Black Waters: A DLC Trilogy (HALP!)

I'm posting this in hopes of getting help from the community to fill in the blanks (literally), and to help me develop a proposal for this trilogy. Once this is done, I will be posting a new thread for said proposed DLC, entitled Black Waters: A DLC Trilogy (Updated). Please - look this over and add any input that might help, and try to be as specific and positive with your ideas as possible. Thank you.

Black Waters Part 1:
Star City: Obviously, this would be the biggest part of the first DLC. It would be a city about the size of Gotham or Metropolis, but without a lot of the content we see now (like the other two were before we saw the release of a lot of our current content). As it did with Gotham and Metro, this would change over time. WT/HoD portals could connect to Police Stations/Nightclubs from locations like the Hangar Bay & Containment wings. I would also suggest the scenery to include a clear, very starry night sky.

Star City Locations
Star Bridge: This suspension bridge is one of city's primary visual landmarks, known for a giant star sculpture atop each tower in the span of the bridge, connecting Star City's various regions.
The Grell Museum: Named after Mike Grell, who wrote and drew a definitive era of Green Arrow in the 1980s
Papp Stadium: Named after George Papp, one of Green Arrow's original co-creators from the 1940s
Star City Forest: A star-shaped forest magically created on the scorched earth and rubble of part of the city. Home to the Parliament of Trees.
The "Triangle": Long fought over by the city's various organized crime factions until the intervention of the freelance criminal Deadshot as depicted in his second mini-series.
Lamb Valley: Detailed in the pages of the Green Arrow collected edition Straight Shooter.
The South End: Introduced in Green Arrow v.3 # 60, in the wake of the events of Infinite Crisis and 52.
The Glades: Named in Green Arrow v.3 # 61. One of the districts directly abutting the South End.
Orchid Bay: The downtown section, and site of City Hall. Named in Green Arrow v.3 # 63.
Adams Heights: Named in Green Arrow v.3 # 67. Possibly named in honor of artist Neal Adams, long associated with Green Arrow.
Star City International Airport: A standard airport that lies in ruins (also Brainiac Incursion Zone).
Star Cemetery: This has no basis in my research. Instead, I am suggesting this as a location because we have two cities so far and zero cemeteries, and as a possible location for the (as far as I can tell) unnamed burial site of Don Hall.
Wreckage of The Miranda: An oil spill in Orchid Bay caused by the destruction of a barge (run aground) in the Brainiac Incursion. If this is actually implemented (long shot, I know), I only ask for the name of The Miranda to be left intact in memory of my daughter.
SCPD Locations: The Glades, Lamb Valley, Orchid Bay, Adams Heights
Nightclubs: Brick House Pub (The Triangle), The Pentacle Lounge (The South End), The Dark Side Club (Orchid Bay), (Adams Heights)

New Wanted: King Shark, Dark Avatar, Onomatopoeia, Constantine Drakon, Doctor Sivana, Ravager
New Bounties: Tempest, Rodunn, Swamp Thing, Lobo, Cupid, Vixen

New Mentors: Aquaman/Black Manta (Meta), Green Arrow/Deathstroke (Tech), Shazam!/Black Adam (Magic) - This would include some new missions for levels 1-30, with said missions taking place largely in Star City.

Renown Groups: Atlantis/O.G.R.E., Queen Industries/Fatal Five, Marvel Family/Nation of Kahndaq

Black Adam Villains - Isis' bones, once housed in the Star City Museum, have been stolen and scattered! Help Black Adam to recover them and receive a lucrative reward!
Level 5 Mission: Overcome Sebastian Faust and retrieve some of Isis' stolen bones.
Level 15 Mission:
Level 30 Mission:

Shazam Heroes -
Level 5 Mission: Aid Sebastian Faust in recovering the stolen bones of Isis so that his father, Felix Faust, cannot steal the power of SHAZAM for himself.
Level 15 Mission:
Level 30 Mission:

Deathstroke Villains -
Level 5 Mission:
Level 15 Mission:
Level 30 Mission:

