Yeah, pretty much everyone will probably be doing it this way until its fixed, anyway... there is a bug/glitch/exploit that allows you to kill the final boss and then reset it... and he drops HE weapons...
Pretty much, people suck and don't actually want to play. They want to hit their loot slot machines, it's about as braindead and fun as rushing loot in diablo.
And my mates won't be available for the week.
+3
Sirialisof the Halite Throne.Registered Userregular
edited March 2016
I just get repeatedly kicked immediately on load in by group leader numerous times now, when trying to do challenge mode.
My enjoyment of this game took a nosedive after hitting 30.
At this point I just want Challenge Mode done for the achievement alone.
Pretty much, people suck and don't actually want to play. They want to hit their loot slot machines, it's about as braindead and fun as rushing loot in diablo.
And my mates won't be available for the week.
They're doing it because it's the only way to get anything remotely worthwhile out of the loot system.
End game current consists of A) running a path through the dark zone hoping to get HE DZ materials out of public chests which might not even be lootable. Don't even bother stopping to shoot anything, it won't progress you any further or Glitching missions or bosses hoping for that 1/500 chance at a HE drop.
Believe it is Fridays at 8pm eastern. But the only thing that changes are the already made items not the blueprints.
0
Sirialisof the Halite Throne.Registered Userregular
edited March 2016
Finally get into a good group for Lincoln Challenge Mode.
Work our way up to the boss.
Boss dies, run up to loot - Game freezes 4 seconds before I get to the loot and refuses to recover (it has done this several times on other difficulties in this exact spot)
So I finished Challenge Mode only for the game to fuck up and basically deny me everything after I completed it. (yes, even the achievement)
Infuriating.
EDIT: At least the boss loot was still there when I logged back in... 1 Phoenix Credit and a Solid Teal weapon skin, didnt get credit for completing it.
The weapon skin is cool enough and one of my preferred colors, but I expected more than this out of it, might as well try again later I guess.
Pretty much, people suck and don't actually want to play. They want to hit their loot slot machines, it's about as braindead and fun as rushing loot in diablo.
And my mates won't be available for the week.
They're doing it because it's the only way to get anything remotely worthwhile out of the loot system.
End game current consists of A) running a path through the dark zone hoping to get HE DZ materials out of public chests which might not even be lootable. Don't even bother stopping to shoot anything, it won't progress you any further or Glitching missions or bosses hoping for that 1/500 chance at a HE drop.
I dunno if its the only way out of the loot system, I didn't do anything like that never did the bullet king farm, wasn't 30 when phoenix credits were dropping easier and I'm fully yellow with back up weapon options.
Just because its not the most "efficient" way to get gear doesn't make it the only way.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I think there's definitely an endgame problem in that everything leans towards crafting way too much at DTech is too much of a bottleneck. At DZ lvl 34 there is nothing I can buy that is better than what I have unless I grind interminably to DZ50, Challenge Mode is ok but the gear seems of lower quality than DZ06 HE drops which are way too diluted by garbage (I've had two drops, both have been pistol sights). What I'd start by doing is having named mobs drop gear only and switch mods and attachments to having a chance to drop from any mook. Then add a chance for any HE drop to have a chance to break down into division tech. This way there is more impetus to do the DZ and the dailies and make some kind of meaningful, regular progress at all times even if it's slow.
As it stands the chance of getting a decent gear drop is too low for the time investment.
As much of a crazy, wow this is weird, feeling it can be to run a mission with some stupid high amount of people in it If this is going to be the norm for Challenges why even bother?
I hope it gets fixed quickly.
Seidkona on
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
With the dark zone set up the way it is, I get why this is upsetting some people, but dang is it sad to see people upset at how others are playing a video game. I haven't done any of that stuff, but still I don't care how other people are playing.
The problem is that as they let these glitches exist, the people who have no problem exploiting it have a leg up.
In a game with a PvP element.
