Octopus Overlords

There are two different helicopters. The new one on the south lawn is just to launch into the NYC DLC, as far as I know. The helicopter that takes you to Coney Island is the one on the platform just east of the Base of Operations, the same one that you use to fly to Kenly College, the Pentagon, etc.

I foolishly assumed that whatever premium edition of the game I bought would include this DLC. Apparently it does not, so I guess I am not playing until I am between games again. I really need to stop giving ubisoft extra money on those premium editions. They never pan out.

Played through a bit of it with a couple of friends last night and enjoying it so far. We only were able to run around NY for a bit and unlock some of the safe houses, and all the safehouse quest givers were broken when we were on.

Really like the new item changes... it's much easier to tell at a glance what bonuses an item has and the new recalibration system should allow for much better personalized control over your equipment. Crazy it took them this long into their second game to start finally getting their item mechanics together, but thems the breaks.

I was able to talk to the community leader in the Animal Shelter safe house this morning, so hopefully today's patch fixed all of them.

Sepiche wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 12:32 pm Really like the new item changes... it's much easier to tell at a glance what bonuses an item has and the new recalibration system should allow for much better personalized control over your equipment. Crazy it took them this long into their second game to start finally getting their item mechanics together, but thems the breaks.

I like the revised recalibration system. Building up a library instead of juggling items in inventory makes for less micromanagement. I'm not a real fan of the simplified gear system though -- limiting us to two gear talents per loadout seems like the opposite of better personalization to me. But maybe I'm just bitter that they removed the Patience talent entirely. That was pretty much my cornerstone talent for end-game survivability as a solo player.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 2:51 am There are two different helicopters. The new one on the south lawn is just to launch into the NYC DLC, as far as I know. The helicopter that takes you to Coney Island is the one on the platform just east of the Base of Operations, the same one that you use to fly to Kenly College, the Pentagon, etc.

Thank for the suggestion, but unfortunately with my new character in DC that helo pilot on the platform east of the BOO (boo?) doesn't have any missions for me. Again, bummer, but it is my fault for not investigating further. A good reminder to me to never make assumptions without fully checking out all options

This game is going to drive me crazy. In NYC I just cleared the Celebration Hotel control point. Right across the street is a collectable and SHD Tech Kit a couple of stories up. And no matter how I try to reach it, I just can't get there . I can't blow up the pallet leaning against the door, I can't shoot open the steel door that leads to a ladder that goes up there. I do see a cross-over from the adjacent building, but I have circled the building several times and can't find a way in. And no nearby manholes either

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 3:54 pm

Max Peck wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 2:51 am There are two different helicopters. The new one on the south lawn is just to launch into the NYC DLC, as far as I know. The helicopter that takes you to Coney Island is the one on the platform just east of the Base of Operations, the same one that you use to fly to Kenly College, the Pentagon, etc.

Thank for the suggestion, but unfortunately with my new character in DC that helo pilot on the platform east of the BOO (boo?) doesn't have any missions for me. Again, bummer, but it is my fault for not investigating further. A good reminder to me to never make assumptions without fully checking out all options

I believe you need to level up to the WT5 end-game before that pilot unlocks (all of the expeditions are end-game activities), which you need to do before going to NYC anyway. Did you already use your level 30 boost? As I understand it, if you boost a new character you will end up at level 30 with WT5 fully completed, at which point you should have full access to all the end-game activities.

Worst case scenario, you just miss out for now on a couple of missions at a single location. It does help bridge the narrative gap between the end of The Division 1 and Warlords of New York, but you can catch yourself up story-wise just by watching the cinematic videos that were released in the run-up to the expansion release. When I got to NYC, I think there was one throw-away reference to Coney Island, but then I was off and running.

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 4:55 pm This game is going to drive me crazy. In NYC I just cleared the Celebration Hotel control point. Right across the street is a collectable and SHD Tech Kit a couple of stories up. And no matter how I try to reach it, I just can't get there . I can't blow up the pallet leaning against the door, I can't shoot open the steel door that leads to a ladder that goes up there. I do see a cross-over from the adjacent building, but I have circled the building several times and can't find a way in. And no nearby manholes either

Some things to look for are overhead walkways from other buildings that lead to the building containing the cache, or fat yellow cabling leading away from the area around a door to one of those destructible electrical panels, or retracted rappelling ropes that are just hanging out up on top of a building for no immediately obvious reason.

