Test Discussion Episode 32: The Judas Contract: Narrative and Cinematics

It would be OK I think if you hadn't chosen the same voice actor as Aquaman. It throws you off a ton since we just got off of Deluge, so you expect to see Aquaman and it's Robin, lol.

I'll talk to Nerd of Prey and see if we can post it. There may be some legalities that are above my pay grade preventing it. But I will do my best to get an update. FYI: How awesome was Nightwing's VO this episode? I thought all the Robins really did an amazing job.

You mean Red Robin?

It's fine. I can update that to make it more logically ordered.
Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback Cyberpunk2077. I'll do my best to answer your narrative comments below.

As far as the Justice League membership goes, to be perfectly honest, you're kind of a Reservist Justice League member, not a fulltime, active member. Cyborg is being asked to become an ACTIVE member just like he is in the current Justice League movies.
We hoped that joining the Titans to replace a huge powerhouse like Cyborg would feel special.

The Titans are becoming very popular in the current mainstream with their live-action TV show releasing, the recent Judas Contract animated film, and also the Teen Titans Go! movie and series. End of the day, if you're not a big enough fan of the Titans to want to join the team then sadly, then this content may not hit the mark. All I can hope is that our next content piece has characters you really love! Feel free to post some characters/ideas you'd like to see in upcoming content.
I do really hope that the Titan experience was cool enough to make you want to be on the team. They're a lot less stuffy than the Justice League. And for the record, Deathstroke has gone one on one with Batman and Superman and held his own in both cases, so the Titans aren't pushovers.

The key takeaways we tried to shoot for narratively were capturing the vibe and story of The Judas Contract storyline and also updating narrative aspects of the game that have long since lapsed into obscurity. We felt it was the time to move Cyborg to the Justice League (where he has been for a while now) and update the early 2000 line up of the Titans by expanding their lore/roster to include the classic team members like Jericho, Nightwing, and Terra. We also wanted to introduce Damian Wayne as the new Robin and allow Tim to grow up to become Red Robin as he has in the comics.

We originally were calling the opening event Graduation Day because it is in a lot of ways for these characters. We hope to introduce other updated Titans and characters in general in upcoming content.

Thanks!

I'm going to save some time and try to address all of the narrative feedback in this one thread. This should include Penryn's comments, as well as, a few other comments.

First of all, thanks for the feedback. You don't realize how much consideration we do when it comes to story and content. Many of the comments here are the exact same ones I have in our brainstorming and planning meetings. There are so many contingencies to consider for both Hero and Villains, and in some cases, we need to pick our battles to ensure the best results.

As far as age goes, the Titans have more than one team. The Teen Titans have had members that stayed on into their mid-20's and the Titans (no Teen) have no age restrictions what so ever on membership. For the sake of DCUO, we basically consider them one big happy family. The older Titans like Starfire and Nightwing act as mentors to the younger members. Also... Comic books... I think by now we all know how things work in comics. The Titans have had over 50 different members in their history including Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog from the original Superfriends cartoon.

Concerning Villians and Disguises:
We had originally planned on Form Changing the Villains into a hero form for the entire content piece, but we know how much players dislike not having your personal costumes, cool appearance items, and additional bells and whistles that you spent so much time earning in-game. For this reason, we opted to forgo this idea.

My only explanation on why the Titans don't recognize your villain characters is that Psimon has explained that he has "set you up" for the audition/mission. That could mean that he put a mental illusion on you to disguise you or had Gizmo plant some sort of neural inhibitors on you that cloaks you. One way or another, you look like yourself, but the Titans can't tell. Psimon IS one of the most powerful mentalists in the DC universe, so his powers shouldn't be underestimated.

I know this is a bit "hand-wavey" but I think it's fair to suspend disbelief for the sake of the greater story. Remember Terra had already murdered/assassinated a well known African politician and his entire family before the Titans took HER on the team. Clearly, they don't background check very well.

Story Goals for The Judas Contract:
Our main goal was giving villain players a cool reason to be evil and play the part of the mole that Terra did in the original story. As I mentioned in DoS, this content piece really is for the villains. If you have played through The Machine Raid and watched the final cinematic, you know what I mean.

We also thought that heroes would enjoy having an opportunity to join the Titans whether as a team member or mentor. Plus being able to experience The Judas Contract, fight Deathstroke (which is a badass battle BTW), meet Jericho, watch Terra fall from grace and fight The ENERVATOR (yes that's what the Machine's real name is) really is an unprecedented DCUO event. Not to mention, the Titans Simulator, a whole new Titans Island open world map with tons of chances to interact with the characters and a whole new H.I.V.E. Base location (all of which look amazing thanks to DEV Oceans and our new Environment Artist who has their DEV name pending).

Likewise, we really wanted to update the Titans roster, as well as, the DCUO roster in general. We wanted to try to rework our sense of history and continuity concerning the Titans and their members.
Cyborg joining the Justice League (where he has been for years) and Red Robin reimagining himself and making room for new classics, like Damian Wayne were things we really felt the game needed. Overall, we hope to continue updating our continuity in future content.

I hope you guys enjoyed the story despite the hand waves and that the future content we release continues to set new standards for narrative and immersion. Thanks for playing.

