A look at how the new R&D Gear system works

@torikumu - I agree. I tend to take the lowest yield possible when running instances. I've seen too many friends grow bitter with expecting too much from an instance. The number I put out of 10 scraps average was just to show that even at that possibility, there's no way to get enough materials to create one in a month.

Still the new RnD system offers a nice alternative.

I'm really excited about Mepps' announcement about bringing this to episodes 15 to 17.

That's sounds pretty exciting. I honestly didn't think they would have time to go back and implement it in older content. Thanks.

Thank you for posting this video, it was very well made!

Peachy

I wonder how many updates we'll get to before this new r&d system becomes completely irrelevant.

I question the usefulness of this being in that content. You *shouldn't* need to be in that content for 6+ weeks and the rare style vendor is typically cheaper or as cheap as crafting the gear. Still seems like a pointless implementation to go retroactive. Heck by the time you get a crafted piece you have gone above and beyond vendor gear and that is all you need for Episode 18. You can get those prices in days instead of weeks. Just seems pointless in terms of both style and progression.

I don't think it will ever become irrelevant. The only way it'd become irrelevant is by being able to get all 4 pieces of gear before you have chance to get enough Metalloids to build a piece.

What ways do you see it becoming irrelevant?

Except for the R&D only rings and face. Unless that's changed recently?
I definitely agree about the style vendor. By the time you gather enough materials, why not just buy the style as you are likely to have the CR needed for current/next content. But this whole thing was pushed by people who are simply not content with the current stats of the vendor gear. So I think there will be times when one will be crafting for the modest stat boost and not just style.
For me, I'll craft over buying the style all else being equal simply because I'd like to craft it. We'll see how it plays out over the next few months. If anything, it's the start of a process that may open up other possibilities not being considered before.

Yeah but there is no "R&D only ring and face" prior to Episode 18. Also by the time you get 1 crafted piece of rare Episode 15-17 gear you could have progressed to the next cycle and gotten vendor gear that is at least 2 CR better than previous rare gear and then start investing in that Episode's rare gear.

Unless you stall your progression at Episode 17 you won't need retroactive crafting. If you don't go past Episode 17 you won't really need any of the rare pieces from Episode 17 (or the Episode you stalled at).

None of it really makes any sense to go retroactive back through the Episodes.

I like the new R&D system, but I think that you've hit on what has become the biggest fun-killer for me in this past year.

I like solos and duos, I fully expect that simply posting my preference here will most likely be greeted with various insults: "anti-social" "lazy" etc. Which ironically just makes me less inclined to team up with the sort of people who consistently spout out the insults like the above.

My main is currently stuck at CR 119, and it's gotten to the point where I often don't even bother logging in any more. The content that I enjoy playing offers such insultingly small rewards and almost zero progression that it is just boring and frustrating. I have ONE "relevant" solo to play that gives ONE mark, whoopee. The devs literally give the same value to solos as running the Vault, sigh.

One of the other insults that used to be hurled so commonly at folks expressing similar preferences was along the lines of: "If you don't like raiding, go play Skyrim!" And that is another big irony -- in ESO there is a TON of stuff to do solo and small group, and the very best gear has always been crafted and attainable to small group players as well as die-hard raiders. Their biggest problem is making some more large group stuff for people who want it and actually adding a frickin' text chat to the console version.

And now they've even added a Solo Arena, similar to DCUO's Survival Mode except that it offers the best gear in the game if you can manage to beat all nine bosses by your lonesome -- or of course as ESO has always offered, if the random gear that you get in their Arena isn't to your liking, you can break it down and use the components to craft gear with matching stats after you grind enough.

The point that I'm making is that I don't understand why it has to be "either / or" for progression. One of DCUO's biggest competitors is offering lots to fans of solo and small group play, and in my humble opinion the present "relevancy system" and decent rewards only in large group stuff only serves to push some of DCUO's customers towards them.

~8 weeks of farming for one piece of gear... seems pretty irrelevant already.

I'm in the same boat as you. I love Solos and Duos. I'm just glad they're finally contributing towards end-game progression. I don't mind group content, but I only enjoy it if my friends are playing. Otherwise it's just a bad experience most of the time. Everyone has their own strategy, too many people are mis-informed about how things work. Then many players don't have patience or are just horrible, vile disgusting people.

