Livestream Preview: Oracle's Time Capsule

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Mepps, Feb 18, 2020.

  1. MAXILIANO Loyal Player

    Certainly!
    But let's not forget the pressure that the whole community had on making this happen!:)
  2. Eve YouTuber

    If they take PC and unmerge them from PS4, I will have to stop playing because most of my league is on PS4 and I do not want to play without them. Both Leagues I'm in. So I hope that's not the case at all.
    • Like x 1
  3. myandria Item Storage

    Hmm... let me see if I understand correctly:

    • This isn't a change we wanted to (have to) make. So, you didn't want to make the change and you didn't have to make the change; however, someone higher up made the change for you and your hands are tied on this issue. Is that the case here?
    • We do not expect this change to make the game more money (likely the opposite). Do you really mean that you expect DCUO to not make money from this change? Perhaps from an expected downturn of memberships and stabilizer purchases?
    • The change is not related to exploits. Self explanatory and good to know.
    • The change is not related to people creating additional accounts. Self explanatory and good to know.
    • The change is not related to our gaming partners (Sony, ect.) Ok, I can accept that, since the deals you have made with your partners were more than likely done in advance and are renegotiated after a certain amount of years.
    • The PC player base is much larger than assumed in this thread, but we will be monitoring the impact carefully. Well, this is a no-brainer, since you have access to player/server numbers that we do not. I guess you cannot tell us what the impact threshold will be if the PC player base is adversely affected.
    • Like x 4
  4. an81angel Well-Known Player

    I wasn't saying that everything should be fast, cheap and easy. I was asking for the company to offer it's players more respect for their hard earned cash - by offering these items to players in a non-gambling fashion - as straight cash purchases. That way people only need to buy the things they want, thus not wasting their money trying to get something 'potentially' unattainable. Maybe if the cash shop was utilized more the insane inflation of the broker wouldn't be what it is today. Just a thought.

    Just because a loot box has a possibility of dropping something doesn't actually mean the item is actually attainable from it. But there are multiple ways to attain the item you say, maybe in a round about fashion (see below). again, just because there are possible ways to get something, doesn't mean it's actually attainable. But isn't that exactly what it means? Nope. in a straight forward look at the terms yes that's what it means. But the practicality of it, the real life function of it, takes the meaning and grinds it up a bit. Even if I was a real life millionaire, and I spent all my money on an RNG loot box the possibility of getting the item I want is always there, yet there is also the possibility that even after spending a million US dollars I might still walk away without the item. Is a Chroma in DCUO worth it at that point or are you just foolish for wasting a million dollars? would you ever buy a chroma from the marketplace if it had a $1,000,000.00 real USD price tag on it? Nope. People always complain about the cost of everything, be it food, electricity, etc, and that's a moral issue that society can't figure out. That doesn't mean we should not voice our concerns when things seem to be out of hand. And right now, RNG is getting out of hand. So rather than continue doing what everyone knows isn't sustainable long term, why not stand up and make a change? see what happens. If the company goes under, that sucks, however, they can find new jobs, and we can find new games to spend money on. OR all parties can find common ground and appreciate each other more than we currently do out of mutual respect of each others finances.

    If the company prices things fairly based on the work done to create it, most people would save up to by the one ore two items they want. Some people would wait for sales - which it why companies offer sales - to get those few hold outs to part with their cash. Most people will drop money right away. Now if the company priced things way to expensive people don't have to buy it. If enough people don't buy an item straight out, then the company can look at the statistics and say is the price to high, or is the item not what people want. Then, if a sale happens and people by the item to take advantage of the sale, then the company knows that their view of the items value is not what the consumer views the items value as. The company can adjust prices going forward. If the item doesn't sell even with a sale, then the company knows the product they offered was not valuable to the player no matter how much time and effort when into creating it.

    As far as "willing to pay" goes, most options offered by the company are problematic. If the best out of those options is for the average player is to spend money and pray they get lucky on RNG then we are all doing something wrong. A companies first thought should not be how to convince people to gamble their money, but rather a fair exchange of goods for services. In turn the players needs to stand up and make the company listen though their closed wallets.

    Option A - spend money on a TC and hope you get the item(s) you want. If you don't have the money to do that, then you have 3 other options.

