It's been quite a while since The Division was first announced, but it won't be much longer before players can take back the streets of Ubisoft's abandoned New York City. Of course, as with any major gaming release these days, there's one last update that sits between fans and their heavily-armed operatives.
The Division's Day One patch is a hefty one, sitting at a full 2 GB, but Ubisoft has fixed most — if not all — of the issues that plagued the game's last beta test. The list of updated features and squashed bugs is an impressive one: most games use their Day One patches to fix background systems, such as network code, but Ubisoft seems to be doing their best to improve the game as much as it can before launch.
Seriously — Ubisoft has tweaked just about everything in the game, from the way players use menus to the game's streetlights to weapon balance to how the Dark Zone works. The list of updates is pretty exhaustive — if you want to know exactly what you're downloading on Day One, you can find the full suite of fixes below:
Appearance menu has been updated:
• Now displays as a grid, making it much easier to browse items
• "Outfit Sets" option added to quickly equip all the items in a set
• "Inspect" feature added
Visual Improvements:
• Fixed several lights that did not cast global illumination
• Fixed missing volumetric lights on traffic lights
• Illuminated signs now cast actual light
• Improved atmospheric haze in several time and weather combinations
• Improved nighttime lighting and contrast
• Adjusted exaggerated rim light shader on characters
• Improved car window reflections
• Improved Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) to be more pronounced
Mega Map and Open-World updates:
• New "Mission Overview" has been added to the Mega Map
• Contaminated zones will now display the required filter level on the Mega Map
• Field data with audio will automatically play when you pick them up
• If you start listening to field data with audio from the menu, you can keep listening outside the menu
• Subtitles added for all Field Data that plays audio
• Mission entrance menu usability has been improved
• Significantly increased the number of crafting materials obtained from loot crates
• The icon for landmarks in the Dark Zone has been changed and now indicates if non-player enemies are present or not
Gameplay Improvements:
• New "Help" menu is now available in the Settings menu. It stores all the loading screen and context-sensitive tips
• New tutorials added for certain gameplay features and mechanics (these can be switched off in the Options menu)
• Added information to the in-game loot pickup UI that displays why an item can't be picked up
• The deployable turret no longer targets non-rogue players and doesn't damage neutral players caught in the line of fire
• Skill modifiers have been added directly to gear (previously only available on gear mods)
Fixes and general improvements:
• Fixed glitches that could be exploited by players to gain an unfair advantage in the game (such as invisibility, shooting through walls, etc)
• Extended server-side checks to detect any illegal actions from the game client, limit their impact in the game and track down the perpetrators
• Fixed an issue on character select screen that resulted in getting stuck with a specific combination of inputs
• Fixed a progression-blocking issue caused by accepting a group invite at a specific moment during the Base of Operations unlock sequence
• Players will no longer return all the way back to start screen after creating or logging in to their Ubisoft Club account
• Fixed remaining bugs that prevented login attempts when non-essential services were offline
• Overall stability increased
• Further backend improvements and optimizations
• Localization adjustments and bug fixes
• Additional minor bug fixes and polish
It's a lot to take in, and the 2 GB download size suddenly makes sense — thankfully, if you purchased the digital version of The Division, you can pre-load the game and its first update before it launches on March 8.
