I just want to highlight a sentence from the Patch Notes:

This means that there are a lot of game and balance changes still going to be added to this list of changes, both more nerfs and buffs to items, gear sets, gear brands, weapons, etc.

We'll be adding more balance changes to the second Wave of the PTS as well as doing more balancing before TU6 goes live. So while we appreciate feedback, please try to keep it constructive when discussing balance changes.

e.g.

• I don't like the nerf to X because it makes Y more difficult.
• I think buffing X would make more sense than nerfing Y, because...
• I'm currently playing with build X and I don't think it's too strong for these reasons: XYZ.

Muuncrash

Episode 2 as in Pentagon?

Yes.

Chesse_cz

So Episode 2 content will be in TU6? Also it will be on PTS?

Narrative content will not be on the PTS, so no missions or Classified Assignments for example.

We intend to make several phases of the PTS available, which means that the first phase will also not include all changes to balance most likely.

Potaje6

Hey u/ChrisGansler important question for me, the recalibration changes (changing colors of rolls) will be retroactive with loot acquired before the patch? With the changes of TU3 adding the HP% rolls wasnt retroactive with loot acquired before the patch

I'm unsure if I understand your question. Recalibration in TU6 allows you to take a red attribute roll and recalibrate it over a blue one, for example. This should work for all your gear, already acquired or not.

paperbackgarbage

Not trying to hijack this...but because you're a Massive employee...any word on Survival?

No, we have not talked about any new content or Survival publicly.

Chesse_cz

Ok, thanks and more info about Episode 2 will be in next few weeks right?

I answered that question in the post you replied to me. :)

Chesse_cz

Sorry i don't mean PTS with that question about Info, my bad :)

The PTS is currently being build and will be tested internally first (so we know it doesn't crash the PTS). Once that's done we'll start the PTS, so this should happen rather soon.

Episode 2 / TU6 is planned to be released for the live servers (PC, Xbox, PS4) in October. Testing / fixing will dictate the exact release date but we will let you know as soon as we can.

g10v4nn1sh1n0b1

TU6 ETA please

We're planning to release Episode 2 / Title Update 6 in October.

uuuuno

So all changes will drop at TU6 in Oct? Or will they slowly rollout during Sept also?

Everything will be in one big patch, Title Update 6 / Episode 2 and it'll arrive in October.

klensley

What exactly did they mean when they talked about the changes to recalibration of talents? It sounds like something that already exists; we've always been able to roll talents to items that can't normally drop with a talent as long as it matched (can't roll Hard hitting on to it if it's not passive).

u/ChrisGansler are you able to clarify please?

For example: You can take a talent that is on one backpack and move it to another backpack, regardless of the brand of each backpack.

RogueGold

That’s already a possible thing in TU5, as long as the talents are of the same type (closed vs open circle). Is the type limitation being changed and that’s what was meant?

We'll provide a in-depth article once the last details are ironed out. But yes, we're planning to allow you to recalibrate any talent between items, as long as the talent exist on that item slot on any gear.

Some exceptions might apply, e.g. the named item talents.

I don't have details on the rolls and the RNG right now but please keep in mind that we can't cover every topic in one show. We took what was confirmed (and even there some things are still in flux) and what we felt would speak to some of the concerns players have been expressing.

That does not mean we won't be making further changes for Title Update 6 / Episode 2. And we are committed to this game, so even if the change you're looking for specifically might not make it in to TU6, there will be more updates coming after that.

TL:DR we'll have a lot to talk about throughout September and until the patch goes live in October.

Hey. Sorry for the late reply. Are you guys still experiencing this right now? We'll investigate what caused it.

ChrisGansler

Hey. Sorry for the late reply. Are you guys still experiencing this right now? We'll investigate what caused it.

We seem to have found the cause and are doing some back-end work on servers, this shouldn't impact players that are online.

cfox0835

Ohhkaaayyy, so..... how long until the Mastery system is ready? Seems like a pretty important detail you left out.

For good reason, we don't announce these things in a comment chain on reddit. Once we have a good understanding of what goes where we'll make sure to announce it.

wmandra

First, there was a ton of player feedback offered on PTS forums that laid out just how poor of an overall experience the Kenly expedition was. That you chose to ignore that feedback and release the expedition anyway was bad decision #2. (Bad decision #1 being how the expedition even made it to the PTS in the first place). Episode 1 should have been released with just the new main missions (Zoo and White Oak) and new classified assignments.

