Survivor: Rumours & Expectations

[quinch1199]

I can’t profess to have my fingers on the pulse like some of you but what are our expectations, ideas and what rumours have we heard/seen about the next major DLC …. Survivor.

From my point of view all I’ve seen or read so far seems to indicate the DLC adding a completely separate arena to the game (not area… ARENA). It will add some story to start you off similar to Underground with a starting mission and then some cut scenes.

Understand that this is speculation of course based on minimal information from the presentations we’ve seen so far BUT …

The story continues, you have a new mission where you have to take a helicopter over Manhattan either to Queens, Bronx OR Jersey. You’re packed away, waved off by Faye (who I hope is now all mended). However, as you cross Central Park you are hit by a SAM (one you must have missed during the Incursion) and your chopper is downed mid flight.

You’re a lone survivor in an enemy infested area…however (and I really hope this rumour isn’t right) it’s a PvP arena like the DZ with new Ai enemies and you start without equipment whist you stealth/run to a safe house where you start all over again.

What have you heard? What do you expect or hope for? I hope whatever happens there’s a longer and better story intro than the Underground had…. I mean I liked the disco but I would have liked a few more story driven missions to be honest.

 

[RaneMokeev]

THUNDERDOME!

Two men enter, one man leaves.

...well, actually, about ten people enter, immediately start spamming stickies and shotties...then four leave cuz they're butthurt and the other six just round around calling each other vile obscenities.

 

[quinch1199]

Thoughts from further research.

The Division  ... HORDE MODE!

Survivor adds a new BoO like Underground, some intro missions and then an Incursion-like experience BUT its a Horde mode where you just survive for a set length of time based on Difficulty and some form of Directives against increasing numbers and strengths of enemies. 

 

[RaneMokeev]

Arright, time to fire up the 1.5 PTS!

...after work  

 

[quinch1199]

Arright, time to fire up the 1.5 PTS!

...after work  

Is it live already???

 

[quinch1199]

Oh...

Oh dear. 

Can I get a refund please? I don't want this DLC .... AT ALL.  :57_cry:

If I wanted to play DayZ ... I'd play DayZ. I already have The Long Dark.... I already have Don't Starve. 

I don't want this, its not the game I bought. 

*sigh*

@RaneMokeev - I'll try to get on myself tonight but please report back. From the details given today I am exceptionally perturbed with this update as its entirely not the style of game I invested in at all and doesn't sound like it would appeal to solo gamers either.

 

[quinch1199]

http://www.vg247.com/2016/11/07/the-divisions-survival-and-1-5-update-goes-live-on-the-pts-today/

"You can go and take a look at Survival on the official stream right now, but if you prefer to go in fresh and just want the details, here’s a run down of everything so far courtesy of Reddit:

2 game modes PvP Survival OR PvE Survival – Groups can meet on the map and help each other but not kill each other in PvE mode

24 players on the LZ map

WHEN YOU DIE ==> GAME OVER! (you can be revived from the downed state)

hunger, cold mechanics

you are sick and need to extract yourself

you start with a pistol only and with no / bad gear

clothings have a ‘cold’ rating that protect from the blizzard

crafting plays an important role

there are ‘hideouts’ – like apartments (those are not safe house)

there are crafting benches in the hideouts

you need to build a new mask / virus filter when you want to enter the DZ / contaminated zones

on the borders of the map the enemies are weaker and get stronger when you move closer to the center of the map

No need to be L30 to play Survival – Just need access to the BoO

No link to World Tier – every player plays as the same difficulty level (you start with a simple green pistol) and work your way up

Apparently update 1.5 will introduce a new World Tier, named weapons, gear sets and more, but we’ll have to sit tight and wait for the patch notes."

From the above details some items stand out as ... "alarming"

1) When you Die you Die. So...we've worked months on a level 30 and throw it in there for him to die and that's it? Really??

2) Every player is on the same difficulty level. So no zoning like in the DZ even... CAN YOU IMAGINE THE CLUSTER-FCK!! People complain about the DZ being a Troll central... sure, I'll go in with my level 30 in PvP and immediately meet a guy with an LOVA-C when I have my "blue" pistol?

3) New named weapons, world tier etc... applicable to the new "world" only or universal?

 

[supercat]

Watching the Survival talk show.

One thing that I really would give a thumb-up to them.

"There are PvE and PvP option"

That is actually great. I'm glad they listened!!!

 

[quinch1199]

No need to be L30 to play Survival – Just need access to the BoO

Another thing to test if I can get in. How the enemies scale for a level 15 for example, if I choose PvP is that bracketed off as well or will a level 15 character face level 30's?

 

[RaneMokeev]

From the above details some items stand out as ... "alarming"

1) When you Die you Die. So...we've worked months on a level 30 and throw it in there for him to die and that's it? Really??

2) Every player is on the same difficulty level. So no zoning like in the DZ even... CAN YOU IMAGINE THE CLUSTER-FCK!! People complain about the DZ being a Troll central... sure, I'll go in with my level 30 in PvP and immediately meet a guy with an LOVA-C when I have my "blue" pistol?

3) New named weapons, world tier etc... applicable to the new "world" only or universal?

I think you might be worrying a bit too much, Quinch.  Not saying it all sounds good to me, but I wouldn't say it's going to hurt the main game either.

1) I really doubt they're going to wipe your character. That should come with a big warning Diablo 3 style.

2) They said the game plays out in two hour intervals, right? Thought I heard that but can't double check at the moment.  To me that sounds like everyone gets dropped into Survival at more or less the same point...from there, yeah, you're on your own to "survive."  But, who knows, I haven't even played it yet.

3) I think those are changes are just going to bump up the levels we already have. A new world tier actually sounds like a good idea to me...I'm at a point where I'm running out of things to do.

