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DC Universe Online: Diving Deeper Into the Game
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest column for DC Universe Online, MMORPG.com's newlywed, Bill Murphy, takes a look at the changes since December 3rd, his last foray into the game before his nuptials. In the intervening weeks, the game received a major patch and Bill takes a look at how the game has changed. Check it out in DCUO Weekly: Diving Deeper Into the Game.
Last week you were treated (or tortured with depending on how you look at it) the second part of my level 1-9 experience. I wrote the entire article long before last week, and was away since December 3rd in preparation for and celebration of my wedding and honeymoon. I’ve only been back a day (minus a whole day spent traveling) and I’ve had a chance to boot up DCUO again this week to see how the latest patch has affected my overall experience and to start climbing a little higher up the leveling ladder. Overall, it seems a lot has been improved with the game but just as many things may have been worsened. Such is beta-life. And seeing as the NDA for all beta testers has been dropped now, it’s clear to me that SOE Austin finds enough confidence in their game to let the players start sharing their experience across the board.
Read more DCUO Weekly: Delving Deeper Into the Game.
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Comments
First off all congratulations and hope you had a good time
Second sorry i always do that with newly wed :P , ha now you can join the moaners , i wish i had more time and use wife aggro !!
welcome to the casual bunch .
Anyway i look forward to hearing the negative as well as the postive , maybe the negative like removing autolock , can be changed back (to accomodate the older players or the less reflexive button response people)
Anyway waiting till next week , but game seems promising enough , and cata being so dissapointing guess i have enough spare time now .
Really happy this game is getting such good press. Really looking forward to this after the dissapointment Champions Online was for me
I really enjoy this game to but by the time you are in your upper teens you will be working all three mentor quests to keep ahead of the growing quest level. There are not 6 different quest lines just two (hero’s and villains) and even then a lot of those quests seem to be copies of each other just with slightly different goals.
The game is still a lot of fun regardless but it’s a lot more lacking in content then I had hoped.
I agree to some extent as i am a little disappointed that so much crosses over too. But on the flip side i really only have City of Heroes and CO to compare it to.
At launch City of Heroes had a very similar amount of content as in you'd pretty much do the same things on one toon as you would on another but what set it apart were the task forces and DCUs Alerts etc don't quite match up to that IMO. CO on the other hand had nowhere near as much content nor enough to even get you through some levels if you did every single one available, but to be fair theirs is spread across 40 levels rather than 30.
Something i'd like to point out to the OP is that not all your quests are automaticaly given to you as you seem to think and at one point i too thought, there are a bunch of hidden gems on the various maps that you need to discover. Following the mentors questlines can often lead you to ignoring the odd exclamation mark here and there that you come across as some are just little quests but others can lead to medium length quest lines with good plots and decent rewards.
Overall the game seems like it has the potential to be better than both previous games in it's genre but i'm a little hesitant to sing too many praises as yet as i just can't see the longevity of it so far. Level cap of 30 and the speed with which you get there means that you blink and miss it, now i know there are plenty of games with fast leveling and then you should pvp and raid but they all have higher level caps. Also, i spent most of today doing open world PvP with a mate and unless we're missing something there doesn't seem to be any point to doing it other than just for the sake of it. No XP gain and no other gain as far as i can see, hopefully they have something in the pipe works for that. On that note, since i've managed to get few few RL and virtual friends playing with me the game has vastly improved in both PvP and PvE. It can get dull soloing in this game, probably more so that other games i've liked and the difference is unmistakable once companions are at your side.
Edit - typo
Edit 2 - For some shiny's... I took some pictures of the Villain Iconic armour earlier :
Touching on a few points of the article, and others of course... the issue with mentor hopping isn't so much that it is absolutely necessary, its that your alternative options aren't presented easily or advertised as an additional mode of leveling. One way to gain at least a few levels would be to do some races. Platinum races give you lots of XP and a costume item. Another option is wanted posters. Booster Golds Exploration missions. Alerts. PvP missions. These all give you a lot of experience on top of your original mentors missions and the side missions from each area.
Another thing is that missions are level restricted, which means you may not hit the side missions on two quests and then be a few hundred XP short of level which could make it seem like theres a "gap" in your mentors content, and technically it could be perceived as such, but I think with a little more direction, possibly through the interface, it would give players a better understanding.
Open World PvP currently does not have any rewards to it, other than, of course, fun. I play open world PvP for fun, though I have a feeling they'll be handing out tidbits of PvP cash later on. I have mixed feelings about open world PvP rewards, but if its done right I think it could be okay. You don't want to encourage large groups fighting small targets, or high levels attacking lower levels. Balancing rewards in open PvP is kind of tough without players being able to easily exploit it.
