Suggestion to improve DLC's going forward

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by ChillCat, Aug 12, 2014.

  1. ChillCat Loyal Player

    I'm a legendary member. I have multiple toons and experience with every power type (except yellow HL). I look forward to enjoying every DLC when it comes out, but I've noticed there's something lacking that, to me, would improve the experience....more story.

    Before any eyes start rolling, hear me out. Think back to your first toon the very first time you started playing and why you started playing this game to begin with. For me, it was the chance to play along or as legendary characters. It was the thrill of being part of the comic universe I'd been reading since I was a kid. How awesome is that? I get to talk to Batman and he sends me on missions against Bane or Poison Ivy. I get to scheme along with Lex Luthor against Alan Scott in the original JLA headquarters. Again, that's AWESOME!!!!

    However, when you get to that magical lvl30 and start getting into DLC content, the story part falls away. There's usually a 30-second dialog intro by a main character and a loose theme connection from solo challenge to 8-player raid within the same DLC but that's it. The overall story arch narrated by either Oracle or Calculator seems to be getting shorter with each new DLC in favor of tougher alerts and raids combined with daily grinds and new style sets. We've fallen into this model of 1) DLC is released, 2) everyone rushes to get the new gear+marks+feats as possible, 3) rinse/repeat/complain until the next DLC comes out.

    What I believe would improve the whole experience is to re-institute the more immersive storylines you go through pre level 30. Yes, there's more dialog and you lose the instant gratification for advanced players to jump immediately into raids and alerts, but you get back to what made this game so fun to play when you started....becoming part of the story with your favorite characters.

    Don't get me wrong; I understand the challenge. Devs are under pressure to keep releasing more content faster to keep the legacy players interested. My concern is the rush to get the content out has forced a focus on new battle challenges and landscapes while storyline gets short-changed in the process. I believe focusing on story first and incorporating challenges as part of the story in a linear narrative will make for a more satisfying DLC and more likely keep the players busier for a longer stretch of time. Not busy grinding; busy exploring the DC Universe.

    I'd love to hear some input from the community and the devs on this one.
    • Like x 6
  2. Ice Clown New Player

    I got lost in this whole "DCUO storyline" after origin crisis. So yeah its been a while, and I dont really care that much about the story anymore since they started getting kinda plain.

    But a big improvement I want in future DLCs is we don't get extra downtime when they release the new contents. It destroys my joy about DLCs, when I have to download like 5-8GB for like 2-4 hours, then I end up waiting for another 2-4 hours just so they can fix all these massive glitches/bugs.
  3. ChillCat Loyal Player


    Even though your response heads in a different direction, I think we're recognizing the same issue. The stories "started getting kinda plain" a few DLC's back. But what if the stories weren't "kinda plain"? What is they were well-written and interlaced stories. The way the DLC's function now, it's like sitting down to watch your favorite movies but only watching key scenes and skipping everything in between. IT's becoming all action and no engagement.
    • Like x 3
  4. Ice Clown New Player

    and the action in the new DLCs kinda sucks too, I mean bosses have so much health.... my ice tank stays in one place for 30min just holding block and spamming power immunity, while the boss keep attacking me and never do me any DMG. It gets soooooooooooo boring since they have so much health. Their health needs to be lowered and their DMG needs to be buffed + they need special fighting mechanics, not lazy player combat mechanics.
    • Like x 2
  5. ChillCat Loyal Player

    Again, I'm right there with you. The emphasis especially in the more recent DLCs is to make the content feel bigger by making the battles more longer at the risk of making them monotonous. If more emphasis is placed on incorporating the battles into the storyline, the battles need not be so long. They can be a little bit shorter and still be just as or more satisfying if they feel like part of a bigger story.
    • Like x 1
  6. Ice Clown New Player

    Yeah, the DEVs need to do something in the future to make DLCs more fun. The new DLCs for me atm, feels like chores. I already quitted HoP1 in like 3days because of the boring high health bosses.
  7. Opinion 001 New Player

    Could not agree more. Each DLC should be anticipated as if waiting for the next issue of a favorite comic book to arrive. Sure i like the pictures and the action, but the story should be the main draw.
    • Like x 1
  8. GregDawe New Player


    They try to tell stories as apart of putting an order to each instance, but it doesn't work.
    They need the comic cutscenes back.
    They need a few missions that aren't instances, that have you doing solo parts and maybe get help for parts that aren't queues but take you AGES, as in weeks, reward you AWESOMELY, but get into an indepth story telling.
    • Like x 4
  9. Piqued Pixie Active Player

