What can we expect in the future of The Division? Here are our 7 biggest wishes for the sequel The Division 2.
The Division and the community have had a turbulent time, with many ups and downs. Now, after two years, a sequel has been announced, while the first installment is better than ever. The Division has undergone a transformation, starting with the record release, followed by balance issues, bugs, glitches, cheaters, hackers, and a dwindling player base.
Massive pulled the emergency brake, completely overhauling the game together with the community. With update 1.8 at the latest, The Division made a comeback.
After the announcement of a sequel, the question now is: What should The Division 2 look like? Here are our wishes for The Division 2.
1. Optimize the loot system!
The loot system in The Division has undergone some changes. While high-end loot was extremely rare at the beginning, it is now thrown at you. Gear sets were also easy to complete and did not provide long-term motivation.
Later, exotic gear and secret gear sets followed, making farming desirable for some again. Nevertheless, many players felt overwhelmed by useless loot.
Massive can address this by:
- optimizing the balance of the gear sets. Typically, 3-4 sets dominate the game, while there are significantly more. Massive would need to put more effort into developing the set bonuses.
- upgrading the talents of high-end and exotic gear. Although secret gear sets represent the best possible equipment, high-end and exotic gear should not be so much weaker than they currently are. An upgrade here is possible.
- revising weapon talents. Currently, not even half of the 21 talents are relevant. Even unique, exotic weapons are generally quite weak. This makes it less motivating to farm them. Adjustments should also be made here.
All this assuming these elements are present in The Division 2 again.
One idea already voiced by agents: Exotic mods. For both weapons and gear. These would be a great way to introduce interesting bonuses into the game and allow new builds. One could set a limit of 1-2 mods to prevent them from becoming too overpowering.
2. Separate the gear for PvE and PvP, make the Dark Zone even more dynamic with events
The biggest problem of the Dark Zone has always been balancing. The following things should be addressed by developers:
- Split gear in PvP and PvE: Each gear set should have different stats/attributes for PvP and PvE. This way, balancing for both areas could be optimized separately.
- Revise the current Rogue 2.0: Many players are unhappy with the current system. Hunter groups have recently found it particularly difficult, and players feel disadvantaged.
- New worthwhile events: With supply drops and contamination events, a step in the right direction has already been made. However, there is still much room for improvement. New, more dynamic events would make the Dark Zone interesting again. How about a particularly strong boss that can randomly spawn everywhere and has a high chance of good loot?
Many players demand a pure PvE Dark Zone. In our opinion, that would not be the right way. After all, the thrill of potentially encountering other players at any moment makes the Dark Zone so interesting. Introducing a PvE DZ would, however, make the PvP variant unnecessary or even destroy it.
After all, people would only revert to the PvE variant for farming, only to clash heads on the PvP servers. However, there are already proper PvP modes with Last Stand and Skirmish.
3. Give us a more dynamic and vibrant open world
Massive has put incredible effort into designing the game world. The level of detail is outstanding and creates a great atmosphere. Unfortunately, it then fell short of filling it with life.
To achieve this, one could
- fill the game world with more diverse civilians and animals (it still has to fit the apocalyptic scenario)
- but they should show less generic AI behavior
- bring dynamic weather, or even seasonal changes into the game
- allow more options for interaction with NPCs
- make mission design more dynamic, incorporating more surprising moments
- make more buildings accessible
- place more and stronger enemies, it should not be a pure walk in the park
Important: Let us meet other players in the open world! Interacting with other players outside of safe houses would make the game world more believable. After all, The Division is an online game and you are part of a division consisting of many agents!
Other players would lend greater dynamism to the open world. Of course, every player should have the option to roam the streets alone.
The open world could thus become a genuine alternative to the Dark Zone.
4. Make something out of the location, whether it stays in New York or goes elsewhere
It will be crucial how The Division 2 deals with the existing location and the story of The Division 1. There are several possibilities.
New York, but not in winter anymore
New York still has a lot of potential, but we only wish that The Division stays in New York under certain conditions:
- New districts: Many players were left waiting in The Division for additional districts. Only the West Side Pier and 3 Dark Zone areas adjacent to Central Park were added retroactively. There are still large parts of the city waiting for agents.
- A different season: This is definitely necessary. The Division looks great, but most agents must be getting tired of the blizzards after 2 years.
A new city
Massive would have plenty of options here because any major city could easily serve as a backdrop for a good story. A fascinating thought experiment would be Berlin.
After the detailed Manhattan, one can almost expect that any new scenario from Massive will look impressive as well.
We will have to be surprised. Either way, we are optimistic that we need not worry about the setting. One must wait for further information from E3.
5. Continue the story from The Division: What happens next with the SHD?
The Division cannot boast a particularly exciting campaign. The characters were mostly boring, apathetic, and only means to an end.
Aaron Keener, the main antagonist and rogue First Wave agent, was an exception. However, he vanished without a trace. Aside from a mocking message and later some audio logs at the West Side Pier, no trace was found.
We hope that unanswered questions will be cleared up and that generally more attention will be paid to character portrayal. Because however boring the presentation was, The Division still delivers exciting stories.
If a scenario change occurs, questions arise such as: Has the virus spread? Is The Division 2 set after the first part, or perhaps even years later?
Massive has a good foundation for an exciting story here and hopefully now the experience to tell it more compellingly.
6. Expand on the RPG elements!
The Division is a shooter with RPG elements. There are specific skills, passive talents, and the particularly strong links that only work temporarily. Everything gets unlocked by expanding the base.
This is where one could start and expand the game:
- More areas for the wings
- more abilities
- more passive talents
New skills could thus find their way into the game. Ideas could be
- Drones, that could have various functions
- Body armor, that temporarily provides more protection against damage
- Claymores and shock traps, like those already used by enemy snipers
This would give players additional opportunities for cool builds. It would also be important to revise existing talents and make them useful. Currently, very few are truly usable, while a handful of talents appear in nearly every build.
7. Take care of these details
Additional mechanics that we wish for:
- Upgrade pistols: Pistols were more of a nice accessory in The Division rather than truly useful. That should change. They should deal significantly more damage but not have unlimited ammunition.
- New weapon types: Melee weapons, flamethrowers, grenade launchers. There are some weapon types that are already used by enemies but strangely are not available to agents. That could be changed.
- Stealth mode: A kind of stealth kill was already seen in early presentations. A proper stealth system would freshen up the gameplay and could add variety to the missions. Crouching, crawling, sneaking. That would be fun!
- Companions: Already present in some games, an idea for The Division 2: a companion in the shape of a dog. There is already a dog unit in the current operations base, so why not take a four-legged friend on agent tours? This could pick up medkits from the street and also be useful in combat.
- Raids: These were already being discussed for The Division 1, and we hope even more that real raids will make their way into The Division 2.
This is just part of many other wishes. We hope that Massive carefully listens to the fans’ wishes.
What are your hopes for The Division 2? Do you have further cool ideas? Let us know.
The Division has 118,000 hardcore players – Global Event starts on the PTS
