The Division Central Park Dark Zone, New Vanity Set, SHD Tactical Terminals Leaked

[steampunkgirl]

So someone had allegedly leaking out some info about the upcoming update of The Division. And it includes some pretty interesting info about a new Vanity set, Dark Zone Central Park and more. I wonder how true this is? If it is, then I'm looking forward for the DZ Central Park. Now that would be awesome! Here's the link: The Division Central Park Dark Zone, New Vanity Set, SHD Tactical Terminals Leaked

 

[quinch1199]

Nice find, gives more details than the details I posted last night in the News section. 

PMC vanity items!! TAKE MY MONEY! 

 

[Oh. daesu]

Interesting stuff. I think the datamined stuff is fairly tangible. Some of the reddit stuff, I think peeps over extrapolate this for what they wish. *shrugs*

Patch 1.4 lacked any direct pvp changes. Accommodating pve players gave "indirect" pvp changes, but ultimately Pvp was left alone. A noticeable absence imho.

Later, massive confirmed that Last Stand would have the missing pvp focused changes. They said they wanted to "observe" 1.4+ to plan pvp changes. Observe, indicates they had ideas but leaving room for adjustments  After all, these changes are attached with a long term planned dlc. Not so ad-hoc..

Players have liked Survival pvp compared to old DZ pvp. So, hopefully that has some bearing. I don't know which has more importance, mini maxers or casuals. Which have more import to a successful community?! Cater to casuals can make it too soft, and catering to minimaxers just breaks the game for a gankers-fest.

Now, my point is that in 1.4 pst they were bending over backwards to accommodate the players' concerns. Survival/1.5 pts they were really limited to debugging issues with their vision. I expect the next round of pts to be the same. ... I.e. you already had your chance!  Mark my words!

Now, I have done zero Survival experience, and feel DZ  pvp is not so arse-holic in my timezone (as multilingual timezone; seriously, it pays to know how to say "hi" in a few languages in this tz) as other timezones A stroll in the park compared to antidotal ganking reports from the main timezones.

Opening up the central park as new terrain sounds promising. Untill now, they go underground or make better use of the current pve map; nothing to sneeze at. In the 1.4/1.5 it has bern a good improvement.

As for vanity items, the last Xmas pom poms seemed to be rehashed old shit. (Happy to be proved wrong; honesty). So as silly as"vanity" sounds, a good gaming community caters for a breath of players. This means cosmetic interface counts. How are those permanent sunglasses going for you lol.?

I'm a subscription player, so I've already put my money forward and will sit back and hope for "Last Survival" ... surviving, lol.

 

[quinch1199]

From what I’ve heard, what I’ve seen, the main reason that Survival PvP is so popular is purely because IT’S A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD. As soon as you start/enter that playing area… you have as much chance as the next person to gear up, avoid or attack other players and if you get killed you don’t feel the person facing you is Godlike or Over Powered in anyway. Perhaps they have a better gun…you can see that obviously. There are no one shot kills and you always have a chance.

Remember the thread where I suggested that the ONLY way PvP can work in this game is to arbitrarily level the playing field for all players as soon as they enter the PvP Playing Area? (I think way back around 1.2 or earlier) And that they needed to give players a genuine and compelling reason to work together naturally?

In addition to this, in Survival there is a pressing, genuine and overriding element where players...even in PvP....are better of working together regardless of grouping....The Hunters. 

…guess what… they did almost exactly what I suggested in Survival. My suggestion though was based on the current DZ PvP model and included all the gear you enter with…Might it be that Massive will do the same thing as I suggested initially perhaps? Making this new area of PvP “level” like Arena PvP in other games I wonder?

Vanity items – PMC gear might sit well with the LMB gear I’ve collected. I’ll try to collect it anyway as long as I don’t have to PvP just to get them!!

I’m still holding out for a Year 2 expansion/DLC that adds significant AND RETROSPECTIVE character creation tools.

 

[Oh. daesu]

Bear in mind, the central park pvp can be separate from the dz pvp. Survival pvp has been its own thing. The glimpses from central park could just be dlc module. The dark zone could still be a minimaxer environment, that the devs originally envisaged.

Survival might have been your level playing field, and then the devs return to their "usual programming".

 

[quinch1199]

Bear in mind, the central park pvp can be separate from the dz pvp. Survival pvp has been its own thing. The glimpses from central park could just be dlc module. The dark zone could still be a minimaxer environment, that the devs originally envisaged.

Survival might have been your level playing field, and then the devs return to their "usual programming".

Exactly how I'm thinking..but with no return to the old style....

New "BoO" style neutral area with an entrance into Central Park PvP

Central Park PvP might run very similar to Survival BUT with all the gear you go in with...EXCEPT... with damage,toughness and resistance values set to a maximum cap value for all.

Thinking ahead, its quite possible that Last Stand might be the Raid PvP feature plenty have been waiting for. Group PvP with Raid features where the groups are fighting for spawning resources (air drops?)

I say this as, as you've described above, fits nicely as a precursor to such a game mode.

Group only PvP, WoW Raid style, max value caps on Damage/Resistances but I think they'd find it hard not to ALSO include some PvE bosses (Hunters) guarding the air drops. 

So you Group up in the lobby...join a game queue (like survival) then get dropped over the wall into Central Park (again similar method to Survival) but you have all the gear you set off with. However, factors such as Damage, Toughness & resistances are capped to the same maximum level as all other players. Next you have several lost air drops to secure, time limited, guarded by Hunters in groups (who are also beef'd up) AND you have 3-4 other Player groups doing the same thing AND its PvP.

All on a timer limit. Matches end once either all the drops are secured or expire. 

...honestly, this type of PvP might get a LOT of PvE players involved as well due to it being in groups only with some PvE elements.

BOOM!!.... do you think I might have blown the lid of the next releases?

 

[Oh. daesu]

The devs original idea wasn't like other games. What they had done with Survival seems like a fresh approach too.

So, maybe it is group pvp, but I doubt it'll follow old formulas of raids.

Since, it is a dlc, so they could swing the other way from Survival, and go back to "all about the gear"

 

[quinch1199]

The devs original idea wasn't like other games. What they had done with Survival seems like a fresh approach too

They're fresh approaches to this particular style of game certainly but so far they're variations on themes in other games, mainly MMORPG's to be honest. Doesn't make it less innovative though! Doesn't mean they're not wonderful ideas either. 

I'm hopeful they take this opportunity to build on the success of Survival and offer an enhanced version of that style of game. Especially as they have the task force looking at PvP within the current DZ environment now, it's likely to mean content coming next or soon won't include such changes and I hope Massive acknowledge that the DZ in its form now is untenable so I'm hoping they don't compound the problems by just expanding the DZ in its current form. 

 

[Oh. daesu]

Fresh doesn't equate to necessarily being unique. But still, maybe being like any other morg might work but i just mean they seem to have their own vision. 

Not that it is a morg.