Open letter

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Deranya, Nov 30, 2015.

  1. Chocolate Enforcer Committed Player

    I have to say that I found myself logging in mostly only on Thursday's thanks to Fallout 4. I thought the new monthly set up would be better but alas it hasn't at least for me . I see friends logging and then getting right off after they have ran BD OR BDE. I would personally rather go back to the 3 month period
  2. TKMcClone Steadfast Player

    As a USPS player I'm also concerned about Cross-play and what it will mean for the community on USPS. I'm expecting that there will be a perception that PC players have an unfair advantage, be it macros, hardware or whatever is invented. Any improvements to PvP could be completely destroyed if players feel that they aren't on even ground based on platform. If the FoTM power jumpers in PvE start to see PC as the only FoTM - it would be the worst exodus from the game that we have see.
  3. Greenman_x Steadfast Player

    I could go on a rant about the issues I have in game, where they started, the things I like, dislike, etc. however it would take far too long. Instead I'll just leave a few points about my biggest issues and leave at that.

    - The changes never stop. After 5 years, 55 updates and 20 episode/DLC releases, everything is still changing. We spent 2 years where clipping was the dominant form of DPS, the next year was dominated by weapon mastery and this past year has been all about Advanced mechanics. Power balancing has been an ongoing thing for the past few years, with several powers constantly being cycled in and out, in what feels like a wheel of FOTM with something new each month. We went from getting all our content in monthly updates the first year, to quarterly DLCs now back to monthly content. In the short time it was actually given attention, PVP went through several changes as well. Loot/Gear seems to get a new change every few months. It seems like after 5 years we're still figuring things out and it shouldn't be like this, especially this late into the games lifecycle.

    - We have little to do outside of going for the top gear.. Open world is just done now that we have monthly content releases. Older content has very little use outside of running it for marks for synthetic mods. There just isn't anything for us to do besides whatever content is best that month. If I wanted I could run my raid once a week and log on daily for my duo for the salvage and I'd be off. I personally have found a lot of enjoyment the past month or so helping out friends who have been away from the game for a while/building up a new league, but for others who don't have the same I'd imagine things would get really dry really fast.

    - PVP is dead and has been severely ignored for too long. No new season, no new gear to go after, arenas are just broken and convoluted 1 shot fests thanks to AMs and WM, no new feats since LL in 2012, etc. I did a few arenas the other day, and as a fully geared/modded player on a team with a heal tank and DPS was getting worked over by a couple of HL DPSes and a Rage DPS. How PVP has been allowed to degrade into the state it is in is unbelievable. The fixes are incredibly simple to see too. Just simplify everything back to how it was. Give roles their abilities back, create a grind for gear/feats and most importantly remove AMs and WM and get back to simple regular weapon attacks and powers.

    - Combat is boring. When WM was introduced, it was said to be an alternative to clipping for players who wanted to see their animations play out. Instead it just blew clipping out of the water and all but 2 powers haven't been able to use it since. When just about every power is simplified as much as it is, it gets super boring to DPS sometimes. As a mental player I used to have several different rotations for different situations, I had to keep track of whether my PIs were up, I had to keep track of my damage modifier, I had to make sure I was clipping fast enough, etc. Now I have 1 loadout for every situation, don't have to worry about PIs or modifiers and it puts me to sleep. Playing sorcery for the past few months has been phenomenal. When the current cycle of balance is over, I want clipping to return as a viable playstyle. I will never act like jump canceling was a good thing, but clipping was.
    • Like x 14
  4. Greenman_x Steadfast Player

    The only issue I have with going back to the quarterly DLCs is that small group content will just go back to being useless. Monthly content at least gives me a reason to run duos, solos and alerts. Back when we were doing quarterly DLCs, I'd run the small group stuff for about a week to get all the feats, then never step foot into it again. The raids were always all that mattered. The same thing happened before. My friends would log in, run the best raid and log off because there wasn't anything else relevant to do. The difference there was people would just get burned out/finish by the last month and not log in at all.
    • Like x 2
  5. Greenman_x Steadfast Player