As for the patch, it did fix some things, mostly exploits and hacks, added the PvP flag, voiceover work, some power balancing, mission fixes. It devastated the stability, crashes are way more prevalent now. They upped the difficulty on alerts which is good, but they changed it from a steady incline in difficulty to having 1 to 2 mobs that are virtually impossible to beat without lots of time and dedication from a team. For example, the mini-bots in oolong. Yeah those things will one shot your entire team in a matter of seconds... they are able to be beaten, but most of my team members just quit after the second try, I've had to fight and kill them alone and eventually fail the alert because its tough to solo the last boss.
Anyways, still enjoying the game and I've been playing pretty much the same content for a month or so now. I still lose track of time when I'm playing, and spend time inbetween the PvP and PvE servers. A lot of fun.
What Bill said about mentors is pretty much correct. Despite what mentor you chose at starting your eventually gonna do work for all three. Instead of waiting until I ran out of Superman's work, I usually start doing the other mentor's tasks at lvl 8; the first time you unlock them.
I agree, but on the other hand-since when has an MMO launched with enough content to satisfy everyone? There's enough to get by with and I'm sure more is coming.
I myself only did like 3-4 missions for other mentors if not less. Im following the Joker storyline and its sidequests + the diffrent races is quite enough for me to get yet another new quest. If not then i just switch over to an alert or a bounty and when i come back, i have a few new quests to deal wtih. If you meddled with pvp im sure you'd get even more xp.
I would agree with the lack of content in general and would hope they eventually flesh out each mentor to have complete paths to max level.this is not important for peoeplw ho plan on hainv one character but there's not enough content there to level multiple characters without a lot of repetition right now.But Gotham and Metropolis are huge and could easily accomodate more content.
I have been in beta for a while now and I have to say that each patch makes it better and better. Game functionality, UI, World, everything. So far, so good.
Shiyan
Honestly so far, I don't see anything combat wise that deviates from that. It's still your party spamming dps at a mob with nor real tank just like Champions. Kind of the Vindictus mindset of fighting; just dps until you win or you die one by one.
I have a feeling that many people are going to start complaining about that and want more pure melee tank type action without having to use some magic skills which you do now. Champions for all it's faults did at least have a pure melee fighting class that used NO magic to tank. This game doesn't.
I'm having some problems with DCUO simply because of what the author said.. mainly these hybrid schemes companies are making now for games to be controlled by controllers AND keyboards. No game I know MMO wise has been able to do this well, FFXIV being a prime example. So what ends up happening is keyboard play is a lot of unneccesary clicking and slower feedback.
I understand why companies are doing this (controller/keyboard) simply to get more revenue from people who would otherwise not be playing a MMO (console people who don't own a computer), but it's making the genre suffer right now.
Other than the "it's Batman/Superman" thing which is a bonus, I think there really isn't much more that this game has on Champions Online imo.
"TO MICHAEL!"
Actually it has the tank role as well as damage, control, and healer roles. You can switch if you have the right abilities to.
"You think this "A" stands for France?" Captain America
Honestly, I think CO is a better game than this, and I had REALLY high hopes. I mean, if they wanted to make an MMOFPS they shoulda talked to the guys at Hi-Rez who know how to do it right.
This just seems like some kind of disjointed 3rdf person action game. So, since I can't use my mouse on my action bar, when I want to use that ability on the 9 key, I have to take my hands off my movement keys to activate it? Or buy a special keybaord? Or remap it in some silly way? Come on. Also, even if you're a ranged attacker, you're basically forced into melee constantly, which you might as well use anyway because it's probably more powerful.
We already knew about the lack of customization and powers (which again, they dont' even hold a candle to CO in that department or even CoX)... Three travel power?
What are they bringing to the table really? Unwieldy twich combat? I love twich combat, FPS's, MMO's, hybrid's, etc, but I don't know... I am SO disappointed with this game.
**Edit
Not to be a naysayer, but I'm betting this game ends up in the same boat as every other MMO released in the last 5 years. In a matter of months people will be complaining and not give much of a crap about it except for the few diehards.
I was meaning to say the role of the tank in Champions is more typical of a real type of tank. Meaning that when you think of a tank, it has no real magic uses typically (not counting paladin types).
Every character in DCUO is not that way. They all use either magic or gadgets to "tank". Whether you want those skills or not you have to take them pretty much because they are going to be the powerful ones to use.
Champions melee/brawl class was all brawl. You pulled huge slabs of concrete out of the ground, used all power type abilities and no magic.
Think of how the Hulk "tanks".
That was Champions Online and so far, I haven't seen a pure class like that in the game with the skillsets.
That thing is kind of an immersion breaker and I don't understant given the history of the lore, why they wouldn't have a Bane or Hulk or any huge fist pounder. Hell, even a lady fistpounder without having to use tricks.
I think the game is good, but they better add that in there in they are smart.
