A REVOLUTIONARY New Feature We Need In The Division 3

Looter Shooters across the gaming industry are beginning to innovate in some unique ways, and today we'll be talking about one particular feature that I think would be very neat to see in The Division 3! Let me know your thoughts!

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Channel art created by coohwiip

Intro/Outro music: Running Out by Patrick Patrikios

#TheDivision #TheDivision2 #TheDivision3

[bystolics]

As a solo player, this sounds like it'd be an awesome feature!

[Trepanation]

This reminds me almost EXACTLY as the Dragon's Dogma _Pawn_ system, *a game that came out in 2012.* In DD (a single player RPG), you have a lore-based NPC sidekick that you design and build throughout your adventure (their physical appearance, class, inventory, equipment, skill tree, etc). This Pawn functions as a member of the player's party. As a part of the game's story, player Pawns exist in "the rift", a spiritual realm. Dragon's Dogma lets players Hire other player Pawns from the Rift to flesh out their own party - literally hiring them as mercenaries. They make their own tactical decisions based on their class, gear, inventory (utilizing potions and consumables), with some minor skill-based tactical parameters that you can govern. Even though it's a "single player" game, the story facilitates this interesting side-social interaction. You can rate people's Pawns through your adventures with them (some I've kept basically my entire campaign!), and the player that owns the Pawn gets a kickback from people that hired their Pawn.

As far as I know, Dragon's Dogma was the first to do something like this in 2012. It's a really neat system, and I'm happy to see versions of it built upon and utilized in other games. I think Division would really benefit from something like this, even if it were merely limited to a duo.

[PizzaTime]

This is actually a feature commonly found in certain gatcha mobile games, but it looks much more evolved in the sense that you could fill up/build your squad when your solo and the participants also gain something from their characters being used. I like it a lot, definitely welcome in Div 3 if ever.

[GamesKickz]

Like the Pawn system in Dragon's Dogma from 2012?
It sounds a lot like it, and it will be in their 2nd game too.

[jedreinhardt]

This would be an absolutely amazing way to play. I prefer to play solo most of the time but you better believe that I would use a feature like that.

[Ixarus]

As a solo, that sounds god-tier.

Finally having a revive available and a different playstyle. E.g: I could prime fire status and they could detonate them. They could run support and I deal damage/use skills.

Matchmaking is essentially dead on lower-tier or unpopular stuff, so this would be really nice to have.

PLEASE DO THIS UBISOFT!!!

[marcusdiddle]

Very similar to and expands upon an idea I had once regarding the ability to unlock "named Hero NPC's" or "Elite Recruits" along the way, where you could effectively build out a small squad of named NPC's that you could call into action with you when needed, similar to how you send up a flare at Control Points to bring in backup. Each would have their own specialty, so you have to choose according to your situation.

[aaronfilipowich]

I thought of something along this line. I was thinking of running Division like Ghost Recon Wildlands and Breakpoint, where you get 3 AI teammates and they are fully customizable. Even in later versions of GR Breakpoint they had versions of the sticky bomb, assault drone, pulse and chem launcher heals. Each teammate also had the ability to revive you, follow commands like when to shoot and when to hold fire. So there's frame work there for fully customizable AI teammates. Now your not going to get skill heavy teammates they'll probably get one skill unless they all take chem launcher heals and a second skill. I thought of an idea for Div 3 where your agent is based out of a core hub and has 3 AI teammates and you travel from your BoO to different cities each having several missions and an area to capture control points and such...think how New York is in Div 2, now have 20 cities like Boston, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans, Portland. Each city has a story driven part that helps your agents track down the next in line for president while Black Tusk does the same. You could even add outside events like Countdown only with more options like an oil refinery, offshore oil rigs, dams, power plants, water treatment plants, airports, NSA bases, ammunition factories...hell even cargo ships and so on. Treat them like control points and you have to first capture and clear them then defend it. Lots of options, if they choose to go that route. Hell I've got tons of ideas like Miami, Haiti faction cruise ship stronghold/incursion.

[MatthiasPowerbomb]

This sounds like an AWESOME feature. It's a bit similar to a feature that I've wanted since Division 1. What I always wanted the option to do was to bring my other characters in as AI teammates. There's four slots in a squad, we have four characters - you can't tell me that's not meant to be. This idea from Rocksteady takes that idea and elevates it to another level. I would love it if Massive were to incorporate a system like this.

