Episode 41: Week 1 & Surveys

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Official Statement from DCUO:

“Hello friends! Looking back on this first week, Episode 41 has brought big changes and a few bumps, too. I want to take a moment to explain a few things and share what we are working on.

Source Marks In End-Game

Source Marks are the lifeblood of the leveling game and an important need at the end-game. We do not want end-game players to feel "forced" to play Omnibus for Source Marks - we want you to be able to play Omnibus, and all of our many years of content, for full rewards, IF you want to.

Next:

  1. We will return Source Marks to end-game content (the most recent three episodes)

    • at the traditional rate: Solo - 1; Duo - 1; Alert - 3; Raid - 10

    • without Combat Rating Relevancy (get Source Marks regardless of your CR in all three episodes, if eligible)

The Systems team is now working to make this a reality. We believe the intensity of the frustration many of you expressed with the whole system may be alleviated with this change.

Outliers In Content

As you may have noticed, our focus this week has largely been on identifying specific content (or battles or bosses or attacks) that feel out of line compared to the rest of the content around it. These outliers are one by one being ripped open, analyzed, and adjusted where problems are found.

In a large majority of these cases so far, specific balance adjustments had been hand-crafted to account for whatever particular issue from back in the last decade. These fixes are no longer necessary after many of our updates over the last few years, and now with 41, that have standardized NPCs and attacks and so on. And so, outliers.

For example, Fortress 3 (Sunstone Matrix) would have been more balanced at 41's launch except its bosses and adds previously had their health and damage cut in half, and the Kryptonians' Short Lightbeam Attack previously had its damage increased by 3x. These were one-off fixes for a systemic problem in 2011 that doesn't exist anymore in 2021, that balanced the content then but under tuned the content now.

Next:

  1. Identify and address content outliers based on feedback and data

The Content team has been and continues to knock out these outliers. Most of the adjustments we are tackling are from your feedback about what feels too difficult or too long. We will also rely on our internal data and survey feedback going forward.

Source Marks in Omnibus

Speaking of things changing across decades, content was built to different standards in different eras. And of course, there are different expectations and goals for the latest content and for content from years ago.

Despite layers of scaling - and ignoring (for the moment) content bugs and balance issues specific to scaling - it's clear that some content is more or less rewarding for your time than others.

And all that said, Omnibus should still be THE place to go for Source Marks. Leveling players need Source Marks the most, and this is where they play.

Next:

  1. We will investigate adjusting content and/or rewards based on expected completion time

  2. We will increase the Source Marks delivered for the Omnibus missions

The Systems team will turn their attention to this problem once the Content team has made further progress on outliers (below) and once we have more live data.

Stat Scaling & Piercing

Finally, I want to talk about how stat scaling and what we call stat piercing work, because it is not apparent in-game and especially not apparent right here at the transition. MMO math is complicated.

In brief, when your stats are scaled down, they are first set to target numbers for that content's particular expected Combat Rating - currently +10 Combat Rating over the content's NPC levels. This factors in your role and is essentially just your gear being scaled back in time.

Then, piercing. Some of your stats are applied after that initial scaling. A percentage of your stats from Skill Points, Artifacts, Augments, Allies, and League Buffs "pierce" through and are added separately.

That this is a percentage is important. A percentage means all of these things you work for in growing your character still increase your power in scaled content. 40% of 100 Skill Points is more than 40% of 50 Skill Points, and so on. These percentages may see adjustments as we work through feedback.

Depending on whether or not you are being scaled up or scaled down, and depending on the content type (solo, raid, etc.), there is an additional buff applied to your character of varying strength. Why? This buff is primarily to adjust survivability for an environment where you will more likely be playing with other players with varying levels of experience.

All of this happens so that we can hit our goal of inviting you to play Omnibus content, get rewards, and still feel powerful playing the game - to a point that stops before you are one-shot gods not having to really play anything.

Next:

  1. Monitor scaling feedback, re-confirm targets and goals, clarify, and do more math as needed

The Design and Engineering teams will be tackling this in an ongoing effort, with changes (if any) generally after the initiatives with Source Marks and content outliers are in order

In Closing

I believe if we can do what's outlined above - remove the "forced" nature of Omnibus, clarify the nature of stat piercing, correct content outliers, balance time vs. reward, and then reassess scaling targets - we will have addressed the core of the negative experiences you have shared with us this week. We'll get on it. Thank you for your continued support.

TL;DR

To address early feedback for Episode 41, we will:

  1. Return Source Marks to end-game content (the most recent three episodes)

    • at the traditional rate: Solo - 1; Duo - 1; Alert - 3; Raid - 10

    • without Combat Rating Relevancy (get Source Marks regardless of your CR in all three episodes, if eligible)

  2. Identify and address content outliers based on feedback and data

  3. Investigate adjusting content and/or rewards based on expected completion time

  4. Increase the Source Marks delivered for the Omnibus missions

  5. Monitor scaling feedback, re-confirm targets and goals, clarify, and do more math as needed

Until next time,
Landon "Panderus" Falls
Senior Producer
DC Universe Online”

The Developers invite you to participate in both surveys below, also visit and return at your leisure to the Omnibus Raid Survey to help continue to identify what raids are too hard/easy/short/long or just right. (Google account required)

Also, be sure to login for your Daily Rewards this month and Bonus Unstable Seal of Completion Gift!