This is the official test thread for the 2023 Tutorial updates! We have made several changes to the Tutorial with the goal of retaining new players. Please take a moment to play through it and send us your feedback. As always, thanks for your help!
Some really curious decisions went into this tutorial You mention Melee and Ranged weapon combos but don't make reference that there is a entire menu for weapon attacks where players can learn how to execute the combos they have Feats will pop (really easy for any new player to earn the 25x hit counter and breakout feat) but there is no mention of what the feat is, what it does etc Green Barrels are everywhere in the tutorial but no mention of what they do, that you can break them, that you can even interact and pick them up and carry them with you or smash them. Green barrels are everywhere even in endgame event and normal content UMS for Ability but then doesn't tell the player anything about the concept of power cost or when your power is drained why can't you use an ability. Prompt about Blocking but no mention of it being related to the npc having a skull/chevron Blocking prompt but nothing about Interrupts and Block Breaking despite Brainiac and you as a player using abilities that are interruptible I feel alot of players are going to get stuck on the "Escape Exploding Ship" I knew I could ignore everything and fly straight to the end cause I knew it was just a cinematic sequence but a new player may not be in movement, may think they have to defeat the npcs before they auto destruct. It was 30 seconds of nothing but a hallway. That 30s in movement could be 1-3min for a new player Entrance before Brainiac encounter cutscene bugged out and had my character walk through the door 6:45 in the video. Brainiac can juggle you where you need to breakout, a player would know to do that on reflex but a new player won't and will not have any idea about control effects or needing to use a breakout move
The thing I noticed, more towards the end was that after the "exploding ship" part of the mission, you have to get very close to the last door to trigger the cutscene to bring you into the last fight. (21:40) It was pretty evident and had me confused, like I had missed an objective or something. (21:05)
I’ll give my input of the current tutorial from my experience over the various iterations I have played dating back to the original one. I’d also like to say that when I started with dcuo, I spent a lot of time in the tutorial with many toons as character creation was what I thought was amazing about the game when starting out. The new tutorial is aesthetically pleasing, especially the section in the tube where you are able to view the metropolis. You are also being given a more sense of being integrated in the DC universe with having the core JLA/LOD members arriving. What I feel could be done though is to give a better/more depth introduction to this game’s unique combat system. Everything is good but feels slightly lacking regarding the rock paper scissors system that matters at low level/lpvp and tanking. I think the brainiac fight should include a short introduction to the combat system. That could be ignored or followed. I recall back in the day there was an extreme method of this where you had the combat room with the 3 set of ads that never died/took damage until you hit them with the appropriate counter. Even though it was extreme, I will never forget how it helped me understand the core aspects of the game and still appreciate that I had to play through that. My suggestion would be to add aspects of counters in the boss fight with Brainiac when he reaches either half or one quarter of his health. But obviously not having it forced like it was back then. Instead have the overhead text like an event and have the Brainiac combat ai e.g execute always first hand blaster pulse beam. Causing your character to be stun and levitated for aesthetics (stun can be max like 5 sec) where the game tells you to break out and lunge to interrupt him. Then Brainiac's purple explosion followed by a lunge where the system would implore you to block both of them. Lastly at the end have Brainiac block and be incentivized to block break him by holding triangle or m2 to “finish” him, which could be ignored. Aside from this, one additional suggestion that I have in the tutorial is purely aimed at aesthetics. Would be to have gotham city be shown during tube phase than metropolis when you are tech mentored. Note: regarding escaping the ship adds and hallways that were highlighted as a potential issue. I was superspeed and found despite “speed” running it that they exploded before I got there. So I feel like players won’t get stuck or think they have to fight the NPCs. But what you could do to make this more apparent is add Harley Quinn voice over in the comm saying to ignore them and ram through. Reason for Harley Quinn there would be that she felt missing among the villains. Considering it would make more sense for her to make an appearance that Poison Ivy as a casual (I am aware Ivy has been shown in various iterations of movies and comics with LOD but feels out of place in Dcuo). Considering Harley is a fan favorite and got an “iconic '' fast pick in character selection it would be fun to see her heist the coms for a brief moment, at least on villain side and for hero perhaps Wonder girl or even ambush bug as the announcer to skip adds.