[XerroMedia]

I think it'd be a great addition, the only issue I see is how the game/AI would incorporate the selected player's play style. I could see them leveraging actual AI to implement this, especially with how AI is advancing currently. Though it would likely take months (at least) of training data, which could wreck any chance of it being implemented.

[mckrackin]

Very cool feature. Dragon's Dogma was doing it in 2012. I had one of the most powerful mage pawns in the world and other players could "hire" her into their party. After they finish, they "pay" her and rate her. A lot of us top players commonly traded rare and exotic gear through our pawns. If someone thought my build was just what they were looking for, I would hire their pawn and equip them with all the best gear and weapons like what I use myself. When I released their pawn, it showed back up to their master with all the gear I put on it plus a gift of my choice. Usually a rare and powerful weapon or armor piece.

[IzWolfPack]

If we think of AI teammates like how the AI squad system in Ghost Recon works then there’s a lot of factors to consider. There’s the ability to customize their kit and cosmetics which plays into the gameplay idea you mentioned where you can either customize the AI Agents yourself or “copy and paste” other Agent’s characters. Then there’s the ability to disable each individual teammate in case you feel like running without any AI (Classic Division Experience) or with one or two AI up to a full squad. Then there’s whether or not they should allow the AI to use Specialization weapons, lethals like frags and skills. The only problem is that unlike Ghost Recon we might not be able to give them specific orders as basically all buttons on controller are in use. They would also have to put in a system where missions and the open world balances difficulty based on whether or not you have AI teammates active or if certain missions have scripted teammates like Kelso. That’s not taking into account World Difficulty, Directives or World Tier. Obviously if a player joins your session then they would either take an empty spot if you have no AI active or the spot of any AI teammates you have active. They could also make it so that any players who join replace an AI teammate that is running their specific “character.” I would also prefer it if AI teammates are disabled once a player joins your game just like Ghost Recon.

[nozemi]

Well, for the AI of those "Player-bots" it`s easy to use Rogues or Hunters AI. But i doubt that you could go to Legendary Stronghold with AI team and try to use them as healers, shieldbearers, since it requires understanding those roles, which AI could do that much - they would just skill spawning

[anthemptedits]

Dragons Dogma did this 12 years ago and it was awesome. Glad more games are implementing this feature.

[FihThaliam]

This is like what Dragons Dogma has.
You can hire pawns what can you help(Some are better, some are bad) and the Pawn owner getting some items or you can send gifts. When you send it back.

[Teufelhund]

I would be happy to have even just AI Kelso, Manny, or whatever other base of operations agents available. Kinda like the Balders Gate thing where you can control the other AI on your team

[rob]

I think this would be super difficult to implement based on how many weapons, gear, and skill combinations exist. It's one thing if you have a player with a DPS build that can hunker behind cover and just keep shooting, but someone with a skill or healer build would be much more difficult. Yes, BT have some skills, but usually it's just one per character type - drone, healer box, etc. Knowing when to pop the right skill, for example a decoy in certain parts of Legendary Tidal Basin or Manning Zoo, would be very hard to manage. I agree that it seems cool, but the AI would need to be a lot better than what most of the Ads in the game currently use.

Would definitely be open to it, but building the best division character is as much about play style as it is min/maxing the build. In a game where you're building the best Batman or Superman you may end up with a lot fewer combinations.

[khalidalnajjar]

I'm a solo player. Extremely solo to the point that even with so many hours and years into this game I have never even joined a clan.

I want to do raids but I get yelled at for not knowing what to do and incursion is an impossible thing for me because again I don't know what to do.
So I stick to solo play
I don't want bots but with every single update adding group content I don't know what to do so yea bots will probably help.

[alexandrefillot]

I thought about a similar mechanic in-between Price Of Power and Reign Of Fire. Basically, you could train any Allied Civilians/Lewis' Sons, and depending of how much you give them, the stronger they became. Furthermore, an upgrade for the checkpoints on full stocks was to have some of those special squads of their own to patrol in their respective block, ensuring nothing menacing spawned in the vicinity.

[damagedgoods]

It is the Dragons dogma peon system. Basically..