Current State of DC Universe

Fair point the big threads usually have a lot of arguing.

Unfortunately, while I agree with pretty much everything in your original post, saying this way of doing things will make more money than TCs isn't really something we can do. We don't have access to the company's balance sheets. All we know is that styles and feats appear to be a big part of what drives people in this game. I agree that as is, the game holds little potential for game vets or people who dislike grinding the same content over and over.

Also, your comment regarding quality over quantity is something I, and probably many others, also disagree with. I definitely don't want to have 2 DLCs a year only. Even if they were really awesome, it's just not enough to hold interest over the long term.

I would say provide buffed versions of older content to run as well for end-game rewards (to make the grind more interesting and varied), but people here have been pretty vocal in their hatred of feeling non-godlike in older content, so maybe the player base really doesn't want that either.

Same with Fatal's comment on people not wanting to run harder elite instances. Will forcing all instances to be like that suddenly improve the situation and make more people like it? Probably not. It represents an almost waste of the devs resources producing content that obviously only a very, very small portion of the playerbase enjoy. IF, however, there were a bigger reason to form large, stable leagues (many MMOs provide exclusive rewards for league participation), that could help. In other words, for every proposed change, 50% of the population hates it, lol.

Still, something has to be done. Just not sure what that is.

To be fair a lot of tester points were pushed to the side and not cared about.

That (well and the fact that they got blamed for all the changes by the community, well okay more like a portion of the community) is the main reason why testers (or at least a majority of the old batch) aren't around anymore.

The thing is: We don't get enough new players, so they have to keep the veterans in the game, otherwise the population will continue to drop.

Just look at the past, how many "elite" leagues we had in the game? Well, you just have to look at the SM server firsts or ToD elite feedback and see there were plenty of them, (heck, even the thread was full of people competing) because we had content for everyone (not talking about SM, but all other difficulty raids we had in the past). Now how many we have? Britenny's league, Elusian's league and a few others with few players around there, all others left because the game didn't have anything to offer.

The game needs content for the casuals, sure, that's not even debatable, but right now the only true "elite" raid is SSe, and it's just a useless raid, because you can get elite gear from a 20-40 mins TTBe run with a pug group. If they keep thinking the veterans of the game are just a useless minority, they'll end up with a bunch of new players who just wait for the next new game to quit DCUO and that's exactly what's happening right now.

There is a LOT to be done and the problem is that they aren't doing any of it. The only things we are getting are cosmetics and ways to get more cosmetics, while it's cool and really important for a game like DCUO, they won't keep the population here with styles.

What news we have about gameplay changes? Exactly, none. About cosmetics? We have for sure a new time capsule coming, we know they are spending resources on more style unlocking, there is a celebration only to get more styles. Don't get me wrong, i love new styles, when they can keep up with the content and gameplay changes.

Yeah, having only like 2 dlcs per year would be game killing, but if we had like 3 episodes per year and they were at least near AF3, AF2, HoP1 or HoP2 level with small events or Survival Modes during the episode breaks, the game would probably be good enough to keep everyone entertained at least for 3/4 of the episode.

One thing that pisses me off is that they saw major events not working and the next thing they did was releasing a celebration that took resources off Deluge to not add anything to the game besides a additional week of style farming.

The direction of the game is just terrible right now, frankly, the direction of all daybreak's games are just a mess currently and i really don't know what we can do about it, since our feedback is pretty much ignored. It's been how long they don't reply to a thread talking about gameplay problems, time capsules or RNG?

Biggest issues why the game is in the state it's:

1) Content -

This is an MMO but it doesn't feel like one. The open world is so small. Only 2 big maps which are Gotham and Metropolis and you can go through both maps in under 10mins. Then you got you sub-maps that are just reskinned smaller versions of those maps. When it comes to raids the art department I give you props for the most part as the some of the other posters have stated raids like oly and gom look amazing but looks can only take you so far. The template for every DLC is a bounty, 3 daily missions 3-4 weeklies mission, maybe a solo, one or two duos/ alerts and 1-3 raids. If you are only running one character this current DLC you can literally get your dailies done in 45mins-1hour. I would like to see bigger DLC with less tedious missions that involve you killing 300 of this or 200 of that which just makes doing dailies even more tedious than they should be. Also, alerts should take longer than the solo. Stemming the tide takes 8-10mins to complete while the Starro: Invasion! takes 6-7mins. Before we used to get 5 marks and you need to get roles now if you have enough burn you can four DPS it. I would love to see a return of mechanics like in fatal exams which was refreshing to have since everything is now tank and spank. Artifacts were introduced to gives endgame players a reason to run older content so we don't get bored and play other games. Would also love to see DLC come with more content like two solos, 3 duos, 3 alerts, 3 raids, and one operation raid kinda like how back in the day we had with Vengence in which we have multiple raids try and take down a boss. Maybe not in the open world but in a secure location with other raid groups.

