DCUO is probably going to have it's last chance to attract a good chunk of new players

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by KneelBeforeZodd, Aug 17, 2020.

  1. KneelBeforeZodd Dedicated Player

    With the new console gen launch on the way, a bunch of people will be buying the next generation consoles and will want to try out free games. By my point of view, it's the last opportunity in 10-12 years DCUO will have to attract thousands of players at once (Unless there is a DCUO 2 on the way).

    For this "event", I want to suggest structural changes (to hold the new players in the game), limited time events and other specific things. Everything below will consider the new console generation is going to launch before the anniversary event.

    Let's start:

    Membership/F2P and premium general aspects

    1) Structural change: Keep open episodes here for good. There is a huge amount of people who just won't subscribe for a game unless they tried it for a long time. Players who never contribute to the game won't contribute anyway and players who would never subscribe won't subscribe anyway, but the longer you have people in the game, the higher are the probabilities more of them will pay for something in a given period of time.

    Once, Mepps said the company wasn't very interested in people who won't pay to support the game (I don't know if that's still how Dimensional Ink sees f2p players though, since it was a long time ago he said) and while I agree it would be better if everyone supported the game somehow, f2p players (even the ones who will never support the game) increase the quality of life of players who do support the game. If you look at xbox launch for example, many of the streamers who were trying the game for the first time (and some of them paid for membership), didn't keep playing because their queues woulnd't pop. If every content in the first tiers of the game were available free at that time and f2p guys were making the queues pop faster, would have the streamers left the game so quickly? I don't think so.

    2) Structural change: New Membership monthly pack:
    1 pack with each catalyst
    2 seals of preservation
    2 stabilizers
    1 exobyte booster
    1 renown booster
    1 level booster

    Level up and character building changes/events:

    3) Structural change: Let everyone skip tutorial, nobody learns a thing with tutorial that they wouldn't learn playing the real game and it's well known that thousands and thousands of player quit games because they find the tutorial boring and think the whole game is like that. DCUO's tutorial for example has no group play and it really hurts a MMO when the first interaction some1 has with the game is a solo mission with no abilities in a closed environment.

    4) Structural change: Let players get at least 5 abilities and have their movement mode after they finish the island part of the grodd mission, Flying around the skies, running like the flash and feeling like you are batman isn't something new players should wait to be able to enjoy.
    4.1) Give the iconic power that allows you to pick up cars and other big objects to everyone, it's really fun for a new player to pick up a car on the street and feel like he's superman. Although it doesn't seem like a lot, many players enjoy this kind of little thing and it's something you shall take no more than 10 minutes to do from a coding point of view.

    5) Structural change: Players below level 30 should have access to the tier 1 raids, duos, solos and alerts with clamped stats

    6) Limited time event: Until the end of the anniversary event in 2021, allow players to skip to level 25 once they conclude the first mentor mission (level 13-15). The last missions such as the Isis one, aquaman, spectre and that damned OMAC mission that was created in the fires of hell are really boring and difficulty to do as a new player, it doesn't serve anyone if they quit because they just didn't know how to properly play the game at that time.

    7) Limited time event: From the day DCUO is available on the console that launched first (either be it PS or Xbox) to the end of the anniversary event, allow players to create characters of any powerset (including the paid ones)

    8) Limited time event: From the day... to the end of anniversary event, allow new players to get 1 free style from the marketplace.

    Other specific things:

    9) Structural change: Add a antimonitor bounty to the anniversary event using the wonderverse model and allow players of any level to participate.

    10) Limited time event: 3-4 weeks after the new consoles are avaiable, do a raid the universe event but rotating pieces of content from the first tiers and the low level version of the t1 alerts instead, so queues pop faster for new people. I gave a more complicated suggestion here though: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dc...to-make-old-instances-more-attractive.310979/

    11) Limited time event: From the day... to the end of anniversary event, players who subscribed at least once for the game will have free all access membership perks.
    • Like x 3
  2. Kanmaru Dedicated Player

    you are forgetting the chunk of people that are PvP players coming from PvP games.
  3. Tenacity New Player

    This is an awesome thread. Every idea here is a good one, although I agree with the post above. Cant leave PvP players hanging once again :p
  4. Wallachia Devoted Player

    I wholeheartedly agree with point 1, specially because the amount of episodes leaves player almost forced to choose between going subscriber or free. However, as free is is a minima part of the game, it's do or die: subscribe or enjoy very little. "Demo mode" games never worked and I doubt it would work now.
    • Like x 1
  5. TurbulenceDCUO Well-Known Player

    Basically give away membership perks? You're only viable idea was to enhance membership perks.
    • Like x 6
  6. PsySomatic Extra Life 2020

    Honestly newer people have been downloading and giving it a go simply because of it's connection to DC and it's a F2P for a while now. So the only thing really need to do is be available on the PS5 when it launches and newer people will trying it out for those same reasons.