Green Arrow Heroes -
Level 5 Mission:
Level 15 Mission:
Level 30 Mission:

Black Manta Villains -
Level 5 Mission:
Level 15 Mission:
Level 30 Mission:

Aquaman Heroes -
Level 5 Mission: A barge has run aground and thousands of gallons of crude oil are leaking into the bay. Get to the wreckage site and help contain it, and investigate the cause of the accident. Boss Fight: The Scavenger.
Level 15 Mission:
Level 30 Mission:

New Operation: Another Judas Contract - Deathstroke has a contract on the Titans East, and has hired Villains to eliminate them one by one while they are visiting Star City. Heroes must stop the assassins from fulfilling their contract, then defeat Deathstroke. Villains must defeat the Titans East one by one to fulfill their contract, then meet up with Deathstroke for one last target and payment. This suggestion is based on the One Year Later story arc.

New Iconic Anomaly: Shazam! - Explore the origins of Billy Batson and his first battle with Black Adam.

New Raid: Xebellion - Doctor Fate must send Heroes through an extradimensional portal to the aquatic penal colony of Xebel, where they must defeat the combined forces of Siren and King Nereus, and rescue Queen Mera from her prison, fighting Rebellious Atlanteans and the Death Squad along the way. Circe must send Villains through an extradimensional portal to the aquatic penal colony of Xebel, where they must aid a defeated Siren and King Nereus to prevent Deep Blue and Aquaman from rescuing Queen Mera, fighting Atlanteans and The Sea Devils along the way. Before they can escape, Heroes must face off against The Dead King, come to reclaim his throne. Villains must overcome The Dweller In The Depths, who has come to aid in Mera's rescue.

Game Update #Soon(TM)
New Iconic Powers! (requires Level 30) - Crackshot, From The Shadows, Healing Factor, The Stamina of Shu, The Power of Aton, The Courage of Mehen, Brain Scramble, Waterbearer's Touch, Mirror Image, Allied Support

Crackshot: Permanently Gain +25 Precision.
From The Shadows: Cloaks your movements in secrecy. Gain +1 Stealth on Activation. No Special Attacks.
Healing Factor: 35% Super-charge. Provides a large burst of healing to yourself & one ally.
The Stamina of Shu: You are resistant to strikes of Meta origin, reducing damage from Meta sources by 35% and attacking characters of Meta origin inspires Confidence in you, increasing your damage by 50%. The Stamina of Shu cannot be taken with The Power of Aton or The Courage of Mehen.
The Power of Aton: You are resistant to strikes of Magic origin, reducing damage from Magic sources by 35% and attacking characters of Magic origin inspires Confidence in you, increasing your damage by 50%. The Power of Aton cannot be taken with The Stamina of Shu or The Courage of Mehen.
The Courage of Mehen: You are resistant to strikes of Tech origin, reducing damage from Tech sources by 35% and attacking characters of Tech origin inspires Confidence in you, increasing your damage by 50%. The Courage of Mehen cannot be taken with The Power of Aton or The Stamina of Shu.
Brain Scramble: Scrambles your enemy's thoughts, stunning them and causing damage over time. Vulnerable to Interrupt. Usable While Controlled. PVP: Debuffs target. 2 Second cooldown.
Waterbearer's Touch: Reach out and touch someone. Causes Damage over time. Inflicts DehydrationEffect; after three or more Dehydrationeffects, victim becomes rooted and stunned and suffers 50% greater damage for duration. After five Dehydration effects, victim may be encased and suffers 70% greater damage.
Mirror Image: Moves your character just outside of combat range and places a duplicate copy where your character was to fight for you for a short time.
Allied Support: 25% Super-charge. Based on your alignment, summons a random Iconic Hero or Villain to aid you for 20 seconds, with 60 second cool-down.

Black Waters Part 2:
New Powerset: Water

New Raid:

New Raid:

New Iconic Anomaly: Origins of a Dead Man - Explore the origins of Deadman, from the moment of his assassination to his possession of the living in order to avenge his own murder.

