slot-machine that determines if you get something even half-way decent.  :76_ghost: :92_thumbsdown:   (RNG sometimes if utilized properly can work out well... in this game, RNG is a nightmare.)

I get you on that, the "crafting" somehow seems disjointed and doesn't involve me enough. Maybe I'm too used to full on MMORPG fantasy crafting where there are more different components, crafting is a real boost to characters etc. 

As to Underground...I have to admit, bored with the game in general I am not bored with Underground. It really is a good piece of game design with only main game mechanics letting it down a little (i.e. level of drops) and for the ... £10? ... it is as a solo expansion DLC I would recommend to anyone owning The Division to be honest. Solo play...really not sure...I say that because I've never felt the need to go solo at all!! The match maker is quick, simple, easy to use and setting up your own missions are equally encouraging and not at all scary. Sometimes I struggle to get a team or even another player to join randomly in an Above ground mission (story mission) but with the Underground match maker system, if its struggling it makes you team leader, makes you build a mission and so far 100% of the time I've found if you start a mission yourself you'll get 2+ randoms join you almost immediately.

IF you do get Underground you'll love the starting missions (that you MUST complete before being allowed access to the mission creator at the terminal).

Also note that Underground Cache's you get each time you level up (with your undergorund level, similar to DZ level) are a GREAT way to boost character early on....but advice is to save a few as once you hit level cap you don't get anymore cache's, only in-mission drops and end of mission reward box content. 

As with other ... caches (the twice monthly one, supply drops in DZ etc) your Gear Score when you OPEN the box effects the level and quality of the item(s) you get out, so saving until you equip your best gear is always best.

 

[quinch1199]

PS - It is scary just what a grind this game is when you stop and think about it.  In most games, there's usually an explainable means of progressio in the end-game...

THIS .... is because there's no STORY! Once you complete the actual game story you're left to free roam but with no driving story behind it there's no actual impetus to keep grinding. I mean if part of grinding unlocked more story...even small bits...it would mean you've got a way to go. Collectables are ok but I would have liked some actual continuation of the story or an environmental reason to continue to grind over and above "just to level up". 

All other MMORPG's have this, with each expansion they add history, backstory, continuation of the story around you and it drives players on through that grind. The grinds in games like WoW or LotRO etc are JUST AS LONG AND BAD as the grind in this game...but you dont feel it, why? because they feed you more story as you go on. 

In this game, once the Echos are collected ... that's it... no story left. One one starts cleaning the streets, no one buries the dead, Lau still has that bloody leg bust! You've completed the story... why hasn't anything changed out there!?! 

 

[ZombieTech]

Indeed; I'm also noticing the forced raised-difficulty kind of, well, sucks.  I just tonight did my first two, solo, actual High Value Targets, first one gave a gold chest which wasn't as good as mine, so sold it, second gave better gloves, think it was GS 181 as opposed to GS 163 or whatever, taking my 159 GS up to 162 GS.

In any other game, you'd go out into the world, feeling more powerful, noticing the change, noticing the progression... but holy hell, now Search and Destroy missions and the like, which used to be fun for me, as I could have a tiny bit of challenge while still farming golds... are back to being insanely mind-blowing grindy.  My firearms are almost 2100, stamina is just under 2000, and skill power is about 1600ish, got all kind of awesome mods and stats, and every one of my weapons is doing at least 100k DPS.  Yet, now, even at just 162 as opposed to 159, I'm noticing an insane amount more of bullet-sponging and getting hit much harder.  At GS 159, even the lvl31 elites were getting to not be too bad... but even doing a Search and Destroy in Gamercy district (which just did some in Gamercy earlier today with zero issues at 159 GS), going against lvl30 (purple) veterans... holy heck, I was actually dying at least once per area.  There was one that was side-strafing along with me, while I emptied my entire clip of 55 (my character actually started reloading right before it died) from my strongest weapon doing about 115k DPS, point blank into the chest and face... ultimately, it actually killed ME... and when I ran back, before it reset, I had noticed that the only thing I'd managed to take off of it, was its armor, while its health bar was still almost full.

Games that are fun at least have some mild sense of reward, growth, progression, and stat-building-results... but it seems this game, the better you do, the worse the game experience gets... the stronger you get, the more the game is out to show you just what a weakling you really are.  Sadly, Search and Destroy missions were my ray of sunshine upon returning... they were a semi-challenge with a semi-casual feel that I could putz with and gets some rewards... but now the difficulty of them suddenly feels like the early on painful grind at the early stages of the game... where you didn't have much, felt super weak, and died constantly just to run back and do it all over again.  :86_crying_cat_face:

 

[quinch1199]

Yet, now, even at just 162 as opposed to 159, I'm noticing an insane amount more of bullet-sponging and getting hit much harder.  At GS 159, even the lvl31 elites were getting to not be too bad.

