The Division Gets Big Updates Ahead Of Open Beta

When a game gets a closed beta just a month before it's ready to be released, people often wonder just how much can be changed in that time. Such is the case with Tom Clancy's The Division. The game had a weekend-long closed beta at the end of last month. There's an open beta coming, and along with it, a surprising number of changes.

Ubisoft has said that they are using the forthcoming open beta to essentially stress-test the game and its servers. Since the closed beta did have a limited number of people, this is probably a wise decision. But again, how much can really be changed before the game is launched on March 8th?

As it turns out, they're able to make a lot of adjustments to the game in a rather short time. The closed beta ended in the early morning hours of February 2nd, and they've already made a host of changes for the open beta, which goes live on February 19th (if you're on the Xbox One, you'll get to start a day earlier, on the 18th).

Take a look at the full changelog below, which includes not only bugfixes and improvements, but some additional content as well.

New Mission Available to play, Subway Morgue:

• Encounter a new faction: The Cleaners
• Explore a Mass Grave while trying to restore power to the city.
• Rescue the missing Engineer, Paul Rhodes

Unlock an additional Wing in the Base of Operations:

• The first upgrade to the Twch Wing is now available
• A new skill can now be unlocked: The deployable turret

Numerous Dark Zone updates and improvements:

• New High End weapons available in the Dark Zone
• Refresh rate on Dark Zone chests has been greatly reduced
• Non-player enemies in the Dark Zone have been significantly increased in number
• Non-player enemies in the Dark Zone have been buffed slightly
• The Manhunt Timer now pauses instead of refreshing while in combat as a level 5 Rogue
• The Reward for surviving as a Rogue Agent has been increased to 1.5x the kill bounty
• The Health Bar for Agents in the Dark Zone now only turns red when they actually become Rogue
• A new warning icon has been added to indicate an Agent who has shot another player but has not done enough damage to go Rogue
• Dark Zone experience leveling curve has been adjusted slightly
• Disabled the option to transfer Dark Zone brackets as a Rogue (This prevents players using Bracket Transfer as a means to escape after becoming Rogue)
• Removed some ropes that allowed players to reach areas that gave them an unfair advantage

Other changes

• New Ubisoft Club Action available for participating in the Open Beta unlocking an exclusive reward in-game
• New and improved Tutorial Video
• Tutorial video is now available to view from t he Character Select Screen
• Fixed two bugs that allowed players to become invisible to other players
• Fixed an exploit with Ballistic Shield Skill that allowed players to become invincible
• Cheat Detection and Prevention additions and updates
• Fixed mismatch of stats that occurred occasionally between Vendor Inventory and Player Inventory when item purchased
• Adjusted player movement speed while running with a grenade in hand
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused other player's name and health bar to not be visible in the Dark Zone
• Fixed some Weapon Mods that resulted in incorrect stat values when equipped
• Fixed some weapons that didn't appear as Contaminated when obtained in the Dark Zone
• Fixed a bug with the Reward Claims Vendor that caused stacks of consumables to be decreased under specific circumstances
• Fixed a bug with stats display not updating when browsing Vendor Inventories
• Fixed a bug that caused continuous vibration under very specific conditions
• Fixed a very rare bug that prevented players from being able to fire or switch their weapons
• Added mission Dialogue lines in Missing Persons: Heather Lau Side Mission
• Several environment fixes to prevent falling through world issues in specific places
• Multiple stability fixes (23 unique crashes fixed)
• Server optimizations and improvements (players will receive less connection errors now)
• Multiple localization fixes and improvements
• Additional polish & bug fixes too numerous to mention

VIA: DSOGaming