DC Universe Online has had a problem. It’s the most popular of Daybreak’s MMOs, but its spandex tights flies under the radar of most MMO players. Recent content dumps (called “episodes”) are still very crowded. Recent changes to show exactly how many players are in each zone (and across how many instances) shows that the most recent hub areas support hundreds of players at any time of the day — and this isn’t counting the Nintendo Switch players, who have their own sets of servers.
And yet I just saw a new video from a YouTuber who just assumed DCUO was dead and was shocked to find other players.
DCUO has recently started allowing Heroes and Villains to group together. (Villains become honorary members of the Suicide Squad for the duration, while the Heroes are promised the Villains will be on their best behavior). As such, grouping is easier than ever.
But now, Daybreak is going to burn the whole game down and build something new from the ashes. Metaphorically.
Episode 41, “The House of Legends“, doesn’t contain any new raids. What it does contain is a new hub open to both heroes and villains. Until now, the heroes have had the Watchtower to protect the Earth from orbit, and the villains have had the Hall of Doom to raid the world from beneath. Good news for both sides; the Monitor isn’t planning to nuke the two existing hubs when they open up the eponymous House of Legends, a shared hub that both factions can use.
Given how prevalent dueling is in the existing hubs, I expect the House of Legends to be littered with super-guts.
The House of Legends will be smaller than either of the two existing hubs, more focused toward getting players to where they need to go and less pointless running around, looking for the one vendor you need in the maze.
Allies
Players will be able to summon iconic heroes and villains to help at times. I don’t know if they will just show up for a few seconds, as with current summons, or act more like mercenaries, persisting until killed or dismissed. Either way, they should be a powerful help to those struggling with solo missions. They’ll gain experience, level up, and learn new abilities, which is weird, because what do I have to teach Wonder Woman?
Quick Play is essentially FFXIV’s Dungeon Roulette
DCUO already has a dungeon finder. You queue up for the alert or raid you want to run, and if it’s newer content, you’ll be off and playing in a short amount of time. Older content can be hit or miss. I recently spent a few nights and weekends running through all the old raids I’d missed while leveling up. Some of those raids didn’t pop for hours.
With Quick Play, everyone waiting in the queue will be assigned as needed to raids people are waiting for.
Why run older content? Aside from getting Feat points and old styles (both very important), player gear will be scaled down to match the content. While it was fun to utterly dominate old content, old raids will now, once again, be a challenge. Well-geared players should still be able to dominate them, though.
Source marks, the currency used to run the base generators (powering our powers) and to buy older gear, will no longer drop from current content. Running quick plays will be the only way to get this necessary currency. Amanda Waller will assure your cooperation.
Mepps writes: “If you just want the next available group for Source Marks or for completing the new weekly Quick Play missions, smash the Quick Play button. If you want to play a specific piece of content, queue up for it and you will find a group faster from everyone else smashing the Quick Play button. The addition of Quick Play will mean all players will find each other faster.”
Boom. All of DCUO’s extensive history becomes relevant again. They looked at FFXIV and liked what they saw.
Old content will no longer be loot-locked, either.
Save the Universe
This will all be heralded in with the Save the Universe event. This new event brings some old Superman content up to current levels for awhile. Batman and Wonder Woman will get the same in the future. So again, the emphasis is on making old content relevant. This new event will drop end game rewards.
No More Vault or Stabilizer Duo
With all this new content, some content is going away. The daily Vault will be going away (though it may return for special events). Also gone will be the stabilizer duo, where stabilizer fragments are earned in order to unlock loot boxes. There will be new ways to get these rewards.
Really Free to Play?
All episodes will be free to everyone. They used to be free for subscribers, but required purchasing for free players. Not now — everyone gets everything. Money is capped at a much higher level for free players, so gear repairs should become possible once more. Gear is no longer shown as clamped in new content; the actual values will always be available in order to better judge if gear is an upgrade.
All of these will be replaced with “Dr. Fate’s Daily Rewards”. Free players will get free stuff every day; subscribers will get that stuff and more. This system is used in many MMOs (especially F2P ones) in order to promote daily play.
The full list of rewards:
Access Changes for Everyone
Changes for every access level will include:
- Free episodes.
- Standard daily login rewards (at least $20 in value when you log in at least 20 days per cycle).
- Full access to lair and utility belt systems.
- Cash cap increased from 2,000 to 50,000.
- +7 additional inventory slots.
- Promethium Lockboxes removed, their rewards distributed elsewhere.
- Artifact XP items condensed to save inventory space.
Access Changes for Premium
Changes for the premium access level will include:
- Cash cap increased from 3,000 to unlimited.
Access Changes for Members
Changes for membership will include:
- Additional 3x bonus daily login rewards (at least $60 in value when you log in at least 20 days per cycle).
- For daily login rewards, this means an extra three times the standard daily login rewards ($60 value) PLUS the standard daily login rewards everyone gets ($20 value), for a total of $80.
- +50% bonus to timed drops of Artifact XP and Ally XP.
- +7 (more) Inventory slots (28 from membership, 77 total)
- +8 (more) Bank slots (32 from membership, 56 total)
- +7 (more) Shared Bank slots (7 from membership, 16 total)
For clarity, these additional benefits will be on top of what membership includes now and will still include:
- 500 Daybreak Cash (PC) or Loyalty Points (consoles) monthly ($5 value)
- 150 Replay Badges monthly ($5 value)
- 10% discount on all Marketplace purchases
- +10 Character slots (16 total)
- +15 Broker slots (20 total)
- Full access to all Powers, Shield (Weapon), and Skimming (Movement Mode)
- Full access to mail, trade, and leagues
- 1 free Item Restore monthly
It’s called Quality of Life
So, to recap: Quick Play system makes old content relevant and easy to queue for. Allies brings the mercenary system into DCUO. Free players have much more content available, and most caps raised or removed. Premium members and subscribers get even more stuff.
Maybe it’s time for those who thought — incorrectly — that DCUO was dead, to give it another look.
I’ll be there, playing. Keep an eye out for Team Spode 🙂
Thanks for that fantastic write-up. I’ve been playing DCUO on and off since beta although rarely for more than a few sessions here and there. It’s a great game and this just makes it better for everyone.
I feel it’s often overlooked when people talk about popular MMOs.
Thank you!
Have they mentioned anything about a “next gen” upgrade for consoles? Probably not since I doubt those are their big money platforms.
Actually, consoles are DCUO’s big money maker. I haven’t heard anything about a PS5 upgrade, though.
Edit: Actually, they ARE planning on a PS5 upgrade –> DC Universe Online PS5 release coming later this year
A belated thank you!!!
Heyo. Any advice on getting back into the game? I keep bouncing off it.
I was planning on downloading it on PC using Daybreak rather than Steam. 😀
Funny you should ask 🙂 Just this weekend, I made a new character and played it, without boosts of any sort, to the latest content. I’ll be writing that up tonight 🙂
Oh cool beans. Will look forward to reading that. <3