Test Discussion Episode 36: Batscape Duo feedback thread

Hey all! We're excited to present the new content we've been working on.

This is the thread I'll be most closely monitoring for feedback or any reported issues on the Metal Part 2: Batscape 2-Player Operation. If you have any feedback, please give as much information as possible. Were you playing Normal or Event Mode? Were you playing as a hero or villain? Cross-faction? Any additional information may be useful if you come across any bugs.

As a side-note, I may be a little slow to respond the first week it's on the Test server, but rest assured, you're feedback will be read.

Finally, I really appreciate all of the folks who help look at things on the PCTest server.


EDIT: One known issue which will be patched out in the first PCTest hotfix: If you wipe on the final boss fight before or during the phase where you see JLA members, it likely will gate the fight.

@JackFrost
Can we get this fixed?


This is in the Oblivion Bar. The corner is offset from the rest of the bar. That has been bugging me since Justice League Dark.

Personal opinion.

Other than the opening scene of being in the Oblivion Bar, just feels odd since we recently started a Duo there, this Duo is amazing. I loved the graphics while in Batman's mind and the cut-scenes and encounters were fun.

As far as bug reports or anything, I did not discover any issues on my run through.

Once. (Maybe twice)
i agree but just if i dont have to see 4min cutscenes too often

Some feedback for the duo:
I personally don't think it should take 30 minutes on regular duo. Not talking about cutscenes either.
Duos should take 10-15 minutes.

1. Adds have too much health
2. Adds hit really hard
3. Does the Merciless supposed to appear as boss when you go to the drachma? I ran the duo 3 times so far and It never worked for me.
Is that a bug or just random?

there are 3 bosses appearing per instance out of 5 possible. So you might've gotten unlucky if you wanted the Merciless (had him 2x out of 2 runs)

Feedback
In the Batcave section, several of the lead-up fights are on small platforms and the Dark Knights like starting off with a pushback attack. That pushes you off the platform which can be annoying.

The health barrel for the last fight isn't placed very well. One AoE attack at the player spawning position will blow it up.

So the blurry effect when going through batman's mind is actually physically painful when playing. It was easier for me to play when I removed my glasses. (note: I am super blind without these and at most could see targets of some kind and walls.)

I see what you were going for with this effect but at no time should a game cause this kind of pain (anyone remember the lightning orbital). Please consider adding a 'fog' effect instead of the blurriness.

Am I reading this right? 30 minutes for a duo. All for one mark?

My runs have been averaging 16-17 minutes while playing at a "casual" pace. There are a lot of cutscenes and narrations in this duo.

For all of that, you get 3 loot drops and one mark.

There is a current bug for the Merciless in the Duo when you go to interact with his symbol he doesn't show up in the scene where he strikes down WW and WW also sometimes doesn't show up in the scene as well.

Metal 1 content length was perfect. Hoping the duration of this gets scaled down a touch.

Feedback:

• Overall there are alot of cut-scenes and while I appreciate how nice they are for the overall story it breaks up the flow up the duo alot and adds alot of time to the overall duration
• *Honestly I would just have the 1st cutscene with Batman Who Laughs play out and then immediately teleport the 2 players to the batman mind simulation, the first part in the oblivion bar serves absolutely no purpose. In the video below it was 3min before we even entered the batcave which is supposed to be the main starting point of the duo and the beginning was just filler. Also it is the exact same thing we have already done from the JLD duo so it cuts out another recycled room
• To save some time for pugs I would put indication arrows to the cards to find them a bit quicker, if someone missed the verbal ot text que they could wander around the whole room before they find the right trigger point to continue to duo
• Everything seems to die real quick, I know others here have said the opposite and that the duo took upwards of 25min but I would question their dps rotations at that point
• Like I mentioned in my commentary it seems that everything in the duo in terms of npcs are just filler for us to watch the cutscenes which is the actual important part of the duo and not the content for the player.

We made an adjustment to the Batcave map to try and make this less painful to look at. That change should be on PCTest now as I understand it. I hope it helps, and thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for all of the feedback, and the patience while I was out of town. I believe the below changes will be making it to the test server on Wednesday (they were submitted today but need to be tested tomorrow before we get them to the test server):

• Additional steps being taken to try and make sure there are no missing actors in the matinee cut-scenes.
• If both players have completed the Batscape Duo, they'll be presented with a couple of opportunities to skip certain matinee cams. Players will be able to skip the matinee cam in the Oblivion Bar and a few of the matinee cams in Crime Alley. On-screen instructions will appear if both players meet the condition to skip the matinees, and the cams will be skipped only if both players opt-in to skip them. In Crime Alley, the optional interactions will show up near the entrance but will affect multiple cams in that region.
• Reduced the number of Dark Knights that players need to find in the Batcave from 3 to 2.
• Updated the location of the final boss' heal barrel so it's less likely to be inadvertently destroyed.

Regarding the feedback about difficulty, I'm not sure there's been an overwhelming consensus on whether the enemies have too much health & hit too hard, or whether they are easy to defeat and don't hit hard enough. So maybe it's juuuust right? In all seriousness, is any of the feedback on difficulty specifically in reference to the Event Mode? Or is all of it about Normal Mode?

I'm inclined to make normal mode a tad harder and event mode a tad easier, but don't want to change things willy-nilly.

Thanks again!

I meant for event, normal is fine, should have mentioned it probably, I mean event should be easier and not take so long.

Thank you for the clarification!

It wouldn't hurt to up the difficulty in normal mode. I was testing with day 1 gear assuming I was coming into this straight from completing the last content and was never at risk of dying. Seems worth making it a bit harder to have a reason to gear up. Probably not a ton though just because of the length since people will want to burn through a duo quickly and that will also be a reason for more gear.

Tried again tonight.

The batcave portion is perfect. The theater boss fight and end boss is tolerable; it's possible for me to use the camera angles to offset the problem. Everything between the 2nd and 3rd boss is a nightmare. A migraine inducing nightmare. You would think the smaller area would help but it just makes the blurry more noticable.

Regular Duo (not event)
In my opinion, the Batcave part enemys could hit a little bit harder (like 20% or so) - their Health is just right. For everything else, its just right where it should be. Not too hard, not too easy - so that its enjoyable to replay it (especially after the cutscene skips )