Second, no type of "Mastery" system is going to fix the fundamental replayability problems with the expedition. At least for myself, the Shepherd system helps offer some replayability as I can gain Shepherd rank while helping others through the expedition.

Given where we are at now with poor decision making, removing the expedition in its current form is just insult to injury. Here's my suggestions on what the correct (or at least better decisions would be now):

1. Forget the weekly rotation of expedition areas. it's dumb.
2. Leave the full Kenly Expedition with all areas open in the live game.
3. Pause development on the mastery system and instead shift efforts into improving the basic expedition game play (more on that below).

You commented elsewhere in the thread that "Changing Expedition into something completely different is unlikely as it would require a lot of work", and while I agree that changing it into something like Underground from TD1 would be a massive undertaking I also don't think its necessary. Here's some thoughts on what I think are reasonable changes to the Expedition:

- There are currently 3 basic investigations in the expedition that seem essentially copy/pasted into each of the 3 different areas. Expand this so that there are more possibilities. Sitting in box killing enemies until timer runs out is fine in one area, it's just repetitive and lazy development to make players do essentially the same thing again in the next area.

- Add normal, hard, and challenging difficulties

- Once the pool of basic investigation types are expanded, make which 3 spawn for any given area either random or change on a daily rotation.

- Separate the single echo at the beginning of each expedition area into 3 different echos. Then have the 3 echos spawn at random locations within the expedition area. Make us hunt to find the echos so that we can complete the investigation.

Thanks for the detailed feedback, I'll make sure to pass it along.

AtheonsLedge

If only there were some sort of ...server where the public could maybe...test things?

We did test the Expedition and the feedback was similar to what we've seen now. On top of it we now also received feedback from console players about their experience with Kenly College.

Cinobite

Could you explain a bit about what this "Mastery" system is?

We're still refining it and the feedback given right now will likely also impact it. That's why I'm vague about it, since it could still change. It'll likely ask you to finish the Investigation Areas more quickly and challenge you with your own completion time. Other challenges are also possible but we'll have more details in the upcoming weeks.

future_glory

Thanks for commenting on this thread Chris. Please know that I think that Kenly College is beautiful, just unfortunately not enough to do. The Expeditions feel like drawn out missions with little to no connection to the world of DC (it’s an abandoned college but we need to dump a bunch of toxic chemicals so that we can save Kenly College and thusly DC? Why?). The puzzles are too simple and not engaging (follow this color and turn this knob/press this button).

I would love for this area to be repurposed for Underground 2.0 (minus the procedural generation of the tunnels). Utilize the great layout of these buildings to have new and exciting fights/waves/spawn locations/etc. Scrap the idea of the Expedition and bring it back as something that is manipulatable, like the Underground directives, so that there can be long-lasting replayability.

Is this, by chance, what you intend to introduce with the Mastery system?

I would also love to see the outdoor areas in between buildings populated so that it matches what is going on inside of the buildings and keeps the immersion.

Also, if specific brand sets, gear pieces, or weapon types were featured for each building for a given time period, with scaling for better drops based upon harder difficulty/modifiers, it could also give people a reason to farm these areas to get the loot they are looking for.

I love this game and want with all my heart to see it grow and succeed. Thank you for the hard work, heart, time and energy you and the rest of the devs are putting into this game that we love. God bless.

The story behind Kenly College made sense to me but I can see that it's not super clear if you don't see the College location as valuable with the functions it has. The audio files from the convoy give a pretty good overview, but I don't think that how important the College is for the D.C. survivors makes a big difference for how fun it is to play, at least for most players.

Changing Expedition into something completely different is unlikely as it would require a lot of work. The Mastery system would give you challenges to finish the Investigation Areas more quickly, more skillfully and then measure your success. It's not going to make Kenly College to a completely new mode, if that makes sense.

In terms of what loot is dropping where, that's a a different topic and definitely something we're looking at for possible improvements of the loot gain. But not just for Kenly College.

Simon-says-what

We had two options before the release of Episode 1:

Please stop always painting these scenarios like they're dictated by god or some other higher power. You had plenty more options, like:

• Finishing the content before release
• Delaying the release of the title Update
• Delaying the release of just Kenly college

You regularly do the same thing with bugs and all sorts of issues, and it starts to feel disingenous (to me). You make this game, you have all the options in your hands, and noone else is dictating your actions, and noone else is to blame for your mistakes.

Yes, true. I oversimplified our options. It's true that we could've just not released Kenly College at all until the Mastery system was done. But as it's not ready yet we'd have no new content at all until that point. While we could've made that decision, I personally don't think it would've been the correct one.