    Option B - grind to get gold and buy it from the broker. The average player doesn't have the time to grind an excess of gold. I have been playing this game since launch and I have never had anything close to 10 mill at one time. The most I have ever had is 3.5 mil on one toon, and another 1 mil on a second, and about 2.5 mill on a third (not all at the same time either - just overall accumulation and saving up for almost a decade of playing. There is no way I could ever gain enough gold in game to buy the things i want from broker during their peak. That's only accounting for when there is a surplus of items on the broker - though nothing has ever been within my budget - at least not where a TC item was concerned. There are thousands of players like me, that just gave up on the broker ever being useful. But that is a whole other can of worms.

    Option C - wait a few years and hope you have enough quarks to buy from Booster Gold. However, in order to obtain quarks you need to open capsules. Yes, you can open capsules for free, but that requires collecting fragments daily. If you take into account the amount of fragments you get per member lvl its something like F2P = 73 full stabilizers a year, yeah that sounds like a lot except that when you average that with the amount of items potentially dropping from the TC, and how often we get new TC's a year. How likely is it that a F2P person can actually get the things they want from each new a time capsule (even if they only want one item from each TC)? Not Often. The RNG is just not favorable to anyone but the whales.

    Option D - don't spend a dime (real or fake) and move on to more fulfilling purchases at a later date. (this is what I'll be doing btw)

    I don't expect the company to change it's habits on TC's and RNG. I understand the current business model and how it offers the company the best profit for the short term. Though I think for longevity's sake the game would be better off as a whole if they did change. That being said, the better, more well rounded approach is always a straight exchange for goods.

    vVv Opinion Time - Skip If You Want vVv

    Just because I understand why companies do what they do, doesn't mean that I can't see that the whole system is flawed. Ask society this; is it healthy, is it moral, is it ethical to ask people to gamble? This last question goes beyond DCUO the game and it's value on RNG. It extends to real life. It's about how society approaches value and currency as a whole. Not just the value of today, but way in the past and on to the future, too. As a society we are attacking ourselves over value of non-essentials. We step on the toes and backs of humankind to make a quick buck. No, society will not change anytime soon, not within my lifetime. Probably not for another 5 thousand years or more. But eventually humanity will be faced with harsh truths, and something will change eventually. Eventually humanity will die out or it will evolve. And if humankind lasts long enough to evolve, society will have to change right along with it.

    People often say, life's not fair, or the economy doesn't work that way, etc. Yeah, I know that. But - what if it did? What if life was fair? What if we could learn and teach a different way of approaching value and money? What if people were looking for ways to make the quality of life better more than if they were looking to pad their bottom line. Eventually with a lot of effort things would change. Would it be easy, or course not, humans are consumed with greed. Society places to much value on money, how to earn it, who is worth earning what amount, etc. Yet...

    Someone Somewhere Has To Start The Process Before Anything Will Ever Start To Change For The Better.
  5. Aerith Rose Committed Player

    I still largely blame time capsules and the insanely low drop rates of the more exclusive items as a main motivator for exploits.

    The trade restriction from PS to PC is extremely frustrating for PC players. Please get rid of this ASAP.

    FYI to PS people I am rather sure you can download PC test and make a PC account with out paying for another subscription.

    I think simply putting this stuff on the broker would help the situation. Place all this stuff as a limited time exclusive oracle bundle. Could range in price from $50 to $100 depending on the content of the bundle. Include all collections, gear, materials that could be possibly earned in the time capsule. I have also been asking for something like this for years. You can if you want keep the current time capsule system in addition to this. So people have an option from random gambling to direct purchase at a cost.
  6. DCspawn87 Well-Known Player

    That entire read was worth far more than 2 cents. It perfectly sums up what I've been saying for years. I'd gladly pay x amount of money for a chroma or style that I really want.
    • Like x 1
  7. cassi Well-Known Player

    I personally am upset because we put all our money on my husbands ps4 account saving for these. We play together. I am PC, he is PS4. We have bought legendary every year since almost the start. 2 subs. Normally we open boxes and split everything. How upset I was to find out I was out of luck today. I wanted doves goggles. I had to buy the collections. My toon is broke now. I cannot even afford the last piece. It's going for over 300 million on pc end. He bought the same exact piece for 18 mil. He got the goggles. all the pieces i needed he ended up selling because he couldn't give them to me. This will be the last TC I participate in. This was a dirty move by you. Very dirty. If this is how this is staying , I refuse to re sub as well. Pc players are mostly gone, and our market is bloated without ps4 added in. If you wanted to further upset the player base, huge congrats as you succeeded to flip off all of us PC players. Your welcome btw for all the money over the years my husband and I have contributed to your company, that is over with as well. Way to alienate players....PS other than Doves goggles and Hawks back (which I'll never get now) this TC sucked.
    • Like x 7
  8. GoldenDodge Dedicated Player

    What I haven't seen mentioned is this change temporary or permanent?
    If this is permanent, will there be additional changes to other items already in game or will this be the standard process going forward with all time capsules, booster bundles, anything else coming down the line or even existing items already in game?

