On this week's The Division 2 State of the Game, Senior Game Designer Nikki Kuppens, who works with the economy and progression team, gave an overview of some of the changes coming with the launch of Episode 2, Title Update 6. This week's stream specifically covered improvements to gear and loot; here are a few highlights:
- Title Update 6 is confirmed for an October launch.
- Big changes are coming to how branded gear sets work; you'll now only need four items to complete a set (although that won't necessarily mean you have the most powerful version of the set).
- Players will have greater flexibility to find the loot they're looking for, and to recalibrate their gear the way they want.
- Some of the changes being added to Title Update 6 will be available to try out via the Public Test Server soon. Also, the PTS will no longer include narrative content.
- Stash space is increasing to 300.
State of the Game streams every Wednesday at 8:00AM PDT on Twitch, Mixer, and YouTube. (To find out what was covered in the last episode, make sure to check out the previous State of the Game Recap.)
Updates From the Break
- In lieu of last week's stream, the team published a roadmap of what's coming to State of the Game in September, beginning with this week's look at improvements to gear and loot.
- An issue where the Raid would reset if the leader left the group has been fixed.
- Persistent audio issues are currently being fixed.
- Issues with collectibles and Classified Assignments have been fixed.
- Changes to the Shepherd System are planned for the coming weeks, based on community feedback.
Title Update 6 – Gear Updates
The team is currently working on changes to gear, brand sets, and named weapons. In particular, they're focusing on a big re-balance of the game with the next big update.
Brand set revamp
- The dev team is working to ensure that all gear brands have an item for every slot, to remove restrictions on how players construct their Agent's build. The team therefore plans to add an item for those slots for all brands (except 511, a real-world brand that only makes certain kinds of items).
- This will allow players to come up with new builds, but also ensure that current builds will still be viable.
- This also adds more clarity for players; no more guessing which brand slots are available, and which are not.
- It also means a new items are being added to the game, so there's more to loot.
Only four items will be needed to complete a gear set and unlock its full bonus.
Chest pieces and backpacks for all gear sets will be made more powerful with the addition of a high-end talent.
Items from Raid gear sets will be made more widely available, but the backpack and chest pieces will remain exclusive to the Raid.
Named items update
- The team is reworking named items so that they're more exciting when they drop, and more powerful when players use them.
- The developers are trying to add special visuals to all named items.
- The team is currently considering adding around 35 new named items, including weapons and gear.
- The team plans to make named item talents a more powerful version of existing talents. They will be unique to the named items, and players probably won't be able to recalibrate them onto other items. The developers may let players recalibrate over the talent, and look forward to community feedback on this.
- The team is still working out exactly where named items will drop.
As always, balance is an ongoing topic, and the team will continue to make changes and talk about them in upcoming shows, articles, and patch notes. To join the discussion, visit the forums or the subreddit.
Title Update 6 – Loot Rotation
A new system coming as part of TU6 allows Agents to target specific loot from a random rotation.
- Available kinds of loot are shown on the mega map when highlighting the named zone or main mission where it will drop.
- Named zones and main missions will offer different loot, and available loot changes daily.
The normal loot pool is available while targeted loot is active, so players won't miss out on anything when selecting a mission with targeted loot available.
- The specific loot shown on the mega map has a small chance to drop from any NPC and loot container in the mission.
- It has a guaranteed drop from named bosses in the mission.
- A new UI element is being added to loot piles, so players know when they've received a targeted item.
This also available in named zones.
- Loot has a chance to drop from NPCs and containers.
- It has a guaranteed drop chance from named NPCs and when finishing an activity; for example, a Control Point.
Dark Zones are also part of this, and can also have specific loot available.
- Items still need to be extracted.
- If you're looking for more news about Dark Zone and PVP, tune in to next week's State of the Game, as we will focus on these particular topics.
Loot refreshes on a daily timer, and you'll get a message at login that tells you the rotation has refreshed.
Recalibration and Crafting in Title Update 6
Changes are being made to recalibration, including a new UI. With TU6, players will be able to:
- See lists of available recalibrations for each item.
- Swap stats between items of different colors, for example from red to blue.
- Recalibrate talents on a slot onto any item of the same slot, regardless of brand.
Recalibrating mod slots is under consideration.
Crafting changes are incoming in TU6.
- Material caps will be raised, allowing players to carry more
- The material sharing perk is returning, letting players share materials across all their Agents.
- NPCs will drop more materials.
- If players are full up on materials, those materials will stop dropping.
- Scavenging containers that previously contained one of two material types will now contain both.
- Players now have a chance of getting polycarbonate from deconstructing items.
- The cost of crafting in common and brand materials is being lowered.
- Once players reach the endgame, the locations of undiscovered blueprints will be revealed.
PTS incoming!
- To gather player feedback on these changes, the team is working on the Public Test Server build right now, and it is in validation with the Quality Control and Assurance teams.
- Players can expect some of the above changes to be active on the PTS, and patch notes will be ready for when the PTS goes live.
- The PTS will be multi-phase, and will not necessarily be reflective of the final product.
- The team will also continue to use surveys throughout the different PTS testing phases, so they can get specific feedback from the community.
- No narrative content will be shown during the PTS phases this time.
Release time
The team is still working on Title Update 6, but is currently aiming for an October release for Episode 2.
Next week, State of the Game will cover PVP and Dark Zone changes, while September 25 brings a look at the road ahead about upcoming content.
Until next time,
/The Division Team
