TGA Ghosts - co-op goodness for all

[Lenny Solidus]

I think Div2 co-op is an amazing example of just how much a group of gamers and friends can come together and there's just a level of solid expectancy there as to exactly how the session will go. As Snowy rightly said to me a few sessions back - we've been doing this so long together now I can read you and you can read me, there doesn't even always have to be audible exchange for one to know exactly what the other is going to do. While this is evidently very true still the amazing level of comms we provide to one another that covers every inch of the ongoing engagement at all times is also something that never ceases to impress. Nothing is missed nor overlooked as to offering direct on the fly information to one another, we miss nothing, we hit everything.

Div 2 has a lovingly embraceful way of very often being surprising though the further we delve into the content together, sometimes in the most humerous way which just makes you wag a finger at the devs but is always appreciated. How the game plays is the reward when what the game sometime offers for your hard-earned actions might not always be but you still come away knowing you had a great experience together. Often swapping over to a brand new drop or making additional adjustments to gear just immediately heightens everything, so many of the weapons in this game deliver that kick you look for and just make everything instantly more enjoyable.

As for that expectancy things kind of tend to go like this...

There's the fail period where everything goes completely to shit and we all get paddled, we reassign reequip and reevaluate everything that we clearly just did wrong. No one person is ever to blame neither would we dream of stating as such. Whatever does occur if like me you go to bed rerunning and reanalysing specific moments from that session in your head it's all a continued and yes still fun learning process you take away from that will only serve to improve the next.

There's the laughter period when something else completely fucking idiotic occurs and we all just rattle with laughter together but it helps ease the tension we just piled through.

Then there's my personal favourite the dig in period, when we know we are facing a true challenge and that our own individual action to keep in sync not fuck up or get caught out by bads coupled with trusting in our combined action will see us through to our goal - and the group determination factor to push them bads who are in turn heavily pushing us right back shows at every encounter. It takes a solid unified effort to complete many of the missions we are now attempting, and honestly I love every single minute.

I very often question myself what it means to recognise myself and others as a gamer and ponder on how we collectively come and remain together as frequently as we now do though we have always been a pretty tight group regardless of who may be involved no question. Especially I should say when in the past we always had these ultra strong spurts that soon died off and we wouldn't play again together for months sometimes even years. So I am so happy to have found something that feels stabilised, something we are all looking forward to playing together on next as often and as hard as we damn well can irrespective of any given time frame that we set.

[Snowy]

On your last point Dave, I think Todd summed it up perfectly on the previous page.

Having our PW/GA Ghosts for all these years is simply astounding, honestly. I doubt many other forums or websites or clans can say they've been at it for almost twenty years now. Those old GRAW and FEAR days are still floating around in my head, even as we make new memories several times a week in D2 - oh, and Breakpoint sometimes, and, a few years ago, Wildlands. Thanks guys for all the memories, past, present, and future

I am really pleased that we have our little co-op band of brothers well cemented now. I barely play anything solo any more!

[Raid]

Much as I agree with that, I'm sure we'd all be perfectly happy for new people to drop in. We have our own discord chat channel as part of the main forum one, but we don't see ourselves as some private club.

[Snowy]

Haha I had actually thought about an edit to say exactly that, but as I am working hadn't got round to it.

New faces (or old) all welcome, just hop into Discord and we have something going on most evenings.

[Lenny Solidus]

Oh indeed. I never meant to make it sound as though we all love to hold one another's hands and nobody else can come in between us or anything.

[ManBearSquid]

Aye, you fellas are very welcoming. I was fortunate enough to have some really fun Breakpoint sessions with some of you last year and it was really fun. Unfortunately, I just don't have as much time for games these days, so when I do play I prefer some solo ventures.

I also moved and my internet is pish.

Still, maybe one day I'll be able to hop on to some co-op again.

Lovely bunch, recommended. 5 star trip advisor.

Edit: did I mention it was really fun...?

[Lenny Solidus]

Spoiler

So yesterday El Gaucho and I jumped on Div 2 together and as we were involved in a little scrap we noticed that a third party had sneakily joined in on our session, El promptly asked me why someone was showing up as the additional name to which I had no initial answer until I responded with 'oh that's my son's account' and a voice quickly greeted us clearing up all the confusion. My oldest son was obviously already playing the game but was neither on Discord or Uplay and had decided to jump into the action for a surprise attack.

We actually worked supremely well as a three-man time and I could tell El and Broyticus were both enjoying themselves as we cut a path through the bads with zero hesitation and a ton of aggression. My son is 26 now and married and obviously, I very much influenced him enough with my gaming hobby and running of PWF to give him plenty of interest to make it his very own hobby too, which I might add he promptly spends way more on now than I ever could and streams on Twitch on top three times a week. Growing up he would stand beside me and constantly ask me questions about gaming or just why I was messing about with settings on the forum I didn't really understand but we shall ignore the latter.

It's not something I purposely pushed him towards you understand, though I'm so very glad he took it upon himself to do so as I believe gaming has kept my brain from becoming smooth and has allowed me to keep long-term connections far better than without and I would like that for him also. Yes I know I expelled myself into a black hole for three long years after PW's demise, but here I am still all the same.