2) Gameplay-

The revamp was supposed to give life back into the game but all it did was put a band-aid on it. The first thing that went wrong was that the people testing it and giving them input were not given enough time to get their vision across so what we got was an unfinished product due to deadlines. The second thing that went wrong was that they kept the revamped centered around DPS and just made support roles less fluid to play. Three they tried to make everyone happy by making three DPS style balanced. AMs are just a glorified version of superpower DPSing. Hybrid Is old school DPSing minus the clipping. And Weapons Expert is weapons mastery. Yet the most popular is still Superpower (AMs). All you had to do is scale the dmg on nature and electricity and some of the others and change some animations and the revamp would have been a success. Personally, I preferred the Wms and Clipping era of the game because it gave more value to support roles.

3) MicroTransactions-

Since the introduction of time capsules, it feels like you are paying more than playing. Getting skill points are now only dollars away. You can also catch up quick with the cr skip. All these things do is devalue veterans players commitment to the game an to the grind. Making them not want to grind since they know sooner or later they can catch up with their wallets as opposed to their time. If the things that they put into time capsule were in the marketplace and weren't attached to feats they would still make money and have happy customers. Booster bundles were bad only because of the RNG but at least it was only cosmetic and it gave you replays.

4) PVP-

This was one of the main reason this game did so well back in the day. It was a fast-paced PVP that we have never seen in an MMO. It took practice learning when to use certain moves and how to read your opponent. If you could PVP then you were able to react well to any situation in PVE. As PVE would get stale and you would get loot locked all we really had to do was PVP since killing doesn't get old. But little by little with the fall of clipping and the rise of WMs and AMs PVP would get broken and the removal of role-specific gear brought the final nail in the coffin for PVP. I believe that even though PVP isn't directly making them money if it was fixed it would help bring back players that would eventually spend again.

So, in your mind, the only thing that would keep vets in the game is if the devs spend time on a game mode, only for a tiny portion of the population, that no one else can beat?

I'm not arguing, just trying to understand your point of view. You admit that most people don't want to touch SSe with a ten foot pole, and then argue that we should get more of that type of content?

Is that what the "vets" are looking for? Not actual challenging content (because they could get that from SSe, but choose not to run it) but instead exclusive rewards that set them apart from everyone else? In other words, if TTBe didn't exist, and the only way to get Elite gear was SSe, would the majority of vets be happy, or frustrated and angry?

I only ask so the devs can have a clear idea of what people are thinking. And while I responded to you, really the question is posed for all who consider themselves veterans.

I stick to regular raids for the most part, simply because I play when my family is asleep, don't have a mic and don't use it, which means I can't be very effective at my tanking since I can't yell "block" when the joker bats, etc. are charging the group. I stay alive just fine, of course, but that's not the point of most elite raids, lol. That's why I invite those who absolute love elite (probably with their own league or tight-knit group of friends) to speak up.

I totally agree. The fun part will be when next year we'll get a "Doomed" DLC with all of this content and 1 new raid, lol.

this one sums it up perfectly for me ^ i may add: the ppl we have left now,
are more interested in playing dress up than SSe... it is what it is, sadly!
if you look at the life streams: they are more about TC's and fancy styles,
instead of actual gameplay. that may attract some, yet it drives away many!
and the few who stay, are what is left: whales, paying for styles and feats...

