Ghost Recon Breakpoint - 10/4/2019

[Max Peck]

Can one of you who did get the technical test to run give naednek (Uplay name naednek80) an invite?[/size]

You don't need to run the game to send him an invite. You do that from the website that was linked in the email you received confirming that you were in the OTT.

[jztemple2]

Can one of you who did get the technical test to run give naednek (Uplay name naednek80) an invite?[/size]

You don't need to run the game to send him an invite. You do that from the website that was linked in the email you received confirming that you were in the OTT.

The email I got confirming I was in the test told me to go through the Uplay launcher, I didn't see any link you describe; maybe I'm missing it. I have been to the technical test website, I didn't find anything about inviting others. Anyway, could someone help out naednek (Uplay name naednek80)?

[Max Peck]

The initial registration confirmation email that they sent has 4 links (preload, invite friends, forums, faq). If you don't see them, you might be looking at the follow-up email they sent out on Friday when the OTT went live. That one only has 3 links (sign NDA and play, forums, faq).

I don't have any invites left, so I can't help with that.

[Max Peck]

Beta time is nigh.

We are pleased to announce that Ghost Recon Breakpoint Beta will be available from the 5th September 2019 at 12pm CEST to the 9th September 2019 at 12pm CEST!

Please note that the pre-load will be available from the 2nd of September 2019 at 12pm (CEST).

The pre-load is a little over 30GB.

[jztemple2]

I can live with those dates. I’ve evacuated due to Dorian but ought to be home by the evening of the fifth.

[Max Peck]

For anyone that is interested in taking the PC beta out for a spin, I believe that if you sign up for the Uplay+ subscription free trial, it will give you access to the beta for the low, low price of $0.

If you are eager to try Uplay+, a free trial will run from September 3rd to September 30th.

Your subscription will be renewed automatically on October 1st for just $14.99/month, and each month thereafter, so that you can continue enjoying your gaming experience. You can also cancel your subscription before the end of your trial.

We ask for a payment method to prevent interruption of service after the free trial. We do this by sending an authorisation request to your financial institution, to verify that your payment method works. These requests are not charges; but in some cases they may temporarily affect your available account balance.

You will not be charged during the free trial, and you can cancel anytime. We will remind you when the free trial is about to end, so you can decide if you want to cancel.

If you choose not to cancel Uplay+ after the free trial ends, your card will be automatically charged $14.99 per month to continue enjoying Uplay+.

[coopasonic]

I got the beta invite, but I am not sure I will participate. We'll be having "Stone Age Saturday" this weekend and it one of my kids birthday on Sunday so not much time to play and I am pretty sure I already ordered it anyway.

[Max Peck]

Yeah, I did pre-order the game already, but I figure that the beta will distract me from the wait for Bordlerlands 3.

[jztemple2]

It looks like the hurricane is going to pass offshore far enough for my place to avoid damage, so I should be home Thursday and start loading as soon as I can excuse myself from unloading

[Max Peck]

[jztemple2]

Back from an unintended six night trip to Tallahassee to evacuate from Dorian. I've downloaded and played the GRB closed beta. Oh dear, I don't think I'm going to like this. The combat is fine and it runs pretty well on my rig. However, I see that I'm picking up obsidian and flowers and stuff like that, which I guess means I'm going to need recipes to make stuff . And reaching Erehwon I see that it's a big MP lobby. I guess there is some single player content? I really liked Ghost Recon Wildlands and was hoping for more of the same. But this doesn't look like it. Maybe I'll have to watch some more trailers and see if it is going to be a game I'll enjoy solo.

[Max Peck]

The biggest difference from Wildlands for me, aside from the narrative structure (there is no handler overseeing events, so you get missions by talking to people on the ground), is that you don't get AI team members if you're playing solo. They have already said that they'll be adding AI team members sometime after launch. In the mean time, there is a capability for a sync shot attack using drones, but that requires a consumable item so it won't be something that can be leaned on as heavily as in Wildlands.

From my experience on a previous technical test and the current beta, the game plays fine solo. It looks like there is raid content that will require groups, but other than that it seems like all the missions can be soloed for those of us that are lone wolves, er, ghosts.

The resources you pick up are used for crafting consumables while you rest at a bivouac. During the last test in which I participated, resources were harvested manually, so automatically collecting them should make things a lot less grindy.

