Post by TRUE EB0LA on Mar 15, 2016 0:50:52 GMT -5
ALL CREDIT FOR THIS GUIDE GOES TO JokerUnique
Before we go into specific details about the game, let’s go over the first part of the basics of The Division, so that we know how the world functions.
The Map / Progression
We arrive on Manhattan Island, Manhattan it is under lockdown and each entrance is watched by the military, so that nobody leaves the island. The map will be structured in 22 different districts, that can be explored from the beginning – there is no physical barrier between the different areas. But just because you are allowed explore everything, it will get very difficult very fast, because each district has enemies on a specific level and as you walk through the different areas, there will be a point where you simply can’t survive the encounters. But the enemy-level won’t be a surprise to you, as you enter a new area – for example Hell´s Kitchen – there is a clear indicator, that you enter a new area, and that enemies have level X. This gives you a good hint, if you want to explore the area or wait until you have the appropriate level or better gear.
Districts
The Map and the Dark Zone are structured in different districts, with specific names and enemy-levels:
Camp Hudson 3-4
Chelsea 2-4
Pennsylvania Plaza 3-5 (Base of Operations)
Hudson Yards 5-9 (Save House)
Garment District 5-9 (Safe House)
Tenderloin 9-12 (Save House)
Times Square 10-13 (Safe House)
Hell´s Kitchen 10-13 (Save House) (Vendor, JTF Officer)
Clinton 14-15 (Save House)
Flatiron District 15-16 (Save House)
Gramercy 16-18 (Save House)
Stuyvesant 18-19 (Save House)
Kips Bay 20-23 (Save House)
Murray Hill 24-26 (Save House)
Turtle Bay 27-28 (Safe House)
Midtown East 28-30 (Safe House)
Dark Zone Sections:
DZ06 29-30
DZ05 27-29
DZ04 22-24
DZ03 16-18
DZ02 13-15
DZ01 10-12
Verticality
It was stated from the beginning that verticality is very important in The Division. It is possible to fight on street-level, inside the buildings, on the rooftops and of course underground in the subways and tunnels. This basically triples the size of the map, because the playable area is not just what you can see on the Mega-Map from above, but there is also a lot more that has to be discovered first. As of now, we don´t have an exact number of how many buildings we can enter, but as many as possible.
Fog of War
The Division won’t work with the common "Fog of War" mechanic – it is New York City after all and everybody knows these streets. So you won’t have to discover the map, you will see from the beginning, where everything is and how you can find your way around. But since we are in mid-crisis New York, you don’t know what is happening in these streets or the dangers. This is why the Base of Operations is so important – you need the support from the Joint Task Force to know what is happening and where your support is needed.
How dynamic is the PvE world?
Most open-world-games or specifically MMOs are usually very static and sometimes quite barren until the player enters the area with a quest or approaches an enemy. The Division has a different approach. The goal is not just to create a very detailed map but also a living and breathing world that always runs in the background. Each faction, the survivors and also the wildlife have specific behaviour patterns and daily routines that react to the day/night/weather-cycle. This way stuff is happening all over the map and is not just triggered as you move through the streets.
Fast Travel
Fast travel is in the Division and it works quite simple. The Base of Operation and the Safe Houses are fast-travel points that you can select. These fast-travel-points can be selected on the Mega-Map and then with “fast travel” you just jump to this location. You won’t be able to fast-travel in the Dark Zone, so you have to use one of the checkpoints to exit the Dark Zone.
The Zones
The world of The Division is split up in 3 different zones that have a seamless transition between them and each of them is unique:
The PvE Zone:
This is basically everything of New York outside of the Dark Zone. Here is your main-game area. You can experience the story here, take back New York. You can invite 3 other friends into your game and form a 4 player squad this way. If you don’t invite friends, you will be alone in this zone - you will not see any other players (like in normal MMOs) and there won’t be any bots that fill up your group. The difficulty/loot quality will scale up or down depending on how big your group is.
Hub Zone
Camp Hudson is the big hub area where you arrive on Manhattan Island. It is located right at the Hudson River and is a lager group-up and trading area where you can sell and buy items from vendors.
Safe Houses
While we only have one Base of Operation, there will be multiple Safe Houses. As you explore New York you will find them scattered all over the map. These Safe Houses are an area where you can meet other players, group up with them and sell or buy items to and from the different vendors. As the name says, you won’t be able to use your weapons or skills in these houses and there won’t be any PvP. As mentioned, these Safe Houses are also fast-travel points.