    My only issue with xplay is PVP, which is already in such a bad state that even if it did get worse, it wouldn't matter. Legends is the only PVP i'll even step into. If I'm not first on the PVE scorecard because a PC uses a few macros, then so be it.
    • Like x 5
  6. TKMcClone Steadfast Player

    But, you're a rational person who is loyal to your power sets...
    • Like x 1
  7. HEALER35 Well-Known Player

    I must say this is good thread and thanks to Mepps and the others for taking the time out listen and look at the tread.

    I just wanted say, I never played or enjoyed playing any other game like DCUO, its a fun game and you can meet a lot of people from all over the world in different countries and states. When I first started playing this game I was hesitant but I love superman and comics, although I did not know the structure of what to do in the game it was just something different and unique. Over the years I have become very interested to see this game grow in many ways because it was unique back then and it is still unique now.

    However, since PS4 launched I expected DCUO to rise to the next level as a MMO since the PS4 was design to hold more storage and content than the PS3. My thing is that, this is a comic Hero and villain game and its some things in game I would expect to see in a Hero and Villian game. Our toons should be able to do more super hero stuff such as, you should not have to spec in heat vision to have it, or spec in iconics to pick up a car or truck, why cant we punch enemies and make them fly like super man due? Also why we cant we fly around in outer space, outside league hall or outside the watchtower? Why isn't the movement modes a little faster?

    We need more color options in the pallet ( I know I spelled that wrong) and we need to raise the cap on Marks of victory to at least 250 if we are to pay 70 marks for a rare styles in the vender. Because once you max out with a 100 marks and and you need a rare style that has not dropped in two years maybe three you only have 30 marks left and now look a new episode is coming out and you cant even but a 60 mark piece.

    Lastly, skill points and mods are suffering and I'm not trying to be the bad guy her but since we started the every month episodes ( which I like) a lot of people are advancing in gear fast but have weak toons. I just ran BD elite last night and a tank was in there with a 145 CR and 94 SP, and I run cross these types all the time. See before, you had to put a mod in to get your CR up so now instead of farming, people are putting beta or no mods in there gear which they don't understand that they will make the alert, raid or operation a struggle because we have to carry them. There is no grinding no more for SP or farming bits to give you that edge to make your toon competitive and strong.

    I just wanna say in conclusion, you will never find another game like DCUO. Many people quit and most come right back because you just cant stay away from something that was design to be unique. There is nothing that I believe that can compare to it even tho you have some others out there but they will be nothing like DCUO. I would like to see more imagination and effort in making the world better and bigger, its time for something to be added to the game that will blow our minds and competitors minds. I believe its time to upgrade to the next level of MMO and let our imaginations run wild and open new doors for our DCUO family.

    Special thanks to Mepps, Devs, Loch, Hero's, Villians and all of you who make DCUO possible.

    Thank you for listening........
    • Like x 3
  8. Deranya Dedicated Player

    I have to say I am glad this has turned into a topic where everyone can share their opinion without turning it into battle in the pit. Obviously we all share different views on the game, how it started, what it became and what it is now, so thank you for sharing them here :)

    Before I wrote my post I had a list of all the things that have annoyed me and others over the past years, but that would have turned into something mainly negative that I wanted to avoid. They still came up in the following comments, which will hopefully add to a constructive view on the small, too small, DCUO community that still hopes for the better.
    I have to be honest when I say I didn't expect any form of acknowledgement from the DCUO team from this, but for the little bit I am thankful, but I hope it will not be just words at then end.
    • Like x 7
  9. AllanPage Committed Player

    I feel so bad for the EUPC players. I remember I was going to start on EUPC server back in 2011 but my European friend started playing on USPC for me instead. Had I started playing on EUPC back then I probably would not have been here. I went there few days ago, it was an absolute ghost town. Our USPC Villains isn't very far behind. EUPC Villain side felt more like a single player Free mode than a MMORPG.