The character development should be a little deeper as well. There isn't any reason it's worse than Champions Online character creation is given their universe. (not talking about iconic armor, which is incredible)
But having tons of people running around in iconic armor is gonna get old very quickly. The base should have a little more choices still.
"TO MICHAEL!"
If that's true popinjay, that's odd. And very sad. The most famous heroes in DCU weren't magical at all. Same goes for the villains. Superman and Green Lantern are the only ones off the top of my head I can think of with actual super powers, without going into the titans/gods section of the universe. There were plenty of powerful heroes that used only their brains and their brawn, and did a good job of it, too. Where are all the Batmans (though I guess he'd fall under gadgets), Rich Dragons, Guardians, Nightwings, Vigilantes, etc?
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Not much of a comic book reader are you or cartoon watcher? There are several heroes of different types in DC just like Marvel.
"You think this "A" stands for France?" Captain America
What? Look at what you just said and look at what I said prior to that. I said there were PLENTY...key word there, plenty...of heroes that did not have super powers. Sort of like how you just said, there are 'several' heroes of different types. Meaning there are heroes of all types, which is exactly what I was saying. Therefore, they should all be represented, in a super hero game. What popinjay was saying is that that is not the case, and if it's true, that's unfortunate.
Is it clicking this time?
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Nope still not clicking lol.
"You think this "A" stands for France?" Captain America
First day in beta today and it was tremendously fun and very addicting! I rolled on a pvp server and the pvp just added more fun to the game. Can't wait until launch day. I think the best part about it is that they did not dumb anything down for the masses. Some things are a pretty good challenege like the Huntress fight. It was fun
What? how can you dumb this game down for masses? it is a super hero theme game which is meant to be casual fun. Why do people always throw this line as if means something?
Bite Me
On my nature toon i leveled up to 18 i just followed my mentors story only. Of course i also did every race, investigation, open world quest, booster gold quests, group alerts, legends instance, pvp instance i could. I took my time and had a look around and found loads of content to level up on. I think it will be even easier at release as there should be no waiting times for alerts or pvp instances.
Well this time Mr. Murphy has given us a more balanced review, if but still rather on the cheerleading side. As I mentioned before UI and control issues are not too hard to fix though its true some MMO’s launch with a dodgy setup even those MMO’s have it sorted a month into play.
It is the wider issues of whether you can call a game which is so solo a MMO and the balance and fairness of PvP which are more of a concern.
"What? how can you dumb this game down for masses? it is a super hero theme game which is meant to be casual fun. Why do people always throw this line as if means something?"
Any game can be dumbed down, because a game is based on Supers does not mean it has to be 'casual' or for designed for idiots.
And i still don't understand how can this game be anything more then what it is? casual fun. Are you telling me this MMO is too complex for idiots?
/facepalm
Bite Me
From what I've seen (and granted I could be missing something here), if you want to be something in the game you are given these choices:
Tanking: Fire or Ice based.
Crowd Control: Gadgets, Tricks or Mental based.
Healing: Nature or Sorcery based.
Within each tree there are skills which seem to be retundant amongst them so it doesn't matter much what you choose in that tree. It's when you try to move out of that tree that you're gonna have problems.
If you pick anything with Fire and Ice and want to sit far away hurling deathballs at mobs, you're going to wonder why people keep asking your 125 pound female toon themed on Johnny Flame to tank the bosses. You'll say you want to dps, they'll say tough luck... we need a tank to get that mission done. I know you HATE tanking, but their reply will be then why did you pick a tanking toon?
If you say something sensible like.. because I like fire spells, they'll say good luck with that.
Like it or not, because they are the ones with the tanking talents people aren't going to expect Fire and Ice people to be sitting back there doing dps, so if you pick these trees you're going to have to learn to tank. That is something people don't expect when they start playing but will probably run into down the line.
Unless you're actually lucky enough to have a Fire or Ice guy already wanting to tank, then everyone will be fine with your "DPS only" role.
"TO MICHAEL!"
This is true, but I don't think this is a very complex game to begin with.
Playing this game is like how people read the actual comics. Some people just read them for the comics, art style and battles, while others care more about the personal toon's actual lives INSIDE the comic and who would beat who theoretically. ("oh man, why'd he marry HER?!?!!!)
But ultimately the people who are going to have the most fun are going to be the PvP addicted people. The trees, talents and skills all say things like "does so and so to mobs or party", but realistically every fight I've been in it's just everyone blasting away at whatever boss is around.
I've yet to see anyone actually "tanking" Bizarro. People just fly/run around hitting him with whatever bombs they got until he dies or they do, then they hurry back and try to finish it before he dies. I'm fairly positive that 90% of every team fight is going to go this way in the game. (with maybe healers being most active)
The game has a deep lore story, bu this isn't a deep game I don't think, so I'd be inclined to agree with the previous poster it's very casual type of mmo.
"TO MICHAEL!"