Let me start off by saying that I absolutely love The Division series. There's obviously enough good stuff in it that keeps me coming back.
With that said, I recently came back 2 months ago after not playing it for the previous few months due to boredom/fatigue. I have mostly enjoyed myself but that doesn't mean there isn't obvious room for improvement. So here are some mental notes that I've made over the last couple of months....take it for whatever it's worth to you.
First off, I'm well aware that there are "sweeping changes" eventually inbound come sometime between December and February. We'll see what that actually brings to the table.
Ok, first observation...I'm noticing in most of my random matchmade groups and most videos covering Division 2, a ridiculous amount of Shield builds. Specifically, usually in tandem with the Scorpio shotgun. It feels like it has become too big of a crutch for people to lean hard on. Normally, I'm a buff not nerf kind of guy, but this is just silly in almost every single group. I think it might be time to adjust those items to, at least, not make it the obvious default cookie cutter setup. D-FNC got it right in Division 1. SMG and pistols make sense. Shotguns, AR's, and Rifles are just silly in conjunction with a shield.
Speaking of shields and shield players, I propose a new global directive. One that would turn on friendly fire for gunplay. Maybe after 2-3 seconds in the same spot, it kicks in. In most of the groups that I have played in, the players don't seem to understand the function of a shield player in team setting. Instead of drawing the focus of the enemy and moving off to the side to work in tandem with the team to eliminate enemies, they seem to think that they are the be all/end all of dps, and the rest of us are just there to observe their "greatness." Most of them just block shots, no matter where you are positioned, clogging up all firing lanes. Maybe if we had a directive that punished them for bad play, they might actually learn how to play their role correctly.
Speaking of directives, a nice QOL change would be, when we matchmake, before we choose to join, could we please see what directives the group is running. Way too much time spent in loading screens by joining a group, finally loading in after what I call the double or triple load, just to see they're running directives that royally gimp your build, leave group and enter another loading screen....wash, rinse, repeat. And piggybacking off of that, another welcome QOL change would be, if I join a group that's running pistolero and back out, could you please make sure that when I load back into my instance, that I have my ammo back please? That way I don't have to then jump to a safehouse before I can even matchmake again.
Those are my nitpicky observations. Obviously, I would love to see actual new content and more gearsets and brands for more diversity in builds and mechanics. Still want my Survival Mode, even though that'll never happen. And for the love of jeebus, lower the costs of recalibration....good grief.
That's all I have off the top of my head for now. Thanks for reading my ramblings...lol
*Edit* Just remembered another item....the chem launcher. That damn thing glitches out more often than not. You fire a round with it, go to switch back to your weapon and fire, it's still stuck in chem-mode. Sometimes doing it 3-4 times in a row before it gets it right. Frustrating and obnoxious.
*Edit Again*
I also think it's about time to allow the training wheels of restriction to come off, and allow us to have more than one exotic equipped at a time. We're 2.5 years in at this point and, while balance is important, it's just as important to let us diversify our builds further and let us actually enjoy these things just like in the first game.
Chat translation?