The Division open beta patch notes have been released

The Division will be entering open beta testing on February 16th for the Xbox One with the PS4 and PC versions following suit the next day. The beta test is scheduled to run until February 21st so you will have a good few days to try out The Division.

If you participated in the previous beta tests you will find a number of new additions and changes in the open beta as the developers have been hard at work patching, introducing and polishing features based on community feedback. Here's the full list of changes, courtesy of Sekuiya who painstakingly typed all of this out from PS4 screenshots:

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 Tech 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 the 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!

While the gameplay features excite me, especially the deployable turret, the one thing I appreciate more than anything else is the addition of an anti-cheat system. After seeing far too many closed beta videos with cheaters in them I was quite worried that the launch would end up being an extremely rocky one. Thankfully it seems my concerns were unfounded as there is indeed an anti-cheat system in The Division now, hopefully an effective one.

That aside, this is a really comprehensive and well done list of changes. Pretty much everything I've seen people complain about has been addressed in one way or another. Its a bit sad that I'm actually surprised a AAA beta test was actually used to test the game rather than as a pseudo-demo but its a pleasant surprise regardless.

Nicely done Ubisoft & The Division team, keep this up and people might just forget about AC: Unity.

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