I'll give some examples:
First i'll take some examples from DCUO, ToD elite, the first elite raid we had:
Why i personally ran it a lot of times:
1) It was hard, beating it made me feel like the farmed gear was worth the time spent
2) It was fun, having to spend time learning the mechanics and becoming better at the game to be rewarded made it have some sense
3) Having ToDe gear and that exclusive cr 115-116 made the players who had it feel a little bit special
4) It was the only elite raid and running it was the only way to get the best gear

Why the difficulty elite raids aren't really respected anymore? Would you work 18/7 for a salary of $2000 when you could work 8/5 for a salary of $2000, even if the first one was a position as a CEO of a big company? Probably not, the trouble of the first career wouldn't be worth it. The same happens in-game, many players like a challenge, but they aren't masochists or dumb, most of the times a challenge is only fun if the reward is good enough.
Now SM, a content that is only for the players with experience and doesn't reward you with gear or SPs:
Why it was my favorite thing in the game, even not rewarding any special gear:
1) Competition, everyone was trying their best to get the rewards
2) It was hard, beating it made me feel like the farmed gear was worth the time spent
3) It was fun, having to spend time learning the mechanics and becoming better at the game to be rewarded made it have some sense
4) The first SM rewards were exclusive to it, meaning you had to run it and learn how to beat it to get the rewards

Why the late SMs weren't really liked or played by the veterans anymore? The items weren't worth **** anymore, every year the difficulty was different, the rewards were trash and the high round pets weren't exclusive, they were just common pets that anyone with a brain could get, so why run it to round 20 if you were only getting the same reward?

Now taking the example from a game a played, Overwatch:
Why people played it a lot and mostly competitive, but now it's decreasing a little bit:
1) In the first year, anyone with that shining grand master symbol or that exclusive top 500 spray was considered a god in the game
2) Playing competitive and getting high ranks rewarded you with exclusive golden weapons
3) etc etc
Why it's now decreasing?
1) They are now in season 10, everyone already has a golden weapon, it's just trash now
2) There are no new rewards or exclusive ones for the top 500 players, it's the same as in the past years
3) You don't need to be good to get the golden weapon, it only takes time

Conclusion, no, the challenge alone can't and won't move the veterans and even the most elite players to do it. As much as it sounds selfish, even in real life it works this way: If something isn't worth it or gives you some kind of exclusive prize, most simply won't do it.

In my opnion, why most of the players this days are trash: They don't have to "git gud" to beat things ( this is one of the reasons many of them accept rng and p2w trash, for them artifacts and SPs are just useless, because they can get top gear with 100 sp and no artifacts) leaving the old and experienced ones without fun things to do, and only tank and spank, because the new ones don't have that thing of: I must get better in the game if i want to be top, like we had in the past.

*If SSe was the only elite raid, would most of the veterans be happy? I think so, it would need work to get it done, plus making the episode longer. The casuals would just stick to the regular raid and get gear to beat the elite, like during ToDe times. It's not like they wouldn't have anything to do or the devs would be wasting resources, the resources would actually be more worth it.

The game needed it. We should have never been allowed to potentially 1 shot everything. The game after the revamp is more like the game was on release. The AM era lead people into a false sense of the game that never was. The revamp didn't push people away, the mistake to allow people to be so over powered for so long was the core of the problem not the revamp.

I'm waiting on Doomsday.

i dont want to say: "told you from begin with"... just that i warned you:
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?posts/4047516/
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?posts/4031521/
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?posts/3974805/

I will post this for you.

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dc...ats-round-10-of-sm.213304/page-5#post-2693228

Every now and then people come up with reasons why people ran the first SM and the rewards associated with SM.

I understand the desire you have for the challenge of the first SM but, no amount of reward would encourage the numbers you are attempting to state in your post.

Sadly, not many or practically 5-6 groups would actually benefit from any increase in rewards to even make that type of content worth while.

The hardest piece of content is what, 1 raid maybe 2 and how many of the full population at endgame actually replay those two(maybe) raids?

I concur with others that state that the community cannot and does not support a challenge even close to round 2 of the thread I linked to, these later SM were severely brought down so that a much larger pool of players could actually enjoy SM, by then it was a joke to the earlier versions.

Truth be told, numbers are numbers and while you may have ran the elite version over and over again, that instance completion rate credibility was compromised with a glitch, clown box and Quantum tunneling.

The true identifier is the content players can easily form a group to, it being the easiest the rewards is typically felt to be about right.

Even with that content, though easier, many still cannot complete it and will sat the rewards don't meet the content.

Again I sympathize with you, but no matter the rewards, people will find any excuse to not put in work to either challenge their gear, themselves or even to get something that could make said content obsolete.

Sure people go back and run elite content after they can overpower the content for the feats, but if the rewards what was in question, they wouldn't go back for a feat or a style.