    Why do they even have a separate server, when only a handful of players play there anymore. I really do hope crossplay comes soon for you guys and don't get neglected anymore. You as members have equal right to run the content and enjoy it as much as the playstation folks.

    PS: You can make a character on USPC Heroes if you want, until they merge servers, if enjoying pve content is your only concern anymore. Having to switch servers to enjoy the content is sad, but we can't do much sadly other than wait. :)
    • Like x 1
  10. LeagueOfV Dedicated Player

    I honestly don't understand the mark relevancy restriction. Mepps said in another thread people would earn marks too fast, you could have full vendor gear in 1 day. So what? People only buy vendor gear for the style, maybe for the missing pieces they didn't get yet or for other role. With the new R&D system, then vendor gear becomes even more irrelevant for in game. I think the devs should understand it is a temporary place holder or style item, not the end goal. If the best gear was vendor gear then I think mark relevancy would make sense. Because it is not then it makes no sense at all.

    I would be happy if they added an option to run old instances stat clamped for marks. They already have stat clamping implemented dor the seasonals. Just make it an option. If you want the marks run stat clamped. You can still solo stuff if you want for no marks. I do need marks to buy lots of missing styles, but that's pretty much it. I mostly buy synthetic mods instead of using betas. I just don't get how the game would break by allowing everyone to earn more marks from old instances. Even if they only allowed marks in a weekly or monthly boxes for old content, that would be better than what we have today (1 or 2 raids each week, daily stuff for scaps).

    EDIT: Also agree with you that I like the new content so far. Just wish I had a reason to play all of it more often. Maybe elite raids should have been the normal difficulty, because lfg pug groups can still struggle in elite.
    • Like x 4
  11. Backseid Devoted Player

    Honestly, nearly all of this, from my perspective, can be eliminated with best gear being in Vendors and ONLY a few OP items as drops.

    I cannot for the life of me see any negatives to this or why it has not been implemented.
    • Like x 3
  12. Crimson Mayhem Loyal Player

    Great post.

    My TLDR: combat system was simplified to the point of being boring and my friends aren't there to keep me playing.

    The one thing that breaks the game for me a little more with each update is the combat system. I loved how fast it was, and how much time I could spend exploring loadouts and practicing rotations.
    Starting with GU36, much of that was taken away with the JC update(which I understand the reasoning for although I'm not happy about it) and cast time normalization which generally slowed the game down for the faster powersets, although some slower powers got sped up. Target number/splitting normalization made all aoe powers the same (along with the timing pass) and removed tactical aoe choice in favor of copy paste powers.
    Along came WM - promised as a clipping alternative which turned out to be a blatant lie - and reduced combat to [setup multitarget PI] - [Buff] - [1 out of 2 viable WM combos] - [PI'ed multitarget burst]. Along came Max Damage which managed to open up rotation freedom by sacrificing tactical use of damage modifiers.
    Along came AMs which reduced many powersets to basic 1234 playstyles with individual power choices being either limited or just irrelevant compared to the AM finisher. Of course we all know that this in turn made WM mostly irrelevant.

    What all these updates accomplished was
    - complete removal of multiple tactical components of the combat system
    - total destruction of the classic weapon clipping combat
    - increased gap of damage output between damage and support stance
    - power creep level 9000+ and exhaustive additional updates along with new issues that are still being resolved
    - nothing in regards to Healers and Controllers which still have the same problems they had 2 years ago

    I know that support is supposed to get a significant buff over the next few updates which is good, and I appreciate that thanks to some testers' efforts the balancing process seems to have clear goals now, but I can't get over the simplicity of the AM system. People aren't lying when they say combat has been dumbed down. Everytime there is a major update for my powerset I try to get that feeling of strategical preparation again but everytime I am disappointed again when it turns out that the greatest differences in damage come from CR differential scaling and power balancing. When actually playing, it still comes down to 1234 no matter how much I try to think outside the box.
    That right there is what kills it for me. I get bored to death planning and playing my favorite powerset (which from what I understand, many still see as very complex and challenging to play because other sets have it even worse) because in the end all I do is casting 4 powers with different colors in a row to get a damage tick that makes up 80% of my whole damage output.
    I won't even get started about PvP. I'm sorry for all who liked to play it a lot, it got utterly destroyed and neglected.