I like to believe my villain is pretty good at covering her tracks so I didn’t really think about it. She can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they realise that not only was she a mole, but she wasn’t even the mole that’s going to REALLY screw them over! She could be tempted to help them with their real problem if there’s something in it for her, though

I have a question.

About .sigs. Having been dinged on the following in the past for even FAINTLY going over the size limits, I'd like to know if all forum members are still bound by this limit, for reasons that should be obvious.

Thanks for any explanation of whether this limit is still valid, or can we all have much larger .sigs?

Forum Terms of Service.

I'd like to know if I can put this in my .sig again, since it was previously deleted for being "too tall" in violation of the Terms of Service as quoted.

What's not to get? The audition is for being a member of the Teen Titans, not the Justice League. Unless you're already a member of the Teen Titans -- or just "Titans," if you prefer -- what's the issue with joining the Titans? (Presumably we can be members of both JL and Titans, with no conflict.)

Is this ever mentioned in-game anywhere? Because that's directly contradicted by the whole speech Oracle gives us about "welcome to the JLA" as members, when we're given our JL emblem to wear because we're now members of the Justice League.

I don't have any issues with us all being made only "Reservists" if that is, in fact, is explicitly and clearly said in-game.

But I'm pretty sure it isn't.

However, I certainly could be wrong, so could the place in the game where we're told we're "Reservists"? is be named, specifically, please?

Thanks!

Superman welcomes his mentees as members of the JLA below. Oracle says explicitly "welcome to the Justice league as full-fledged members."



Where in the game is it stated this has changed, please?

I'd say you made the right choices on all fronts. The villain side is believable, which is good, but it's nice you also let us keep our customization. And besides the hand-waving, in reality most villain backstories can accomodate things since it's not like we're huge villains like Lex Luthor, lol.

At a convenience store near Paradise Island...

Me: "Tremble heroes, for I am the great Fluidic Liquidation, here to.. um... liquidate you!!!"
(Cyborg looks at Raven, mouths 'who'?)
(Raven just sighs and shrugs her shoulders...)
Beast Boy: "Liquidate this ... Mrs... uh... Flu... uh... hey, guys... help me out here..."
Nightwing: "I don't know... I think it was like Flu Symptoms or something...
Beast Boy: "No, because it had something to do with liquid or something."
Nightwing: "Maybe like a runny nose or something."
Starfire: "Everyone, quickly, put on your surgical masks! I have a date this weekend and I don't want to get sick again."
Me: (sigh...)


Three years later...

Me: "Hi, guys, thanks for letting me try out for the Titans."
Starfire: "Your outfit looks...
Me: (reaching for my weapon just in case)
Starfire: ...amazing!!!"
Cyborg: "What's your name, girl?"
Me: "Fludic Liquidation."
Cyborg: (frowning) "Hmm... that sounds familiar. Haven't we heard that name before?"
Beast Boy: "It sounds like a name from those Japanese game shows!!!!!"
Cyborg: "You're right!!! Have you been on a Japanese game show before?"
Me: (nervous laugh) Um...yes. I won it, actually. One of them. The... Japanese game show... um Yoshumigawa's Purple Door..."
Beast Boy: "That used to be my favorite game show!!!!"
Cyborg: "Is it OK if we just call you L? Or like, do you prefer Liquid or something?"
Me: "No...um L is fine."

The Justice League's ranks sure have swelled with their... 15,000 new members?...

I don't think that anything has changed - we can be full members and reservists at the same time.

Traditionally, being a Reservist means that you're on the JL roster and they call you whenever there's a threat that needs all hands on deck or when they need your specific skills. You don't get called every time a cat gets stuck in a tree.

Being an Active Member means you're On-Duty all the time - you respond to every call, no matter how trivial. It means 12 hours of Monitor Duty every few days. It means press briefings and glad-handing and hospital visits.

Active Members are the face of the Justice League while Reservists are specialists. But everyone is a full-fledged member.

Unless you're Batman. He does whatever he wants.

At least that's what my Head Canon tells me.

A talking head cannon?! That sounds awesome!!!

Do we get overtime? Do we have a union? What kind of medical and retirement benefits does the JL offer? Are there stock options? What kind of paid vacations or sick days or leave are offered? Important questions!

No. We do get pagers, though. And babes. Lots of babes. Of course, we can't really have much a family life with all of the 36-hour straight shifts in Gotham City.

Want to know what the real killer of most heroes aged 24-45 is? Gastritis and ulcers from all those late nights eating nachos instead sitting down to prepare a healthy meal with fresh vegetables.

I'm pretty sure the answers to all of your questions are printed on the back of your JL Emblem.

MATTER-EATER LAD DLC CONFIRMED!

Bug Report
On the Titan's introduction mission, most of Terra's dialog doesn't match up with the subtitles. Here is an example:


Either there is something very wrong with the text file or the audio.

There are still a great many other places in the game, many of many years standing, where the spoken NPC dialogue does not match with the subtitles. A great many places. Particularly on the villain side. It's all been around for so many years I don't even think of reporting it anymore. Is it worth reporting if it's been on live for years? Because it's an issue that could really use a lot of effort if anyone gives a damn about it. It's a problem throughout the game and always has been so widespread I've assumed none of the devs seems to really care. (Former professional editor and proofreader here.)