In the latest state of the game stream for The Division, members of the development team once again covered what will be included in patch 1.4. Update 1.4 will certainly include improvements to time to kill, difficulty scaling, and loot. Today’s stream also includes a few more details on those redesigns in addition to more information on the upcoming public test server. Most notably, start dates for the public test server and its availability were confirmed, and the team announced a stream dedicated to 1.4 details for next week.

Players of The Division keeping up with the 1.4 update already know that the developer aims to revamp difficulty and itemization. The team further discussed these issues, noting three main pillars of the update in the stream on Twitch. Players will find the time to kill enemies lessened, the ramping of difficulty smoother, and the loot more rewarding after the update. NPCs should no longer one-shot players and it should not require an extended period of time to kill one foe. Developers said that, overall, players should feel more powerful after the update with quicker kills on more balanced enemies.

Enemies should not be able to kill players with one attack [Image via Ubisoft]

To accomplish this, enemy statistics will be altered in addition to the gear that players wear. The team stated that the gap between a random set of gear and the absolute best-in-slot gear is too great in The Division. That gap will be closer together in update 1.4 giving gear importance without requiring the best of everything to be viable. Not to mention, the game’s drastic spike in difficulty moving from the hard difficulty to the challenging difficulty will also be fixed with the update. Solo players should not find themselves stuck in hard modes due to the improper gear dropping from that difficulty. The team also noted that solo players should be able to experience most content the same way a team of players can, and all players should be rewarded appropriately regardless of group size. In fact, a stream dedicated to 1.4 and its changes is coming next week. On Tuesday, September 13, developers of The Division will host a stream to talk about the update’s specifics like exact bugs that will be addressed as well as explanations on how the game is changing and why those changes are being made.

Finally, the state of the game today includes the start date for The Division public test server. An invite-only technical test will be begin on September 15 while the public test server will be available to all PC owners of the game on September 19. The technical test for the public test server will only be available to those PC players that applied to the Elite Task Force as a way to ensure the client and downloading process will work for all PC players interested in testing 1.4. Although console players will not be able to jump on the public test server, all owners of The Division on PC, through Uplay and Steam specifically, will be able to download and test starting September 19. The team is still investigating ways to include console players in the public test server.

The jump from hard to challenging is very noticable in Underground [Image via Ubisoft]

In a continued effort to reach out to players, a new survey is now available in the Agent Intel section of the official forums. This week’s question asks players to identify the gear sets they think are the most interesting regardless of how strong that set is in practice. Out of the 13 gear sets, players may select three they find to be the most mechanically interesting on paper. Again, the developers ask that their actual strength within the game be ignored when choosing the three sets as reiterated in today’s state of the game. Players can find the survey directly via Survey Monkey.

This week’s state of the game address touches on many issues the team has been discussing since the announcement that patch 1.4 will fix bugs rather than add new content to the game. Last week, the team noted that the game would be balanced again after the 1.4 update due to how different the game is expected to be. As The Inquisitr reported, major focuses of the 1.4 patch are improving itemization and altering enemy power as players and NPCs reach higher levels. That was echoed again in today’s update as the team noted that after the redesigns, the game will be balanced all over again since 1.4 will change The Division so drastically.

Rescue a hostage from hostile forces. A new #OperationISAC mission starts Weds at 5PM PDT. https://t.co/igHltdkXfa pic.twitter.com/8Oxi9yHSK5 — The Division (@TheDivisionGame) September 6, 2016

As for brand new content, the game’s second DLC, Survival, is now scheduled to release after the launch of the October release of patch 1.4. Although Survival was supposed to be part of the 1.4 update, the DLC is now scheduled to release independently of the bug-fixing 1.4 update. With that DLC pushed back, the final DLC for the MMO shooter will also be delayed to a later date as well. Last Stand, the last expected DLC for The Division, is expected to release in early 2017 rather than at the end of this year as previously scheduled.

[Image via Ubisoft]