Test Discussion Episode 31: Narrative and Cinematics

This thread is to report issues and feedback concerning narrative, story, subtitles, and matinee content.

Feel free to leave screenshots and details regarding bugs you might find in content. Please specify if the issue occurs on the Hero or Villain content.

Thanks and enjoy!

Feedback
It would be nice if the "Skip" option worked for the cutscenes in the solo. I know it is a story-heavy mission that is supposed to tie the Starro event together with the new Deluge material. Still, it gets pretty old watching the same cutscenes over constantly.

Bug Report
From the OP:

Should that be "Please"?

You are totally correct.
As I mentioned in Charon's thread, we're discussing options for this. Unfortunately, there isn't a clean cut way to bypass all of the cinematic sequences. However, there are opportunities we are looking into to skip some of them, where permitted.

Feedback
Here is some general feedback on various portions of the narrative for Episode 31.

Aquaman Terminology
Unless you are an Aquaman reader, some of the terminology used in the cutscenes may leave you scratching your head. Here's an example:


Your average non-reader is going to wonder what a "haladin" is. As far as I know, the term is never explained or used anywhere else in DCUO.

Other terms like "Parliament of Waves", "Xebel conspirator," and "Ninth Triad" are problematic too.

Stemming the Tide
I know the ending cutscenes for Stemming the Tide are currently bugged, but it would have been interesting if those were the real endings. Playing on Hero side,"killing" Mera for being a traitor, and temporarily allying yourself with Ocean Master would have opened up more interesting story-telling opportunities. As is, it all feels very by-the-numbers.


Flash Humor
The fish jokes the Flash makes in Stemming the Tide feels really forced for the sake of trying to make a joke. I know Mera comments on the joke, but the joke(s) still land with a big thud in that instance.

Most of the cut scenes seem okay to me.... Of course I have long been on the band wagon to skip them hey watch it once or even twice and its okay and does help explain the story behind why you are on that mission.. but after that content has been out a few weeks or more and you have seen that scene again and again and again the urge to scream "SHut up so I can kill stuff" grows stronger

Only one I kind of already have an issue with would be on the Solo challenge where Mera confronts Ocean Master before the big battle starts... Man that thing is long.. I know its too later but did we have to make the fight scene THAT long?

Not sure where to post this since it involves almost all content but we have been discussing it in general chat I I figured I'd post here since I THINK some one just made a typo..

Is this DLC Tier 9 content or not? Pull up the on duty menu and the solom the duo, the alert and even the brand new RAID all are listed as being Tier 8 but some how the Starro raid from last year when this was just an event is now Tier 9?

Every single mission has the exact same requirements: IE Minimum Cr to enter = 218 Suggested CR to do mission = CR224 and Relevancy is between Cr 218 and Cr 250.

Our guess over in General Chat is it's just a typing error and all that stuff is supposed to be T9. If this issue has already been reported .. sorry for the duplicate but i kind of figured it should be reported here not just talked about in General chat.

Easy fix.. Just update the tabs and move whatever needs to be moved to the right tier.

Sorry if this is NOT the right spot for this but there is no tab for just general comments and no matter what raid or alert tab I used I'd still be bring up a concern about the "other" missions.

Hey Tech Warrior,

Thanks for the post. Yes we are aware of the Tier 9 mislabel. We will be fixing that to be correctly labeled before the content goes live.

Good looking out...

Hey Penryn,

As always, thanks for the feedback! In regards to the language used in the content, one thing to bear in mind is that we are a DC licensed game and have a responsibility to the stay true to the brand expectations. Just like when you play any unique Sci-fi game IP (which I can't name here for legal reasons) and they mention some bit of proprietary lore from an early game. It's a general assumption that players are expected to digest and/or look it up if they aren't already fans. We realize many players don't read comics, but our objective is to keep it real for the players that do and in the process maybe encourage some interest on the part of the non-readers too.

Also you may not have noticed, but the Origins of Insurrection Brief goes into extended details on the terms Ninth Tride and Hadalin. And Mera's Collection, Mera - Queen of Atlantis speaks at length about her history, Xebel origins, and several other points you mentioned.

In regards to Stemming the Tide, killing off characters as a hero is a no-no and off brand for us. If you haven't played it already the Spindrift Raid continues the solo story and concludes the story arc.

In regards to Flash's jokes, I know our players are a discerning crowd when it comes to humor. With that said, a lot of the fish jokes were intentional.

To explain further, I have a running bet with the other folks in Design that I couldn't get 100 water/fish related puns into the Deluge content.