The Dark Zone:
In the middle of Midtown, there is also the so called Dark Zone. The Dark Zone is a quarantined area, where the military gathered the sick and tried to find a cure. You can enter the Dark Zone through checkpoints or climb over the wall that surrounds it. The Dark Zone is a PvP enabled area, so you will meet other players there and you can engage them and take their loot. But there will be repercussions if you do so – more about this in the Dark Zone section. The Dark Zone is also a normal area like the PvE Zone – you will see NPCs there and you can gather resources and search for loot - you don’t even have to attack other players. But the loot you gather in the Dark Zone is contaminated and has to be extracted by helicopter. This is the only way you can get loot out. You can call the helicopter in one of the Extraction Zones, that are spread all over the DZ. When the loot is extracted, you can claim it in the Stash at the Base of Operations.
Safe Room in the Dark Zone
These are small private Safe Rooms in the Dark Zone that only you or your group can enter. You will find a special Dark Zone Vendor there and you are safe from other players.
Base of Operation
Your mission is to take back New York, restore order and help the survivors. The Base of Operation is at the core of this mission. It provides you with information, a place to coordinate with your co-agents and also is a central part of the game and character progression. This is your private instance; you will never see another player here. The Base of Operation has – among other things – three wings (Technology, Security, Medical) that have to be unlocked and upgraded. (More about this in the Base of Operation chapter).
Contamination
All over the map you will find contaminated areas. These areas can have a contamination-level from 1-4. Your gas-mask gives you per default a protection for level 1 contamination – for higher contamination-levels you need to equip Gas-Mask-Filters that compensate the contamination-level. When you enter a contaminated area that is higher than your gas-mask and gas-mask-filters combined you will die after 10 Seconds. That does not translate to the Dark Zone itself, you don’t need a specific gas-mask-level to enter the Dark Zone and you don’t need to use or change gas-mask-filters like in other post-apocalyptic games. So your stay in the Dark Zone is not limited by any mechanic. To level up your protection against the contamination, you have to upgrade the Medical Wing and unlock the Perks that give you an upgrade to Virus Protection.
Stealth
The Division will have a stealth system like other games, but more simplified version. Each NPC has a cone of vision that is displayed on the minimap. If you are in cover, they won’t see you and if you time it right, you can sneak pass them and avoid another fight. If they see something suspicious an exclamation point will pop up, and they start roaming and if they see you, the exclamation point will flash up and they will attack. When you want to lower the chances to be detected and still intend to take out the NPCs, you can use the silencer on your weapon.
SOURCE
Before we go into specific details about the game, let’s go over the first part of the basics of The Division, so that we know how the world functions.
The Map / Progression
We arrive on Manhattan Island, Manhattan it is under lockdown and each entrance is watched by the military, so that nobody leaves the island. The map will be structured in 22 different districts, that can be explored from the beginning – there is no physical barrier between the different areas. But just because you are allowed explore everything, it will get very difficult very fast, because each district has enemies on a specific level and as you walk through the different areas, there will be a point where you simply can’t survive the encounters. But the enemy-level won’t be a surprise to you, as you enter a new area – for example Hell´s Kitchen – there is a clear indicator, that you enter a new area, and that enemies have level X. This gives you a good hint, if you want to explore the area or wait until you have the appropriate level or better gear.
Districts
The Map and the Dark Zone are structured in different districts, with specific names and enemy-levels:
Camp Hudson 3-4
Chelsea 2-4
Pennsylvania Plaza 3-5 (Base of Operations)
Hudson Yards 5-9 (Save House)
Garment District 5-9 (Safe House)
Tenderloin 9-12 (Save House)
Times Square 10-13 (Safe House)
Hell´s Kitchen 10-13 (Save House) (Vendor, JTF Officer)
Clinton 14-15 (Save House)
Flatiron District 15-16 (Save House)
Gramercy 16-18 (Save House)
Stuyvesant 18-19 (Save House)
Kips Bay 20-23 (Save House)
Murray Hill 24-26 (Save House)
Turtle Bay 27-28 (Safe House)
Midtown East 28-30 (Safe House)
Dark Zone Sections:
DZ06 29-30
DZ05 27-29
DZ04 22-24
DZ03 16-18
DZ02 13-15
DZ01 10-12
Verticality
It was stated from the beginning that verticality is very important in The Division. It is possible to fight on street-level, inside the buildings, on the rooftops and of course underground in the subways and tunnels. This basically triples the size of the map, because the playable area is not just what you can see on the Mega-Map from above, but there is also a lot more that has to be discovered first. As of now, we don´t have an exact number of how many buildings we can enter, but as many as possible.
