Dcuo desperately needs new powers

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Remi King, Oct 25, 2020.

  1. Wildcat Committed Player

    Weather wizard powerset could be fun ;)
    more lantarns? orange and blue?
    hmm.. kryptonian powerset?
    white and black magic powerset?
    positive and negative speedforce powerset?

    no more ideas at the moment :p
    • Like x 2
  2. Captain Cold Level 30

    Any thoughts on power variants instead?

    I mean we got animations that look like reskins of existing powers already in game so might be an idea to go that route of animation and possible pi changes instead of going whole hog on a new power. Even a colour reskin could be nice.

    Power reskin eg. :
    - Earth -> Magnetic, Magma
    - Nature -> Summer, Winter, Spring, Autumn
    Gadgets -> Tricks
    Mental -> Sonics


    Colour reskin eg. :
    - Atomic -> Radioactive (green), Antimatter (pink)
    - Fire -> Green flames, blue flames
    • Like x 1
  3. Apollonia Dedicated Player

    This. The only people who really care about a powerset having some unique gimmick mechanic are on the Dev team. Or were (I suspect they've moved on).

    1) Does the power wow (look good)
    2) Does the power play like how X (iconic inspired) character plays

    That's it. That's what players want. The balancing is a given and if they're not dramatically gimmicky or unique powers they won't be hard to balance. Same with weapons and movement powers.

    Most new powersets could be built from existing powers and reskinned. Add Powerset styles for even more variety. They don't really need whole new mechanics per powerset. I remember when Spytle use to justify not making a physical powerset because he didn't think it was interesting -- sigh. He doesn't really have to because the players do. Instead he fast tracked Munitions. sigh.
    • Like x 1
  4. willflynne 10000 Post Club


    I think it's more accurate to say that it CAN be immersion breaking, as it obviously is for you. But I don't think you can make it a definitive statement for all because what is and isn't immersive (or immersion breaking) tends to be a highly subjective thing.

    For some people, speaking entirely in character (usually seen in the RP part of the community) is how it should go and anyone not speaking in character is or could be breaking their immersion. I remember seeing some folks in SWG complaining about Jedi players breaking their immersion because there weren't any Jedi in the time period in which the game was set. Meanwhile someone else could use Earth or Ice as the basis for a super strength/Kryptonian/Amazon character and not have a single issue with mixing in abilities from the original power set. It all comes down to the individual.

    You and others are well within your rights to complain about or voice concerns over something that might break your immersion, and in some cases it may coincide with others. But I've yet to see a standard of any kind that everyone agrees upon when it comes to breaking immersion in the game.
  5. Quantum Rising Committed Player


  6. Apollonia Dedicated Player

    Thanks for giving me permission to have an opinion you hate WIll. Can always count on you. <3
    • Like x 2
  7. KHALONofOGUN 10000 Post Club

    I really really dig the ideas presented here. There's still work/time involved but it's not like trying to re-invent the game.

    Taking the ideas from your post: Gadgets. They already have Gag Glove (which was taken out of Gadgets and put in the iconic tree)...well...go all the way create a Gadgets visual style patterned after the King of Crime himself...Joker. Same mechanics, different look. Celestial can be visually changed to resemble one of the other Light Spectrum for healing. Hardlight could be turned into "Shadow/Darkness"...Etc. This can be done in a way similar to how movement mode cosmetics were done (Smoke, Light Stream, Sparkles). This would, in my opinion, be significantly easier to deliver periodically as opposed to brand new powers which would require the creation, balance and maintenance of new mechanics and power interactions (on top of the visuals).

    However, I do think that powers need to be looked at first before adding any of this stuff. What I mean is like what Apollonia & Panderus have touched upon...looking at redundant or lackluster abilities and bringing them up and consolidating repetitive abilites so people would actually want to use them. No sense in making a power look pretty and new with a bunch of abilities that still remain useless or less desirable (especially with certain powers that have a lot of those, like some of Waters least used DPS abilities).
    • Like x 2
  8. Burning_Baron Loyal Player


    I hear that. Making the entire toolkit useful is a must. While we are at let's info some o the homogenization of powers that happened with "stats revamp". Geiger beam was unique doing aoe damage. Aoe moves like CoD , inferno, and gravity we'll have become useless in most instances. It would be cool of

    Animal forms in nature weren't just super charges. Like have one be the super charge and the others offer a unique gameplay. I feel like they should offer passive bonuses like more crit etc. Choosing between wolf and gorilla doesn't really feel that meaningful in the grand scheme. One is aoe and the other is single but they don't feel different sicne we dont use the combos anymore.

    Something should be done to make weapon buff powers useable outside of the specific instance of precision.

    My controversial opinion: I wouldn't mind the gameplay of the powers going back to pre weapon mastery. Simply adjust water and munitions to fit that mold. Celestial and atomic are combo powers so they get to hold a place with rage light and to a certain extent earth. The powers are more balanced but at the cost of individuality in my opinion. I'd rather play an unbalanced meta then play a game where the only character is "ryu".
  9. Dark Soldier Dedicated Player

    It’s unfortunate that even with a new company the answer remains the same.

    You would think that every time a new set of thinkers gets added to the mix they would be like hmm lets take a chance and see if they like ourrr ideas better then the last.