[coopasonic]

Yeah I loaded it up and played for an hour or so last night and liked what I saw playing solo. On release I will likely be playing in a duo, with my 13yo expert sniper partner, but it seems perfectly soloable. In the alpha I did some stuff solo that was pretty epic taking down huge bases with a little stealth and a lot of bullets. They have also introduced the guided vs unguided option that I think was in the last assassin's creed game. It gives you a little more realism. Oh also, you have gear with stats! and the skill tree is expansive and new. It is pretty different really.

[morlac]

The biggest difference from Wildlands for me, aside from the narrative structure (there is no handler overseeing events, so you get missions by talking to people on the ground), is that you don't get AI team members if you're playing solo. They have already said that they'll be adding AI team members sometime after launch. In the mean time, there is a capability for a sync shot attack using drones, but that requires a consumable item so it won't be something that can be leaned on as heavily as in Wildlands.

From my experience on a previous technical test and the current beta, the game plays fine solo. It looks like there is raid content that will require groups, but other than that it seems like all the missions can be soloed for those of us that are lone wolves, er, ghosts.

The resources you pick up are used for crafting consumables while you rest at a bivouac. During the last test in which I participated, resources were harvested manually, so automatically collecting them should make things a lot less grindy.

Adding AI teammates after the fact makes no sense. I would think for compelling gameplay and missions you would need to design from the ground up with the intention of their being AI teammates. Maybe I'm, wrong and they wont be just a DLC money grab.

[Daehawk]

Sounds like a lazy rushed EA game.

[coopasonic]

Sounds like a lazy rushed EA game.

Not remotely.

[Blackhawk]

It's Ubi. Their big-name games tend to have a 'designed by marketing' feel to them. Sometimes that works well, other times... not so much. And if you're not in their core demographic you get a -4 to your roll.

[jztemple2]

I played another hour this afternoon and I'm starting to get the hang of all the systems of the game. It does feel like they threw in everything but the kitchen sink. Find intel to unlock blueprints, talk to people to get clues, skill trees upon skill trees, pinning objectives of all sorts of types, etc. I discovered how when you bivouac (hey, spelled it right first time!) you can use recipes to make things without having to previously find the recipes. And all the upgrades! Within two hours of gameplay I've changed my head gear several times, my harness a couple of times and have come across no less than five different sniper rifle models.

And it still is weird to me that my entire inventory is available at any time. I guess I'm still used to the Far Cry system where you had to go to a save spot to swap out the weapons you are carrying.

Are the missions scaled to the number of folks in your party? In other words, if I had three co-ops with me, would I be seeing a lot more enemies?

[Max Peck]

Adding AI teammates after the fact makes no sense. I would think for compelling gameplay and missions you would need to design from the ground up with the intention of their being AI teammates. Maybe I'm, wrong and they wont be just a DLC money grab.

As I understand it, the original plan was that you were either on your own or playing with a co-op group. The addition of AI teammates post-launch was announced at E3, IIRC, and my impression is that the change in direction was due to fan reaction to not having a full team if a player chooses to play solo. The fact that the change in direction was arrived at fairly late in the development cycle seems to be the reason that it's being added post-launch. AFAIK, it's just going to be patched in as a new feature, not sold as a DLC.

As it stands, I don't know how reactive the missions are to group size. If the missions already scale in difficulty relative to a group size of 1-4, then I'd guess that they can also adjust the difficulty to match a mixed group of 1 (or more?) players and AI bots with a bit of tweaking to account for the AI being tactically challenged but really powerful with sync shots.

[jztemple2]

The game seems more like The Division than a follow on to Wildlands. The game system feels very cluttered with objective types and all the different gear and items. I'm not saying that it is bad, in fact I can appreciate what the designers are trying to accomplish in making it a game folks will stay with for months. It's just that it hasn't grabbed me yet.

[morlac]

Adding AI teammates after the fact makes no sense. I would think for compelling gameplay and missions you would need to design from the ground up with the intention of their being AI teammates. Maybe I'm, wrong and they wont be just a DLC money grab.

As I understand it, the original plan was that you were either on your own or playing with a co-op group. The addition of AI teammates post-launch was announced at E3, IIRC, and my impression is that the change in direction was due to fan reaction to not having a full team if a player chooses to play solo. The fact that the change in direction was arrived at fairly late in the development cycle seems to be the reason that it's being added post-launch. AFAIK, it's just going to be patched in as a new feature, not sold as a DLC.