    If I remember correctly some games will be increasing it cost with the PS5 to $69.99. If anything that gives people even more reason to search for F2P games like DCUO.

    But anyhow, of everything you listed the only thing I can see actually happening is open episodes becoming a standard, with maybe some increased member benefits.
    • Like x 1
  7. Qwantum Abyss Loyal Player

    I dont see the relevance to any of this if they dont raise the “salary cap”. $1500 aint enough to repair gear when u start doing raids. So what, we gonna give alway all the stuff some of us pay for for free to new players to Entice them to play just to have them quit after trying their very 1st group mission because
    1) they cant repair gear (i always thought 100k was a better ammount an the rest can go into escrow)
    2) they got kicked beCause theres actual Players that know how to play an need the raid to be successful and you have a day 1 player in there messing it up (u think a day 1 player is gonna be competant enough about the game to hit switches in khandaq? Yea me neither).
    3) seems like alot of what i pay for (episodes/powers/etc) you wanna give away free. Ok cool im with ya but then what do i get for my $ because im for sure not gonna pay for what others r getting free especially brand new ppl that dont even know how to enjoy it.

    Address that stuff and maybe im on board. I do agree fully about needing to do something. I just dont think handing them free stuff we oay for an they dont know what to do with s the rite answer
    • Like x 1
  8. Qwantum Abyss Loyal Player

    To your 2nd point yes, I have always thought paying members needed more value. That said, lets be real.....
    1) 2 preservations is nothing (i had 16 fail in a row w/an 85% success chance).
    2) 2 stabilizers is a joke
    3) who actually needs an exobyte booster? (And if u needed them, then 1 is also a joke really)
    4) 1 renown booster is a good idea.

    What i would propose is something that a broader base of players could make use of and even benefit from

    1) 1x seal of completion per month Or multiple preservations (we get to choose)
    2) 1,000 loyalty pts instead of 500. 500 gets ya alot of pretty much nothin
    3) 500 replays per month,150 replays wont even reset 2 raids per month......
    4) Nth metal detector pack (use ur imagination on what could be in it). I suggest some of the gold nth metals, detectors, cache’s, whatever.
    5) a new lockbox for members. Nth metal boxes that work exactly like promethiums. U have rng chances at various items an such an they drop automatically randomly just like promethieums.

    How bout some good stuff like that for members?
    • Like x 1
  9. Qwantum Abyss Loyal Player

    All in all tho, love the premiss to the thread. I hope devs read an really think about it!!!
  10. Brit Loyal Player

    I just hope with how they keep giving more and more of the Membership perks away for free, that eventually they either lower the cost of the membership to justify all the stuff that became free, or they add something to the Legendary Membership to make it more worthwhile again.

    A simple revamp of the membership, in my opinion, would include:

    An increase in Stabilizer Fragments. Legendary should receive 1 full Stabilizer (15 Fragments) daily. Right now the 2 Fragment difference between Legendary and Premium amounts to all of 4 Stabilizers per month, which is significantly less than what you would get if you just spent your Legendary Membership cost on buying a bundle of Stabilizers. Bundling should get your MORE, not less than a la carte.

    The 3 month and higher reoccurring plans should come with OWNERSHIP of any Episode released during the membership, not just renting it. I can respect that they don't want people just subbing for one month to get the Episode, plus additional benefits, all for a low cost. But it is absolutely absurd to pay a membership and rent these Episodes for YEARS, and then lose access to them after spending hundreds of dollars, when a Premium Player can keep them forever just for $10 (less than one month's sub). Let's consider this a "rent to own" plan, so for every 3 months (basically the length of an Episode), you get to OWN one.

    Re-shuffle the Promethium Lunchboxes so that they contain the style-only pieces for the newer stuff as well. Right now it ends at like after Fortress of Solitude for PvE gear, and at CR100 PvP. Let the Lunchboxes contain old styles at least from Episodes 1-20 at this point, so there is a remote chance of getting something we might not already have. Also, shuffle the Base Furniture contained so instead of just the handful of paintings and statues, it also contains those early Base Theme styles, like the "Playhouse" set, the "Mystical" set, the "Shabby" set, etc.

