Tuesday, November 27, 2012

DC Universe Online (Part Three)

Combat
Although it is technically a hack and slash type of game, DCUO's combat isn't as simple as charging in and mindlessly clicking away at your mouse buttons. Though I have to admit that I still have a tendency to do so (^_^;).
DC Universe Online - Fighting Brainiac Sentry
There is a variance of attack styles and patterns, to unleash upon your foes, that you must get accustomed to (like when to block, attack and use your traits). In its most primitive form, you can think of it as two persons duking it out in Rock-paper-scissors.

Say for example, when a person charges towards you and keeps on performing melee attacks on you. Instead of attacking back and turning it into a "who has the highest damage and most HP" fight (rock on rock), you could have chosen to guard yourself by holding "shift" to block (paper against rock).

And by choosing to do so, you would have suffered minimal damage while the attacker himself would have suffered a substantial amount of damage plus being knocked down.

In the two pictures below, you can see that I was against a "Brainiac Lunger".
DC Universe Online - Brainiac LungerDC Universe Online - Blocking Brainiac Lunger
And in the first instance (picture on the left), I was noobish enough to keep on attacking back against the enemy. As a result, I was constantly taking on damage by its attacks while I myself wasn't dealing much on it. In fact, you could say that it wasn't even hurt by my attacks! And at one point, I was even thinking that maybe it was bugged...

But then after dying a couple of times, I realized that it was made that way to "teach" the noobish me how to block. Thus in the second instance (picture on the right), you can see me blocking instead of attacking back.
DC Universe Online - Block Breaking
Next, if melee attacks were rocks and blocking was paper, it would probably be fair to call "Block Breakers" (attacks you use to break blocking) as scissors. However, you would have to take note that performing a block breaker has its inherent risks. As you can see in the above example, performing a "Charged Double Throw" (a block breaker) takes quite a bit of time (around a second or two) and kind of works like your casting a spell.
DC Universe Online - Interrupting a Cast
And during this time, you will be vulnerable to attacks by your opponent. For example, if he is quick enough, he could stop his guarding and perform an "Interrupt" attack on you instead.

So in essence, combat in DCUO is basically a tango where you have to block when he's attacking, block break when he's guarding and interrupt when he's casting. And if you add using of traits into the fray, it becomes pretty complicated I tell ya...not to mention all these decisions have to be done in real time.
DC Universe Online - Slip ShotDC Universe Online - Lifting Strike
Basically, attacks that break blocking or interrupts a casting are just combos you learn via spending skill points on your weapon specialization. But one important part about them is that attacks that break blocking can be interrupted while attacks that interrupt can be blocked so you can literally say that one is the effective counter against the other.

Finally, how do we perform these attacks? Its pretty simple actually. All you have to do is to perform the "Combo" pattern as specified in the attack's description. And if you take a look at the pattern, they are essentially made up of a variation of clicks on your mouse buttons and/or keys. If it states a "Tap", it means a click on the corresponding mouse button. If it states a "Hold", then that means you click and hold onto it for a brief moment.
DC Universe Online - Encircling ThrowDC Universe Online - Loft Shot
If there ever shows a number beside a particular action, it means that you have to perform it for the designated number of times. For example, if I wish to perform an "Encircling Throw", I would have to left click twice and then click and hold my right mouse button. And as for "Loft Shot", I'ld have to left click once and then left click and hold twice.
DC Universe Online - Launching Roundhouse ComboDC Universe Online - Flamethrower
Well...these are still pretty simple compared to some other weapon specializations, like staff or rifle, which may involve longer combinations or some criteria.
Duos, Alerts & Raids
Now this part of DC Universe Online basically works kind of like the instances in Phantasy Star Online 2 or Dragon Nest. However, access to these instances are only granted gradually as your character levels up and satisfies certain criteria. As for the terms Duos, Alerts and Raids (while grand-sounding), they merely indicate the size of the team that the instance can accommodate. Duos are instances designed for two players, Alerts can take four players and Raids would require eight to clear.
DC Universe Online - Area 51 Role SelectionDC Universe Online - Area 51 Queued
To enter one of these instances, you would first have to visit the "On Duty" window (press "Y") and flag yourself as being interested to join a party for such an instance.
DC Universe Online - Area 51 Instance ReadyDC Universe Online - Flagging Multiple Instances
After flagging yourself in the queue, you would then have to wait patiently until the system matches you with a possible team. Once the instance is created, you can then click "Okay" to enter.