Bug Report When i press "Skip Tutorial?" the game just starts in the Brainiac Ship, without skipping the Tutorial. I don't know if that's intended on the Test Server. In the Scene where Wonder Woman and Hal Jordan come to fight the Brainiac Invasion, they just stand around and do nothing, while they're being attacked by the brainiac robots. When i arrive at Brainiac, there is a cutscene, showing my character walking through a closed door.
I'm sorry to say this but it tasted like a nothing burger. I don't mean to insult anyone or anyones work but this is not good. There has definitely gone some work into this. New areas, new Brainiac model, new pacing. However, all in all nothing is different other than you don't have fight a horde of brainless bots anymore towards the end. I don't see why this was necessary besides just changing the final encounter of the last reworked tutorial. Way too little is being taught in this tutorial to justify adding all of this stuff in my opinion, but now that this already happened,lets see if we can turn this ship around for the better. In this section of the tutorial the game tells you to use your movement mode. The ramp allows you to ignore this entirely, potentially making you miss out on this extremely important feature early on in the game. Remove it and dont let the message disappear until the player went through the door. The charging Brainiac spider encounter where the game tells you to block has no reward for doing so. You are 99% invincible and it shows. At no point was it neceessary to counter or block any attack of anyone in the whole tutorial. Im not asking for one-shots, but make it so you die after 2 charges you haven't blocked and ideally make the Brainiac spider lose 50% HP after blocking sucessfully, to give players a positive feedback for actually doing what they're told. This would also mean this particualr enemy needs some extra HP, so you cant overpower it with raw dmg before a 2nd charge happened. In the final encounter Brainiac faces the wrong direction and has also no epic introduction to the fight. The fight should immediately start after the cutscene or it looks weird, unless you make him face away from us to do something on a console or keep himself busy in any other way than just staring blank at a random door or at us before the encounter starts. Something extra for nature specifically but potentially other powersets too: It would be lovely if we can get an Aoe'ish ability as 1st unlock. If we take nature for example, we first get vine lash - ST dot and only then Briar - St dot but initial Aoe burst. We get that just before facing brainiac... If those would get swapped, many bad thoughts nature players experience when first creating a character would be prevented. All in all its pretty much the same than what we had before. It lacks major key components such as teaching how to breakout. It feels better than before, but it isn't. The music seems odd and out of place after cutscenes (intriguing music -> cutscene -> action music -> cutscene ends -> intriguing music). All in all, its pretty much the same bad 1st impression it always was when playing this game. Im not expecting something ground-breaking but it definitely needs more polish if you intended to make the 1st experience of Dcuo stand out more than just basic "tap tap power tap tap hooray im invincible and nothing matters". I feel like it may be better to change the tutorial entirely and give players much more abilities and weapon combos, just to take them away after that due to the plot, so you get a better feeling of what you can have later on, even though it would still only scratch the surface. If we compare this tutorial to other games, it feels like having to play the 1st level of super mario without jumping, or playing the tutorial in Call of Duty only with a throwing knife. This simply doesnt appeal to the playerbase you seemingly try to address with this style of very old-school MMORPG tutorial.
Calculator is missing voice lines at the start of an exploding hallway There is a cutscene after you defeat the Brainiac that plays at the same time as the NPC characters talk. It might be better to trigger it once the player is close to exiting the teleporter, just like it is now on Live servers. The same thing goes for villainous characters. Also, all Brainiac forces attack Wonder Woman/Circe, completely ignoring Green Lantern/Sinestro. I'm pretty sure the game used to have, at some point, a tutorial section with a tunnel that players could not reach without activating movement mode. The sad thing is that it was removed because apparently a lot of new players could not figure out how to activate fast movement (despite the game saying which button they had to press) and just straight out abandoned the game at that point altogether.
