Upcoming episodes to expect?

You're right, it's terrible that there's all that old content that endgame players are locked out from and can't run anymore! Episodes that can't be entered anymore because a player won't get Marks for their efforts in there! For shame, devs, for SHAME!!!!

Oh wait....

Having Mark relevancy is fine. It's bad design to reward players with progression currency for running content they've essentially outgrown and only encourages players to take the easy route. All that content is there and available to be run at any time. All it takes is getting over the fact that a player won't be getting Marks when they run it.

Even when Mark relevancy was not a thing though, players weren't receiving progression currency for running content they'd outgrown. In fact, right now players can run content that is still considered within Mark relevancy, but not be able to buy progression gear. If you're in Metal II, you can only get progression through Thanaganarian Crowns, even though Metal I and JLD are still considered in the window of Mark relevancy.

The episode specific currency already fixed that problem. You can only progress by running content at-level.

All that Mark relevancy meant was that players who did go back and play older content for zero upgrades (which wasn't exactly hopping pre-Mark relevancy to begin with), couldn't get Source Marks as a consolation prize to at least buy a catalyst or something.

I wouldn't want players to actually get progression gear from older content. But that was never the case. What I do know is that very few players used to run old content, because it had no upgrades or relevant marks. And since Mark Relevancy took away the Source Marks, players still rarely run it, and now there is even less of a reason to go.

Most players do just accept the fact that there is nothing in older content for them. They accepted that, even when Source Marks were still included. But the problem is, accepting that doesn't mean that they run the content when there is nothing in it for them. Instead, it's that they write it off as no longer being worth their time.

The solution to sparking an interest in older content, I do not believe, would be eliminating Mark Relevancy, because before it existed the queues were not significantly better. The solution is simple, because it already exists in game.

Panopticon Elite and Gotham Zoo Elite. I can run those every single week off of the random queue. Tons of players run them, despite the fact that there is no marks or combat upgrade gear. They run them for the Ultraman Cape and the Manbat Henchmen. If content was made so that there were rare drops off of final bosses, rare loot that was tradable so it's worthwhile even after you get it, and that has a feat attached which makes it desireable even if players don't care about the style. If new content had those rare drops, then players would return and farm them. Nobody is going back when there is no reason to.

Um.... Hate to break this to you, but you might actually be playing the wrong game.

New Content hahahahaha

I've said for almost a decade now that they need to be putting out full-blown expansions, things every bit as big and full of things to do as what is now considered the base game (the original game plus DLC's 1 & 2). Look at what Bethesda puts out for ESO, it's not only a full blown expansion with dozens of quests each year (in 2019 their one expansion, Elsweyr, came out to FAR more content than did all of DCUO's DLCs combined) but also at least a DLC with around a dozen or so quests as well (not including the raids or dailies). Having new things to do is what keeps people coming back, not giving them tiny bits to grind over and over.

That's all well and good (and correct) when you're talking about endgame players. But not everyone is at endgame, and anyone that's still using Marks for progression could do easy mode old content and never touch the content they're actually relevant for.

As an example, I'm hitting Amazon Fury 3 content on my active characters (I like taking my time, okay? LOL). Remove Mark relevancy and I could go hit all the lower tier solo content that I wanted and maybe get some greater Mark returns by running walk-ins of places like Ace Chemicals or the South Gotham bottle duos and get all the Marks I wanted or needed without having to touch a single piece of content in Amazon Fury 3.

Not only does that end up being bad design (rewarding god mode in MMOs rarely works out well), it also removes a potential player from the content I should be running to progress through the game. On top of that you'd likely see costs for items and services like Mainframes that require Marks increase to account for the influx of Marks that would be coming into the system.

Finally, and this is something I've said this before, unless there's a problem with the Marks endgame players are receiving NOT covering their Mark costs in game, there really isn't a compelling reason to give out Marks in out-of-relevancy content.

They used to have episode specific currency for all the episodes which was basically the solution to this problem. Suddenly they did away with that and it seems like players who aren't at end game are just at the back of their minds. They treat all that content as "old" and "irrelevant" regardless of players who may be gearing up still and having to go through that content.
I agree with others, the current trend of DLC is not doing much justice and causing all their work and effort to become worthless pretty quickly. We're already getting close to 40 episodes, that's so far the most DLC I've seen in any game that isn't just a cosmetic (unless it is?) It sounds like a lot, but with the way they handle it it's really almost nothing.

The "how the devs are handling it" line of thought might have more weight to it for me if there was something in place that actually prevented players from accessing content that they've outgrown. And I don't mean the desired rewards aren't there, I mean that the game was coded so that a player who had moved past, say the Lightning Strikes version of Central City, couldn't get into the open world section or queue up for any of the instances associated with that episode.

But that's not the case. The devs purposely left older content open, so the whole game is open to anyone who subscribes and players who don't sub but bought episodes still have access to those episodes. The closest I think you could come to the "how they handled it" line of thinking is Replay Badges, but even then the use of those ends up being down more to how a player uses (or misuses) them than the devs putting them into the game in the first place.

To me it's more on the players. All that old content is there and available for play. The only thing stopping players from playing is themselves.

https://mobile.twitter.com/DCUO/status/1222924966078963714

I was referring to how the content is made to be "quick" and irrelevant fast, I feel like the DLC can be made to last much longer in that sense. Players would complain though because they get bored fast, the content is made to reflect that so that it's not a very long grind.
So now only 1 or 2 months into a DLC people are already begging when the next one is coming out.

You do a few missions and the DLC is already done, all that makes it longer is the grind for currency and drops.

Maybe it's just me but I usually figure DLC should be something long and worth the expansion price.

I guess this just isn't the type of game for things like that.

I agree that it's mostly the players, and the content made is to satisfy their wants as efficiently as possible.

Taking bets on an instance inside Oracle’s Clock Tower that’s actually just a re-dressed, reversed version of that Bane mission in the Cape Carmine Lighthouse.

:O

Oh trust me I know I am is why I'm leaving it. All the hero based content as a villain is ridiculous imo, and I dont buy the 'your doing it for your own motives' as so many love to spout around here to justify the lack of hero and villain content.

So there's an upcoming storyline called
bb7ee95839d732de666dc1a1faee2605fecbe2d5 by Michael Kramer, on Flickr
(well, it was upcoming before A huge chunk of the staff at DC got laid off and a bunch of their titles were announced as being Cancelled!) I was thinking that this could be a possible way to update the winter seasonal.
Now admittedly, My main interest is in seeing larfleeze get booted off but also I thought this would be a nice way to re-introduce DC fans to not only DC's Cold themed villains but also some of the Ice-based powered heroes such as Tora Olafsdotter aka ICE
Ice by Michael Kramer, on Flickr
and Sigrid Nansen aka Icemaiden
108267156_3633743916640505_128930166796989624_n by Michael Kramer, on Flickr

and have Captain cold, Mister Freeze, Killer Frost and Icicle go on a holiday themed rampage! On the Hero side Ice could give the mission briefing and Icemaiden could replace the vending machine. on the Villain side, It could be the Icicle giving the briefing while Killer frost sells the Merch. (or vice-versa)

Why is that?

https://www.dccomics.com/characters

Theres all these characters but we only see the ones I listed in every DLC or every other DLC. Kinda sad if you ask me. Such a massive amount of potential going to waste on like 10 iconics.