‘The Division’ Team Discusses Balancing The Game After Update 1.4, PTS Details In Today’s State Of The Game

During today’s maintenance for The Division, members of the game’s team sat down to answer a few questions in the state of the game address. The brief stream included many topics with a focus on update 1.4, the newly announced public test server, and some of the results from the first Agent Intel survey. The maintenance, which is now concluded, does not include patch notes or changes as it was a routine restart of the servers.

In today’s stream, hosted on Twitch, The Division team touched on a few things related to update 1.4. No firm details on what will be included in the update were mentioned; however, it was reiterated that 1.4 would focus on improving core gameplay. It was also stated that update 1.4 will likely not include any type of game balancing since the entire game will be different with the update. Balancing will naturally come after the core gameplay is improved.

Players will get their first glimpse of patch 1.4 for The Division when the public test server launches. The test server will go live with an early build of update 1.4, and PC players will be able to test these changes via Uplay. Public test server availability on Steam is something the team wants to include at a later date, too. Console player access to the public test server would be helpful; however, it is not likely due to the nature of those platforms and a developer’s access to them. Those looking to download and play on the public test server when it is available should expect a completely separate client around the same size as the live game. Moreover, the team did not have a date for when the public test server would be available, but a date is expected to be announced next week.

Lastly, developers of The Division quickly mentioned that the results from the first Agent Intel survey were much in line with what was expected. Players do not seem to be using the Ballistic Shield ability while First Aid and Smart Cover are used quite often. More surveys and other player feedback will definitely be requested as update 1.4 draws nearer.

The news from this week’s state of the game comes just days after it was announced that the next update will focus on fixing the game’s issues rather than releasing new content. Both the Survival and Last StandDLCs are being pushed back to later release dates in order to rectify some of The Division‘s biggest issues. According to the game’s official site, update 1.4 and other patches will address an array of bugs, make loot more rewarding, and adjust how long it takes to kill foes at high levels. Not to mention, developers of The Division want to make progress with quality-of-life changes like making weapon skins not take up precious inventory space.

Developers of The Division are looking to the game’s players for aid in addressing some of these issues. In fact, that new Agent Intel section of the forums opened just last week after the team announced update 1.4’s focus. The Agent Intel section of the official forums queries players with crucial topics where their feedback will be used to shape the future of the game. Players can visit the Agent Intel forum section to provide lists of their most bothersome bugs as well as fill out provided surveys.

New Agent Intel topic is up! We want to hear your thoughts on skills. Fill out the survey and join the conversation https://t.co/rRiIHcyX6Q

— Tom Clancy's The Division (@TheDivisionGame) August 29, 2016

As The Inquisitr reported, the first survey was posted to the Agent Intel forums earlier this week in an effort to gather data on skill use. In the survey, players are asked to note how often they use each skill based on each skill’s mod options. Those that take the survey can choose between four frequencies on how much each skill mod is used giving developers a general view on which skills are popular and which ones might need attention in The Division.

[Image via Ubisoft]