If it was up to me, I'd make one great Raid with an Elite version of it per cycle and the rest of the development time would be dedicated to smaller group content. There's so much weight and emphasis on 8 player content, that it can be intimidating for people to even try. I remember when I first started playing, it took me forever to queue for my first raid because I was scared of letting 7 other people down. I still am intimidated today, but now I've seen the worst of the community, so it's even worse and less inviting.

As content ages, it becomes desolate. If all the emphasis has been on 8 player content and nobody is running it, then players are going to struggle to progress through it. I'd rather have a game which produced a top quality, challenging raid every 3 months, which couldn't be beaten for a long time, than raids like the Necropolis one and New Genesis, Now which are nothing more than underwhelming replay badge farms.

Obviously, this system does not replace anything. So if it don't offer any options for some, then no harm in status quo for those people. But there are likely many who will make use of it. Like anything else in the game, it's not going to be universally benefecial, but primarily due to different view points.

Not everyone likes games about dragons or superheroes or shooting aliens. So if a different game offers exactly what appeals to you, why keep trying to place the square peg in the round DCUO hole.

DCUO has always catered to most and tries to walk a balance. And that's a credit and a detriment. Credit because they try and detriment because no one is ever satisfied like yourself. More solos and duos would be great for many and terrible for many as well. What I would say with confidence is that the devs are not putting out a solo or duo every episode in order to drive you and like minded people away from the game. What I don't understand is why DCUO needs to be more like ESO, Destiny, FF, SWOR, etc. If the games are there that do their thing, then play that. No harm in that and completely understandable.

Whether or not duos and solos offer enough rewards is debatable, but to be fair, a solo or duo should not be as rewarding as an alert or raid.

8 weeks for one piece? Well glad to know it didn't matter if premiums got in our not, this will help progression 0. Just running the stuff weekly you get the gear faster than this. This will be to litteraly build that 1 piece that you couldnt get when the content was relevant. During relevancy this system will be useless.

And that is something that gives me some worry. There are some MMOs like Star Trek Online that have been out for a long time, and IMHO part of their longevity is related to your last paragraph. A lot of the MMOs that have not been shut down have lasted because it is possible even today to download their games and not be worried that you cannot progress because no one is doing raids at your level of progression.

Some folks in this thread have even said that they think that adding the new R&D system to older content is a waste of time because they personally have gotten past that point -- so when enough of their friends quit playing, where exactly are the new players going to come from to join them in some future new raid? Small group content that offers decent rewards is the simplest way to address it, IMHO. The present system literally offers almost no reason for higher CR people to join a new player in a lower CR raid, and since there isn't stat-clamping I can understand why the devs chose to discourage high CR folks from one-shotting their way through easier content. But that leaves the problem for a new player: the only way to get decent progression are raids that no one plays anymore.

But if DCUO continues on the route of required raiding for decent progression, why will a new player keep playing when they reach a "relevancy" wall where their only option for progression is to repeat the same solo and a few duos for a month or more to get one piece of armor?

It's only 8 weeks for one piece in the absolute WORST CASE scenario.

Worst case scenario is only seeing Green drops in every single run of the content AND only getting 2 metalloids, the lowest amount of metalloids you can yield from gear.

In the video I posted, I got 14 Metalloids from 1 run of the Duo but the calculations would be based on getting only 6 Metalloids from that 1 run.

You should also be running the raids weekly to ensure you maximise your potential and replay badges can also help if you wish to use them.

Edit: MEPPS :'(

Are servers still down?

And here is more of the "either / or" fallacy, IMHO. The balance of DCUO progression is very different today than what it was a few years ago in terms of small group progression. In the Ace Chemicals and Stryker's Prison solos, you could get two pieces of armor each week. Now, if you stick to solos and duos, you might get one or two pieces a month.

I like superhero games, and I like fantasy games, why can't I enjoy both? Is there something inherent to the superhero genre that requires only raids? No, most of the DC characters spend much more time in solo adventures in the comics than in the big team ups.

And why should a raid be so vastly more rewarding than a solo? Why can't they offer multiple viable ways to progress? I cited ESO as an example not because of its' fantasy genre but because people playing it can progress in large group raids, solos and small group, or whatever mix of the above that they enjoy doing. Does it in some way injure you if a player doing solo stuff is able to grind out equivalent armor in a few days that you won in an hour in a raid?