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DC Universe™ Online - The Official Game PageDC Universe™ Online - The Official Game Page
Read more at http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm#WOy42pT110paJGeY.99SOE is keeping the good times rolling for DC Universe Online fans with the announcement of DLC 11: Halls of Power Part One. We recently had a chance to sit in on a livestream tour of the new content presented by DCUO creative director Jens Andersen and senior community manager Ted “Mepps” Stone. If you’re a fan of base building and group content, you’ll definitely want to read on for the details!
Before we get into the nitty gritty of the DLC, let’s go over the backstory behind DLC 11. In Halls of Power Part One, heroes will join forces with Fourth World characters such as Mister Miracle and Big Barda in an effort to put a stop to a plan set forth by Darkseid’s son Kalibak and his accomplice, Mantis. Kalibak and Mantis are searching for potent relics found in New Genesis and Apokolips for purposes currently unknown. Of course, villain players will join forces with these two characters to aid them in their quest, so players will be able to see the story from both sides depending on the characters they play.
On the gameplay side of things, all players will be able to enjoy one of DLC 11’s core features, League Halls, as part of Game Update 39. GU39 is set to release sometime before the official launch of DLC 11 and essentially allows Leagues to create their own Halls of Justice within DC Universe Online.
Leagues can decorate these massive bases to their heart’s content and these Halls can even feature an array of impressive statuaries, depicting your League’s top members (in various categories) throughout the Hall. Initially, players will only be able to establish their Halls on the moon; though there are a number of different terrain options to select from split into two categories: sea and crater. These terrain options basically determine what the view is like outside your Hall.
It’s not all cosmetic, though. There are some very real gameplay benefits to establish your own League Hall. League members can earn a new League currency called Prestige through various activities (including donating items to the Hall) which allows members with the proper permissions to purchase a number of Hall additions. These additions can include cosmetic things like the aforementioned statuaries, or some new gameplay features such as the expanding the new League Bank or purchasing Power Proficiencies at the Power Core. Power Proficiencies are League-wide upgrades that can be purchased for Prestige and last for a certain period of time. For example, Jens purchased 30 days of +3% damage for his entire League. League Halls also feature other amenities, such as crafting stations, target dummies, a mailbox, and more.
League Halls will be featured as a core component of the content offered in Halls of Power Part One. Like the Hall feature itself, DLC 11 is decidedly group oriented, featuring one four player Alert and Operation, one six to eight player Operation, and two six to eight player Raids. All of this content requires Combat Rating 100.
Jens took us for a tour of Security Breach, the DLC’s four player Alert. Security Breach tasks players with defending their League Hall (or a random League Hall if their League doesn’t have one yet or they are not part of a League) against attacking Bugs (for villains) or Parademons (for heroes) who are entering the base via Boom Tubes. Jens explained the context of the assault on your League Hall as having to do with the fact you’re basically messing with these factions’ operations in the other content featured in the DLC. It’s also worth noting that these guys look pretty cool and that heroes can acquire two sets of Bug armor while villains can acquire two sets of Parademon armor. This Alert will take you all throughout your Hall, beating back the assaulting forces, and engaging in a number of mini boss fights before squaring off against an iconic character, such as Mantis, to wrap things up. The fights we saw often featured mechanics requiring player coordination, but seeing as the content demoed was just an Alert, these mechanics didn’t look too complicated. However, Jens did note that things are definitely much harder in the Raids.
A third faction, the Dreggs, who are undead remnants of the Old Gods, guard the relics found deep within the Necropolis of New Genesis and Apokolips. Players will encounter the Dreggs as part of their adventures into the Relics of Urgrund Raid, which Jens briefly demoed for us. Villains will venture into the Necropolis of New Genesis in a race to acquire the Old Gods’ relics before the Bugs get to them first and hide them away. Similarly, heroes will enter the Necropolis on Apokolips to again, stop Darkseid from acquiring said relics. Jens gave us a tour of the Necropolis on Apokolips, where he described the influence for some of the designs found on the Old God technology as having South American influences. Dreggs can also drop their weapons when defeated and these can be temporarily used by players against foes found within the Raid and they all feature some incredibly powerful proc effects. Picking up these weapons will make your character absolutely massive, which is always fun.