Sometimes you even need to find all of the above for one single cache.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 6:41 pm

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 4:55 pm This game is going to drive me crazy. In NYC I just cleared the Celebration Hotel control point. Right across the street is a collectable and SHD Tech Kit a couple of stories up. And no matter how I try to reach it, I just can't get there . I can't blow up the pallet leaning against the door, I can't shoot open the steel door that leads to a ladder that goes up there. I do see a cross-over from the adjacent building, but I have circled the building several times and can't find a way in. And no nearby manholes either

Some things to look for are overhead walkways from other buildings that lead to the building containing the cache, or fat yellow cabling leading away from the area around a door to one of those destructible electrical panels, or retracted rappelling ropes that are just hanging out up on top of a building for no immediately obvious reason.

Sometimes you even need to find all of the above for one single cache.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll keep looking... I figured it might even be that you need to enter the interior of the building from a tunnel, so I'm checking out any manholes as I come to them.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 6:30 pm Worst case scenario, you just miss out for now on a couple of missions at a single location. It does help bridge the narrative gap between the end of The Division 1 and Warlords of New York, but you can catch yourself up story-wise just by watching the cinematic videos that were released in the run-up to the expansion release. When I got to NYC, I think there was one throw-away reference to Coney Island, but then I was off and running.

It's so funny that I didn't even think about doing the missions with regards to the story, I just wanted to check out the area. I've long since given up on figuring out who is who in this game. if they have an enemy indicator above their heads, it's go time!

Max Peck wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 6:41 pm

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 4:55 pm This game is going to drive me crazy. In NYC I just cleared the Celebration Hotel control point. Right across the street is a collectable and SHD Tech Kit a couple of stories up. And no matter how I try to reach it, I just can't get there . I can't blow up the pallet leaning against the door, I can't shoot open the steel door that leads to a ladder that goes up there. I do see a cross-over from the adjacent building, but I have circled the building several times and can't find a way in. And no nearby manholes either

Some things to look for are overhead walkways from other buildings that lead to the building containing the cache, or fat yellow cabling leading away from the area around a door to one of those destructible electrical panels, or retracted rappelling ropes that are just hanging out up on top of a building for no immediately obvious reason.

Sometimes you even need to find all of the above for one single cache.

Also, in the base game, I'm pretty sure there was one that could only be accessed in a story mission.

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 7:30 pm

Max Peck wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 6:41 pm

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 4:55 pm This game is going to drive me crazy. In NYC I just cleared the Celebration Hotel control point. Right across the street is a collectable and SHD Tech Kit a couple of stories up. And no matter how I try to reach it, I just can't get there . I can't blow up the pallet leaning against the door, I can't shoot open the steel door that leads to a ladder that goes up there. I do see a cross-over from the adjacent building, but I have circled the building several times and can't find a way in. And no nearby manholes either

Some things to look for are overhead walkways from other buildings that lead to the building containing the cache, or fat yellow cabling leading away from the area around a door to one of those destructible electrical panels, or retracted rappelling ropes that are just hanging out up on top of a building for no immediately obvious reason.

Sometimes you even need to find all of the above for one single cache.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll keep looking... I figured it might even be that you need to enter the interior of the building from a tunnel, so I'm checking out any manholes as I come to them.

I've picked up all the SHD in NY and you never have to go underground to get to something above street level. The main new thing is rappelling ropes that you can shoot down. Other than that lots of doors with yellow boxes nearby (connected by thick yellow wires) that you can shoot to open.

On a more general note, I really like the new re-calibration library thing... it's going to take a LOT of loot to fill that up, but it totally changes the way I look at loot drops.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Mon Mar 09, 2020 10:53 am On a more general note, I really like the new re-calibration library thing... it's going to take a LOT of loot to fill that up, but it totally changes the way I look at loot drops.

Agreed. It's nice being able to potentially get an improvement from any drop instead of maybe once in a hundred drops getting an item upgrade you actually want.

The enhanced bullet sponginess that they brought in alongside the new gear system gets old fast. I ran a hard mode mission this morning, and the end-mission stats showed that I put out 336M points of damage. And about a third of them seemed to go into one single named heavy (Diesel). I also ran into one of the new Rogue Agent npcs in the same mission. It basically ran up to me, face tanked me, and murdered me. It was like trying to fight a smarter, tougher Keener. I can't think of anything I could do to defeat it while running solo.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Mon Mar 09, 2020 12:06 pm The enhanced bullet sponginess that they brought in alongside the new gear system gets old fast. I ran a hard mode mission this morning, and the end-mission stats showed that I put out 336M points of damage. And about a third of them seemed to go into one single named heavy (Diesel). I also ran into one of the new Rogue Agent npcs in the same mission. It basically ran up to me, face tanked me, and murdered me. It was like trying to fight a smarter, tougher Keener. I can't think of anything I could do to defeat it while running solo.