    Vault Upgrade. Two simple changes to the Vault, that makes those extra Vault trips actually worth it. First, instead of 1 Source Mark, give 1 Mark of whatever Currency is relevant to the character. If you're on Splintered Coins or Lexcoins or even Thanaganarian Coins, get the one that you actually need. Getting 1 Source Mark isn't worth the hassle of deleting the garbage style drops that we already have. Second, the Return Of The Ring. At around T4 content, the orange rings were introduced to the Vault. They drop with random affixes, at the CR46, CR56, CR70, and CR78 thresholds. Then they stop. Why? Keep scaling those things up, so that they are always halfway relevant to the character. They were a neat twist, because with the random affixes, they typically weren't as good as traditional rings, but if you did get the perfect combination, it could be awesome. That should always be a thing. Neck slot as well.

    Lair Access Improvement. For Legendary Members who have no concerns about the cash cap, have our Lair Generators automatically renew. We shouldn't discover that our generator battery is dead in the middle of a raid when our somersault foot mod stops working or our Supply Drop reduces to 2 orbs.

    Improved Queuing Priority. You know how when you log into the game, and the servers are full, Legendary Members get to cut to the front of the line, then Premiums go next, and FTP comes last? That's how customers deserve to be treated. Legendary Members should feel truly "Legendary", like VIPs in the game that Dimensional Ink is grateful to have. Skip to the front of the line; let me move the velvet barrier rope for you, ma'am. When open queuing for content, Legendary Members should also get first priority, with Premiums next and FTP last. Faster PvP pops. Faster group-finding. Less waiting. If people are paying extra money just to play the game, it should be like the Fastpass at Disney World. Let them skip to the front of the line, because they paid extra to be able to do this thing and so they shouldn't be stuck waiting all day. Ditto that for Shard changing. If a Legendary member wants to jump shards, then they need to be able to do that before other players. Whether that means allowing just Legendary Players to jump in and exceed the 50 player limit, or some sort of queuing system for shard changes, I don't care. But if we're going to spend 15 minutes fighting to get into the populated shard, then we shouldn't be beaten out by somebody's level 10 character getting clamped up when they've never spent a dime on the game.
    • Like x 3
  11. PolarisSylar Committed Player

    Think it be like exactly how when ps4, Xbox, switch came out on dcuo .


    What some is describing is giving out membership perks away from members.
    I think more items should be add to the subscription based membership.
    • Like x 2
  12. Lycan Nightshade Dedicated Player

    this is a great idea, because then i can just go ahead and drop membership. kinda have a hard time justifying spending the money as it is.
    • Like x 2
  13. KneelBeforeZodd Dedicated Player

    I mean, episodes are open since like april and you didn't drop your sub yet. The idea is not to make content free like f2p and premium fully own every episode, but to allow them to access old content with restrictions, like the extended loot locks

    I don't have data, but I believe most people sub for the unlimited cash, access to the latest episode normal/elite content and perks such as increased inventory slots and free 500 dbc. With the bonus membership box, you get more than you currently are and everyone else gets to play more
  14. StealthBlue Loyal Player

    As a reminder, the membership benefits are as follows (all prices in US dollars):
    • access to all DLC Packs (worth $195 Plus $10 ~3 months for episode access, note member looses access to unpurchased episodes at end of sub)
    • 150 Free Replay Badges Monthly (worth $5)
    • Unlimited Prometheum Lockbox Unlocks (worth $1 per opened lockbox which drop every 1-2hrs for members, 1-4hrs for premium, can easily get more than 15 lockboxes in a month. note diminishing returns, large pool of items so it is eventually hard to find a new style, though compound omegas are always a loot choice)
      Unlimited in-game currency (worth ~$20, based on 4 x 7 day unlimited escrow, though you don't need access to all your cash all the time)
    • More Inventory Slots (worth $12 for 3 rows of inventory, note member looses access at end of sub and those are additional rows on top of what can be purchased)
    • Free daily Vault Access (worth ~$16, based on cost of 20 vault tickets, diminishing returns on styles, though provides Nth metal, some ingame cash, a source mark, and occasionally seasonal base items)
    • Form a League (intangible benefit, a member needs to create the league but anyone can be made the leader)
    • 14 Additional character slots (this is a total of 16 slots, premium has 6 total. worth ~$50 for difference in number of available character slots, though many people do not play with more than a handful of characters. Note, members must deactivate up to 10 characters on loss of sub and will not have access to those characters without buying character slots or renewing membership. also members can have up to 32 characters, premiums can only have 22 )
    • 20 Broker slots (worth ~$4, note member looses access to unpurchased broker slots at end of sub, these additional slots are on top of what can be purchased)
    • 36 Additional Bank slots (worth ~$16, note member looses access to unpurchased bank slots, these additional slots are on top of what can be purchased)
    • Trade items and cash (no direct method to determine worth)
    • 6 fragments from stabilizer event (12 per 30 days, premium get 8 so this is worth $4 compared to premium, free only get 6 so this is worth $6 compared to free players)
    • 10% discount in the marketplace (worth depends on amount spent in marketplace)
    • 500 loyalty points/daybreak cash (worth $5)
      access to layer system (worth $5, note member looses ability to move an existing larger layer and use of the mainframe unlocks on loss of sub)
    • access to utility belt system (worth $5, note member looses ability to equip a utility belt on loss of sub, and will only have access to 1 trinket/sidekick/backup/orbital/pet at a time)
    • access to shield weapon (worth $5, note member looses ability to create a new character/respec an existing character to shield weapon at loss of sub, though they can continue to play characters created during membership with the shield weapon)
    • access to all powers (worth $35, note member looses ability to create a new character/respec an existing character to unpurchased powers at loss of sub, though they can continue to play characters with those unpurchased powers that were created/respeced during membership )
    The three I've highlighted alone cost the same amount as membership if you pay month to month, and there are discounts for getting longer memberships.

