Custom Player Made Missions & Stories

That got your attention.

I thought to delve deeper into this, and make this heard since it works in other MMO games such as Neverwinter and Star Trek Online, who are also backed by fans who support the stories and content that franchises make. So, why not, make our own?

Gives a slight bit more to do in-game, we already have a building system implemented from bases that can be modified for storytelling, Devs can get involved in the episode story development if they see bankable value it in, and it utilizes overlooked fan favorite ideas. It could also be a new era for DC Universe Online, but maybe I'm just hopeful.

I wanted to have a system where I could design a backstory sequence for my playable characters, or make my own owned characters fight it out amongst themselves. Best part would be: valor, commendation, and xp could still be earnt from these self-designed levels, that would be hard enough to power through checked by the Devs so it won't exploit the system if there is a reward component in place. Start small with solo story episodes, and then work through the bigger stuff for group story episodes.

Only downside I can see happening is it won't be voiced over by the DC character's themselves, and it would be text based for those stories. But then again, there is always AI Voice Cloning, which is better than nothing.

Added this thread discussion in general, since the Dev discussions don't have an 'Ideas & Feedback - DCUO' discussion thread, nor could I make one.

There's a few open source frameworks for doing this, but it's a time consuming and expensive process creating your own, which they would need to do.

Not to mention licensing hurdles. I would love to tackle a project like this but alas I fear there's too many challenges to overcome.

Agreed. WB/DC isn't as generous as CBS (Star Trek) when it comes to licensing out their properties.

City of Heroes: Homecoming also has a system where you can create your own missions and level up in them; however, players still need to do the "end game" missions to become as strong as possible, as created missions do not offer everything the main game does. Players can keep their created missions private or make them searchable and available for everyone to play.

The main issue with this is that players will create their own missions and/or play someone else's created missions and fully level up a character within them. This limits the player's ability to cope with the game's bosses and end game content, as created missions do not offer all of the npc mechanics.

Many players create easy to defeat missions so they can level up their characters with little effort; when they have to participate in the main game's missions for progression, 9 times out of ten they end up struggling through them.

It would be nice to be able to create my own missions here, but i know that will not happen anytime soon, if ever.

Let's not forget that both Neverwinter and Star Trek Online are both made by Cryptic, using their propriety, clunky/janky Cryptic engine, and both games have since shut down their fan-made content platforms because they realized it was a waste of money and resources.

Most players are seemingly unable to create an original, or interesting name or look for their toons. I'm sure I would love playing a mission created by xXxBatman1234xXx...

It is a possibility people just want to have more fun in a game and repeating very familiar missions. But CBS is 1.7 Billion dollars. Warner Brothers, is $37.59 Billion dollars. I'm sure they could make an adapted system from base building to make this idea possible, and it shouldn't take Billions of dollars to make a working prototype. That's why we have test content with feedback, otherwise what is the actual point?

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I've never been able to make it that far. But I look forward to it when I grind to the level cap and do those end missions just to have access to content like that. The NPC mechanics would be a good one to manage, if players have the patience to make a animation axis of a character to do a certain movement, they would of created a new movement for the Dev team to use, which in itself is free labor, and because they own rights, a credit is given to that player or actual person's name to the credits, and the Dev just saved some hours at the desk from making something from scratch. That sounds like a pretty clever idea to me.

This is what I was thinking would be the problem, how people would exploit the mission creation ability to level up or get their CR up. But my work around is, once the Devs/Mods check through the level, and make sure it's not super easy to get through, they will keep the reward system in place, otherwise, it will just be some cash and minor some xp. Also, they could make it so it can only be done once a day, but either all.

Anything is possible, we just need to work out the potential problems here, making it easier for the Devs if they choose to do so.

WB/DC wont do it and like it was said, funding for it isnt worth it long term. We are our own characters living in DC's world. We follow their stories, not our own.

It can be through the base building system, which we already use, with a new element for adding NPC characters to follow, gesture with text talk, and drop down or attack where needed. It also gives people a chance to explore maps more in depth. It uses pre-existing assets, all licensing is owned by DC anyway, only thing that the player would own is: the story they make in the system, and their own playable character that is not DC branded. So pretty much, anything uniquely created by the player that does not already exist, is credited to the player. No loop holes.

That's completely fine, you can go replay the same stories over and over again. The idea was to have the ability to give players the ability to be creative and add their own ideas into a playable map/map(s). Going through their own sequence of stories which could expand on existing ones but not be deemed as canon for people who prefer base game only stories, or be completely original that the Devs can look under a microscope and even add it into the base game, voice acted, and tweaked if deemed that good. But it's meant to be a creative tool much like base building, like it was said before. I guess creativity isn't for everyone.

Here's an idea, seeing that I'm the only one supporting this, why not add it into the membership?

Thing is, WB doesn't fund this game. They and DC licensed it to Daybreak/Dimensional ink, so in a way they (and we) are funding WB. And while I don't have the numbers, I can't imagine the amount of funding in that manner coming from the game really gives us or the companies involved any real pull in getting anywhere near that kind of money from WB.