Guess who just got a whole bag of Funyuns bought for them?

This guy.

Thanks for the feedback!

LOL ^^ when i did the solo, i was like: "did i miss something or what"
to the flash humor, i guess it was unavoidable to have some puns 'n' quips...
but what i realy find awesome is the feat were you need to stay in a pool,
with a shark in it, for 20 seconds with your whole team: "face your fears"
that kind of humor is just what this game realy needs more of LOL

The problem I always run into with briefings/investigations is that you rarely get to hear them in full when you first interact with them in an instance. If there are multiple greens/blues in a room, the previous voice clip will be canceled when you interact with the next node. You also run into issues with people talking over of a blue/green. If a cutscene starts, the voice/text from the cutscene will overlap with the green/blue. Sometimes the greens/blues are very well hidden and it is easy to miss out on part of the story. If someone starts the next mob encounter, you can't concentrate on what the green/blue is trying to convey.

The whole process gets to be rather messy. You can try to try to listen to the clip again after the instance is over, However, that involves scrolling through literally dozens of other categories of briefings/investigations to find the one that was specific to the episode.

After the last couple of episodes over the past year, there doesn't seem to be much distinction between heroes and villains. We all meet up in the same hubs, run the same instances, and generally see the same storyline. The biggest difference seemed to be some of the introductory voice clips. Deluge is the first episode that reintroduces significant plot differences in the hero and villain storylines.

When I was first watching the villain version of the final cutscene for "Stemming the Tide," I was wondering if Mera might have been a shapeshifter that was pretending to be the Queen. We saw that with Circe and Aquaman in the Condemned Shipyard. That mechanic shows up in a couple other places in the game. It would have been an interesting twist for her to be a fake and have to ally ourselves with Ocean Master. I know that doesn't match up with the comic Deluge storyline.

Questions

• I was wondering, does Mera die on villain side or is she captured? Ocean Master makes a vague reference to her falling.
• Chronologically speaking, when does Deluge take place within the context of the game? Is it set before or after Earth 3?
• How do the Rogues fit into the storyline? They make their escape in "Stemming the Tide" and Flash makes a reference to capturing them again. Did Flash recapture them in between the events of "Stemming the Tide" and "Spindrift Station"?

I noticed all of the fish jokes. I was wondering if that was intentional.

Thanks for your hard work JohnnyDC.

I loved that one too! You can thank DEV Milbarge for that one. It was definitely a stroke of genius. Thanks for the feedback!

I agree with you. It can definitely be an undefined experience based on your group and individual player experience. We've tried to use Collections as a means for players that want more story to get it. Some of my favorite portrayals of the character are in their investigations and briefs. The solo content is also supposed to help with that, as well. By including the majority of story relevant collections in the solo and open world we can help avoid issues like VO overlap and over anxious players triggering cut scenes. It's a work in progress, but hopeful something the players will enjoy and grow accustomed to in their daily play habits. We're also trying to streamline the daily versus the solo event experience so you don't have to sit through all the story bits to complete them.

Excellent observations, Penryn...

You are right. Earth 3 did leave the Villains and their master of ceremonies, Lex Luthor feeling a lot more like good guys than scoundrels. Even Lex himself seems to have gone a bit soft after seeing his other worldly doppelganger, Alex, sacrifice himself for the well being of "our" Earth. Not sure how the villains are going to feel about that moving forward... Perhaps, it's time for a change in leadership...

Also I was definitely aware of the Circe/Mera thing... We really needed to not cheat the player out of experiencing Mera, like we did back then. With a brand new model, gear suit, and a very "MERA-centric" Valentine's Day Event, we have been building up to making her the Star of this updated Starro Event. So we purposely tried to avoid the "double cross".
But I can promise you this, our next couple upcoming content pieces will go out of their way to build a STRONG deviation between hero and villain motivations and actions. I think the bad guys are going to be pretty happy.