In my opinion, the best part of this system is that not only can you just flag yourself in queue and close the window to carry on with your usual stuff while waiting, you can also queue for multiple instances (must be different maps) at the same time such that you can just enter whichever comes first.
DC Universe Online - Area 51 Alert Instance
With you and a team of fellow players being lumped together by the system, you will then all set out to fulfill a set of objectives as specified by the instance. And towards the end, you will be rewarded (for your hard work) with a final boss to kill and items to loot.
DC Universe Online - Instance Exit Portal
One funny part I've noticed is that after clearing the instance, you do not get automatically warped out by the system. Instead, you would have to find an exit portal (like shown above) to manually get out of the instance and return back to where you were originally.

Group Loot
DC Universe Online - Group Loot Window
Generally, from what I perceived, most of the regular stuff like consumables and cash will be evenly distributed by the system somehow. However, ever so often, when the team does loot equipments and whatnots, you will then encounter a "Safebox" icon asking you to press "L".

Upon doing so, you will bring up the Group Loot Window which would show you a list of the items that were looted which requires attention. And each of these items would have a description of the item and its stats, a timeout bar and three options.

The first option (dice) indicates that you need the item and wish to roll for it. The second option (coin) indicates that you don't need the item but wish to roll for it nonetheless. The third and final option (cancel) indicates that you don't want the item at all and will not be rolling for it.

Once everyone in the team has selected an option or the item times out, the system will then generate a random number for each of the players who wanted the item. And finally, the item will be awarded to the player who rolled the highest number.


Previous: DCUO (Part Two)Next: DCUO (Part Four)

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

DC Universe Online (Part Two)

Traits
DC Universe Online - Traits
Just like in Dragon Nest, there are no stat points for you to allocate when you level up in DCUO. What you do get, however, are a certain kind of points which I will name as "Trait" points.

There are two kinds of these trait points, power points and skill points. And the way you acquire them are a bit peculiar as well. For every even-numbered level you gain, you will acquire 1 power point while each odd-numbered level will award you with 1 skill point.

And since the level cap is set at 30, this will mean that you will ultimately have 15 power points and at least 15 skill points when you reach the level of 30. Why the "at least 15 skill points", you may ask? Well, that is because there is another way that you can acquire more skill points (through accomplishing feats).
DC Universe Online - Feats
Feats are actually some sort of challenges or tasks which you can do in the game and upon completing them, you will be awarded with a certain number of feat points (depending on the difficulty rating of the challenge/task).
RatingFeat Points
1 star10
2 star25
3 star50
And for every 100 feat points achieved, the player will then be awarded with a bonus skill point.

Power Trees & Skill Trees
DC Universe Online - Power TreesDC Universe Online - Skill Trees
Before I explain about "Power Trees" and "Skill Trees", do you still remember being asked to select the power and movement mode of your avatar during character creation? The reason I asked this is because the power and movement mode you've chosen then will affect the kind of traits that will appear in your power and skill trees.

For my own avatar, I had chosen "Mental" as my power and "Flight" as my movement mode. Hence, the traits that appeared in my power and skill trees were as shown in the pictures above (Telekinesis, Illusion and Flight). And if you wish to know more about the powers and movement modes available in DCUO, you can head on over to DC Universe Online - Powers and DC Universe Online - Movement Modes.

Anyway, as the name suggests, power points can only be used to learn traits found under the category of "Power Trees" and skill points to be used to learn traits found under the "Skill Trees". So this means that, for example, I can spend my 15 power points into learning traits found under "Telekinesis", "Illusion" and "Iconic Powers" in my "Power Trees".
DC Universe Online - Illusion TreeDC Universe Online - Iconic Powers
However, the system isn't made in such a way that you can grab "any" traits you like just like that. There are still certain requirements you would need to fulfill, like level and/or prerequisite traits, before you can learn the higher-tiered traits (basically traits in the same row are of the same tier but there are exceptions like in "Iconic Powers").
DC Universe Online - Dual Wield TreeDC Universe Online - Flight Tree
Likewise, these same restrictions holds true as well for skill points. But I guess you need not worry too much about them because the system basically blackens out those traits which you still cannot learn yet and will light them up once you could.
DC Universe Online - Resetting Traits
You also shouldn't need to worry about getting the wrong traits. In fact, I highly encourage you to try and test out whichever traits that you fancy for the worst that could possibly happen is that you've just secured a trip down to the Re-Spec device found at your faction's headquarters (JLA Watchtower for Heroes and Hall of Doom for Villains) and lost some cash (in-game money).

