Worth giving Defiance a second shot?

Hello community, I haven´t been playing since months (I preordered & have the DLC pack also) and I was wondering, since the 1st DLC hit, if the game improved and if I should give it another shot.

Can you quickly list some of the best improvements according to you?

Any infos appreciated!

My most burning questions probably are:
- did Defiance become anything more like an MMO? (talking about the social factor)
- is there finally a proper chat window?
- are there banks to store your gear / are there auction houses?
- is there more content? (only "content" I have ever seen was back then the stupid recorders for episode missions)

Thanks in advance, love Rend

If you didn't like it you aren't ever going to so might as well stay away. No big improvements yet in the game imo

That sounded ****ish, wasn't trying to be lol. Its just still the same game I meant ha

Except the chat window is worse!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rend

- did Defiance become anything more like an MMO? (talking about the social factor)
- is there finally a proper chat window?
- are there banks to store your gear / are there auction houses?
- is there more content? (only "content" I have ever seen was back then the stupid recorders for episode missions)

- No
- No
- No
- If you didn't pay the DLC, only Volge Sieges and Dark Matter Arkfalls. If you paid the DLC, a new "storyline" that feature a first part with data recorders and the second part with 5 rampages-like.

Hope it answered your questions. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rend

Hello community, I haven´t been playing since months (I preordered & have the DLC pack also) and I was wondering, since the 1st DLC hit, if the game improved and if I should give it another shot.

Short answer is no, in my opinion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rend

Can you quickly list some of the best improvements according to you?

It's hard to do so, mostly because each positive change is accompanied by a plethora of shortcomings and outright wrong decisions.
Arenas were a step in the right direction as content, but they just have zero longevity. They went from a potentially challenging infinite horde mode you could run with friends, to a limited stage piece of solo content.

Nano effect triggers were capped at one every 1.5 seconds maximum. Positive if you didn't like the crazy Syphon procs dominating PvP. Sadly, this has just exacerbated the difficulty associated with handling the annoying cheese builds people run.

Military Academy is a well designed PvP map. Sadly, it has a multitude of visual bugs and some invisible walls that shouldn't exist. There's also the fact that they changed it so Shadow Wars only take 8 players to start - now nobody can even get a Military Academy or Freight Yard match started.

Sieges were re-added with Volge instead of Afflicted. Rather than having massive amounts of enemies, you now have a couple of bullet sponge Volge. The scoring system is better and more transparent, but the combat itself is less enjoyable due to the reduced mob density.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rend

did Defiance become anything more like an MMO? (talking about the social factor)

No. It's still fundamentally the same.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rend

- is there finally a proper chat window?

The chat was revamped, yes. There are a lot of positive aspects to the chat window, but text still does not properly display on your HUD. It has not improved or encouraged socialization.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rend

- are there banks to store your gear / are there auction houses?

No and no. Trading has actually been discouraged with the most recent update. You can now buy any green synergy mod from a vendor, and blue synergy mods rotate out of the vendor specials. Synergy mod caches were removed in favor of "Mod Hoards," which are 64 keys and still drop white mods. Mod Hoards were eventually removed due to how poor of a deal they are.

Now everyone seems to just get their own mods. Trading still happens, but it's less prominent from what I have seen. Personally, I have just stuck with green mods because I do not feel blues are worth the hassle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rend

- is there more content? (only "content" I have ever seen was back then the stupid recorders for episode missions)

This is not all inclusive, but here's a quick list of major content additions:
Five different Arenas. Five stages, rack up points from kills and juggle a multiplier. Sort of similar to a Rampage or Hotshot, except you use your own weapons and you have more room to move. Leaderboards are constantly resetting, discouraging competing for high scores.

Dark Matter Arkfalls. They give slightly increased rewards, but take a little longer to complete.

Volge Sieges. Defend capture points from Volge, gain score from damage dealt, receive rewards.

Military Academy PvP map. Great design, but suffers from several serious bugs. Generally unable to play it because of the PvP queue change I described earlier.

Shadow Wars now require only eight players to start, with scaling numbers of capture points based on players. Good because PvP happens quicker. Sadly, it also means matches are more imbalanced (often matches only have two capture points, the winning team is not pressured to capture points). Volge emergencies also have crazy leash ranges, leading them to interrupting PvP often.

Oranges/Legendaries drop more often from DM Arkfalls and Sieges.

There's a couple of new pursuits, a new contract faction, Raptor vehicles (trucks), charge blades (melee sword), and charge weapons (pistols, shotguns, snipers). You can also be a more pale human.

Overall, it's the right direction but the updates suffer from major execution issues. Updates are incredibly sparse, with the first DLC taking over four months to launch. The population is still steadily declining with very little being done to alleviate the retention issue.

Thanks for your great and detailed answer, Notturno. :)

Ok, seems that not much happened :/

There's no fee for coming back. It's not a subscription MMO or something, either come back and play around or not. Why must you bother asking?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rend

Thanks for your great and detailed answer, Notturno. :)

Ok, seems that not much happened :/

Yeah...Apologies for my rather short, abrupt response but Notturno pretty much has it nailed...

I would say yes just to see extra people in game.

I am on PC-EU and the whole land is just ghost town.