Luckily, with 1.4, much of this is down to be address so its good that its something that bothers you right now. To me my focus to keep me going in a game is physical progression and my influence on the openworld/environment around me. Now for the 2nd bit of that...once the main story missions are done...there is none of that so all I have left is progression and honestly all the bullet-sponging etc doesn't bother me so much (used to Instance bosses being vast damage sponges in fantasy MMORPG's you see).

I guess, at least some have weakspots (grenade pouches, gas tanks etc) which make it marginally better. 

 

[ZombieTech]

Luckily, with 1.4, much of this is down to be address so its good that its something that bothers you right now. To me my focus to keep me going in a game is physical progression and my influence on the openworld/environment around me. Now for the 2nd bit of that...once the main story missions are done...there is none of that so all I have left is progression and honestly all the bullet-sponging etc doesn't bother me so much (used to Instance bosses being vast damage sponges in fantasy MMORPG's you see).

I guess, at least some have weakspots (grenade pouches, gas tanks etc) which make it marginally better. 

Yeah, I can see that... and might not be so bad if they could make world bosses respawn, so we actually feel like we're still fighting bosses (or perhaps add a named boss to each Search and Destroy location perhaps).  But kind of sad when machine-gunner #2 of 3 in a Search and Destroy mission acts the same way as a DPS-soaking boss, hehe.  :22_stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

 

[quinch1199]

Yeah, I can see that... and might not be so bad if they could make world bosses respawn, so we actually feel like we're still fighting bosses (or perhaps add a named boss to each Search and Destroy location perhaps).  But kind of sad when machine-gunner #2 of 3 in a Search and Destroy mission acts the same way as a DPS-soaking boss, hehe.  :22_stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Some are and there are roaming boss led gangs in the Open World ... but apparently only with Days starting with a "T" and on alternate Thursdays, with a full moon, after you sacrificed a goat to Tiamat!! lol!

We want more roaming boss-led gangs randomly appearing (which might be something they bring in) but also a REASON to fight them. So they roam...what do they do? What actual change or effect does ignoring them have on your game...? 

None, that's what. There's no reason at all to engage roaming gangs in the slightest once you get to a certain Gear Score as the drops are useless (except crafting materials perhaps) but also it doesn't effect any game play anywhere else in your game.

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

None, that's what. There's no reason at all to engage roaming gangs in the slightest once you get to a certain Gear Score as the drops are useless (except crafting materials perhaps) but also it doesn't effect any game play anywhere else in your game.

The good news with 1.4 is that there will be a chance now that these scrub mobs will generate good loot, as small chance, but a chance nonetheless.  

That being said, I do agree that they should give you a reason to fight these mobs.  Someone mentioned in another post that you should have to "fight back" the mobs in the city to start restoring the city and that maybe you have to spend X amount of in-game time doing this to keep them from taking over the city.  This would be a great reason to fight these groups.

 

[quinch1199]

Someone mentioned in another post that you should have to "fight back" the mobs in the city to start restoring the city and that maybe you have to spend X amount of in-game time doing this to keep them from taking over the city.

psst... that was me... *cough*...about 3 weeks ago. 

Trademarked: Quinch Entertainment Brainstorming Inc.

 

[ZombieTech]

Kind of wondering what the idea of "chance for good loot" from junk mobs will be... because as it is, with 183% scavenging, can already semi-regularly get blues and purples out of them... wondering if it means there'll now be a chance for occasional golds?

(Though, it's odd how it works now, when I first returned to game, had junk mobs dropping purples and blues left and right semi-regularly... then it started to ween down to once in awhile, and in the last couple days, high-end junk mobs in the last neighborhoods started dropping occasional greens along with the off chance blue or purple, and even once a gray silencer, lol.)   :42_confused:

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

psst... that was me... *cough*...about 3 weeks ago. 

Trademarked: Quinch Entertainment Brainstorming Inc.

I thought it was you that mentioned it but I wasn't positive so I didn't what to give credit if it was someone else.  

Kind of wondering what the idea of "chance for good loot" from junk mobs will be... because as it is, with 183% scavenging, can already semi-regularly get blues and purples out of them... wondering if it means there'll now be a chance for occasional golds?

The way I understand this is that they mean high end gear.  I would guess it would be based on the tier you're in.  If you get high end loot from tier 1 it would be 163, tier 2 would be 182, tier 3 would be 214, and tier 3 would be 229 (229 being the new highest end gear).