Just remember not to use it too often in a day as the cost will increase (by $150) every time you use it but drop slowly back a step once every 24 hours. For example, if you've used it 3 times on a certain day, you will need to wait for 3 days before the cost will return back to $500.


Loadouts
DC Universe Online - LoadoutsDC Universe Online - Control Loadouts
If you take a look at the loadouts, you can find two categories called "Damage" and "Control". And upon clicking on either one of it, you will find a familiar hotkey bar in which you can click and drag various traits (that you've picked up under the "Power Trees") onto.

So without me telling you what it is for, have you guessed it already? Yup! The loadouts is where you will visit in order to assign hotkeys to the traits (active skills) that you can use and cast during battles.
DC Universe Online - Gain Controller Role
As for why there are two categories available, that is so that you can customize the traits to use when your character assumes different roles. This switching of roles is only made available when your character reaches level 10 and can then be triggered by pressing "T".

As far as I know, every single avatar in DCUO can assume at least two roles, that of a damage dealer and one other role (Tank, Controller or Healer). For me, my second role is that of a controller because I've chosen "Mental" as my powers during character creation.
DC Universe Online - Damage RoleDC Universe Online - Control Role
To further explain the use of loadouts, take a look at the two pictures above. One shows my avatar being in the role of a damage dealer while the other shows me in controller mode.

And as you can see, the traits in hotkeys 1 to 6 are slightly different. This is because I have specified slightly different traits within the two individual loadouts, "Damage" and "Control". For example, in "Damage", I have hotkeyed traits which are more powerful and can deal more damage while, in "Control", I had traits which restores power (a.k.a. Mana) or does debuffs.
DC Universe Online - Consumables SlotDC Universe Online - Trinket Slot
As for hotkey slots 7 and 8, they are basically reserved for consumables (like recovery potions) and trinkets respectively. To equip the items onto these slots, you will need to access your inventory and place them in the slots as shown above.

Roles & How It Affects You
Having just touched on roles earlier in the article, I think its proper to give you a little more insight into how they affect you during battles. First and foremost, the roles that you can assume depends upon the power you chose during character creation in the following way.
  • Damage & Tank - Fire, Ice and Earth
  • Damage & Controller - Gadgets, Mental and Light
  • Damage & Healer - Sorcery, Nature and Electricity
Next, if we consider the "Damage" role as being "Neutral" (in effectiveness) towards all the other three roles, then the rest of the roles will have their effectiveness against one another in this order.

Tank > Controller > Healer > Tank

What this means is that a tank has a natural advantage when fighting against a controller, a controller will have an edge over a healer and a healer will stand a better chance against a tank. But of course, this edge can be increased or reduced by other factors like level difference, traits selection and skills in using their avatar to fight.
Mental Controller
Role Bonus
DC Universe Online - Controller Role Bonus
PVP Advantage
DC Universe Online - Controller PVP Advantage
Fire Tank
Role Bonus
DC Universe Online - Fire Tank Role Bonus
PVP Advantage
DC Universe Online - Tank PVP Advantage
As far as I know, the PVP advantage is role-dependent but the role bonus may somewhat differ between the powers. So for convenience-sake, I have attached the above four pictures to show you where to look for your avatar's role bonus and PVP advantage (which is basically just pressing "K" and looking into your power trees).

Finally, the last thing you would need to know about roles is how they affect the traits that you use in battles. And to know whether a trait gets affected by changes in roles, all you need to do is read its description.
DC Universe Online - Telekinesis
Let us take for example, Telekinesis. When I use this trait in Controller Mode, all those in my party (including myself) will gain a temporary buff that restores power (Mana) over time. However, when I use this same trait while in Damage Mode, the buff will no longer be available but in its place, I would get a temporary 35% increase in damage.

