Make Super Stuff in DCUO Update

[Greg Tito]

Make Super Stuff in DCUO Update

It only took a year after launch, but crafting is now live in Gotham City and Metropolis.

For most MMOs, "Will it have crafting?" is a foregone conclusion. Along with quests, leveling, and loot, crafting - defined as taking materials collected within the game world and transforming them into useful items - is a tenet of the massively persistent genre. But oddly enough, SOE's DC Universe Online failed to ship with any kind of crafting. The game's focus on action and comic book stories made the omission understandable, but now that DCUO has a year of life and a free-to-play transition under its belt, the team brings crafting to Metropolis with the "Research & Development" update. That update is now live on both the PS3 and PC, and available to all players regardless of subscription tier - Free, Premium and Legendary.

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Once you hit level 10, players can find their faction specific trainer and grab a few recipes. You can then collect items like exobytes, grab recipes from bosses, as well as repurpose old gear into crafting materials. Here's some of the details from SOE:

Finding and Researching: Plans to create Equipment Mods to upgrade gear and consumables can be collected throughout the world.
Gathering: Throughout the open world (including Gotham City, Metropolis and Central City), players (1-30) can find exobytes and other items.
Salvaging: Players can turn unused, uncommon or rare items into crafting materials, and they can recover a rare item and create a useful piece of new equipment.
Collecting: Bosses will drop useful ingredients such as Focusing Elements and Plans throughout the game.

I'm a sucker for crafting, so the news of this addition brings some sunshine to my cold villain heart. Now he will have something other to do than beating up would be heroes on the streets of Gotham.


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[Dastardly]

Make Super Stuff in DCUO Update

I see what you did there, and I reject your definition of "crafting." The current insult known as "crafting" is basically just "Looting with an extra step." Instead of looting the actual item, you loot an ingredient, then you combine it with another ingredient (usually in a machine that costs in-game money to sink the economy) to get the item that you would have originally looted.

I miss the days when crafting meant more than just combining incidental widgets. It was once a viable full-time play style. Player stats and skills played a part, quality was different depending on the crafter's skill and level and choices... That was a process that actually involved craft.

/Soapbox.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I hate to go with "This", but basically what @Dastardly: said.

I've sat for hours building Yew Longbows and Misty Thicket Picnics, but Timesink Loot is not real crafting.

Also, without severe economy balancing, items turn out to be useless or invaluable.

SW:G/Everquest had good systems. LotRo/Guild Wars didn't. CoH just had a 'grind to win' bolted on.

 

[Dastardly]

I hate to go with "This", but basically what @Dastardly: said.

I've sat for hours building Yew Longbows and Misty Thicket Picnics, but Timesink Loot is not real crafting.

Also, without severe economy balancing, items turn out to be useless or invaluable.

SW:G/Everquest had good systems. LotRo/Guild Wars didn't. CoH just had a 'grind to win' bolted on.

Indeed -- I still have fond memories of SWG's crafting system. Now, granted, one glaring flaw was that no one would every buy anything from anyone other than a "12-point Master" in the crafting profession, so the actual leveling process was grinding junk... but at least the developers recognized this and made the grind easier. It was an early MMO, so some trial-and-error was forgivable.

But the process itself was so engrossing.

Resources weren't just different tiers of metal. Copper and Aluminum and Iron and Steel were used in the same item for different components. And there wasn't just "good Copper" and "bad Copper." There was "Copper that is good for this" and "Copper that is good for that." Finding good resources was a job in and of itself.

And there were the tools... you needed high-quality tools to get good items. Same for crafting stations. You needed to interact with crafters in other specialties in order to get the best results.

And at the end, you had real choices. Sure, you're making an FWG5 pistol... but are you going to boost maximum damage, minimum damage, special ability cost, or speed? You might build your power handler to give you better damage, but it increases the cost of your special attacks... so you create a stock that really lowers your special attacks, but that decreases your speed... or maybe you shuffle the components differently. (I was always a fan of speed on my pistols, while others swore by damage...)

Even two maxed-out master crafters didn't have to make the same item. Not every DL-44 blaster was exactly the same, and there was no single "best." Your items were yours. And you could even NAME THEM so that people knew you were the one that made it.

Dammit, now I'm all nostalgic.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Make Super Stuff in DCUO Update

I see what you did there, and I reject your definition of "crafting." The current insult known as "crafting" is basically just "Looting with an extra step." Instead of looting the actual item, you loot an ingredient, then you combine it with another ingredient (usually in a machine that costs in-game money to sink the economy) to get the item that you would have originally looted.

I miss the days when crafting meant more than just combining incidental widgets. It was once a viable full-time play style. Player stats and skills played a part, quality was different depending on the crafter's skill and level and choices... That was a process that actually involved craft.

/Soapbox.

+ most of it's for the people subscribed, due to how much some of the things actually cost (cap for premium is 2K most and most the good ones start at 2500)

 

[Raddra]

Did DCUO ever fix the issues that made it unplayable?

i.e the auto targetting barrels across the room instead of the guy in front of you, the overpowered enemies that can near instagib you if you fail to block or the ridiculous respawn rates that made open world combat a case of 'survive as long as nothing spawns on top of you'..?

 

[Starke]

Did DCUO ever fix the issues that made it unplayable?

i.e the auto targetting barrels across the room instead of the guy in front of you, the overpowered enemies that can near instagib you if you fail to block or the ridiculous respawn rates that made open world combat a case of 'survive as long as nothing spawns on top of you'..?

Instajibs now take two hits, but otherwise, nope.

Well... it plays better with a controller on the PC, but nope.