I applaud an attempt to do more teaching to new players. My overall opinion is - this ain't it. This is not the right kind of tutorial to help players succeed at endgame levels. That being said, a lot of my feedback is going to mirror others. Chill and Strich especially gave lots of great feedback. Some things I think are especially important for this level: Don't remove a tutorial overlay until everything on it has been completed. On the WASD/Space screen that first shows, as soon as I hit "W" it disappeared, though that may have also been due to a timeout since I was bringing up the forums to track my feedback. How do you jump again? 2nd Chill's weapon feedback. Are those taps or holds for those moves? Could just lead them to an already built-in guide of weapon moves. For sure tutorial overlays are time-based. That's not ideal. Movement mode toggle disappeared while I was typing in here . Persist those overlays until they hit the button associated with it. Get rid of that ramp for the movement mode section. Make them learn the thing you want them to learn before they progress. I've heard the stories about people not getting off the ship because they couldn't do the Rock/Paper/Scissors counter/block/interrupt game. Instead of putting an easy mode button that just lets them bypass, give them a way to get help. Have an overlay that's like "press <button> for help" and have it bring up a list of all the things you're listing here. "WASD to move, <button> to jump, <button> for movement mode, <button> to block...." The overseer, I get the message to block attacks, but that's unnecessary. I beat it before it did the big attack. There's also no message about what that big red skull means. Now, I know what it means because I've been here for a just a little while now. It's clear new folks have no idea what that means. Make it punish them. Make Lex/Superman/mentor pick them up. This rewards them for just attacking through it. It TEACHES them to just attack through it. Sinestro came in for that cutscene, and dropped that light weight right in the middle of an open space. Didn't hit a single enemy. Glad that dude's not my mentor. There's nothing about using block to breakout. There's nothing about counter mechanics (interrupt, block break, block). There's nothing about what those secondary roles were during character creation (Tank, Healer, Controller...hopefully there's a level 10 thing eventually that teaches you that interactively). There's nothing that leads me as to how to unlock other weapon combos/powers. I made a Hard Light character, when it gave me miniguns, there's nothing that let me know I could combo that into ram. I'm not saying this needs to be an hour long, but if you're not going to hand-hold them through things here, then you should lead them to a place that will teach them that. Tell them where the menus are that describe things you aren't spelling out on-screen now.
I think the new tutorial is a step in the right direction, but only a very small step. It needs more work before it's ready to go live. I created a new toon to test it out, and these are just a few things I noticed: When you get to the Overseer, there's a prompt at the start of the battle saying how to block, but no information about the rock-paper-scissors mechanic. Nothing about block breaking or interrupts. Also, I see that there's now a section to prompt players to use their Fast Movement -- but no incentive to do so. You can just walk up the ramp. And there's still absolutely no instruction about combat and weapons or powers. I ran through the entire tutorial just mashing buttons. Mostly just spamming ranged attacks. Occasionally, I used Telekinesis, but that's just because it was fun lifting drones in the air and watching loose bits of deco slam into them. The Brainiac battle was, not to put too fine a point on it, a joke. I just spammed the basic ranged attack, and he went down in seconds. For the tutorial to really be effective, it needs to actually make players engage in such a way that they are able to learn how to not only play the game, but how to fight during boss battles. I got through the tutorial with a new toon by just button mashing, and I never once activated my Fast Movement. I feel that this "tutorial" will just teach new players to just button mash their way through content, and will do nothing to prepare them for any content that requires more than just spamming basic attacks.
Tutorial is a good start. But if the goal is truly to retain players, we need something to do between DLCs. Even the investor report spoke on volatile income/subscribers. It's all because of the DLC release format and PVE being the single focus of this game. The answer has always been PVP. Yes, it's hard to monetize PVP directly, but if more people stay playing everyday during the usual lows of a DLC cycle, and subscribe monthly, then PVP is monetized indirectly. That's not even including the players that loved PVP exclusively that left the game permanently years ago that may return. There are ways to monetize it though, within the current systems. Make PVP exclusive artifacts. Make PVP exclusive allies. Continue making new Legends characters. Add perks to membership that increase PVP play, like marks. Change the Arena format by dropping the gear system that divides players. Gear and CR are counter intuitive to PVP. New players dont want to lose to the players that win the gear chase. Instead, let us get marks that work towards styles, auras, materials, nth metal and ally favor. Add new feats and maps. All of those are desired rewards and not gear. Just these little changes would increase participation without having to overhaul the mechanics in the combat, which then can be fine tuned later. And without the constant gear power creep, you can easily fine tuned base powerset stats. I'd say have all of us at a lower base stat, say around the Legends characters levels, but with our own powersets, would make balancing the powersets far easier. Maybe even limit some of the abilities we can use in PVP, like supercharge, stealth and shield moves.