    Agreed! Part of the draw of the comic book world is getting to interact with the story arc. The story is a big part of the RPG aspect of the game.
    • Like x 4
  10. GregDawe New Player


    I have 2 characters I have begun writing origin stories for 2(maybe 3) toons in conjunction with how the WotL plays out, so I am hoping they put some (more) effort into that story arc, as well as all the others going forward.
  11. Armsbend New Player

    Older games that are profitable, but not making lots of money, commonly fall into this category. They are not adding many new players so they keep the older ones around (and paying) by adding content heavy on grind. They do not have many developers working on the project any longer so they add easily code-able instances with tons of replay, but very light on everything else.

    My main game, The Secret World, seems to be going through this transition right now. Funcom's quarterly report goes into detail as to why it happens if anyone is curious about a middle-of-the-road MMO - very similar to DCUO.
    • Like x 1
  12. StarshipAwesome Well-Known Player

    The story of an mmo is gonna have to be mostly through the actions the players take. But, that has to be balanced with the fact they switch back and forth between big group content and small group content, so no one type of player gets left behind. When the cr of npcs get into the 90s, that's where their difficulty spikes up in ever increasing amounts. But, the boss difficulty is also from the fact that players have potentially so much at their disposal: utility belts, the various things from mainframes, having up to 4 sets of gear to switch through, generator buffs, league hall buffs. The bosses need to have high health.
    • Like x 1
  13. Shad0wReap3r Committed Player

    While I do not disagree with the majority of your statement, one part you mention would be good is happening. DLC 8 is tied in with the entire amazon fury trilogy. The power Circe took from Trigon is what she is using to start the war between the amazons. Also to note, the entire trilogy system is a way for the devs to attempt connecting DLCs with longer, more fleshed out stories.

    I will completely agree though that we should see more cutscenes for the stories than we do now. Generally we are getting a starting cutscene with nothing but fighting between it and the end of the raid. I would love to see these stories fleshed out much more, as the game seems to be flying by. I do hope as the trilogies progress the devs plan to go further in depth with the stories.
    • Like x 2
  14. ChillCat Loyal Player

    Agreed. More cut scenes with engaging dialog would go along way toward making the storyline more cohesive. Over emphasis and grinding battle after battle can get tedious.
  15. DarkSyde79 Loyal Player

    Making luck a progression mechanic hasn’t worked, especially when luck and be purchased 87 RBs at a time.

    The one thing I would suggest beyond making the content challenging is for RBs to be limited.

    When a persons can run months of content in a matter of hours, their view of the content becomes disoriented.

    Of course this’ll never happen since this game is more about the burst playtime than sustained playtime.

    In the end, the only way for a player to savor a DLC is for them to limit their playtime and the use of RBs because the DCUO powers-that-be just want our cash and 100 hours of general play time is worth WAY less than 10 hours of RB play time.
  16. MEBegnalsFan Devoted Player

    Using Amazon fury as an example...It is an extension of Battle for Earth DLC. After helping in gates, Wonder Woman mom decides to attack Gotham. The story is there, you just need to play all of the content in order. For instance, Gates happens, than Solo Circe, Sold WW, duos, Alert...story to continue in next AF DLC....

    Same for the War of Light...and I imagine there is some similarities with the Hall of Power...the story is there, it is just interconnected between the various content. The same was said for Origin Crisis...
  17. ChillCat Loyal Player

    True and I'm not saying there's no story at all. I would say that the story has really turned into a collection of battles VERY loosely held together with a theme that's being called a story. We're talking about making the overall DLC experience better, and it would help a lot to have the story portion fleshed out more completely with Iconics dialog, cutscenes and all the other pieces that made for a more complete storyline in the pre-level 30 parts of the game.
  18. MEBegnalsFan Devoted Player

    Pre-level 30 stuff was to be solo...most of the level 30 stuff is you group up...less story there...
  19. ChillCat Loyal Player

    You're right, and what we're concluding is that DLCs coming out would be better if there were more story with the group content (really all content).
  20. Gargamond Dedicated Player

    I could be mistaken but wasn't this very idea the consensus on the forums two and a half years ago, which resulted in the devs creating the first Operations? Weren't Operations supposed to be the answer to a more involving story arc for top tier toons?