Older content is simply old, outdated and is thought of just like SP, not needed.

The so-called "elite" leagues that are left are extremely toxic and themselves dwindling in numbers. For instance, one of these leagues often uses LFG to round out their groups, won't communicate with pugs whatsoever then will go on kick sprees at the slightest mistake. It's truly grim to witness such misguided, anti-social behavior. Moreover, the superiority complexes on display and their treating players outside of their league as chattel is very disturbing. I'm not sure if it's for the health of the game for players of this mindset to be retained, honestly.

What I really hate is when they grab people from LFG who know what they're doing, get past like the first boss and then someone from the league logs in, so they kick a random person from the group just to make room for their leaguemate. Those kinds of people merit the name supplied in previous posts.

lol

Right now, the game is lacking players. Comparing it to at least when i first started playing,, man.... que times were so short, and there were a ton of players, the watchtower was packed, and a ton of villains with allot even roaming in open world. The game isn't as active anymore, there are less players, less phases..

In order to bring more revenue, you need a more players, to attract more players you need a dam good game.. then revenue goes up in all aspects of the game,,, yes even TC's, why? because people see a reason to play, its fun, its worth it! There are other ways of making money other than TC's and not make it this bs gamble system they've got going on. When i first started playing, the amount of money i spent on the game lol oh man the amount of trips to the store i took to get psn cards.. and i didnt care,, the game was so much fun,, it was enjoyable, there was so much to do, and things were allot more balanced.. i spent hours on pvp.... but now... I stopped spending money on the game cause its just not worth it right now. the game is stale, broken and stay broken for years sometimes.. and with repetitive content that gives me no drive to grind nor spend money.

It's not enough to hold your interest because DC puts medioce work into new DLC's

DLC 1 - Brand new DLC Starro Event
"Kill 300 small starro's, Kill 10 starro spawns, bring 20 starro fragments to disposal"

DLC 2 - Brand New Souless Event
"Kill 280 corrupted souls, destroy 10 corrupted portals, harvest 20 souls"

And sometimes they even go as re-using old maps... Its honestly the same stuff, dailies are feeling more like a chore now,, to just get err' done. Kill everything.. everyday.. the same way...

They CAN have 1-2 DLC's a year and REALLY put the work in to make it last, with a ton of new content and variety. IF they do it right... The game right now is kill this, and kill that a hundred times, everyday, the same way.

Yeah, it's a long term investment, healthy game, larger population MAYBE situation vs. short term cash grabs with what they've got.

In business, unfortunately, short-sighted decisions usually reign supreme.

Only if you let it.

Also, I hope anyone else walking around with that mentality ya'll keep that to dcuo and dcuo only. This type of thinking this game got everyone submitting too, in any other game company they wish players would give their money away so freely.

Do the streets a favor and don't spread that contamination to other games.

Came back a month ago along with my spouse and already we are thinking about hanging them up again. This game has no idea what it wants to be and changes every so often (major changes) that it really has no identity. There are just way too many cash grabs and it’s just not a very fun game anymore. We realized it this weekend how much better we have it in our other game, ESO. Account bound sp, One Tamriel (basically stat flattening but done correctly) and absolutely massive dungeons to run.

This game can easily get back on track but it has to do what it did right in the past all over again. Pick a plan, and stick to it for Christ sake. The powers are decently balanced, great. Keep combat exactly as it is now. Also, put cr differential back in. If you are a level 230 in a raid where the boss is 140, let that boss be one shot, who cares? People left in droves because of those changes. Players need to stop worrying about others and just focus on themselves. ‘But new ppl don’t learn that way.’ So? Create walkins for high level players to do their thing and go back to feat hunt or whatever. New players can learn mechanics like everyone else did once upon a time ago. Or, god forbid, make tutorials.

For the love of all that is good in the world, stop putting feats in lottery boxes. Just because you’re a prostitute doesn’t mean you have to dress like one. At least hide your greed better. There are better ways to get money out of peoples pockets that are way less sleazy and desperate. The content is boring as heck now too. The Starro nonsense is about as fun as putting a tack in your own eye. Once the initial fun of reminiscing and playing the old content got well, old, the other memories of why we left quickly came back. This game can easily be great again but the devs have other things in mind. Sure feels like a long and drawn out cashout before the game gets the plug pulled wthout warning.