Test Discussion Death of Superman Part 3: The Last Son of Krypton (Solo)

Releasing today on the PCTest server is the final chapter of our Death of Superman story...the "Last Son of Krypton" Solo instance!

When you log in, you should receive a mission entitled "The Last Son of Krypton" if your character is level 10 or above. Follow that mission's instructions and queue up for "The Last Son of Krypton" instance in the 1 Player Tab of your On Duty menu.

This is Part 3 of the story that began with Doomsday descending on Metropolis (see Part 1: Doomed Metropolis, which is active on the Live Server now), and continued with Doomsday's showdown with Superman (see Part 2: Doomsday, which is also Live now). Again, the intent is for this content to stay turned on and active so it can be revisited even after we release future content.

Please comment in this thread with any feedback or bug reports.

Thanks again to everyone for helping us to test the new content, as well as for the feedback! We really appreciate it.

Xa-Du Feedback
Xa-Du was a nice surprise and a welcome addition. I wasn't expecting the debut of a new iconic character to the game and in this solo. I like how he fits into the storyline. His motivations make sense. I like how his traits as a scientist were exploited, too, in that he experimented on Doomsday. I also like how his role in this story makes sense and follows DCUO continuity, too, in that he experimented on Doomsday who was put into the Phantom Zone by Alura at the end of Kandor Central Tower. It feels natural and right.

I don't like how we obliterated him, though. He doesn't put up much of a fight. Which is ironic considering this is the guy who was able to experiment on Doomsday, unleash a plague on a major metropolitan area, and is the man who is responsible for creating the enhancements to the beast who almost took out the World's greatest hero.

It seems like this entire storyline could have been completely avoided if we'd just paid attention to the Phantom Zone, which should have been high priority after Zod lead a rebellion in there a couple of years ago AND we were well aware of a high profile prisoner (Doomsday) being put in there recently, too. If only we'd taken 5 minutes to monitor the situation months ago, travel to the Phantom Zone, and stop Xa-Du from experimenting on Doomsday, none of this would have happened. Seems kind of like the heroes haven't quite got a grip on the situation.


Question: Is this the conclusion?
In the original post, you state: "Again, the intent is for this content to stay turned on and active so it can be revisited even after we release future content." Does this mean that the story will continue in the future? or am I misinterpreting your post.

I ask, because Part 3 is pretty underwhelming as a conclusion. We never really got the impression that Superman had died, because almost immediately Supergirl rushed him to the Fortress of Solitude giving us the impression that she could save him/revive him (thus not really convincing that he'd actually died) and then the conclusion of the solo is that he's not dead, has already been rescued and has started his recovery.

I feel as though there should have been more to the arc. Making it clear that Superman had died and showing it's impact on the DCUO World. I know that it was intended for him to always come back, but this feels no different than the time Granny Goodness took him captive. There hasn't been a period of mourning. There hasn't been any threat in Superman's absence. We haven't experienced a World without Superman.

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Feedback: Disable Cutscene Prompt Showing Up Too Late
The monitor which allows you to disable the cut scenes activates quite late. I'd ran the solo 3 times before I realised you could disable the cut scenes. After I noticed the monitor's existence, I paid attention to when it would become active. It seemed to become active right as you walked past it. You can often enter the room and trigger the cutscene before realising you can disable the cut scenes.

I think it would be better if the monitor to disable the cutscenes activated as soon as you enter the last hall way on your way to the final boss fight so that players don't miss it. Alternatively, maybe close the door so that you have to activate a cog to open the door, allowing you time to notice the monitor's existence.

Bug: Final Cutscene still plays after disabling cutscenes
In one run, I disabled the cut-scenes, however, upon defeating Xa-Du, the final cutscene played anyway.

(Trivial) Bug: Scorecard Pops Too Quickly
At the end of the Villains version of the Solo, Calculator activates something (I think a Red Sun generator or something) and a message in Red text is displayed on screen. However, the Scorecard indicating the end of the instance pops up about 1 second after the message is displayed, making it really difficult to read.

It's a trivial bug and not game breaking, but if it's an easy fix, it'd help with the story telling.

idk if its a bug but the amount of npc arent always the same, sometimes i had 14 other times 16 etc...

The solo seems really trivial and easy, doesn´t work for me as a satisfactory conclusion for the whole Death of Superman arc to be honest. I miss the days of the Bruno Manheiem solo mission....

