Test Discussion Episode 42: Open World & Intro Mission

Hello everyone! Thanks for helping to test the newest DCUO content! This is the thread I'll be most closely monitoring for feedback specifically about the "Legion of Doom Pt. 1" and "Legion of Doom Pt. 2" missions, as well as the "Doomed Washington, D.C." open world region and related missions and content. Note that "Legion of Doom Pt. 1" intro missions are different for heroes and villains.

Please make a post here if you see any bugs or have any feedback about messaging or difficulty.

Again, we genuinely appreciate your help testing the new content before it goes live! I wanted to send out a special thanks to all of the folks who've helped with advanced testing. Cheers!

Intro message shows Perpetua's comm while Listen to Update from Perpetua gives Martian Manhunter's. They aren't aligning correctly.

The Villain version of Washington D.C. feels too empty as there are no mobs to fill up the place. Can add a lot more civilians back in.
It's also missing the Gettysburg Address.

The Exo-materials are in the new open world! I hope some older episode-tied open world would retroactively get this aspect add-in but for now, this is a welcoming return.

Are certain bounties not targeting npcs the final decision? It seems really odd that Grodd doesn't adhere to this rule but the others do. Make it consistent.

Would be better to move the bounties away from walls to minimize cheesing, except for Black Manta who already isn't. Cheetah can just be at the centre of the lawn, Giganta at the front of the Lincoln Memorial and Grodd west of the Washington Monument.

Giganta:
Need to adjust the mission track counter back to appear (x/50) since that is the actual number of robots needed to get it done.
She sometimes grabs her rock and just walks around to wail till it expires.
Having Source Eyebeam seems out of the left-field, even with the tenuous Source Power justification. It'll be better if it's a source clap/grab or anything else more obviously strength related.
Would love to see the Atom join in to fight her, Ryan Choi would be a great addition but even Ray Palmer can at least serve as a placeholder to spice the iconicity a little more.

Black Manta:
Tear pops up way too soon, make it start when he lost 5~10% health.
Just make it an AoE btw, he is really lacking in that department and an odd duck among his peers.
He doesn't seem to drop bombs even when fighting against a sizable group, maybe it only shows up when it's a really large group but for now, it's underwhelming.

Gorilla Grodd:
Still Force's range is way too small, I was able to avoid the button-mashing while still having a red target lock.
Chest Pound sometimes has a skull and red area warning and sometimes it doesn't.
Add Mind-Controlling 1/4 players when the group is large to increase the chaos difficulty.

Cheetah:
It seems only 3 Void Winds show up regardless of participating players. Can add up to 5 when there is a large group.

Potentially unpopular suggestion: a feat that requires doing all bounties in a row without dying, just like the Lightning Strikes one.
No repeats but can be done in any order.

Will there be a future "Find Uncle Sam" feat as Cheetah does? Seems like a perfect opportunity to reuse him.

can the invisible boundary walls be expanded? it feels very small

One word: WOW!
I had so much fun just running around. I did some quests and everything seems to be working fine and I have video coming with some jokes and opinions. I actually think with the Ultraviolet mission that when there are civilian around a purple circle that you need to destroy- the purple energy that comes out of it should damage you. It doesn't, seems like a miss opportunity as damage over time. "Doesn't hurt"

will be probably easier to understand in my video, will post it here later.

I dont know where to mention it, but the "reply" function seems a bit bugged for me. It does not always convert it to the name as it should.

The Open World Boss "Black Manta" has almost been defeated only by Aquaman. Maybe his DMG should be lowered.

not sure if intended but while doing open world mission for the ultraviolet lanterns I will come across instances where there are groups for 10-15 npcs all together fighting each other. Usually the groups are smaller than that in the 4-6 range

Everyone, please call the self-harm hotline for Aquaman. He's been hitting his head with the floor non-stop.

Also, he's missing water splash effects.

On the Gifts of Doom bounty front, they now go back to the centre way too often even when they only moved slightly away from it.

The open world is dead. There needs to be significantly more mission-related NPC groups as well as non-combat NPCs.

My villain intro mission seems to hang, after the duo. No pep talk happening and I am stuck with it. Clicking on the mission section does not bring up the pep talk.

What (I think) happened is that that I got timed-out out of the duo, but I am not 100% sure, since I was on the teleporter and wanted to leave when it happened (and I might just have initiated the teleporter out of a reflex).I thought time-outs only happen in operations, i.e. multi-location instances?

Character is Unclever on villain side if you want to check.

Cheers,
AP
P.S.: Christmas season is missing on test.

I'm finding this can happen a couple of different ways.

1. The Ultraviolet Lanterns that are bound to the Terror Orb Generator will start to roam freely if you just destroy the Generator and leave the adds alone.

2. The Ultraviolet Lanterns that are tied to the Civilian Escort mission will often drop the Escort mission if they run past another Ultraviolet Lantern group that is fighting some Green Lanterns.

Forgot to upload this here, but I've taken this video with camera on and mic to reflect on my thoughts

What does the Villain intro mission text for the stage you're stuck on tell you? Does it say to complete the Duo? Or to Exit the Duo? Or something else?

Thanks for the help!

I've not seen this happen, and Aquaman is set up so he shouldn't damage Black Manta. Is this still occurring for anyone? Was Black Manta in combat and then later disengaged by players perhaps? Thanks!

Feedback
Black Manta seems to be the bounty of choice to farm for large groups. Since he can only attack 1 or 2 players at a time with his skull attacks, he isn't much of a danger to a large group. You only need to occasionally block while the rest of the mob just keeps attacking.

It still feels like Black Manta could use a more dangerous AoE attack to keep groups honest.

Giganta has multiple AoE attacks. Grodd has his skill test. Cheetah has the Void Winds. Black Manta has nothing.

Bug Report
Police Cars do no damage when thrown:


Other vehicles do damage when thrown in this manner.

Bug Report
I keep seeing cars overlapping with other cars at red lights:

Suggestion
While watching the NPCs at the mission hub, I noticed that sometimes Flash or Wonder Woman will interact with John Stewart or Cyborg. There will be a couple of emotes and it looks neat. There are also a couple of different types of basic Green Lantern NPCs that can spawn and they will always go over to one of the consoles. It seems like these Green Lanterns would also want to talk with John Stewart to give him an update or coordinate matters on the ground.

Here is a video of the NPCs I'm talking about:


As is, it feels like John Stewart is being snubbed anytime a Lantern passes by him. Even a brief pause to do the salute emote would be great.

In addition to the zone feeling dead, the lighting is quite flat as well. It looks dated. The new NPC models look great though.

It says something like exit the duo and the next mission item (the pep talk) is already shown in the mission overview, but not highlighted yet.

I cannot log into the test server at the moment. I always get authentication errors. As soon as I can log in there again, I'll get you the exact wording.

Kind regards,
AP