{mod edit} They provide enough healing barrels at each boss in the penguin instance to easily finish the instance no matter what level of gear you have {mod edit}
Raids only take 8 players and I easily manage to do all 5 raids up to twice a week for my main and usually my alt if I feel like raiding some more. {mod edit} The only thing lower server populations have truely affected is two fold.
1. PvP queue time - simply because not everyone actively PvPs and certainly not any time they are online. Nothing that cross server queue won't fix once they are implemented.
2. PvE group finder - players relying on the game finding a group for them aren't going to have an easy time of it until they implement cross server queues. All 8 man raids are formed outside outside of thi tool as well as almost all 4 man alerts (all the ones at end game at least). Good players simply form thier own groups in chat channesl instead of trying to carry bad players.{mod edit}
i am getted tempted to get this on pc now and give it a whirl..... but the reports of low population is putting me off, guess i will wait till they merge the servers.
Play on Death and Glory, it has a very healthy population. Queues for pvp and instances/duos take mere minutes even at off-peak hours.
Don't listen to the babies on these forums who constantly whine and complain any time this game gets mentioned, it's actually one of the better mmos to come out in years
The game is doing extremely well on the PS3. All the servers there are heavily populated. There are 2 PC Servers that are doing very well.
The bad - All the rest of the PC servers need help.
They need to stop everything they're doing right now and allocate all their available resources to consolidate some of the PC Servers.
Open up character transfers to Public Enemies and merge Cry for blood with Public Enemies.
They should also do the same with a few of the PC PvE servers as well.
OzzallosRunes of Magic CorrespondentMemberUncommonPosts: 35
I'll tell you what crippled pop values... First impressions.
Sever consolidation is a symptom of a bigger problem, frankly. Even if you take half the comments here at face value and consolidate them down to what? Two? Three servers? Sure you'll gain population density, but you're still bleeding out for overall subscribership.
It'll help you for your gameplay, agreed, but it's a bandaid solution for what is in reality a sucking chest wound.
As for it being more popular on the PS3, no surprise. The game screamed console from beta and it's big title in a small mmo console pond. Hate to say it, but this was all pretty well predicted from day zero, even with later improvement.
Finally got in last night (download problems). Had the same issue with Pengbot Maximus. Took my fire tank in with one T1 piece. In Damage role, I died before I could break a healing barrel. In Tank mode, I survived better, but I couldn't do enough dps to get him below 25%. Tried for about 30 minutes before quitting in frustration.
Also, the original release got me hooked on VO. The new content patches really feel odd with the characters not talking to me. I hope they find some money somewhere and go back and VO these releases.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
The thing is SOE is trying to into something new to the mmo market (IE the action mmo) Players are just use to the RPG mmos. This action mmo is not new. But does not sit well with the main stream mmo players.
Well, not sure what to say other than your review and second impression remain very different from the majority of people who purchased the PC version of the game. The majority of PC players have quit the game (I don't know about PS3). Your reviews are overwhelmingly positive, except about how there are so few players. As another person pointed out, saying the lack of population is the problem is just ignoring the real problems that most people see in the game. That's okay that you have a different opinion on the game, but I think you should acknowledge that your view appears to be the minority. Some would argue that you shouldn't judge a game based upon popularity, and that's true but you can judge a game by how fast the population has declined. DCUO is on epic ground on that statistic.
Played for a week on my friend's account. I really thought I'd be engrossed in the game with all the patching and content updates, but dear god just getting to 20 felt like a chore. It's a bloody boring game, and now that I've seen that myself, I can discard it entirely without ever wondering. Hell even my friend doesn't really play. He logs in with his guild members twice a week to raid and then he, and they, log off and go back to ignoring the game. How sad is that?
Couldn't even do any alerts because the population was so dead. Forget about PvP. Such a shame. All that money and talent that went into this game, an utter waste. Needs to be ripped out of SoE's hands and given to someone proper before it's too late.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
i am getted tempted to get this on pc now and give it a whirl..... but the reports of low population is putting me off, guess i will wait till they merge the servers.
Play on Death and Glory, it has a very healthy population. Queues for pvp and instances/duos take mere minutes even at off-peak hours.
Don't listen to the babies on these forums who constantly whine and complain any time this game gets mentioned, it's actually one of the better mmos to come out in years
LOL. Nice try, but no. Got to love it when the fanboys come out to play:
These were just taken. It's Saturday. The weekend. You know, what should be 'peek' hours when gamers are home from school/work and spending their time off playing the game they like which, clearly, is not this one.