It sounds like there is more of the “Doomed” story to be told (Superman’s transformation to SuperDoom; Brainiac’s corruption of Lois Lane and subsequent invasion; the attempt to transport earth to the Phantom Zone); but I think the problem with this release was naming it “The Death of Superman”. It would have been an okay release as “Doomed”; but “The Death of Superman” created an expectation that was not met.

I got to say if something is three parts why end with less?

I haven't seen any instance-specific bugs yet.

If you ignore the consoles and skip the cutscene, "The Last Son of Krypton" becomes a 3 to 4 minute instance. You can probably go faster than that if you want.

The whole thing feels very underwhelming as a conclusion to a major event. There isn't much closure to the actual storyline. Superman is still "dead." You only find out who initiated the whole event. I'm getting tired of having the consoles do most of the work of telling the backstory for an event. I'd prefer to see the backstory integrated better with actual gameplay.

In terms of difficulty, this feels more on par with the Alexander Luthor solo from the Anti-Monitor event. The boss fight becomes very trivial if you elect to turn off the yellow sun generators. Even if you leave them enabled, it is still an easy fight.

I do appreciate a "skip cutscene" option was added. Too bad it doesn't skip the post-fight cutscene too.

In terms of filling out some content for lower tiers and tier 9 the solo does its purpose. Gotta agree with others its very easy. Is it meant to be this easy? Also is there meant to be no tier 9 version?

i like it to have a solo challenge for once to end a storyline ^^ it is not realy anything new though,
except maybe the boss, wich is going for the lights... however: a solid solo without high or downs.
QUESTION:
is there going to be a solo for T9 too, like the raid had one, or is it staying a lvl10+ only challenge?
is it missing or is there no intention to add a t9 challenge in the first place, unlike the raid had one?

The Doomsday raid does not award prestige. Will this solo instance be the same?

I can see the devs turning DoS into a recycled episode in the future like they did with Starro. I hope I'm wrong.

They already said that DoS is a permanent addition to the game, so why would they need to recycle it?

Thanks for all of the feedback, everyone!

To answer a few of the questions:
No, this Solo instance, similar to the Raid, are not meant to grant renown.

It is intended that sometimes there will be slightly more or less enemies in the Phantom Zone.

There are no plans currently of making a Tier 9 version of this instance, but there's a chance that could change. The intention was to wrap up this particular story arc in a way that allows all players who were able to play the Level 10+ version of the Doomsday raid to be able to see the story through.

While this Death of Superman story arc is tying up with this solo mission, there are certainly a couple of things that may pop up in time that are related to this story. This isn't meant to be taken as a promise that the story will continue one way or another, but that there are potentials there.

We'll discuss further internally to see what difficulty changes we may make, but again, we're kind of using lower level players being clamped up as a baseline for this particular mission.

Thanks again!

Finally got on the test server and ran this. Just once. I was using a water character (CR235, whatever SP are granted). I'm not a very good DPS, but I found it very easy. Almost too easy. The adds were fine, but the boss needed just a bit of a boost - he wasn't any challenge at all. I'm crappy at DPS and he just melted.

FYI, I did the mechanic in the final room, turning off the sun lamps (wouldn't they have helped Superman?). I wasn't attacked at all while doing so, because Supergirl kept him busy.

Thanks for the update. Super confused by no prestige though. What's the reasoning on this?

Do you mean prestige? Because Mepps also just posted this? which is it?

Sorry about the confusion on my part. I thought 'renown' was being inquired about, and faction renown is only granted in elite raids currently as I understand it.

I talked it over with some teammates, and we're going to add Prestige to the Solo and Raid. I'm not 100% sure when the change will make it out to the live servers with regards to the raid, but I think the change should make it out to the solo at least by the time it launches to the live server.

Cheers!

Question
I noticed the minimum CR boost for Last Son of Krypton is CR 230. Will players who are less than level 30 receive exp from the enemies with the boost? There is no way to test that out since all Test characters start at 30.

Questions

1. Is Xa-Du supposed to be vulnerable to crowd control effects?

2. If you leave the Yellow Sun projectors up, it is fairly easy for Xa-Du to linger in one or get knocked into one. If you have the blocking knockback mod, you can send him flying into the Yellow Sun projector. If any of your powers or weapons have push-back, you knock him into a Yellow Sun projector. If Xa-Du decides to spam his ranged attacks after walking into one, he'll linger there and heal up. If Xa-Du is focused on Supergirl, he'll linger in the Yellow Sun projector. If you counter Xa-Du while he is in the field, he'll heal up. It is also possible for your pets and Supergirl to box Xa-du into the Yellow Sun projector.