Anyone playing DC Universe Online?

Discussion in 'Press Start' started by matthunter, Feb 7, 2016.

  1. matthunter

    matthunter Ice Bear

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    Free-to-play model is a bit crap as you won't find it easy to access the later content without some of the add-on DLC but this is a fun superhero (or villain) MMO, and recent server merges have meant the PC and PS3 community can now interact, increasing population. Xbox version on the way too.

    The basics: A short time in the future, Lex Luthor and the Injustice Society finally manage to take out the core members of the Justice League after they've been weakened by constantly battling threats to Earth. However, that's precisely when Brainiac shows up and, with the heroes dead or divided and the villains out for themselves, conquers Earth.

    Luthor finds a way to hide, and discovers that Brainiac was using nanotech called Exobytes to leech powers and physical and mental attributes from Earth's heroes and villains, weakening them and digitizing the abilities for later use in enhancing his own drones. Luthor finds a way to subvert the Exobytes and get them to give powers to ordinary people, but it's too late for his Earth, so he locates a time machine and travels back to warn the League and release the Exobytes. This suddenly empowers a whole host of new heroes and villains with a mix of powers and potential...

    You are one of these "new heroes/villains", captured by Brainiac for study since he can't reclaim the Exobytes from you. Breaking out of your cell, you're then guided by Oracle (hero) or Calculator (villain) off the ship, finally teaming up with either Superman or Luthor before teleporting off and assuming your new role as a defender or terrorizer of the weak and helpless.

    There are 30 "levels" but really the solo storyline (depends on your chosen mentor: Supes, Bats, Wonder Woman for heroes or Luthor, Joker or Circe for villains) is there to show you the ropes: the real game starts at 30 where "leveling" is replaced by obtaining gear to improve your Combat Rating. Various tiers of CR open up new missions - you have to meet the minimum to get in, but if you are above the maximum relevant CR for that mission, you only get loot drops not the all-important Marks of Victory that allow you to buy better gear. After 30, you open up solo Challenges and a range of 2-8 person alerts which progress the storyline all the way up into CR 120+, with new content being added about monthly right now.

    A hidden "leveling" system is Skill Points. You get so many from levels 1-30 which go into either your weapon tree or enhance your movement mode (more in a bit), but the Weapon Mastery mechanic allows you to pull off more damage through combos between weapon trees (so you might start a move in Brawling that combos with Pistols for enhanced damage). The trees also all contain passive boosts to your stats that you'll want to unlock as many of as possible... so you'll need more Skill Points and past 30 these come from achieving Feats - like "kill 500 Paradox Reapers in Central City" or "Explore all of Metropolis". Some Feats are easy, others not so, so they contribute different amounts - every 100 points of Feats unlocks a Skill Point and I've heard of players up in the 200s (I've got about 40).

    Each character gets a power set and a movement mode. There are four movement modes - flight, super-speed, acrobatics or skimming (you ride some form of gliding plate like Magneto or, since this is DC, Static). Super-speed is the fastest but flight is good for spotting the various Briefing, Investigation or Collection items hidden around the maps (which add to the story and reward Feats and items when you find all of a set).

    Powers include Fire, Ice, Gadgets, Sorcery, Celestial, Quantum, Light (think Green Lantern), Rage (Red Lantern), Earth, Electrical, Atomic, Munitions, Nature, Mental and probably some I forgot. Only Fire, Ice, Nature, Sorcery, Gadgets and Mental are in the F2P version AFAIK.

    Costumes are easy to customise at creation, but you also pick up outfit styles as you collect items in the game, so you can mix 'n' match for whatever look you like. Auras (energy glows around you) can be bought from the in-game marketplace for real-world cash but some players trade 'em for other items. My current main (T1mewarp - yes, there's a unique name rule and most of 'em will be taken) is shown attached and wearing Classic Tech style headgear, Fourth World chest, New Genesis shoulders, Druid gloves, Shielded Robot legs and Antifreeze boots. Backpiece is hidden on this character but you can have capes, jetpacks, Venom canisters...

    I've been soloing thus far (just hit CR71) but that's hard - they're getting better at adding solo content but a lot of the early DLC was heavily group-focused and you can only access so many of those alerts through open-world teleporters - the rest you have to queue so will need someone to "walk you in". Plus by the time you CAN solo a raid, you're often outside the CR limit for it anyway, so only worth running for style drops or feats. So if anyone is playing, gimme a shout if you need a team-up.

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  2. We Are Borg

    We Are Borg Republican Democrat

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  3. matthunter

    matthunter Ice Bear

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    :tk:
  4. We Are Borg

    We Are Borg Republican Democrat

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    • GFY GFY x 1
  5. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    Sounds like it has some fun aspects, but I just don't play downloadable MMOthings anymore. :shrug: They take up too much time, I get tired of waiting through load screens and reinstalling every time a laptop goes down, and they probably aren't good for my hardware anyway.
  6. Minsc&Boo

    Minsc&Boo Fresh Meat

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    NATHMM, in lotro you earn turbine points in the game which can be used for quest packs and expansion packs.
  7. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    I am very not-interested in seeing Tolkien's universe reduced to the logic of an MMO.