If Vendor gear could be upgraded through R&D??? With a look at T7

How would you feel if vendor gear could be upgraded through the R&D station?
Some say yes, some say no.

*******Its a tad bit long of a read**********

I for one say yes. What if I could show you the future of DCUO, the close future.Let me paint the picture.

T7 is a fresh start, for new mechanics, new gear, and new loot.

How would you feel if your vendor gear could be upgraded not 1, not 2 but 3 times up to raid gear lvl3 per DLC, is that right?

With this new system it can. Introducing R&D 2.0.

Thats right people I am talking about all gear, from rings, to necks, facemask, even your weapon can be upgraded to raid gear lvl 3. T7 introduces a whole new grind to the system. You still have your RNG drops giving you the regular 101 gear. You have your 102 vendor gear. And then finally you have your 103 rare raid gear drop with your 101 gear dropping normally. You have your Omni items dropping but they of course already are raid lvl 3.


You have survival mode, but you dont want to go in there unless you have your gear up to at least raid lvl2.

But hold up, Derio are you telling me that my vendor gear upgraded to raid gear lvl 3 has an item lvl of 105?
I sure am. Let me explain how it works.

You have solos, duos, alerts, and raids. Your costs for upgrades are simple

UPGRADE lvl 1: This is your standard upgrade to raid lvl gear. You need this upgrade to go to lvl 2 and lvl2 to go to lvl 3.

Cost: 5 catalyst VII, 12 complex material, 20 upgrade points

UPGRADE lvl 2: This is your step up as raid gear will still help you but will be inferior to this upgrade. Perhaps you can use that gear for complex materials because this upgrade is what you need.

Cost: 7 catalyst VII, 16 complex materials, 40 upgrade points

UPGRADE lvl 3: This is your maximum upgrade as you have created the best gear for yourself to have at the current Episode of DLCs. With upgrade lvl 3 any mod you put into a socket automatically grants socket boost affinity regardless of the color. Any weapon upgraded to lvl 3 grants 2 white mod sockets. Its you at your finest now go take it to them.

Cost :15 catalyst VII, 20 complex materials, 100 upgrade points

Now i know what you are thinking. How can I get these upgrade points? Is it through RNG? Random loot drops? Do I have to buy upgrade points through the marketplace or with my T7 marks?

NO, NO and definately NO.

The best part about upgrade points is you get it by running the content. Points are awarded upon full completion of the raid and lock the same way with loot locks. Lets give you the breakdown.

Solo: 1 upgrade point per T7 solo
Duo: 3 upgrade point per T7 duo
Alert: 6 upgrade point per T7 alert
Raid: 12 upgrade point per T7 raid
Bounty: 10 upgrade point per T7 bounty
Battlezone event: 5 upgrade point per T7 event( 5 upgrade point bonus if any T6 bounty is in the event)
Vault: 1 upgrade point per day starting at CR111
Seasonal: 1 upgrade point per event run starting at CR111
Legends PVE: 2 upgrade points per run starting at CR111


(All up for debate/discussion)


Keep in mind you have to finish the content inorder to get upgrade points. Solos, duos, alerts, raids, bounties, battlezone events and other items that grant upgrade points are subjectible to loot locks.

Why are bounties 10 Derio?
With the new T7 bounty system " The ultimate Hunt" Its not just you going after bounties, its bounties going after you. Given certain circumstances bounties may appear in your league hall. You may kindly wait for them to leave or you can make them leave the hard way. New bounties in both Gotham under Seige and Double trouble mist empowered T7 bounties in Metropolis Battlezone also get into the mix of your "to do" list.

With scripted attacks, Bounties calling in adds that can debuff players I am sure you and your party will have their hands full. Dont feel like you and your party can take on the bounties or defend your hall?

Go back and run some duos, solos and alerts, upgrade your vendor gear and get back out there. Put control back into the way you play.

With DCUO companion app, see how much marks and upgrade points you have.

But Derio, what are these Battlezone events that drop 5 upgrade points?

I am so glad you asked.
So there you are doing your hero or villian thing, you and your crazy strong buddies just took down the double trouble mist empowered bounties and your feeling pretty good.

Then suddenly a battlezone event emerges and Hal/Sinestro come over your communicator telling you all out massacre has broken out by the Science Spire and they need your help.

Battlezone Event: Battle zone events include a wide variety of objectives to complete. Completing any open world solo T5-T7 can trigger the event.

Battlezone war events may break out may trigger when a number of faction bounties have been defeated by the opposite faction causing them to summon powerful allies. Battlezone war events also award bonus upgrade points to players participating in the event.

Battlezone races may occur when players are not doing enough help with containing the mist in metropolis. Even will require players to carry a number of mist containers to a safe location while fighting off bounties, special NPC's as well as some unexpected enemies as well.

Battlezone command and conquer may occur when both villains and heros are facing defeats from bounties. Event will require players to capture strategic strongholds working with both heroes and villains for the good of their homes in metropolis.

Battlezone Sub-Avatar event may occur after a number of amazons have been transferred by brainiac. This event will require players to fight buffed Sub-Avatars who have a few tricks up their sleeves( these avatars may or may not have abilities to open a mini paradox wave allowing warrior, sentry, ravengar, tyrant, oppressor to fight along side them).

If you fail the Battlezone event you get 1 upgrade point for trying.


So lets see you got your standards, you got your upgrades, you got your bounties, you got your battlezone events. So maybe you dont like my upgrade idea. Maybe you dont like my battlezone event idea, or maybe you dont like my bounty idea. But you will have something to do if the idea is implemented.