    I don't want to shake this tree but if changes are going to be made like this, a full explanation will need to be presented as those bullet points explain nothing behind this change.

    I make a lot of trades with friends and leaguemates not on the same platform as me and this change is effectively flipping me the bird if I want to help them out.

    In my opinion this is a possible game breaker, I hope that the community gets a viable explanation and all this does not get swept under the rug while waiting for said explanation.
    • Like x 4
  9. Chia Death Well-Known Player


    It's pretty disgusting when they pull out sophistry and misdirection to try and deflect from actually explaining why they made a change like this.
    • Like x 3
  10. Luke© Well-Known Player

    I'm pretty sure why they made this changes:
    They made it "platform bound" so ppl with several accounts can't trade it via league bank as "free 2 play" anymore, so they have to spend some money with each acc.
    As always, D.Ink wants all of your money.
  11. IonHero Committed Player

    So just buy $5 of replays per account? and maybe sell resets?
  12. Batrederik Dedicated Player

    We need to think more carefully about how we treat the Devs.. and I hate using the word *treat*.. But still. I think it goes without saying that the Devs have worked very hard on this game and new styles, + game development and style is not simple or straightforward. But they have been active in the community, forthcomming with their actions and when they have done something, they have meant it and stuck to their guns. We* as a community have not asked, we have demanded, we have told the Devs what we wanted and even when we got it, it hasn't been good enough or someting else.


    As a final note, I will express once again that they are human too and only trying to do their jobs, and we should be thankful for what they do + for what they have given us in a game that you have full *freedom*
    • Like x 1
  13. Batrederik Dedicated Player

    Ps. Devs I was actually interested in this time capsule, it's just not my cup of tea.
    Sincerely, Batrederik.
  14. Rainnifer Committed Player

    I'm really disappointed to be honest. I just finished reading a 3 year old thread regarding these time capsules. The Devs acknowledged problems about these capsules and alluded to possibly working on them and making things better, but I find that's not the case and these capsules have only gotten worse.

    Between that, lackluster fixes for bugs and other things, general disregard for player concerns about things like Legends and PVP, Artifact RNG systems they try to say "don't matter much" and only offer "different ways to play", and etc. I've realized that this is not a game/company that I want to be supporting.

    I've enjoyed this game a lot, it has/had so much potential, but my year sub ends this summer and I'm not going to bother paying for anything on this anymore.

    I'm not even an old player, fairly new compared to most of these active forumers, but I've already seen enough to understand the bad state this game is in with the community. I understand many games are not perfect, and have many problems. Maybe "MMOs" just aren't for me as this is the only one I've really played. But I've heard good things about other MMOs within this very forum so I'm led to believe that's not the case and DCUO could've and should be better.

    I generally don't bother engaging in things like this but I just really have to voice my concerns for the state of this game, it's not good. There needs to be some better change.
    • Like x 9
  15. Jafin 10000 Post Club


    Mepps literally said in his list of bullet points that this was not one of the reasons.
  16. Draconiano Committed Player

    That's what I think too, they don't give a clear explanation (and deny it) because the people that pay tons of real money on TC would ask for punishment to all the exploiters.
    I guess they preffer to be shady than transparent.
    • Like x 1
  17. Draconiano Committed Player

    • Warning: The DCUO forums are for everyone. Please be respectful, constructive, and kind. Please welcome contrasting views and stay on topic. Do not insult or attack anyone.
    I'm not saying they did, but companies lies all the time.
    You know, if it wasn't something "bad" for us, they could just say it.
    • Like x 1
  18. Tabby Belle Well-Known Player

    Thank you for sharing this information, Mepps. While I won't spend money on Stabilizers or Unlocked Oracle's Time Capsules, I will spend a little extra on replay badges this month in appreciation for the communication. While not fully transparent, this is enough for me to understand. This extra bit of communication is a step in the right direction, as opposed to the "we're not telling you anything" policy practiced during the economy fiasco.
    • Like x 1
  19. Batrederik Dedicated Player


    And you got a thumbs up from me *
  20. ALB Dedicated Player

    They are squeezing the player base dry and not doing anything to improve game
    • Like x 2