The thing is I never really took into consideration just how much of a circle of life that would become for us all, him jumping in and playing with the very same people I have been gaming with since he was oh so very young and just how effortlessly and naturally he would fit right in, obviously the father/son banter flowed thick and fast and he dished out as good as he got - I hit him with several Your Mum jokes - because of course I did.

Ironic then that I had to actively leave the session leaving my son to play with my fellow Ghosts to go and pick up said Mother figure and from the sound of things everything went extremely well. He could not ask for a finer group of gamers or chaps I hold nothing but admiration for to surround himself with than the ones he got to play with for a few hours yesterday.

I do believe I like this game a lot.

[Solitaire]

WRT Division 2: In my heart of hearts, I'd wish that instead of everyone - good guys and bad - leveling up to become extreme bullet sponges, that the difficulty was adjusted in a more old-school fashion, with AI being more clever when selecting difficulty. It would make everything that much more tactical, I feel, and we wouldn't need super-deadly turrets and such, the skills could all be toned waaaay down.

But I'm enjoying many aspects of the game. When I'm soloing, I've discovered that I like keeping some of the districts hostile, so that I can raid their convoys, haha. That's good fun and good looting for materials, especially. I'm trying to find the right balance for crafting vs optimization vs etc etc. I'm also happy with the Season Pass stuff, because it's landing me tons of gear and outfits. When we're in coop is the best of it all, absolutely. Really fun with the repartee amongst us, and I'm feeling like I have good friends to spend this difficult time with, which I can't thank you all enough for sticking with me while I moan & groan

I know we can carry eighty-five rifles at a time. I'm limiting myself to being able to use what I can, if I were in tip-top shape, carry irl, and ignore the new loot until I get back to base. In my head-game, I didn't carry all this crap with me, rather it was put into my stash as rewards for my awesomeness taking down bad guys and finishing missions. Yeah, it's all the same in the end, but it is part of the semi-RPG aspect that I like to do with most games like this - Breakpoint, for example.

[eny]

Heads up: 5.19GB update is live, Reanimated is the new Global Event — enemies not killed by headshot will rise again, headshot kills leave a caustic corpse...

Not going to lie, I've been consumed by this game since you guys started up with it. It is the greatest game I've 'not entertained since launch but finally got to' in my gaming history, can't believe I dismissed it all those years ago!

SP has been enough for me as I've found it very confusing and too fast for my playstyle (loot and explore everything first time round) in matchmaking...now that I've got my watch though, I am finding the benefits. What an amazing game balanced by absolute furious bouts of swearing and rage when crashing or booted and losing valuable loot/progression.

Sublime layers of opportunity, amazing they get all the complexity to work.

[Snowy]

Glad that you are enjoying it mate

We have had a sneaky look at your progression in the game and wondered when you are going to wander over for some co-op. That said, this is a title we have all got heavily into so the 4-man squad can often be full, a few of us have stepped out at times over the past weeks to rotate players.

Not sure I would agree that they have got all the complexity to work. It is insanely complicated and could do with a whole heap of simplification!

[eny]

Yeah I agree, I should have said "it's amazing that they got what complexity works to work". There is far too much that doesn't work because it is too complex, for sure. For me the not-saving on immediate completion and the skills not working have been the biggest causes of swear rage for me. Getting a Delta-3 10 minutes after an elite convoy/hostage/territory mass pile-on and losing the loot and XP as a result is beyond frustrating...but everything in balance I suppose, it's only a game after all!

I will join in co-op, my imposter syndrome gets the better of me and I feel reticent in taking a spot from someone else, but I am itching to get in with it with you guys.

[Solitaire]

Please do, eny! And anyone else that wants to have a go with us. There's much that draws me back to this particular game, solo and coop, as I've mentioned in previous posts. Would be happy to have you back!

[eny]

I'm loving this current GE, confused as fuck at first about it, but once you get the hang of it the rewards pile up — namely each 20 stars buys an exotic cache. It has really helped get some punchy builds going, only the "disrupt 3 enemies at once" challenge left. Shield, St. Elmo's and Shocker Punch holster are great fun together, mega-melee damage that disrupts and shocks too.

[eny]

Golden Bullet is the gift that keeps on giving, it is awesome! I went up 8 levels on my watch, got my first exotic cache, half way through the 10 tiers and almost completed the first days challenges all in a shade over 2 hours earlier. It is great fun!

True Patriot increases mag size and ammo capacity, so along with my watch upgrades I've got the St.Elmos up to 91 a mag! The beauty of GB is that once you steel the bullet every enemy you kill recharges it and fills your mag immediately, so you can chain kill without ever reloading! It also increases your rpm, your weapon damage and reload speed. I start off a chain with my D50 which has a talent that gives you 30% CHC for 15 seconds when you swap from it after a kill, this gives whoever time to start a bullet, and then you can cash in!

I haven't even tried the signature weapons with it yet, technically it would mean infinite ammo with them!

[eny]

It's as if it was made especially for a certain someone!