So if they fix the glitch and then make the Dark Zone drop more loot / give more PC, it'll be full of people with near perfect gear who'll gun you down and steal your shit.
Especially if PC hacking becomes a bigger problem.
It has nothing to do with being mad with how other people are playing it.
I don't want to do that and I don't want to spend 2 hours matchmaking to try to find a group that isn't doing that. If people were doing that crap in private games I wouldn't care but matchmaking runs right into it quite often.
Seidkona on
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Friday night I was in a group and they were watching a stream of people on PS4 running the challenge mode with 30+ people. So we went and did it, we did a team of 16-18 and it was pretty fun (laggy too). Had 8 people in party chat (different group leaders) and had fun running the mission 4 times in 90-120 minutes total... Finished with 2 weapon skins I don't like, 6 gold items that I deconstructed but 1, and a level 31 purple marksman rifle that wasn't better in damage than my current one.
I had a lot more fun playing the mission 4 times in 2 hours, even sitting there waiting for 30 minutes trying to get people to stay to make groups after kicking them, than I did the first time I did the mission legit and took 2.5 hours with multiple wipes.
PSN id - kickyoass1
PaD id - 346,240,298
Marvel FF - Lil bill12
I am not against them making a raid mode version that will just let people get into large groups and go ham on shit.
I just don't want to be thrown into that chaos when I'd like to just try and play the mission legitimately. It was not a challenge at all with the 12 we had. It was just a crazy spray of enemies exploding.
Sure that can be fun too but. . .
Seidkona on
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
It'll likely all be fixed (the farming glitches at least) with today's patch. I reckon the multigroup challenge mode glitch will take a while longer to sort out.
As people have mentioned, DivTech is currently the biggest bottleneck in end-game gearing currently. It's also what the devs have stated that they want, and absolutely will not change (no crafting from lower level DivTech, or anything at all). Bottlenecks (to a degree are fine), but one of the biggest problems with DivTech is that it's just so goddamn boring of a mechanic. Most of the time if you're just making routes in the DZ, you're gonna a couple DivTech chests and the rest will be claimed, and then don't even bother because of the 2 hour public timer. If you only play for a handful of hours a night, you're lucky to get 1-2 HE DivTech.
Hardcore grinders argue that the answer is efficient DivTech farm runs, then switch servers, but that is basically not even playing the game at that point, it's just running around playing a slot machine.
When combined with how utterly random crafting in this game is, blowing through all of your HE DivTech and getting nothing but side-grades, or even worse, downgrades, is the complete antithesis of progression, and fun. It leads to a situation where you can play for hours and hours, and basically make no progression whatsoever, because of the unfun materials gathering bottleneck, combined with how many crap talents there are and how RNGesus dependent crafting a decent item can be.
Honestly, I have fun playing with other PA dudes in both challenging mode, and the DZ, but the reality of end-game progression is really starting to make me want to take a break. I might just get myself to 50, buy my blueprints and then take a break, because right now farming DivTech is a fucking nightmare.
When there's not some sort of bullshit going on I love this game. The gameplay is what I want in a co-op game and I have a ton of fun with it.
There's just a lot bullshit right now and I really hope they sort it out. Throwing a game to the wolves like this is not easy and it'll just take them some time.
Seidkona on
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
I wonder what this game is going to be like for people who are still not 30, me for example thanks to the Overwatch Beta, and those who come to the game in a few weeks or months time. I feel like I'm doing myself a disservice in not being 30 and being able to partake in the exploits, look caves, and the current mad dash to gear up. By the time I gear up at my current play rate I feel like there's a chance I'll be so far behind the curve that the game wont be worth playing again until the DLC comes out.
I wonder what this game is going to be like for people who are still not 30, me for example thanks to the Overwatch Beta, and those who come to the game in a few weeks or months time. I feel like I'm doing myself a disservice in not being 30 and being able to partake in the exploits, look caves, and the current mad dash to gear up. By the time I gear up at my current play rate I feel like there's a chance I'll be so far behind the curve that the game wont be worth playing again until the DLC comes out.