Maybe we were running different missions, but we ran a couple hard and challenging missions in DC last night and all commented that the bullet sponginess didn't seem as bad as was being reported. Maybe some missions are worse than others, or maybe we were beaten into submission by Division 1 to not have a problem with it, but we had no issues mowing through most of the baddies.

It only seems to be really bad for elites and bosses, with the heavy tanks being particularly egregious. Presumably it's also worse for solo players, since they aren't going to be putting out as much damage as a squad. It also doesn't help that they got rid of the key gear talents (Hardened and Patience) that provided a lot of my survivability pre-Gear2.0. My tankiest build has about 1.2M armor, but that can melt in a couple of seconds if I pop my head out of cover in the hairier firefights, and it takes a lot longer to repair it than it took to lose it. I can solo some, but not all, missions in hard mode. For now, at least, challenging mode seems like it's out of reach, but that may change as I gear up, work out some better builds and adjust my tactics.

In other news, I'm puzzled by their decision to gut the end-game project system. Once I cleared the one-shot WoNY projects, I only have a daily project that requires doing hard mode content, a weekly project that requires doing challenging mode content, a DZ project and a Conflict project. So, as a solo player, there is basically one daily project to do if I don't want to group or do PVP. Drastically reducing the available structured end-game activities seems like a bold design decision.

RNG. RNG never changes...



I finally get a "God Roll" loot drop, but it's the same weapon type as my one good exotic weapon.

Finished the WONY expansion this week and found it highly enjoyable, if only more of the same. As my clan is MIA, I soloed the expansion and was able to get past everything without too much trouble. I personally didn't notice the bullet sponginess to be any worse than it was in, but I've been away for a while.

I thought it worth mentioning the maps in the WONY expansion are very cleverly put together. Beyond the SHD caches, which are on average more cleverly hidden than vanilla D2, there is always something to be found by exploring the nooks and crannies. I did find the New York NPCs to be ridiculously stereotypical. No other real complaints, other than the price.

Now to perfect that equipment...

Yeah, I don't really notice the bullet sponginess any more myself. Once I had all-new Gear 2.0 equipment and weapons, and had figured out some new builds, the issue sorted itself out.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Mon Mar 09, 2020 1:02 pm In other news, I'm puzzled by their decision to gut the end-game project system. Once I cleared the one-shot WoNY projects, I only have a daily project that requires doing hard mode content, a weekly project that requires doing challenging mode content, a DZ project and a Conflict project. So, as a solo player, there is basically one daily project to do if I don't want to group or do PVP. Drastically reducing the available structured end-game activities seems like a bold design decision.

Once the season activities started up, this also ceased to be an issue for me. There is usually plenty of stuff for me to do on any given day.

Warlords of New York Season 3 kicked off yesterday. They've also added a new PVE end-game mode where you fight your way up a 100-story New York highrise with procedurally generated levels.

Could just set the 1st floor on fire

Max Peck wrote: ↑Wed Sep 23, 2020 6:39 am Warlords of New York Season 3 kicked off yesterday. They've also added a new PVE end-game mode where you fight your way up a 100-story New York highrise with procedurally generated levels.

That actually sounds pretty cool, I might have to check it out sometime. I fear I have burned out completely on Ghost Recon Breakpoint and I could use a little alternative open world action.

Im waaay the opposite. If in D1 or the little D2 I tried to play a building is more than 3 floors I become tired and bored of it and just want to be back outside. I cannot stand repetitive slightly changed rooms and floors. 100 of them?..Shoot me. Id never touch that.

I'm intrigued by it. I don't mind the random level thing; it doesn't bother me in Disgaea or FFXIV, so I'd check it out. That said, I'd have to get through the game and pickup the expansion. That's the bigger obstacle for me.

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 23, 2020 11:22 am

Max Peck wrote: ↑Wed Sep 23, 2020 6:39 am Warlords of New York Season 3 kicked off yesterday. They've also added a new PVE end-game mode where you fight your way up a 100-story New York highrise with procedurally generated levels.

That actually sounds pretty cool, I might have to check it out sometime. I fear I have burned out completely on Ghost Recon Breakpoint and I could use a little alternative open world action.

I ran through 20 levels of the skyscraper last night and it was pretty cool. There was a decent variety of encounter types crossed with the different factions and different floor types. It does get repetitive, but you don't need to do all 50 levels at once. You can start higher up. I was given the option to start at 50, but I don't know if that is dependent on anything like difficulty level or equipment or whatever. I also picked up several keys related to the skyscraper, no idea what they do.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:59 am I also picked up several keys related to the skyscraper, no idea what they do.

Most likely to unlock hidden loot boxes strewn around the levels.

Yeah I just googled it and there are loot boxes that have a chance of giving parts to create an exotic chestpiece that require the keys to open. I think I got a couple of the pieces but I swear none of the boxes gave any clue they required the keys. The keys are super hard to miss too. Of course to get the chestpiece you need to get to the top floor. I'm not geared for that at all.

Maybe after I put together the new Hunter's Fury set that everyone is excited about that you can get through season progression.

Wish I could play the normal game. Got this for $5 last year and its unplayable still. Guess they'll never optimize it.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 6:17 pm Wish I could play the normal game. Got this for $5 last year and its unplayable still. Guess they'll never optimize it.

What does your RAM look like? It was unplayable for me with a single stick of 8GB. Now, 8GB is enough to run the game, but you need (or at least I needed) two sticks to take advantage of the extra bandwidth. Seriously, I'm still using less than 8GB total when playing, but after installing that second stick it went from a slideshow to 60fps on ultra.

I have 2 sticks of 8 gig each.

My trouble is it plays fine then its like it entered molasses. It slooooow...walking slows shooting slows its all one bit slow. Then that lasts maybe 10 seconds or so then its normal for 10 or so then it laaaags again...over and over and over. Doesn't depends on enemies on screen or fighting. I can walk around the white house and it will do it.

New season, who dis?



Payback is going to be sweet...

Also, weapon/gear optimization is now available at the recalibration workstation. I'm not sure just when it was added, but I didn't notice it until this morning. It seems like it will be grindy, but at least it adds a new reason to hoover up loot for deconstruction.

Christmas comes to DC.

I tried to play last night and still cant. Its fine then its choppy lagging stuttering then its fine then its laggin over and over. Doesn't matter if its set to high settings or all off and low. I even saw it choppy lag in the character creator!

It's weird Daehawk, your symptoms are exactly the same as mine were until I upgraded my RAM. But you say you have 2x8GB, so god knows what the issue is. I assume you don't have a shitload of other programs running at the same time?

I have 4x4g ...and no nothing else but Steam and my wallpaper engine.

I cant get this to load now. I reinstalled recently to test it with the newer video card and it ran great. I reinstalled tonight to play it and it wont load right. I click and nothing happens for about 3 minutes then it opens a black window or screen for about a minute then the splash screens play and it sits at the connecting to ubisoft screen 0% forever until I end task. It used to do all that pretty quick and let me in game. Now its really slow and doesn't load.

EDIT: Seems to be a widespread known issue since a June update and no fix. Great.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Jun 18, 2022 9:46 pm I cant get this to load now. I reinstalled recently to test it with the newer video card and it ran great. I reinstalled tonight to play it and it wont load right. I click and nothing happens for about 3 minutes then it opens a black window or screen for about a minute then the splash screens play and it sits at the connecting to ubisoft screen 0% forever until I end task. It used to do all that pretty quick and let me in game. Now its really slow and doesn't load.

EDIT: Seems to be a widespread known issue since a June update and no fix. Great.

Yup, my son and I started playing again recently and we are both getting the same thing. My system is a beast, his is a few years old and both see the same thing. I googled it and it sounds like so far the devs have said they will address in the next release which is like 6 weeks from now.

One thing we have noticed seems to help is launching the game from Ubisoft Connect rather than the desktop shortcut. It still takes forever but it usually succeeds eventually. The worst is it still crashes every once in a while which gets you back to that long ass startup wait.

So it looks like The Division Heartland is a free-to-play multiplayer PvEvP small-town Dark Zone game. My indifference intensifies...

More directly on topic, here is the Division Day livestream, including info on what's coming up for The Division 2. I haven't played in quite a while, but I might check out the upcoming Year 5 seasons if I don't need to spend (much?) money on it.

I should have posted this last year. I think the slow down issue is fixed now since I put in the GTX 970 card with 4 gig of vram instead of the others that only had 2 gig. Even the 950 had the slow down. But I tested this game with the 4 gig card last year for a day or two and it seemed fine. Not sure if that is just luck of the lower vram was the cause.