The real problem behind DCUO

So, lately all I can see is threads about, how DCUO is dying, how the devs are killing the game, how the drops are awful, how unbalanced are powers, skill points matter or not, bla bla bla, etc.
I guess it was time for someone to add to those threads and say what's the real problem.

The real and the biggest problem is, each and everyone of us. I include myself and every player on DCUO.

First I would like to add some facts of things that have happened in the past.

1.- When I arrived to this game, or really started playing it it was when War of the Light was released, I remember very well people complaining about the game dying, and every DLC it's the same thing always people saying the game is dying, the game is begining to get crap etc. There has been some major updates that have accentuated that, but let's be honest, most of the people that really care about the game are still here, and there is always new people coming, they might be in lvl 30 and lower tiers, but yet the game is not dying yet. Old people might leave yes, we may see less people sometimes yes, but the game it's not going anywhere, because most of the population it's not always end game.


2.- I think people haven't realized yet how hard is to balance powers, you call it strategy to make money, you call it whatever you want, but as a lot of testers have seen there is a freaking load of factors that makes the unbalance. It's not easy, there will always be a power that is going to be slightly better than other, it happens. Yet we bash against devs for not balancing.


3.- Some people doesnt realize the devs do what they think it's best for the game, and sometimes they do exactly what we ask for. We want balance, they try to balance, some of the people doesnt want it done that way some others do, but hey that's life, we can't always agree on what we like or we don't. But I strongly believe the devs don't want the game dying, it's their job after all, based on our feedback they do what they think it's best, it might not always pay off like they wanted to but that's life.


4.- Let's talk about the loot real quick, remember those old days when you ran an alert and complained about getting that useless healer piece for your troll? well the same exact thing happens with the 112 gear you get now.
Those pieces are only contributing to the salvage feat. This is something I've said before, i'm sure many of us rather see the actual rare piece in another role, that having to see lower pieces because they suck. While I love the unnatuned character of the drops, I still believe the way loot worked back in A&B was better, I was sometimes able to get a piece for my dps or my tank both at in the same run, now in raids I'm able sometimes to get a piece only for 1 role. I love the loot picker though, that is awesome. But if we seriously think, the loot drops aren't bad at all. And after all it's what we've been asking all along

And let's be realistic, if you want all drops fall in one run, then why the hell are you playing the game in the first place? If you expect have 137 cr on day one on your first run then stop pretending wanting to play an MMO, because that's how the games work. Go play a game where you can use cheats and get everything on first time to play.


5.- Also I want to add to this is that people doesn't seem to understand what random is.



Just to explain a little bit, the image on the left it's actually what random means, the one on the right it's not random. I think that might clear things up to some people.

What I want to get with this image, is in one run you could get each time 123 gear, while then in 10 consecutive runs you could get no gear at all all 112, and in another run you could get 119 and then 123 and then 112.
It's Random!

I understand we can get fustrated after X runs of not getting anything, or after replaying 20 times and get only the same pieces. But that's how it works, you can't blame the devs, after all you decided to replay, and quoting the joker, You pay your money and you take your chances. There is no one to blame but yourself.

6.- The Skill points, I won't get into the subject, because people have different opinions, I want to release soon a video explaining my point of view. But what's true about this subject, is people may have different opinions, but don't base your opinion just on your guts, if you're doing make real tests and define what's better, 77 sp or 244.
Also consider that it's not the same between roles, some roles benefit more from sp. At all consider more sp as a plus.
It's important also to remember some people like to chase for SP, is that wrong? not really it's their choice, let them be. You do your things, they do theirs.


7.- Remember before posting that a lot of the things we say here on the forums are watched by the devs, so if you're having an idea be careful for what we wish, how many times have we wished something that has backfired to us? It's not easy being dev. So many people with so many different ideas and things they want for the game. We should be grateful actually for having devs that listen to us. Would it be better if the devs did with the game whatever they wanted to without listening to us? We're even maybe getting water powers, which have been wished for a long long time. (Also very important, that many people haven't realised, but a lot of devs that used to work in DCUO have left the team when the change from sony to daybreak, included some of the devs that were most active here, part of why they have to leave things asside or part of why they can't do everything when we ask for it)



8.- Last but not least, I understand it's a community and everyone has their different reasons and opinions, but when you're just bashing against other people, even against the people that make this game possible you're doing it wrong. There is always room to give opinions in order, and try to get in agreement, if that's not possible IT'S FINE. We don't always have to agree on things.



TL;DR: Don't be lazy and read it
Besides that, let's stop with all the bs we create in the game, let's enjoy the game we want and play, and let's agree on disagreeing, it's fine. We shoudln't want to always have reason either. And let's deal with what we have in game, if you don't like it then it's as easy as stop to playing it.

Also you're entitled to not agree with me, but it's always good to answer in a polite way

1+

well said

I would rather have the 112 gear and at least be able to equip and attune it to whatever role I want, maybe even get the style feat than getting something I can't even wear.

No, no, no, no.

Ok.

Maybe.

p.s.: War of the Light, to me, was the exact moment when the game began to die that´s why our perceptions are so different!

Before you reply...take into account that i modified your quote, so it's like basically you said that, you dont wana contradict yourself do you? (jk)

this is the real problem. the stupid rng is a disaster and needs to be done away with. ,!,,

Stop acting like there's not stuff the developer's implemented that no one completely didn't ask for.

Mark Relevancy for just ONE example.

There's alot of aspects very wrong or badly implemented in the game that the community had nothing to do about.

Nicely stated. You leave it open for people to (constructively) disagree. And whether or not anyone agrees or disagrees, they are good talking points.