The tutorial lacks the part for me that will make it a good tutorial and is bringing in basic mechanics. The Overseer does nothing to you if you don't block. So basically what is the point of teaching blocking at all?... Brainiac has a bunch of mechanics that could easily be explained so you can teach those. Lunge when he is block breaking, block when he is doing a skull attack, etc. I don't see why this can't be apart of it as Brainiac is already doing things that could help. Other than that, It isn't too bad. I do think Poison Ivy is out of place there. She isn't purely a villain no more (despite the seasonal event) unless we agree Birds of Prey is not canon to the game lore? I think Cheetah would've made more sense.
I'm pretty sure timeline-wise, the tutorial section is happening before the events of the BoP episode or other previous Ivy appearances in the game, for that matter.
After playing the tutorial , it a downgrade from old tutorial , make the players learn that they need to do basic mechanics , if u just gonna give a cr skip anyways in january like usual , alot of mechanics are missing from the tutorial. What is the symbol about the adds when they lunge or do a throwing / ranged attack , can i pick stuff yes / no ? Suggestion : the overseer , make him stun players so they learn about block break. make a door open using a bomb that u have to take to the door , so they learn that oh we can pick and beak stuff . you start the game by low health and have to break a barrel to heal skull attack that actually oneshots and superman rallies you to try again , so people learn about skull attacks make the first skill u get a tutorial that u have to open ur inventory and put the skill in ur loadout , so people learn about loadouts make people spend the first sp in weapon so learn about weapon tree ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i feel like these could help people learn about the important mechanics of the game , or better make several tutorials from the first few misions rather than scuffing everything into 1 instance that u wanna make short
Are there going to be any more changes to the Tutorial before it's launching? If so, can we get some detailed information on what was changed so we can give more feedback?
I agree the tutorial needs a lot of the tweaks before released, as mentioned above. Very good input by the way by all. However, I don't see how any of this will bring and retain new players to the game, unless I am missing something. The way the game is setup right now it is mostly enticing for new players to level up fast and as fast as possible to end game. I believe a lot of players will skip the tutorial and most likely skip levels at a fee of course. If this is the goal, then I believe DI/EG7 will make good money off new players in the beginning, but the cost will eventually drive them away unless they become dedicated endgame players. I believe that games that have incredible stories that can't be missed are what keep players engaged. Stories that have meaning and great rewards if completed. For example, completing the tutorial will grant you something special/random that is different ever time it is completed (similar to a booster bundle). Don't complete the tutorial and you don't get the random reward. The reward is account bound and not tradeable. They same would apply for the all the stories under 30CR. The rewards would be something simple that you might use at any level like a style, trinket, etc.... People might play the tutorial a lot of times to try and get the random reward they want and the same for the stories under 30CR. This is just a suggestion, and I am no expect at developing a game. This even may be a dumb suggestion to some, but I am just trying to give some input on what I believe might help this game. I love this game and what I really want is to see more new players join. We as community need to help the Devs design something that attracts players who love this genre. Peace and DCUO Forever
I think there should be something that teaches you how to use your powerset and the game should start you off with a viable ingame rotation that the hero who has said corresponding power comes in after you leaving brainiac's ship and gives you training.
Why is Superman just there for Awe. Maybe It should be your mentor who rescues you from Brainiac. there is No teaching of range or mele attacks. No puzzles to solve. No teaching how important it is to revive others. Show the purpose of both roles, DPS or Other. Or give a tutorial at 30 for team work , and role specific duties. Offering that things are new, when its just put together to be more appealing to the eye.