I think you have to look more at Daybreak or Dimensional Ink's funds to get a real idea of how much they have to play/work with for the game. WB having billions doesn't mean that's available for the game.

Go play another game then.. it is simple as that.. there must be games out there that lets you do this

You are asking them to create something that will completely change the game

These forums seem filled with so many ideas that will literally change the game completely, with people not getting that this game doesn't have to cater to every single whim players have

It is like like saying "I like baseball" and instead of playing baseball, you play basketball and then *demand* they change the rules of basketball.. change the location, rules etc etc until it becomes a copy of baseball.. problem with that is now baseball is ruined and noone wants to play it

That's completely fair. But it won't cost over 300 million to make this happen though, it's just using pre-existing assets. The only thing is, to allow players to move them around on a map- which we have, in base building- so, not changing anything. And we have a circle of action (when the boss battle triggers/dialogue) when you enter a certain area to do a certain thing, can trigger: text/cutscene, or a fight. Quite literally, all there is to the levels at the moment. I don't see anything wrong with that, considering there are people in these comments who compare apples and oranges, they don't have have to use or play the custom missions/stories that are developed by creative players, who are passionate about the same universe they all know and love. It will also not take billions of dollars to use pre-existing assets.

Question: is what is being proposed something like "the Forge" in Halo? I think that is what it called. When I was little my dad had an XBOX 360 and we played the Forge in Halo with each other. It was fun. I don't think DCUO is really set up for an expansion like the Forge.

But I do like the idea of maybe having a story board for our characters so that when you inspect someone there can be a bio about them and maybe a little back story.

I think I would rather the devs focus on improvements and bug fixes rather than take on additional programming that would heavily change the game at this point.

We still have tweak & improvements that need to be made to Omnibutt, and work on the PS5 client is important too!

Good point; features that work in some games aren't guaranteed to work in other games. This is why I play a variety of games.

I don't mind ideas that will completely change a game; those ideas just have to make sense and be feasible. Using your "baseball" example; the game of baseball changed when 9 inning games instead of 7 innings were implemented and major league baseball players are required to wear helmets. In the early days of baseball these changes were not in place.That is what I mean by "complete changes that makes sense and are feasible."

There are no DC Games, to this quality, or quantity, that have the capacity or developers to continue working on this specified idea using pre-existing assets. Therefore, there is a market for it. Like I mentioned, it's not changing anything, it's using pre-existing assets, which we already know, using base building, which we already know. It changes nothing, but allows creative people a small platform to test themselves on. You, being one of the people who do not care, have no need to use or play these additional features to the game if you so choose, which would be acquired via marketplace, or membership anyway.

I don't doubt for one second other people offering ideas for this game is already done. But what I have seen in response to those ideas, are people like you, who don't care, who hate change even if it won't affect them at all, who bigot and belittle people offering ideas which aren't certainties. You would be the same people who complain to the Developers that's not what you wanted in the game- after they spent months trying to make something new for everyone with feedback such as yours- it's not just you in the MMO, the hundreds if not thousands of others who also know and love DC are there too. Thank you for your input.

By the way, you are comparing two different physical sports, using two different mechanics; one with dribbling and passing the ball, one with a bat and ball and gloves. I don't see your analogy clearly, but, this thread is meant to be open to ideas, and not demanding it stay the same with your derogatory comments. What you're talking about, is a contradictory standard; Not for you, but maybe everyone else.

I've never heard of the Forge before, that does sound intriguing though. I agree in the sense DCUO might not be set up for it on a larger scale for multiple people to engage straight off, yes, but to begin with solo content would be highly recommended to tweak and test from there. And not fully implemented until like you said, the bug fixes, Omnibutt, and other essential improvements of course. Always cool to consider some possibilities, I like the way you think.

I found this about the Forge:

"Halo Forge


Forge is a level editor developed by Bungie and 343 Industries for the first-person shooter video game series, Halo. Forge was initially released alongside Halo 3, and was further expanded upon in Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 5: Guardians, and Halo Infinite.
Forge is a game mode originally released in Halo 3 designed to allow players to customize, save and share maps for custom games. Forge was originally created to be used by players to make relatively simple changes to maps in order to tweak their gameplay experience."
Maybe something like this can be added later?

True. Although the features found in DCUO are also in other MMO's, those MMO's offer more in terms of the creative standard. City of Heroes 2004 was shut down, the rest are in the pre-alpha or development stages; Ship of Heroes, City of Titans. All of which are not at the top like DCUO, Champions Online is the last one to compete with DCUO, but even still, DCUO wins by a long shot.

Feasibly, this idea can be developed when there are minimal bugs and cross-platform issues that I wasn't aware of. This idea would only be optional for people who want to be creatively collab with other online members, and the people who don't want to use those features, don't have to. The people who do, it will cost some money because of Daybreak's budget. If there is a point system for when the Devs add something new to the game, maybe the baseball analogy might make more sense to me.

I find even having a backstory element might add something else too, but these are just ideas, and not certainties.