What do you think of the new DLC?

I recently completed the survey with impressions of the DLC, and it wasn't until I was actually typing out my comments that I realized how upset I am by episode 42, both in content and in implementation. I thought I'd share my impressions and see what the rest of you forum rats thought.

Despite being released months later than expected, this DLC was obviously rushed and released well before it was actually ready. I'm not just talking about the massive technical issues on release, I mean the content that they managed to release wasn't finished. The duo and alert were probably done as intended, but the raid and outdoor sections were half-done at best. The open-world wasn't populated properly and the graphics definitely needed another pass. As for the raid - I think they were done with the first boss and had the second boss mostly finished (look at how sparse the room for the second boss fight is), but the last two bosses fights take place in a big empty parking lot with a couple of graphically simple ground effect mechanics. It seems like they just ran out of time and did the simplest thing they could manage so that they had something to release on the hard deadline they got. I'm not blaming the Devs here. This kind of thing smacks of a corporate decision forced on the programmers who are overworked so we got the best they could manage in the time allotted.

The question is why? DCUO is apparently a moneymaker, but there aren't enough Devs to implement all the things that are planned. We had a massive update to the game with Save the Universe/Omnibus, which I'm sure took a ton of development time. They created the HOL - which is nice, but it wasn't essential, and apparently they're still spending time adding to it which just piles more work on the Devs and takes time away from the next DLC. They did an update to the On-Duty menu that we really didn't need (it's the one menu in the game that actually worked well and was the least in need of an update). All of this stuff took time away from Episode 42 and resulted in the severely lackluster content we got. Then on top of all of that they spent development time adding difficulty levels to the elite raid for episode 42 when they hadn't finished the basic content to begin with.

As for storyline, I just don't get the thinking on this one. This episode was called Legion of Doom, but the only time we interact with any members of the Legion of Doom is the duo and as bounties in the open world. Calling this DLC Legion of Doom was definitely a misnomer when it's just Batman Who Laughs Part 27. Personally I'd have rather seen several fights with LOD members in the raid leading up to a big throwdown with multiple bosses in the final fight. Maybe a set-up like Ultimate soldier where you could fight a couple of the LOD members beforehand to make the last fight easier, or if you skipped them, you got the entire LOD in the final fight. Instead we get to fight Lois Lane as a raid boss - I mean I know everyone was really looking forward to a big scrap with Lois Lane (/s). Then a goofy looking version of Superman (I know he's canon, but so is the Zoo Crew, and I haven't seen Captain Carrot running around anywhere), followed by Poseidon, I mean World Forger, then the Anti-Monitor (hey haven't we seen this guy before... aren't we going to be spending the next month fighting him in the anniversary event?).

All that said, there were a couple glimmers of hope. The duo is fine, it's decent content, and though I'm not a fan of the alert as a whole, the BWL fight (despite being BWL again) is one of the best single fights we've seen in ages. I think if they'd hire a few more people, and focus on what needs doing - fixing all the broken things that have been screwed up for years (the broker, the feat menu, the 8 million little bugs in the old content), and have a team dedicated to nothing but the next DLC then DCUO could really have a bright future. Remember when we got DLCs like Saving Justice with two open world areas, two good alerts, and two really good raids? Maybe we could have that again if corporate would just come off some money and get the Devs the help they need.

i was upset with save the world episode, due to inner sanctum coming out, when theres been this glitch with it for that last ten years, theyve known about it as well they have not fixed it for the longest time I asked around to couple streams/ other players if they had known that mental could do this, well well, to my surprise more then 95% knew about it, they just never said anything to day break,
i reported it nothings happened so ill post it up here
Needless to say, more then 1700 hundred xbox players exploited inner sanctum Elite, clearing the first and second bosses just like this making the raid only last 15-30 minutes, the player in the video helped at least 500 people and showed them this video of how to do it.
i don't really think day break cares, because liked i said inner sanctum has been out for ten years,

The power doing this?, Mental with mental telekinesis .

Well, I’m not a Forum rat since I’m a cat meow, but I can agree with your reaction to Ep. 42. I too was expecting more out of the story line and game play. The launch issues were a secondary concern for me. It really didn’t bother me about the sound issues and I obviously did not participate in the Great Exploit(s).

These time tables get set in planning meetings, and like in my company, I don’t understand why they have to make them so tight or refuse to extend the time line. My co-worker thinks it is make us work extra hard to meet the time table, again I am speaking for company. It might be the same at Daybreak of other companies, I don’t know.

Before Ep. 42 ever neared completion I advocated for the devs to take any additional time they needed because I wanted Ep. 42 to be the best it could be even if it meant a delay. Sometimes the time table comes up against a hard cut-off point like the project I just finished working on for the marketing of a new energy by a certain soft drink company. These time table just can’t be extended, it happens.

I’m willing to accept a longer development time if means a more polished product. Ep. 42 is the first post stat clamp / Omnibus DLC. I’m sure it will be treated as a learning experience with those lessons being applied to Ep. 43.