• No, she doesn't. Ocean Master thinks he's bringing her back to Atlantis to stand trial, in hopes that the upheaval will sway public opinion of Arthur and he can swoop in and usurp the throne as the "hero of the people".... Boy is he wrong.
• The events building up to this, run almost parallel to Earth 3 but the main content occurs slightly after. You'll notice that the Justice League was nowhere to be found when Arthur mentions having his difficulties with the US embassy. This is mostly because they were tied up dealing with Earth 3 fallout. Flash is present but it's assumed that the events of Earth 3 are just wrapping up and the Justice League is still feeling the effects. You'll notice a lot more continuity (hopefully) moving through the upcoming content. Earth 3 and Deluge will both have long lasting effects moving forward.
• So if you've seen the open world bounties, which include Kid Flash, Trickster and Weather Wizard.... The CCPD solo instance, "Starro Report" Brief and "Starro Crossed Lovers" Investigation are retro fitted to tell the backstory of why Bart and the Rogues are Starro faced in the Open World. Because they escaped from prison... A couple got Starro'd and are out in the open world. Likewise, Iris and Barry both learn that Kid Flash has been Starro'd and you get a more personal view of the situation. And nope, Starro got the Rogues before Flash could... Except for Captain Cold and Mirror Master...because Starro isn't a fan of cold and Mirror Master's Scottish... enough said.

Very much so... There are a bunch of hidden ones too that don't come off as "jokes". Like when Aquaman says... "I can't fathom Mera would betray us..."

And for the record, thank you, and all the Testers for taking the time to diligently test the content and help us make it better! We appreciate it!

There's a feat for that??

Oh no. Nope. Nada. No. No. No. I am terrified of water. Looks like my league wont be getting that feat if im in the group.

Just ran the Stemming the tide on the villain side, ending cut scene Mera was invisible when my character "knocked her out"
Anyone else have this issue too?

Feedback
In the Hero version of Stemming the Tide, the first cutscene between Ocean Master and Mera is rather awkward. Your character just stands there while the two exchange dialog and water blasts. Wouldn't that have been a good opportunity to go punch Ocean Master in the face?

Thanks for reporting this, but it's a known issue and should be fixed in the upcoming update along with all the other cinematic issues.

Originally, we considered having Ocean Master put a water bubble over the players head and drown you for the duration of the fight, and force you to respawn at the beginning of the level, but we felt most players wouldn't have liked that idea. =)

At least you get to KO him/Mera at the end of the battle.

I like to compare it to the stand off between Obi-wan and Vader. Sure Han could have shot Vader in the face to end that fight, right?

But how dramatic would that have been? The route we went seems better than drowning to death or skipping a boss fight completely, at least from a narrative stand point.

Every time I watch this cutscene, the following ideas come to mind:

• Ocean Master encases the player in a water bubble. Ocean Master then starts attacking Mera. The player is able to breakout just as the final part of the cutscene plays out.
• Ocean Master spawns a Deep Sea Guardian pet at various points in the fight. Having the player "fight" a Deep Sea Guardian off to the side during the cutscene would give the appearance of keeping the player busy.

If a player attacks Ocean Master before the cutscene starts, Ocean Master will sometimes summon a pet creature that attacks the player as the cutscene plays out.

Dramatic license is certainly required in these situations. However, I feel the moment could be used to instill additional drama or fear. As is, the player is just an idle spectator.

i like how the longer, more action packed cutszenes are put into the solo instance here
(the solo is not going to give a lot of marks, that makes them more suitable for the story),
while the raids have relatively short cutszenes and the duo and alert have allmost none
(because those are the instances you run dayly anyways and it becomes annoying fast).
allways thought that it is hard to concentrade on the important plotpoints when in a raid!

Voice verses CC subtitles differences in the Solo reg version:

Flash Subtitles:
Starro feeds on power and is always trying to increase its numbers. I've got four of the Rogues locked up back there behind 500,000 volts of electricity.
Flash Vocal:
Starro feeds on power. I've got four of the Rogues locked up back there behind 500,000 volts of electricity.

Flash Subtitles:
I need to make sure the Rogues are still tucked safe in their beds. Catch you in a Flash!
Flash Vocal:
I need to make sure the Rogues are still tucked safe in their beds. Meet me in the detention wing.


Cpt. Cold Subtitles:
Uh oh! I guess Starro likes lightning! Eh... Sorry... Good luck with that, loser!
Cpt. Cold Vocal:
Uh oh! I guess Starro likes lightning! Ah... yeah sorry....Eh not sorry. (don't remember if he says the good luck part.)

Mera Subtitles:
The Drift, Arthur's Special forces team has tracked rogue Atlantean troops to an ancient temple in the Ninth Tride. We Should...
Mera Vocal:
The Drift has tracked (audio skip?) it must--


The Steal & Lex duo's seem good on dialogue matchup as well as the original Starro raid. Will check the Alert and New raid...if they ever que.

Also one question about Mera's lines when we transport to the cave. She's talking about ancient symbols...but there is no writing on the walls or anything in that area. What is she referencing?