The best way I can think to implement something like this would be a Form change to Deadman as a mortal, where you must complete a race-like acrobat event, then a cut-scene/Form change to Deadman as a spirit, and then as with other Anomalies a pre-made loadout with a possession option that changes your Form to that of certain characters in the instance.

New Marketplace Legends: Nightshade, Sister Shadow

New Legends Characters: Green Arrow, Deathstroke


Black Waters Part 3:
New Mechanic: Professions & Secret Identities
Professions allow the character to craft certain items of use in their Vigilante/Criminal careers, and to preserve their Secret Identities. Secret Identities offer a new option for character development, allowing characters to advance their Profession and increase their repertoire through missions similar to Iconic Anomalies, in which they must use strategy (not gear) and their Super Powers are unavailable. Characters must change to or from their Secret Identities in an Isolated Location (these will be small marked spots generated randomly throughout open-world areas, about the size of a phone booth) or risk spawning a random Iconic of the opposing faction who attacks them.

Possible Professions Include:
Construction: Allows Crafting of various Base Items & Limited Amenities (Single-Use)
Medical: Allows Crafting of various Consumables
Law Enforcement: Allows Crafting of various Mods
Administrative: Allows Crafting of ...?
Science: Allows Crafting of Limited Trinkets
Dilletante: Allows Crafting of... ?


New Legends Characters: Black Adam, Shazam!


Unrelated Content:
New Alert: A Faustian Bargain - Valhalla Cemetery - This would make for a good duo with Felix Faust as the antagonist. I'm honestly surprised I've never seen this location on the open-world Metropolis map.

New Alert: Fall of Superbia - Two Parts: The floating city-state of Superbia has been invaded by Grodd (and the Sheeda). Heroes must aid the Ultramarine Corps in defending the city, where Villains must attempt to aid Grodd in taking it over. As the realization that the city is falling comes to light, Villains must find a way to escape the city, while Heroes must try to aid in its evacuation.

New Raid:

Following the events at the Prime Battleground, this would be a good opportunity for Brainiac to retreat to Warworld, for a final show-down. This would be a complex Raid through the Warworld to find Brainiac in his actual, physical form (rather than through an Avatar), with Mongul and Cyborg Superman as his partners.

This would be a great chance to introduce Mongul and Cyborg Superman, as well as elaborating further into the background of Brainiac's invasion. It could also segue into other storylines with characters like Clawster, introduce Metropolis' Underworld (the sewers, not necessarily criminal element), and add Doomsday & Parasite to a little more content.

Any constructive feedback at all would be nice, please.

Would really like to see this. Perhaps it could be a PS4/PC exclusive DLC because we all know that the PS3 doesnt have enough RAM to support Star City, even if you made it central city size.

I don't understand how the PS3's memory (RAM) applies to this, honestly - or any other city. The nature of RAM is that, as a resource, it only holds the data being actively used. Now, if you were to tell me it didn't have the HD space I might buy that. But RAM would only apply to holding data for one city - hell, one portion of a city, at a time, based on what you can see around you. That's why more power-sets are an issue (and I know I have one in here) where future content is not. RAM would need to hold the area you're in, the powers available for use, and whatever gear/style you and everyone around you is using - and whatever activities everything around you is up to. This is one reason they broke up the WT broker & email locations; too many people in one area was sucking up too many resources. A new city is actually very viable in this respect.

Or is there something I'm not aware of?

Thank you for the input, btw.

I think overall this would be awesome, I believe that by part 3 of the current trilogies the ps3 will have been phased out, so this would not be a problem.

I likey, a lot.

I love the idea of the other mentors. However, I feel that mentor's (much like 1st weapon) play a very underused role in the game. ATM, after lv30, they serve no purpose other than having their name on the character bio screen.
That is the criticism,
Here is the constructive;
If the new mentors were to come in (your choice btw, spot on), I think you would have to see a very large rethink of what their in game purpose is, especially after level 30.
I honestly thought the mentor you chose would (and I think should) limit the powers to chose from on the selection screen.
(Why the **** would batman help you with meta powers or Superman help you with gadgets? silly)
And that is how I think it should be. I think you should see your mentor half way through the Braniac ship, and they help you get out, coaching you about your power along the way.