Personally, I just have a visceral hatred for mechanics that punish the whole group for the mistakes of individual players (Looking at you, Mxy and Anti-Monitor).

Other than that it’s fine, I guess.

apart from the obvious technical issues, I found the latest episode to be no worse or better than Legion or Flashpoint. I enjoyed the duo & the alert was a pleasant distraction, & the raid's a bog-standard DC Universe Online raid. I am neither disappointed nor under / over-whelmed.

I'm wondering if maybe people need to start tempering their expectations of this game. . .

Months later than expected? They clearly outlined the plans with episode 41 and 42 months and months ago. And everything came out within the timeframe which were expected. So how exactly was it released months later? Yes the 3rd and 4th boss take place in a large area. But if you actually follow mechanics than you can see that all that space is used up. I’m assuming you don’t run elite or you would know this. As for the design. Since when has simple meant lazy or unfinished? Some people actually like simple designs. I don’t wanna even know what your house looks like if you believe every inch needs to have something filling it. It’s based in DC, a real place. Real places have a lot of space.

I think some people have difficulty separating emotions from pure feedback. And some people like to put a blanket for everything and review everyone together. Look at episode 41. Some people boycott Allies cause they don’t like stats clamp. One has NOTHING to do with the other. The omnibus also has NOTHING to do with stats clamp. Each are features introduced in the same update. But that’s where the similarities start to diverge.


Now as for the actual DLC. I liked it. The alert had unique mechanics that haven’t been much if at all before. These being bosses without an actual boss. Only other instance we had if this was the card game. Completing tasks to actually progress actually fits in line more with actual comic books. Sometimes you have to clear a target. Sometimes you have to protect someone. Sometimes you have to gather Intel without getting caught. All of these are things that happen a lot on comics that dcuo doesn’t utilize in game play. So the alert being different feels like the devs toying around with new game types. That if good news for the future of the game. The duo has been on of my favorite duos in all of dcuo. And I’ve had a lot of fun learning to solo it on elite too. And the raid was also fun. the open world missions were short and sweet. Don’t want to make these feel like a chore.

As for the bad. The DLC launch was one of the most buggy DLCs ever. The response time was good even if others don’t believe it. Most issues took 24 hrs to get addressed and the only fortify bug was taken seriously. But the response time aside, it was extremely buggy. The storyline in this dlc has felt all over the place. So the story itself didn’t feel to great. While I believe the modding R&D isn’t as bad as others claim, the plans not being tradable feel like a step backwards. The rest of the system is good thou. Crafting is a popular trait in many MMOs to some. So crafting being explored is a plus. My issue is with the feats. Not everything should have a feat attached to it. Crafting should be a way for some to gear up who aren’t as op as others. Crafting when done right can be an incredible addition to an MMO. But I don’t know if it’s something this team can implement correctly.

Other feedback. Game stability continues to be an issue. Players DCing when warping/loading. And each DLC it seems to get worse. This should be a top priority. As a game you want players to stay logged in for as long as possible. Every time someone DCs they risk the player saying screw it I’ll play something else. The devs taking the fortify issue seriously is a plus. But they still need to find a way to monitor cash more. There are ways many games tackle gold sellers for example. Dcuo can implant one of many options other games have used. The devs adding difficulty levels to elite is amazing. It’s hard making an elite that can please everyone but this level system is an amazing way to do it. So props should be given to the devs for continuing to work on this.

The cookie cutter is getting dull.....

~Dusts the thrown shade off~. Nice attack. Perhaps I didn’t phrase it properly in my response to the OP in referring to Ep 42 being the first DLC released after Ep.41 introduced the stat clamp (COMMA) Onmibus. I prob should have referred to it as stat clamp & Omnibus. They are both modifications to the game play system from what we were formerly use to as I am sure you will agree.

And if you want to get technical about it there are stat clamped missions in the Omnibus as well as End Game content.

Have you reported it to Mepps?

Mental "one shot glitch" lol

i have, was told nothing they could do about it and that it was allowed in the game, because it's the powers interaction with the environment ability that allows them to do it, when in reality it's the proximity guards mines aka the adds doing all the damage, they just using the power to exploit that bug, but my bad, its not a bug its an "interaction"

I have my fair share of issues with Episode 42, which I talked about in other threads. I'll respond to your post with points I've noticed too.

If they delayed it, it really would have gone into late Jan early Feb release. Which would delay everything after that. Which stinks, but I know it would have caused some problems for players and releases for them.

As for the raid, I would say that what they promised and what they gave were two different things. The raid, for the most part, was glitch free. Why? Because it was "all hands on deck" development. The issue was, it's a boring 4 boss no real mechanics raid. What do you mean why? Because they dedicated all the development to the Elite+. Where they added new mechanics to upper levels of Elite. This is absolutely disappointing to me. The normal version is no different than the event version, except for damage numbers. Elite got all the skill and uniqueness that should have been in the base version of the raid.