Anyhoo, we shall see.

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

Watched a recap video on Survival and I've got some quick initial thoughts:

Likes: new concept seems really sweet with needing to eat and dress to survive, available in both PvE & PvP, not a reskinned horde mode, being tested with a PTS

Dislikes: have to wait for the PTS, only 1 item drops for entire server (of up to 25 players) per boss killed, PS4 probably won't get it until January (3-4 weeks PTS + 1 month XB1/PC exclusive) 

For those interested, here's the recap video I watched.  

 

[supercat]

Another thing to test if I can get in. How the enemies scale for a level 15 for example, if I choose PvP is that bracketed off as well or will a level 15 character face level 30's?

From the talk show, your stats will be flattened with the rest, then you only have green gun, and only the gear you get in the Survival stage matters from there on.

But you'll come out normal and your rewards will need to be unboxed which will scale to your actual level once you are back home.

 

[RimBlock]

The other good thing is that they baseline all the players so there is no overpowered PvP players when you start going in to Survivor.  The game mode is completely separate from the main game so no stuff lost when playing.

I was happy to hear of the PvE version.  Hope the 25 player grouping is not a mandatory requirement.  Trying to get a 4 person UG team can be very difficult let alone 25....

I can imagine a 25 player team against the hunters would be fun in the dense snow.  Wonder if the snow was added to reduce the view distance in order to manage the numbers :10_wink: .  I would also imagine marksman rifles have limited utility there.  Imagine getting a god roll SVD and not being able to take it out  :51_scream: . 

I also hope the cache rewards will be better than the bought caches.  I easily do 20 a night bought from the store and keep maybe 3 possibles but rarely get an Awesome (i.e. a step up).

Right, off to read the patch notes @Oh. daesu posted.

 

[quinch1199]

Did some testing last night as PvE. Server was constantly telling me I had a poor connection and although I did see other players, on the map where it said players were unconscious when I got to them there wasn't anything there except markers ... bug or server issues I'm not sure.

Initial thoughts: The Survivor part of it I quite liked but I felt as a veteran of games like The Long Dark etc it was a little too easy for me and within about 10mins I'd picked up enough to get to the next stage

(not sure if we should Spoiler here so being cagey about phrasing at the moment)

However... get to the next stage and ... well.... I'm not sure of the point of the mode yet to be honest. As an "experience" its different and that's not a bad thing but I'm not sure what I actually gain out of it yet. I'm in the 2nd stage of the mode armed with a blue 416 and still taking down enemies fine and getting loot etc. My feeling is that the whole mode is just a vehicle to get us into that 2nd part as not enough players are going there in the rest of the game but, honestly, I enjoyed the 1st part so much I just wanted to go back but you're prevented by that "timer" on your life. I can go back and I could play that 1st part for quite a few hours based on loot availability and how I dealt with it but clearly you're not meant to do that. 

So... can anyone who's taken it further tell me the "reason" behind this DLC? I just lost interest when it turned into just a PvE version of what we have as PvP but with a life timer (as so far I haven't been able to find the required "item" in the 2nd stage to stop that timer and I don't think you can craft it).

Yours, a confused Quinch.

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

I'm on PS4, so it will probably be a month or two before I get to try Survival.  However, I was playing Sunday night and myself and one of the guys in my group were getting the poor connection message.  We had some issues lag and stutter, but aside from that nothing big.  

 

[supercat]

I think 25 players is just a max number per session and you can sit in the train until it leaves with whatever people there are. Then in there you will meet one another and team up in real time ala DZ. This is what I get from the preview video.

 

[quinch1199]

I think 25 players is just a max number per session and you can sit in the train until it leaves with whatever people there are. Then in there you will meet one another and team up in real time ala DZ. This is what I get from the preview video.

Agreed. There's likely an inbuilt counter meaning players only have to wait a maximum length of time before joining a session regardless of numbers in the queue. Advantage of having a game mode where all stats are equal ... no worries about match making. 

Hold on... wasn't this a suggestion of mine months and months ago for improving the DZ? Turning the DZ into an arena mode where all stats are capped.

Anyway, I'm interested in toying with the idea of multiple teams of 4 and if its possible to all queue at the same time and the probability of ending up on the same server/session. Wonder how I might do that... i.e. myself and 15 others all wait in TeamSpeak, get into groups and go to enter at the same time. Might it be "random" or could we make an effectively "private" server session by blanketing the entrance.

 

[supercat]

Not sure if this gonna work. But imagine if the lobby where the Survival trigger is at works like DZ/Underground/Safe House a.k.a you can see other players in there.

Let's say your target is 2 teams of four. Total is 8 person.

- First, A (leader), B, C, D team up

- Then D parts himself, but he will still be there, standing with you guys

- Then D invites E, F, G to join his group in this session

- After that, D leaves. A invites D again

- Meanwhile, E will be the leader of the second group. E invites H

- If it works, now you should have A, B, C, D and E, F, G, H then try going to the Survival trigger at the same time

I think this is how Rogues bring up their friends for ultimate gang bang right?

 

[quinch1199]

Thank you @supercat we will have to see if the same tactic works once more are playing or its live. 

 

[quinch1199]

Spending my lunch break quietly laughing at Reddit users complaining at how long Survival takes. People claiming its taking them 2hrs to even get a "gun good enough".

WTH? I think they expect to go into the next 2nd stage of it fully kitted out like they are in LZ! lol!

I took the 2nd stage with a blue low GS HK416. All you have to do is get to a safehouse and start planning to get your crafting gear together. I took down 4+ mobs just fine. Less than 30mins and I was on the 2nd stage and in a safehouse. 

I'm guessing the game scaled but I still got at least one lvl 33 gold elite.