{mod edit - resized images}
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Recently returned back to the game and a few things struck me that I believe are contributing to one of the most dramatic drops in player numbers I've seen in all my time playing MMO's (and I've been there through Warhammer and AoC etc).
1). Nothing has been improvided on the UI and Control side for the PC. I know this article states there has been some improvement on that front but I just don't see it. The UI on the PC is still the worst of any MMO I have played, ever. The controls for Mouse+Keyboard are still terrible, the chat system is still laughable. In the almost three months since launch I cannot point to a single improvement in any of these area's and this makes me very sad.
2). Lack of content. It is ok for them launching new raid instances and battle grounds etc, but there has been very little added to the actual gameworld, i.e. the two cities in the game. The content in that area was very light at launch anyway. Not everybody wants to grind raid instances and battle grounds, they need to put much more content into the game world for the more casual player.
3). Speaking of casual player, I actually class myself as a casual player despite being a big time MMO fan since UO and EQ1. I buy pretty much any new MMO, yet in all my years of playing there have been very few games where I hit level cap. This is one of the big problems with DCUO, even playing a few hours here and there you hit level cap with your first month, so along with improving content throughout all level ranges, they really need to look at increasing the level cap combining that with giving more casual playesr plenty to do to go with that. So lets say they need to increase the cap from 30 to 50 and make those extra 20 levels take a casual player a long time to get through (But with the content to make it fun).
In all honesty, I just don't see how they can turn this game round now really. I actually hope they manage it but this game has seen one of the biggest player drop rates I've ever witnessed.
Game has WAY to many things missing from it. Chat WAS horrible, it got a little better. Other then Raids and going in instances with Boss Battles. There is not to much to do with groups. Powers and Costumes don't have enough varity. The biggest problem everyone seems to talk about is. They want to play there hero but can't because the game is to limited.
I finally got a run at the new Lantern Duo last night and let me just say: It. Was. Awesome! By far the best duo of the bunch, and I really like duos. I wasn't real impressed with the drops, but, at this point, duo drops don't really matter much, just the marks.
The boss fights have some interesting mechanics rather than just tank-n-spank, and the bosses come back in the final boss fight and make things real hectic. The new light powers that they show off in the duo give me a very good feeling about the state of the Light Power set when/if it makes it's official re-introduction as a playable set.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
If you're below 30, it's very hard to get into a PVP instance with other players. Most players are now 30 and they play separately from all other players. Most people who re-roll don't bother with any pvp / alerts etc. until they hit 30. So if you're new, play through the story content to level up instead. You can get to 30 in a few days of play time (or less if you're hard core :P) if you just play through the story content.
Once you're 30, you should have no trouble joining up with others in instances, pvp arenas, legends, alerts, duos, etc. But before 30, these are all very difficult to find groups / partners.
Recently returned back to the game and a few things struck me that I believe are contributing to one of the most dramatic drops in player numbers I've seen in all my time playing MMO's (and I've been there through Warhammer and AoC etc).
1). Nothing has been improvided on the UI and Control side for the PC. I know this article states there has been some improvement on that front but I just don't see it. The UI on the PC is still the worst of any MMO I have played, ever. The controls for Mouse+Keyboard are still terrible, the chat system is still laughable. In the almost three months since launch I cannot point to a single improvement in any of these area's and this makes me very sad.
2). Lack of content. It is ok for them launching new raid instances and battle grounds etc, but there has been very little added to the actual gameworld, i.e. the two cities in the game. The content in that area was very light at launch anyway. Not everybody wants to grind raid instances and battle grounds, they need to put much more content into the game world for the more casual player.
3). Speaking of casual player, I actually class myself as a casual player despite being a big time MMO fan since UO and EQ1. I buy pretty much any new MMO, yet in all my years of playing there have been very few games where I hit level cap. This is one of the big problems with DCUO, even playing a few hours here and there you hit level cap with your first month, so along with improving content throughout all level ranges, they really need to look at increasing the level cap combining that with giving more casual playesr plenty to do to go with that. So lets say they need to increase the cap from 30 to 50 and make those extra 20 levels take a casual player a long time to get through (But with the content to make it fun).
In all honesty, I just don't see how they can turn this game round now really. I actually hope they manage it but this game has seen one of the biggest player drop rates I've ever witnessed.