Darkzone 25-29 is pretty much devoid of other players. I've seen two total. One I unofficially teamed up with (and had a decent if silent experience). The other was some dude who was running around and we simply ignored each other.
Well, since I'm not even out of single digits yet, reading this has kinda been disheartening. I don't level all that fast to begin with and this kind of stuff just makes worry about it even less. I'm already going to be so outclassed in gear that another week or so of slacking won't make a difference.
To be fair it's very easy to get to 30 and if you have limited time to play by the time you can grab it some of this stuff will be fixed.
I am complaining but to put it in perspective no Multiplayer game, especially one with loot systems, comes out of the gate without problems. It'll just take them time and Massive has shown a willingness to listen up to this point.
Seidkona on
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
In my experience, a fresh 30 can craft a set of level 30 blues that will do for hard modes and DZ 01 and 02 PVEing. A set of purples can be put together from from running either and daily vendor wares will allow you to run challenge modes for yellows. The non-optimized yellow gear, seen in a previous post, I am wearing now was put together this way.
Black lives matter.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Still waiting on Dan "Man of his Word" Ryckert to eat a hat
Yep. if you watch the set of purples coming in the daily resets you vcan make a pretty decent seat of gear over a few days.
I just sort of made a sketch of semi-optimized gear I wanted and then bought it something close to it when it came on sale at a vendor. it took about 4 days. Once you have purples you can then either run with a group or solo the hard mode dailies for PC's to start working on HE gear.
It's a bit of an extra slog but it's doable.
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Crafted gear should only give you legs to start getting the real good HE gear, it shouldn't be the way to get the best gear.
You should be encouraged to do fun stuff to get good loot. People do these loot caves in droves because running around the DZ for 3 hours to get a HE performance mod and 1 HE div tech is not fun.
Since crafting gear gives you the best, everyone is running the same damn build that includes a Vector. Also, SMGs are broken, since critcal chance+dmg is pretty much the only build available.
The PVE world becomes empty and meaningless after you hit 30. They made this huge detailed world that goes mostly unused, that is really weird.
Finally went through a Challenge Mode without getting cheated out of stuff.
Crafted my first High End primary (the Pakhan doesnt count...), a Black Market AK47 and put my precious Enhanced ACR to rest for now.
2nd one rolled with these Talents.
Accurate (Accuracy +46) Deadly (Crit Damage +26) and Skilled (11% Signature Skill Resources on headshot kills), seems nice enough.
I'd have preferred a Tactical ACR, but not really going to grind out DZ Rank 50 as things are now.
I just want a HE Custom PF45 blueprint. I don't think there's even one in the game. Sucks. While crafting systems can break a game easily, I wish this one's was better. If I unlock a blueprint for a weapon at level X, I should have been able to build a higher level version of it as I made level milestones or something. IDK.
If I get to DZ 50, I'll definitely grab the Navy MP5 SMG...
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
I wonder what this game is going to be like for people who are still not 30, me for example thanks to the Overwatch Beta, and those who come to the game in a few weeks or months time. I feel like I'm doing myself a disservice in not being 30 and being able to partake in the exploits, look caves, and the current mad dash to gear up. By the time I gear up at my current play rate I feel like there's a chance I'll be so far behind the curve that the game wont be worth playing again until the DLC comes out.
It likely won't directly affect you given the direction of the changes that have been made so far.
When the game launched, the Dark Zone was the only place for High End gear to drop in addition to DZ rank unlocking High End Blueprints and being a place for Phoenix credits to drop.
Since they added High End drops to Challenge mode zones, the necessity for DZ running dropped dramatically. It still is done because the blueprints it unlocks are different from what's available from the Phoenix Credit vendor at base, but now some of that vendor's offerings have started rotating weekly so between that and being able to loot HE stuff from missions over time even that use of the DZ will lessen in importance.