As it stands, I don't know how reactive the missions are to group size. If the missions already scale in difficulty relative to a group size of 1-4, then I'd guess that they can also adjust the difficulty to match a mixed group of 1 (or more?) players and AI bots with a bit of tweaking to account for the AI being tactically challenged but really powerful with sync shots.

Thanks for the background. That doesn't sound terrible

[jztemple2]

New video, What is Breakpoint? Gameplay Trailer. It helped me understand more about the game.

[jztemple2]

OK, I tried to enter the Wild Coast area and I was killed over and over by a Deadly Swarm. Is the game telling me that's off limits, or am I just unlucky?

[Max Peck]

OK, I tried to enter the Wild Coast area and I was killed over and over by a Deadly Swarm. Is the game telling me that's off limits, or am I just unlucky?

AFAIK, the swarm is the mechanism for preventing you from leaving the portion of the map that is active for the beta (Sinking Country, Fen Bog, Smuggler’s Cove and Mount Hogson).

[jztemple2]

I put in some more time on the beta, but I'm really struggling in combat other than dry gulching the occasional odd group of soldiers. I'm really missing my trusty group of three AI companions I had in Wildlands. I think I'll be passing on this till they add the AI companions feature after release. And even then, I think I might be passing on it as I'm starting to have hand problems again. But we'll see.

[Isgrimnur]

I think I'm in wait-and-see mode, which probably means cheap sale eventually, as that will pretty much kill any desire or ability to play MP, as the crews either here or on console will have moved on by the time I get to it.

[Max Peck]

I've been enjoying the beta, and I'm looking forward to the game going live.

Besides, who doesn't enjoy getting their Mandalorian on...

[jztemple2]

I've been enjoying the beta, and I'm looking forward to the game going live.

I didn't enjoy it much, but then I didn't really enjoy Wildlands during the closed beta, but once I replayed it during the open beta it grew on me. I have noticed that the Breakpoint beta never calls it a "closed" or "open" beta, so I'm wondering if I'm going to get another try at a beta before release.

[coopasonic]

I got the beta invite, but I am not sure I will participate. We'll be having "Stone Age Saturday" this weekend and it one of my kids birthday on Sunday so not much time to play and I am pretty sure I already ordered it anyway.

I can't find any record that I ordered it. I figured I bought it to get into the alpha test, but I guess I got invited the old fashioned way. Unfortunately that means I have to actually buy it and there doesn't appear to be any discounts anywhere.

[Max Peck]

Depending on how long you expect to play it before moving on, you always have the option of picking up a Uplay+ subscription to get access to the game for a month or two before the cost of the subscription catches up to the purchase price of the game. Assuming that you would be playing on PC, of course.

I was invited to OTT2 before I pre-ordered the game and without explicitly applying for the tests, so I think they must have been sending invites to people who had been playing previous incarnations of Ghost Recon. I logged a lot of hours in Wildlands.

[jztemple2]

Yesterday I reinstalled Wildlands to refresh my memory of the game. I still really like the gameplay, including the AI companions. I guess I might try Breakpoint again, maybe on Arcade difficulty.

[coopasonic]

Depending on how long you expect to play it before moving on, you always have the option of picking up a Uplay+ subscription to get access to the game for a month or two before the cost of the subscription catches up to the purchase price of the game. Assuming that you would be playing on PC, of course.

I was invited to OTT2 before I pre-ordered the game and without explicitly applying for the tests, so I think they must have been sending invites to people who had been playing previous incarnations of Ghost Recon. I logged a lot of hours in Wildlands.

I have a lot of games on uplay so they probably figured I was a safe bet for Breakpoint. I also had fairly recently run through Wildlands with my son.

On the Uplay+, I've given it some thought and it's still an option. Considering I would likely be buying the season pass as well and I also buy all the AC games... maybe it would work out in my favor at least if I remembered to turn it off when I wasn't using it.

[Max Peck]

One thing that puzzled me throughout the beta was that I couldn't figure out what the gear score actually did. For example, two versions of the same weapon with different gear scores seemed to have exactly the same stats. After digging around a bit, I found this dev Q&A dealing with the "RPG Elements" (aka "They got some Division in my Ghost Recon").

Developer Q&A – RPG Elements in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Breakpoint

Q: Can you eliminate a max level human enemy with a headshot from a Gear Level 1 weapon?

Yes! Whatever the human enemy level, you will always be able to eliminate them with a single headshot, as long as they are not wearing a helmet – in which case you just need to land a shot once to remove it, and then a second time to take them down.