In regards to your comment about the level cap -- once you hit 30 you still have a very long ways to go before you are a truly high level character. I personally like that it's more about earning different gear and earning skill points and making that the way to create an elite character. I remember reading that the difference in gear from the level 30 greens and blues to elite T2 and epic drops is comparable to say, a level 30 character compared to a level 50 or so character. So while it may not be numerical levels per se, the way you gear up your character and spend skill points can make a huge difference.
Try going into a raid with a brand new level 30 -- you'll get killed by a single robot in one or two hits. So even though you aren't technically "levelling up" you are in the sense that the gear and skill points you earn substantially improve your performance. Also, skill points earned through feats makes you much more powerful if they are spent effectively on innate skills that give bonuses to your might, defense, or whichever attributes you want to improve.
I like the fact that I can tailor my characters through gear and skill points to be a particular build, then re-spec as I wish to change things up, without a massive level grind.
In regards to lack of content -- I do agree with you on this point. However, I really think there are some very simple fixes to this problem that don't require a great deal of development. If they added open-world content -- areas for PVP WITH REWARDS in the open world -- this would add so much fun to the game. There needs to be open world battlegrounds that attract players for massive epic fights in Metropolis and Gotham. Right now, the Ring and Diamond PVP just aren't enough of an attraction. It needs to be possible to earn marks in the open world to attract players. The best parts of the game in my experience were the open battles at Science Police HQ in the early days when everyone was battling it out in the open world. this would make the game feel much more alive and active.
Comments
{mod edit} They provide enough healing barrels at each boss in the penguin instance to easily finish the instance no matter what level of gear you have {mod edit}
Raids only take 8 players and I easily manage to do all 5 raids up to twice a week for my main and usually my alt if I feel like raiding some more. {mod edit} The only thing lower server populations have truely affected is two fold.
1. PvP queue time - simply because not everyone actively PvPs and certainly not any time they are online. Nothing that cross server queue won't fix once they are implemented.
2. PvE group finder - players relying on the game finding a group for them aren't going to have an easy time of it until they implement cross server queues. All 8 man raids are formed outside outside of thi tool as well as almost all 4 man alerts (all the ones at end game at least). Good players simply form thier own groups in chat channesl instead of trying to carry bad players.{mod edit}
Play on Death and Glory, it has a very healthy population. Queues for pvp and instances/duos take mere minutes even at off-peak hours.
Don't listen to the babies on these forums who constantly whine and complain any time this game gets mentioned, it's actually one of the better mmos to come out in years
Couple things:
The game is doing extremely well on the PS3. All the servers there are heavily populated. There are 2 PC Servers that are doing very well.
The bad - All the rest of the PC servers need help.
They need to stop everything they're doing right now and allocate all their available resources to consolidate some of the PC Servers.
Open up character transfers to Public Enemies and merge Cry for blood with Public Enemies.
They should also do the same with a few of the PC PvE servers as well.
I'll tell you what crippled pop values... First impressions.
Sever consolidation is a symptom of a bigger problem, frankly. Even if you take half the comments here at face value and consolidate them down to what? Two? Three servers? Sure you'll gain population density, but you're still bleeding out for overall subscribership.
It'll help you for your gameplay, agreed, but it's a bandaid solution for what is in reality a sucking chest wound.
As for it being more popular on the PS3, no surprise. The game screamed console from beta and it's big title in a small mmo console pond. Hate to say it, but this was all pretty well predicted from day zero, even with later improvement.
Finally got in last night (download problems). Had the same issue with Pengbot Maximus. Took my fire tank in with one T1 piece. In Damage role, I died before I could break a healing barrel. In Tank mode, I survived better, but I couldn't do enough dps to get him below 25%. Tried for about 30 minutes before quitting in frustration.
Also, the original release got me hooked on VO. The new content patches really feel odd with the characters not talking to me. I hope they find some money somewhere and go back and VO these releases.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
The thing is SOE is trying to into something new to the mmo market (IE the action mmo) Players are just use to the RPG mmos. This action mmo is not new. But does not sit well with the main stream mmo players.
http://ksbscrapbook.com/
Well, not sure what to say other than your review and second impression remain very different from the majority of people who purchased the PC version of the game. The majority of PC players have quit the game (I don't know about PS3). Your reviews are overwhelmingly positive, except about how there are so few players. As another person pointed out, saying the lack of population is the problem is just ignoring the real problems that most people see in the game. That's okay that you have a different opinion on the game, but I think you should acknowledge that your view appears to be the minority. Some would argue that you shouldn't judge a game based upon popularity, and that's true but you can judge a game by how fast the population has declined. DCUO is on epic ground on that statistic.
