DCUO: State and Direction of the Game

As someone who's been playing this game since launch, I had very high hopes for this DLC. I really thought that the devs had been listening to us, that they finally "got it" and were ready to push this game in the right direction. However, a culture of greed-first has emerged and is now permeating many aspects of the game. This is meant to be a review and critique of this new DLC as well as some of the recent changes that have taken place in the game.

To be fair, I'll begin with the Pros.

PROS:
1. Great Designs: The new missions are filled with very beautiful scenery and designs; from the design of the arenas and bosses to the details and elegance of the new styles, I can see that a lot of effort and thought have been put into them. This is a big plus for this new DLC and the game as a whole. Kudos in that department!

2. Fun Content: It's very refreshing to see some of the new mechanics that have been added in some of the missions, like the trapping of the Minotaur in the 4-man alert as a resolution to the boss fight. This is the kind of stuff we would LOVE to see more of, instead of the constant hack and slash missions that we're so accustomed to. It would be really nice to see more of such missions, as well as those that would emphasize the need for roles. A mission whose success is dependent on the troll trapping/freezing/pushing the boss would be really nice, or where the healer has to heal an NPC to keep it alive for the mission to succeed, etc. Such missions would be greatly appreciated.

3. Convenience: There have been many quality of life improvements that I appreciate seeing. Recently, we've seen the introduction of more bots of convenience (like the base mod bots), and the new loot system, among other things. Quality of life improvements are always welcomed and appreciated.

4. New Hairstyles and base item at the marketplace: It's been really great seeing the new hair/facial styles for female/male toons and new base item (like the Flash base set). Big ups in that department. We especially can't get enough of those hair/facial styles!

CONS:
1. Marks Flip-Flop: It's been very troubling to see that the devs have decided to return to the new-mark-per-DLC system. This means that there are fewer missions to run, fewer means of getting these marks in a timely manner except by means of buying replay badges. This is really sad given that the devs had already decided to retain a universal currency throughout the entire game. It's like you got rid of all of the previous marks only to start over with new marks!! Make up your mind, either we'll have new currencies per DLCs as before or we keep one currency throughout the whole game. This is regression.

2. Insane Vendor-gear Price: It's completely insane to set the new vendor gear pieces at the prices they are set when the marks are new AND the missions are few!!! This one, right here, was a clear money-grab maneuver imho. If a person has multiple characters to level up, which most of us do, the only way to get the whole gear set within the 3-4 month window before the next DLC release is to spam replay badges all day. Although, it's ok to grind, having to grind repetitively between 4-5 missions for 4 months, through multiple characters is NOT fun! It's not. It kills the fun in the game and causes people to grow discouraged and move on to another game. Bad move in that department. Very disappointing.

3. Pay 2 Win Capsules: It's very disturbing to see that feat-worthy collections have been added to the Time Capsules. This has been the most brazen cash-grab move the devs have done yet! As if replays weren't enough, adding feat-worthy attuned gear to Time Capsule is a huge step in the wrong direction and slap in the face of all DCUO supporters. And the price price to replay the Monster Training mission is way too high at 87 replay badges (same for a raid)! This is just an indication to us that this game is moving towards a pay-2-win model, far from the Free-2-Play game that it claims to be.

4. Base Items for Briefings: In addition to the trend of collections now being in TCs, base items are now in briefings/investigations!!! It is VERY discouraging to take the time to search and complete a briefing only to have a stupid lamp or couch be emailed to us as a reward. Definitely a move in the wrong direction.

5. Rare Style Vendor: If you're going to set the rare styles at 70 Marks of Victory per piece, at least have them be pieces you cannot find at other gear vendors for fewer marks! For instance, the Shock Jock (Shazam-inspired) style is also available at the Tech-Wing Hangar vendor for fewer marks (for example, the chest piece is 60 MoVs)!!! The rare styles are definitely overpriced to begin with but to make things worse some of them are actually not so rare anyway because you can buy them at a regular vendor for cheaper! What's up with that!?

6. Easy and Small DLC: We can all agree that for the time it took to develop this DLC (5+ months), this DLC has very few missions to do and is very easy. I queued in with a random group and beat the Olympus raid on the first try! Lol. Additionally, we were expecting that there would be new items in the marketplace added with the coming of this DLC, but that wasn't the case. It seems like a good chunk of the effort was spent in packing the TCs with things that would make them more irresistible instead of towards more content to play.

Although the pros have been great, the cons have been greater. If these are indications of the new direction of DCUO then I and my friends are seriously ready to completely pull the plug on this game and delete it for good.

Bumpy bump! Bumpity bump!

Two things:

Mepps already explained that they didn't have the tech in place to make the SS/Monster Training non-replayable. So they did the next best thing by pricing it at 87 replays to discourage people from replaying it (it's always been intended to be run once a day). It's definitely cheaper to buy a Stabilizer Key from the marketplace than to reset the instance.