Fog of War
The Division won’t work with the common "Fog of War" mechanic – it is New York City after all and everybody knows these streets. So you won’t have to discover the map, you will see from the beginning, where everything is and how you can find your way around. But since we are in mid-crisis New York, you don’t know what is happening in these streets or the dangers. This is why the Base of Operations is so important – you need the support from the Joint Task Force to know what is happening and where your support is needed.
How dynamic is the PvE world?
Most open-world-games or specifically MMOs are usually very static and sometimes quite barren until the player enters the area with a quest or approaches an enemy. The Division has a different approach. The goal is not just to create a very detailed map but also a living and breathing world that always runs in the background. Each faction, the survivors and also the wildlife have specific behaviour patterns and daily routines that react to the day/night/weather-cycle. This way stuff is happening all over the map and is not just triggered as you move through the streets.
Fast Travel
Fast travel is in the Division and it works quite simple. The Base of Operation and the Safe Houses are fast-travel points that you can select. These fast-travel-points can be selected on the Mega-Map and then with “fast travel” you just jump to this location. You won’t be able to fast-travel in the Dark Zone, so you have to use one of the checkpoints to exit the Dark Zone.
The Zones
The world of The Division is split up in 3 different zones that have a seamless transition between them and each of them is unique:
The PvE Zone:
This is basically everything of New York outside of the Dark Zone. Here is your main-game area. You can experience the story here, take back New York. You can invite 3 other friends into your game and form a 4 player squad this way. If you don’t invite friends, you will be alone in this zone - you will not see any other players (like in normal MMOs) and there won’t be any bots that fill up your group. The difficulty/loot quality will scale up or down depending on how big your group is.
Hub Zone
Camp Hudson is the big hub area where you arrive on Manhattan Island. It is located right at the Hudson River and is a lager group-up and trading area where you can sell and buy items from vendors.
Safe Houses
While we only have one Base of Operation, there will be multiple Safe Houses. As you explore New York you will find them scattered all over the map. These Safe Houses are an area where you can meet other players, group up with them and sell or buy items to and from the different vendors. As the name says, you won’t be able to use your weapons or skills in these houses and there won’t be any PvP. As mentioned, these Safe Houses are also fast-travel points.
The Dark Zone:
In the middle of Midtown, there is also the so called Dark Zone. The Dark Zone is a quarantined area, where the military gathered the sick and tried to find a cure. You can enter the Dark Zone through checkpoints or climb over the wall that surrounds it. The Dark Zone is a PvP enabled area, so you will meet other players there and you can engage them and take their loot. But there will be repercussions if you do so – more about this in the Dark Zone section. The Dark Zone is also a normal area like the PvE Zone – you will see NPCs there and you can gather resources and search for loot - you don’t even have to attack other players. But the loot you gather in the Dark Zone is contaminated and has to be extracted by helicopter. This is the only way you can get loot out. You can call the helicopter in one of the Extraction Zones, that are spread all over the DZ. When the loot is extracted, you can claim it in the Stash at the Base of Operations.
Safe Room in the Dark Zone
These are small private Safe Rooms in the Dark Zone that only you or your group can enter. You will find a special Dark Zone Vendor there and you are safe from other players.
Base of Operation
Your mission is to take back New York, restore order and help the survivors. The Base of Operation is at the core of this mission. It provides you with information, a place to coordinate with your co-agents and also is a central part of the game and character progression. This is your private instance; you will never see another player here. The Base of Operation has – among other things – three wings (Technology, Security, Medical) that have to be unlocked and upgraded. (More about this in the Base of Operation chapter).
Contamination
All over the map you will find contaminated areas. These areas can have a contamination-level from 1-4. Your gas-mask gives you per default a protection for level 1 contamination – for higher contamination-levels you need to equip Gas-Mask-Filters that compensate the contamination-level. When you enter a contaminated area that is higher than your gas-mask and gas-mask-filters combined you will die after 10 Seconds. That does not translate to the Dark Zone itself, you don’t need a specific gas-mask-level to enter the Dark Zone and you don’t need to use or change gas-mask-filters like in other post-apocalyptic games. So your stay in the Dark Zone is not limited by any mechanic. To level up your protection against the contamination, you have to upgrade the Medical Wing and unlock the Perks that give you an upgrade to Virus Protection.
Stealth
The Division will have a stealth system like other games, but more simplified version. Each NPC has a cone of vision that is displayed on the minimap. If you are in cover, they won’t see you and if you time it right, you can sneak pass them and avoid another fight. If they see something suspicious an exclamation point will pop up, and they start roaming and if they see you, the exclamation point will flash up and they will attack. When you want to lower the chances to be detected and still intend to take out the NPCs, you can use the silencer on your weapon.
SOURCE