Test Discussion Introducing the Allies System

Discussion in 'Testing Feedback' started by Falagon, Aug 6, 2021.

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  1. Falagon Developer

    We are excited to give you this preview of our newest system, Allies!

    When we set out to design this, we wanted a way for you to call in assistance from your favorite DC characters. This system is meant to be a complement to your gameplay and an enhancement for your game quality-of-life over all.

    Access to Allies
    All players can use all and all allies. They are not limited by your character's Hero or Villain alignment. That’s right, you can be a firm follower of the Joker and still call in a favor from Batman himself.

    Abilities
    Allies have at least two abilities. One is a direct combat ability and the other is a passive ability. Our rarest allies have two passive abilities you can choose from.

    All allies come with their combat abilities ready to use. Their passive abilities will unlock as you level up your affinity with the ally.

    You can have one combat ability and two passive abilities in play at any one time, but they cannot be from the same ally. You can choose which three allies you want to be active, one for a combat ability and one for each passive ability. At this time, you can swap them out during play. In the future, they will work with the armory system.

    Combat Abilities
    When you select an ally for their combat ability, a button on your ability bar becomes active. When you use that button, the ally will appear, perform their combat ability, then leave. If you summon them when there is no combat, they will still appear for a short time, but they will not attack.

    Each ally has a different combat ability. Some are direct DPS on a single target, others may be multi-target or healing or crowd control, and so on. The abilities reflect that ally’s personality and combat style.

    We do not expect them to make you a one-shot-kill warrior nor are they just for show. We really appreciate your part in helping us reach that balance!

    Passive Abilities
    When you slot an ally for their passive ability, the ability is available both in and out of combat.
    Passives are meant to be a small perk; something that gives you a small bonus or a quality-of-life improvement. After all, you have friends in high places now, that should be worth something, right?

    For instance, Flash’s passive ability actually shortens the time between when you come out of combat and when you can return to your normal movement speed. Oracle-Bot's passive ability repairs your gear over time.

    Some passives do activate in combat, such as healing. These are not meant to be huge leaps in performance, but rather small amounts of help that just might tip the scales in your favor in a tight situation.

    Rarities
    Allies come in three categories; Rare, Epic, and Legendary. This is indicated by the icon on their portrait when you acquire them and in the allies interface when you are selecting which you want to play with.

    The differences between the rarities are how many levels they have, when their passive unlocks, and how many passives they have.

    At this time, Rare allies have 5 levels and 1 passive. Epic allies have 8 levels and 1 passive. Legendary allies have 10 levels and 2 passives.

    At each level in each rarity, the ally’s powers increase in some capacity. As many of these increases scale with your character, all allies are useful regardless of rarity. Of course, those which are more rare will see higher increases over all and will be more valuable as time goes on.

    Speaking of Leveling Up...
    We want to be clear that you are not actually leveling up the ally. Come on, Superman really doesn’t need to level up, does he? Think of it more like you are leveling up your relationship with Superman, your affinity with him. After all, he’s not friends with just anyone!

    Leveling up your affinity with your ally will require two things, Ally Favor and Alliances. Unlike artifacts, there is NO chance of failure when you are leveling up your affinity with an ally!

    Ally Favor is dropped in a fashion similar to Nth Metal. You can get Ally Favor by playing the game, in your daily rewards, and from the marketplace. Good news, Ally Favor is treated like a currency and is not going to clutter up your inventory!

    Alliances are a bit harder to come by. You can purchase them from the vendor in-game or on the marketplace. They may also appear as a rare drop!

    Thank you again for helping us with the reveal of what we hope is going to be a great system to add to your gaming experience. We look forward to your feedback!

