In The Division 2, there are actually only four factions. But now a developer has revealed that there is actually a fifth faction: players do not notice it at all. Because they are tutorial enemies of the Hyenas, which are later replaced by the stronger version.
This is the 5th faction: The Division 2 does indeed have a 5th faction. Ubisoft has called them the “Tutorial Hyenas” or the “Simple Hyenas.”
The Hyenas are apocalyptic tech freaks on a green drug.
These “Simple Hyenas” are Hyenas that are less capable than the “real Hyena faction.” They do not possess “complex behavior patterns.”
What is the idea behind it? This is a tutorial faction that only appears in the early missions of the game.
Players are thus presented with “particularly easy” enemies that act more primitively than the real Hyenas.
This is intended to help players get into The Division and familiarize themselves with the game.
What happens to the Simple Hyenas? The faction is “hidden” – players are not supposed to notice that they are fighting “tutorial enemies.”
The “Simple Hyenas” are replaced after the first missions and battles with the “real Hyenas,” and ideally, the player does not notice this at all.
The new Hyenas then use more complex attack patterns and the faction traits of the “real Hyenas.”
Tutorial Hyenas are the answer to changes in the factions
Why is Massive doing this? In The Division 1, the enemy factions got stronger over time: the initial “Rioters” were weak in complexity and remained the “weakest faction” throughout the game.
Rioters acted less tactically. They used more primitive techniques and simpler strategies.
The enemy faction and their behavior grew with the players in The Division 1 and became stronger and more sophisticated.
The downside was that in the endgame, the “weaker” factions hardly appeared anymore, and only the “Last Man Battalion” was deployed to present a challenge to players.
In The Division 2, all normal factions should act differently, but still challenge players similarly – in the endgame then the “Black Tusk” adds an advanced faction.
The advantage of this system is that in the endgame of The Division 2, agents can now fight against all factions, creating variety – except of course against the “Simple Hyenas,” they only appear at the beginning.
Where does the information come from? At the developer conference GDC, AI expert Drew Rechner held a talk.
In 2019, he held a follow-up talk and explained what has changed in The Division 2 and how Massive has improved the AI. The talk was titled “Sequelitis: Creating Combat NPCs for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2.”
He also did this in 2018 for The Division and presented how the “artificial intelligence” behaves – that is, why the enemies do what they do. (via youTube)
The German site PcGamesHardware listened to the talk and reports on it.
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