    I meant to look up the cost of the items the op suggested adding to membership last night, but didn't get around to it.

    Edit: the $195 number for cost of ask episodes is outdated, I copied this from an older post. We've had 1-2 new episodes launch since then, so this is as much as $215 as the moment.
    • Like x 1
  15. Qwantum Abyss Loyal Player

    What you are saying is “worth” x amount is based on purchase cost and NOT actual worth. Bear that in mind. Most of it is worthless to most ppl as most ppl may not use shield so access is worthless as an example.
    Things like stabilizers, quarks, seals, nth metal, art catalysts etc are whats valuable to every player reguardless of playstyle, weapon choice, etc. those r the tyoes of things legendary members should have raining from the heavens for their membership not things that r potentially useless.
    All im saying is some of us pay for membership for various reasons BUT some things r universal and those r the thi gs that should be focused and prioritized. That would also entice players to get membership.
    • Like x 2
  16. StealthBlue Loyal Player

    And like I said, three of those things alone (replay badges, daybreak cash/loyalty points, and additional stabilizers per month) which are universally used/useful already cost the same as membership. Even if they remove some of the other benefits, a long as there are other ones besides those three, membership costs less than buying the equivalent as a premium player. There's also the discount in the marketplace (and some in game vendors) as a member.

    The promethium lock boxes and vault runs give you source marks. So you get 20 additional source marks just from the vault plus several from promethium lock boxes. You can use those extra marks to buy catalysts or save up and buy quarks.

    You get additional nth metal from your additional vault trips.

    TCs give (according to the latest too tip) nth metal, source marks, and quarks. You get more stabilizers as a member meaning you get more of those already.

    Seals are really the only issue. There should be some way to get preservation in game (either for source marks or as a rare drop like exceptional recovery kits used to) outside of certain TCs (which can also drop seals of completion).
    • Like x 1
  17. Blackhole1st New Player

    Dcuo is going to shut down if they dont do anything new to keep the game alive so yes
  18. Qwantum Abyss Loyal Player

    Agreed fully, just pointing out that the current state has “benefits” that really are NOT in most or alot of cases. Just reinforcing The ooint that membership could shave the garbage that does nit appeal to the broader base and made much more enticing
  19. Lycan Nightshade Dedicated Player

    moneys tighter now then it was in april, and i dont have an issue with them doing free episodes right now but it is something i do have to consider as a consumer when deciding if membership is worth it.(in fact them giving episodes is a large part of why i kept getting membership, trying to help support the game while i can)

    unlimited cash while nice, doesnt really do me any good since theres really nothing i wanna spend it on. Wonderverses normal content is buggy and glitchy still (at least as far as i know havent yet been on today at the time i type this) and i dont care about or run elites so atm that isnt exactly a perk. As of right this moment i very much feel like im paying 16.24(usd) to rent 3 rows of bank and inven space, 500 LP and 150 replays, which may sound worth it to you but im sitting on 1400+ replays and 6300 (+/- 500) LP. Im not really sure what the bonus membership box you mentioned is offhand, so if you could clairify that i would appreciate it.

    So basically what im saying is if they give away more membership perks then why bother paying for it, and nothing listed in the OP would appeal to me(and i dont think it would be just me but i can only speak for me) at all.


    (for those wondering: membership comes to 16.24 on the psn cuz of taxes)
  20. SekretVillain Loyal Player

    People have said dcuo is dead/closing its doors for the past 10 years, yet here it is.
    • Like x 4