I think I've done less than 4 days of Hard and Challenging missions and I'm geared enough to keep hitting Challenging missions. It is very easy to gear up. Not necessarily to be optimally geared, but enough to be able to run challenge modes with a good group. The hard mode hospital mission, that is the hard mode version of the very first non-tutorial story mission, is really fast and drops purple gear and can show up as a daily mission. Then you hit other hard mode missions such as the hard mode version of the final story mission that spits out a lot of purples. While that is going on, you collect Phoenix credits from daily hard mode missions and will have enough to get a High End weapon blueprint (shaving off a little more time for your first one by using the uPlay club reward that gives you 40 phoenix credits, even more if you're able to knock off a challenging mission since those give credits even when not the daily and more when they are) and now you can PuG the easier challenge missions to work on gear.
This goes faster if you have access to a good group. And that's part of why I think there's been so much seeking of exploits and complaints about DV tech (though certainly not the only reason). Challenge mode is a lot harder than Hard mode and there's a ton of difference between how smoothly my rando groups have been even on the easier ones compared with the PA group I joined Saturday night. Part of it was knowing where stuff would spawn in from and the encounter design of course but just having basic coordination to focus down any target that a party member marks for it and having the entire group using skills that are useful for healing, buffing, and CC instead of trying to do damage is huge. A lot of players are stuck with random groups and are more likely to exploit the multigroup bug to brute force things. In the time it takes to set up a multigroup run (many players will have no idea what's going on when they get kicked on loading as required for the exploit and leave as opposed to doing what's needed afterwards for the exploit), a decent group can make good headway into the mission. Likewise, DZ rank can be gained solo or with rando group and likewise running around opening DV tech isn't exactly a precision exercise so it's attractive to people that can't find reasonably cooperative players reliably. Again, a lot of people that can still want DZ gear because it gives more options than the few non-DZ vendor offerings we've had to date but that demand should diminish over time.
I do think there's some room for content between hard and challenging modes as well as better use of the open world map at max level though. Hard mode is all level 30 elites, challenging is level 32 elites, something should be done that uses level 31 elites in a mission to smooth out the transition from hard to challenging for people that have to do random groups.
I would be all for changing challenge mode to level 31 elites, mixed purple/gold for 4 man teams. Making the HE loot drops a little rarer. Than adding a new raid variant which allows an 8 person team to run the same mission with level 31 gold elites. Bump the HE loot drops slightly.
Russian Consulate is a lot harder but even with 18 people, there were times we had 3/4 people down at any given time. Some of that was just from brute forcing and not using smart cover or cover at all.
PSN id - kickyoass1
PaD id - 346,240,298
Marvel FF - Lil bill12
Posts
edit: left that group, joined another random one and they're doing the same thing
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
And my mates won't be available for the week.
My enjoyment of this game took a nosedive after hitting 30.
At this point I just want Challenge Mode done for the achievement alone.
Yeah, this was happening to me too, no idea why.
They are trying to start multi-group runs.
Steam: adamjnet
They're doing it because it's the only way to get anything remotely worthwhile out of the loot system.
End game current consists of A) running a path through the dark zone hoping to get HE DZ materials out of public chests which might not even be lootable. Don't even bother stopping to shoot anything, it won't progress you any further or
Believe it is Fridays at 8pm eastern. But the only thing that changes are the already made items not the blueprints.
Work our way up to the boss.
Boss dies, run up to loot - Game freezes 4 seconds before I get to the loot and refuses to recover (it has done this several times on other difficulties in this exact spot)
So I finished Challenge Mode only for the game to fuck up and basically deny me everything after I completed it. (yes, even the achievement)
Infuriating.
EDIT: At least the boss loot was still there when I logged back in... 1 Phoenix Credit and a Solid Teal weapon skin, didnt get credit for completing it.
The weapon skin is cool enough and one of my preferred colors, but I expected more than this out of it, might as well try again later I guess.