Mentors should also be with the Iconic Character at the start of every PVE On Duty Mission.
For Example: AnB, Superman should be introducing you to GL as his "best man for the job" to help out. And also be there for the final boss fight. (obviously everyone has different mentors, but why not have all mentors applicable to all characters help out?)
If all 8 are Batman, just have Batman there, if all 3 are there, so what?
I was under the impression that the events of each DLC was happening at it's own point in time (could be wrong there though).

I feel there should be an entire tutorial mission involving your mentor on the support role of your power at level 30.
There is nothing to teach you about how to use your support role currently, there is no shallow end to the support pool.

A lot of work to make this happen, I realise that, but really, atm, beside from 3 different missions levelling up, what are mentors purpose?
They don't mentor ****.

Love this idea though dude. You are on the right track in terms of diversifying the DC Universe.

With this, were you going for the Prototype/GTA mechanic where to avoid detection you have a "conspicuous-ness" bar?
If so, what would be the 'punishment' for having your identity becoming public?
Also what about those who like to pull a Guy Gardner approach? The whole "I don't think I need to hide my identity."

I like the way you are trying to make this a little more than just fighting good/evil though. It may just make the Earth somewhat less expendable so to speak.

At the moment, the came is kind of lacking consequences for failure. Or small consequences at least.
So far it either "win or the world ends". And even then, doesn't really let you know if the public cares or not.
Maybe a renown for "earth's population", a renown that is ridiculously hard to increase, but seriously rewarding?
Even for villian's, a "hatred of the people". How much they don't like you.
Just a simple idea so far, but can be expanded with all your help .
Thoughts?

About time someone creative help the Devs out. +1

SO MUCH YES!!!

Awesome ideas. You have a well thought out plan and I fully support all of it.

I fully support an new content as well. As we have been discussing in the expansion request thread, this is content that could be released via a robust DLC or series of DLC's. If we want an expansion, complete with leveling missions and the like, we need a new power mechanic, that in essence would change the game dramatically. That should be our starting point.

Love this idea, but I think new mentors are probably not going to happen.

I'm curious what you mean by a new power mechanic. If you mean powers, I've proposed some new Iconics and Water, above (one of the more interesting aspects of what I'll be looking at for Water is the Hard Water Constructs Mera and Aqualad are able to create - obviously we don't want some kind of elemental Lantern set, but the similarities do open up a few interesting possibilities), but somehow I don't think you're talking about that. Do you mean something like the Professions & Secret Identities? My plan with that was to have an alternate leveling system, where you can level up your Profession to be able to make more advanced items in Crafting (separate from our current R&D system - like being able to make gray slot mods or single-use items currently not available in the game; something less formulaic, I'm hoping. My brain is still storming here.). If not either one of those things, if you could provide an example that would be great.

Unfortunately, I don't think the NPCs we see running around are actually ads. It seems like, for the most part, they're just scenery. What this means in terms of this mechanic is that there's no way to set up something like a gauge to see how conspicuous you are. Otherwise - or if I'm wrong and someone can correct me - I would love to see this mechanic added. I was simply thinking there could be isolated locations set up throughout the cities where you could go stand and change into your Super Persona, and it would display an animation like when you change Armories (throw down the smoke bomb and walk out looking all Uber). The consequence of doing this publicly is the spawning of a random Iconic of the opposing faction to attack you. This applies to switching Personas either way - to or from your secret identity.

I haven't thought of anything yet for the whole Guy Gardner approach. Maybe you choose whether or not to have a Secret Identity at character creation, and if you choose not to implement an alternative system wherein there are consequences for that, as well. There could be some interesting approaches to doing things that way, as well.