A skilled and patient player will have few issues doing this if they’re able to maintain stealth. However, high-level enemies are also more lethal and harder to sneak around, and they’re very dangerous once you’re detected.

You can play the game without upgrading, but it will become a lot more challenging and punishing if any mistakes are made.

Q: How does the number of body shots required to eliminate an enemy scale by level?

At the maximum difference in Gear Levels, human enemies will take several more bullets to eliminate via body shots than human enemies at your current level. The scaling of body shots to eliminate a target versus your difference in level has been carefully determined by our team, so you’ll feel those differences, but the encounters stay well within what is expected of a realistic military shooter.

Encounters with human enemies that are high above you in Gear Level will be harder and require more planning and higher precision; however, they won’t feel bullet-spongy.

I can confirm that it was possible to one-shot GS150 Wolves with a head shot from my GS40 Ghost. I can also confirm that once they managed to spot me, I was dead in approximately 1.5 seconds.

[jztemple2]

I got an email today asking me to respond to a survey about the beta. It was quite comprehensive, although the second half of it was optional. In it I found the beta described as a "closed beta", which I assume will mean that there will be an open beta towards the end of September. I'm still on the fence about getting the game at release, it depends on whether I'm still playing Borderlands 3. Also I was supposed to be taking a trip the first three weeks of October, but if that goes away it might be even more of a reason.

I'm still considering Uplay+, which would make the decision moot, but I'd have to see what the upcoming Ubisoft release plans look like. A year of Uplay+ is basically three AAA games, so if I can be sure of getting three titles I might be interested. Since Uplay+ allows access to...

Premium editions
Access premium game editions including their additional content such as DLCs, expansions and automatic updates.

...that might tempt me, but I haven't seen much in the premium editions to interest me in playing more money, except that time I wanted The Division 2 three days early

[jztemple2]

Announcement: Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Breakpoint: Open Beta September 26th – 29th

We just announced that from September 26th to September 29th, we will be conducting the Open Beta of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

The rest of the info is in the article, but in summary, more areas to see, more missions, and PvP will be available.

[jztemple2]

For those interested, preloading on the PC for the open beta is now available.

[jztemple2]

Started playing the open beta. When Wildlands when through the beta stage, I didn't like it after the closed, but my opinion had improved after the open beta. So I'll try looking at GRB with an open mind.

By the way, the game requires a continuous internet connection. Remember when that requirement would piss off a lot of people? It's one of the reasons I held off buying an XBOX One.

[coopasonic]

I may pass on the Open Beta. I played the alpha and the closed beta. I know I am buying it and I don't want to spend much time doing stuff I will just have to repeat... also I already have two games going now and I need this weekend to finish BL3 so I have time for Breakpoint when it arrives.

[jztemple2]

Yesterday I played a couple of hours and remembered all the things I didn't like about the closed beta GRB. All the stuff with a zillion weapons which have a bunch of parts, each, and to make it more confusing there are also blueprints to collect. And each weapon model has attribute upgrades to boot. And that's just the weapons. There is also the collecting of plant, etc for recipes, the omnipresent drones, the limit of pinned objectives and so on and so forth. I just gave up and rage uninstalled.

And then today I started watching a live stream from Ubisoft with a couple of guys just playing the game. They fiddled around with upgrades a bit, but mostly they just played. And it seemed more fun than I remembered. So I reinstalled and played for a couple of hours more, just doing whatever I came across and hey, it was a lot more fun. I guess I'm going to have to do like I did with The Division and TD2, just ignore for the most part the fiddly stuff and just stick with the gameplay.

A couple of items (or more than two, maybe). The drone view seems to not have a way to invert the Y axis. And also this seems to be true for the helicopter controls. I'll keep looking. [figured it out] I had a glitch where my character got trapped a few feet off the ground, kicking his feet, unable to move. No amount of control pressing helped. I had to go back to the title screen and reload my save, which put me in a different location. Hopefully I don't see this again. Also I ran into glitches in a couple of buildings, nothing major, but annoying.

I was doing OK in Regular difficulty till I ran across a mission I just didn't seem able to beat. So I switched to Arcade and got through. I'll try going back to Regular but might not if I keep having problems.

I'll keep playing a bit and if I still like it I think I'll pick up the Uplay+ subscription. That way I can play the game all during October and if I decide I didn't really like it after all I can cancel the subscription and so I'll only pay $15 for the month's rental

[Max Peck]

Year 1 Roadmap -- also gives some details on microtransactions.