On a side note, the Power Interactions description found in Telekinesis merely means that when you use this trait to attack an enemy, you will temporarily inflict the status of "Dazed" upon the enemy (regardless of roles).
DC Universe Online - Psychic Resonance
And if you then hit this enemy with another trait like Psychic Resonance, you will deal much more damage to the enemy than usual (due to the interaction of powers).


Previous: DCUO (Part One)Next: DCUO (Part Three)

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

DC Universe Online (Part One)

DC Universe Online
Lately, I've been busy downloading and trying out a freemium game called "DC Universe Online". The full size of this game client is roughly 20 GB and honestly it took me a darn long time to completely download the game and start trying it.

Basically, the game is free to play but does offer you a chance to upgrade to premium and legendary account status. To achieve premium status, all you need to do is to spend more than 5 USD on the game via its cash item shop. If you wish to get legendary status, you will then need to subscribe to the game and pay a monthly fee of 14.99 USD. And if you wish to end your subscription of the game, your account status will merely just convert back to "Premium" upon the end of the subscription period. For more information about the limits and differences of each of the account status, please refer to DC Universe Online - Free to Play.
DC Universe Online - Superman
The general concept behind this game is that the players who were just regular humans are now bestowed with superpowers (thanks to the future world's Lex Luthor & "Exobytes") to help the super heroes and villains (well-known characters from DC Comics) fight against Brainiac's impending invasion.

Well...at least that's the storyline part of the game. But from what I've gathered while playing, apart from its storyline, DC Universe Online also provides a platform for people to fight against each other (Heroes versus Villains) towards the end-game.
DC Universe Online - CombatDC Universe Online - Quest Journal
In my opinion, the features of this game would essentially be its hack-n-slash combat, its solo/group instances (alerts and raids), its PVP system (leagues/team matches), its customizability of your hero/villain avatar and its storyline quests.

Character Creation & Customizability
Although I did mention the customizability of your hero/villain avatar as one of its features, DCUO's character creation system still pales in comparison to Phantasy Star Online 2's. But nonetheless, DCUO does have an interesting part to customization of the player's avatar that's unique in itself.
DC Universe Online - Character Creation GenderDC Universe Online - Character Creation Build
During character creation, the player needs to go through a step-by-step process to slowly mold his/her ideal super hero or villain. Apart from selecting the gender and size of your avatar, you will also need to pick out various other crucial and non-crucial aspects like personality, mentor and powers (some of which will determine the skills you will get and roles you will play in battles while others are merely cosmetic).
DC Universe Online - My Superheroine
The above picture shows how my avatar turned out towards the end of character creation. So how is it? Does it look superheroish?
DC Universe Online - StyleDC Universe Online - Color Palette
The next thing I like about DCUO's character customization is that at any point in time, I can simply access the style option to mix and match particular clothing and weapon styles that I fancy. And the best part about this is that I do not need to have a "particular" piece of clothing or weapon constantly equipped in order to maintain the style that I desire.

So long as I have equipped the item at least once, the style of that item will be added to my avatar's collection. And if I wish to permanently maintain that style, all I need to do is to click on the lock icon (found beside its category) and it will not change regardless of which other equipment I have chosen to use in its place. For example, I can choose to lock all the categories except for my primary weapon. Then, in this case, only the style of the weapon that my avatar holds during combat will change (whenever my avatar changes to a new weapon).
DC Universe Online - Jah Kir Style Feet
In this above picture, you can see that I've looted myself a new pair of boots. And when I hover my mouse over the item to look at its information window, I can see a certain line of info - "Style: Jah Kir (Not collected)" apart from the regular item stats and changes to stats when equipped.

This is actually what I'm referring to when I mentioned "style" earlier. For each equippable item found in DC Universe Online has a preset style attached to it. And when you equip the item, its style will then be added to your collection (under its corresponding category) and the next time you come across an item with the same style and category, that line of info will then change to "Already Collected". And as long as you've collected that particular style, it will be made available for you in the style options.


Next: DCUO (Part Two)