And I am sure it feels a whole lot better replaying content and enjoying it and knowing that you are rerunning to get upgrade points rather than to replay and hope on that 10% chance that that piece of X gear will drop.


Now what I want from the community is a constructive thread about why they feel this method would be good, why it would be bad.

How points are awarded, spent, etc.

T7 is a great way to look at loot in a different way. If this is what you want, even if you dont want the extra events and bounties, your feedback helps alot.

Points, Scope, scaleability are all up for discussion.

I like it. +1. This game needs a better crafting system that ACTUALLY matters.

I'm all for a new system to replace the current bland, basic, same ol same ol.

But, this would have to be for T8. We're too close to T7 for a full revamp.

However, I do feel that the Devs are paying attention and we will likely see a slightly different loot system in the next DLC. I suppose it will all hinge on who they are listening to...

My $0.02

Love the idea Derio!!! We need more R&D in this game...well R&D that matters. My only concern would be the open world events and the inability to develop them due to the PS3 support. I'll also include the massive lag that we all experience from time to time. These two factors could make a really cool open world event seem unbearable.

Yea I dont actually expect this idea to get implemented, IF it even gets implemented until August or after 2 DLCs of T7.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Yea I compiled alot of those open world threads earlier when I was thinking of the idea. I one of the threads it was mentioned about restricted area space. And basically what that ment was once X amount of groups enters an event, no other players are allowed to enter that space unless they are apart of one of X groups.

Another one mentioned privatized zoning which allowed only 4 raid groups to enter a zone( separated phase(private phase)) to conduct the event. That way PS3 players are only dealing with 32 players in an area instead of 100+

Remind me of FFXIV relic weapons.

I had an idea similar to relic weapons several months back. But the time it would take to implement would be over a year, considering the weapons would have to scale back to t1 and thats alot of upgrades for 1 weapon and for each DLC change.

Well, you're really introducing several ideas here. Not just crafting Endgame Gear. So my opinions in order:

1. Endgame Crafting? I'm all for it and always have been. Back before HoP1, I remember somebody finding the term 'Artifact Weapon' both on the Broker and in the advance files for the expansion ... and I got all giddy, hoping that the devs were adding an extra dimension to crafting. Sadly, they passed up that opportunity.

As far as your suggestion, I like a lot of it. I'm not sure the devs would want to add yet another 'currency' (Upgrade Points), but I very much like the idea of players having to do content in order to be rewarded (we might even be able to use the Prestige numbers just to make things easier on the programmers). I'd suggest putting some of the other random drops into the recipes (Enchanted Beast Horns, Battery Fragments, etc) to help give the Broker a shot in the arm. We might need plans too ... but nothing as rare as the Codices from Hands of Fate. Also, I think that Exobytes should be necessary ingredients at some point - though not necessarily at every step in the process (again, to help the economy).

All in all, I think that your thoughts would be a great foundation for a hypothetical R&D 2.0. I love crafting/farming in most MMOs and don't get nearly enough of it in DCUO. Of course, I have more free time than many.

2. T7 Bounty system. Sounds neat, but I'd think it would have to be Toggleable for each player/league. There are far too many people that would be annoyed by being interrupted in the middle of doing something else. Me? I'd love it ... but again, I have a lot of free time. Not everyone does.

3. Battlezone Events. Again, neat. They'd be a great way to insert some more immersion into the game (another thing that I love). I'd worry about the effects on the PS3 peeps, though.

Great writeup. I hope the devs see it.

Wouldn't mind being able to upgrade gear through a new R&D system. Also, if raid gear did not grant static stats, that would be good as well. As long as it doesn't become a pay to win upgrading system, there should be no qualms.

Nice work Derio I like it. I wish they would do something to make content more relevant longer and this would do exactly that.

I can imagine this being a real pain and really a middle finger to premium players.
Though it is rather creative, and will bring more incentive to use R&D after recent changes.

The design includes premiums as devs would either change catalyst to be cheaper or change it to a different currency that cost marks but affordable for premium players.

Even if the devs dont go with a new approach to loot changes. I hope we do see battlezone events in the finale of the trilogies for WoL and AF

As long as I can choose the pieces I want, I honestly don't give a **** what system they use.

I like the idea of using R&D with progression, outside of modding, because it would give the developers an opportunity to revitalise the economy that they've severely and harshly butchered over the past year or so with various features that are too "player friendly".

I like your spin on it. I think it'd be better if instead of caling them points, you called it "charge level" and it's represented as a percentage and when you get to 100%, you are able to upgrade your vendor gear.

One issue that is present in this game with the system they have chosen and are, so far, refusing to budge from, is the relevance of non-raid content once you have a full set of vendor gear. Plenty of people don't see anything beyond the vendor gear as viable before it becomes irrelevant, causing disengagement leading to boredom, possibly causing them to leave (or come to the forums and making long winded posts, exploring all levels of logic and reasoning to help give justification as to why a change is essential :X)

A feature like this would keep content relevant for longer. Which would be better for business and enjoyment levels. Ultimately it'd give us all something extra to chase for. Especially if it only unlocked once you obtained a basic vendor gear set. Anything to do AFTER you obtain the basic vendor set is an increase to the engagement in each DLC.

Good concept.

Yea anything to extend DLC's length would be nice.

So basically make everybody subscribe to get to t7 coz if I remember correctly catalyst iv is a little over 2k so catalyst 7 I would assume be way higher another reason why I don't mess with r&d coz its biased to subs

In an earlier post I made a statement to change the price of all catalyst to accomodate premium players.