Test Discussion Episode 27: More Loot and Rewards Feedback

I'm sorry but with regard to the vendor gear pricing and number of drops this is all bad, the idea around the new gear and the way it attuned was good in theory. Then in my opinion it has all gone pear shaped from there. You have basically given us less drops and raised the cost of vendor gear, basically forcing us to spend Replay Badges (I have no problem with cash grabs like Time Capsules putting some money into the game, Money makes the wheels spin I get that) or forcing us to have a weaker role. Yes it is only 1 CR difference between highest drop and vendor gear, and some will say that's ok, but I don't want to have a weaker role, and I am sure a lot of other people feel the same.

The second thing is this content is not going to keep people interested for longer than 3 months. There has been no new content for around 3.5 months (105 days, Episode 26 was release July 27) and quite frankly I am bored, sure I still need some gear and feats out of some of the raids, but I'm bored with running them and I know a lot of people feel the same way. You were given a bit of leeway by myself and the community around the time difference between Episode 26 & 27 releases because it was understood it would take more time to change back to the larger content. I don't think that same leeway will apply if this content comes out and we are told this has to last you 4/5/6 months however long it is meant to be.

I went into these changes open minded, but all the information that is coming out is making me more and more displeased with the direction the game is heading. I would say something about feeling short changed with having renewed my membership but I know I'm going to get T's and C's thrown at me, so I feel short changed, yes I know you can change what you want.

In my opinion this is going to kill the casual player because they are just going to get further and further behind. No one expects a casual gamer to be a leading edge but at least able to stay within a reasonable range of leading edge.

Also Avair said fluid so #waterconfirmedforAFIII /s

Where to start...
I think the biggest bombshell is the longevity of the dlc. Sure we warned long before that the new system will not necessarily be meant for 3 months or that we are returning to a quarterly dlcs format.
I don't mind that, however, I hope that the instances will be enough to maintain the attention of players. I am not going to even say whether I believe it will or it will not.
I understand now why you put the prices of the gear at this point. It is high. It is meant to be high to lengthen the time to get the gear. That's fine.

Again, I hope you DEVS will keep track of the population and interest of the population once this DLC is released. Be adjustable for future releases and hopefully you will get the right mixture.

I think that this DLC and what it is bringing forth are really great. At least 90% of it is, but that remaining 10% could be disastrous.

That 10% is composed of two things:
1) 3 months is a long time to wait for a new DLC, more than 3 months is even longer.
2) The instances in this is just too few for that length of time.

Good luck, guys. I really hope everything works out in the future.

To be honest, this news does nothing other than encourage me to play less. There is no damn way I'm going to devote the time required every day, week, and month to grind out a complete set of vendor gear for my main at these prices, while completely abandoning my alts. How is it that, time and again, you take a community driven idea and find a way to put a spin on it that frustrates and infuriates your player base? It is just maddening. As a veteran from beta, I've been down this road way too many times already and, in all honesty, if it were not for the IP I would have been long gone.

So, now that my alts are meaningless, and the goal of a complete set of gear is out of reach for my main, unless I decide to earmark more time than I wish for a game that continues to disappoint me, I find myself motivated to play less DCUO and not more. Was that the intent here?

I love the fact that you decide to NOT LISTEN to the players. Make players grind that much for that long is just non-sense. Game have already lost so many players , and now after this will be even more. TBH i feel scammed on the 1 year membership now , i wish i hadnt got it. Most of the players are so excited to play the new content which btw look awesome , but have 0 desire to play on this new grind system. If you wanna put money in the game to get stuff faster , well , money is worth nothing since now you need ~30 dollars of replays to get a chest piece. 80% of my league and/or friendlist are already gonne or not coming back. Great Update. Who care about listen to the players right ?

I'm sorry the grind is to much, 3-5 months doing all daily and weekly content to reach full cr+mod potential is waay to much, even if this episode was supposed to last 10 months.

You say this episode is supposed to last longer then 3 months, however the grind is only way this last longer. For me it's not worth running almost rewardless dailies every day, nor do i have the time. I never liked the #BestGearInVendor, however this couldn't have been implemented in a worse way.

I normally hate the "this will make me leave" comments, but im afraid im gone soon as the game has never been as boring as it's now and the demand for a huge grind will continue to make it.

The time it takes (when not using replays) to get the gear, mods etc is not the major problem, but a small part of it. The problem is what you have to do each day and each week to get it in that time.

I need a carrot to even bother doing solo, duo and open world past feats, these barely even give you gear, and you supposed to do it every day to reach max cr for 1 role in 3 months. In that time most people will hate the solo duos and daily content because they were forced to run it way to much, raids however has only been ran 12 times each compared to 90 times each for the daily content, even after doing this you are not finnished.

A better way is to just tie most of the content to feats and drop gear, but tie a raid or both, maybe the alert, and maybe a open world the solo or the duo to the vendor gear (sorta like symbols). Reduce the cost fittingly and time you HAVE to play each day diminish and it wont be as repetetive as its made to be now, the time it takes to get the gear is the same (unless you reset). The content who don't give you what you need for vendor gear should drop more of other things, mostly gear.

My feeling is that the grind you want us to do in this episode who is supposed to last longer then 3 months will make it last about 1 month for most as they grow sick of it, and still being to far from getting what you want.

I'm sorry I have to disagree with Mepps previous statement that "grind is longelivity". It can be, if it is subtle if it's "forced" in the degree it is now, it is the "death" of the game for many. If you go some time back on the forums, there were many complaints about game being to repetetive, the changes you are implementing will make it worse then ever.

