I knew that the DZ was broken into brackets now, just didn't know that there was an option in the group settings to jump up to the higher one. thanks for letting me know that.
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I crossed over to the dark side last night, and went rogue intentionally for the first time. I was running solo, and got cocky in the DZ 2 construction site (where there's a named guy and division tech), and got taken down by the shotgunners. I dropped 2 HE's and some clothing. I respawned in the checkpoint, which was on the same street, so I only had to run straight back (it was 600 & something feet). About halfway there I see that someone had picked up my dropped loot (bryan - something or other).
So i sneak up to the construction site and see that bryan is soloing it as well. He appears to not notice me, so i just hang back in cover and follow him. I was hoping that an NPC would down him to save me the trouble, and they almost did a few times, but bryan pulled through. I just keep hanging back, and using my pulse every time it comes up and watch him.
After awhile, another lone wolf comes along and he is hiding as well. I'm pretty sure he was following me, but left me alone, as i didn't have an extraction pack on. I finally got tired of him, and drew my weapon on him, and he bugged out (or so i thought).
Finally, "Bryan" goes to the gas station extraction and calls it in. i just hunker down on the opposite side and wait. I did have a couple of adds spawn on me, and i took care of them. Bryan didn't seem to notice, as he was fighting adds on the other side. About 30 seconds before the chopper arrives, that same guy that was stalking me shows back up. I come out of cover with my sniper drawn, and he freezes and just stands there. At 15 seconds, i turn around to ignore him and make a run for bryan.
As i open fire on him, i can tell that he's confused. I think at first he thought it was an accidental roguing, but i don't let up. He pops the healing perk that gives a 40% damage resistance and shoots back at me. I only have 63k health, so he puts a nice dent into me, but his Vector runs out of ammo, and as he's reloading i pop my healing perk and unload into him with my Navy MP5 and down him. I then grabbed my stuff and extracted it.
By now, I have no intention of continuing my rogue streak, but the other guy decides that he's going to test the waters. I popped my survivor link, and he high-tailed it out of there, so i let him go and ran the other way.
I probably should've ran north towards the higher DZ's but i ran across DZ1 (i didn't go that way b/c the other guy had gone north). I came across two other lone wolves that wanted to take me down, but I prevailed on each one.
I was thinking that i could hang out near the subway entrance of DZ1 and then run down there if someone showed up, but i never made it that far. About 3/4 of the way there a shock turret appears in front of me, and two agents come out from behind a truck. I've been ambushed. I put up a good fight, but i was outnumbered and out of survivor link. It was a good run, and i had gotten my stuff extracted. I felt bad for the poor guy i killed at the extraction, but that's the risk you take when you pick up someone's dropped items.
***One more thing. Hamish (one of massive's community guys) said on a twitch stream the other day that the HE First Wave M1A and Aug blueprints in DZ 03 will expire on tuesday, and will rotate to something else. Kinda sucks, b/c you have to be DZ rank 75 to buy them. I was able to go from 52 to 55 last night, no way I'll be able to get to 75 though (unless i can get 5 ranks a night for the next 4 days)