I dunno if its the only way out of the loot system, I didn't do anything like that never did the bullet king farm, wasn't 30 when phoenix credits were dropping easier and I'm fully yellow with back up weapon options.
Just because its not the most "efficient" way to get gear doesn't make it the only way.
pleasepaypreacher.net
As it stands the chance of getting a decent gear drop is too low for the time investment.
Steam: adamjnet
This is also a perfect illustration of why skills, as damage dealers, are fairly pointless.
I hope it gets fixed quickly.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
In a game with a PvP element.
So if they fix the glitch and then make the Dark Zone drop more loot / give more PC, it'll be full of people with near perfect gear who'll gun you down and steal your shit.
Especially if PC hacking becomes a bigger problem.
I don't want to do that and I don't want to spend 2 hours matchmaking to try to find a group that isn't doing that. If people were doing that crap in private games I wouldn't care but matchmaking runs right into it quite often.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
I had a lot more fun playing the mission 4 times in 2 hours, even sitting there waiting for 30 minutes trying to get people to stay to make groups after kicking them, than I did the first time I did the mission legit and took 2.5 hours with multiple wipes.
PaD id - 346,240,298
Marvel FF - Lil bill12
I just don't want to be thrown into that chaos when I'd like to just try and play the mission legitimately. It was not a challenge at all with the 12 we had. It was just a crazy spray of enemies exploding.
Sure that can be fun too but. . .
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Hardcore grinders argue that the answer is efficient DivTech farm runs, then switch servers, but that is basically not even playing the game at that point, it's just running around playing a slot machine.
When combined with how utterly random crafting in this game is, blowing through all of your HE DivTech and getting nothing but side-grades, or even worse, downgrades, is the complete antithesis of progression, and fun. It leads to a situation where you can play for hours and hours, and basically make no progression whatsoever, because of the unfun materials gathering bottleneck, combined with how many crap talents there are and how RNGesus dependent crafting a decent item can be.
Honestly, I have fun playing with other PA dudes in both challenging mode, and the DZ, but the reality of end-game progression is really starting to make me want to take a break. I might just get myself to 50, buy my blueprints and then take a break, because right now farming DivTech is a fucking nightmare.
There's just a lot bullshit right now and I really hope they sort it out. Throwing a game to the wolves like this is not easy and it'll just take them some time.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Still waiting on Dan "Man of his Word" Ryckert to eat a hat
Crafted my first High End primary (the Pakhan doesnt count...), a Black Market AK74 and put my precious Enhanced ACR to rest for now.
2nd one rolled with these Talents.
Accurate (Accuracy +46) Deadly (Crit Damage +26) and Skilled (11% Signature Skill Resources on headshot kills), seems nice enough.
I'd have preferred a Tactical ACR, but not really going to grind out DZ Rank 50 as things are now.
Darkzone 25-29 is pretty much devoid of other players. I've seen two total. One I unofficially teamed up with (and had a decent if silent experience). The other was some dude who was running around and we simply ignored each other.
I am complaining but to put it in perspective no Multiplayer game, especially one with loot systems, comes out of the gate without problems. It'll just take them time and Massive has shown a willingness to listen up to this point.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Still waiting on Dan "Man of his Word" Ryckert to eat a hat
I just sort of made a sketch of semi-optimized gear I wanted and then bought it something close to it when it came on sale at a vendor. it took about 4 days. Once you have purples you can then either run with a group or solo the hard mode dailies for PC's to start working on HE gear.
It's a bit of an extra slog but it's doable.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Crafted gear should only give you legs to start getting the real good HE gear, it shouldn't be the way to get the best gear.
You should be encouraged to do fun stuff to get good loot. People do these loot caves in droves because running around the DZ for 3 hours to get a HE performance mod and 1 HE div tech is not fun.
Since crafting gear gives you the best, everyone is running the same damn build that includes a Vector. Also, SMGs are broken, since critcal chance+dmg is pretty much the only build available.