Side note: There's what the universe considers random, there's what people (less statisticians/mathematicians) consider random, and there's what a computer subroutine thinks is random; and I have my doubts on whether or not those three ever overlap.

at one point they were like nah we wont stat clamp you, but hey look at this update we went and did a turn around and actually stat clamped you in a way. and oh btw you are going to be tier locked so you can crush older content because people on the forums complained. i am at the point to where the only thing i can run is dc. because of the stupid rng bad luck thing now so wtf. seriously its driving me mad

Ive seen Stat Clamping, we arent stat clamped

Correct, there are stuff that the Community didnt ask for but the Devs did it anyways to hopefully better our experience. Something are hit and miss but the Devs will do whats best for the game and its players even if the Players can't outright see it which in fact, is the Mark Relevancy. Its better for the longevity of the game to deal with one mark than handle 2 Marks with one of those being inflated to higher undesirable numbers.

2.
If you check out some tests, most powers are pretty close in damage in range. But yeah I agree with what you're saying too, but if you consider all the factors in thinking that we can easly adjust powers it's not exactly true, just to quote a few factors:
Enemies health ( Boss vs match vs minion) , How the damage is dealt, 1 single burst, multiple bursts, damage over time, AoE, Cone of the attack, Style of AM , Mid-range vs Melee Vs Range etc. etc. etc..


6. As I said I didn't wanted to get that much into the subject, but one of the first problems is that people only take into account the DPS side of it, while there are also other roles into it.
Not only that, when you want to know if SP are useful or not, then you compare them between the same power, not between 2 different powers. You can't an apple to a table right? (I mean depends on the criteria of course but you get the point ) What the problem there it's the balance between powers, not the sp.

I definitely get what you're saying, and I definitely understand the fustration, I knew it when I was fire back in the day. And I totally agree it shouldn't happen, but that's how things are right now.

- And sorry I sometimes Like to contradict myself jk

So, first of all thanks for your respectful answer, now I would like to know what you propose to eliminate the random drops? Because they have always existed and they always will, and even more in the MMO type of games.

You can even play a game like pokémon, random will always exist like which pokémon you encounter, what level it is, what ability and all the other things a pokemon carry through.

I agree and at the same time I dont.

So the mark relevancy wasn't well implemented in my opinion, but it's a direct consequence of changing to a single mark system.
Otherwise it would be pointless to let a single mark and be able to get marks from every content, do T1 that you do in 5 minutes to get marks for your T7? That doesnt sound right to me.

Now why they changed to a single mark system?

First of all I was one of the persons I didn't liked the single mark systems, but there are some things that made right there too.
( The utility belt and base upgrades for example, I coudln't be happier with those, and i'm sure i'm not the only one.)

As for why they changed it to a single mark, well there are some things to consider.
The mogo armor for example costed at the last time around 35-60k marks of triumph a piece.
The cap was around 150k marks of triumph, now if we went further into content t6 - t7 Imagine the costs of the new gear now converted to marks of triumph. It would have around an exponential growth costing over 150k marks of triumph a piece or more. Each time they would have to increase the cap. And at some point the numbers would get ridiculous.

Converting all those to a single mark system removed the problem of having extra big numbers, and not having to increase cap each time. ( Not only that but remember each time that there was a new mark all the conversion issues there was? People losing marks etc.? )

Futhermore you have to consider how big of a joke getting feats like tokens of merit became, and all the lower tier gear became a joke to get as well. So to actually make the people getting into the game work ( Like everyone have asked, in the forums for a while, "stop carrying", "make them work" etc.) a single mark system would help with that as well.

There is a lot to pros to a single marks system but also cons, so the devs weighted it out, and to be honest it hasn't turned that bad.

The other solutions
A lot of you might be aware because you've been here long enough, some others might not know, but before each tier had their own mark. What if the devs made a single mark for each tier, you'd have prefered that, where you're at t7 and have to run t3 content to actually get t3 gear that you missed back in the day? Or you prefer to play new content to eventually work for only 10 marks for that piece of gear?


There might have been other solutions, I don't know them nor I expect people to agree with what I've just said, but I presented what I know, and there are people that complain and other that presents solutions, I would definitely love those that present solutions to be heard more, but it's part of what i'm saying that the problem is us, because a lot of those solutions doesnt get heard because of the large number of complaints.

And most important: $$! And Im at a point were I dont even blame them (Devs) as they surely have to meet high expectations although the playerbase is stagnant at best.
Thats something I ve read here quite often and never really understood. Why is it good for the longevity? Even if one would argue that its more "simple" or that higher numbers are less desirable I would rather approach the mark change from its outcome. 1) newer players who didnt have all the styles have it harder to complete those 2) "Rent-runs" made it easier to queue for T4/5 3) lots of players felt (unreasonably or not) that content was taken away from them which directly leads to 4) and most important: mark-change was badly received by a really huge amount of players. It was done although it wasnt REALLY needed from a gameplay-perspective (worked fine before at a comparable pace). Personally I dont even mind the mark-change all that much- but I think it wasnt beneficial for the longevity of DCUO (#47 as a whole) at all.
OnTopic: #1 problem for me is that allthough DCUO has one of the biggest brands (DC!) and (had) a great core-gameplay it is yet really "niche". Whithout DC it wouldnt probably be around anymore and that imo has to do with DCUO failing at being an mmo (crafting, economy, character-progression...) as well as failed monetization/f2p - modell.

Your wrong skymaster, its the pvp community thats dying its the real reason
The devs work only on pve, and they ignore the pvp side, they boost all the powers for pve and it breaks pvp,
Others love the challenge and thrillers that come only from pvp, before they started overbuffing powers and weapons pvp was fun and always new challenges now, its completely broken, the reason why half the population quit dc.

THE REAL PROBLEM IS PVP.