    I endured while I still had friends to play with, but EUPC villains is dead to the point where I wonder if players will actually return. We made it through lots of down times and always came back, but this time I'm not sure. I'd love to get into SM or even just regular and Elite raids, but there aren't enough players left to organize those regularly (or at all). That's a problem especially now that we only get a single alert in each cycle.
    • Like x 7
  13. Malachee Committed Player






    Nailed it. Thanks.
    • Like x 2
  14. Derio 15000 Post Club

    So far I have enjoyed everyone's post in this thread. Those people would not have posted such comments if they didnt share a deep compassion for the game and only want to see it strive like it once did. There was a time where DCUO was the #1 MMO on Playstation.

    We all know the effects of pvp on the population, however we also know that pvp wont be changed anytime soon. If it were left to me I would disable WM and AM from pvp and bring back role buffs.

    As for pve someone in that office needs to come up with new style content. By new style not new raids, or alerts. I mean a new style type of content that combines both old and new content like LPVE did or how survival mode was all the rave at its launch. That can come out every 3-5 GUs.

    I know open world has been shut out due to monthly content, but like many have said in this and other threads. What happens when the rabbit stops chasing after the carrot and decides to sit down and eat the celery.

    Devs need to come up with a new grind since skill points have rapidly declined via GU47 and the current gear chase is chasing away players rather than drawing them in.

    Its nice to know the devs are working hard on fixing the power creep, and you have to keep in mind the players are in the complete darkness about what is coming next. People are aware of the next 2 pieces of content and that is it. When in the past people knew what the next 6 pieces of content were along with devs telling people in detail about upcoming GU. The playerbase has no general idea of where the game is heading and that gives a false hope for them.

    There is still the promise of crossplay but like others have said for the EU server it will help, but at this point it is far too late.

    Unlike others who have already announced their unsub I will be here until July of next year riding through the storm. Heck I may even hit the 20k post title. I just hope by that time I really dont regret my stay here in DCUO.
    • Like x 5
  15. Greenman_x Steadfast Player

    Read the whole thing, but these 2 points are the ones that stuck out the most. The only reason I even care to give feedback is because I love this game. I've been playing for 5 years, with just 1 break of about a month in that entire span when I started college. I will be here until the servers shut off, but I will also give my opinion any time I see something I don't like happening with the game. It's only because I love it and want to see it do well, and when I see some changes come rolling through (like GU 36, 90% of power revamps, mark unification, etc) I want to make sure they know that a 5 year player thinks that's a bad/good idea.
    • Like x 2
  16. CCBatson Dedicated Player

    It's so weird to come back after a long hiatus and see some familiar names like Crappy Heals, Kimone, Mint, BumblingB, and many others still here and fighting the good fight.

    For those that don't know me, I was once one of the biggest optimists and defenders of the game and the Dev Team to be found on the forums. I wrote a small number of guides, and did my best to help new players and smooth over the community tensions when things got heated. I really LOVED this game. I even wrote a really long and polite analysis of where the game was, just over a year ago, taking great pains to state positive and constructive feedback for both community and the Developers that I knew read the forums.

    That's why when I saw Mighty's words above, it was like an echoing painful ache in my heart.


    When I stopped playing DCUO shortly after that period last year, I was certain that the community could not get more toxic, and the Devs could not have created more of an atmosphere of cold distance than I was already seeing at that time. That's why it breaks my heart when I decided to come back after such a long time away, of not playing but hopeful subbing, wanting to like this game again and wanting to believe that things would change after the transition towards Daybreak Games as well as the promotion of Spytle from oveseeing DCUO to overall DG head honcho.

