And the reason for the encounter lockout is?

I have often wondered what the logic and reasoning was behind locking knocked-out players out of encounters or locking out players who might join the group after the battle has already started. For example, if I queue up for the Paradox Wave and happen to catch a group where someone left just as the encounter started, I might spend the entire Raid watching it through the gates for no fault of my own yet I get the rewards all the same.

This is a question mainly for a Developer. Player responses without citations are merely speculation. What is the reason for this mechanism? How does locking players out of an encounter enhance the gaming experience? I have played many MMOs and this is one of the only ones I know of that has this mechanism. Other games allow resurrections during the encounter, group members can show up late to the fight and still wade in, etc.

Speculation/sarcasm: Because one-shots and pick-ups are such amazing and fun gaming mechanics.

My guess....because they want everyone to do a raid together.

Speculation/Inoculation: Maybe it's to raise the encounter's difficulty to avoid people from infini-raid the boss and granting its completion.

If we still had the glitches, this wouldn't be a problem in some raids.

There has to be some penalty for failure.
Locking a knocked out player from a boss fight is a penalty for failure.
Gear damaged by a knockout is a penalty for failure.

Perhaps a personal message to the developers, (Mepps, NerdofPrey, etc) will result in the responce youre looking for.

Most of our content is set up where the group has to work together. The lockout encourages the need for someone to heal and give power. Like alot of other MMOs, the controller role is unique to DC. Most other games the controller just runs debufs, but so do other classes. If no one was ever locked out then we could all just dps and run back as fast as possible. As for getting locked out of a raid you que into. Make your own group. Just shout that your putting a marks run group together. There are plenty of people that will run. Alot of people, including myself, who don't like putting groups together.

Go to your settings and make the change so you never go into instances already in progress.

Problem solved.

If you mean in any instance you get locked out after being knocked out and want to go back in then.......


Is this another "I want it easier" threads??

In many raids, the boss encounters are very near the spawn points. If they didn't lock you out, what would prevent a weak group from just zerg rushing a boss? As long as one person was up, the boss would not reset so you could just turn most boss fights into a Pyrrhic victory.

No, I am not asking for things to be easier. I am curious as to the reason for a feature that other MMOs do NOT emulate that prevents players from playing the game. Most other MMOs do not prevent group members from reviving and rejoining the fight. Those games also have healers that can resurrect and lock heals to specific targets.

I played City of Heroes for several years before DCUO. It didn't seem to suffer from not having this game mechanic. Of course, it had a far superior LFG/PUG system than DCUO and did not seem to depend on forcing players to adhere to a modified version of the EQ Holy Trinity.

In Champions Online you were locked during Rampages if you respawned mid-fight. The difference - and I think that functionality is superior to DCUO - is that you could stay there for as long as you needed until someone - who had that power - could res you. My toon could res himself too, so I could fight endlessly.

However, Rampage bosses did reset if the team got wiped.

This is DCUO it isn't those other games. It is different.

Just as those other games are different from DCUO.


If I was of the opinion that another game was " far superior" than the 1 I created a thread about, I wouldn't be creating a thread in DCUO Forums but would be playing that other game instead.

Oh, but I think that overall DCUO is superior to Champions Online. That's only 1 of the 2 features I think DCUO should have.

I think the answer is very obvious, but since you like it so much, I´ll use the <speculation> tag like everyone else:
1)Like many cited, to prevent you to keep rallying and getting back to the fight as long as 1 is still up to prevent it from resetting.
2)Avoid potential glitches from (1), like an essential NPC getting KOed when he shouldnt but does thanks to the 30min non stop boss fight.
3)Prevent the Tank from pulling the boss somewhere he cant hit the group, like a platform or some other obstacle/corner.
4)Avoid potential glitches from (3) if the boss must interact with the background, like a console/artifact.

Imagine if you could pull the boss to the rally point, not only you could infini-rally, but you would be able to fix gear mid battle without even using a Proto repair bot.

Possibly more, but that's the obvious ones.

Most games I have played don't allow for death and return during a boss fight. Even if the doors don't lock they prevent you from respawning until the entire group is out of combat or you get rezzed by a healer with the proper power. I have yet to see a good mmo that allows endless waves of player characters at an instance boss. World bosses I have seen allow for respawning but those are different from instanced fights.

In DCUO the lockout is to promote group play and that do or die feeling. If we could die and get back in the game would honestly be a cakewalk, anyone who remembers FOS3, Prime, and Dox door glitches will remember how cheesy those runs were. I always left groups that wanted to glitch the doors. With the lockout you have to stay alive or risk being a lost asset to the team. If healers had a rez move the boss fights could play out differently (would be a great counterpart for 1 shots).

Keep the lockouts, they work in dcuo and removing them would break every boss fight in game currently.

TRUE but while it has gotten better NOW there used to be instances where you could join a raid or alert. Battle your way from room to room taking DAMAGE to your armor and possibly suffering a defeat along the way. Now back before the present community wide philosophy of BURN BABY BURN unless it was simply impossible to get to you in time players would rush to your aid and in many cases rez you. It was NOT so much a penalty to you as it was to the entire team.. "You let you team mate die so now you get to try and complete this battle short handed" So after all that agony and pain you'd reach the final battle, defeat the final boss, and your (as example) Tank would leave the instance with nothing but Troll and Healer armor drops.

Mid explaining where the REWARD was for all the labor? Oh yeah MARKS (which are now no where near as important as the gear that drops in the mission).

The difference NOW? There are idiots scoreboard chasers out there that won't even stop shooting long enough to use a supply drop (if they even have one) or drink a soda because some one MIGHT out score them. Oh and forget about one of them stopping long enough to REZ you if a Boss hits the entire team with a ONE SHOT attack for the same reason listed above. Then IF there is a team wipe thanks to no one bothering to even TRY to rez a team mate half the team quits because "Oh crap this is taking too long". Players still wind up locked out of battles , still can wind up with armor that doesn't function and if the team winds up dissolving, which happens frequently, you spent 45 minutes or more for NO reward at all .. MARKS or ARMOR.

That lock out is just another way to create problems for teams. I did a DUO recently where I basically carried my partner and wound up finishing off both of the sub bosses on the way to the final boss battle because the guy kept dying on me. Then after one TEAM wipe on the final boss.. he quit and I had to go to LFG to ask for help to complete the damn mission so I could get the marks and final armor drop I fought long and hard to obtain. I had NINE times the damage of my so called TEAM MATE and had carried him from start to finish and HE QUIT ON ME?

I would like if in Call of Duty, when I get murked, it didn't negatively affect my score. It would be better if that didn't matter, and I received the "Best Gamer Ever" trophy just from signing into my account.

Basically its keep NPC's from leaving the area and going on a walkabout, that would glitch the raid.

all the other reasons stated just followed as part of it.

I can even think of games where dying on a world boss was bad, WoW for example gave you a debuff and if you tried to zerg rush you died instantly, plus some like Kazzak in Outlands healed from player deaths so dying on him meant you were out of the fight + everyone else had to burn more of his health down. It's never good to die on a raid boss.