    Specific Ally Information
    • Oracle Bot - Rare
      • Combat Ability: Single Target Rocket Barrage, damage increases as you level this relationship
      • Passive Ability: Repairs Gear by an amount per time segment. Amount repaired and number of time segment raises as you level this relationship
    • Calculator Bot - Rare
      • Combat Ability: Stun and damage field that can affect up to 8 targets. Damage done goes up as you level this relationship
      • Passive Ability: Procs a small heal. Amount of heal increases and time between heals decreases as you level this relationship
    • House of Legends Bot - Rare
      • Combat Ability: Electrical, single target suppressing fire
      • Passive Ability: Gives power back when you successfully stun an enemy
    • Flash - Epic
      • Combat Ability: Arm Blast Tornado Cones damaging anything his path, but does not attain new target.
      • Passive Ability: Shortens the time between when you come out of combat and when you can return to your normal movement speed
    • Zoom - Epic
      • Combat Ability: Pulls in up to 8 enemies around him doing damage over time
      • Passive Ability: Increases movement speed when you are not in combat and do not have a travel power active.
    • Cyborg - Epic
      • Combat Ability: Sonic Bomb - AoE damage
      • Passive Ability: If base generators are above 50%, you get a bonus to passive power recovery rate
    • Flashpoint Batman - Legendary
      • Combat Ability: Fires guns at a single target, then throws 3 AoE grenades
      • Passive Ability 1: Defense Bonus when solo
      • Passive Ability 2: Activation of weapon buff increases health
    • Queen Diana - Legendary
      • Combat Ability: Taunts all enemies
      • Passive Ability 1: When the player pulls an enemy, that enemy's weapon attacks are debuffed
      • Passive Ability 2: Performing a breakout increase bonus might
    • Emperor Aquaman - Legendary
      • Combat Ability: Summons Kraken tentacles which stun and damage all enemies in AoE
      • Passive Ability 1: Using a supercharge, ally active power cool down is reduced
      • Passive Ability 2: Summoned henchmen and pets get increase in damage
    • Like x 4
  2. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    O.k., if I'm understanding correctly, only the combat Ally will appear. The other two will do their thing automatically (passively), but you'll never call for them or see them.
  3. catplaysxoxo Loyal Player

    I was pretty let down that the ally does one attack and then leaves. The cooldown seems a little long for that very reason. Any thoughts on improving that aspect?
    • Like x 2
  4. lllStrichcodelll ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Rarity levels have to go.


    All allies should be able to get leveled to the same level or else we just went full circle of the game being pay to win since you intend to monetize the system with legendaries being marketplace exclusive items. Also, all allies must be able to be accuired by playing the game... and to get ahead, not after grinding 20000 hours.

    The system seems fun and engaging but if you dont change that aspect, you might aswell launch DC on mobile because thats how those "fun mobile games" monetize aswell and everybody loves Raid shadow legends etc. :rolleyes:
    • Like x 10
  5. lllStrichcodelll ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


    If thats too many changes or too much work just make the legendaries rares for free and give us the option to rank up their rarity with rare item drops through omnibus or whatever. But do not make the mistake of turning this system into a cashgrab!
  6. Y3ti New Player

    „ Queen Diana - Legendary
    Combat Ability: Taunts all enemies“

    So a pet that does my Job as Tank? Am i understanding this correctly?
    • Like x 1
  7. 9001BPM Steadfast Player

    Even putting that aside, it’s going to suck if your favourite character is in the lower tiers and you have to put yourself at a disadvantage if you want to use him/her.
    • Like x 4
  8. 9001BPM Steadfast Player

    I imagine that it’ll be a “soft” taunt, like sidekick, Holographic Decoy, Mass Hysteria ghouls, damage role Ice Elemental, that celestial healer supercharge I can’t remember the name of, etc, etc.
  9. Cajaritotutututu Well-Known Player

    Wow i wanted to post something...and well thats basically all i wanted to say.

    The system seems like another grind, but so far the result and what you get is pleasant, but i can't tell how painfull (or not) will be to level up the allies on live, thats what intrigues me.
    • Like x 3
  10. lllStrichcodelll ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    I just tried to equip my freshly obtained allies in the passive slots and it didnt work. After trying for 2min i relogged and it still didnt work. Turns out i didnt level them up thus not having a passive.
    Its obvious but still confusing at start so maybe there should be a prompt that you cant equip it because you dont have the passive unlocked or you can equip it straight away although not granting the effect (Like lvl 0 artifacts).
  11. Jafin 10000 Post Club


    (Referring to the part in red) - Where did they say they would be MP exclusive? Also are you talking about the actual allies themselves or the Legendary Alliance catalysts? I don't see anything about MP exclusivity in the OP and I don't recall them saying it in the stream last night either.

