With Ubisoft’s big reveal (never mind the leaks) of the Warlords of New York release date, we’ve got more fundamental changes to look forward to than just a new expansion. The big title update coming alongside the expansion will make some big changes to the game’s RPG mechanics in an effort to streamline loot for players.
Title Update 8 will introduce an “RPG overhaul,” and that includes everything from gameplay revamps to encourage build diversity (through a skill power revamp) to meaningful UI tweaks. You’ll now always see roll ranges for each stat when you’re looking at gear, god rolls return to enhance readability, and the gear recalibration system has been streamlined with clearer item and stat usefulness indicators.
“What we mean by ‘RPG overhaul’ is making that depth more accessible to the player,” world producer Lionel Le Dain tells us. “We don’t want players spending their time outside of the game creating spreadsheets, we want players to stay in the game and for this depth to be accessible.”
Le Dain says that “when you pick up loot right now in the game, you have to consider whether you should keep it, deconstruct it, or equip it, and with 100 items in your inventory you really need to do the math every time you get something new. We’re not thrilled about this, we want the player to be able to make a snap decision and for it to be the best decision. Giving indicators to the player so they can say ‘screw that, it’s not good so I’ll ditch it’ or ‘equip that, it’s the best’ or ‘this has got a great talent that you can store in the talent management system’.”
The Division 2 had a promising start as a terrific addition to the ranks of co-op games, but interest seemed to wane substantially over the game’s first year. Hopefully the big new expansion and all these other major revamps can get it on track for an excellent 2020.