DC Universe Online DLC 11: Halls of Power Part One will release on the PC, PS3, and PS4 later this summer.
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Permalink | 3 commentsSo, if you play DC Universe, we learned this week that it's likely you're playing on the PS4. The recent launch of DCUO on the PS4 has been hugely successful for SOE, with 54% of the DCUO players now playing on the new console. Jens Andersen gave us the skinny on all things DCUO at this week's SOE Live. Needless to say, it's a LOT.
First Jens went over all the stuff they've added to the game since SOE Live 2013: Loot Changes to lessen RNG, Feat Unlocking Account Wide, Weapon Mastery to give non-clippers a way to compete, Armories, Amenities for your Armories, Teleporters, League Halls, and all the DLC content as well. So it's been a bit of a busy year for the team. But it's about to get a whole lot busier.
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Something controversial in the upcoming year is that the DLC is going to be split, no longer whole $9.99 chunks that you have to wait for. Instead, as pieces are finished, SOE will be able to release them into the wild instead of waiting on just one piece that wasn't ready. With that, while pricing is still in flux, that doesn't mean you'll pay $9.99 multiple times over for more pieces. Things will be prorated so you can buy just the pieces you want, say the new Legend character, or the new power, or the new story. But, as always, subscribers will get all of the DLC with their subscription at no extra cost.
Here's some of what's coming soon as a taste:
A Complete PVP Revamp with tuning in Arenas to make Time to Kill a lot less boring. They're working on Stat Banding to make things more competitive, and adding new Gear as well with each of the new DLCs. In terms of Legends PVP, there are 8 new heroes coming: Guy Gardner as a Red Lantern, Kyle Rayner as a Blue Lantern, Deathstroke, Green Arrow, Flash, Shazam, Black Adam, and yes... Gorilla Grodd.
And for fans of the Legends mode of playing, but perhaps not happy going into PVP to do it, there will be more Legends PVE coming. The devs will put out themed scenarios where perhaps you'll take the Batman characters and go into an existing dungeon to try and take it down with Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and Nightwing. Or maybe there will be a themed scenario where you have to go into a dungeon and complete it with Superman and Lex fighting together. That sort of thing.
But wait, there's more! War of the Light, Amazon Fury, and Halls of Power are all moving onto Part 2 of their respective trilogies. I don't want to spoil too much, but Star Sapphire will be popping up in War of the Light, Brainiac is making a return in Amazon Fury (as well as Hades and Ares), and Orion is coming down the road with Halls of Power.
In terms of new powers? The best part of the game, if you ask me? Get ready, because there are three more powers and a brand new movement power variant based on Flight coming soon. Skimming, like Mr. Miracle is coming. As a variant to flight, Skimming will have the same movement, but way different animations. And that includes combat. It'll be available via the Station Store.
First up on the new power sets is Munitions. Based on Sergeant Rock, Munitions is a Tank and Damage power set, based on explosions, guns, and more explosions. The second is Atomic, a healer/damage power set, based on regen, and radiation mechanics that Jens couldn't talk too much about just yet. And the third new power is Experimental Serums, a tank/damage set based on Banes. Yes, Juicing is coming to DCUO.
Lastly, as everyone will be happy to hear, a complete UI overhaul is coming soon. No set date yet, but everything across all platforms is getting redone. And yes, they are focusing on PC usability in this regard as well. The ultimate goal is to make it a UI that's far more flexible, useful across all platforms, and less memory hogging. We didn't really see any visuals for this, but Jens said we should be hearing more about it soon.
Be sure to check out our interview with SJ Meuller to learn more about the future of DC Universe Online.
DC Universe™ Online - The Official Game Page
DC Universe™ Online - The Official Game Page
DC Universe™ Online - The Official Game Page
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