    And u know.... the only power i dont really see people use is water! Celestial was one of the better powers in the game a few years ago & rage is a popular tank, earth is lacking but its bc the core concept of the power is a bit off... what power didnt raise revenue? They say munitions is one of the best dps right now on YouTube videos...
  10. KHALONofOGUN 10000 Post Club

    It's kind of funny that you mention those three in particular and think they are "useless in most instances". Those abilities in particular I think have fallen out favor for a variety of reasons, and even I took them out of my loadouts at certain points. Yet recently I put all three of those abilities back into my loadout/rotation for adds/AoE situations. While other people have come up with different LO/Rotations without them, I have found my damage going up using them (it also helps that those three toons had their Strategist cards ranked up to 200 a little while back, and all at least have their Transformation cards up to at least rank 160). So it's situational with certain abilities. Although Sorcery/Fire/Quantum do have some abilities that are just space wasters no matter what artifact you have at high rank.

    Nature is a different beast (pun intended). They changed that one a lot, and it went from being the redheaded step-child for too many years to becoming top dog after revamp (pun unintended). There are unique differences between Wolf and Gorilla forms, but i'm not going to dig up all of that. Suffice it to say they do play differently and have advantages and disadvantages in different situations.

    Why...they were specifically altered during the revamp in order to create a Weapons or Hybrid playstyle. There are plenty of other abilities in every power set that should be looked at. Weapon Buffs shouldn't have to be a jack of several trades.

    The homogenization of powers was an unfortunate necessity in order to get some semblance of balance and simplicity that would allow more players the potential to do better damage. Also, they never regress in their development here, meaning they would never go back to a Pre-Weapon Mastery state...and personally I wouldn't want that. You can get a taste of what that was like by playing with Legends characters...and I found that to be DREADFULLY boring. When you do a brawling hand clap...that's it. There's no shurikens with their AoE damage following. When you swing your dual-wield weapon, there's no cool flurry shot. It's a complete snoozefest. It was ok back when that was the way the game was, but since the introduction of weapon mastery, good or bad, I could never go back. And the same goes for all of these wishes to go back. We need to move forward, not chase after this rose colored past.
  11. KHALONofOGUN 10000 Post Club

    Just because some things have changed doesn't always automatically mean there will be big sweeping changes right away. Change always takes time, especially if they want positive outcomes. Secondly, despite the change of ownership at the top, and the creative director moving on, there are still certain mandates to follow that were already in play before those changes. It's foolish to think that things would change just like that. It's not like they announced "now under new ownership with a completely new staff and triple the budget from before".

    Also, DCUO despite the beliefs of some, is doing pretty decent apparently. Why would anyone dramatically change things up if things are working (from a company's perspective). Sure, we the few vocal players are demanding changes...and who knows what will come, but we should not be expecting those changes to literally come tomorrow. And at the least, we shouldn't expect an announcement about changes until there actually is something to announce (the sale was only just announced a day ago...you're expecting way too much way too soon). And remember, the majority of the people working here are still here, so it's not actually a new set of thinkers.
  12. willflynne 10000 Post Club


    Well, knowing how forums (these forums in particular) work, if I hadn't thrown in that last paragraph there'd be accusations of gatekeeping and stuff like that, and it just gets rather tiresome to deal with so I always make sure to cover my bases as much as possible. :D

    My point about the highly subjective nature of immersion and immersion-breaking still stands, though.
  13. ObsidianChill Community "Trusted"


    I recall us having this exact conversation on Page 2 of this thread where I outlined why DCUO doesn't need new powers nor is it in their best interests and then the Senior Producer comes and gives the exact same reasoning I did hmmm, guess I may not know the "industry" but I do know DCUO. Also Atomic was a Healer powerset initially which is why it didn't see as much traction because Serums was supposed to be the tank powerset released and when Serums wasn't viable, Atomic was changed to a Tank class.
    • Like x 3
  14. Dene Devoted Player

    This comment is very underrated.. been playing this game 8 + years and I can't recall the last time i saw a balancing complaint *

    They used to be daily

    *Was a lot more active in forums back then so maybe ive missed some but poiint stil stands lol
  15. Fwames Well-Known Player

    Or

    Just reskin existing powersets to make new "powers" and put it on the marketplace for people to "buy" as "skins". People will eat everything up as long as it razzle dazzles.
    • Like x 1
  16. Panderus Senior Producer


    I would love to do this at some point. When Harley came into the police station in the BoP movie with the glitter bombs I was like, "oh! That's a skin for Munitions!"
    • Like x 13
  17. coldchilln88 Loyal Player

    if we ever got any iteration on blue lantern powers id die. thanks.
  18. BumblingB I got better.

    Oooh. :O
  19. Derio 15000 Post Club

    I think the powers themselves need to be heavily looked at in depth. Devs need to look at abilities and see why they arent used. There is meta abilities and loadouts for each powerset. Which leaves out several abilities in the game there just for fluff. Then there is the problem that many powers need a visual overhaul with most of their abilities.

    This is a major time constraint for the devs as this is alot of work for very little immediate gain. Most powersets only have access to 6 abilities on a hotbar at any given time. Powersets need to be visually appealing as well as feel good to play. New powers is not the answer. The real question is do the devs have the time and resources to work on graphical updates and review the abilities of the current powers to make meaningful changes which will better the overall experience of the game.
    • Like x 3
  20. Gassius_Spray Loyal Player

    The animation when Circe turns you in to a beastiemorph and you run to a rock shard thing, Saint Walker Blue lantern legend toon has the same animation, the flurry fist palm strike move... would love to see that in MA. Now take that same animation and finish with a knee thrust that would fn great for brawling.