I don't think a Renown for earth's population would be very plausible, though it might be interesting to have a Reputation in each city (and have that be affected by your Renown among the various groups) might be interesting. One fun possibility would actually be having that affect whether or not you get targeted for a Bounty by Iconics of the other group based on your Reputation getting too high and being able to earn Survival Feats if you're able to fend off a number of Iconics hunting you. I am in NO WAY proposing a PVP mechanic with this idea, though a separate Reputation meter for PVP might be interesting, too.

Maybe have your Reputation in each city be tied to your Daily Acts missions in that city as well as your Renown, where your PVP Reputation would be based on the Wanted/Bounties you complete against New Villains/Heroes (and Iconics). Just a few thoughts.

Is that something you folks think we should include?

In the game, your choice of Mentor determines the Origin of your powers. So, for one reason or another, it is possible to have inherited Sorcery through your genes (Meta), through technology (such as a magical device), or through actual Magic. I agree that they should have a larger role in things, but I don't really see the Devs changing the various instances we already have in play to do that. And, honestly, I'm not sure a lot of players would go for their characters getting more hand-holding than is already there from an RP standpoint - I'm quite sure this is true of most Villains (those that care about RP, any way).

I agree that there should be a tutorial mission regarding your role, but I think it should take place at level 10 (when you acquire your role). I think this is supposed to be Area 51, but if that's the case it is in desperate need of an overhaul. And it should be tied into your leveling progression, rather than being solely in the On Duty Tab.

I would love to see something that makes your Mentor matter post-30, though. I just haven't thought of anything yet. :/

Champions Online does something called a Freeform Character. They charge $50 per character made this way, and offer it as a subscription perk. This is what I would like to see done here, but a little bit differently.

The way a Freeform Character works is that you choose three power-sets (you can choose all the same power, two powers, or just one), and you gain powers from each tier based on that choice. For DCUO, this would need to be worked a bit differently than on C.O. because, well, we'd like to have BALANCED Freeform Characters rather than making the game PTW. This would mean a serious overhaul.

I have always been an advocate of changing the game to make it so that you choose your role, and THEN your Power. This would require basically reworking every Power in the game, keeping the animations, and reworking the mechanics of each one to work in each role. I think this would be a necessary first step toward Freeform Characters.

The second step would be doing the same thing for every possible combination of powers, based on tier, so that each Power tier is balanced against every other Power of that same tier. So, a Tier 2 Power from Ice would be balanced against a Tier 3 Power from Quantum, and either of them could be used for Controller, Tank, or Healer (and of course DPS).

So, in short, we should be balancing Power Tiers rather than Powers, and adding all roles to them. This will open the door to Freeform Characters.

Unfortunately, in the context of this thread, I think that Freeform Characters would be material for a Game Update, rather than a DLC. I think it would be appropriate for an Expansion, also, but given the amount of work involved I really feel this would be best served in a Game Update, even if they don't make it a Legendary Perk. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would still be willing to pay $50 for a Freeform Character. As an upside (and off-subject), I think one of the perks for a Freeform Character should be lifting the cash cap on Premium players for just the one character.

But I think this should have its own thread, and as such I will be reposting it in a moment. Maybe even toss it over somewhere on WIP. Even if it doesn't work (IMO) in this context, thank you for mentioning it.

Adding these here for notes.

Mentor.

Also added for notes. We really should keep these threads consolidated to one, please.

I really like some of these mission ideas, but I think some of them might be best served as part of the Mentor missions that haven't been specified yet, above. At least one of them could cover an entire arc, and the rest could be used as instances per your suggestions, above.

I was actually thinking, when Water is finally introduced, it should have one or two powers similar to HL Constructs - but we shouldn't do the entire powerset that way, as it would come out to being too similar to Lantern content.

Love the ideas I think I'd rather have the next 3 mentors be founding JL members Meta/Flash, GL/Tech, Aquaman/Magic if I could push one more it would be Zatanna add a new side to the Meta, Magic, Tech triangle and have a environmental take giving this role to Aquaman, being with other environmental/political heroes such as Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Green Arrow.

Aquaman/Black Manta Amnesty Bay
Flash/Cold Central City
Green Lantern/Sinestro Coast City
Zatanna/Morgan Le Fei
Just my thoughts