    Edit: Nevermind, I just read Charon's postings in another thread about it. The messaging seems a bit unclear. In one post he listed Tier 3 (Legendary) as being on the MP, and then in another said "Tier 3s are definitely at least on the marketplace" which, to me, reads as meaning "at least on the marketplace, but maybe other places too." If they are actually MP exclusives...no bueno.
    • Like x 2
  12. lllStrichcodelll ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


    Lets face it. The ally system is shady. The introduction and the execution. I really like all the other stuff this update brings but this shady way of not announcing the allies for what they are or at least not mentioning the negatives in the first place is shady.

    How can they say they intend to make the game fully f2p with this update but then come around the corner with a system thats (to some degree) p2w. And thats just for the part to accuire these allies.
    From what i've seen on test, you need 299k ally favor (currency) to level up a legendary ally to max. So far i didnt drop any (possible bug) but theyre worth 1 xp each. So if it doesnt drop like nth metal in terms of numerical value (like 50/100/200/500xp) there is a pretty high chance they will sell ally XP in the marketplace just like nth metal.
    • Like x 1
  13. Yaiba Committed Player

    The ally XP is indeed on MP (showed on livestream) so they will be same as artifact system, if you want to level up your allies fast, spend some money :oops:
    • Like x 2
  14. Multiverse 15000 Post Club

    299 000XPs for Flashpoint Batman to reach rank 10...... that is a LOT of XPs for some pretty minor bonus abilities.

    And already we have some pretty useless allies.

    Not sure who would want to use Oracle or Calculator other then for roleplay purpose.

    People will ell use the 3 most powerfull/usefull Alllies and pretty much ignore the rest.

    Will have to test some more to be sure...... but not too crazy about this new addition.

    About as underwhelming as the Gotham City Emergence Signal. :(
    • Like x 1
  15. StealthBlue Loyal Player

    I'm currently stuck in the ally introduction mission. It says to go to the ally menu, but nothing happens when I get there. I may have consumed then equipped Oracle before the mission updated, so I'm stuck now.

    Also, when I click on the ability button, the image for Oracle covers the description of the ability. [IMG]

    Edit: I just got done with another character, making sure I waited for any dialog to finish before moving on to the next step, and I'm stuck at the same place. I'm guessing you have to finish that mission before you can see anything on Cyborg, because I can't see anything on him.
    • Like x 1
  16. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    There's a bug with the journal. You can clear it by equipping & levelling up 3 allies. Get them from the testing cache on the PvE vendor.
  17. Captain1Dynamo Committed Player

    Say, how do you get new Allies? I'm not talking about the testing cache from the PvE vendor, I'm asking about how we'll get them when this Episode goes live. I presume we'll buy from Cyborg (since it says Allies Vendor under his name). But right now he has nothing for sale. Is there something special we'll have to do to unlock new Allies, or will they just be for sale on the vendor? I'm thinking new ones will be created for each new Episode (like Artifacts), correct? Will the cost be in Source Marks or some other currency?
  18. StealthBlue Loyal Player

    At the end of the tour of the HoL, you talk to Cyborg and he sends you on a mission through the boomtube next to him. when you finish, you get your fist ally (Oracle or Calculator depending on if your character is a Hero or Villain). You'll be walked through a tutorial similar to the one with Contantine on Artifacts. After you finish the whole tutorial, you'll be able to see what Cyborg sells. Unfortunately, that tutorial is broken right now, so we won't be able to see those items on test. Apparently grabbing the test box puts that mission in an odd state, it no longer shows in your Journal, but isn't "completed" as far as the game is concerned. So you can currently test Allies, but you'll have to look at the replay of the live stream to see the vendor costs. This may bug may also prevent the ally xp from dropping in game on test right now.

    The three legendary allies (FP Batman, Queen Dianna, and FP Aquaman) were not on the vendor in the live stream, so it's not clear how you get those. The rest were on Cyborg when they showed that vendor on the live stream.
  19. KidSuperBoy Well-Known Player

    Good morning all. I have an issue with loading my Allie. First I consumed my allies pack initially prior to the Cyborg mission and noticed no difference. Secondly after completing the mission I saw no way to activate or engage my Oracle bot. Is the tap sequence incorrect? Thank you.
  20. Mr.W Committed Player


    I absolutely agree
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