PS3 servers are healthy?
Thats great considering I've all but given up on pc gaming. Too many headaches.
Buy a game for a console and 99% of the time it runs fine every time and no need to worry over costly hardware upgrades to keep up with the shiny.
PC gaming is dying. Its slowly dying but its dying.
More mmorpgs are coming to consoles now than ever before.
Played for a week on my friend's account. I really thought I'd be engrossed in the game with all the patching and content updates, but dear god just getting to 20 felt like a chore. It's a bloody boring game, and now that I've seen that myself, I can discard it entirely without ever wondering. Hell even my friend doesn't really play. He logs in with his guild members twice a week to raid and then he, and they, log off and go back to ignoring the game. How sad is that?
Couldn't even do any alerts because the population was so dead. Forget about PvP. Such a shame. All that money and talent that went into this game, an utter waste. Needs to be ripped out of SoE's hands and given to someone proper before it's too late.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
LOL. Nice try, but no. Got to love it when the fanboys come out to play:
These were just taken. It's Saturday. The weekend. You know, what should be 'peek' hours when gamers are home from school/work and spending their time off playing the game they like which, clearly, is not this one.
{mod edit - resized images}
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
SOE has gotten good at doing one thing right though: mass server merges! They do it like no other company can!
Recently returned back to the game and a few things struck me that I believe are contributing to one of the most dramatic drops in player numbers I've seen in all my time playing MMO's (and I've been there through Warhammer and AoC etc).
1). Nothing has been improvided on the UI and Control side for the PC. I know this article states there has been some improvement on that front but I just don't see it. The UI on the PC is still the worst of any MMO I have played, ever. The controls for Mouse+Keyboard are still terrible, the chat system is still laughable. In the almost three months since launch I cannot point to a single improvement in any of these area's and this makes me very sad.
2). Lack of content. It is ok for them launching new raid instances and battle grounds etc, but there has been very little added to the actual gameworld, i.e. the two cities in the game. The content in that area was very light at launch anyway. Not everybody wants to grind raid instances and battle grounds, they need to put much more content into the game world for the more casual player.
3). Speaking of casual player, I actually class myself as a casual player despite being a big time MMO fan since UO and EQ1. I buy pretty much any new MMO, yet in all my years of playing there have been very few games where I hit level cap. This is one of the big problems with DCUO, even playing a few hours here and there you hit level cap with your first month, so along with improving content throughout all level ranges, they really need to look at increasing the level cap combining that with giving more casual playesr plenty to do to go with that. So lets say they need to increase the cap from 30 to 50 and make those extra 20 levels take a casual player a long time to get through (But with the content to make it fun).
In all honesty, I just don't see how they can turn this game round now really. I actually hope they manage it but this game has seen one of the biggest player drop rates I've ever witnessed.
Game has WAY to many things missing from it. Chat WAS horrible, it got a little better. Other then Raids and going in instances with Boss Battles. There is not to much to do with groups. Powers and Costumes don't have enough varity. The biggest problem everyone seems to talk about is. They want to play there hero but can't because the game is to limited.
This is the best MMO I have ever played. A really fun action gameplay, incredible visual design and DC superheroes make it amazing
I finally got a run at the new Lantern Duo last night and let me just say: It. Was. Awesome! By far the best duo of the bunch, and I really like duos. I wasn't real impressed with the drops, but, at this point, duo drops don't really matter much, just the marks.
The boss fights have some interesting mechanics rather than just tank-n-spank, and the bosses come back in the final boss fight and make things real hectic. The new light powers that they show off in the duo give me a very good feeling about the state of the Light Power set when/if it makes it's official re-introduction as a playable set.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
If you're below 30, it's very hard to get into a PVP instance with other players. Most players are now 30 and they play separately from all other players. Most people who re-roll don't bother with any pvp / alerts etc. until they hit 30. So if you're new, play through the story content to level up instead. You can get to 30 in a few days of play time (or less if you're hard core :P) if you just play through the story content.
Once you're 30, you should have no trouble joining up with others in instances, pvp arenas, legends, alerts, duos, etc. But before 30, these are all very difficult to find groups / partners.
Wouldn't loved the game, except for the fact Australian's have to pay $20 a month to play, absolutely ridiculous
Unless you go game cards method I think
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.