I do ask the same question, why don't they hire more developers? I know this game had more when it still was SOE and a lot left over the years. Why couldn't we have dedicated developers to different elements of the game? I have no answer to this, unless there is a specific mentality the CEO's have for what needs to be worked on.

As for the rest, the game is going towards removing faction separation. We will eventually be able to group and queue as one, but that is rolling out in parts, because it's a lot harder to do at once w/o royally screwing up the game's playability. What we experienced with the fortification would be just a small part of a bigger problem if they just did it in one fell swoop.

Omnibus/Clamp was for the longevity of the game. We had 40 episodes + classic game worth of content. Players that were new had no means of going to the newer content and would leave. It was a necessary change. I know players hate the clamp, I'm not fond of it too, but it's not been as bad as players make it out to be.

The On-Duty change was needed to implement the Omnibus. They hired a UX designer for this. I think they did a good job, but it definitely has a lot of rough edges to it. It has gotten better over time.

Again, the raid was designed for Elite+. Story be darned. As for the overall story, I've read the comics related to this. They got things out of order and left out MASSIVE chunks of plot with it. It also didn't make sense of what was going on. Especially with the doomsayers area. Like, that speech he saying on the propaganda was given when he blew up LexCorp. The whole Duo removing his powers was silly. That didn't happen until near the end. Why does Sinestro have Ultraviolet? Lets just gloss over that. Why is BWL and Murder Machine in our League Halls? He had no connection to Mxy in anyways. Etc. It definitely was lacking.

Staffing is definitely something I do think about. Would they be able to accomplish more if they hired teams to be dedicated to different parts. Separating departments into sections, each working on a part of the game and only that part. Who knows, but it is true, this game makes a lot of revenue compared to the other games owned/licensed by the game company.

It kinda feels like they shoe-horned in character designs that already existed (Mxyzptlk, BWL, Anti-monitor), and left Perpetua as an big inky blob with glowy eyes. If I didn't know any better, I'd say corners have definitely been cut. Combine this fact with an utter lack of any newbase items, and I'm left wondering where the designers are.

I think they’re holding off on revealing Perpetua…at least that’s what my money’s on…

Yeah, it wasn't written well.

Year of the Villain had a lot of threads going that was just glossed over by this DLC.

Mxyzptlk was who the Justice League contacted to get to the 6th Dimension. He was a pawn of the World Forger to get the league out of their dimension so he could imprint the new one over it to prevent Perpetua from being awakened.
Batman Who Laughs was part of the Corrupted sub story of the Year of the Villain. It was completely and utterly not told to us at all.
Anti-Monitor is the brother of Monitor and World Forger. Where each represents the 3 stages of life. Creation - World Forger, Living - Monitor, and Death - Anti-Monitor.
Perpetua being all black, I think was supposed to be a hidden boss and revealed in a future Episode, but I find that amusing considering she was revealed really early on in Year of the Villain. lol

I give this episode a B overall. I'm not a fan of one raid episodes but I'm happy to have 4 boss fights instead of just two with long hallways like fgs. I'd probably bump it up to an A if we had a solo over duo since I prefer to run things by myself most of the time than with another person.

as Plowed In sez, I'm guessing that's an artistic choice, holding off for the big reveal down the line, but, yeah, the absence of any base items, at all, is a big disappointment ( for me, anyway ) this time 'round.

I think the DLC is average at best, it is not absolutely terrible, but is far from my favourite and going forward I think it's safe for me to say it won't be memorable.

I think the open world is massively lacking, it feels deserted and the missions are lackluster, in terms of my enjoyment of open world it's right up there with the disappointment of open world birds of prey.

The duo is ok, although the amount of people too stupid to lunge is immersurable.

The alert is a tragic mess, words don't describe the awfulness of first boss, oh no tentacles, so cool... the Batman Who Laughs fight is excellent, will admit that, however I'm then met with the utter disappointment of that rubbish puzzle fight that is Mr Lepreclown, oh look at that, I have to beg... yea begging for it too stop more like...

The raid is fine, although once again it's just an add fest as well, personally dislike fights with adds for some reason, but that's just me, so personal preference, I don't really have anything terribly bad to say about it, but a raid by itself doesn't make a DLC so conclusion;

The DLC is far from memorable.

On top of that you've then got increased ranks on the augments, increased ranks on the OP neck and ridiculously priced generator mod plans that cant even be traded anymore because, well, I don't know, the devs seemingly can't decide what they want in any given moment one minute things are account bound, next minute they're tradable, next minute they'll be ultra rare drops from raids only, god #&%$ing only knows...

With that being said, yep, DLC is by and large a disappointment, I could lie and be nice about it, but that would probably be a disservice in reality.

Yeah, my league all thinks the increases to the ranks of Augments and OP items with the excessively high cost on the plans all is factored to artificially extend the DLC to give a buffer until the next one.

I think it’s less to do with this DLC and everything to do with adding legendary allies to Cyborg…trade offs…

It certainly seems a plausible reason.