    Despite being an optimist, I returned earlier this week to find that so very little has changed, and much has possibly gotten worse. The question I want to ask Mepps and the fine folks at DG is "Why?"

    What's happened? Where is the love and sense of community that once bridged the distance between the developers and the fans? Where is the shared sense of nerdy-fandom that was our common bond? What happened to the game refinements that were supposed to make this game more accessible and inclusive for new players, casual players, and veterans alike? What happened with WM and AM's? (I'm still unsure why the separation between the two was even necessary) Why are people still discriminating over CR and Skill Points, despite the census data and character data being made Public (something I still feel was a terrible break from earlier ethical concerns that Jens and the Devs used to stand behind)? Why is Raid content still the emphasis instead of small game content? Why are drops still emphasized over tier-vendors and Marks as rewards?

    I'm just saddened that despite my enthusiasm at DC properties that are about to make 2016 HUGE, that the game I loved for its immersion and geek/nerd enthusiasm and gameplay, is stagnating and not able to take advantage of the growth opportunities from PS4, from the strong television presence of shows like Arrow/Flash/Supergirl, and of course the upcoming excitement over Dawn of Justice. Why is there no advertising? Why is there no hoopla and fanfare? Hell, why does Guitar Hero rate a 2-minute crossover spot for Arrow and Flash cast members, but DCUO can't catch a break to save itself?

    There's so many 'whys' just on these thoughts alone, much less the localized pertinent ones put forth from the DCUO community that has expressed a feeling of increasing marginalization. And I'm filled with doubt and fear, while I worry because there's not a whole lot of response coming back; when once there was mutually animated discussion and Q&A, there's an unseen 'wall' that is so palpable and impenetrable now from names we once squealed over in delight when they appeared in-world and deigned to talk to us.

    I don't know if Mepps is even reading this thread anymore after posting his appreciated, but very neutral response; but I want to call out so it can be read/heard... TALK TO US! PLEASE TALK TO US!

    We love this game. We love the memories that we created here with friends, with community, with shared adventure and excitement in the world of DC comics. I want to think of this game as going on and on, for years to come. I don't want to think of it as simply biding time down a ticking clock, trying to squeeze out revenue til the servers are turned off. This game once had the adoration and more importantly the LOYALTY of a die-hard fanbase. I believe that it can have both of those again. Just come out, step down to the town square where the 'people' are, and TALK to them.
    • Like x 3
  17. Veritasum Loyal Player

    Let's say they do away with mark relevancy
    1. Where would be the cap for marks? The potential of marks earned would be quite high and in if there is no cap, eventually you'd likely be able to buy all gear at once and the next, then you would have less reason to play because what the heck are you playing for? Especially if it's a best gear in vendor. If you can get it all within a few hours, then what are you running content for after that?
    2. You could earn a ton of marks from running super easy "irrelevant" content to earn gear for end game progress. Whether people accept it or not, vendor gear is plenty to run the latest content. And obviously if it's best gear, then even less incentive to play once you have it all just about handed to you.
    3. With each new episode and consequently cycle, there is ever increasing IL gear. By virtue of there being more content available to run, the cost of said gear should increase. In the long term, prices would get out of hand and difficult to track. The whole mark currency would eventually spiral out of control. This is of course inconsequential in the short term. But devs have to think long term.

    I'm not advocating any system, just explaining how I understand the topic. We'd have to consider a whole new system. Given the game's resources, I just don't see that happening. And I'm not sure how many more mark revamps we should go through.
    They're committed to mark relevancy as the base. Adding to it like the R&D system though I think is something we can explore.
  18. Veritasum Loyal Player

    internet problems lead to double posts.
    • Like x 1
  19. Veritasum Loyal Player

    sorry... triple post
    • Like x 1
  20. Scarlet Mysty Loyal Player

    This thread needs some kittens
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    And cats
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    I was actually about to post on topic. But I feel this is far more important now
    • Like x 5