As for the Shock Jock gear/style (inspired by Livewire, not Shazam) and a couple others were added to vendor unit 22 accidentally. There's been no pressing need to correct that error since their focus is on the stats update and future content.

That's all.

Ok that's good to know. Did they say what "tech" they were lacking?

You don't really believe that they wanted to discourage ppl from replaying the training mission and that's why they set the replay at 87 badges, do you? If that were true why is the drop rate for TCs many times that of Promethium Lockboxes??? Doesnt having execessively more TCs than one can open from merely playing daily trainings encourage ppl to buy badges ?? If you couple that with the fact that Promethium Lockbox drop rates have since been vastly reduced this all leads to a very obvious conclusion to me: cash-grab tactics.

The point of receiving more TC than you can possibly open with free stabilizers is to encourage you to go to the marketplace and buy stabilizer keys....not more replays (that's what the high vendor prices/lower amount of coins is for ). If you sit down for a minute and do the math you'll see that the keys are significantly cheaper than resetting the content. Someone on the forums already crunched the numbers.

Also, Promethium Lockbox rates haven't been lowered. They stull drop at approximately 6 hours of gameplay. They won't be increased or updated because they're not really making money on them.

Ok, if it is as you say, then that's even worse because at least for replays subscribers can use their monthly replay badges allowance towards replaying the training to get stabilizers, but having to spasm cash for stabilizers while being a subscriber devalues membership by making badges less useful. This is horrible.

Exactly. So it's all about the money. Greed is killing this game!

When something is abandoned it can't really make money anyway. And we've suggested many ways to make them profitable but since it's not a quick money making scheme like TC is, they don't care.

You say greed, others could say the company is trying to maximize their profits. It is a for-profit company and not a charity. And i say that because people forget that they have evry right to try to make money. Lockboxes aren't doing it, so they've gone to other things.

Again, the training instances were never intended to be reset...therefore no one should be upset that it costs so much to replay it. You have two options for keys and acquiring TC items: Play the training instance every day and open boxes while also checking the broker for items. Or...buy a stabilizer key or two and support the game you claim to love.

At the end of the day, no matter what ANYONE believes or feels, no one needs or is entitled to the items and feat points from the Time Capsules. They are desirable things to have, but they are not owed to us nor are they necessary to progress (despite funny claims to the contrary).

I don't recall any suggestions to make Plockboxes profitable, but i can only assume that players most likely benefited more from those suggestions.

Time Capsules have succeeded where Promethium lockboxes failed in making people go crazy over them and opening their wallets. I'm not telling anyone to like it, but that's the reality of things. They don't have the resources to keep the marketplace fully stocked with desirable items on a consistent enough basis to keep profits at the level they want.

You know what i like the most ? Devs put style collection to new gear vendor so i bought that "Minotaur Earings" collection for 300 coins/marks and spend pierdylion of in game cash for other 9 piece also have reset raid many times to get those 300 marks .
I was 100 % sure that i will get op head or op mask and guess what i got ?
Yes i got Minotaur Head Style not OP item just a style . After all hard work i made to get this item im quiting DCUO becouse its frustrating when u buying style for 300 marks and like 50 milion in game cash .
Thanks Devs u put style collection in same vendor with OP items ( just under ) so everyone who dosnt read forum or dont know english will think its OP items .That was realy smart move to get rid of some people from game .
And that price 300 marks for style i mean realy ? Sky its not a limit .
PS .
There is still a lot of people who think this is OP item not just a style . How many of them will buy it and get frustrated like me ?
Thats just make my day .

This is the only one I'm going to comment on so as not to cause a war in this thread as well, I love base items. I know there are a few others out there who will be happy seeing more base items in their inventory. With that being said, I don't mind where the base items come from, if they want to reserve briefings for just styles then by all means, what annoys me more is the letdown with AF3 items.

I would be lying if I said there weren't great items in this DLC, however I am not trying to run an omelette shop, I do not need 18 different kinds of eggs.

Sadly, I have to agree with that. Too many Egg items...and they drop WAY too often compared to the other items like the Olympian Freestanding Wall...a MUCH more desirable base item with a ridiculous drop rate compared to those damn Eggs or chains that keep popping up.

Or arguably the best base item in EP27.........Gorgon Altar (Aflame).

Depends on how you are using those eggs I suppose. I may have use for them in my upcoming fire temple base.

I don't really see what the issue is with briefing/collection base items. Unless they are base items I want many of (which usually they aren't) I'm not too fussed either way.

We've had some fairly impressive rewards recently such as the Mobius Chair - but then truth be told these base items are tradeable. So if you want more look to the broker. Alts are handy too.

Wow! Sorry to hear that. It's very sad what they are doing to the game now. Very sad.

I should've been clearer here. I was referring to the briefings from the previous dlc; some were just base items. At least 3 of them from what I can recall.

Lol geezus I feel bad for u but I would have triple Chec ked before finalizing that.