The PVE world becomes empty and meaningless after you hit 30. They made this huge detailed world that goes mostly unused, that is really weird.
I just want a HE Custom PF45 blueprint. I don't think there's even one in the game. Sucks. While crafting systems can break a game easily, I wish this one's was better. If I unlock a blueprint for a weapon at level X, I should have been able to build a higher level version of it as I made level milestones or something. IDK.
If I get to DZ 50, I'll definitely grab the Navy MP5 SMG...
I am actually sort of sad that the weapon archetype I like the most (burst AR) has no HE representation that I can find.
It's sort of funny to be the only person I ever see equipping a FAL.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
I used the burst fire briefly but didn't like it that much vs just firing in bursts.
What's the stat difference between those and normal weapons?
DZ06 Vendor. SA-58 Blueprint. Burst AR.
If I am going to be burst firing anyway why not get a bonus from it?
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
You are the best of the best.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
It likely won't directly affect you given the direction of the changes that have been made so far.
When the game launched, the Dark Zone was the only place for High End gear to drop in addition to DZ rank unlocking High End Blueprints and being a place for Phoenix credits to drop.
Since they added High End drops to Challenge mode zones, the necessity for DZ running dropped dramatically. It still is done because the blueprints it unlocks are different from what's available from the Phoenix Credit vendor at base, but now some of that vendor's offerings have started rotating weekly so between that and being able to loot HE stuff from missions over time even that use of the DZ will lessen in importance.
I think I've done less than 4 days of Hard and Challenging missions and I'm geared enough to keep hitting Challenging missions. It is very easy to gear up. Not necessarily to be optimally geared, but enough to be able to run challenge modes with a good group. The hard mode hospital mission, that is the hard mode version of the very first non-tutorial story mission, is really fast and drops purple gear and can show up as a daily mission. Then you hit other hard mode missions such as the hard mode version of the final story mission that spits out a lot of purples. While that is going on, you collect Phoenix credits from daily hard mode missions and will have enough to get a High End weapon blueprint (shaving off a little more time for your first one by using the uPlay club reward that gives you 40 phoenix credits, even more if you're able to knock off a challenging mission since those give credits even when not the daily and more when they are) and now you can PuG the easier challenge missions to work on gear.
This goes faster if you have access to a good group. And that's part of why I think there's been so much seeking of exploits and complaints about DV tech (though certainly not the only reason). Challenge mode is a lot harder than Hard mode and there's a ton of difference between how smoothly my rando groups have been even on the easier ones compared with the PA group I joined Saturday night. Part of it was knowing where stuff would spawn in from and the encounter design of course but just having basic coordination to focus down any target that a party member marks for it and having the entire group using skills that are useful for healing, buffing, and CC instead of trying to do damage is huge. A lot of players are stuck with random groups and are more likely to exploit the multigroup bug to brute force things. In the time it takes to set up a multigroup run (many players will have no idea what's going on when they get kicked on loading as required for the exploit and leave as opposed to doing what's needed afterwards for the exploit), a decent group can make good headway into the mission. Likewise, DZ rank can be gained solo or with rando group and likewise running around opening DV tech isn't exactly a precision exercise so it's attractive to people that can't find reasonably cooperative players reliably. Again, a lot of people that can still want DZ gear because it gives more options than the few non-DZ vendor offerings we've had to date but that demand should diminish over time.
I do think there's some room for content between hard and challenging modes as well as better use of the open world map at max level though. Hard mode is all level 30 elites, challenging is level 32 elites, something should be done that uses level 31 elites in a mission to smooth out the transition from hard to challenging for people that have to do random groups.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Russian Consulate is a lot harder but even with 18 people, there were times we had 3/4 people down at any given time. Some of that was just from brute forcing and not using smart cover or cover at all.
PaD id - 346,240,298
Marvel FF - Lil bill12
I mean those are some narrow hallways with just 4. . .
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm