SUMMARY OF STATE OF THE GAME
As
announced in the schedule of January, the focus of this State of the game was Item Stats RNG and UI quality-of-life changes.
Priority Alerts
Yesterday we had a
maintenance that was general housekeeping.
Known Issues
Invisible Walls
- The improvements that they are working on are not ready and are scheduled to be dropped with Episode 3.
Stuck NPCs
- They have found the cause of that issue. A fix is scheduled to be dropped with Episode 3.
Unable to respawn in Dark Zone
Becoming stuck in the UI and being unable to respawn when downed in the DZ will be fixed with Episode 3.
=> You can check out the Known Issues here:
Link
New Gear System
In this State of the Game, we got the first introduction into the new Gear System. Keep in mind all of this will be added to the game after Episode 3 and all stats, talents and Gear Sets that you see are work in progress and subject to change.
Part of a larger revamp
- As of this moment they have about a year's worth of feedback and ideas from players. This in combination with their own knowledge playing the game gives them a good foundation to work from.
- Some changes can't be introduced into the game incrementally and require a big-bang
- So they needed to make this reboot of the gear game to address the big issues that have been brought up.
Why are we changing this?
- Once the players hits endgame, they get confronted with a lot of RNG.
- That puts a lot of stress on the loot system because you get a lot of things while doing content that doesn't feel rewarding enough.
- All these items put stress on the inventory system because you have to sort things out and also judge all the items that you got if you should keep them or not.
- So instead of playing the game, you are more in the inventory screen and that is of course not the idea.
Overall the current situation is:
- Too rare to get usable things
- The system is hard to understand (you need excel sheets for max rolls etc.) and it is difficult to judge what is good.
- You have to keep too many things for recalibration.
- No satisfaction in god rolls.
- Too many hybrid builds – no clear roles in the group.
To address this, they have three aspects they want to change:
- RPG (The gear rework)
- Recalibration stat storing
- Skill power refactorization
Today, they are only talking about the gear rework and give you some context of what exactly and why it is happening.
Gear Rework is part of a package
Gear reboots are not particularly popular, especially when you already have good builds on your character.
So just to be clear, this gear reboot will be added to the game in a package:
- All gear will be rebooted.
- There will be new items to get (double the amount of named items for example).
- There will be new things to play.
- There will be a new power cap – so you can grow as you get the new things and it is not just refarming items to get back to the status quo.
- The old gear gets converted to the new gear system.
Goals with the new Gear System
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- Intuitive - (You should be able to look at things and judge them without an Excel Sheet)
- Deep - (It should still keep synergies and connections that make builds interesting while still being accessible)
- Satisfying – (You get rewarding loot and you feel the impact when you put an effective build together)
- Transparent – (The focus should be more on what you see is what you get and less about hidden mechanics that you have to google)
- Clear Setup – (The goal should be to start on one decision and then build around it and not get stopped because you don't have enough red attributes to unlock a talent)
No Budget System
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- With the new Gear System, they remove the budget system from the items.
- All the bars and every stat of an item can roll max at the same time (the god rolls are back)
- That makes it easier to understand and judge, if an item is good or not in terms of rolls.
- That should also give you a satisfying progression.
New Brand Bonuses
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They've looked at all the stats from the Gear Brands.
- More aligned with playstyle (they should fit better the different playstyles)
- More combinations between the different Brands
- Low popularity Brands revitalized with new attributes to make them more interesting.
Core Attributes
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The Core Attributes is something new that gets added to the items and is similar to Firearms/Stamina/Electronics system that we had in The Division 1.
Each item has one core attribute that is either:
- +% Weapon Damage
- +1 Skill Tier
- Armor
The
Core Attributes are the only way to get these stats and you have to make a choice if you want to do weapon damage, if you want to focus on Skills or if you want survivability through armor.
- The Core Attributes are determined by the Brand
- Core Attributes can be recalibrated (As before still one stat per item)
Bonus Quality Indicators
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With the new Gear System we also get new ways to judge an item:
- You get stat bars for each attribute that shows you how close it is to max-roll
- This way you can clearly see what stat is a god roll.
- In the recalibration bench you can see the specific max values.
- When it is max rolled, the specific stat also has an orange marker.
Powerful Talents
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In the new Gear System, the Talents have a different role than before.
- Build defining talents – they should be impactful when you equip them.
- Amplifies your stats – for example, "increases weapon damage by 10%".
- No requirements – there will no requirements to activate a talent.
- Fewer active Talents at the same time, but more powerful.
- Regular Talents can be found on Chest and Backpack – no other normal items have Talents on them.
So in short, you don't have to track and tweak your build to match the requirement of six and more talents. You can pick two build defining Talents on your chest and backpack and start building your setup around them.
Talent Group Synergies
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One of the goals of the Talent rework was also to put more focus on group synergies and not just on buffs for the specific player. They also have the goal to promote designated roles in the group, so that you can specialize in a healer or a tank for example and still pull your weight in the group.
For example:
- "Leadership" awards temporary armor to your team when you do a cover to cover move. It will be 20% of your current equipped armor. So the more armor you have (as in tank) the more armor you can apply to your group members.
- "Emphatic Resolve" buffs weapon- and skill damage when you are healing other players. So you don't just heal your team-members, you give them a damage buff at the same time.
There will of course still be talents that just focus on the player itself.
Gear Mods
In the new Gear System, we still have Gear Mods, but they have also been reworked:
- Gear Mods will only roll one stat.
- Like the gear, the Gear Mod stats also have quality bars
- This will help you in the sorting process when you go through your inventory.
Equipment Examples
When you look at your equipment you see on one glance the Gear Brand, the attributes on the item and the max-rolled stats are also highlighted with orange.
Keep in mind, all these talents, stats, and attributes are work in progress.
Exotics
While the Exotics have been reworked, the basic idea stays the same.
While the normal gear only has Talents on Chest and Backpack – the Exotics have talents for the other slots. (BTSU Gloves still come with a talent for example)
When you have an exotic backpack (or chest) – you also give up a regular talent – but the exotic backpack will compensate for that.
Gear Sets
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All Gear Sets have been revisited and adjusted:
- Reworked – the Gear Sets kept their essence but are more straight forward now.
- 2, 3 and 4-Piece Bonuses
- Chest and Backpack have Amplification Talents
Amplification Talents
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When you equip chest and backpack from a Gear Set, you sacrifice two normal Gear Talents. That is why on Gear Sets you have Amplification Talents on the chest and backpack. They basically increase the efficiency of the Gear Set by an amount. So if you want the full power of a Gear Set, you need to equip 4 pieces while two of them are Chest and Backpack. You can then further enhance the build with an exotic that can have talents for the remaining slots and a regular high-end item.
So you have to make an active choice of how you combine the talents and attributes of the items.
Solo vs. Group
The new Gear System has a lot more group synergies and buffs because that is what the old system was missing. But that does not mean, that there are no specific solo Talents.
Lootsystem Changes
The new Gear System also impacts the loot system.
- In the old system you got a lot of loot and most of it was trash.
- The goal in the new Gear System is, that you get slightly less loot, but the vast majority of items that you get are super interesting and good.
- So you spend less time in the inventory and when you get something it is interesting.
Gear Conversion
With the introduction of the new Gear System, the old equipment gets converted.
- Named Items will still be named items after the conversion
- Exotics and Gear Sets are still around and have been reworked
- Example: When you have a Named Item as gloves that no longer has a talent in the new Gear System, that item will have one stat that is rolled better than how it would usually be allowed. (10% weapon damage instead of 8% for example)
- Stats and Mod Slot will be moved around and overall the item will still be good.
"Damage to Elite" removed
With the new Gear System, the Damage to Elite stat is removed from the stat pool.
The goal is to build high damage output to everything and not being able to kill an elite enemy faster than a red-bar enemy.
In essence: "Damage is damage to everything"
Roadmap
Community Resources
The community has provided a lot of guides, tools, and lists:
Link
Important links
- Video
- Article on the official page