Also I'm sorry this episode does not have more then 3 months of fun in it, with the grind you expect us to do (so much worse if you want to lvl an alt or 2nd role). The fun wont way up against the boredomenes, many players who come back or have stayed with expectations about this episode, will leave again as the time wont be worth it.

On a pluss side, never have the ones using replays for everything had to use this many RB's and time to get the best gear before everyone else, making it so that about none will be max cr in the first coupple of days.

Duos are 1 mark and alerts drop 3

Exactly. Not enough instances to last 4-6 months is the 1st problem. And i have read everything and dont see the detail of how long it will be between dlcs. This is a crucial detail. Just like the gear cost was a crucial detail. I just do not understand how the most important details are left out when announcements or explanations happen. This thread today doesnt make me feel better about this new system. It actually makes me feel worse. That we dont know how long a dlc will last and that the next one will have new gear that might have different costs. The majority of feedback ive seen on here and social media has been the gear cost is too high. So why cant it just be lowered? I question why we give feedback.

I see there is 24 hours in a day to work with comment. Um do people not realize that some of us have jobs and families? Also the we expect dlcs to last longer then 12 weeks. Well there have been many expectations with dcuo and how things work, by players and devs, that either havent happened or were changed. And im not trying to be rude or overly critical here, but i come on these forums daily and dont remember anyone in the community asking for this system. I say that because i keep seeing that said. People asked for best gear on the vendor because they disliked RNG. Well RNG is still a big part of this system and now we have a crazy grind with not enough instances to justify the grind and the dlc lasting longer then 3-4 months. At this point i honestly would rather have monthly content back. 6 months to gear both roles is ok if there is 6 months worth of content which there isnt. The 1 extreme to another just needs to stop please.

Idk how a dlc can be aimed at 1 toon 1 role when features like feat unlocking and armories were added to the game and promoted. Add that to the gear and style unlocking features that were announced. Im just really confused because a lot of this just doesnt jive. Like skymaster said above, replay badges. They have not helped the progression systems that have been tried in this game. I also agree with harryhell above about longevity. There are ways to make it happen/work that keep players engaged and add longevity to the content. I do not think this system does that.

This was just the last straw I needed to end my subscription and stop playing. Thanks from a day one, never lapsed subscriber here.

Vendor gear still takes about 3 months of to much grinding, also in this game as the you are not "finnished" when doing the top raid (or last mission end-game) the best gear is the finnish line for content for many. Having that finnish line, being like playing levels 1-5 in Super Mario each day with 7 and 8 once a week, to get to the face Bowser in 3 months. If that were the case when it released we prob wouldn't know who Mario is today.

Releasing the vendor prices as is will be an u36/u47 kind of mistake (i didn't really mind u36, but can't deny a lot of players left). During test you didn't listen to the community, but please listen now. If the usps villain don't get any better, more players will leave. Right now the avg group on usps villain server take like 45-60 minutes to form. I expected more players to log so they can catch up for new content, but that don't seem to be happening.

Yea I have to wonder what is the problem with dropping the cost a bit...

Why can't there be a compromise drop it too 8 weeks per role set of gear.

If the next dlc is longer than 12 weeks away then there is plenty of extra grind in the elite gear, op items and mods.

The normal vendor gear can easily afford a bit of a tweak.

This.

Just an FYI but I have never really been fond of having to replace my gear or remove and remake mods every time I get a new drop piece of gear. there are far superior ways to have us increase stats than just replace pieces of gear every instance we run. Modding has become a real pain as well but with the new system proposed it is getting even worse.

See while i agree with some of what u said the 1 big thing i dont want is even more change. Referring to adjusting for future releases. Small adjustments i have no issue with. The giant change to the entire progression system and combat that seems to happen once every 6 months to a year is what i cannot take anymore. We need a system that works for the majority, because ya cant please everyone, and stick with it.

The problem with 1 role 1 toon is that most will pick dps because of the daily content. So what happens when ya need support roles for raids? Raiding is why people play both or different roles and alts. Even some content is designed for dual roles. The new gods and monsters raid is like this. 1 tank for 1st and last boss but ya need 2 tanks for the 2nd boss. Elite version ya need 3 tanks. So are people gonna run 2 or 3 tanks for bosses where it isnt needed? What about SM? SM is all about people playing dual roles. It just does not make sense to aim a dlc and progression system at 1 toon 1 role with how the game already works.

I'm definitely out if it stays the same. Life's too short for that kind of grind. Not cool.

I'm not certain if you guys understand this or not but there are plenty of people that won't be satisfied with an "almost as good" secondary role. Its not promoting people playing roles very much. DPS is by far the most popular and overplayed role in this game. The amount of DPS-only players this game has is already incredibly high and it'll only grow larger. Players are going to be more likely to focus on buying vendor gear for DPS and disregard their alt role: "Oh...well I don't tank since I can't get all the gear I want. Why bother to build up my alt role when I can salvage this to get mats for better dps!" (Hard enough to get tanks as it is) Maybe look into this.

Welcome to MMO'S

Welcome to real mmos where there is grind

All good with a grind, just not one as absurd as what's being asked here.

You don't get to be a five+ year subscribed veteran without understanding what a grind is. But thanks for your input

For the sake of perspective I dont think the minimal difference in stats will make a difference my concern is though

Moving forward into stat changes and what affect that will have moving forward if this status qou remains.