14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Ubisoft has revealed the full patch notes associated with the 1.02 update for The Division, the first numbered patch since the game was launched. This is designed to go live during the maintenance period for the servers that's coming on Tuesday, March 22, starting at 1 AM Pacific Daylight Time.
The official announcement explains that all the improvements should be active once the game goes back up after about three hours of downtime, and Ubisoft will offer updates about the process if anything goes wrong.
The company was serious when it said that it planned to address some issues that the player community had been talking about recently, and a full list of the changes can be seen by clicking on the button at the end of this article.
Ubisoft says that all named enemies in The Division will now offer improved rewards including Phoenix Credits and that the troublesome Trained weapon talent is currently only offered on shotguns, marksman rifles and pistols with a reduced bonus.
General connectivity should also be better, and the matchmaking system should serve players better.
At the same time, gamers will be encouraged to go rogue in the Dark Zone, with the studio saying that they will now lose less money and experience when they die, and there are new rewards for those who are willing to hunt them down.
Loot exploits are also eliminated from The Division
Ubisoft has promised that it will hunt down all loot caves and will make sure that gamers cannot exploit them to gain an unfair advantage. It also says that players should continue to offer feedback to improve the title in future updates.
The Division is set to receive its first downloadable content pack, which will be available for free for the entire community, in April, and the development team might introduce another major update until then to deal with remaining issues and improve balance.
Next month, the title will receive its first Incursion, which is a Player versus Environment mode that will ask high-level players to work together to take out waves of increasingly powerful enemies.
Another free DLC will be offered in May, and starting June, Ubisoft will launch paid content for The Division, with the first pack set to open up areas under New York while adding a new faction.
The other two packages will add another game mode and will expand already-existing core mechanics.